The Switch [COMPLETED]

Chapter 37

Asher Halen:

The entire time Paisley was onstage, I couldn't shake the uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. Paisley was smart - smarter than any other girl that I had ever met - and yet something had been a little bit off about her ever since the release of that article. She had seemed a little...frantic, almost; like something inside of her had broken.

Now, she was watching that Mackenzie girl in the back of the auditorium like she was about to eat her for lunch. The thought sent a chill up my spine. I know that what Mackenzie had done was beyond wrong. I also knew that the article wasn't the first time that Paisley had been the subject of Mackenzie's bullying - that much I had inferred just from the few times that Paisley had mentioned her in the past. Still, whatever Paisley had up her sleeve, I had a bad feeling that it would only make our situation worse. 

As the concert continued, I noticed Paisley's gaze growing harder and colder. I looked around to each of the boys to see if they were noticing it, too, but they were too concentrated on the music to notice that anything was wrong. By the time the final song started, Paisley was practically shaking. 

Before I knew it, the mini concert had ended and the small auditorium was erupting with cheers from Paisley's classmates. I watched as Paisley threw out her arms and linked elbows with the rest of the band, smiling and bowing and blowing kisses into the crowd. Once the applause had died down a bit, Paisley took the microphone in her hand and stepped to the front of the stage.

"Thank you all, you've been a wonderful audience. And thank you especially to Mackenzie Eldridge, without whom this whole thing wouldn't have been possible."

The students all turned towards Mackenzie, talking and laughing and cheering as Mackenzie beamed like a pageant queen who had just been crowned. I was pretty sure that I was the only one who had noticed the sarcasm and animosity dripping from Paisley's voice during her little shoutout. 

"But you know what's funny?" Paisley began again, a steely edge to her voice. I froze at the edge of the stage, a funny feeling working its way up from my toes to the top of my head. This wasn't going to be good. "What's funny," Paisley continued, jumping off of the stage and waltzing lazily towards the bleachers, "is that Mackenzie is NOT the reason Paisley and I met."

A small buzz went around the auditorium as Paisley continued to pace around. The euphoric smile on Mackenzie's face was falling slightly as she looked around the room apprehensively. 

"You know, the truth is that Mackenzie and I have never actually hung out. Like...ever. But Paisley and I? Yeah. We've hung out. We've hung out a lot, actually. And you know what?" 

Here, Paisley stopped and turned to look at me. In her eyes was a well of emotion that I couldn't quite place, but I felt it deep inside of me. She wasn't talking about "Paisley" anymore. She was talking about ME.

"Paisley...she's...she's really, really cool," Paisley continued, still maintaining eye contact with me. "And she never wanted any of this. I never wanted any of this. WE never wanted any of this," she said, gesturing wildly around the auditorium. "Most of you in here have sent HORRIBLE messages to a girl that you don't even know - don't deny it, I've seen them - just because YOU feel that she's not good enough for someone that, again, you DON'T EVEN KNOW. That's pathetic, guys. Absolutely pathetic."

Paisley was shaking now, and I was wondering how much longer I should let this continue before I stepped in to do something about it. I watched as Paisley eyed everyone in the audience before her gaze finally landed back on Mackenzie, who was looking around with a panicked expression on her face. Her cheeks turned pale when she realized that Paisley was staring directly at her again.