Faking it.

CHAPTER 11

Wednesday morning, I am greeted by Elliot standing next to my locker. He and his friend, Tyler, have been sitting with us for the past few days now. I don't really talk to them or try start a conversation either since I wasn't the one who invited them in the first place. If Anna wants them to sit with us then so can it be but no one can expect from me to associate with Elliot and his friend.

I open my locker and ignore Elliot completely and hear him sigh next to me. I start to smile because I know that he will leave now but that's not what he does and my smile falters immediately. Instead, he shuts my locker closed and I glare at him. "What the fuck do you want?" I bark trying to keep my voice low and not get anyone's attention. I want to face palm myself because I just gave him a reason to talk to me which is everything I didn't want.

"Why do you hate me? I mean, I have been nothing but nice to you and you still hate me." He snaps and I look around quickly before rolling my eyes at him. "I don't hate anyone," I lie to him. A port of it is true. I don't actually hate him. I hate Abby. He just annoys me. "You just annoy the holy crap out of me which makes me dislike you." I smile sweetly and turn to go away.

He has other plans and grabs my wrist in order to stop me and face him again. "And what do I do to annoy you that much?" He asks now sounding kind of desperate. His lips form a frown but I quickly look away from them again and into his eyes.

I wriggle my hand out of his and say, "First of all, don't touch me. And second- I don't know what it is- nor do I care but just your presence annoys me." "Let me take you out." He blurts out and then closes his eyes, regretting his words immediately. "No." I look at him as if he's out of his mind. What in the world would make him think- "Not like a date, Hailey. I genuinely want to be friends with you and take you out as a friend." He pleads.

"You're delusional." I say and he smiles. "I'm just a kind human that wants us to be friends, Hailey." I think about it. One time can't be that bad. I'll just tell him afterwards that I don't want to be friends with him. There. Problem solved.

I sigh, "Okay."

He looks at me in surprise, "Great- Um- How does Friday sound for you?"

I shrug, "I'll have to check if I'm free, but I think I am. I'll just tell you tomorrow."

"Okay." He smiles.

"Okay." I confirm and walk away. What the fuck am I getting myself into?

***

In art class I give Mrs Glews my drawing. I used normal colour pencils to draw it and she gives me a worried glance before asking what name I've given it.

"The Hidden Devil." I tell her with a shrug.

"I see. Do you maybe want to say a few words about it- I know you almost never do but-" "Sure." I cut her off and smile. "Okay." She tells me with a slight nod.

I sit back down a girl from my class stands up to talk about hers. She drew a forest, but everything was coloured in different brown shades. Not the ones you see when it's autumn when the leaves turn a red-brownish colour. It's a darker brown, almost black. She explains that she choose those colours because of how badly we treat nature and that we don't give a damn about it anymore. The brown should symbolize lifelessness and that this is what it's going to look like in a few years.

When she's finishes, we clap and it's my turn now.

I walk to the front slowly and stand next to my picture. I don't really know what to say and just begin talking without any thought behind it, "My picture is called "The Hidden Devil. You see, I used typical colours and patterns and symbols that you associate with the devil. Flames, Horns, a Pentagram and the colour red. If the devil was standing in front of you now you would instantly recognise him, wouldn't you? I mean obviously he would have horns and I don't know what else. You would most likely run away to your parents and scream. But what if the devil is actually hiding behind a facade, just waiting for you to get close. What if this girl would be smiling at you? Standing there all alone. You would obviously go to her, talk to her and become friends and not even think that she's actually the devil on the inside, just waiting to destroy you. My inspiration for this drawing were all the fake and two-faced people in this world whose only interests are themselves and your failure. Thank you."

The first to clap was the girl from earlier and I smile at her.

***

Since the kiss, Noah had been flirting with me 24/7. I mean, it's not like we never flirted before but he's doing it non-stop. Always trying to find ways to touch me. Not touch-touch me but putting his hand on my shoulder or hip and sometimes even taking my hand in with his. I shook him off every time, but he doesn't get the hints that I obviously am not interested and that the kiss yesterday didn't mean anything to me. Like literally nothing.

I silently pray that for the love of god, please don't let him have a crush on me. I can't and don't want to deal with it.

Throughout the first three hours I saw Elliot sneaking glances at me, Sarah glaring at me, Anna giving Elliot heart eyes and people staring at me.

Is today give-each-other-dumb-looks-day or what.

When lunch came rolling in, I felt like the entire school was watching me and talking about me behind my back.

I sat next to Noah and the table was silent. Then Anna broke it. "I think you should look at that." She tells me, sliding her phone over to me.

She had her Instagram open. It was a video- A video of Noah and me from Monday. It started with him putting his head on my shoulder and ended with the two of us kissing. The caption said, "Are Hailey and Noah officially a couple now? Well from how close they were and their kiss it looks like it. Share your thoughts in the comments!!"

I start laughing. "What? It's funny and we don't even like each other like that." I tell them and slide phone back to her.

I take my own phone out to send the video to Milli and Simon and start texting with them, blinding out the others.