Cross My Heart and Hope You Cry | The Clique Fanfiction

17

Briarwood-Octavian Country Day School

Main Building Hallway

Tuesday, September 15th

10:57 AM

She already felt dirty enough without the multitude of glares that were being shot her way. Pressing her lips against Cam's had felt so right, yet so terribly wrong at the exact same time. There was a familiarity in the kiss, one that she had been missing greatly ever since he broke up with her, but then there was that underlying disgust in her actions, because she knew how much he liked Cassia and how much Cassia liked him in turn.

But she couldn't ignore the buzz of a text being sent in her back pocket. It was the signal for when she was supposed to kiss him - unnoticeable, easy to ignore, a signal that only she'd recognize, but finally kissing him like she had dreamt for months turned out to be more of a nightmare than anything. The glare he'd given her made her heart crawl up into her throat and each word spewed in hatred past his sparkling lips were like daggers. But the worst thing was the thumbs up that Massie had texted her just before she scuttled out of the storage closet, because that meant that the plan had worked and Cassia was probably heartbroken, just as the Pretty Committee had intended.

What she wasn't expecting with her deceit, however, was the glares she was given by everyone in the school. It was like they all somehow knew what she had done, but that would be impossible. She was given a wide berth in each class, the seats around her noticeably empty. When students were meant to partner up others refused to respond to her, much less work with her. If anyone even glanced at her their eyes would thin into slits. It baffled her, and didn't help in the slightest to bring her out of the state she'd fallen into since her encounter with Cam.

The hallways were loud and boisterous in the five-minute time between third and fourth period, but people still found the energy to stop their own conversations just to give her withering glares as she walked past. Her shoulders hunched inwards and she rubbed her arm nervously, goosebumps sprouting with anxiety. Was it because she left the Pretty Committee? It couldn't be, right? After Cassia's takedown of the group, and her subsequent rise to the throne, no one cared about their influence anymore so they surely wouldn't care about the fact that she had left. But she couldn't think of any other viable option that would lead to such rampant dislike of her throughout the school. Even Meena, while not glaring like the rest of her classmates, had treated her rather succinctly in English class. She yelped as a hand shot out, grabbed her wrist, and she was suddenly dragged into the girl's bathroom. Layne stood before her; eyes wide and frenzied and nothing like her usual wacky, laid back demeanor.

"Layne?" Claire questioned in confusion, jutting her thumb back to the swinging door she had just entered through. "We have to get to class."

Layne instead grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her rather vigorously. "Oh my god, Claire! What did you do?"

Claire huffed in exasperation and swatted her hands away, combing her fingers through her now-ruffled hair. "What are you even talking about?"

"This!" She shoved her phone in her face, and Claire gasped, eyes becoming impossibly wide. "It's all over the school! Vanessa sent it out and everyone thinks that Cam's a cheater and you're a homewrecker!"

"What! No!?" Claire gripped her hair in her fists, her mind going haywire. "The Pretty Committee made me do it! They blackmailed me - and, and I couldn't say no."

"They blackmailed you? With what?"

"I- uh," Claire stuttered. "They were gonna tell my mom about my cell phone - you know she won't let me have one until high school."