This Can't Be Good

Chapter 50

I hadn’t mentioned the tweet to Parker at all that weekend. I knew he was going to find out about it but I didn’t want him to know I knew about it. Of course he found about it on Sunday afternoon when he was hanging out with the boys, who were bigger gossipers than the entire cheer team. He wasn’t too pleased with what she said.

“She’s goes around talking about me as if I’m her property. I didn’t even really date her,” Parker fumed. He was currently pacing my room in a figure eight.

“I know. She’s just doing it because it’s what she does. She’s always hated me and now in her twisted mind she has concrete proof of why she hates me.”

“It’s so fucked up. She doesn’t like you because of one guy, because of me.”

“Trust me she never would have liked me regardless. Just let it go. If you fight her about it she’ll only make it worse,” I admitted.

Parker wasn’t too pleased with me telling him to leave it alone. He wanted to confront Charlie, he wanted to tell her why she was wrong and that she needed to butt out. Parker didn’t understand how a girl’s mind worked, I did. Telling Charlie to back off would only make her want to gossip more. Winning this “battle” was all about ignoring the bullshit that spewed from her mouth. If someone wanted to know the truth they could ask one of us, other than that it really was no one’s business.

To say I wasn’t dreading Monday would have been a lie. As much as I tried to make myself believe that it didn’t matter what people thought about me, I knew deep down inside those opinions did matter to me. I wasn’t ready to deal with Charlie’s shit but at the same time I knew hiding away would just make it worse.

I had purposely slept in late this morning so that I could drive to school by myself. I figured it was the only time I was going to get by myself today. When I arrived at school, everyone was waiting for my by Jayden’s car. I quickly parked, locked the car and headed over to greet them. By the looks on their faces I knew that they had seen or heard Charlie’s rants about me. They were all looking at me with concern and worry, something I was not fond of. Instead of settling with being angry I put on my best smile and joined them in their circle.

“What’s the plan?” Max asked me.

My smile faded as a wave of confusion rushed over my face. “We’re not at war you guys. It’s really not that big of a deal. Can we just go on like it’s a normal day, because it is a normal day,” I said.

Without a word of hesitation they agreed. Jayden followed Miranda into the school building toward her locker leaving Max, Ava, Parker and I. I could tell Parker was hesitant to leave me but I had been adamant on not making our relationship a giant spectacle. He and Max walked a few paces in front of Ava and I, giving me enough space to feel like attention wasn’t drawn to us and allowing him to still be there to watch me.

I knew today was going to be a rough day I just didn’t think it was going to start the minute I walked through the doors of Mass High. I knew something was up when Parker and Max stopped as soon as they walked in the door. In that split second before I walked in I made the decision that whatever was on the other end of that door wasn’t going to bother me. Without stopping I walked straight into the building, passed Parker and walked straight for my locker.

The scene was that out of a movie. You’d think in 2014 things like this would only occur on social media, but nope. Plastered all over the entrance of the hall, including my locker were sheets of paper with a picture of my face on them with red lettering written over it. There were several variations of these words but they were all vulgar accusing me of lying and sleeping around and so many other vapid one liners.