Bittersweet (The Bad Boy's Girl)

Chapter 14 - Caught Red-Handed

Song: I Hate U, I Love U – Gnash ft. Olivia O'Brien ♪

Chapter 14 – Caught Red-Handed

I stare at my figure in the bathroom mirror.

Wrecked. Humiliated. Sad.

. . . And angry. Very angry.

Mostly at Ashley (and Alec for getting me in this mess in the first place, even if it was unintentionally), but also at Cooper. I saw him with my own two eyes laughing at me with the crowd. What kind of boyfriend even does that?!

Lexi and Abby rush in quickly and Abby starts hyperventilating, "Oh my God are you okay?! Of course you're not okay what am I saying! I'm so sorry Cass this is all my fault! I..."

"Abby," I cut her off, "First of all, breath," I wait as she takes a few deep breaths before I continue, "Secondly, none of this was your fault."

"But it was! You don't understand I..." She starts again.

"It's not your fault. It's not anyone's fault. End of story," I tell them calmly, "I'd like to be alone for a while please."

"Are you sure? You look like you need some help with that. " Lexi points to my hair that's currently filled with spaghetti bolognese.

"Yeah, it's fine. You can go now," I tell her and put all my strength into giving them a reassuring smile.

They shoot me a tight smile and exit the bathroom.

For a whole ten minutes, I'm standing at the mirrors trying my hardest to rinse my hair out from the sticky cafeteria food.

Key word being 'trying'.

I hear the warning bell ring and silently curse to myself when I realize that I'm going to be late to class.

Suddenly, the door of the girls' bathroom is thrown open and I see a worried-looking Alec standing at the door. His eyes meet mine and I all but glare at him. A confused look flashes across his face as he asks, "Are you okay? I'm so sorry I couldn't come sooner. Ashley was literally trapping me from going after you for some reason,".

Yeah, 'for some reason'.

"Don't apologize, it's not your job to go after pathetic embarrassed girls like me," I say with an obvious hint of bitterness, "What are you doing here anyways?" I ask just as I hear the bell ring meaning I should be sitting in class doing work right now instead of being here in a bathroom, with a boy (that came out wrong).

"Um, I was coming to check on you to see if you needed any help, and you really do by the looks of it," He says. I roll my eyes, "I meant what are you doing here, in the girls' bathrooms, you moron?"

"Oh,"He says quietly as he realizes where he is, his neck becoming noticeably pink, "I don't know."

I try to stifle my laughter but fail horribly and burst out laughing, which only turns him even more red.

When I finally stop laughing I notice him looking at me with a weird smile on his face. "What?" I ask, shrugging. He looks away, a smirk forming on his lips. He looks back up at me and says, "I was just. . .  wondering. . . if I went up to you right now and licked that spaghetti off your face. . ." I don't even notice that he's been inching closer to me with every word until he's hovering right above my lips.

He pauses for a moment, studying my eyes like some type of book, before saying, "How would it taste?"

My face turns as red as the sauce in my hair and I'm pretty sure I resemble a giant tomato right now.

"I mean," he takes a step back smirking at my reaction,"I just don't think it would taste as good cold on a sweaty girl's face as it does in a sparkling white dish that's actually been properly washed."

My first initial thought is: What the heck?

Then: Did he just call me a sweaty girl that doesn't wash up properly?

And finally: He's such an a-hole!!

And that's when he starts laughing in my face like the jerk he is.

I glare at him sullenly but after a few moments it sounds
as if he's not the only one laughing. "Hey stop that," I hiss quietly.

"But. . . you. . . you should've seen your face! Priceless!" He laughs even harder.

"No seriously," I whisper, "Can you hear that?"

"Hear what?" He finally calms down and looks at me. I hear a series of laughter and giggles coming from the direction of the closed door. They sound oddly familiar. . .

He hears them too and I gesture for him to be quiet as I tiptoe to the door making as less sound as possible.

I take the handle and yank it open quickly, enough for the two eavesdroppers to come stumbling onto the ground, knocking me down with them.

Caught red-handed!

*****