Stray

VII

VII

Peyton

"I'm in," I finally managed to gasp after scanning the entire list.

"I knew it!" Emily exclaimed, swinging her arms around me. "I am ready to see my best friend rock in on Broadway!"

"Guys, please control the gay," Taylor said.

That was when I noticed another name on the list. It was Kade's. Which meant he was back.

"What's this look of surprise?" Emily asked in a singsong voice. "Ah! I see."

She saw what? How could she possibly know.

"Cain's in too," she followed up. I mentally let out a sigh of relief. "Now you have a lot of time to get cozy. Real quick," she winked.

"I don't like him," Taylor confessed. "But why do I feel like you're going to go through a badboy streak?"

"I would not," I retorted.

"No, you're right. It's Emily we should be worried about," Taylor said.

Emily crossed her arms, pouting, and we laughed.

Around the corner, from the other end of the hallway, I heard a bunch of voices approaching. If I wasn't wrong, they belonged to various members of the football team. Which could potentially include Kade. And as if things weren't messy enough, they probably would include Cain, who seemed to be bent on making my life living hell.

"Let's go," I said, grabbing Taylor by the arm and leading her in the opposite direction.

"To our lockers?" Emily asked. "Go the short way." She grabbed Taylor by the other arm and dragged her towards the end of the hallway I had been avoiding.

Taylor gave me a knowing look but I just waved it off. I kept my head down and Taylor stood on my right to block me from the view of my tormentor. Cain was too busy laughing about something with his mates, but out of the corner of my eye, I could see Kade staring right at me.

I was glad that cooking and sport classes were infrequent. If not, I would've had to deal with Cain a whole lot more.

We all parted ways for homeroom. I arrived at the room on time as usual and took my seat at the back. The notices for the day were read out, and as it turned out, the first dance rehearsal was the next day. There was a positive and a negative to that, because I had sport the next day. Positive: I already had my sport uniform, so I wouldn't have to remember to bring it. Negative: after sport I would already be sufficiently sweaty and had no intention of running around while already tired.

On the way out of homeroom, I went out of my way to go to the drink fountain because I was parched and had forgotten my bottle in my locker. As I circled back, I spotted Cain waiting outside my homeroom class. Creep. I looked down and was about to walk past him, when he looked up. As soon as I locked eyes with him, I knew it was too late.

"Just who I was looking for," he grinned, turning to fall in step with me.

"More like stalking," I corrected.

"How hurtful."

"Saw your name on the noticeboard this morning; it looks like we'll be seeing a lot more of each other soon."

"Are you lost? Because this is my stop," I said as we reached my maths class.

"See you later, Peyton."

I wasn't sure what he was trying to achieve because if all my signs hadn't made it clear already, there was no way in hell that anything was going to happen between us. If there was one thing I couldn't tolerate, it was some egotistical ass thinking he could do whatever the hell he wanted and have whatever the hell he wanted.

"You look like you're in a bad mood," Aidan commented as I sat down. Given that I had absolutely no friends in my maths class, and that everyone was seated in pairs, I ended up with Aidan. Surprisingly, it wasn't half bad.

"It's just so humid today," I lied.

We all settled down and started taking down the notes that Mr Atwood was writing up as he explained. There was a glaringly obvious fact that was annoying me. And it had nothing to do with maths.

It was obvious that I was Cain's pick for whatever their little bet was, but surely, Kade knew. Then again, Kade was not at school when the weirdness began; he was probably off in the Bahamas or wherever. Unless of course once Kade got back, he knew about it, and ended up pushing for it even more?

No matter what, in that little gang of misfits, even though it seemed like Cain was the top dog, Kade was the one calling the shots.

By the end of class, it was blatantly obvious that I was missing half of the notes. There was only one thing to blame: my wondering mind.

The entire day went by without another run in with Cain and the rest of their posse, and if anything, I just wanted to get home and get ready for work. I made a mental note to let Marco know about the training the next day so I could get my shift moved to later.

As I got home, I checked the letterbox. Like clockwork, every fortnight, there was a pristine white envelope with the names Peyton and Kelly printed on it. I tore it open and sure enough, one thousand dollars. I tossed it on the table. It was the last thing I wanted to see.

Because Cain wasn't the only asshole who thought he could do whatever the hell he wanted.

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It has been about 10 months since my last update. Sorry!! 

Anyhoo, here it is, and hopefully there'll be another update soon.

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