Secretly Married (English)

Chapter 06

Kent couldn't concentrate on his driving. He kept thinking about his conversation with Phoebe earlier, and he couldn't help but feel hurt at what Phoebe had said.

When he asked ifshe wanted a divorce, she stood up in outrage and said, "Of course not! Why would you think that?"

"So you can date all the guys you want—like Harley."

"I'm not the one who's fooling around with other people, Kent. You are. You change girls like you change clothes. You're the one who's always acting like you don't know me!"

Kent couldn't believe that that was how she thought of him, that she believed all those publicity ploys which were simply done so that he could be dis- tinguished from Harley's good-boy image.

Does she really think of me that way? I just didn't want her to get caught up in all the showbiz intrigues. That's why I see to it that no one knows we're related.

He felt hurt and confused that the person he thought knew him—Phoebe—could think so lowly of him.

He drove through the gates of the school and found Harley getting out ofhis own car.

He hurriedly parked his own car in the empty lot and caught up with Harley. Not a lot of people came to school early, so they were safe from spying eyes.

"Hey, Harley!"

Harley turned around with a huge grin on his face. "Hey, what's up?"

"So you're dating someone now, huh?"

"Wow, now you're interested in my life?"

"Who is she?"

"Why's everyone so curious about that? And so early in the morning too."

Kent wanted to punch Harley's smug face when he said that.

"So this girlfriend of yours—"

"Oh, she's not my girlfriend anymore."

"She dumped you—already?"

"No, 'course not. She's not my girlfriend anymore. She's now my fiancée."

Kent had to keep his fist to himself to keep him from punching this son of a—

"Fiancée? What are you talking about?" It was Elisa, who came out of nowhere.

"None of your business," the two guys said at the same time.

Kent couldn't stand Elisa, so he simply took off, leaving Harley with her.

Phoebe couldn't concentrate in school. Her best friend kept on showing her images of gowns for her own debut party, but the best she could muster was an

"uh-huh." So at lunch, Jhone confronted her.

"What's going on, Fibs? I mean, you're always really distracted and scatterbrained but not when it comes to girly stuff . . . Come on, baby, spill."

Phoebe looked at her friend and envied her peaceful and uneventful life. "Jhone . . ."

Jhone looked at her, prompting her to go on and fast. "Come on, Fibs. My attention span is not that long. I have a few more seconds devoted to 'Fibs's problems' and then I'm off to another topic."

"Kent and I are in a fight," Phoebe whispered.

Jhone giggled. Phoebe was afraid there must be something wrong with her friend's mental constitu- tion.

"Wow. I think people call that the 'lovers' quarrel.'" She resumed her giggling.

Phoebe sighed. "No. It's not like that." She leaned into her friend. "He asked me if I want a divorce."