Patiently Waiting For Jared Holmes | on-going

III

Chapter three.

"Everybody has been talking about you, you know." That is the first thing that Alexis says to me as she places her tray down at our table opposite Katie and I. I frown in confusion, my mouth full of cheeseburger.

"What do you mean?" Katie asks for me, looking at me briefly before turning back to Lexi, her brown hair swaying back and forth as she creases her eyebrows. My stomach churns uncomfortably, why doesn't that surprise me? I don't think it would be a normal school day without people talking about me. It's the price I have to pay for knowing Jared Holmes, I guess.

"Well," she begins to answer as she takes a bite of her taco. "That bitch Tessa-"

"Theresa." I corrected once I had finished chewing my food.

"Whatever." She says as she waves her hand dismissively. "Theresa with the fake boobs, told everybody that you took a handful of condoms in health class. And now everybody is trying to figure out who you're fucking."

I choke on my own breath, coughing loudly which catches the attention of people nearby who give us strange looks. Katie rubs my back to stop my coughing. My eyes are all watery by the time that I stop and my throat burns.

"I'm not sleeping with anybody!" I defend in shock. This is why I hate school, everybody always has something to say and it's like one big game of Chinese whispers.

"And it wasn't a handful, it was two." Katie chimes in, shrugging her shoulders as though it's no big deal. "I took two as well, so sue us. Everybody needs to mind their business."

I stay silent, agreeing with what Katie has previously said. I look down at my food as I pick up one of my salted fries, dipping it into the small tub of ketchup that is also on my tray.

"Yeah but that's not the worst of it." Alexis says hesitantly, and when I catch her gaze her eyes are full of sympathy. This caused me to panic more and I can feel my heart beating incredibly fast.

"I'm not going to like this, am I?" I ask her and she bites her bottom lip before shaking her head, her pigtails swaying back and forth. I sigh, dropping my fry back onto my tray.

"Go on then," I say again as I lean back in my chair and fold my arms over my chest anxiously. "Might as well get it over with before someone else does."

"It can't be that bad surely." Katie says quickly before Alexis can answer me. Her face is contorted into a large frown and she looks just as puzzled as I do.

"You never know with these people." I say.

"That's true but usually it's because of something Jared has said and he hasn't. So I'm assuming it can't be as bad as that."

She had a point, and whilst I wished it weren't true, it was. Jared had his fair share of fun over the years when it came to terrorising me and making my life a nightmare. Not only that but even interacting with him automatically painted a large, red target on my back for all of the jealous girls to see.

Something you should know about Jared Holmes is that he never, ever learns your name. He may hear it in passing, he may hear it when you tell it to him, but it will simply go through one ear and pass right out of the other.

The only girls in this school that he even interacted with on a daily basis was Katie, my sister and me. Everybody knew that Alexis and Jared were nothing more than friends, despite the fact that our families were adamant that they would make a perfect couple, and Katie was his sister which meant that I was the one that they all hated.

I hated the guy, there was no way I was ever going near him in that way so as far as I was concerned, the girls could have him.

I wouldn't go as far as to say that Jared was a player, because he wasn't really. He didn't lead girls on, he didn't promise them things that he couldn't keep, he didn't take them out on dates or ask for their number. He fucked them and that was that. But he was the captain of the hockey team which automatically meant that practically every girl in this school wanted to jump his bones.