the reason | 13rw

t w e n t y - o n e

the next morning when i walked into school, i saw monty leaning against my locker. we made eye contact and he let out a laugh. he started clapping.

"there she is," he said.

"shut up," i shook my head as he stopped clapping.

he moved out of my way as i opened my locker.

"scott has been telling us all about how much he regrets it." monty said.

"it wasn't really his decision and we're still friends." i said. "we were much better that way."

i swapped things for my first class and pushed the locker shut. i turned to monty and smiled.

"i got a text last night." i said.

"from who?"

"the person," i pushed his shoulder.

"what did it say?" he asked.

i pulled my phone out and showed him. he let out a scoffish laugh.

"it's so cheesy."

"i think it's cute," i told him.

we started towards the classroom.

"look, we need to figure out who this guy is." he said.

"i'm going to start snooping at dempsey's and jeff's papers." i told him. "do you think we could cross justin off the list?"

"you didn't hear?" he asked.

"about?"

he let out a laugh as we walked into the classroom. jessica was sat in her seat, crying and hugging on hannah.

"oh my god," i said and pushed my stuff to monty's arms.

i rushed over to jess and hannah.

"what the hell happened?" i asked.

hannah pulled back, looking up at me. jess's eyes met mine as she stood.

"never speak to me again." she said and grabbed her bag, storming out of the room.

i looked to hannah.

"what the hell did i do?"

"justin dumped her," monty asked. "can you guess why?"

"me?" i asked. "why?"

"because he likes you, just like half of the school." i heard scott say as he walked into the classroom.

"what?" i asked.

"i guess the one i should've been worried about was justin, the whole time."

"i'm confused." i said.

monty placed my stuff in my arms.

"check his hand writing." he whispered.

....

later that day in english we had a substitute teacher, and lucky for me, zach, jeff and justin were in that class.

"this is your chance." monty smiled at me.

"distract zach first." i told him.

"on it," he told me and walked over.

he began talking to zach as i pulled a paper from his binder. i compared it to the writing on the note but it was very far from a match. i placed the paper on zach's desk and shook my head at monty.

"hey little one," justin said as he sat next to me.

"justin," i said as my eyes widened. "you broke up with jessica."