Picking up the Pieces

Picking up the Pieces

Chapter One: Break Even

                “When a heart breaks no it don’t break even.”

                                                                                -The Script, “Break Even”

                “Marie, Zack’s on the phone for you!” My sister, Paige called. I giggled excitedly and grabbed the off white house phone from the charger that rested on my wooden nightstand.

                “Hello?” I smiled awaiting my love’s reply.

                “Hey babe, can you come to my house? I have a wonderful surprise for you,” I heard laughing in the background, must be his friends? “Zack, is she coming?” I recognized Kayla’s voice in the background. Why was she there?

                “Sure I’ll be there! But why is Kayla there?” I asked curiously. He started to chuckle but it then turned into a cough; like he was trying to cover it up. Kayla’s shrill cackle rang in my ears, He cleared his throat.

                “She’s a part of the surprise babe don’t worry you’re going to love it,” He hung up right after he said that. That’s strange; he usually says I love you before he hangs up. Maybe he’s just in a rush to make everything perfect? I sighed and told myself not to worry; Zack loves me and would never cheat. Cheat? Now that’s a scary thought. I skipped off to my closet and pulled on black lace tights, light blue shorts and a red baseball tee that said free hugs on it. I looked in my floor length mirror; I was five feet tall, I know, I’m short, but at least I had a slim body with a creamy complexion that matched well with my eyes which were the color of milk chocolate.  I ran a brush through my light brown hair that reached the small of my back and through my side bangs that swooped across my left eye. I skipped over to my vanity table and began to apply mascara and eyeliner. With a bit of red lipstick, I was done.

 I reached for my red vans and slipped them on along with my nerd glasses, I always loved to go all out with my clothes. I felt like it matched my personality, you see, I’m a really outgoing girl; I love to laugh, sing, and play piano. I also loved to dance and most of all I loved being myself, I would hate to be shy and quiet, because I was comfortable in my own body, and I liked to share my opinion.  I was friends with everyone, which was awesome because the last thing I wanted was to be left in the dark, and bullied like my old friend, Stephanie. The mention of her name made me feel guilty. As soon as I became popular which weirdly began after I started to date Zack, I sort of forgot about her, and she started to get picked on, and I didn’t do anything to help her. She ended up leaving our school. I sighed and shook my head and headed downstairs to my white Mercedes Benz.

Zack’s house was five minutes away from mine so getting there was no problem. I then saw Kayla’s red Porsche, I attempted to calm the butterflies in my stomach but to no avail, they kept on swarming, and before I knew it, my palms started to sweat. Why the hell was I nervous? I had nothing to be nervous about right? I walked to Zack’s front door and rang the doorbell. His tall muscular body came into my view. His green eyes instantly brightened and he smiled warmly. I jumped up and gave him a kiss; he pulled away quickly and led me towards his tan leather couch. I didn’t have to worry about his parents since they were always gone on business trips, they owned a shipping company, and he sat adjacent of me on the other tan couch. Then Kayla in her blonde haired, blue eyed, long legged glory came and sat right next to him and entwined their fingers.

                “Zack, babe what’s going on?” I asked with a quirk of my head. His bright green eyes turned a dark shade and his warm laugh became a dark chuckle.

                “I’m not your babe anymore Marie, you see I made a bet with Kayla here,” He gestured to her and she smirked at me, a bet?

                “A bet,” I asked dumbly. Shock filled my entire body. All those times he said I love you? All those times we shared a kiss? They were lies?

                “Yes a bet, Marie. The bet was that if I went out with you for three whole months and made you believe that I actually loved you,” he scoffed at the idea, “I would win a one night stand from Kayla.”

                My confusion quickly turned into anger, “Wait so you are saying that you went out with me for three months for one night of sex?”

                “Yes, jeez Marie I didn’t know you could be so dense,” He teased. I stood up angrily and began to walk out until Kayla said something that made all the blood in me run cold.

                “Oh and Marie, I promise to make your life a living hell, just like I did to your little friend Stephanie.” I gulped and quickly walked towards my car, the laughter of Zack and Kayla mocked me, I drove home and walked into my room. I shut the door, and slid down to the floor. Shock still engrossed my entire body until my chest began to ache terribly, something began to drip onto my hands, and it was my tears. When did I start crying?  I didn’t know or care all I did was cry, and cry. That night it was no surprise that I cried myself to sleep.

                Beep…

                                Beep…

                                                Beep…

                I slammed my hand down onto the off button of my alarm. It was Monday, basically the ass of the week, and that had to be the umpteenth time I dreamt about the break up between Zack and I, it was two months ago and Kayla was oh so kind to keep her promise on making my life a living hell. I fluttered my eyes open to face my messy bedroom, I hadn’t bothered to clean it, my walk in closet wasn’t even accessible because of all the junk on the floor, my dresser had a bunch of makeup and perfumes that were all in a disarray considering I haven’t touched it in months, and my T.V. had a black bra dangling in front of the screen. My phone began beeping signaling I had another text message, I grabbed it and checked, it was just another hate message telling me to go die in a hole from Kayla’s followers, and I rolled my eyes. My phone beeped again from an unknown number, ‘I know how much you love surprises Marie, so how about I give you one?’ the text read. I sighed in response, whatever this wasn’t any different of Kayla to play a prank on me she did this regularly.

I jumped up and walked into my bathroom and took a quick shower, the warm water was calming and made me forget about Kayla and her goons, until my phone rang again. I groaned and reached for it on the bathroom counter. After a few failed attempts I shut off the water and grabbed a towel hanging on a hook. It wasn’t on the counter. I opened my bathroom door and saw it in the middle of my bedroom floor. That’s weird; I thought I left it on the counter? I also noticed that my window was opened, the breeze made me shiver. Maybe it was mom that opened the window and put my phone there, I assumed.  I walked towards it and instantly was stunned by flashes of a camera. I closed my eyes and held my hand up. I opened my eyes to see Sheldon, the school paper’s editor, or the school nerd, holding a Nikon camera in his hand snapping away at my towel clothed body.

“Get out!” I screamed, holding my towel with one hand and using the other one to hit him repeatedly. He squealed and jumped out of my window, landing on the lawn with a thud; he got up and ran away to Kayla’s Porsche. She smirked at me and sped away. Holy shit, he took pictures of me in my towel for Kayla? Only horrible things could come from this. I looked at my phone and opened the text. ‘Enjoy your surprise Marie? I know you love surprises’.  I shook my head knowing I had no choice but to go to school and see what the devil her-self had prepared for me.

Author's Note:

            Hey wattpadders! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of Picking up the Pieces! This is my first ever story so feedback would be much appreciated! Comment, vote, and fan!

                                   <3 Brooke