Prithika Singh would have told you that her love life was going great. After all, who could argue that the pretty cheerleader and the handsome quarterback with their sweet year-long relationship were anything less than a dream couple?
But Prithika i...
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The orange in the header is for a spark!
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A TERRIBLE IDEA
It was the fourth day of Prithika navigating a minefield of rumors. Somehow, with the addition of the picture of Jackson hugging her, the story about Carter Hale, star football player, cheating on Prithika Singh, pretty cheerleader, with Julia Hart, an average nobody, had been twisted; now it was Prithika Singh, bitchy two-faced cheerleader, cheating on Carter Hale, friendly quarterback, with Jackson Rains, bad boy who couldn't keep a relationship.
Prithika was used to handling nasty rumors; in fact, this wasn't even the first time she'd been accused of cheating on Carter. She'd never exactly tried to avoid the spotlight, and being an easily recognizable face tended to mean more people would spread stories about you.
Still, there was something more painful about this one; whenever random people would ask her about her supposed relationship with Jackson, it felt like they were picking at an open wound instead of just poking at her. Everything was still so fresh, and it took every last drop of her willpower not to snap at them. That'd make them think she really was a bitch.
Despite all her efforts, it seemed like Laila and Aurora were the only two people who actually believed that the hug had just been a sympathetic one to comfort her and not something that meant anything deeper. And even when she managed to correct someone on what had happened, they'd usually already told a bunch of other people the wrong version of events, and it just continued in an infuriating cycle.
Even Carter had tried approaching her every morning since the big scene, but he was warded off by the sharp glares from her two best friends. He also had enough of a sense of self-preservation to not be anywhere near Prithika at lunch, when Aurora would readily stab him with a fork if he got too close.
No matter how much Laila and Aurora tore Carter to pieces, Prithika couldn't help wanting to talk it out with him, wanting to get him back. He really did look like he was sorry, and maybe if they could just sit down and talk it out they could even get back together again. But Carter was constantly surrounded by other people, and she couldn't deal with more of the whispers and the stares and the questions.
It was an unusual feeling, needing to get away from other people. But it was a feeling she had regardless, which was why, instead of heading directly to Chemistry that morning, she ducked into the bathroom to give herself a break.
