Wanderlust ✓

35. Cease

I debated faking being sick so I didn't have to go to school today. My emotions were that rough for an A student to be saying that. But in good girl fashion, I sucked it up, got myself out of bed and got ready for the school day ahead of me. Emotionally ready, I mean.

It's a miracle he doesn't go to my school or I definitely would've faked a cold...

School has become exhausting because of me becoming "the girl who's dating Parker Collins." People stare at me like I'm going to do something wild and I can always hear their whispering confusion. It hasn't stopped!

When I got to school and met Carly at her locker, the whispers became insufferable. They were all curious as to why Carly and I are now on speaking terms when we had a blow up in the hallway before the weekend. I just rolled my eyes at their glances.

"Damn drama sharks. Try to ignore them," Carly said, grabbing her Macbeth copy out of her locker.

I gave out a short laugh at her comment, leaning my head back against the cool metal. "I've been trying to for months. We've become celebrities, can you believe it?"

She shut her locker. "Hell no. I was hoping for a quiet year but here you come disrupting my plan by dating a star athlete who just so happens to go to our rival school. How nice of you." Her smirk alerted me that she was just joking as she bumped her arm against my own. I smiled back with a shrug. I missed this.

"Great. Here comes the sharks," Carly said, looking over my shoulder and I quickly turned around to see what she was talking about. A group of gossiping girls, who looked to be underclassmen, were making their way towards us and one girl in particular had her eyes on me. They strutted like the mean girls they were.

I am not in the mood for this.

"Hi," she started with an awfully fake smile, "Paige, right? My girls and I were just talking about the incident Parker had on the field last week when he decided to just walk off. You two seem close so I was wondering if you had the answer. You seem to be the one pulling him off the field always."

Carly scuffed, about to defend me but I put up a hand to stop her and nodded as in non verbally saying "I've got this, this time".

"I'm sick of girls asking me and criticizing my relationship with Parker. Do you know him? I don't think so, freshie. It's none of your goddamn business so why don't you start drama somewhere else? Maybe with someone your own age?"

"What would your boyfriend think of you so concerned about another guy? Oh wait, you don't have one. Now, shoo," Carly added on after me.

Our words must've registered in their minds because without another word, they stepped away with frowns and continued their strut down the hall.

I turned to Carly, raising my hand up to hi five her. "I'm not taking their shit anymore."

"Yes, girl! That's the spirit!" We laughed. And then it dawned on me that I was standing up for my boyfriend for no reason. What boyfriend?

•••

The day drained on slowly. In every class, I peaked down at my phone expecting a cute text to come through with a message like "I miss you" followed by cheesy emojis but it never lit up as many times as I stared at it.

The false vibrations filled me with false hope as no messages were shown on the screen. Well, apart from the app flo with the reminder to drink water which is really the most useful notification because without it I'm sure I would've died from dehydration... Maybe the break up has made me a little more salty... a little more sarcastic...