The Breakup Girl

Chapter Fourteen

I don't know how word spreads so fast, because as soon as I walked into school on the Thursday we came back after winter break, everyone was staring at me and whispering whenever I walked by. It was because Todd and I broke up. The only people I told were Ashley, Sam, and Claire. They wouldn't tell anyone else so it was probably Todd who told a lot of untrustworthy people.

"Hey, Paige, heard you got dumped," This kid, Josh, snickered.

"Excuse me?" I turned around furiously.

He backed up against his locker, taken aghast by my reaction.

"I broke up with him. Keep my name out of your mouth, asshole."

I walked away to my locker and my friends chased after me, telling me to calm down. I couldn't. I was miserable. I was pissed off at first, but I was beginning to feel the heartbreak.

"Don't worry, Paige, it's for the best." Ashley said.

"Yeah, Todd's a jerk." Sam added.

"After school, we'll take you to get some frozen yogurt." Claire nodded and so did the other girls.

"I don't like frozen yogurt." I pouted.

"Ice cream?" Ashley asked.

"I'll meet you at your car." I resigned and they smiled.

At my locker, I tried to ignore everything around me. Thankfully, no one said anything to me, probably because they were scared I would kill them. In homeroom, I prepared myself for first period gym, because that's where I would have to see Todd.

I guess Penny figured I was worrying about that, because she whispered, "Don't worry, he's not here today."

"Thanks," I whispered back.

Todd wasn't there, and I was able to play basketball at ease, even though I really suck at it. No one said anything to me, but then I went to lunch. I sat at my table and kept my head down on my phone and pretended to not see the world around me. The girls suddenly became quiet and I knew tell why.

"Does he look beat up?" I asked, holding my gaze still on my phone.

"His right eye is still kind of black, he has a few bruises on his arms, and his lip looks better but still has a cut on it." Ashley informed me.

"Oh, shit, he's staring at you." Claire said fastly.

I looked up at my friends, still with my back turned away from the guys' table behind us. Claire and Ashley's eyes were following someone behind me. I had the urge to look turn around, but I fought against it. Their eyes kept following him and then they both looked nervous.

"What's wrong? Why do you look like that?" I asked anxiously.

I felt a tap on my shoulder.

"Oh." I rolled my eyes and turned around.

There he was, Brandon Dowey. In a strange way, things felt like they did back in September. We were strangers again, though we kind of were strangers when we did have a thing. He never really talked to me since he was so shy. I never knew he'd be able to actually talk to me in person after what happened on New Year's Eve.

"I wanted to apologize for what happened at the party," he said, sitting in the chair next to me. "I acted like a dick, and I'm really sorry."

I looked at the girls who were marveling at Brandon like it was the sweetest thing ever. We were supposed to hate him, instead of drooling over him like they were. I debated accepting his apology. He sounded sincere, and he really must have been if he actually talked to me in person, since he never would due to his shyness. I decided to accept it.

"It's fine," I sighed. "but, why?"

"Why what?" Brandon asked.

"Why were you two fighting? And why were you starting with him?"

He went back into his shell and didn't look at me. I was just grateful, though, that he actually said more than one sentence to me. I didn't know what was wrong, or why he was always too afraid to talk to me.

"I don't know, I guess seeing you with Todd really hit me. For some reason it made me angry, and so I said something to him without thinking. I was stupid, really, thinking that. I blew it months ago," he shook his head and seemed to be talking to himself.

"Wait a minute, blew what?" I was confused.

"Well, you know.."

"No, what?" My mouth hung open, making me look more stupid than I probably sounded.

Brandon took a deep breath, looked at he ground, and said, "Us."

That's what it was. This whole time, Brandon was jealous. That's why he was angry the first time Todd talked about me at their lunch table in October. That's why he said Todd didn't deserve me. That's what Tyler and the other guys were talking about. And that's why they got into a fight.

"I didn't know you still liked me," my voice was low.

"I need to apologize for that, too, because I was horrible."

"This is happening too fast," I shook my head. "I thought you wanted nothing to do with me."

"It's not that I didn't want anything to do with you. Our timing was off," he shrugged, "but I think the timing might actually be right."

So much was happening. My life was a movie playing before my eyes. I used to hate Brandon Dowey, after what he did to me. After he woke up one day and broke my heart. I was actually almost over it, and then he had to throw that at me after I had just ended a relationship a day before.

But how could I ever trust Brandon again? And how could I ever trust Todd again?

"Hey, what did I miss?" Sam asked while pulling a chair up to the table.

"Only everything!" Claire bursted out in laughter after keeping quiet for so long.

Brandon looked so uncomfortable.

"Hi....Brandon?" Sam was as confused as I was.

"Okay, uh, I'm gonna go now," Brandon stood up, "I'll talk to you later, Paige."

I buried my head in my hands, and of all things, I started laughing.

"What the hell is wrong with my life?" I asked, esasperated.

"What the hell was that?" Ashley added.

"What the hell did I miss?" Sam sighed.

Then Claire went on to explain my life to Sam, and I listened extra closely, because I had no idea what was going on either.