Jealousy Best Served Devious (Clash Of Cliches Book 1)

Chapter 28- The End of a Good Thing

The rest of the school day was suitably miserable, and I kept a low profile in all my classes, skulking in the back of the room wearing an old hoodie I had secretly filched from Janessa's locker.

Not my fault she says her combination out loud when she's opening her locker.

I was positive that Celeste would have wasted no time in bragging about what I had revealed about the fakelationship to her friends, and that they would start taunting me and laughing at me in no time. Every time a phone dinged, chirped or vibrated, and whenever one of my classmates turned to glance in my direction, invisible hands tightened around my chest and I felt the overwhelming urge to dig a hole and escape.

God, she is gonna clown me so hard in the cheer group chat!

Thankfully, I managed to make it to the end of lessons without anyone walking right up to me to denounce me as Sao Marino High's biggest fraud. But once school was out and I was hurriedly stuffing my books into my locker, ready to go home and hibernate the weekend away, the inevitable happened.

I was in the process of slamming shut my locker, planning to skulk out of the school entrance as unobtrusively as possibly, evading every and anyone who could identify me, but, because I'm me, I was foiled.

And for the first time in ages, not by my hair.

Nope, I had (foolishly) decided to wear my Crocs to school, and with the emotional turmoil that had clung to me after admitting that I had faked an entire relationship to Celeste, I totally forgot that barely anyone wore Crocs at school, and I was probably the only person who had purple ones within a fifty-mile radius. So that meant, even though I was dressed unobtrusively in a pair of jeans and Janessa's black hoody, the hood pulled up to cover my hair, my shoes gave me away.

"Kaylee."

I yelped in surprise as Tyler's chilly voice sounded close to my ear, seconds before he grasped my shoulder and forcibly turned me around. My mouth fell open, ready to babble an unformulated excuse about how I had to get the hell out of his presence (the last person I wanted to see award definitely went to him, although Ryder was a close second) but the words died in my throat as I stared up at him.

Oh, noes.

His eyebrows were drawn in a frown, narrowed toffee brown eyes glinting with anger and his hands clenched into fists by his side. It had been so long since I had seen Tyler angry towards me that I quailed, my palms suddenly slick with sweat as he continued with an exasperated sounding, "For fucks sake!"

My lips trembled as I quickly reviewed my options and I decided to go on the oblivious route. It always worked for Dianne. "What's up?"

"What did you tell Celeste?" he spat out, his voice quiet but filled with controlled rage.

I sighed, dropping the oblivious act as I wrapped my arms around my body for comfort. "She told you."

"Did you really think telling her that our relationship was fake and you forced me to date you so that you could make Ryder jealous was a good idea?" Tyler threw his hands in the air as he glared at me. "What is wrong with you?"

For a second, I wanted to tell him why I really did it. That I couldn't hope to compete with Celeste, the girl who could get any guy she wanted, even with a bad hair dye. That, for weeks, I'd been having thoughts about actually being with Tyler, not due to this fake dating scheme, but as a bona fide couple. That, no matter how much I denied it to myself, I was falling for Tyler and that could only lead to trouble because he was only in this to get Celeste back.

But even as these words flew around my brain, screaming to be let out, I knew I couldn't say any of it. I couldn't admit that I was feeling anything for Tyler. Just the fact that he's been blowing me off to hang out with Celeste said it all, didn't it? He wanted her back. The plan had worked for him. And that's why I said, "That's basically what happened, Tyler, have you forgotten?"