the art of faking a smile. (under-construction)

35. Truth bomb

CHRIS POV

It's been days since Cassie stopped hanging out with us, and what's odd is that her friends 'seem' unfazed about it. It makes me question what kind of friends they are, but I can't saying anything for I was a dick to her.

"Why doesn't Cassie sit with us anymore?" Hideki looks around, probably looking for Cassie.

"Don't bother, she was being a total bitch the other day." Summer hesitates.

"How?" I frown, she may be sarcastic but she's never a bitch.

"She vented her anger on us." Akio looks grim instead of angry though. In fact, everyone looks grim ever since she left. It makes me realise how much they depend on her yet never give her anything back. Like a parasitic relationship.

"Maybe she had a reason?" Dylan suggests.

"W-Well it doesn't matter now, she's gone..." Akio fidgets with his fingers, he looks... guilty.

"I'm confused, why would she do something like that?" Hideki narrows his eyes, unconvinced.

"I don't know! She just snapped at us."

"Who started the fight though?" Justin asks.

Akio, Summer and Carlos hesitates. "Well I guess we kinda did, but she's always so negative and all she does was make dark jokes, it irritated the shit of us." Carlos shrugs.

Hideki sighs and buries his head in his hands. "You know what? I'm not even gonna butt into this problem because the way it was handled was stupid."

"What do you mean? We need your wise words mum." Akio whines.

"You think for yourself, maybe you guys should've listened to her or approached the situation in a less harsher way. Yeah, she says that stuff but she maybe has a reason behind it, you should've talked to her. C'mon guys, you've been friends with her for years and yet you seem to not understand her."

"It's not exactly our fault though! She never shows her real emotions to the point we have trouble in seeing who she really is." Summer argues.

Fuck, maybe it's my fault this is happening... this group is slowly plummeting to the bottom because Cassie isn't here.

"Um, maybe I was the one that started this?" I point out.

Everyone glances at me as if I was crazy. "How so? You weren't even there." Summer frowns in confusion.

"When did this happen?" I ask.

"I think a bit more than a week ago, on a Tuesday?" Carlos remembers.

"Uh... I kinda mentally bashed her around the same time so she was probably in a bad mood at that time..." I look down in guilt.

Akio widens his eyes. "So that's why you weren't there when she snapped.. and it wasn't her fault either..."

Dylan squints at me. "Why would you do that? I thought you trusted her the most."

"Well it's not exactly my fault though, she was the one who spread the rumours about me." I note with a sour look on my face.

The whole group exchange glances before the 12th graders begin to slightly snicker with each other. "Chris... what are you going on about? What makes you think she'd spread crappy rumours like that?" Dylan soon frowns, his head tilted to the side.

"Well, I was told that she spread the rumours.."

Hideki laughs a bit louder and rolls his eyes at my stupidity. "Oh there are a lot of reasons why Cassie definitely did not spill that fake tea."