Life Of Bayla

|30|

"So what's up?"

Cullen and I were making our way to the school's parking lot. I toyed with the strings of Aaron's hoodie and adjusted his big beanie. We got in, shut the doors, buckled up and he turned on the heater.

After a few minutes of hand-rubbing and shivering,  Cullen replied, "Ingrid Matthews has a problem".

I snickered. "You don't have to tell me twice".

He frowned and my laughter was cut short. "This isn't funny".

"Well would you get on with explaining so I can understand?"

"I was getting some books out of my locker and stopped by the water fountain when I heard muffled sobs coming from the girls' restroom".

"Ingrid was crying?" I perked up a brow.

He nodded. "So naturally I was curious. I knew I couldn't go in there so I knocked gently and begged her to come out".

"How did you know she was the one in there?"

"I'd seen her get in".

"Okay. Then what happened?"

"She told me to fuck off. I didn't budge though. I looked around to make sure no one would see me entering the girls restroom".

My eyes bulged. "You went into the girls restroom?"

He nodded and rubbed the back of his neck, sporting a guilty expression. "I did it for a good cause. I picked the lock with my credit card and got in. She was pissed".

"Naturally", I said.

"It took some time but she loosened up when she realized she wasn't going to get rid of me that easy".

I rolled my eyes. "What are you? Some type of hero? How is it that you're always there when someone is in need? Wait, don't tell me. You're secretly a spy. You work with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and you've collected Intel on us all".

"Okay, enough with your dad jokes".

I gasped dramatically. "Dad jokes? Parks, you know I'm hilarious".

He rolled his eyes. "Moving on. She told me nothing was up which is pretty much a universal setence that means something is up".

I crossed my arms over my chest. "Let me guess, you turned on your charm and got her to spill".

"I coaxed her into telling me by being supportive". Then he smirked. "So you think I'm charming?"

"What? No! Shut up!" He laughed and I scoffed. "I wonder how she even ended up telling you. You guys dont even know each other".

"We share Calculus, Physics and Oral languages class".

Once again, my eyes bulged. "How am I just knowing this?"

He shrugged and gave me a nervous smile. Then he got all serious again. "She told me how she wanted to join the Cheerleading squad so bad but was turned down by the head cheerleader, uh, what's her name...?"

"Concetta Jacopo", I offered.

He snapped his fingers. "You got it. The Concetta girl and her friend, uh..."

"Carlie Brenton", I supplied.

He nodded. "Yep, that's the one. So Concetta and Carlie had told her she had to lose at least ten more pounds before she could be a cheerleader".

For the third time, my eyes bulged out. "What the hell? Ingrid's already so damn skinny!"

"Tell me about it". Cullen shook his head. "She said she had never felt so mortified in her entire life than she was then. It was sad".