The Heartbreak Club

2. how a heart works

Aubrey interrupted her thoughts.

"You okay?" she asked, showing some sympathy towards her for the first time all day. "That must be hard."

Willa swallowed and shrugged, hugging her books to her chest.

"You did move on fast, though," Aubrey pointed out, a devilish look crossing her features. "I don't think Richmond Prep has had this much drama since Mike from the year above said he snapped a picture of Ms. Hornsby and Mr. Riley making out."

Willa snorted, recalling the last time the whole school was abuzz. She never believed the photos even existed, but it was enough to entertain the school for the week.

"But really, Ashton though? Are you sure?" she asked, "You're not one to run full pelt at things, especially not winning The Breakup Game. I know you've been playing for, like, ever, but you're so uncaring about it. Why are you suddenly ready to get strategic?"

Willa shrugged. "I guess I just want it over once and for all."

Aubrey looked between Willa and the retreating figures of the football team. "You want revenge."

Her eyes flicked to Aubrey's, and for only a second betrayed the glimmer of hope which was growing inside of her chest. "I guess I wouldn't mind some revenge."

After all, one way to mend a broken heart was to break another.

She wasn't quite sure what was going to happen now. What had seemed like a quick, and rather impulsive, decision before had turned into something monumental. Though Aubrey had been supporting her, she wasn't sure it was in quite the right way. The girl had made a Facebook status updating everyone on the sudden-death round. Only one of them could come out of this on top. The end of them would mean the end of the game entirely.

While browsing the statuses uploaded throughout the day, she caught sight of Ashton's profile linked in one of the posts. They were Facebook friends, more by default than from being close. She'd talked to him maybe a handful of times in her life, and a lot of those times were asking if he'd like a schedule at the annual school concerts, or if he was interested in signing up for the prom committee.

It wasn't of much surprise to her that he'd drifted off of The Breakup Game's radar. While it was a point of obsession for many of the students at Richmond Prep, he wasn't an easy boy to follow, and his careless attitude made it easy to forget his escapades. In fact, maybe if Ben hadn't spoken up, Willa would have easily been crowned the winner, unchallenged for the rest of senior year.

There was also the possibility that Ashton could have said a flat out no and let The Breakup Game die with its last two competitors. It would have disappointed the student body, that was for sure, but if he really didn't care then that's exactly what he would have said.

But, her suspicions were proven correct. Sometimes even the most seemingly uncaring people were still tempted by the attention.

She knew one thing was for sure, and that was that he didn't agree because he genuinely liked Willa. This was for the game. And she was starting to grow nervous that maybe he was playing for real.

The rules for a breakup were simple. The couple must have mutually made the decision to date - rejection did not count - and they must have both tried their best to make it work. Of course, that was easily feigned, and in this case it would be obvious. She was sure nobody was stupid enough to believe her and Ashton were getting together for keeps.

Next, there must be a satisfactory reason for breaking up. It couldn't be trivial or petty, and had to centre around something serious. Like cheating. Or a personality trait you couldn't handle. Usually, the typical reasons were some kind of betrayal, or an argument that resulted in them no longer getting along.