Dirty Little Secret

Chapter Seventeen - Liars & Cheaters

"Good." She smiled "When I didn't see you in algebra yesterday I worried that maybe you'd gotten sick."

I almost flinched at the tone of her voice. Why did she have to be so... so nice? As if I hadn't been feeling guilty enough already. Now I had to tell her.

I guess it was the right thing to do anyway, surely it was written in some kind of girl code.

"No, I'm fine." I forced a smile "I just had something to take care of, but thanks for thinking about me."

"No problem." She smiled, though hers actually seemed genuine "I guess I'll see you around then?"

I cleared my throat "Er," come on Nina you can do this "I was actually wondering if I could talk to you for a moment..." I gestured towards her friends with my eyes before adding "alone."

Poppy looked from me to her friends hesitantly before nodding "Sure."

We walked side by side until we found a slightly secluded area in the corner of the hallway. "What's going on?" Poppy asked.

I took a deep breath before saying "There's not really an easy way to put this..." and bit my lip, avoiding eye contact with Poppy. What was the correct way to tell someone that their boyfriend was semi cheating on them?

"It's ok, I can take it." She encouraged me and softly nudged my elbow to urge me on.

"Well..." I took a deep breath before releasing it in a quick jumble of words "Cadenaskedmetohomecoming."

Poppy chuckled softly before frowning "What?"

Come on, you can do this. You have to. I repeated the words, this time slowly and slightly apologetically "Caden asked me to homecoming."

I caught a momentary look of surprise on her face, but she quickly masked it with a smile "Oh, that's fine. You can go with him if you like to."

Wait, what?

I frowned "But aren't you two..." I left the sentence hanging, waiting for her to fill in the blanks.

Poppy shook her head "Oh no, don't worry, I dumped him over the weekend."

My mouth fell slightly agape. She dumped him? "What? Why?" I asked with slight disbelief.

She shrugged "He just wasn't the one for me, you know? I mean I'm not crazy about territorial guys or anything, but I got asked to homecoming by Danny Salido last week and Caden't didn't even bat an eye. It's like he doesn't care."

I frowned "Oh, right..." I didn't know a lot about being in relationships - nothing to be precise -, but that seemed like a silly reason to break up with someone.

"Anyway, I should really get to class. Feel free to go to homecoming with Caden. I don't mind."

I smiled and thanked her, even though I didn't plan on taking Caden up on his offer. Despite us having a little moment yesterday, Caden was still Caden, and quite frankly that was enough reason to say no.

Poppy and I went our separate ways and I thought about what she had said as I made my way towards class. If Poppy had already broken up with Caden over the weekend, then why did he act like they were still together yesterday?

I took my seat next to Jenna at the front of class. "Hey Jen." I said, pulling her attention away from her phone and towards me.

"Hello there Mrs. Future Journalist." Jenna wiggled her eyebrows and nudged me with her elbow playfully. I rolled my eyes, but couldn't hold back the smile that graced my lips at her words.