bad kids [ zach herron ]

[15]

[VANESSA'S POV]
As Zach had slided the Facetime on, I stared him in horror.

"You did not", I gasped out to the boy as I saw Ethan's face on my phone's screen.

The picture had poor quality since the network was so bad in here. Yet I could see Ethan's confused expression.

"Vanessa? Are you there?" his voice sounded suspicious.

Shit, no wonder. He expected to get to talk with me, and first thing he saw was Herron's dominating smirk.

"Sorry, she's kinda busy now", Zach smirked and licked the bottom lip of his, then glancing over me.

Oh my god, what was he doing? Was he really trying to ruin the last pieces of my relationship?

I made anxious glance over him, but he didn't see that.

"Who are you? Wait, you are Zach, aren't you? Where is Vanessa? Why do you even have her phone?"

I tried to grab my phone back, but Herron was quick enough to dodge my move.

"Give it to me!" I shouted angrily, crossing my hands.

Zach just shooted another smirk for me, almost looking like he enjoyed seeing me pissed off. Then he looked back to the phone:

"Dude, I'm sorry. You gotta call later. Like I said, Vanessa's pretty busy right now. You know, we have to paint this cabin - actually wait, that's not what we really were doing. Few seconds before your call I had trapped her against the wall, making hickeys on her soft ne --"

Now he crossed the line.

Zach was so focused on his speak that I managed to grab my phone back. I gave him one big death-stare before turning my attention to the Facetime:

"Ethan, I'm so sorry. He's such an asshole - lying asshole. I'm here now. What did you want to talk about?"

He didn't say anything. There was zero drop of joy in his face. This look on his face was the one he had when we were truly arguing.

"Ethan..?" I gulped, biting my inner cheek nervously.

Finally he spoke, "Was he joking or telling the truth?"

The shade of judgement in his voice made me offended. Especially when I was already annoyed by Zach's action.

"You aren't the right person to judge me! You have -- "

"So it is true?" Ethan cut me off, and I stared him back, being lost for words.

I couldn't get any words out from my mouth. Something inside of me told to lie, fast, but I couldn't do even that.

My eyes went glossy even though I tried to keep everything together. One tear escaped down along my cheek.

This wasn't supposed to go like that. I was supposed to ditch Herron, and clear the air with my boyfriend.

Somehow, that didn't describe the situation right now.

"Your face tells it all. Sorry, Vanessa. I can't right now. Maybe I call you... Later", Ethan's voice cracked a little at the end.

He ended the Facetime briefly, leaving me to stare the screen emptily. I didn't know what to do or think.

"You're welcome", Zach's amused voice made me to raise my look up.

Seeing his pleased smirk made anger fill me quickly, as tears dropped down one after one.

The impulsive side of mine was taking over, once again.

"Why would you do that?" I snapped pushing his chest strongly, "Why would you tell him that? Are you out of your fucking mind?"

"What? Vanessa, I did favour for you! Don't you get it?" the boy defended himself, but only managed to make me even more furious.

"Stop, just stop! And leave me alone!" I yelled and swinged around, heading to the different way.

Ariana was right about him from the beginning. That boy is toxic.

I needed to stay far away from him.

----

I felt guilty.

I really tried to fix things with Ethan, but they only went worse.

Maybe he hooked up with Danielle once, but I have been teasing Herron for days. So maybe I'm the bad guy here.

Why did I even do that? I have literally hated the golden boy since the day one.

I wanted to do something right today.

I got up from the bed, and took my phone from the charger.

I was alone in the cabin, because others were in the main building eating dinner. But I wasn't hungry.

I opened Danielle's and mine message conversation.

6.13pm
me: hi, can we talk

She saw my message immediately. My palms were sweaty as I waited for the answer.

6.13pm
danielle: what do you want

6.13pm
me: i know i've been terrible. but i wanna fix things
me: i'm sorry for everything i said

6.14pm
danielle: oh so now you're sorry?

I felt like I had nothing to lose - I just could be honest with her.

6.14pm
me: yes bc i messed up in here and ethan is so mad to me
me: and i kinda need a friend right now
me: so please dani

6.14pm
danielle: oh my god

6.14pm
me: what?

6.14pm
danielle: he's mad to you? haha
danielle: i guess he hasn't told you
danielle: actually pretty clever. he can just blame you

I furrowed my brows after reading her message. Ethan hasn't told me what?

Worriedly I started to type respond to her, but she made it first:

6.14pm
danielle: we've been hooking up several times now, since he wanted
danielle: sorry babe, i was probably just better option than u

6.15pm
danielle: but hey, don't you have that new guy there? zach, wasn't it?
danielle: even though i bet he doesn't make u as pleasured as ethan makes me

I turned my phone off, biting teeth strongly together. For the second time for today, my eyes went glossy.

Quick, lonely tear escaped down along my cheek. I wiped it away, staring the cabin's wall with determined look.

My guilty feeling was gone. All of it.

Instead of that, I felt anger - anger of trusting and hating wrong persons.