I'm on a writing spree, so here's another update for ya. Enjoy!
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After two whole days of sleeping and watching movies while overdosing on ginger ale and chicken noodle soup, I walk into school on Monday feeling much better than I had Saturday morning. My mood heightened considerably once I was able to laugh without coughing or sit without constantly rotating a blanket on or off.
Needless to say, I walked into first period with a revived demeanor and effectively ignore all the usual stares and rumors following me through the halls. "Morning Coco," I greet Cole when I sit down beside him. "How is your morning going?"
Cole looks at me in amusement. "I woke up an hour ago but so far so good. I'm guessing you feel better?"
I nod happily. "I'm no longer bed ridden, thank god. I hate being sick."
"Luke said you had extra company on Saturday," Cole attempts to say conversationally, but I hear the mild protective undertone in his voice.
I'm saved by the bell and don't have to answer Cole as I'm fighting the blush off of my cheeks at the mention of Nathan. We had watched movies practically all day on Saturday, not to mention cuddled on the couch for a good portion of it. It was weird, how comfortable I was in his arms, despite how uncomfortably fast my mind was racing while I was near him.
Luckily, all my classes came and went fairly quickly, and I managed to coast through all of them without paying much attention to the class at all. My good mood prevailed and encouraged me to even smile at the strangers who greeted me in the halls instead of scowling at them. I even managed to ignore Sasha's disgusted expression when she saw me in Calculus.
By the time the final bell rang for lunch, I was happily on my way to my locker. As I approached, I saw Lisa and Brandon making out- a usual occurrence- but took a smug kind of pride when I realized they were nowhere near my locker. Lisa even opened her eyes when I approached and inched over the other way to make sure they were nowhere near invading my space.
A smug smirk tugged at my lips from my newfound unspoken power as I moved my books around to collect the ones I needed for my next classes. The hallways thinned considerably by the time I shut my locker door, and I turned around to see Lisa and Brandon gone with the rest of the students loitering the halls.
As I began walking toward the cafeteria, I hear a familiar voice call behind me, "Hey Collins."
I turned around to see Nathan walking lazily toward me and stopped to let him catch up. "Hey Rhodes."
We begin walking to the cafeteria again and he asks, "How are you feeling?"
"Much better," I grin at him to prove my words. "I think all the movies and soup worked wonders."
His lips tugged up into a small smile as he nods, "Good."
I give him a sideways glance and notice for the first time how exhausted he looked. There were bags under his eyes and his eyes themselves were hooded instead of bright and awake. "How are you? I didn't get you sick, did I?"
"No," Nathan straightens up a little as we turn at the end of the hallway. "Bennett is sick. I've been taking care of him but he keeps me up all night. I thought he just had a cold, but it might be the flu. I'm bringing him to the doctor after school today."
"Poor Bennett," I sigh and, without thinking, ask: "Are your parents around to help take care of him?"
When I realize what I've asked- one of the most nagging questions in my mind- I turn to study Nathan's reaction closely. His body becomes noticeably rigid beside mine and he averts his gaze from looking at me so he can instead glare at the empty hallway in front of us with his jaw clenched.
For some reason, word vomit arose, and I couldn't stop myself from speaking again. "Maybe they could take him to the doctor so you can get a few hours of-"
"Drop it, Lauren." Nathan snaps sharply, his hands clenching into fists by his side.
I shut my mouth immediately and become hyperaware of the fact I could practically feel his playful self withdrawing to be replaced by the old, cold, hardened Nathan. The Nathan that everyone else saw, but not the one that I really knew.
In one last final attempt to make him feel better, or maybe to apologize, I wasn't quite sure, I say softly, "Nate-"
Before I can blink, Nathan pushes me against a locker, his hands slamming down on either side of my head. My breath catches in my throat when the sound of his fists hitting the metal locker ricochets through the hall. His eyes are ablaze and his breathing is ragged and deep as he leans down with a murderous look on his face.
"Damn it Lauren, I said drop it," Nathan growls angrily. "Mind your own fucking business."
My heart falls into the depths of my stomach as I watch him abruptly pull away and storm down the hall, leaving me there stunned and staring at his retreating figure. I couldn't tell if the heavy feeling in my chest was hurt or concern, but I was positive that something was wrong.
So much for my good mood.
* * *
I knock on Stephanie's dorm room door impatiently as I watch two guys stumble out of a room a few doors down and fall into the opposite wall. They guffaw with laughter as they crash onto the ground, clearly inebriated, holding poorly concealed bottles in their hands. At the disturbance, someone down the hall opens their door and sighs when he sees the two laughing on the floor.
"I told you guys no booze in your dorm," The guy reprimands as he plucks the bottles from their hands. "I'm going to have to write you up this time."
One of the drunk guys on the floor groans, "Come on Damien. Be a cool RA, would ya?"
The other guy nods vigorously. "Yeah, I'll give you a beer if you let us go."
I hear a clicking noise and look forward in time to see Stephanie pulling her door open as she clutches a towel to her body while her soaking wet hair drips over her shoulders. She looks thoroughly annoyed as she ushers me in and shuts the door behind me.
"Sorry for the wait," Stephanie says with annoyance clear in her voice. "I was in the shower and somebody wouldn't answer the door when I asked."
Steph turns to give Cara a pointed glare, who was sitting on her bed with her laptop in her lap and a bored expression on her face. Cara looks and Stephanie and shrugs. "She's your friend. You have legs. You can open the door for her."
While Stephanie looks like she's about to murder Cara, I chuckle and say, "It's fine. I was entertained out there."
She interrupts her plotting Cara's death to look at me with her eyebrows raised. "By what?"
"Some guys getting in trouble by their RA," I explain vaguely, but apparently, Stephanie already knows what I'm talking about.
Stephanie rolls her eyes. "What, Peter and Clive? They get smashed in their dorms every afternoon and poor Damien has to deal with them. I would hate being an RA. Too many freshman that need help with their problems."
"You're a freshman," I point out.
She shrugs. "Girls are different." And then, as if remembering something, her eyes narrow and she glares at Cara again. "Some girls."
Cara sighs and shuts her laptop then climbs off of her bed. "I'm going to the library."
"Great. Have fun." Stephanie says bleakly, her voice void of emotion.
I only allow my laughter to escape after Cara shuts the door behind her, and it only grows louder when Stephanie mutters a string of curses about how much she hates her roommate. When I'm done laughing, I get comfortable on Stephanie's small bed and she throws on some sweats before joining me with a notebook and pen.
"Okay," Steph flips through her notebook. "I need to ask some questions about the experiment." I nod and she begins. "To clarify, for the record, what happened on December 15th?"
I frowned at her in confusion. "I don't know, what?"
"It was the day Nina vandalized your locker," She explains. "Explain what happened that day."
"Oh, okay," I nod and recall the details. "Well, I walked into school that morning and saw a crowd of people in front of my locker. When I got close enough, I saw that Nina had written SLUT in red lipstick across my locker."
"Has she ever bullied you verbally or physically?" Stephanie asks next in her best professional voice as she scribbles down my answers.
I shrug, and then realize that's not an answer, so I continue. "Before the change? No. After? Definitely. She's rude to me whenever she sees me. Makes fun of me, tries to get under my skin, stuff like that. But I don't let her get to me."
Steph nods. "Would you say more people like you or hate you?"
I hesitate because I suddenly realize that I wasn't sure. Before the social experiment, I gave everyone in the halls a friendly smile, and even though I wasn't well known, I at least wasn't hated. But now I'm not too sure. People are nice to me in front of my face, but I'm well aware of the multitude of untrue rumors being spread around about me as well.
When I don't answer right away, Stephanie glances up at me to gauge my reaction, and gives me an encouraging smile. Reluctantly, I give her an honest answer.
"The girls definitely hate me," I tell her with a sigh. "They spread ridiculous rumors about me and I can tell that they all want me to move to a different state."
"And the boys at your school?" Stephanie prompts.
I purse my lips. "They like me more now," I roll my eyes at myself. "Whenever I'm at a party or something, guys will hit on me who would've never glanced in my direction at the beginning of the year. It's obvious that they think I'm some sort of slut now that I've changed my wardrobe."
As Stephanie asked me more questions, I realized how much I was beginning to withdraw interest from the social experiment. Maybe we were going about everything the wrong way. I mean, my plan was to change drastically enough to get a rise out of Thomas just because he cheated me and said I was invisible. But was it worth all of this?
By the end of our interview, I voice my concerns to Stephanie, but leave out the part about wanting to back out. I was well aware that I was in too deep to back out now and I didn't want to make her upset. So I told her that maybe what I was doing wasn't getting to Thomas at all, and maybe this whole thing was a waste of time.
She listens thoughtfully before she asks out of the blue, "You said Nathan and Thomas hate each other, right?"
My brow furrows in confusion. "Yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?"
A secretive smirk stretches across her lips. "What if you and Nathan start dating to piss Thomas off?" When she sees the look on my face, she adds, "Fake dating, of course."
Immediately, I dismiss the idea. "No way in hell."
"Why not?" Stephanie whines. "Think about it. It's a perfect way to add fuel to the fire, you know? Thomas is already pissed because he sees you with Nathan sometimes, but imagine how pissed he'd get if he saw you two kissing or something."
My heart skips a beat at the thought of being able to kiss Nathan again, but I still shake my head. "How do you expect me to convince Nathan Rhodes to fake date me for revenge?"
She shrugs innocently. "He hates Thomas too. Maybe he has his own motives."
Still, I'm not fully convinced. "But what if it doesn't work?"
"Guys are super territorial," Stephanie tells me seriously. "Especially when the guy he'll see you with is his, like, arch nemesis."
I snort in laughter. "Arch nemesis?"
"You know what I mean," She smiles at me. "So, are you in?"
Selfishly, the idea of kissing Nathan again was entirely too appealing, and I was ready to agree ever since she said that. "Do you really think it would work?"
Stephanie's grin widens as she chirps, "Positive."
Eventually I accept with a nod and let the idea sink in. I mean, convincing Nathan wouldn't be so hard, right? But there was one problem: the last time we spoke, he gave me a look that screamed he wished I was ten feet under. He was so pissed at me right now that I doubt he would jump at the opportunity to do me any favors.
"By the way, the footage from New Years is awesome," Stephanie says off handedly as she scrolls through her laptop. "You look great."
My thoughts about Nathan being my fake boyfriend drift away as I look at Stephanie in confusion. "You taped me at the New Year's Eve party?"
She looked up at me. "I told you I was going to."
I vaguely recall her warning and nod but continue in confusion, "I just didn't see you with a camera or anything."
Stephanie grins. "That's because I'm a ninja, remember? Very stealth, very sneaky, very good at her job."
I laugh, but it fades when my attention is brought back to the video. I look at my best friend seriously, catching her gaze as she sobered up too. "Listen, Stephanie, nobody is going to see this video right? Just you, me, and your professor."
She hesitates before saying, "We have to present to our Sociology classes, but no worries. No one we know is in my class."
I'm not completely convinced, but I still decide to let it go, considering there wasn't much I could do about it. Besides, I didn't care if some random college student knew what I had done in my high school if I had no idea who they were. I just didn't want anyone from school finding out the reason behind my drastic change.
"Okay," I let out a breath. "Cool."
Stephanie shoots me an encouraging smile again in an attempt to calm me down. "Don't worry about it, Lauren." And then she smirks. "When are you going to ask Nathan to be your fake boyfriend?"
I narrow my eyes at her as my face flushes and I mutter, "I don't know."
"What about now?" She presses. "We can drive to his house."
"He's at the doctor with Bennett," I murmur before glancing at her. "The last time we spoke, he got mad at me, so we aren't exactly on speaking terms right now."
She frowns at me. "Why did he get mad?"
Even though Stephanie was my absolute best friend in the whole wide world, I felt like talking about Nathan's personal life with her was out of bounds, so I just settled for a vague explanation. "He won't tell me anything about himself and whenever I ask, he gets pissed and walks away. Nathan's entire life is a mystery."
"Weird," Stephanie's brow furrows deeper. "But don't worry. He'll get over it eventually and I'm sure he'll finally open up to you."
"I hope," I mutter before brightening and smirking at my best friend. "So, how's Justin?"
Stephanie begins gathering her unruly curly hair into a bun on top of her head as she speaks, like talking about Justin heated her up. "I haven't seen him since the football game, but we talk every day."
"Looks like you're a cougar," I tease her with a wide grin on my lips.
Justin and Stephanie have always had chemistry. Last year, when she was a senior and we were juniors, her and Justin were always flirting in class and at parties. They hooked up a few times but Stephanie ended it at the end of summer before she went to school. But it seems like they can't get away from each other, and whenever I'm with Steph and she sees Justin, she glows. Needless to say, I was so team Justin.
"Really, though, that's sweet," I grin wider when she smiles genuinely. "You should see him this weekend."
"He has the States game this weekend," Stephanie blows my idea off nonchalantly. "I won't be able to see him until he gets back."
Because I'm such a good and supportive friend, I tell her, "We should go!"
She looks up with wide eyes. "Really? But what about Brett?"
"Who cares about Brett?" I wave off her concern and watch her smile widen. "Justin would be so happy to see you in the stands during the game. Seriously, Steph, we should go see the game."
Stephanie is full on grinning by the time I'm done speaking. "I was going to ask you to go, but then the whole thing at Brett's party happened..."
"I don't care about that. There are going to be plenty of people at the game, I probably won't even see him." But I do care, and I really really hope I don't see Brett, because seeing him in science today was so awkward that I tried to disappear. I attempt to ignore my inner battle and decided to tease, "Maybe he'll let you wear his jersey."
She bursts into a fit of laughter, and I let myself forget about my problems with Brett for the time being. Instead of worrying, I sit with Stephanie in her undersized dorm room and regain my good mood from this morning.