I Slapped Mr. Popular

11

Braelyn's schedule above. I thought this would clear some things up.

"How was your date?" Emma asks as I get into her car.

I grin, buckling up. "Aw, it was so amazing, Emma. I never thought that I would say that, but it was."

"Did he kiss you?"

"Actually, I kissed him the first time," I say.

Emma squeals, "Braelyn, that's great! What did you do?"

"Well, we went to that new horror movie, and then, to the ice cream parlor. After we got our ice cream, we decided to go to the park."

"What did he do when you kissed him?" Emma demands, "I would've said, 'Tell me more,' but I didn't want it to break out into a Grease song."

"That's movie is amazing!" I say.

"Okay, you're getting off track, Braelyn," Emma says.

I sigh then tell her everything that happened last night. When I finish, she groans, "Nathan ruins everything!"

I nod, and Emma pulls into a parking space. She grins, and I look to where she's is. Marcus and Ridge are talking, laughing too. Xavier stands to the side, glaring at Ridge. "Man, Xavier really doesn't like Ridge, does he?" I ask.

Emma doesn't answer for a second, and I look at her. She bites her lip, shaking her head. "No, he doesn't."

We both get out, and I shut the door behind me. "Hey," Ridge greets, coming up to me and kissing the side of my head.

"Hey," I say. Someone shuffles, and I look up to see Xavier grabbing his stuff and walking away. I furrow my eyebrows and look at my friends. "Who peed in his Cheerios?"

Marcus waves it off. "He failed a test the other day," he says.

I sigh, "He really needs to stop overreacting about tests. It's only the second one he's failed in the past three years."

Marcus nods, and Emma says, "Marcus, let's go get some breakfast." She pulls him away before he has time to answer.

I look up at Ridge. "Hey," I say.

"Hey," he says, grinning, "Do you have any plans this weekend?"

I pretend to think. After a moment, I roll my eyes. "I never have plans."

Ridge wraps an arm around my waist. "Well, do you want to go to a party with me on Saturday?" he asks.

"Sure. Why not?" I reply.

He smiles. "I'll pick you up at seven," he says.

I nod. "Okay," I say.

We walk into the school, and all eyes are on us. I shift uncomfortably, and Ridge tightens his grip on my waist, reassuring me. One person in particular stares us down with dagger, Wren Larson. I smile to myself.
××××××
I go to my locker after first period to grab my things for my English class. Ridge walk up beside me. He has a pair of basketball shorts on and a t-shirt, so he changed. "Hey, I would walk you to your next class, but I have Sports Training. It's outside."

I nod. "It's fine. My English class is on the other side of the school anyway," I say.

"Okay, I'll see you later," he says, pecking my lips.

"Okay, bye," I say as he walks away. He turns and waves then turns back around, hurrying off to his class. I watch as he makes his way outside. That's when I'm shoved into my locker. My bottom lip snags on the corner of the inside of my locker.

I run my tongue over it, and sure enough, it's bleeding. I turn around, and I come face to face with an angry Wren. Glaring, I ask, "What's your freaking problem?"

"I told you to stay away from him, and what do you do? You end up dating him. You should've known what would happen when I found out," Wren sneers.

I lick the blood off my lip. "If you think you scare me, you don't," I say and look around, noticing everyone staring at us and whispering.

She takes a step closer, so that she is in my face. We're the same height, so I look her into her eyes. "You should be," she says.

"Let me get two things straight with you, Wren. You will never scare me, and the next time you put your hands on me you better make sure you have a few friends around to hold me back," I say coldly.

She scoffs, and I pick up my bag that I dropped. I turn around and shut my locker then push past Wren, bumping shoulder with her purposefully. She buffs, and I make my way to the other side of the school.

I stop by the bathroom, wet a paper towel, and press it against my lip. Then, I walk down the hall and into my class.

Mr. Thompson narrows his eyes. "You're late, Ms. Sawyer," he says.

I remove the towel from my lip. "It won't happen again, Sir," I say and take my seat.

"What happened to your lip?" he asks.

"Bit it," I reply, and he drops the subject and goes back to teaching. I press the towel to my lip again, leaning back.
××××××
"Oh my God! What happened to your lip?!" Emma exclaims as I sit down.

"Wren shoved my head into my locker, and I snagged it," I say.

Emma glares and stands up. "I'm done with her crap," she says.

"Emma, sit down," I say.

She gives me a hard stare, but she sits down. "Why won't you just knock her out?" she asks.

"Because getting suspended right now won't look good on my scholarship applications," I simply say.

She rolls her eyes. "One fight won't destroy you," she says.

"Oh my goodness," Ridge says, sitting down. He touches my lip, and I hiss. "Jesus Christ, I heard about Wren. I tried to find you at your locker, but you weren't there. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, stop touching it!" I exclaim, slapping his hand away.

He drops his hand. "You need to tell the principal," he says.

"Tell him what, Ridge? That a girl shoved my face into a locker because I'm dating you? No thank you," I say.

"You should still tell," Xavier pipes up.

"Look, I'm a big girl, so can everyone drop it?!" I yell.

Everyone goes silent, and Ridge looks away, shaking his head. "No, I can't. I'm dealing with this right now," he says, standing up and walking away.

I groan and place my head into my hands. Emma sighs, "We're just tired of her crap."

"I'll deal with it," I say and stand up, "I'll see you later." I leave them and go to the library.