Cassie (Book #1 of the "Cassie" Series)

Chapter #2: Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored

5:01 pm

There's something so wrong about being in the school building after the day ends, I spend my whole day counting down the hours until I can get out of this dump only to be whisked back in for some parent-teacher meeting? Please, I'd rather not. 

"So, what kind of things do you think we should bring up to Principal Devlin?" Mom asked as we pulled up to the building.

"I don't know, I'm just here because I have to be." I rolled up the window of Mom's Honda Civic and was ready to get out and get this over with, but Mom put her hand on my shoulder and stopped me.

"Come on, Cassie, stop being such a downer. Is that uhhh, what's her name?... Arugula girl bothering you again?"

"Arugula... oh you mean Azealia?" I put a hand to my forehead, still feeling the sore spot from when Azealia pushed me into the locker. "No, she's not bothering me."

"Because if she is, you have to tell Principal Devlin."

"She's not bothering me, alright?" I lied my ass off. I decided not to tell Mom about what happened earlier, honestly, sometimes I feel like her getting herself involved in our middle school conflict just made the bullying worse, I wasn't about to let that happen in senior year.

"Hmm... alright. Well, shall we head inside?"

5:05pm

The meeting wasn't for another ten minutes, so while Mom skimmed over all the notices on the bulletin board outside of Devlin's office, I scrolled through my Instagram feed. As I passed the time, mostly looking at the nail art, drag queens, and meme pages plastered all over my Instagram feed, I barely noticed the door of the office opening and someone joining me in the waiting room.

"Hey, funny girl." A deep male voice greeted, breaking me from my trance. I almost jumped out of my fucking skin, I whipped around to find Ryan Park had suddenly sort of materialized in the seat right next to me. 

"Oh, Jesus, sorry I didn't mean to scare you." He laughed. I just smiled. It was weirdly comforting to see him here, suddenly I couldn't complain about coming here anymore.

"Nah, it's cool. What are you doing here?"

"My meeting is at five-thirty, so probably right after you. My dad's just outside parking the car."

"Ah, okay. Yeah, my mom's over there... reading that contraception pamphlet." I facepalmed. She looked across and flashed a smile, signalling that she knew to give me my space to talk to Ryan.

Ryan and I talked for a little bit, mostly about how boring English class was earlier. 

"So, wait, are you sure we used to talk in middle school?"

"Yeah, I'm positive, do you really not remember?"

"No... God, I feel like such an asshole."

"Hey, you're not an asshole. You and I just mix with different crowds now."

"Well, if I got along with you in middle school it's no wonder I like talking to you now," he said. I beamed, trying not to show how obvious it was that this conversation was making my day. 

"That's really sweet. I don't really blame you, other girls probably aren't anywhere in your peripheral vision since you're with Brianna."

"Actually, I'm not with Brianna anymore." he said sadly. 

"Oh?"

"Yeah, we broke up over the summer. She didn't give a reason, she just said she didn't wanna do this anymore." he looked hurt while talking. I know he really did like Brianna, despite the absolute bitch I know her to be, so I just sat there looking sad trying to hide the fact that inside I was jumping for JOY. Ryan Park being single opens up a whole load of possibilities... and a whole load of competition from other girls.