by K. Walker
“No, Amanda, that’s…”
She stooped and placed her index finger on my lips. “You don’t get a vote.”
I couldn’t help smiling. I hadn’t been up for company, but Amanda wasn’t having that. She had barged in a couple of hours ago, despite my complaints and request to shrivel up and die on the sofa.
She took out her phone and called the girls one by one, and all I could do was look. It didn’t take an hour for all of them to show up, like they had been on call all evening.
“I’ve got the chips,” Alexi said as she brushed against me on her way in.
“And I’ve got the naughty magazines and game boards.” Stacey grinned.
“Naughty magazines?” I asked and tucked a long strand of hair behind my ear.
“Uh, yeah,” she shot back and turned to me like I had asked something stupid. “How else are you going to get the douche out of your system? You have to focus on someone hotter.”
Amanda laughed. “Right on. Come this way, girls. And what did you bring, Liz?”
“My love. She doesn’t need much more than that.”
“I thought Cody had that,” I said and closed the door behind her.
Her face fell and she gave me sorrowful, puppy eyes. “I don’t know what the hell is wrong with Chad, but all of this makes me nervous. What if Cody decides to do the same shit?”
I hugged her and we walked off. “Then you and I can both die of shame on the sofa with our bellies full of Ben and Jerry’s.”
The girls laughed as we walked up the steps to my room, where I had been holed up since Chad. It was going on over two weeks since he had dumped me but my emotions were still fragile.
It turned out the magazines were a big help. Alexi came up with a game for us to guess what was on the next page and imagine what we would do with the next guy and all kinds of crazy ideas that turned my bummed-out evening into an okay one.
Well, better than okay.
“I’m so glad you all came over,” I told them close to midnight when Alexi, Stacey, and Liz were getting ready to leave.
“No problem,” Alexi said with a hug.
“We should do this more often,” Stacey added. “Not the whole breakup thing, but getting together like this.”
“We know you didn’t mean the breakup, Stacey,” Amanda said with a roll of her eyes. “But you’re right. Who needs boys?”
“Uh, me?” Liz said in a raised voice, and the grave concern on her face set all of us belly-laughing.
“Don’t worry, Liz. Cody’s not like Chad. Sorry, sweetie,” Alexi said. “But he’s always been a jerk. I just hate that you had to get caught in the crossfire.”
“Okay, so let’s not end tonight on that note. Goodbye. See you all at school on Monday,” Amanda said as she ushered them out of the house.
And the silence returned after they had left. “I think I need to get some sleep.”
“Yeah,” she yawned, her mouth as wide as a cat’s, before she slapped her hand over her mouth and giggled. “Sorry. Guess I’m more tired than I feel.”
“You can take the room down the hall,” I offered.
“Nope. I’ll be right next to you just in case you think of offing yourself.” She grinned.
“Okay, but I’m half-asleep. Come on.”
She spent the night and the rest of the weekend with me. If I wasn’t so glad for the company, I would have felt like a small child who needed to be watched. I wasn’t suicidal or anything like that, but it was good being around someone who could afford me some decent distraction in the form of cooking together, making a mess in the kitchen doing it, driving around doing nothing, and lazing on the back porch.
By the time she left on Sunday, I was like, Chad who? I had been a mess for long enough and I wasn’t going to waste another tear or heart beat on him.
But that was until I got to school on Monday and saw the R8 parked in its usual spot, and the swarm of girls surrounding it. You can do this. You can do this, I said in my head like a mantra over and over again. I mentally prepped myself as the butterflies fluttered in my stomach and my palms grew clammy. Why the fuck does he have this much of an effect on me? I knew he was a jerk before I got involved with him. Why am I surprised he dumped my ass?
I used all of my willpower to close my door, walk between the cars, my binder firmly clasped to my chest, and my eyes stuck to the door to the main building. I could feel the eyes on me – the same eyes I had felt for the last two weeks – but never the ones I wanted to see me.
I must be crazy to even want Chad to look at me still. I felt like an idiot when I eventually glanced over at his car, like I usually did when I got to the door, like some imaginary force was controlling my head.
He had another bimbo on his arm and it made my stomach sick to think he could have gotten over me that easily when I was having such a hard time doing the same.
But the way he trailed his hand down her back, and how she clung to him – Ugh! —I pushed the door in with bruising force. Fine. If he doesn’t want to answer my calls or texts, then fine! Fuck him! I don’t need him. He’s moved on and so can I. But how?
I was blinded by hurt, again, as I pushed my way through the early morning student-traffic in the locker section. I opened the door mindlessly and stuffed my purse inside. I can do this, I told myself again as I closed the locker door again.
“Well, hello,” an unfamiliar voice said from my left.
I cracked my eyes open, just before my jaw dropped. “Uh, -hi,” I replied. Damn! He was hot – chiseled face with hypnotic honey brown eyes set on an honest face, and a body to match. But I didn’t know him.
He walked over to me as I heard the gasps erupt all around me. Then I watched a girl walk right into her locker, which told me he was an important person at the school.
He held out his hand, and I cautiously took it. “Name’s Wes Collingwood,” he said in a cultured voice as his thumb caressed the back of my hand.
Oh, no. We’re not doing that again. I pulled my hand back and hugged my binder to my chest again—as if that could protect me from him.
“Wes, nice to meet you. I’m Sophia,” I replied as my lips started to become parched. Must be leftover Chad shit. I wasn’t going to fall for another stud at Madison Falls High. I knew where that road led.
“Sophia. A beautiful name for a remarkable girl. You must be new.” He grinned and I could feel the butterflies in my stomach. I had to get out of here.
“I am new.” I smiled briefly — “and I was tempted to say the same about you, except everyone seems to know you.”
He laughed, a seductive, slow chortle that had my twisted insides getting even more tangled. “I’m not new. I’ve just been gone for a year.”
“Gone?”
“Yeah,” he replied and swiped a hand through his hair. “Took a year off.”
“You can do that?” I gawked in a very sarcastic way. “Someone should have told me.”
He laughed again. “Someone just did. So, I guess I’ll see you around.”
“Yeah sure. I guess.”
I saw Chad in the background as he entered the hallway, the brunette still hanging onto his arm. He stopped walking and shot me a look that could have pinned me to the wall.
Or was he looking at Wes?
I wasn’t sure, but the instant satisfaction I felt thinking he felt even a sliver of something close to what I had been experiencing for the last couple of weeks was majestic.
“Take care, beautiful,” he said and smiled smugly as he walked off. I stared Chad dead in the eye as he shook the brunette off of him and walked off in the opposite direction.
Chapter 3
“What the hell are you doing?”
I turned and saw a red-faced Liz standing behind me.
“What do you mean? I’m going to class.”
“Not that,” she replied and hooked her arm through mine. “You were just talking to Wes.”
“And that’s a problem how?”
“You say that becaus
e you don’t know who he is. If you hate Chad now, you’ll hate Wes even more,” she continued.
“He didn’t look so bad. And where was he? He said he took a year off. Is that a thing with rich people?”
“No, he didn’t just take a year off, but that’s a story for another time. Just listen to me this one time please, and stay away from Wes Collingwood.”
“Got it,” I replied. I had no intention of doing or being anything with Wes. “But all he did was introduce himself. That’s hardly trouble.”
Liz rolled her eyes at me as Cody walked up behind her and hugged her around the middle. And just like that I was forgotten. I could have kissed him. The added attention I had gotten from the girls since Chad broke up with me was more than I was used to, or usually tolerated.
“See you later, Liz.”
She waved me off as her beau kissed her on the lips and her face instantly matched her lipstick.
She waved to me with her free hand while the other clung to Cody’s neck. He looked up long enough to give me a sheepish grin and a weak, “hey Sophia” before his tongue was down her throat again.
“Ugh!” I cringed and turned around. Not because my stomach was upset at seeing them, but because I was jealous. Two weeks ago, that had been me. And everyone knew it. I was so damned stupid to think Chad really cared about me.
And I would have to face him again in first period. I clenched my jaw as I entered the room. Callie and her troop were already there, and I groaned and took the seat closer to the front of the class. I was not ready for that much ‘cheer’fulness so early.
The seat I took was right next to Truman, and he glanced over and blushed. I smiled back, briefly, before he knocked his book off the desk and bumped his head trying to pick it back up. I snickered, and he blushed even harder.
It was still the best seat in the house.
Mr. Anglin entered and started the lesson, but it was hard to focus after Chad walked into the room. He bumped into my desk as he was passing and muttered something I couldn’t hear.
It may have been my imagination, but I was pretty sure he made a nasty remark. But then, he could’ve been talking to Truman – his pet student.
I literally felt him burning holes through my skull, which could have been my imagination still. But when I turned, I couldn’t say why, but our eyes locked, and the look of disdain reflecting from his green pits struck me like lightning. I turned around sharply, like I had been burned, and my heart raced.
More like it thumped so hard against my thoracic cavity I felt like I would pass out. I raised my hand. “Can I be excused?”
Mr. Anglin looked at me in a weird way, like he wanted to know why a girl like me, one so diligent and well-behaved, wanted to be excused.
“Is everything okay?” he asked with concern and took a step over to me.
“I don’t think so,” Chad replied, and I distinctly heard Callie’s snicker. “She should see someone.”
Mr. Anglin looked toward him as I clenched my jaw and stood. I didn’t wait for Mr. Anglin’s okay. I had to leave as the tears began to sting my eyes.
I didn’t look where I was going, and walked right into a solid wall of muscles. Strong arms gripped me, and when I looked up and realized it was Wes, the embarrassment deepened. “Sorry,” I mumbled.
“You in there?” he asked, confusion plastered on his face.
“I was, but I wasn’t feeling well, so…”
“Oh,” he said with concern as he let me go. “Anything I can do?”
I looked up again into the warmest pair of brown eyes I had ever seen, and I wanted, for some strange reason, to have him hold me. I wanted that feeling that I had gotten accustomed to over the last few weeks.
“No,” I said eventually, forcing a smile onto my face. “But thanks for asking.”
“Okay,” he said and stepped aside.
I hurried into the restroom, and was grateful the room was empty. I pressed my palms to my forehead and walked around in circles. God damn it! How the hell did everything go so wrong so fast?
I groaned and paced for several minutes until I realized I couldn’t stay in there for much longer. I had two more periods before lunch. I needed to suck it up and stop letting Callie and Chad get the best of me.
I sucked in half the oxygen in the bathroom, filling my lungs, and walked back to the class. I wore a big smile when I entered, and I heard the insta-groans. I smiled inwardly – good to know I was causing some misery.
But the other two periods were equally insufferable. I had never been so happy to get to lunch. Thankfully, there was no Callie this time requesting the last of the salad she knew I wanted.
Chad and his boys weren’t around either, so, all in all, a decent relaxation time for me.
“Hey, what’s that I hear about you and Wes?” Alexi asked as she popped her gum.
I shot Liz a mean stare. “Seriously, Liz? I know that came from you,” I said as I slid my tray onto the table and sat.
“Is it true?” Alexi asked again.
“Is what true? There’s nothing to talk about. He introduced himself, and I did the same. That was it. Nothing more.”
“Uh-huh,” Stacey mumbled as she bit her fry. “That’s how it always starts. And have you seen Wes? Come on…”
“He’s so damn hot,” Alexi added and nodded knowingly to Stacey.
“Not helping,” Liz replied. “You know how him and Chad can get.”
My ears perked. “Him and Chad? What did I miss?” My heart still raced like an idiot when I heard Chad’s name. I would need surgical knives to remove him it seemed.
“Nothing much,” Alexi said and popped her gum again. “Just that they’re always at it. Boys will be boys.”
“Oh,” I replied. I had hoped for a little something juicier than that.
“Speak of the devil,” Stacey said and nodded towards the entrance to the cafeteria. I turned, and a lump immediately formed in my throat. Chad, Cody, Zeke, Jake, and Deven walked in and headed for the empty table in the corner everyone knew to avoid. Brody was the only one missing.
“I can’t escape him,” I mumbled and stuffed some leafy greens inside my mouth that tasted like carbon paper at the moment. I glanced up to see the other girls looking at me. “Oh, for crying out loud. I’m not going to melt on the ground just because he’s in the room. He’s moved on. I don’t know why it ended. Life sucks. Whatever.”
Amanda was just about to touch me when I shrugged. “No. I’m done with the sympathy hugs and looks. Just stop. From now on, no more!”
Alexi held up her hands in surrender. “Say no more, chicky. That’s what I’ve been saying all along anyway.”
“Fine,” Amanda said in a disappointed way, like she had looked forward to comforting me. “Just as long as you’re really okay.”
“I’m fine. I promise you.” I felt weary of saying that so many times in the last couple of days. It wasn’t always true, but I wasn’t the kind of girl who fed off of that kind of attention.
“Hi.”
I saw the looks on the girls’ faces before I felt someone sliding me down on the bench. It was Wes, and I cleared my throat and turned towards him. “Hi.”
“You ladies mind if I sit here?”
“Uh, maybe,” Alexi replied.
“Come on, Lexi,” he replied and cocked his head to the side. “I know there’s a nice little girl somewhere behind all of those dark shades you hide behind,” he said as he wagged his fork.
“Don’t call me that, Wes,” she replied hotly and sneered at him. “Lacrosse team lost their captain?”
“Captain goes where he pleases. Just thought I would come over and say hi.”
“Since when?” Stacey asked and wrinkled her brows.
“Well, since you all found a friend worth coming over for.” I was beginning to see why they likened him to Chad. He was arrogant and smug, but charming as well. And oh, so fine. But I’d had enough attention to last me a year. “Hey, you wanna come see us practice t
oday?”
I checked the girls’ faces, and they all read, hell no! “Not my thing,” I told him and took a sip of my Coke.
“What’s not your thing? Lacrosse or sports?”
“I’m into sports. Just not lacrosse.”
He looked around the table. “Volleyball, then?”
“Yep.” I grinned.
“Sweet. I hear there’s a game tomorrow. I’ll be cheering you on.”
He kept looking me directly in the eyes when he spoke like he didn’t care for anyone else in the room. Or around the table. “That’s nice to know.”
“How about you come kick it with me this evening after school? I could give you a tour of the town. I assume you just moved here.”
Amanda’s grunting next to me was unmistakable. As was the kick she administered under the table.
I grimaced and clenched my jaw. “I did, but I’m going to have to pass on that one,” I said through closed teeth as I turned to Amanda.
“You sure about that?” he asked. “You know, many girls would be tripping to get an invitation like that.”
I smiled trying to suppress my laugh. “I’m not like most girls,” I replied, feeling like I was on top of the world for turning down one of Madison Falls’ hottest guys.
“I can see that,” he replied. “I like that.”
“What the fuck are you doing?” That was Chad’s voice, and I was compelled to look at what had pissed him off this time.
“I’m sorry,” a junior boy wearing an oversized flannel shirt and baggy pants whimpered as he knelt to do something. I couldn’t see. Wes didn’t bat an eye. It was like Chad was invisible to him.
Chad shoved the kid, and he bounced into a table before turning tail. That was when his eyes found me, and I saw the hardened look on his face.
“Think I’ve had enough of this shit for one day!” he said loudly and walked out of the room, banging the metal doors into the walls on his way out.
A ceremonial hush followed his departure, as well as a few eye rolls, head nods, and snickering. I was turning back around when I noticed Callie staring at me.
What the fuck does she want now?
I shook my head and turned back to my friends. “What’s new?”
