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Selena's POV:
"-and then he took me for a romantic walk in the park, it was so sweet." Marie drooled. While I skipped with Justin, Marie had gone out with some guy on the football team called Noah. "I always thought he was a dog." Renee commented. I snickered. Renee had always hated Noah because on her first day, he smacked her lunch tray and ruined her favourite shirt. "He is not a dog! He is sweet and kind and-" she carried on until she got inturrupted. "Talking about me?" Dylan asked, appearing out of nowhere. "Where did you come from?" she asked. "My Mum's womb." Dylan replied, sarcastically. That was the last straw. Ever since Marie came back, drooling over her new boy and Renee making snide comments, I had wanted nothing more than to laugh my butt off. Which I did. "Hey Sel, you ok?" she asked. "I'm.. ok." I choked out. "So, who were you talking about?" he asked. "Marie went out with some idiot on the football team and he brainwashed her and she's gone bonkers." Renee explained. Dylan suddenly stiffened. "Who did you go out with?" he asked Marie, giving her a fake smile. Is that jealousy I detect? "Noah Peterson, why?" She asked, eyeing him suspiciously. "No reason." he said. "Hey Dylan." I started and he turned to face me. "Have you seen Justin?" I asked. "Why?" He smirked, knowingly. I rolled my eyes. "He hasn't been in school since Monday and I was just curious." I say. "I don't actually know. Probably just family stuff." He shrugged. I caught on immediately. "Oh, right. That explains it." I sighed. I suddenly felt guilty for not having asked Justin about his brother and sister. I felt so terrible, especially when he had been so understanding about my problem. "What family stuff?" Renee asked. "You know, just the normal stuff I'm guessing." I quickly responded. "Yeah, maybe it was someone's birthday?" Dylan offered. "Yeah, totally! Remember, whenever it's Nick's birthday I always stay at home, right?" I say. "Sure.." Renee said, uneasily. "Who's Nick?" Dylan asked. "My brother. He's in University." I explained. "You have a brother?" he asked. "I just said that didn't I?" I said. "Yeah, just didn't take you to be the kind of girl who had an older brother." I raise my brows. "What on earth is that supposed to mean?" I say. "You know, most girls, they tend to be all, I dunno, clingy about their brothers. Talk about them all the time like about how annoying they are." he says. "Exactly, most girls." Our very heartfelt (note the sarcasm) conversation was interrupted when a girl from my science class named Anna showed up. She was racing down the halls and stopped just before me, panting hard. "Hey Anna, what's up?" I smiled at her. "Didn't you hear?" she says. "Hear what?" I ask. "She's back." I raise my brows. "Who?" I wondered. "That girl you used to hang out with in middle school." A feeling of dread gathered in my stomach. Whatever she was going to say, it was not going to be good. "Which one?" I asked, fighting to keep the smile on my face from falling. "I think her name was.. Mellisa Jones?" I froze. "What?" I said, my voice barely above a whisper. "She was your friend back then, right? Apparently she's really pretty and cool and everything. But I heard rumours that-" I cut her off. "Wait a minute, do you know why she's back?" Or how, I mentally added. "No, is she not supposed to want to be here?" She looked confused yet interested at the same time. Dylan stared at me with the same expression and I tried to muster up a smile. "No, no, not at all. I'm just.. surprised, that's all." Marie and Renee obviously didn't believe a word and I was pretty sure that they were going to drag me off at some point. "Can you guys excuse us for a second?" Marie asked, as sweetly as she could. "Yeah, sure." Anna's beam wavered for a second. "Sel, are you ok?" Dylan asked, looking worried as he suddenly turned to me. "I'm fine." I said, putting on a weak smile. "Well, we gotta go." Renee quickly intervened. Then she looped her arm through mine and dragged me off to the girls bathroom. "Okay, whatever you do, don't freak out." Marie advised. "I'm not freaking out." I tried to say as calmly as I could. "Liar." Renee remarked. "I'm not lying!" I protested. I'm totally lying. "Yes, you are." Marie stated. "We're not stupid." Renee added. "Okay, you got me." I sighed. "I'm freaking out." I admit. "No shit." Marie said, sarcastically. "Gee, thanks for the boost of confidence." I muttered. Renee sighed. "Look, hon. What happened was horrible for you. I understand that. But you're older now, wiser and a whole lot stronger. She has nothing over you now. Got that?" she says. "Yes, sir!" I mock-saluted. Marie laughed. "At least you've still got your sense of humour intact." She said. "Everything is going to be okay." Everything is going to be okay. Everything is going to be okay. I kept on repeating those words, hoping that maybe, just maybe, they were true. - "Well, well, well, look who we have here." My head snapped up from the book I was reading. I was trying to distract myself but it wasn't working. I looked up and saw a familiar face that had brought me so much pain that made me almost ended my life. "What do you want?" I snapped. "Hello to you too." Her face graced an amused smile and her violet eyes glinted in a way that made me shiver. "Just answer the question." I say. "I don't want anything." I snorted. "Then how come I don't believe you?" I retaliate. "Okay, okay, you got me." She held up her hands. "I want something." I roll my eyes. "No, duh." I say. "Will you quit being the bitch you are for two minutes?" she says. "Sorry, honey, I do what I want." I mimicked her words from three years ago. "Still a pain in the ass." I roll my eyes. "Some things never change." To anyone around us, I bet it looked like two old friends having a chat, but I knew better. "What do you want?" I abruptly ended the silence. "What do I want? I want you to feel the pain and humiliation I had to go through." I sat there, confused. "What pain? You didn't go through anything!" I shouted. "You don't think so? I got fucking expelled because of you! I had to go around begging schools to fucking take me in! All because you couldn't keep your fucking mouth shut." she said. "I didn't say anything!" I said. "Oh, yeah?" She sneered. "If it wasn't you, then who was it?" I stayed silent. There was no point in saying Nick told the school. That would only lead to her knowing what I almost did to myself and I wouldn't give her the satisfaction of knowing me at my weakest. "Thought so." she said. "That was years ago, Melissa. Can you let it go?" I suggested. "Let it go? Let it go? No way. You ruined my life, I'm not going to wait any longer than I already have." she says. "Why now? How?" I ask. "Why now? Well, I couldn't get back into the school with the same principal running the school, so I had to wait. Then all I had to do was convince Dad wasn't too hard, he even added a little extra to my school fee so I could come." she said. "So basically, you manipulated people." I tell her. "It could have been worse." I was about to open my mouth and make a snappy retort when someone else joined our merry conversation. "Hey, OJ Girl." Justin. Well, he has the worst timing ever. "Hey, Justin." I plastered a smile on my face. "Who's your friend?" He asked, openly checking Melissa out. I felt a pang in my heart and for some reason, I wasn't sure exactly why. "Justin, this is Melissa." Justin turned to me and sent me a quick sorry with his eyes. I looked down, avoiding any more eye contact. "Oh." was all he said. "Yeah, I'm Melissa. It's nice to meet you." She gave him a dazzling smile and pushed out her chest. Slut. "You too." Justin mumbled awkwardly. Her smile wavered slightly but she quickly composed herself. "I guess I'll be going then. It was lovely seeing you again, Selena." Can't say the same for you. As soon as she left, plain site Justin turned to me. "Look, Sel, I am so sorry. I didn't know it was her." He apologised. "I know you didn't. You wouldn't have done it otherwise." He looked relieved. "Thanks." he said. "No prob." I still hadn't looked at him and he noticed because he put his finger under my chin and lifted my head to face him. "Hey," he said, softly. "What did she do to you?" "Nothing." which was true, she hadn't physically done anything to me. He didn't look like he believed me but he dropped it anyway. "So where have you been?" I asked, slyly changing the subject. "Huh?" he says. "You haven't been at school for at while. Where have you been?" I ask. "Worried about me OJ Girl?" he said, smirking. "No." I scoffed. "You totally were." Oh, here we go again. "Were not." I said. "Were too." he said. Not." I said. "Were." he said. "Not." I said. "Were." he said. "Not." I said. "Were." he said. Whatever." I said. "Ha! So you admit it!" he says. "I haven't admitted anything." I say. "You did too." I rolled my eyes. "Shall we go back inside?" I inclined my head towards the door. "Don't think I'll forget this, OJ Girl." I rolled my eyes and turned to walk into the building, Justin following closely behind me. As we walked back into the building, streams of thoughts ran through my head. Everything seemed to be happening all at once and for some reason, I didn't think this was the end. I knew one thing for sure, my life was about to get a hell of a lot more complicated.
