Just Friends

Chapter 14 {New Beginnings}

Thank God it's Friday.
Yesterday was probably the worst day ever and I didn't want to talk to anyone about it but I knew it would be all Skylar talks about. And how was I supposed to survive a whole hour in a class with Nathan? Answer? I probably won't.
It sucks the most because our friendship is probably over. I officially ended the crush but that doesn't necessarily mean I didn't want the friendship to prevail.
But I think he begs to differ...
Whatever, the old me would be dead by now, but the new me doesn't give a flying piece of crap about it anymore...probably.
Anyway after all this gossip dies down, maybe something may spark with Dominic?
Wait...has my crush for Dominic grown?
Suddenly I felt sick.
In a good way...
Wow, just thinking of Dominic made me feel better and get over the terrible past day.
Yep, it has definitely grown...
I wanted to show everyone that the past day didn't effect my life in any way.
Part of that could be accomplished by my outfit.
I picked out a black shirt with the 100 emoji on it with jeans that were ripped up to the max.
I added two gold necklaces and a black hat that read "Don't Care" in big red letters.
I put on black eye liner and mascara and red lipstick.
I slipped on my red and black Jordans and grabbed my bag.
On my way out I looked at myself in the mirror and thought,
Dang, I look...freakin rebellious!
I laughed to myself, rebellious?
Anyways, I grabbed a bag of strawberries on the way out and headed down to Roxy's house.
When I reached her house I rang the doorbell.
Less than a second later, I heard footsteps rushing towards the door.
"Hey are you okay? I have chocolate!" She exclaims.
She stopped herself and gawked at my outfit.
"Holy chiz! What's this?" She shouts.
"You like?" I ask, holding out the bottom of my shirt.
"Heck yeah!!" She shouts again, drawing attention to some passing sixth graders.
"Shush!" I chuckle.
"TBH I thought you were gonna be dressed in sweats and a wrinkled T-shirt, hair in a messy bun with no makeup but this...why?" She asks.
"Because if I dressed the way you just described, everyone thinks that's how I'm gonna be dressed, nobody is gonna expect this, and that's exactly what I want," I stated.
"Ahh, smart girl," Roxy commends.
"And my actions, totally out of the blue everything is gonna be out of the blue because I," I tipped my hat forwards.
"Don't care" Roxy reads aloud.
"Ooo! I can't wait to see everyone's reactions!" She exclaims.
"Me too, especially Skylar. Today I'm gonna show everyone, her, Nathan, Vanessa, just-eveyone, that I don't give two craps about yesterday," I say, crossing my arms as we start walking to the bus stop.
"Soo... are you gonna like act bad? Are you gonna start... Being mean or failing classes?" She sounds worried.
"Well, I may do a few rebellious acts now and then but, no way am I gonna turn into...Skylar" I respond.
"Okay good, that's good...and this is like a permanent change in how you dress and act?" She asks.
"Mabye I mean...I don't know," I admit.
Soon enough we were at the stop.
A girl in our grade by the name of Karla, instantly noticed my change in clothing choices as soon as we walked up to the stop.
Karla is a overall pretty nice person but...she has a tendency to talk...a lot.
"Omg what up?" She exclaims.
"What up with what?" I respond nonchalantly.
"That killer outfit! I totally wouldn't expect that from you...today at least," she replies.
"Why? Because you think I'm too emotionally unstable to put together a nice outfit for myself?" I say walking towards her. "Well guess what? I could care less about yesterday okay? I wasn't even upset I was angry! Angry that the stupid lies and gossip Skylar has created has gotten so out of hand. And that she won't quit it! So yeah its a new change. And yeah its unexpected, so what? Its better than letting everyone think Skylar broke me." By now I was completely all up in Karla's face. She look deathly afraid of my confrontation.
"O-Okay," she stutters, backing away slowly.
"I didn't mean to offend you Gabriella..." She looked to the floor.
Part of me didn't care if she was scared. That part of me wanted for her to be scared. For everyone to be scared.
But the other part wanted to apologize for getting in her face like that. I mean it was just a question...
But the first part of me took over as the bus pulled up to the stop and Karla ran inside before anyone else.
The other people were all staring at me with wide eyes and shocked expressions.
"What?" I say rather loudly.
They all turned their attention to the bus.
"Dang Gabby..." Roxanne whispers to me while we get on.
"That's not even the start of what I'm gonna do to Skylar if she trys me today," I respond.
As we slide into a seat I notice Dominic sitting on the seat across from us, ear buds plugged in, staring at his phone.
He was on Instagram sliding through his feed.
As he passes one picture from the next I catch a glimpse at the horrible video from the past day.
He watches for awhile then looks at me.
All I do is nod and then tip my hat towards him flashing the "Don't Care" on the top.
He shrugs then smiles and continues to watch.
I get kind of angry that he kept watching but I don't really know why.
The bus jolted to a stop again.
A kid named Connor who I find extremely, extremely annoying got on but then stopped to look at Dominic's phone.
"Hey its you!" He starts laughing.
"And your gonna be on Instagram next getting your butt beat by a girl!" I say grabbing his shirt neck and pulling him towards me.
"Hey okay okay it was a joke!" He pleads.
"Sit down!" The bus driver calls from the front.
I forcefully let go, sending him backwards almost crashing into Dominic.
Connor stumbled to his seat in the back, staring at me all the way until he sits down.
I glance up, seeing the bus driver glaring at me. I return my focus to Dominic and see his wide eyed expression.
I shrug and look at Roxanne who is also wide eyed.
"Eh, you'll get used to it sooner or later," I tell her.
"Maybe..." She says looking back at Connor.
I looked at Dominic who returned to watching the video.
Ugh will you give it up already?
Soon it came to the part where Nathan told Skylar to let me go.
The worst part...
I saw him cover his mouth and chuckle a little when Nathan said, "Or less,"
He's laughing too...
He's laughing at my
Pain...
And suddenly, that other half of me I was talking about earlier,
The "half that wanted to apologize",
It disappeared.
Completely.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

All through first and second period, people stared at me in awe. Some of Nathan's friends made jokes about the video and thought I wasn't going to do anything. Boy were they wrong...
Anyways, some people actually defended me when they made jokes. You know, before I completely petrified them. But I pushed them away and that's something then old me would have never done. But, the old me died somewhere between last night and this morning.
During second period we had to read this, long, boring passage about who knows what, and I plugged in my ear buds instead then fell asleep. Nathan's friend, Blake, said I got no sleep last night because I was to busy eating ice cream and crying. Then he poked me with a pen and taunted me like a doll. Eventually I felt the pokes then instantly woke up and snatched then pen from him and then pulled his hand to the desk, pinned it down then poked his palm with the pen several times. Everyone stared at me when I finally let him go, and the teacher didn't even care! She said he deserved it but violence isn't always the answer. I felt great.
Nevertheless, I still had to deal with the reason all of this is happening in the first place.
The bell rang right as I walked in my third period classroom.
"Your late," my teacher screeches.
She already didn't like me.
Time to make her hate me...
I smirked,"No, I'm not,"
"Excuse me?" She replied.
"You know I wasn't gonna say anything, but I smelt that..." I respond, holding my nose.
The entire class chuckles.
"Do you want to buy to your way into detention?"
"If I get a good deal on it..." I giggle a little myself.
When did I become so funny?
"Okay you, just got..." She walked over to my desk.
"Lunch detention!" She slams a slip on my desk.
"Lunch equals food so...I'm happy whatever," I lean back in my chair.
My teacher rolls her eyes at me and I laugh.
The rest of third period was basically a blur. I probably slept through most of it anyway.
When the bell rang my heart instantly started to beat faster. I placed my hand on my chest and felt the pounding heart beats. I stopped at my locker to get a mint.
I opened the box then popped one in my mouth. I fumbled to put the top back on when a short girl rushes past me, knocking the mints out of my hand and onto the floor.
"Hey! Oh my gosh really? Really? What the-" I looked the small girl in the eyes and remembered who she was.
The new girl...
"I'm...really sorry I-" she bent down and started picking up mints from the ground.
I watched her silent, leaning against my locker.
As she grabbed another mint, three fell out of her grasp.
I sighed, then bent down to help.
She looked at me, kind of shocked but then handed me the box with dirty mints inside.
"Might as well throw it away," I said tossing the box in a nearby trash can.
"Again I'm really sorry I-Im just such a clutz I..." She looks to the ground and chuckles.
"Don't worry about it," I respond.
"Uhh..." She fumbles around in her bag.
"Here" she holds out a new pack of Altoids.
Which are my favorite....
I took a deep breath then replied, "Nahh...keep em' I'm fine really,"
"Oh...okay..." She puts the Altoids back in her bag.
"Oh! And thanks by the way," she adds.
"For?" I ask.
"Trying to save my life yesterday... It was so chaotic in there, and on my first day! When you pushed all those people away, I got kinda lost..." She giggles
"Well no problem...and yeah I... Got a little carried away there..." I admit.
"So does that happen often?" She asks contentiously.
"Ehh...yeah..."
"Great..." She rolls her eyes.
"That was so idiotic like what was point of that?" She say sounding annoyed.
"Don't know...so whats your name?" I ask.
"Oh yeah, uh I'm Hazel"
"Gabriella,"
"Cool so uh...yeah," she looks away.
"Do you want to hang out with me and my friends? Unless you already made friends..." I say.
"Yes! I mean...sure...I mean I haven't made any friends...I-I would love, to hang with you and your friends..."
"Nice"
"Well I gotta get to class so...see you at lunch?"
"Yeah I'll show you where we sit," I answer
"Okay bye" she waves.
Well, I made a new friend along with my new style and attitude...lots of new stuff...its a new beginning....
I walk in the door to my Social Studies class and see Nathan laughing with Jai.
Now time to face the music...