The Royal Crush

8

I took my books and walked to Vivi's locker.

"Heeyyy," Vivi said. "How are you?"

"I'm fine," I sighed, rubbing my eyes tiredly. "Actually, no I'm not. I gotta move to my parents' house today."

"What?!"

"Yea... it's a long story. So for the next couple of weeks I gotta put up with not only my parents, but also Chace and his girlfriend."

"His girlfriend is staying with you guys?"

"Yea, just for a week. Aaargh, I hate this!"

"You, sister, have a lot to fill me in on," Vivi said, waving as Dylan approached us. "Especially as to why everyone is staring at you and whispering."

"Hey ladies, shall we go to class?" Dylan said. The three of us had Biology together.

"Shannon, that bitch," I muttered.

"What?"

"Dylan, everyone is staring and whispering at us."

His eyes widened. "Oh. Shannon!"

"What the hell are you guys talking about?"

"Uh, it's a long story. Basically, Caleb and I were, um, making flirty eyes at each other during the dinner and Adrian saw and got salty and stalked off and I went to tell him to, you know, move on and he almost kissed me and Caleb saw and then he got salty and stalked off and I went after him but he just gave me this disappointed look and left and I was almost having a breakdown and Dylan saw and I ranted to him and he comforted me so I hugged him and Shannon took a picture of it," I rambled.

"Oh... shit," Vivian said.

"Exactly."

"Oh come on, how bad can it be? Everyone knows we're best friends and friends hug each other right?" Dylan said.

"Then why is everybody staring?" I said. That's when Cedric walked up to us, looking serious.

"Guys, Shannon posted something..."

"Yea, we know. Just... how bad is it?"

He sighed and handed me his phone. The first picture was Dylan and I hugging, and it didn't look particularly suggestive. The next picture made me freeze.

She'd taken it just before our bodies hugged and from that angle, we could've been kissing. Her caption read "who tf makes out in front of the mayor hall at a formal event smh #chloe #dylan #pda".

"Look I don't know the backstory, but I know it's not what it looks like. So maybe you should just calm down and let this pass over, right?" Cedric said.

"Calm down? I'm not going to sit back and let her spread rumours about me!"

"We'll let everyone know the truth. We'll spread the word around," Cedric assured me. "If you make a scene, this will just get messier."

Begrudgingly, I agreed and headed to my first class. 

When Keith parked the car, I realized with a lurch in the stomach that it was my parents' house. I sighed and got out.

"I'm... nervous," I said.

"I know," Keith said. 

I glared at him. "Very helpful, thank you."

He shrugged and followed me to the front door. I quickly walked upstairs, knowing that though mother and father weren't home, Chace and his girlfriend Carson probably were. I saw that my room had been arranged exactly like it had been at Cedric's, which was a relief. Keith had gone to his room and I shut my door, trying to relax. After a few minutes, though, I got bored and decided to eat. I tiptoed quietly past Chace's room but froze when I heard noises. I stood still till I understood I was hearing moans. Holy fuck...