I Was Never Loved

I Was Never Loved- chp 7

Chapter 7

The following Monday saw me up and dragging myself about the house. I tried finding every reason possible for not leaving the house because of the dread that had filled me for the entire weekend. By now it was too late for any worrying or calls to change his mind. It was done and over with and all I could do was go to school and face them or find a reason to stay home. In the end, Mother threatened to bash my skull in if I didn't leave and that was when I grabbed my bag and made a run for it.

The strangest thing greeted me as I entered the school building. Everyone was whispering. It could only mean something had gone down but with the weekend only just behind us, how could anything have spread so fast? Dumb question, these were teenagers with smartphones, of course it spread.

"Kai!" Madelyn ran up to me. "Kai, did you hear?" She looked positively excited. This was what my friend lived for; gossip. She enjoyed a spot of it whenever she could and never hesitated to fill me in on happenings around the school, whether they were confirmed or not. I would almost call her a Data Carrier too but something told me she wasn't nearly as diligent nor thorough and only cared for surface gossip. This was the healthy sort of intrigue. Jonie Matthews needed to seek medical help at the earliest convenience.

"Hear what?" Was I going to regret asking that? I usually did at my old school but then it was usually about me. Here I had done nothing. Jayden had gone to Carmen's and she had kept her mouth shut. A part of me was interested in finding out what was said about others when the news was not about me. It almost felt like...I was included. Certainly Madelyn wouldn't have come running to me so excitedly if I was the hot topic.

"On Friday night Jayden went to Carmen's house for a late night 'study' session, it's all over the school." Hayley explained, now hurrying over to be a part of the gossip as well.

"Yeah and now Erin is pissed." Madelyn continued, reveling in the mess that had taken place over the weekend. Madelyn was to gossip, as Jonie was to Data Collection and when Maddie got that look on her face, I began thinking it wasn't healthy for her either. "Everyone's waiting for the big confrontation." Just then, the hallway went silent. I turned and saw Carmen strutting down the hall as if she was on top of the world. She had an arrogant smirk on her face that said she knew people were talking about her and she loved the attention. Her friend, Jessie, whispered something to her but she shrugged it off as she kept walking. Nothing would ruin her morning; she'd slept with the President of the Student Council. She had gotten Jayden Pryce into her bed. Such an accomplishment shouldn't have meant much but with the way she managed to wow those around her as she walked back, one could tell this was a really big deal.

"And we thought you were getting ahead of yourself." Lara mumbled, coming to a stop by Hayley. It was official. He did sleep with her. I didn't know why but that thought hurt. Somewhere deep down I was hoping that he didn't but there was no denying it any further and all my hard work of getting myself to not care during the weekend was shattered in a pinch.

"Hey Kai what happened to your eye?" Madelyn asked, now actually looking at me. Despite my best efforts I couldn't cover up my black eye so I had given up. It was no use, I was no Jonie. What little makeup I did have I got from my neighbor and never made a habit of using it for fear my mother would find out.

"Oh . . .um my little brother was uh practising his Tai Kwon Doh and I accidentally ran into his fist." That seemed a likely story. A lot of people had problems with their little siblings, though it was likely less extreme than my own case. Accidents still happened, so they should have been able to relate more than if I'd read them the bill and the receipt of what really happened. This was Carmen's day, there was no need for the focus to suddenly shift to me—not so long as I could help it.