Avoiding Goodbyes ~Slow Updates~

Chapter 18 - Avoiding Goodbyes

    "I'm going to go," I said, jabbing my thumb behind me at all the other high schoolers dancing in the center. I still hadn't found Bailey yet. There wasn't really a reason why I wanted to talk to her, but I was just wondering where she was.

     I found Hannah, Kayla, and Andrea all standing in a corner together, so I rushed over to them. They probably knew where Bailey was hiding. When I came up close to them, I heard their conversation.

     "She is such a little slut! I mean, moving on to another guy right after she rejected Noah? Like, what is her problem?" Andrea laughed.

     "Yeah. She is obviously just so jealous that Noah asked me and not her. God, I can't wait till she leaves the school at the end of this year." Kayla admitted. They all started laughing. Even Hannah was laughing, and I trusted her the most!

     My heart shattered. I thought these people were my friends, but here they were backstabbing me and talking crap about me behind my back! I couldn't believe that Hannah was laughing, too. She always acted like she was on my side and she would protect me if anyone ever did anything, but apparently, it was just one big lie. It was just like the night I stayed over at Noah's and Preston was talking shit.

     I felt the warm, salty tears beginning to fall down my cheeks as they talked more and more about me. I really wanted to say something to them, but I didn't know what I was going to say. Besides, I was crying and I would be choking up and not talking clearly anyway. They would probably just laugh at me more.

     I dashed away from them and searched for Bailey. Hopefully, she wasn't with their whole backstabbing thing or, I would be totally crushed.

     I spotted her with Micheal. They were kissing and I really didn't want to interrupt her. My only other choice was Laura. I wasn't that close with her, but I still needed someone to help me out here. I walked around frantically searching for her. I couldn't find her anywhere. The tears were already leaking out and I really didn't want people to see me crying like an idiot. I still had that stupid crown on my head, so I would look even more sillier crying with crown and a sash on me.

     I decided that I needed to find Ray to take me home. He was my ride here and my ride back, so I could probably just ask him to drive me home and then he could come back here and not have to worry about me telling Noah our secret. I felt bad for asking now, especially when he specifically told me he didn't want to miss the after party.

     The gym was huge. Like, seriously. How much bigger can this gym get? I was searching and searching and I felt like I was hiking ten billion miles, just trying to find one person. It wasn't helping that all the guys were wearing tuxedos and looked exactly the same from the behind. 

     Finally, I spotted him in the spot where I had left. His friends were still there. He noticed me right away and excused himself from his little "group".

     "Keaton!" he called, jogging up to me. "You're crying. What's wrong?"

     The look on his face meant that he was concerned about me, and it was a really nice feeling that someone actually cared about my feelings, unlike my stupid 'friends'.

     "Can you take me home, please?" I asked, trying to not sound like I was crying. "I just want to go home right now."

     "Who did this to you?" he asked, already walking towards the exit. "Was it Noah? I swear I'll—"

     "No, it wasn't Noah," I corrected, wiping my eyes from never ending tears. "It was the girls."

     "What did they do?" he questioned, putting his arm around me and squeezing me in tight. I was actually starting to feel a bit better.