Chapter 16

I groaned into my pillow, the memories of last night replaying in my head. After slamming the door in his face, hearing a smack as it connected with his cheek, and walking upstairs, I went straight to bed, not even bothering to change out of my costume. I looked in the mirror and saw my smudged makeup and I looked at my pillow to see it everywhere. My mascara was smudged too, but not from crying, from sleeping face down.

I walked into the bathroom and showered, scrubbing at my face to try and get the smudged makeup off. I slipped into my uniform and sat on my bed. There was no way I was going to survive today, especially if I had to work afterwards, too. I would have to get back at Grayson but without making it obvious, because if I made it too obvious- he’d know I like him, if that isn’t obvious enough already.

~~~

I was walking to pre-calculus when someone called my name. I groaned before turning around, regretting my decision immediately. I glanced around, noticing that Natalie and I were the only ones in the hallway. I can kill her without any witnesses. I was curious as to why she was even upstairs at this time. I was early, as in fifteen minutes early, and nobody came upstairs at that time unless they need extra help, which I’m sure she doesn't need.

“Yes?” I asked, my voice sounding strained. After what Grayson said, I don’t want to talk to her or him, or anyone for the matter, not even my two best friends.

She smiled at me. “I hope you’re okay with me walking with you.”

I shrugged, biting back a slick retort. “Yeah, it’s fine. We have first period together, anyway.”

I think that’s going to be the longest answer I’m going to provide. She giggled. “I just wanted to say that I’m glad we’re friends. And since we’re friends, I have to tell you something.”

I held back a sigh. We aren’t friends. “What is it?”

She smiled sheepishly as she glanced at the floor. “I like Grayson. I told Sandra and Lola earlier and I didn’t have your number so I couldn’t text you. I didn’t want you to feel out of loop, I know how bad that is.”

She frowned as if replaying old memories in her head. While she reminisced in her head, I planned her murder in my head. I wonder how long I’d be locked away for premeditated manslaughter. I gripped my bag tightly; afraid that I’d throttle her if my hands were free. I was no competition. If she wanted Grayson, which she did, she can easily have him. She wasn't completed ignored by him as a child, even though she really wanted to be his friend. She wanted to be his friend and now she is. As we speak, she's working her way up to the next spot: His girlfriend. I just curtly nodded.

She smiled at me. “Now, you’re in the loop! Well, I have to go! Grayson promised to meet me in the cafeteria so we can walk to class together.” Squealing, she turned on her heel and walked down the hallway.

I stood there, staring at her retreating figure as rage boiled in my system. Placing both of my middle fingers up, I began pointing them at her as I danced around, wiggling my arms as I signaled my hatred for her with the one finger salute. “Are you going to shout ‘Avada Kedavra’ or shall I?”

I whipped around to see Samantha poised with a smirk on her face. “Why do you hate her so much?”

I let out a sigh. “She likes the same guy that I do.”

“That guy that she sits next to in pre-calculus?” she asked. She furrowed her eyebrows and I nodded, surprised that she even remembered.

“That’s the one," I muttered.

“Does he know that she likes him?” she asked.

I shrugged. “I don’t know but I do know that he’s using her to make me jealous, if that makes sense.”

“So he knows that you like him?” The idea of Grayson knowing that I have a crush on him makes me want to jump off of a cliff out of fear and embarrassment.

I shrugged again. “I’m not sure; I just found out that I like him.” I was going to add that only one other person knows but then I realized that my words would have been false. Lola, Sandra, Shane, and now Samantha know about my crush on Grayson.

“Did you ever think about making him jealous?” she suggested as she walked beside me in the direction of pre-calculus.

I snorted. “I tried that with his best friend; it didn’t work as well as his plan is working.”

“That’s where you went wrong; you tried to make him jealous with his best friend. He can tell how his best friend feels about a girl and if his best friend is a player, then he knows that you guys don’t have anything that can be potentially serious," she spewed.

I stared at her in pure amazement. Who knew that Samantha was a love guru? I wonder if she spent her time skipping class reading romance novels, that would explain it. “I don’t know anybody else who’d willingly help me make Grayson jealous.”

Sam grinned evilly. “I know someone.”

I looked at her, confused and scared. “Who?”

She just shook her head as the bell rang. “Meet me in the cafeteria when school’s over.”

I just nodded as we entered the classroom and sat beside each other, papers in front of us. I began working on mine but she refrained from doing so. Looking up, I glanced in the direction of Grayson and Natalie to see Grayson with a large bruise on the side of his face. I smirked in satisfaction before someone coughed beside me.

“Don’t look over there.” I glanced at Samantha. “That shows that you really are jealous.”

I nodded in understanding as I held back from glancing at the two people who are ruining my life.

~~~

When lunch came around, I quickly made up an excuse that I had to finish a paper in the library. Carson, who was sad about Sandra’s absence, told me that he’d come along. Sandra vomited earlier (because she ate too much candy) and was sent home. Lola was perfectly fine with being beside Kyle, who looked just as happy as the girl beside him. I refused to even spare a glance in Grayson and Natalie’s direction. And then there was Shane who was sending me guilty looks that I couldn’t decipher and didn’t really bother to.

Carson and I walked upstairs silently, or at least partially silent. “Is it true?”

I glanced at him with confusion plated onto my face. “Is what true?”

He came closer to me. “That you like Grayson?”

I stared at him, my eyes wide and my arms limp. When I finally regained a sense of consciousness, I looked around anxiously. That’s the last thing I needed to spread around: Audrey Peters, the girl who has a crush on the guy who attempted to peg a football at her face.

“Who told you?” I hissed.

“Shane.”

I gasped. How could Shane tell people after he promised not to? “Who else did he tell?”

“As far as I know, he only told me and Kyle. He made us promise on the championship that we wouldn’t tell a single soul,” Carson explained. “Kyle wouldn’t have told anyone, anyway. I wouldn’t have told anyone if Shane hadn’t threatened me either! But, it’s just that Kyle said he knew about it beforehand. Did you tell Kyle before?”

Now six people know, and three of them are his best friends. I shook my head. “Shane found out because he mentioned Grayson and I blushed. And I never said a word about it to Kyle.”

“Kyle’s good with things like that. That’s how he knew that I like Sandra,” he explained.

“So you do like Sandra?” I asked him and he nodded. So maybe he wasn't trying to play my best friend.

“At first I thought she was really weird and creepy but then I realized that I’m weird and creepy, and I’m not one to judge,” he shrugged casually.

I didn’t bother telling him that Sandra wasn’t creepy; he liked her because of that odd flaw. Once we reached the library, Carson surprisingly took out a book and plopped down onto one of the couches. He read quicker than me and when he caught me staring, he looked away. “I didn’t know you read.”

“Am I not allowed to?” he teased and I shrugged.

“You seem pretty embarrassed about it,” I explained.

He just shrugged again and continued reading, with me doing the same thing.

~~~

When home economics ended, I rushed out of the classroom and down three flights of stair until I reached the cafeteria, where Samantha was standing. Once I reached her, she nodded in my direction.

“I only have forty five minutes, is that enough time?” I asked curiously and she nodded. We exited the school and she pointed in the direction of a red motorcycle.

“Follow my bike," she told me as she hopped onto her motorbike. I rushed to the opposite side of the parking lot until I found my car. Rushing into the vehicle, I exited the parking lot hastily, following the red Harley-Davidson. She’s like a female version of Grayson.

We stopped at a large Donut Shop. I furrowed my eyebrows as I pulled into the driveway. I got out of my car and met Sam by her bike. “Who are we meeting here?”

She stared straight ahead as she walked, offering me a shrug. “My brother.”

She was bringing me to see her brother? For what reason? “Why?”

She smirked at me. “I think you’ll see what I mean once you see him.”

We entered the large establishment and Sam whipped her head around, her eyes falling on someone sitting with their back opposite to the door. I noticed that he had black hair, too, like Sam’s. He had a Letterman jacket on and he held a coffee cup between his hands.

Sam walked over to him with me trailing behind her curiously. Once we reached the guy, I immediately knew that this was Sam’s brother. They look very similar, with their dark hair and nearly turquoise eyes. He smiled at me before turning his attention to his sister, who refused to sit down. “Sebastian, this is Audrey; Audrey this is Sebastian.”

“Hello,” Sebastian greeted, offering me a grin.

I smiled at him but it wasn’t as large. I had no idea what she was doing. “Hey.”

Finally, Sam sat down and pressed her hands together. “Bash, Audrey needs to make her crush jealous.”

Sebastian nodded. “And I’m here because?”

So he’s just as clueless as I. “Her crush is on the football team.”

Sebastian sat forward, looking at me. “Who is he?”

I gave him a confused look. “Grayson Carter.”

His neutral facial expression turned into a vicious grin, catching me off guard. “And she wants you to be her fake boyfriend.”

I gaped at Samantha. I never said that! Not to be rude to Sebastian, but I’m not into him like that! “What?”

“I’ll do it,” Sebastian agreed. The siblings ignored my pleas for answers as they shook hands.

“Exchange numbers,” Sam told us and I gave him my phone; he quickly entered his number, sending himself a text message. Soon enough, we left the coffee shop with Sebastian following us. He had a large grin on his face as he cracked his knuckles and walked in the direction of the sidewalk.

“What just happened?” I asked Sam.

Sitting on her bike, she began explaining to me. “You need someone to make Grayson jealous. Grayson just so happens to be one of Rodencia Academy’s star football players. My brother happens to be one of Tiberius Public’s star football players. They don’t get along. My brother doesn’t like him and he doesn’t like my brother. If he’s not jealous about the fact that you are seeing someone, then he’ll be jealous about the fact that you’re seeing someone from Tiberius Public who happens to be on the football team.”

I let her explanation settle into my brain before I let a few questions slip. “Will this affect the football teams?”

Sam shook her head. “They aren’t allowed to play against each other anymore after one of the players from Tiberius threatened to kill everyone on Rodencia’s team if they ever won a game against Tiberius.”

Wincing slightly, I furrowed my eyebrows. “Why don’t you go to Tiberius Public?”

She shrugged. “I was kicked out. The only other option was Rodencia Academy.”

As I about to ask her another question, she cut me off. “Don’t you have to be somewhere at four?”

I looked at my phone and saw that it was 3:56. I did a double take before turning and running towards my car, not even bothering to say bye to Sam. I caught her waving at me from her bike and I waved back while starting my car.

~~~

As I entered work at 4:37, I hoped that Ms. Janie wasn’t there. “You’re late,” Grayson sang as he rolled around in a spinning chair. I didn’t even bother glancing at him as I ran over to the middle school girls who were giggling.

“Sorry, I lost track of time,” I muttered as I sat down.

They shrugged. “It doesn’t matter, Grayson helped us.”

I looked at each of their love-struck faces and scowled, placing my head in my hands. “I promise it won’t happen again.”

“It’s okay; he’s better looking up close,” they giggled and I groaned, burying my head in my hands.

“Aside from that messy bruise,” one of them piped up.

“It just makes him look like a bad boy, especially with his leather jacket. He probably got the bruise by fighting off thugs,” another one offered.

“I think someone kicked him in the face after he kissed their girlfriend, but the person is probably dead,” one theorized.

I sat up, shaking my head. Their theories were off, way off. “I slammed a door on his face.”

“What?” one of the girls asked.

I sighed. “I gave him the bruise by slamming a door on his face. He also isn’t a ‘bad boy,’ just because he wears a leather jacket doesn’t mean that he’s a bad boy.”

“So you mean he actually goes to school?” Carolina asked. I nodded. “And does his work?”

I nodded. How bad do they think a librarian’s assistant could be? “He’s on the football team.”

One of the girls sighed dreamily. “That definitely makes up for it.” I rolled my eyes and shook my head. When they saw me getting up, the same girl spoke up. “Where are you going? You didn’t tell us why you slammed the door on his face.”

“I’m going upstairs to read a book,” I replied, ignoring the second request. There was no way I was telling a group of twelve year old girls about my crush on the guy they idolize.

~~~

“I don’t think you deserve a day’s pay.” Grayson’s voice entered my range of hearing as he walked up the stairs to the second floor. “What happened, anyway?”

“I was out,” I replied casually.

“Out as in sleeping?” he snorted as he plopped down at the end of the couch. He lifted my legs and tossed them off of the couch, causing my body to jerk into a sitting position.

“No, out as in with someone,” I replied, glaring at him. I readjusted my position, propping my leg over my other leg. His eyebrows lifted slightly as his mouth parted.

“With who?” he asked.

“You won’t know him,” I lied. I know for a fact that he knows Sebastian. I had to make it as though I wasn’t trying to make him jealous, even though I want to see him burn to the ground with jealousy.

“I bet I do," he told me and I sighed, leaning my head back before sitting up straighter.

“Sebastian,” I told him.

I watched as his eyebrows knitted together and he bit his lip in confusion. “Does he go to our school?”

I shook my head, watching his calm face expression change slightly. His eyes were now narrowed as he bit down harder on his lip. “He goes to Tiberius.”

“Is he on the football team?” he asked me and I nodded.

“That guy is an idiot,” he snapped. My eyebrows shot up quickly, shock taking over my features.

“He’s not an idiot; he’s actually really nice,” I replied. Truth is, I don’t know anything about the guy. I just hoped that he hasn’t killed someone or something, for all I know- he could be the loon who threatened to murder Rodencia’s football team. Sam could’ve left a small detail like that out of her explanation.

Grayson scoffed. “He is not nice. Do you want to know why they call him Bash?” he snapped but continued anyway, without my approval. “He gave a kid a concussion by bashing his face into the ground.”

I pursed my lips, trying to think of a witty reply. “Do they call you Miss?” The anger dropped from his face and was replaced with confusion. “Because you miss the ball so often.”

While I laughed and slapped my knee, Grayson glared at me. “Fine, have fun with him. You better hope he doesn’t bash your head in.”

“Grayson!” I called as he galloped down the steps. Is he jealous? He didn’t bother to reply as he walked across the library. “You’re overreacting! He won’t hurt me!”

As Grayson was walking out, he tossed the finger over his shoulder and I held back a laugh. He slammed the library door shut and I heard his motorcycle revving and the sound slowly faded. I laughed as I grabbed my bag and sweater and exited the library, locking it behind me.

~~~

When I entered the lunch room, I saw Grayson talking to his friends while my own pals began walking to the table. I hated having a class all the way on the fourth floor. I’m curious as to how Kyle gets downstairs so easily. We have the same class third period! I held my food as I began approaching the table. I heard Grayson talking about how he was forced to take his father’s car to work because of the cold but all conversations stopped once I sat down.

I sat at the lunch table, a goofy grin on my face. I was grinning because Grayson was jealous but in his eyes, I was grinning because of Sebastian- who texted me last night and told me that he would pick me up from school and drop me off at my house. I agreed. I had to have Lola drive me to school today but I told her that I didn’t need a ride back.

Shane and Carson were giving me odd looks while Kyle cheerfully talked to Lola. I was grinning like an idiot. Grayson was occasionally glaring at me as Natalie excitedly talked to him, putting her hand on his shoulder to try and guide his attention back to her.

“Why are you so happy?” Carson asked from across the table. Sandra was here today and she didn’t look happy about it.

With the smile still on my face, I shrugged, preparing to answer but Grayson cut me off. “She’s seeing Bash.”

I glared at him before looking at Lola and Sandra who bit back smirks. Shane put a hand beside his lips and mouthed "you player" to me. I just rolled my eyes in response. Carson had his face in his hands and was laughing quietly while Kyle disappointedly shook his head at me. Natalie was frowning at Grayson, who was sending me a disgusted look.

“How can you date someone who goes to Tiberius?” Carson asked as he looked at me, a frown on his face.

I shrugged again. “He’s cute, nice, and treats me right.”

Grayson glared at me. “He’s violent, wild, and rude.”

“Not to me,” I explained in a sing-song voice.

Grayson stood up, breaking his glower. He walked away, his hands stuffed in his pockets, and his eyes staring straight ahead. Natalie started to stutter before she got up and walked, as fast as she could in her heels, in his direction. Letting my eyes flutter over everyone at the table, I let out a loud laugh, taking them all by surprise.

~~~

A nice blue car drove up alongside me and I looked to see Sebastian in the front seat. Getting into the car with a smile, he leaned over and kissed my cheek, catching me off guard. “He’s watching.”

I nodded, glancing out of the window to see Grayson turning and walking towards his father’s car. “What happened to the motorcycle he drives to every single game?”