Love to Hate You

Chapter Ten

After interrogating Alex about the date during lunch, I decide not to push the subject any further. He’s clearly uncomfortable about it, though I don’t understand why. If he likes her he should just say it. I even tried catching Stephanie after school by her locker to see how it went but she only shrugged and pushed past me. They’re both acting weird.

I don’t want to pry, but I’m really curious. After reanalyzing my conversation with Alex during lunch, I realize he had an edge to his voice when talking about the goodnight peck on the cheek. He had snapped at me, but in my excitement that things were “tolerable” I had completely missed it. Something was off, way off.

Now, I’m finishing up my mural, filling in the empty spaces and sharpening the edges. I’ve spent every day after school working on this and I figure it will be completely finished by Monday. I’ll get all the boys together and they can sign the bottom of the mural. Then, it will be truly finished and wonderfully authentic.

I’m dragged away from my thoughts about Alex and Stephanie and the Heartbreaker signatures when someone coughs quite aggressively in order to get my attention. I turn and use the back of my hand to push the fringe out of my face so I can see who’s bothering me.

Austin and Kris are standing on either side of a very grumpy looking Sean. His arms are crossed and he’s looking anywhere but at me. Austin slaps Sean’s arm then nods to me. Sean mumbles something under his breath to Austin and they argue for some time before Kris gets annoyed and walks around Sean to get to his boyfriend, tugging at his shirt and pulling him away. Sean looks like he’s going to follow but Kris sends him a glare and points at me, mouthing “talk” before giving me a friendly smile and  pushing Austin away.

My eyebrow has been raised this whole time as I watch the scene take place before my eyes. Sean calls after the two boys, yelling, “Jerks!” before spinning around to look at me. I can only imagine why Austin and Kris brought him here. I’ve been venting to Austin about this for a little while now and he probably got sick of it and brought Sean here.

I suddenly feel uncomfortable to be left alone with him considering what happened the last time we were standing in front of my mural. Paint drips onto my cheek and I lower my hand from my forehead, remembering I’m still holding my bangs up with the hand holding my paintbrush. I don’t even bother with the paint drop on my face and instead watch Sean sigh loudly and shift around on his feet.

“Any reason you’re here?” I ask him, already knowing the answer to my question but wanting him to bring it up so it seems like his idea.

He groans and adjusts his glasses on his face before answering, “Austin wanted me to talk to you.”

“About what?” I question dumbly and he rolls his eyes like he sees past my façade.

“You know what.” He answers and then looks down at his shoes, sighing once again, “You’re just setting yourself up. You know that right?”

It’s my turn to sigh and my face turns away to look down the empty hall.

“I’d be making that mistake with any one of you,” I tell him and bend down to set my paintbrush on the sheet beneath my feet, rubbing my hands together to roll off the partially dried paint.

He looks up quickly, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’re called Heartbreakers for a reason.” I point out, “You’ve been with a ton of girls, have you not?”

Sean shakes his head and lets out a low laugh, “That name was Justin’s idea. Yes, I’ve had my fair share of girlfriends, but I didn’t sleep with any of them, and they’re the ones who broke up with me,” he tells me, “Austin didn’t date any girls and Kris was still working out if he was gay or not. Alex is a causal dater, but Justin is the real whore.”