Love and Life

Rumours and Reasons

Chapter 12

Finn's POV

After giving a lame excuse to Miss Quentin about wrist problems and supplying several compliments along the way, Will successfully escaped having to hand in his biology notes.

As we left the lab, I caught him winking and slipping his phone number to Ponytail Girl.

Her cheeks flamed at the gesture; ripping the piece of paper out of his hands frantically.

And I couldn't help but notice her clothes facing the wrong way.

I also tried not to focus on Will's undone fly, messed-up hair and smug swollen lips as we made our way to the school canteen.

Don't get me wrong, I loved Will. He was like the brother I'd never had.

Nor wanted sometimes.

But sometimes his sex-capades got too much for even me to handle.

But that was all soon forgotten as the rich aromas of sizzling sausages and grilled meat wafted into our noses. Drool pooled in my mouth as I waited in line to order my lunch.

Will didn't join me, saying he needed to stay in shape for football season this year. I ignored the warning glance he gave me as I bought myself a large lamb and herb meat pie and a Sprite.

A guy needed to eat.

As I joined Will at our usual table, I began to devour my lunch. I hardly had had any breakfast that morning due to my excitement about the mystery girl.

A lot had happened since then.

Will began to nibble on his packed lunch of brown rice and cucumber salad. I shook my head at his pitiful-looking lunch as he gave me a questioning look.

Healthy food had always been a sore subject between us.

Sport teams? Meh.
Girlfriends? Couldn't care less.
But the choice of either having a packet of chips or a bowl of sultanas as a snack earned death glares from the opposing side.

One time, Will caught me eating a chocolate chip cookie before one of our big footy games and I could've sworn his face turned purple.

Several of our other friends joined us and soon enough, we were all laughing and making jokes.

Like I said, Bridgewater felt like family to me.

I was contemplating buying another pie as I licked the gravy off my fingers, when a raging blonde came marching up to us.

"Crazy bitch approaching, I repeat, crazy bitch approaching our table," my friend, Zach, muttered under his breath before shoving a hand full of fries into his mouth. Will looked at him in disgust.

"I will never understand how you can be so fast in running yet eat so much oily rubbish," he complained.

Zach Reese was the one of the fastest kids in our whole state, even though he had an unhealthy relationship with fried foods.

Honestly, I admired him for it.

"Finn! There you are! I've been looking all over for you!" A high pitched voice squealed near my ears.

I looked up at the girl in front of me. Her dull blue eyes looked like breath mints and her Botox-injected lips were set in a hard line.

"Nikki," I grumbled, my eyes returning back to the Sprite can on the table. "Always a pleasure."

"Finny! What are these rumours about you carrying a mystery girl to your car?" She shrieked even louder, gaining the attention of several students around us.

At the mention of Liv, I could feel my lips automatically tug upwards. Just the thought of her drove all the negativity from my mind.

"You're smiling? You're smiling! He's smiling!" She whined to the blonde girl that had suddenly materialised from nowhere.

"Oh Nix! You poor girl," she cooed, rubbing her leader's back.

Nikki looked over to the girl and smiled appreciatively.

When Nikki had turned away from her, the girl winked at me and made a phone shape with her hand and put it to ear.

So much for loyalty to the queen bee, I scoffed mentally.

"What were you doing with her? Is she your girlfriend? Who is she? Did you kiss her? Did you sleep with her?" She fired at me.

"You know, I heard the janitor had a nasty fright when he walked into the cleaning supplies closet today. Bet it could've been them," Disloyal Bimbo Number. 1 whispered loudly.

I heard Will choke on his salad and I almost burst out laughing. But something told me that Nikki wouldn't appreciate me doing so.

So instead I opted for my infamous noncommittal shrug and resigned sigh.

I could hear Will's voice in my head say what he always said when I did the move.

Classic Crawford.

"No Crawford, we'd all like to know exactly what happened," said a voice I wish wasn't starting to get familiar.

"Newman, nice to see you again," I managed to reply through gritted teeth.

I still hadn't forgiven him for what he had done to Liv. She was an absolute wreck because of him.

"Enough of the games mate, tell me what you did to Liv? I swear if you took advantage of her..."

"Advantage of what? The wrecked state she was in this morning? The state you left her in?" I growled, unable to contain the white-hot anger that had been boiling in my chest.

By now, every student and teacher in the area had their eyes fixed on us. I could see the spark in Nikki's flat eyes as she sensed a new piece of gossip.

I stood up and turned to face Aaron.

If I hadn't been so worked up about him hurting Liv, I almost would've felt sorry for him.

His dark hair was pulled in all different directions and his eyes were red from, what I assumed was, crying.

He looked almost as bad as Liv had this morning.

But then I remembered that he deserved to feel bad. He had caused all this by himself.

Something in Aaron's eyes had died down at my harsh words. It was like hearing about Liv's state had broken him down.

"Is she okay?" He croaked out, a mixture of guilt and regret evident in his husky tone.

"As okay as she'll ever be after what you did to her," I snapped coldly.

He visibly flinched at my words before giving me a hard look.

"I know what I said to her was wrong, hurtful and rash but you had no reason to manipulate and use her like you did," he retorted, the old raging fire returning.

"I caught her when she fell," I stated blandly, fully knowing that it had been so much more.

"Yes and that's why you both had your arms around each other and your lips were inches apart."

"Why do you even care?" I ask exasperatedly after hearing Nikki force a gasp for the fifth time in this conversation.

Aaron hesitated and swallowed, his large Adam's Apple bobbing awkwardly. Everyone was leaning forward in their seats to hear his reply; all eyes glued to the both of us.

The tension in the air was almost palpable as we all waited for him to answer.

Waiting.

Waiting.

Waiting.

And then he was gone.