R E J E C T S

CH.16: GUESS WHO'S BACK?

"Hey, Niall." I greeted him during first period as I passed by his desk.

"Hello!" He greeted back with a big smile.

"Am I invisible or something?" Louis made a snarky comment.

"I'm sorry, did someone say something?" I do enjoy bullying the guy.

"Hilarious." He rolls his eyes as I proceeded to my seat at the back of the room.

"Okay class, take your seats and settle down. We have a new student for this morning..." Our homeroom teacher motioned someone outside the door to come in.

Nonetheless, I paid no attention and just doodled on my notebook like I usually do when I'm bored.

"Would you like to say something about yourself?" I heard the teacher say.

"No, not really." That's a rather familiar deep voice...

Curiosity got the best of me and when I looked up, the new student and I instantly made eye contact.

Holy---

He looked taken aback for a minute but then his facial expression changed into a REALLY sexy smirk.

Oh my God.

He was wearing a bad boy outfit with the black leather jacket and white shirt underneath kind of style.

I broke the eye contact first and when I did, my eyes landed on Louis instead and he had this look on his face meaning he saw me and the new student gaping at each other for a minute.

He is such a meddling geek.

The new student proceeded at the back of the room to sit right across the empty seat beside me.

"Cher." He greeted.

"Zayn." I greeted back, trying to force a smile.

"Still so adorable, I see." He grinned.

"Yeah." I had to look away from his tantalizing gaze.

"You know, fate has a funny way of letting us meet again..." I could hear the amusement in his voice.

"Or maybe you did this on purpose." I mumbled more to myself.

"Maybe. You are the 'one' that got away after all." I heard him say.

Yeah, right.

I decided to ignore him for the rest of homeroom period... or maybe for good.

******

"You don't mind if I sit here with you, right? We are 'old buddies' after all." Zayn sat right across me during lunch.

Of course I mind. We didn't really part well the last time I saw him, if you know what I mean.

"Cher, who's this stranger? You won't let me sit with you at the same table but this guy gets to do that?!" Luke showed up out of the blue.

"I didn't exactly---" Oh, what's the point of explaining?

"Sit wherever you want, Luke. It's a free country." I said maturely.

He sat right next to me with a stupid grin on his face but not for long though because I saw his expression change when his blue eyes landed on Zayn.

"So, how do you two know each other?" Luke asked with a serious tone.

"We met in juvie." Zayn started munching down on his food.

"You two met at a juvenile rehab center? Lame." Luke made a blunt remark which almost made me choke because for some reason, I found it funny.

"How do you two know each other?" Zayn asked back a bit begrudgingly.

"Met at a party, got drunk and slept---"

"Okay! Too much information, Luke! We need to talk... in private." I stood up and dragged him to a corner in the cafeteria.

"Have you been telling everyone in school that we slept together by accident?!" I whispered lowly.

"No, you didn't let me finish. I was going to say 'slept over' at your place." He reasoned out.

"Same thing. No one just sleeps over after getting drunk you know." I shook my head at the boy.

"Why do you care so much about what that guy would think anyway? Is he your best friend or something?" He asked.

"Something like that. We used to hang out a lot... hey listen, how about we go home together today?" I suggested.

"What? Suddenly your boyfriend isn't around to drive you back to his place?" He said bitterly.

"This is a one-time offer."

"Meet you after the last period." He winked.

******

"Did you break up with Robbie?" Luke asked a bit too happily.

"No. I just need to figure how to tell him something BIG."

"Like what? That you're actually breaking up with him?" He chirped.

"Boy, that ain't happening. As a matter of fact, our 'pretend' relationship is going real smooth." I rolled my eyes.

"How smooth? Is it the 'smoothies' kind of smooth or a 'baby's butt' type of smoothness?" He asked seriously.

"I don't get the connection of your question. Just open up the door with your spare key, will you?" We were now standing in front of my apartment room.

"Why not use your key?" So many questions, this guy.

"Because... I'm too lazy to get it from my bag." I sighed out loud.

"Fine." He took his key out of his pants pocket.

"SURPRISE!" Zayn shouted when Luke flipped the light switch on.

"AHHHHH!!!" Luke and I shrieked like a bunch of sissies out of pure shock.

"WHAT THE HELL? ARE YOU TRYING TO GIVE US A HEART ATTACK?!" I yelled at the guy for scaring us like that.

"Oh. You have company. I thought you'd be alone..." He says instead of apologizing.

"How the hell did you get inside here?" I had to ask.

"I went through the window." He says casually.

"THAT IS SO... AWESOME! I've tried going through the window a dozen of times but it just wouldn't budge! Do you have super strength or something?" Luke was rather amazed by this.

"Nah, I just threw a rock from outside and it broke the window, is all." Zayn shrugged.

"YOU WHAT?!" I can't help but shriek.

"Don't worry, I covered the hole with paper." He smiled.

"Wait a minute, are you two living together?!" Zayn made a realization.

"Uh-huh." Luke said pretty smugly.

"Cher, open up!" Someone knocked on my door.

It was Robbie.

"What are you doing here?" I wasn't expecting him to show up at my door after school.

Heck, I wasn't even expecting to find Zayn inside my apartment! Too much unexpected events in one day.

"Is something up? Why won't you reply to my messages?" He sounded rather worried.

"I... Uh..."

"And who's this guy?" Zayn asked.

"He's her boyfriend." Luke answered instead.

"What? But you just said that you two live together..." Zayn was now confused.

"Wait, are you two-timing these two?" He added with a sheepish grin.

"Who is this outsider, Cher?" Rob looked a bit lost in all this.

"He's an old acquaintance."

"I'm her ex-boyfriend."

We said at the same time in perfect sync.