Heya, this is an earlier update! *cue the confetti blast*
I didn't want to keep you waiting anymore, so hope you enjoy it!
Dedicated to BunnyRabbit84. Your comment on the previous chapter was adorable! Thank you so much💙
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Twelve:
I remained glued to my chair as my eyes roamed through the words filled with hatred.
Anonymous: B*TCH! I can't believe you would post something like this on a school's blog! How dare you? I could report you to the principal for this AND take down your blog for intruding Michael's personal life and making something like this public! If you don't have any interesting things to post from your own life, at least leave HIM alone!
"Wow..." I breathed, my insides crumpled in little pieces. "Looks like someone took an extra set of bitchy pills."
Chloe snorted. "Just an extra set? I bet she's been inhaling those every day."
"I guess I kind of expected hateful comments at some point... But it still friggin' hurts. Do you have any idea who this person might be?"
She thought for a second. "Well, I've considered a few options. The first one, this anonymous person is in fact Michael who tried to protect himself and direct the hate on you."
I chewed on my lip, my eyes still fixed on the comment. "Is he really that desperate? I mean, would he go that far just to try turn people into feeling pity towards him? That obviously contradicts with everything I've ever know about him. That would be the last think he would want."
"You're right," Chloe stated, "Okay so he's off the list. The second option would be one of his female conquests. Maybe a member of the popular gang? Either a still in love former girlfriend, or one of his current dates."
I thought that through. The only former girlfriend of his that I knew was Carly. And for some reason, Carly didn't strike me as the type of person to leave hateful comments. She was more into other ways of manipulating people.
And as far as I knew, Michael wasn't currently dating anyone. At least, none of his friends whom I'd (ever) spoken to recently, a.k.a. just Matt, didn't mention anything about that.
He likes you, Matt had said.
I shook those words off my mind. I would let them torment me some more later.
"Hmm, I don't know... Do you have any more options?"
"Just one. Marie Elizabeth."
If people could choke on air, I was pretty sure I'd just done it. "What?"
Marie Elizabeth had been the reason my crush on Michael turned into hate when I'd watched the two of them kiss next to my locker.
So I wasn't exactly thrilled about her existence.
"I thought that through," Chloe deadpaned. "Just listen. Marie and Michael had been known to have stayed in close touch since you know... The incident."
In close touch. I wondered if her choice of words was actually on purpose.
The fact that Chloe avoided to say the k word made me a little bit better. However, I hated to remember that moment.
"Yeah, yeah, I know. Moving on. So what if they kept in touch?"
"Marie has always stood up to him when needed. She was like... Um... An older sister? Ugh, no, screw that. That would've meant they were practicing incest."
"Ugh... Thanks for the image Chloe."
"Look, I'm just saying. She has all the reasons. Plus, to be honest, she kind of always dispised you, though that doesn't really matter since your blog was anonymous, but -"
"What?" My eyes grew wide. "She despised me?"
"... You didn't know? Anyway," she cleared her throat loudly, "I think we should consider her as a potential suspect before we get more clues."
"Yeah, thanks, Sherlock," I chuckled. "But what should I do now? I mean, what if she - or he, let's not jump to conclusions yet - really takes down my blog somehow? Mr. Brunner would take my blogging rights for good this time!"
"Don't worry," Chloe assured me, "Those are just simple threats. She won't go all the way with them... I think."
"It's good to see that you're one hundred percent confident in your words," I said sarcastically.
"I will help you in this. Okay? We'll find for sure who posted that comment and we'll give them dozens of reasons to leave you alone."
My mouth curved into a slight smile. "Okay... I suppose we have no other choice. That blog has been my saving grace in Mr. Brunner's eyes. I need it."
"I know. I promise everything will be okay."
I smiled a little bit more. Maybe Chloe was right. It was just a comment. My blog had had a huge impact on the students since I'd picked Michael Langwood as the main topic. It was normal to get all sorts of reactions on it.
Fingers crossed that things wouldn't get even more confusing than they already were.
But it was my life we're talking about here.
So of course they did.
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"The. Worst. Hangover. Ever."
Those were the only words I managed to get from Michael the next morning.
Hangover? The party had taken place two days before. How could he still have a hangover?
"Wait, can you please liste -"
"Ugh," was all he said before dragging his feet lazily across the hallway, his hands still rubbing his temples.
After I'd helped him get home safely while he was passed out, I guess I deserved at least a few minutes of attention from him.
I just wanted to ask him if he knew something about that comment from the blog (and if he remembered something from Carly's party) but it looked like my questions would have to wait.
So I decided to put these matters in the back of my head and just head to my next class for now.
"He won't talk to me either," a voice from behind me said.
I turned around in my heels, only to find Matt standing behind me with his books hung into his arms.
I shrugged. "Yeah, well, Michael not talking to me is getting pretty old already. "
"Don't blame him. He's gone to another party yesterday." As if on cue, a yawn sprung out of his mouth. Dark circles hung underneath his eyes, and his face looked the color of sand into the neon light coming from the ceiling. "I had to carry him home again."
"How does Michael even find that many parties?"
Matt pursed his lips. "Be grateful you're not his tag along friend. Well, at least not until he asks you to be his girlfriend."
I rolled my eyes and let out a snort at the same time. "What? Girlfriend? Yeah, right. Maybe when I grow a huge chest and I'm the last female creature on planet Earth!"
I realized I'd been half yelling by the end of my sentence. My voice had raised to the right amount of decibels to leave Matt staring wide eyed at me.
I cleared my throat awkwardly and averted his gaze. Looks like all that year of frustrations when Michael, a.k.a my crush at that time, hadn't paid any attention to me, now erupted in some sort of rage fit.
"Uh, sorry about that," I said, my tone above a whisper.
Matt chewed on his lip but managed to look at me like I was a normal person back again. "Well, yeah. Michael likes you. I told you already. "
"Why do you keep throwing that in my face? You know it's not true."
It was Matt's turn to roll his eyes. "Yes, it is! Otherwise I wouldn't have told you in the first place. Why wouldn't you admit it to yourself ? "
"Because Michael always treated me like I was some sort of punching bag for his stupid jokes! He wouldn't stop making fun of me, calling me a nerd... And worst of all, giving me false hopes!"
Matt arched an eyebrow. "False hopes?"
The bell rang. The hallway began to clear up, everyone marching to their classes, but Matt didn't even flinch.
"It - It doesn't matter. My point is if he really likes me, why wouldn't he just tell me himself?"
Matt opened his mouth to speak, but closed it immediately afterwards. He reluctantly looked to his left, and then dropped his gaze to the ground.
I took that as a response. "Yeah... See ya, Matt."
I readjusted the books in my arms and ran across the hallway for my Algebra class.
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This was a shorter chapter, hope you enjoyed it like this! I know things are in a little bit of an awkward phase right now but they will take a new turn, that's all I can say... XD
The next chapter will have a small suprise hidden at the beggining so keep your eyes opened haha :3
Btw, I wrote a new story on Tap :) It features the characters from this book - aka Michael, Bree and Chloe. The title is I Just Called To Say I Like You, so if you're curious to check it out, here's the link: https://taptap.app.link/fZp68DLpiB (I'll post the link in the comments too because it might be inaccessible from here)
In case you happen to read it, I'm looking forward to your opinions ;)
Thank you and see ya to the next update!
Cheers✌