psycho | jaeden lieberher

sixteen

I wanted to call Finn out and yell at him in front of everyone, but of course I didn't. I just went to all my classes as normal, acted as if nothing at all had happened this weekend. I did most of the homework I didn't do over the weekend during study hall, and everything was fine. I don't have any classes with Finn anyway, so forgetting about him for the day was no problem really. He wasn't at lunch, so it was just me and my girls, avoiding the topic of boys all together. The day was perfectly fine and normal, but I hadn't gotten to rehearsal yet.

"Do you wanna talk about what happened Friday?" Jaeden walks up to me when I am alone unpacking my bag. I turn quickly to face him, to see he is extremely close to me. It's a friendly distance, the kind of distance you stand with a friend when you want to be whispering, but with Jaeden it feels so close. I take a tiny step back, hoping he doesn't notice.

"No." I answer, just staring up at him with wide eyes, waiting for him to walk away.

"Let me rephrase, we need to talk about what happened Friday." He is being way too serious. I would say the most serious I've ever seen him besides before... the thing.

"Ok, talk." I look back at my bag to continue organizing while he talks.

"No, Corinne. I don't need to talk, we need to talk."

I turn to face him again, he must've stepped forward because we are close again. "There's nothing to talk about! I'm trying to forget the night all together actually."

"I know you don't want to forget all of it. Forget the bad parts yeah, but not everything."

"They're all bad parts, Jaeden." Fuck, I forgot the last name friend zoning thing. "I was being an emotional wreck, and I'd like to forget about it." 

"Well that's gonna be pretty hard because all day I heard people whispering that you're a slut. Maybe their right since you can't even talk about our kiss." Jaeden says straight faced, then turns and walks away. That's what he is going to walk away on? Calling me a slut? I'm not a fucking slut!

--

I ignore Jaeden the rest of rehearsal, aside from when we are acting together. I catch him staring at my a few times, which is kind of fucking creepy. But everyone says he is insane, maybe him snapping earlier was my finally seeing it. My mom was here to pick me up today, thank god. Jaeden's car is driving behind us nearly the whole ride home though, I always forget he lives right next to me. Can his window actually see into mine? That would be so fucking creepy, I swear to god I'd never open my curtains ever again. 

Maddie calls me after dinner, and I tell her about the Jaeden kinda-fight thing. To which she responds with, "He has been your creepy neighbor all your life, why are you now starting to give a crap?"

"I don't know, he has like been in my life lately." 

"Well Finn just made that bullshit up right, you didn't like have a thing with Jaeden while dating Finn." Oh poor uneducated Maddie... she is going to kill me for not telling her soon.

"Well..." I say, hoping she will get it then and not make me explain.

"What the fuck did you do, Corinne? And why Jaeden of all guys to cheat with? You could've had anyone else, any hot guy, and you chose Jaeden Lieberher!" 

"It wasn't like a fucking affair or anything! He just just telling me how I am amazing and perfect and deserve to be treated better then Finn treated me, and I was crying and being emotional, and I told him to kiss me." 

"You told him to kiss you? Why the fuck would you do that? Like it's one thing for a guy to kiss you while you have a boyfriend, that's the guy's fault, but you cause this. It's like you wanted your relationship with Finn to blow up." I don't respond to her. I'm too busy processing everything. "Wait, did you want your relationship with Finn to blow up?" 

"I don't think so." 

"So that's an almost yes." She gets it.

"Yeah."

"Well that's fine, you and Finn were kinda toxic anyway. But why Jaeden Lieberher? Was it a like he's-right-in-front-of-me situation?" 

"No. I think it was because he was being so nice to me in a way Finn wasn't."

"Finn was't nice to you?"

"No, he was." I explain. "But he was only nice to me when he wanted something or when he was drunk. So like Finn was nice when he had to be. Jaeden could've just told me to get out of the car and that would've been that, but he kept complimenting me and telling me I deserved better and all that."

"Jaeden likes you, right?" Maddie asks.

"What?"

"Doesn't he like you? I know he did when we were kids, I doubt he still does, but it kinda sounds like it." What is she talking about? I knew Jaeden must've liked me because he was constantly being my little stalker or whatever, but I didn't think since we were kids.

"Uh, I don't know." I walk over to my window, to try to examine all the windows on his house that could possibly see into mine. Then I see it, a room with a window slightly more to the right then mine. The window is open, and a bunch of junk is growing the window sill. I see the Heathers script, so I know it's Jaeden's room, there is also a water bottle, a phone charger, and a camera. Wait, where is the camera pointed?