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Chapter Seven: Developments of a Good Nature

Paula was afraid.

She had just overheard the conversatiom between Lucas and Villa, and she had almost instantly frozen in place. All this while she had believed that she had executed a full proof plan, only to discover that Lucas might found out that it was her? That couldn't happen. The blonde was on her way to english, fiddling with her phone in an attempt to forget a out the situation at hand before she bumped into someone.

"Oh! Sorry"

"Hey, it's okay- Rock?"

Helping her up was the brunette boy that had recently went AWOL, everyone knew how after the incident at the party, Rock wanted nothing to do with his other group of friends, but he also didn't wanna hang with Lucas' crew either. He'd sort of... disappeared in a sense, so seeing him waa certainly a surprise.

"Oh, hey Paula" he greeted with a smile, putting his hands in his pockets soon after.

Paula patted down her dress before looking to him "how ya been dude? Everyone's been worried about you"

Rock shrugged before slumping on the bench behind them "just wondering about, I haven't been feeling great since the party"

She then sat beside him, unable to stop her smirk from growing "you've been acting more distant than Lucas, and he's the one that had his room destroyed and got puked on"

"Yeah, I guess you're right" Rock snickered, before scratching the back of his head "it's just... even though we've had are issues, Lucas is one of my best friends, ya know? So to see him so upset kinda cracked me, and then Villa and I hand a little tiff-"

"A tiff?"

Rock sighed "we had a small argument, but it turned me off big time, so I stopped talking to him..." soon, the brunette's posture behan to falter "I feel really bad for it, but I can't bring it in me to approach him now..."

Paula tilted her head, raising a brow as she did so "why not?"

"Isn't it obvious? I abandoned him for literal weeks, I left him alone whilst the whole school turned on him, the chances of him even wanting me to talk to him now are like... nothing..."

The girl frowned, she knew everything that had been going on between Rock, Lucas and Villa, and she felt as though it needed to be addressed "you know he likes who right?"

"Who?"

"Villa"

The two went silent for a few seconds, before Rock ruffled his tangled hair one more and sighed "yes, I know"

"And you know Lucas likes you, right?"

"But he has a boyfriend now"

"So?" Paula sat back, crossing her legs a little "that hasn't stopped him from hopping back to YOU and making out with YOU behind the school now has it?" When Rock didn't respond, she took this as an opportunity to continue "that's the problem Rock, you're playing the both of them-"

"No I'm not..." he mumbled defensively.

"Yes you are! You got Lucas thinking you're in love with him because you can't stop treating him like your boyfriend, you've got Villa pining over you tragically whilst you give him no time of day, it's madness!" She leaned forward "listen, you may not mean to, you may not realize it, but you're using them both! Everytime you have an issue with Villa who do you go to? Lucas, everytime you have an issue with Lucas eho do you go to? Villa, I can tell you like them both but you can't have your cake and eat it too! Answer me this, do you wanna date Lucas?"

Rock thought about it, before shaking his head "no..."

"Then stop leading him on for christ's sake! And before you try it, whether or not you think it's a 'friends with benefits' arrangements, it's not okay because that sole arrangement is the reason Luke is so obsessed with you!" Paula then brought out her hands, counting on her fingers as she spoke "stop leading him on means stop making out with him, stop sleeping with him, stop flirting with him, and stop making him feel like there's something more dammit! You're making him feel like there's a romance that doesn't exist, and that's just not okay Rock"