"I told you I was trouble,
You know that I'm no good."
"GOSH! TELL SOMEONE if you're going to go anywhere next time, alright? When we returned from dancing only to find you missing, I didn't know what to think!" Emily exclaimed, grabbing my shoulders tightly and looking at me up and down to check for any injuries. I raised an eyebrow and bubbled out a laugh.
"Calm down, Em," I snorted. "Did you think I got kidnapped, or something?"
"As if you're worth all the trouble," Asher retorted behind me, causing me to turn around and shoot him a death glare.
"Does it physically hurt if you try to be nice?" I snapped, narrowing my eyes at him.
"If I were nice to you, you'd probably smile and that sight alone is enough to physically hurt me," Asher replied, smirking as he crossed his lanky arms. "So yes, I guess it does hurt to be nice."
Turning to Emily, I sighed loudly and shook my head. "Really, Em. Good luck with him."
"Oi!" I heard him protest, and Emily and I broke into a heap of laughter, silencing him and causing him to return to his usual sulking.
"Where's Logan?" I asked when I noticed that the charming boy and his date were nowhere to be seen. Reiko, who stood next to Emily, suddenly found a big interest in the marble tiles beneath her. She crossed her arms like a defiant child and had an awfully cute frown plastered on her face.
"With Flavia," Emily answered awkwardly, scratching the back of her hand. I wrinkled my nose when I caught on to the underlying message.
"Boys," Reiko and I muttered in unison, and grinned widely at each other afterwards.
Asher cleared his throat irritably, adjusting his tie.
"It's late, shall we?" he asked Emily, though his tone suggested that there was no space for argument. Emily stole a glance at me, looking slightly reluctant to leave when it seemed as if the night was just starting to become more interesting.
"Okay," she murmured and Asher smiled stiffly. He offered her his arm, and she hesitantly looped an arm through. His action didn't go unnoticed by the other students. Under everyone's watchful eye and to their surprise, Asher pulled Emily closer and leaned in to kiss her cheek lightly.
"Thanks for being my date tonight," he said, loud enough for a few people standing close to us to catch, and Emily blushed a bright pink. With that, he pulled her closer gently, and walked out of the ballroom together.
Asher Dane is dating Emily Park? No way!
I think they're pretty cute, don't you?
He deserves better.
I swirled around to glare at the girl behind me, only to find that she was already looking right as me with a challenging smirk. Raising her eyebrows, she silently dared for me to disagree. Unfortunately for her, I wasn't someone who cared much about their reputation in this godforsaken school and would much rather defend my friend than stand and watch.
"He deserves better? Like who? You?" I sneered, giving her the stink eye. Gasping, she let out sharp laugh, probably taken aback by me. She had the decency to look slightly embarrassed, but quickly recovered and flipped her hair.
"Yeah, of course," she stated, lifting her chin up higher.
"I don't know Asher Dane all that well, but I'm certain that even he has more standards than to date a judgmental wrench like you," I snapped. The girl clenched her jaw, glancing around and taking note of the audience that had gathered around us.
"Whatever, freak. Why don't you go back to your...your pig sty!" she screeched, turning around and stalking off. The crowd dispersed quickly afterwards, and I stiffened when a hand hesitantly tapped my shoulder. I glanced to the side to see that the hand belonged to Yuko.
"I have to take Reiko back. Will you be alright by yourself?" he muttered, raising an eyebrow and glancing at the back of the girl I had just unleashed my fury upon.
Letting out a sigh and wrapping my arms around my waist, I nodded.
"Yeah, I can handle myself."
Yuko looked at me for a second longer, hesitating before saying, "What you did back there for Emily— she's lucky to have a friend like you."
Blinking in surprise, I couldn't help the smile that stretched across my lips.
"It's nothing," I said, feeling almost giddy for some strange reason. It was as if I was almost...proud of receiving praise from him! Is this the effect these boys had on everyone? No wonder everyone wanted to please them. Yuko nodded stiffly, then checked his watch for the time.
"We'll see you around, Alex," Yuko said before turning to his sister. "Rei, let's go."
"See you around, Alex! You're pretty cool," Reiko chirped over her shoulder as Yuko walked away, shooting me a playful wink. With a wave, she turned around and hurried to catch up with her brother.
Guess it's time to leave, too.
Wordlessly, I began to walk back to my dorm. I winced when the back of my heels dug into my skin again, and was suddenly very aware of how badly my feet were aching.
Damn these beautiful heels, I cursed. Bending down, I carefully unbuckled them and held the pair in one hand. Slowly, I straightened up and took a step forward, only to bump into someone and fall onto my derrière.
"Goddamnit! Why do I keep bumping into people?" I cried, rubbing my sore butt. A light-hearted chuckle that resonated above me made me look up.
"It's not funny," I muttered and the stranger immediately sobered up, but the amused twinkle in his eyes remained.
"Here," he said, offering me a hand. Cautiously, I took his hand and allowed him to pull me up.
"Sorry," I muttered, straightening my dress.
"It's fine, I wasn't looking where I was going anyway," he answered, offering me a wolfish grin. At that, a reluctant smile graced my features.
"Well, I'd better get going now," I declared, and sidestepped him.
"Wait!"
A slow grin appeared on my face, and I looked over my shoulder. "Yeah?"
"Do you...do you want to hang out sometime? I can buy you a non-fat soy latte," he offered. Turning around to face him, I crossed my arms.
"Non-fat soy latte?" I asked incredulously, raising an eyebrow at him. A slight blush tinged his cheeks, and he awkwardly scratched the back of his head.
"Okay, maybe forget about the latte. But do you want to hang out sometime?" he asked, smiling hesitantly.
"Are you asking me out?" I asked, smirking as the blush on his cheeks deepened.
"No! Wait, I mean, yes. Yes, I'm asking you out," he said, straightening his posture and offering me a handshake. "I'm Jake. Jake Lindon."
"I'm Alexandra Knight," I said, shaking his hand with a small smile.
"The new girl?" he asked, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise.
"How did you know?" I asked curiously.
"New students hardly go unnoticed around here. And besides, you made quite the scene in the dining hall on your first day, talking back to Asher Dane like that. Everyone's saying that you should get expelled or something for disrespecting him," he scoffed, rolling his eyes. Then, with a sly grin, he leaned closer and said, "But between you and me, what you did was pretty cool."
Blinking in surprise, I felt my cheeks heat up at his compliment.
"Plus," he continued, "You are best friends with Emily Park. You know, daughter and heiress to her family's billion-dollar banking business."
"You seem to know an awful lot about everyone," I commented, cocking my head to one side. With a shrug, he chuckled.
"If you follow the school's Twitter page, you'll know all about everyone too," he explained, causing me to almost choke on my own spit.
"The school has a Twitter page?" I sputtered. Jake blinked, then nodded his head.
"Yeah. Unofficial Twitter page," he said. "Probably run by Bianca Harding's cronies or something. The page is full of gossip."
"Huh," I said, crossing my arms. I made a mental note to search it up when I get back to my dorm.
"Well...," Jake said, rolling back and forth on the balls of his feet. "I'll get going since it's quite obvious I'm out of your league."
I raised my eyebrows, Him? Cute blondie with the surfer boy vibe? Out of my league? I wasn't even aware I had a league in the first place!
"Hey, Jake!" I called just as he began to walk away. He turned around, looking surprised.
"Yeah?"
"Tomorrow, six p.m. at The Bean. I'll take up that offer for a non-fat soy latte," I said, before turning around and walking back to my dorm with a large smile on my face.
❁❁❁
"I CAN'T BELIEVE this," Emily cried, in a state of obvious distress. She put down her phone and buried her face in her hands, sighing loudly.
Frowning slightly, I asked, "What's wrong?"
"Check Twitter," she groaned, passing her phone to me. Looking at the screen, I immediately recognized the blurry picture of a couple. Despite the bad lighting and angle, I could clearly make out Asher's white hair and Emily's pink dress. This must've been taken during the Winter Ball. My eyes drifted to the caption that accompanied the photo, feeling slightly confused.
@LatestMeilleur: #nowtrending Asher Dane seen at the Winter Semi-formal ball with his date, Emily Park.
"What's wrong? Isn't this the publicity you guys intended to get?" I asked, glancing at my friend with concern.
"It's not that I'm annoyed about. It's the fact that everyone and their mother has something to say about this," she grumbled, thumping her head on the hard wooden table.
"Don't do that, Em," I said, patting her shoulder. She let out a frustrated sigh, raising her head to give me a look.
"Read the mentions," she said, her eyebrows furrowing. "Does no one have anything nice to say?"
"@QueenB: @LatestMeilleur Who knew plain and simple was the trend now?" I read out loud, feeling my blood boil. It didn't take an idiot to know that 'QueenB' was none other than Bianca Harding. The tweet got over a hundred retweets and mention-backs, all of which were rude, snarky remarks on how 'QueenB' was right. "Is she serious? She's such a jerk."
"Just forget about her," Emily said softly, visibly upset. "She never has anything nice to say, anyways."
"I hate her," I muttered angrily.
"That's the way it is in Meilleur. Girls like Bianca Harding will always get their way while the rest of us just struggle to graduate hoping to not get noticed by her and her cronies," Emily said quietly, twirling her pen with her fingers.
"Did Asher say anything about this?" I asked, in which Emily only shook her head with a sigh.
"He doesn't have a Twitter," Emily said. "Besides, he wouldn't care."
With that, Emily began to work on her math homework again while I continued to scroll through my new notifications. I got a few new followers, some of which were complete strangers. A small smile made a way onto my face as a familiar name popped up onto the screen.
@lanigan followed you.
I clicked on the profile, pausing to laugh at Siobhan Lanigan's newest tweet.
@lanigan: @QueenB I'm pretty sure being a total QueenBitch is out of season, too.
Emily looked over my shoulder and read the tweet displayed on my screen, letting out a small giggle.
"Siobhan Lanigan is hilarious! Remind me to never get on her bad side," I chuckled.
Emily nodded in agreement before saying, "Did you hear that she planted a goat in Mr. Sylvester's classroom because he gave her an A- for History?"
"What? Oh my god, a goat? How did she even get a goat?" I spluttered in disbelief.
Emily shrugged before smiling slyly, "Bleats me."
The two of us stared at each other in silence, before descending into a heap of snorts and giggles.
"Oh my god, Emily! That was horrible!" I whispered loudly.
"Shh! I couldn't help it, okay? It was too good of an opportunity to pass up!" Emily defended, giggling cheerfully. After we calmed down, Emily shot me a small smile.
"It's nice that she stood up for me," she said, pursing her lips. "She doesn't do that often. Get involved in all this drama, I mean."
"Yeah," I murmured, my mind rewinding back to my encounter with Bianca and her in the bathroom last night. "I ran into her in the bathroom last night."
"Really? What did you say?" Emily asked, eyes widening.
"Bianca was confronting me and she stepped in," I explained, a small smile gracing my lips. "She's pretty nice."
"Bianca," Emily muttered, rolling her eyes. "She's crazy."
I nodded in agreement, before reverting my attention back to Siobhan.
"By the way," I said curiously. "Is Siobhan friends with the Royals?"
Emily bit her lip and nodded.
"Yeah, they used to be really close, they stopped hanging out after last year. Royals is actually an abbreviation of the first letters of all their names put together, and the 'S' in Royals stood for Siobhan," Emily explained and my eyes widened in surprise. When Siobhan said they used to be friends, I had no idea they were that close.
"What about the 'O' in Royals? Is there another missing member I'm unaware of?" I asked.
"The 'O' stands for Oswald," Emily explained. When she saw the confusion on my face, she continued, "It's Robin's middle name."
"Oswald?" I repeated, snorting. "Sounds like an old man's name."
"You're lucky Robin's not here," Asher's voice boomed from behind the two of us, causing Emily to jump in surprise. I groaned and banged my head against the table.
"Great, it's you again," I grumbled, while Asher simply sneered at me.
"Deal with it, Alexandra," Asher snapped, before turning to look at Emily. Refusing to meet his eye, she fidgeted nervously in her seat.
"Emily, we're going shopping," Asher said in a monotonous voice and Emily's eyes nearly bugged out of her head.
"W-what? Why?" she blurted out, flabbergasted. Asher sighed heavily.
"Mom insists I take you out for shopping," he stated, spitting out the word 'shopping' as if it was a dirty word.
Emily glanced at me, "I can't just leave Lexi here."
"Then take her with you. Come on," Asher said snappily, turning around and walking away without waiting for us. "Front entrance, five minutes."
Emily shot me an apologetic glance, packing her things in a rush. I did the same, and slung my bag over my shoulder.
"What are you doing?" Emily asked, as I stood up with her and shot her a grin.
"I won't let you suffer alone. Come on," I said, hooking my arm through hers. Emily heaved a sigh of relief and nodded with a grateful smile on her face, and we made our way to our doom— I mean, to Asher's car.
❁❁❁
❁❁❁
A/N: I'd just like to take the time to remind everyone out there that mental health is valid. You are valid. Please, if you are suffering, get help. Talk to someone. If you know someone who's struggling, listen to them. Stay safe, all of you. I love you.
#QOTC: What do you guys think about Jake? Do you ship him with Alex? #JALEX
Song of the Chapter: You Know I'm No Good by Amy Winehouse.