In Colour (Slow Updates)

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Three

Just as expected, on Monday morning, things went back to normal—I pretended not to know Aaron Archibald, and he pretended not to know me. I knew it was always going to be like this—it had been like this— but it didn't mean it didn’t hurt any less.

And when I was walking down the corridor and saw Molly Monroe hanging off his arm, that stirred a dark emotion within me. But I soon got over it when Geordie and Cameron came bustling down the hall, creating a ruckus as they went. People stared and whispered but they didn’t seem to care, and neither did I.

Geordie was quick to put me in a headlock. “You little shit—ditching us at that party with only ‘going home early’ as an excuse.” He let me go after I put up a fight. “Where did you go, idiot?”

“Where I said I was going,” I deadpanned, “home.”

“Bullshit,” Cam drew out. “Did you go home with someone? Someone with a dick?”

I rolled my eyes. “The both of you are horrible, now get out of my way so I can get t’ my locker.”

Cam laughed and stepped aside. "But seriously, where did you go? The party got real good after you left."

I shrugged carelessly. "I went home because someone spilled their drink on me."

"Who took you home?"

I put my books away and slammed my locker shut. "Aaron Archibald."

Geordie pretended to look shocked. "Oh em gee, the Aaron Archibald? No way!" I rolled my eyes and gave him a shove as we all walked to the cafeteria. He laughed. "So he really did take you home?"

I nodded in reply and that’s when Geordie had to double take. “Wait, you’re being serious? The most popular kid in school took you home, just like that?”

“Like I said, he spilled his drink on me. He felt bad. No biggie,” I tried again.

Cameron shrugged. “Heard the guy was nice, guess he is. Wouldn’t know though, never talked to his group before.”

“I don’t like it,” Geordie stated with a frown. “Everyone knows that whole circle of friends are jerks. They don’t mingle with us for a reason. Stay away from them.”

My stomach twisted sickly but I ignored it, trying to throw up a calm front. “He just dropped me home because he felt bad, sheesh, let it go, would ya?”

“I’m just saying,” he mumbled carelessly as he threw an arm around me.

“Yeah yeah, I know,” I said absent-mindedly.

I felt bad because they didn’t know that Aaron Archibald knew about my parents. I hadn’t told anyone about what really happened that week. The only people who knew were my sister and Michael, Aaron himself and his parents. And I think I would always like to keep it that way.

Because like Geordie said, they don’t mingle with us for a reason. I went to a rich-kid preppy school on the outskirts of New York city. The people at my school could give Gossip Girl a run for their money—you know, the popular kids were all about being popular and all that shit.  And I simply wasn’t. I didn’t care about petty high school dramas, I just couldn’t wait to get the hell out of there.

I was simply smart to stay away from them.

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I was counting down the minutes until the day ended. It was the last period of the day and in my opinion, the worst. History was boring, seriously boring. Sure, the history of America was somewhat riveting but when the sun was shining brightly, making it the perfect opportunity to take photos, I resented being inside.