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...
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello again, everyone! As usual, I'd love to see your thoughts, reactions, predictions, etc. as you go through this chapter in the comments! Any and all feedback is very welcome. Happy reading! <3
The color in the header is for Prithika's nail polish!
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REACHING AN AGREEMENT
"You're not so mopey today," Laila pointed out at lunch the next day. "Does that mean you're getting over it?"
It was certainly true that Prithika was far more cheerful at the moment than she had been for the past few days. Of course, she didn't want to completely get her hopes up since Jackson hadn't actually agreed to anything yet, but she was absolutely positive he was going to help her out, and the hope of getting Carter back had brought back some of her relentless perkiness. She'd gotten the spring back in her moves at cheer practice, and her laughter rang in the halls a bit more often.
The thing was, though, that everyone thought it was because she'd gotten over Carter, and, well, that wasn't quite the truth. She took a sip of her iced tea, considering how to respond to Laila.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Carter and Julia, laughing together at the table Julia's friends usually sat at in the corner. Carter had been pretty much publicly exiled from sitting with the junior cheerleaders and football players after the stunt he'd pulled on Monday morning.
A couple of football players, Carter's teammates, had grumbled about Prithika not being treated the same way after the rumor about her and Jackson, but Aurora had fixed them with such a vicious glare and chewed them out so thoroughly that she'd almost been kicked out of the cafeteria for yelling. It was kind of funny to see a group of boys so used to tackling people on a field be scared into silence by a substantially smaller person like Aurora, but the girl had such a fierce, intimidating presence that she often seemed much bigger than she was. The chunky boots she had a penchant for wearing only added to that.
Prithika mulled over her plan. Might as well sow the seeds for the jealousy business now. "You know what?" she started, substantially louder than necessary. "Yeah. I'm totally over Carter. There are way cuter boys at this school, actually."
"That's the spirit!" Laila cheered.
"He was literally the worst," Aurora added. "Literally, who cheats on their girlfriend in the middle of a hallway in front of everyone on the first day back? Like, what the fuck?"
Prithika nodded. Her stomach felt a little strange, like a sponge being wrung out; it alternated between twisting and feeling light.
"Also," Rory continued, "he literally never valued you. You were always so nice to him and you did so much shit for him and he totally threw that away!"
"If Julia knew he was cheating on you, Pree," Laila began, softer than Aurora, "then she got an awful boyfriend like she deserved. And if she didn't know he was two-timing you, then, well, I feel bad for her." She played with the sleeve of her vintage band t-shirt.
