My Beautiful King

Chapter Twenty Five Part 2

The crowd split into cries of disbelief and merriment. I grinned wildly and joined in with their jeers. It had been a great couple of weeks for school gossip and it felt great to finally not be a protagonist amongst the whispered stories.

At least, not a protagonist that was known.

"Hang on, hang on, you lying bastard!" A loud nasal voice rang out. All heads turned to see Becca march from the group of pretty popular girls that stood connected to the circle of audience. "Are you crazy, Alex? I didn't tell you anything of the sort."

"You did!"

"I didn't."

"You DID!"

Hayley's expression was traumatised. Becca went to stand by her best friend, unaware of the small shuffling movement the female took away from her. "Okay, I'll play along with your little game, you dirty bugger." Becca's voice dropped to a low and light whisper. "And when did I supposedly tell you about this?"

Alex glared down at Becca as if he had never seen her before. "I cannot believe you're playing innocent." He muttered incredulously. "I know you've done some bitchy things before but now... You helped me out and then you deny it? You told me during that lesson before lunch via BBM."

"Lies!" Becca sang confidently. "Lies, lies, lies. And Hayley, you know it's a lie because I didn't touch my phone during Maths any-"

But Becca's voice stopped short when Hayley delivered a sharp slap to Becca's face. Fifty pairs of eyebrows in the audience raised, not including the addition of Alex, Elliot and Becca's surprised expression. Becca stayed silent as her cheek blossomed into a sore painful red.

"Hayley, what the fuck-"

"You were on your phone in Maths!" Hayley blurted. "You were on BBM to me because we were - we were talking about whether we thought Mr Withers was a virgin or not. You're the only one I told about Elliot... You told Alex, didn't you? Oh my God, you did... Why, Becca?" She shoved her manicured hands hard into Becca's chest, causing her friend to topple over.

"Are you crazy?" Becca screeched, her rest of her face hurt and reddening as the crowd's jeers grew louder. "Fuck you Hayley, I didn't tell him anything! He probably figured out for yourself that you were a massive slut!"

Cat fight...

"Oh yeah?" Hayley retorted. "Well at least - at least, I - I'm not dirt poor, like you. I had to help you buy Christmas presents for everyone! And then you got all emotional, crying because you gave Zayn that stupid gift and his girlfriend had got him a better present than you. He wore her present and where did yours go? Right in the bin!"

"That's not fair, Hayley!" Becca was close to furious tears. "My dad's been made redundant recently... How could - how could you tell people that?"

"How could you tell people about me and Elliot?"

"I DIDN'T."

Hayley lunged forward with rage, straddling Becca as she made attempts to pull out her friend's hair. Becca screamed shrilly and clawed at Hayley's face, probably getting no more than bronzer wedged underneath her fake nails.

Seeing an opportunity, Elliot aimed an accurate kick at Alex's crotch. At Alex's groan of pain, he began to run but Alex grabbed his foot and failed his escape. Elliot crashed to the ground, prompting the gush of blood to resume jetting from his nose.

"Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!"

"Two fights! Two fights! Two fights! Two fights!"

"My bet's on Alex and Becca winning. You?"