Twice The Trouble

Chapter 78: Dead End

Claire and her friends laughed. I decided not to pay them attention and started to walk again. But I've only taken two steps forward when another bottle hit me in the face, making me flinch and when someone tossed a banana peel at me I shut my eyes as the tray fell from my hands.

More laughter from Claire's table. Vina, one of her friends, smirked at me. "Sorry. We thought you were a trash can. Because you look like rubbish?" Her lips were set in a triumphant smile.

I felt a lump form in the back of my throat and I furtively gulped it down. All eyes were on me. Some of the students in the cafeteria looked shocked whilst others wore blank faces. Everyone else had the gall to join in the vicious laughter.

The situation felt like elementary school again. Scratch that. It also felt like high school. When rumors would spring from random mouths and every time I entered a room, conversations would peter away into a hushed silence. People would laugh at me behind my back and send me disdainful glares--And though I tried to be spiteful or wreak havoc or seek revenge, nothing changed. Everyone still loathed me. Everyone still saw me as a flirtatious whore.

I saw Lucas rise from his seat and rush over to my aid. He grabbed a bunch of tissues then wiped off the food stains from my knees and blue pencil skirt.

My boyfriend narrowed his brown eyes at the table of four college freshmen. "You girls stop it. If you have nothing good to say, then just remain quiet. You're all nothing but noise. You can dish it out but can you take it?"

Claire and her friends immediately shut up.

They were caught off guard by Lucas' words.

The black-haired teenager grabbed my arm and led me out of the cafeteria to eat elsewhere.

When my last class was over, I texted Lucas and Sophia to go ahead without me.

I reined in my temper as I climbed up the stairs of the Med-Tech building. I remember her wearing an ID lace that said "Pharmacy" so I assumed she was a medicine-related major.

Never in my life did I imagine myself waiting outside a classroom for a girl.

*RING!!!!!*

The bell rang, signalling 5:00pm, the end of Scarlet's last subject, 'Man and Morality.'

How ironic.

Anyway. I had found out her schedule from my friend Dylan, whose cousin shared the same section with Scarlet. I carried no qualms where vengeance was concerned.

A second later, the light blue door swung open, and several college students filed into the halls.

My sky blue eyes zeroed in on a tall girl with long raven hair streaming down to her tiny waist. She had hazel brown eyes and only powder coated her face while her lips were red and glossy.

She wore the same uniform as I did: White polo, gray vest, blue pencil skirt and black heels.

When she looked away from her classmate, her hazel eyes found my cold gaze, and she spoke:

"Stacy Sta. Ana."

"Scarlet Salvador."

The long-haired 17-year old girl led me to a less crowded part of the hallway.

"I sort of saw this coming," she began as she crossed her arms and leaned on the wall.

My eyes narrowed into slits. "It was you," I said through gritted teeth, prepared to fight her.

Scarlet gave me a bored look, a dullness spreading over her pretty features. "I didn't do it."

"Of course you did," I hissed, unfazed by her contradiction. "Your denial won't lessen the guilt."

"I'm just telling you the truth. It wasn't me."

A sarcastic smile played on my pink lips as I glowered at her. "You have motive, therefore you're the most likely to try and destroy my reputation. Enough people despise me, so it wouldn't have made any difference if you worsened the deconstruction job. Bryce dumped you, didn't he? And you blamed me for the cause of your heartbreak. Therefore, you sought out revenge."

Scarlet pushed herself off the marble wall and started to slowly clap her hands. "Congrats. That was an excellent deduction." She raised her eyebrow at me. "But you left out a lot of flaws. If you still remember, Sta. Ana, that even when Bryce seemed to take an interest in you, I was happy with him and he was also happy with me, so I had no reason to be jealous or paranoid about you.

"So why the hell would I stalk you and furthermore, I couldn't possibly have taken those pictures because they all happened long before Bryce and I started drifting apart? I wouldn't waste my time and money dogging your every step. And even though Bryce and I are split up, I still have my dignity." She closed her eyes, let out a wary sigh, then she opened her eyes to look at me.

I met her determined stare--And I was taken aback by the honesty and vulnerable glint in it.

"It.. wasn't you?" I heard myself whisper. My resolve, my steely persistence.. they were all gone.

Scarlet shook her head, making her long black hair swish left and right. "It wasn't me."

"But I thought.."

"..That I'd be angry enough to assign blame on you? To smear mud on your image?"

I bowed my head, a stab of guilt and regret piercing through my heart like an arrow.

"And who said Bryce was the one who broke it off?"

I lifted my chin and searchingly looked into Scarlet's hazel eyes. "You mean it was false?"

She folded her arms in front of her chest and sighed. "I broke up with him, not vice versa."

"It was a lie.." My voice trailed off, and I bit my lower lip, feeling rueful about everything.

"Of course it was." Scarlet uncrossed her arms. "You of all people should have known better."

"I'm sorry," I sincerely told her.

"Apology accepted."

"Just like that?" I snapped my fingers. "You forgive me?"

Scarlet nodded at me, her pinkish lips curved into a sad smile. "I don't know what's really going on between you and Bryce, Sta. Ana, and I don't understand why you're with Lucas, but even a blind man can see that you don't have real feelings for your boyfriend. I hope you know what you're doing. Because a small spark can turn into a big fire. And someone is bound to get burnt."

I stood there in the empty corridor, watching her retreating figure disappear down the stairs. If Alison didn't do it and neither had Scarlet..

..then who had posted those pictures?