[The ARTICLE]
Define Bryce Pendleton
By: Alyson B. Carmine
People define Bryce Pendleton as the sweet and charming nice guy of Kensington High. He is the person you know who wouldn’t hurt a fly unless his life depends on it. He is the guy with the smile that could light up your lonely day. He is a straight-A student whom the teachers really admire. He is a beautiful creature that girls are dying to have. And he is the guy so cool that every boy in our school wants to be like him. He is just a perfect guy, a family man and a lady’s man.
But what you do not know is how I define Bryce and why I define Bryce that way. Bryce is that he is a cruel, lying bastard. He is a phony. He is a hypocrite.
He broke my heart. He broke my heart for 500 bucks.
We started as lab partners in science class last year. For two months since the first day of school we weren’t talking maybe because he doesn’t like to talk to girls like me or maybe because I had no interest in talking to him. Either way we had this mutual understanding that we only talk if it was about our class.
One day he decided to talk to it was when we were making a class experiment. He wasn’t talking about our experiment but was asking details about my life, I asked questions in return. That was the star of our new friendship.
In just a few meetings we ended up being good friends. He invited me to his house parties, night outs with friends or even just hanging out in some quiet place. We had fun having the company of each other.
That’s when I noticed that he was staring at me differently. He was smiling at me differently. And I had this weird feeling in my chest and a weird fluttering sensation in my stomach as if it had butterflies in it.
Yes, butterflies in my stomach. More of like the whole ‘circle of life’ gang in Lion king was inside my stomach.
I was happy. I was happy that Bryce and I were friends.
And then one day we were in a quiet place, his secret hiding place when he wanted to get away from the loud and crazy world. He then confessed to me, he said that he loved me. Bryce Pendleton was in love with me. I literally slapped myself because I thought it was a dream, but my cheeks hurt so I knew it wasn’t. I hugged him, and told him that I also love him. That then Bryce was my boyfriend, my first boyfriend.
We went on for a quite lovely time then summer vacation came. I was so excited because we were planning to have a vacation in Florida and go crazy in Disney World.
The day before our trip to Disney world I visited Bryce in his house. We went to his room and there I saw something on his study table. It was an opened envelop, I thought it was a letter. Bryce was startled when he saw me picking it up and immediately grabbed the letter to my hind and put it away in his drawer. That left me curious.
So when Bryce left his room because his mom was calling him I decided to take a look in the envelope and I wished I never did. Inside the envelope was five 100 dollar bills and a note that says, “Congratulations on winning the bet and have fun with your girl. Nice act you can stop now.”
Confused I asked Bryce and what the note meant and then he confessed everything.
We all know everyone thought that I will be the last girl everyone thought who will have a boyfriend. And Bryce and I would never be possible. The bet was if Bryce made me his girlfriend for four months he will get 500 hundred bucks if he did not he will pay five hundred bucks.
My heart shattered piece by piece as he confessed everything word by word.
I walked out on him.
He did not even chase me.
Funny was the rain was pouring on a summer day.
The person whom I thought was an angel was the devil who broke my heart.
***
[Alyson’s POV]
I was called to the office of our club advisor Mrs. Wells, wife of our English teacher Mister Wells. I was on my way there, thinking of why she wanted me in her office. Maybe it was because of what the article that I wrote about Bryce Pendleton.
I sighed as I trace the steps to her office.
The article I wrote became trending on twitter. I was surprised when I saw posts about it on twitter, because the people posting it were the people whom I thought cannot read. Even if they were angry about it and called me a ‘lying obsessive bitch’ I did not care. I was happy that I did it.
The entire school knew my side of the story but a few only believed it. Many of them still believed that Bryce will never hurt a girl. He had a really clean record with girls. All of Bryce’s exes were the reason of their break-up. I was the only one who was different so hardly anyone believed it.
I finally arrived at Mrs. Wells’ office.
There I saw Bryce and I frowned as he glared at me.
“Good morning Mrs. Wells why did you call me?” I asked her with a smile.
“You really have no idea why?” he asked me.
“I have an idea, unlike the four months of lies we had. That I did not have any idea,” I snapped.
He did not give a response and just glared at me as I sat on the chair in front of him.
“Alyson what you did was very unprofessional,” Mrs. Wells said with a calm tone.
“No it wasn’t, our Club’s motto is to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” I reasoned, “I wasn’t making that up.”
“Yeah, but that was way too personal,” Bryce snapped. I noticed his baby blues turned dark. He was furious.
“I don’t care, I am glad I did it,” I said coldly.
“Alyson I’m afraid I have to suspend you for being the editor of the school paper,” Mrs. Wells said.
“No you can’t do that,” I said, “being the editor is like the only reason that I come here in our school!”
“I’m sorry Alyson,” she said.
I was close to tears but then I laid my eyes on Bryce who couldn’t look at me straight. His movements reminded me of when he was telling me of the sick bet he made with his friend whom he left unnamed. “You,” I snapped, “this is all your fault!”
“I’m not the one who wrote the article,” he said with his voice in a hush.
“I would never write that if you weren’t such an asshole! You bastard!! I hate you!!” I walked out with tears in my eyes.
I hate him so much.
***
Lunch time came and girls were glaring at me in the whole cafeteria. I grabbed some doughnuts and milk and sat on the table where Cicero was already eating. “Having a bad day Alyson?” he asked.
“Yes, Mrs. Wells suspended me for being the editor of the school paper,” I snorted.
“Oh then good for me,” he said.
I glared at him. “Why?” I asked.
“Because we can now hang out after class,” he grinned.
I stared at him with disbelief, “Well I’m pretty sure that would be fun but I would rather not.”
“Okay,” he sighed like a child who was forbid to watch cartoon, “I was hoping to go playing Halo with you. They say you’re good at it.” He sighed.
“Oh what the hell,” I grunt in defeat, “okay I will hang out with you after class.” He was annoying but what I feel right now was like I took a candy from a dying child.
“Really?!” he excitedly gasped, “Oh great I’ll call mom and tell her that you’re coming over.” He grabbed the phone in his pocket and eagerly called her mother.
With him lost in the world of happiness while talking to her mother a person grabbed my shoulder and I turned back to see who it was. It was Bryce. I glared at him.
“We need to talk,” he said.
“I have nothing to say to you,” I said.
“But I have. Just listen to me okay? Just this time Alyson,” he pleaded.
“Okay what do you want?” I asked him with me sounding uninterested.
“In private please?” he asked.
I stood up and looked at Cicero who was busy talking to his mother. “I’ll be right back Cicero, don’t eat my lunch.” Cicero was so busy and excited it seemed like he was not in the damn earth and just ignored me not noticing that I left.
Everyone stared at me and I followed Bryce out of the cafeteria.
We went inside an empty classroom.
“What do you want Pendleton?” I asked him.
“I talked to Mrs. Wells and ask her not to suspend you for being the editor,” he said. I wanted to smile but I know Bryce, there was a catch to it. I just knew.
“Okay thanks,” I replied emotionless.
“But you have to do the article weekly,” he said.
I stared at him in confusion, “that’s basically the reason why she wanted me suspended and now I have to write the article weekly as if it was a TV show?” I snorted. “Why?”
“Well you see, your assistant editor Hilton said that the school paper went popular,” he was right about that. Usually we see the newspaper that we publish on trash or crumpled but now no one was throwing it away. “And I suggested that you write the article weekly,” he said grinning.
“Are you out of your mind? One second you want the article out now you want me to write it weekly?!” I retorted.
“I’m not finished,” he said, “I made a deal that you can only write that article, if you will hang out with me.”
“Are you out of your mind?! I hate you, remember?!” I snapped.
“Look if you will not write the article you’ll get suspended,” he grinned devilishly.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked him. “Is this because of a bet again?”
“No,” he replied. “No bets this time.”
“Then why? Why are you doing this?”
“I have my reasons Alyson. So are you in this or not?”
“Okay,” I sighed in defeat as he stared at me in amusement. “I still hate you.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
I left the room and went back to Cicero who was still talking to his mom.
I saw Bryce enter the cafeteria, went to his friends and stood on a table. Everyone laid their eyes on him except to Cicero who was still talking to the phone (I think Cicero was teaching her mom how to upload a photo on Facebook. He sounded getting impatient.)
“Everyone may I have your attention please?” Bryce said. He did not have to say that for everyone was already staring at him quietly and eager to listen. “All of what Alyson wrote in the article was true,” my eyes widened, surprised of what he was saying to everyone, “What I did was wrong and I have to make things right. So I decided that I will make it up to Alyson and court her again and make things right. So for all of you to know how things are going, Alyson will write the article weekly to give you updates on what is happening with us, since she’s so good about that. So if you want to keep updated read the school paper.” Then he lay his baby blues on me, “I promise you Alyson I’ll make this right.”
Everyone applauded him except me and Cicero who was still talking to his mom.
“Well good luck with that,” I muttered. I knew it was all a show to fix his reputation. Maybe there was another evil plot, another five hundred bucks behind it. “Whatever you are doing I will never let my guard down,” I muttered again.
Cicero put his phone back to his pocket. “Sorry my mom was asking about Facebook. Ugh so annoying,” he said. “So what did I miss?”
“Well I’m the editor again,” I grinned.
“Oh,” he sighed, “so does that mean we are not hanging out after class?”
“Of course not,” I said, “just prepare lots of food.” I smiled at him.
“I already asked my mom to do that,” he excitedly said, “no poultry right?”
I was allergic to chicken, it gave me rashes. I was surprised that he knew that, nobody knew that except my family and Bryce. “How come you know that?”
“I have sources,” he grinned, “the last thing that I would want to do is do something bad to you so I did some research because we are friends”
“That’s creepy and sweet,” I said.
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
I was starting to like being friends with Cicero.
[End Chapter]
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