Soon as the bell goes I'm rushing out of the classroom and into the hallways. That was my last physics lesson with the demon known as Mrs Johnson. I don't usually talk about teachers horribly or even judge them based on anything but this one, she makes me want to shove pens in my ears.
Her voice draws out and is high pitched not to mention the dreadful way she dresses. Mrs Johnson reminds me of a house wife in the sort of old school dresses she would wear with her hair pinned in a bun daily, bright red lipstick that stood out against her wrinkly skin. It isn't just that, thanks to Aaron being a little brat in Grade 9 she hates me.
By being related to him, I was expected to be exactly the same as him and she hated me on the assumption. Anything, any tiny little thing I did, I got in trouble for. I once got a lunch time detention for accidentally knocking my stool over because I got spooked by a spider. Anything that has more legs than me is a no go, so I couldn't help but jump from the creature.
Instead, we have a new teacher that's just out of university. Half the girls were fawning and asking for physical details about him which kinda made me nauseous. I don't care, as long as the teacher is decent and won't hold anything against me like the she devil did.
Turning the corner I look up to see Aaron standing at his locker but he isn't alone. Infront of him is Grayson who is leaning against his locker doing god knows what to my cousin who looks annoyed. My pace slows down and I come to a stop, getting a few bumps from people rushing past me.
It's when Aaron unexpectedly grabs him by his collar and slams him into his locker that I snap out of it. My hand latches onto his shoulder tugging hard, he looks down at me for a second and lets him go. Grayson just laughs as Aaron repeatedly clenches and unclenches his fist.
I know Aaron and he doesn't have a short temper, he has put up with him for almost three years and I don't see why he just snapped now like that. He slams his locker shut and walks away leaving me with Grayson who is grinning, waving to me mockingly before I chase after my cousin.
"Aaron! Slow down," I manage to catch his wrist as he shrugs me off with a gritted jaw. "What's wrong? What did he say?"
"Is there something you aren't telling me?" I raise an eyebrow at him as he furrows his. "Are you and Grayson dating? Because he sure as hell implied it."
"No, we aren't dating. Never have nor will we," I cross my arms over my chest feeling confused. "We ran into each other literally yesterday, he was rude but that's it."
"God he annoys me. I don't know how he knew, knows that we're really close to one another. But hearing him talk like that pissed me right off." I shrug and adjust my bag strap on my shoulder.
"Well it doesn't matter. Calm your farm because it won't happen," He rubs his face and takes a deep breath. The halls are almost empty and quiet as the anger radiating from him is slowly fading away. "I've been burnt once before and I don't want that again."
"Let's go," I nod and follow him out to the carpark in silence. It's tense and I don't get why, he pushes open the door for me and I slip out into the warm air. "I just couldn't stand the idea of you being with another jerk. That's all." I hum, fiddling with my necklace again.
"We've been through this before. I'm not going to be reckless next time I decide to get a boyfriend." He nods and I look down at the pendant hanging around my neck.
Aaron can't help but be protective of me. He has always been that way and I can't really blame him for wanting to fight off anything a boy says about me. He hated, despised, loathed- you get the picture- my first and only boyfriend with a passion. So much so that when things went south he gave him a broken nose as a goodbye present, followed by helping me get revenge via Heartbreakers.
It was my ex boyfriend that gave the idea of the revenge website. When we posted his profile online it wasn't narrowed down to me -there was three other girls along with their friends and family- it wasn't a secret what happened. He had cheated on me multiple times and was leaving with no notice the next week.
It was brutal, humiliating and just plain pathetic. But that's the story that everyone knows about, little do they know there's much more than that. The only one that knows the whole truth is Ella, mainly because I didn't want anyone else to know. I didn't want the whole school knowing just how much of a douche bag he was.
No, I let my words speak enough on the website. Without swearing I can make people feel just as they would if I directly called them cliche insults. But instead I use my English skills to pass them off in a more intellectual way. I'm not stuck up, I just want to be a journalist when I finish school and this is perfet practice for me.
In my eyes, anyone who gets on Heartbreakers deserves what they get. But that might just be the bias side of me. What I'm doing isn't great -even morally acceptable- but neither are the people featured on it. It all depends on your perspective of it.
The car comes to a stop out the front of the apartment building, the brick being covered in colourful graffiti and the grass over grown. It might not be the safest neighborhood- or the most looked after- but it's what mom can afford. Unlocking the car doors, I grab my bag from the floor and slide out of the black truck.
"I'll pick you up at 8 tomorrow alright?" I nod, waving before closing the door.
I chuckle, hearing the door lock before heading inside. The door creaks as I open it and look at the front desk where the tenant is asleep. Quietly I head upstairs, counting a total of forty as I reach the forth floor. The elevator at the moment is broken thanks to the idiot above us throwing some explosive home made device gone wrong inside, sort of like on The Big Bang Theory.
Swinging my back pack around I get my keys out, being greeted to a cinnamon smelling home with the TV playing Judge Judy. Mom looks at me from her arm chair, giving me a tired smile as she still wears her work uniform. I kick off my converse, closing the door before bolting and latching it.
"How was school today?" She asks, turning the TV down. I hang my keys up on the hook and walk over behind the lounge, using it as a leaning post while I pull my socks off.
"The usual. What about work?" Tucking the dirty socks into the pockets of my jeans I head into the kitchen, the sound of her heels clicking signifies she followed me.
"Horrible. I had to train the newbie in the Parts department- one of the most simplistic jobs- how to take stock. All she had to do was scan and then log it into the computer. It isn't rocket science." I chuckle, putting my water bottle back into the fridge before grabbing a coke can.
"You're forgetting that used to be your job," I raise an eyebrow and she waves me off, opening the freezer.
"But I got promoted to service. Hmm, does steak and chips sound good to you?" She gets out two steak trays, placing them on the counter. "If not, too bad. Sunday we're having lunch at Jennifer's, don't make plans." I nod and take a sip of my drink.
"Alright because I have such a thrilling social life," She rolls her eyes, starting the water for the dishes. "I'm kidding. I'll be in my room if you need me. "
Walking down the hall to my room, the floorboards feel nice against my feet. I use my hip to push the door open, being met by the mess that is my room. After kicking a few clothes out of my path, I dump my bag on the end of my desk and take a seat in my chair.
I turn on my laptop that was a birthday present from Jennifer- my aunt and Aaron's mom- before placing my drink down. Typing in my password I wait for it to load before walking over to my chest of drawers. I strip out of my school clothes, pulling on black sweats and a dark blue tank top.
Picking up my school clothes, I throw them in the hamper before doing the same with a few clothes on my way back to my desk. I sigh at the messy state of my room, making a mental note to clean it on the weekend. Once my clothes are gathered and thrown into the hamper, I pick it up heading to the laundry.
Despite the apartment building being in a low socio-economic area, the inside of the building is quite nice. The walls are painted of a decent quality, floorboards have been recently placed and appliances are up to date. Personally, the only complaint I have is the damn noisy neighbors and the lack of hot water at night time. Oh well, you can't have everything.
I put a load on before heading back to my room, pulling the tie from my hair I rake my fingers through it to relax a bit. School is extremely tiring. Every teenager knows this and most of the time, coming home and sleeping is all you want to do. But no, you have to do this evil thing called homework or you're in trouble.
Sitting down at my computer I plug in the USB that loads my Internet. I wait for it to connect before going into Chrome, first checking my personal Facebook to procrastinate. A few posts come up about the page but one in particular gets my heart racing. No, that- no. I reach over for my bag, getting my phone out of my bag while logging out of my personal.
I type in the email and the password feeling like I want to cry. This email/password is invalid, please try again. I press dial on Aaron's contact, getting up and closing my bedroom door before flopping down on the chair again. Logging back into my Facebook, I click a new tab just as he finally answers.
"He-"
"Quit playing a joke. What's the password?" I go into gmail, typing it in followed by my password.
"What are you talki-"
"Heartbreakers. You changed the Facebook page password and said it was hacked," I pause, feeling my heart pounding. My heart picks up again finding acces to email granted. Thankfully, Aaron listened to me when I said that we should have different passwords for each. "Please tell me you did this.." I whisper, biting my lip as I switch back to Facebook.
"Are you serious? I haven't been- what does it say exactly," He seems just as panicked as I am, except he isn't on the verge of tears like I am.
"You've been causing pain for too long. It's time that someone puts a stop to it, funny how things turn out. Especially considering I NEVER would've picked up on who created this page. Interesting," I pause, playing with the necklace pendant to the point I'm concerned its going to be pulled off. "Someone knows it's us. What are we-" A ding comes from my computer
"I, I, We need to find out wh-" I tune him out as I go into the next tab and look at the new email I got. Clicking it I feel like everything's just gone to hell, this can't be possible.
From: grayson.jones@gmail.com
To: heartbreakers.l.m@gmail.com
Subject: Secrets
I have to admit, I never thought that you two would ever, EVER do something like this. Mainly because I don't believe that you're truly capable of doing anything life ruining. But then again, looks can be deceiving.
I'll give you the password to your Facebook page if you meet me at the closest McDonalds to the school tomorrow morning. Oh, by the way this is directed to Aria ONLY, sorry Aaron but this deal is between us.
What are you going to do to keep your secret? See you at 8- alone.
-Grayson Jones
"I think I know who hacked the account," Swallowing the lump in my throat I sink back in the chair. "And you aren't going to like it at all."
Hopefully this was a better chapter ☺ Do you have any ideas what this deal is going to be about?
Comment and vote if you liked the chapter x
Collage created by me for this chapter
Dedication to qwertyist , if you haven't check out her amazing book Seven's Fool. You won't be disappointed in it ☺
-Rhi 🌺