A Tangled Web We Weave (Completed)

2. High School Is Where Good People Go To Die

Elena

The bell rang and my Biology class sprinted to leave their seats. Walking to my locker and narrowly avoiding an elbow to the nose, I slid by science book into place and tried to think what class was next. Remembering, I groaned.

Psychology.

As a class, it was fine, great even. I liked the curriculum, the teacher, basically everything but one person.

Hudson Sinclair.

I went to close my locker door, briefly contemplated bashing my head with it, and then went to class.

Pray for me.

"Seeing as I'm thinking about how many different ways I can get you to stop talking, I would be quiet." I snapped, clicking my pen furiously to keep myself from hurting him.

Hudson smirked, leaning his chair back against the wall. "Oh, c'mon, sweetheart. I'm not that annoying."

I scoffed, copying down the notes from Mr. Harbin's PowerPoint. "I hate to break it to you, but you really are that annoying." I glanced down at his foot on our table.

"Mr. Harbin, am I annoying?" He called to the front of the class, interrupting the teacher's lecture.

Mr. Harbin licked his lips for the seventh time in less than a minute and replied, "Who am I to say, Mr. Sinclair?"

Hudson looked over at me triumphantly and pulled his lighter out of his pocket, flicking it open and closed. "C'mon, Ellie, you can stop pretending to hate me for five seconds." He whispered.

"I'm not pretending."

"Sure."

I raised an eyebrow at him, fixing him with a look. "I know this must come as an enormous shock to you, but not everyone is falling over themselves to associate themselves with you. And my name is Elena, for the thousandth time."

"Ellie, you know I can't understand words with more than seven letters."

"Funny, I didn't think that words my baby cousin knows would be out of your depth."

"I'm dumb, remember?"

"And?"

"Hudson!" McKenzie Pyle whisper-squealed as she twisted around in her seat from in front of us, her voice sounding like nails on a chalkboard. "Where have you been?"

I lifted my eyes heavenward. Both of them? What did I do to deserve this?

Hudson shrugged, setting all four legs of the chair back onto the ground. "Around." He looked almost in pain, but I knew that as often as he pretended to hate her, they weren't strangers. And they weren't friends. And they weren't together. If you know what I mean.

"I haven't seen you in forever," she drew the last syllable out, the awkwardness stretching and twisting like a rubber band about to snap. She pouted at him, batting her spider eyelashes at him. "We missed you at my party last weekend."

I finally looked at her, smiling sarcastically. "Oh, Kenzie, you poor thing. You didn't hear? Some people don't like contracting STD's from just sitting on your couch."

She glared at me. "Elena the Elephant speaks? For once you don't have the cafeteria buffet shoved into your mouth."

I just smiled bigger. "At least I don't throw my lunch up afterward."

Her eyes turned razor sharp. "You're right, your lunch just goes straight for your thighs."

I tried to stand up, but Hudson put a hand on my arm. I jerked away from him, ready to claw her face off, but McKenzie had already spun on her seat and begun whispering frantically to her partner..

He shook his head. "You two do not have a healthy relationship."

"Do you know what that looks like?"

"At least I've been in a serious relationship."

I narrowed my eyes at him, ignoring his statement and sitting down again. "So you and McKenzie, huh?"

Hudson held up his hands a little. "Never." He leaned towards me, wiggling his eyebrows. "Now, you and me, on the other hand..."

I rolled my eyes. "Aren't I a little tan for you? You usually go for paper-thin, relatively easy Barbies, right?"

"Ouch, Ellie."

"Elena."

"What?"

"That's my name."

Mr. Harbin cleared his throat and we both realized at the same time we weren't being exactly quiet anymore. "I hope I'm not interrupting something important."

"Nothing I can't forgive, Mr. Harbin," Hudson grinned, winking at me.

The rest of class was more of the same. I never felt like I could relax with Hudson's flirting, McKenzie swooping in every so often like a goddamn harpy, and the constant bickering taking place around me.

Finally, finally, finally, the bell rang and I immediately stood up, which caused all of my papers to cascade onto the floor.

"Here, lemme help," Hudson said, kneeling down.

I just glared at him and he stood, raising his hands a little. "Ok, Ellie, whatever you say."

I shook my head and grabbed everything but my phone, shoving the papers into the largest pocket of my backpack. I zipped up the pocket and heard a slight cracking sound, like a rock hitting the windshield of a car. I slowly turned on my heel and saw McKenzie standing there, looking very falsely heartbroken over my phone.

"Aw, Elephant, I'm sorry I stepped on your phone. It looks like I cracked the screen. Hmm," she pretended to think, setting the phone in my hand. "Isn't it funny how you sit with it in your back pocket for hours at a time and it never does anything, but little ol' me barely stands on it and it breaks?" She sighed and walked away. "Text me if I can help pay for the damages, Elephant, ok?"

I closed my eyes, clasping my fingers around my phone, and picked up my backpack. One more reason to hate her.