Cara and Connor

Chapter 18

I got my first good look at Courtney when she came right up to me.

“Cara,” she said, spinning a piece of her golden hair around her finger.

“Yes, Courtney.” I said.

She basically towered over me.

“Look, you dated Connor right?” she asked.

“Yes, I did,” I said, emphasizing the past tense.

“Connor’s being so rude to me. Like, he won’t even like go out with me or anything. Like you know? Did he ever like do that to you?” she said.

I wanted to laugh at her obscene amount of the word like in a grammatically incorrect way.

“He’s mean to you?” I questioned.

“Yeah,” she said.

“Doubt it,” I whispered.

“What?” she said.

“Nothing,” I said.

“Well, I’ll have to like text you or something like later,” she said.

 

Stupid girl, she didn’t even have my number.

 

    At lunch,  Annie and I watched as a spectacle unfolded around Connor and Courtney. I had quit sitting at the popular table and returned to my old seat with Annie and my old friends.

“You won’t even like kiss me or something!” she yelled.

“Courtney,” he said, trying to coax her.

The whole lunchroom went on with what they were doing, but we were close enough to hear everything.

“Seriously! You kissed her and stuff!” she said, making me the scapegoat of her problems.

I looked up to see everyone staring at me.

“Don’t bring her into this,” he said, trying to avoid my confused stare.

“I think I should. Cara did you love him?” she asked, running towards me.

Luke, Eli, Blake, and Connor looked at me now. Luke’s eyes were full of surprise, and Connor had a look of sympathy to him.

“Courtney, this isn’t my problem,” I said as she skidded to a stop at my table.

“Hide, quick,” Annie said.

“Did you love her?” she said to Connor as he followed behind her.

“Stop Courtney!” he said, now meeting my eyes.

“Then why don’t you love me like you like loved her?” she said as her heels lost traction with the tile floor, throwing up her water glass she slammed on the cold hard ground. The water landed all over me, and I was pretty much soaked.

“Cara, you’re dripping,” Annie gasped.

Everyone was now staring at me and the fiasco that had just taken place. I felt tears start to boil up inside as Annie and I walked past each table. They were all staring at me with judgmental glances.

“Thanks Connor.” I said to him sharply as we walked  by.

Annie and I ran to the bathroom.  We were squeezing my shirt as hard as we could to get the water out.  Then we used the hand dryer in the bathroom, and it dried up my shirt really quickly.

“Thank God for a rich school.” Annie said as the hand dryer roared.  

We bravely made our way out to the lunchroom again. Courtney was still freaking out over her broken heel, and Connor was no where to be found. Courtney ran up to me once again.

“This is all your fault!” she screeched.

The whole lunch room turned to see the pathetic sophomore calling a junior out.

“How is this MY fault?” I said.

“You. Everything!” she snarled like a trapped hyena.

“I didn’t even say anything. You just attacked me and then threw water on me,” I retorted.

“It’s all her fault, people!” she said to the junior class as she pointed to me.

“Just stop. I could care less about you and Connor. Just leave me alone, please,” I said.

“Can you not?” she said.

I rolled my eyes once again. People got tired of the drama and went back to what they were doing.

“Stop, Courtney,” Connor came behind me.

“Not you, too,” Annie said, rolling her eyes as well.

I became silent as he walked around the table.

“It’s your fault,” Courtney growled as she walked back over to the sophomores.

Annie got up and left Connor and I alone. This was going to be awkward. He sat down in front of me and looked into my eyes.

“Sorry, Cara,” he said.

I avoided his eyes.

“Why’d she accuse me of it  being my fault?” I said, now meeting his gaze.

“Did you say something to her?” I asked, seeing the guilty look on his face.

“Uh, no. She just, uh, thinks I still like you,” he said.

“Well, why does that mat—” I started to say as he rudely interrupted me.

“I told her I’d always love you, Cara,” he confessed.

“Connor, you can’t tell your girlfriend that,” I giggled.

“Hey, hey! She told me to be honest, but I guess she didn’t like the answer,” he said.

“Of course, she doesn’t, Connor,” I said.

“Plus, we never dated anyway. She’s never been my girlfriend,” he said.

“You’re so lying. Everyone came and told me you were dating her,” I said.

“I’m not. We never dated. Why would they tell you that?” he asked.

I gave him a look.

“Oh,” he said.

“She just wanted to sit with us, and apparently she liked me. Cara, I’ve always told you I wouldn’t date a sophomore,” he said.

“Yeah, I remember you saying that,” I said.

“Cara, I’ll always like you. I’m just not that deserving of you,” he said.

“What? You don’t deserve me? So not true. Total lie. I don’t deserve you,” I said.

“Cara—-” he started to say as Annie came back and our private conversation ended.