Chapter 12
There was a buzz in school on Monday; you could just feel it in the air. As I made my way to Calculus, I saw Jess already there and she gave me a wide smile at my entrance.
“Hey, what’s everyone excited about?”
Jess smirked. “You know Blake? Apparently there was a dysfunction with his shampoo or something.” Damn. I hadn’t seen him yet and I was dying to. I mean it was my prank after all.
“Oh yeah?” I knew there was a dysfunction with more than just his shampoo.
“Yep, and apparently his hair in… other places is also a mess.” Jess laughed and I chuckled. “But I don’t know if it’s true, I mean I just heard it from the jocks.”
“It is true,” I confirmed. “Cole was telling me about it because they saw it when he came out the shower.”
Jess raised her eyebrows. “Since when are you and Cole buddy-buddy?”
“We’re not. We’re just acquaintances.” I think I sounded a little defensive because Jess’ eyebrows totally disappeared in her bangs. I just shook my head at her in response.
As usual, Jess, Marissa and I were sitting our table at lunch which wasn’t in the middle and neither right at the back. Just then everyone fell silent. I furrowed my brows and followed their gaze to the door. My jaw dropped. Blake. He looked around the cafeteria nervously and I couldn’t keep it in anymore. I giggled slightly and that was enough to set off laughter in the entire cafeteria. Blake made a run for it as everyone continued to laugh. He can use the money he got off the poor girl for some hair therapy.
The next day started off slow. The weather was slightly chilly even though the sun was out. I was waiting for Cole to arrive in English. I looked up when the chair beside me scraped on the floor.
“Hey,” he said sitting down. My head snapped to his and I looked at him wide-eyed. Did he just say hey to me? I didn’t realise I was staring at him until he raised his trademark brow and smirked. I looked away and blushed slightly at getting caught.
“Um, hey,” I replied a little unsurely.
“So, shall we get continue from where we left off?”
Wow. He was in a good mood today. I just dumbly nodded. Halfway through, I could practically feel someone boring holes in my skull. I looked up to see Barbie giving me the death glare. Huh. What did I do now? I looked over at Cole to see he was reading my paper and was leaning over slightly. My breath caught and I forgot about Barbie who was probably ready to rip my head off by now. His cologne filled my nostrils and I could almost see every detail of his face. I snapped out of it and leaned away slightly because let’s admit, Cole wasn’t the most good-looking in the whole of West View High for no reason and I didn’t want Barbie’s wrath more than the daily dose.
The next few days passed by in a blur, uneventfully. On Thursday, I was fixing my bun in the toilet when the door banged open. I looked to see Barbie pause in the doorway to glare at me before making her way to me. I wasn’t scared of her.
“What are you doing?” she asked a little too nicely.
“What do you mean?” I answered her question with a question.
She got in my face until our noses were almost touching. “Stay. away. from. Cole.” I rolled my eyes at her.
“We’re doing a project together.” Her nostrils flared.
“You won’t like what I do to you if you don’t.”
“Yeah? Looking forward to it.” She looked at me in surprise probably because this was the first time I was responding to her, that too standing up to her. Obviously she didn’t like it one bit.
“Just wait and watch.” She narrowed her eyes at me.
I smirked slightly. “Looking forward to it.” With that I left the toilets. Only when I was out did I realise what I had done. I stood up to Barbie. I challenged Barbie. But the thing was, I didn’t care.
Friday couldn’t come any sooner and I was once again at the Walters. No one was home, not even Cameron. Crawford was busying himself doing god knows what. Cole and I were sat on his bed almost nearing the finish line of our project.
“That’s it. I can’t do anymore for today.” He sighed deeply.
“The more we get done, the earlier we can finish,” I reasoned.
He just looked at me and I narrowed my eyes in turn. Then we were in a glaring match, neither of us wanting to look away first. After a while I started to notice how close he was. I could feel his breath fanning my face and see his lashes which were so long it touched skin. The green in his eyes was slightly darker than usual and I think he realised how close he was to me too. I could see the glare he was giving me slowly start to soften and I think I was the same. I don’t how it happened but we were close enough that our lips brushed. I held in a gasp. My eyes fluttered close as he tentatively kissed me.
Oh my god.
I’m kissing Cole.
Cole is kissing me.
His lips feel so soft against mine and you can tell he’s a good kisser even when we weren’t fully into the kiss yet. No wonder girls fawned over him. Nicole is one lucky girl.
Nicole.
That’s all it took to break the spell and the kiss. I pulled away from him roughly and stood up. I couldn’t make eye contact with him as I hurriedly packed my things.
“Y-you’re right. Um, we should just continue the work another t-time,” I stuttered.
“Listen, about the kiss…” he started but I interrupted him.
“You don’t have to say anything,” I said quickly. “I-it was my mistake.” I said quietly. He remained silent but I still didn’t look at him.
I stumbled out of the house and made my way home. The whole way I couldn’t get rid of the way his lips felt. Barbie was going to kill me if she found out. Then I stopped in my tracks remembering her threat. I groaned.
I’m screwed.
~~~~
This is awkward. This is really, really awkward. It was Sunday and Cole and I were in the living room trying to do the work. I would catch him glance at me every once in a while and I was doing the same. Cam sauntered in, seemingly oblivious to the tension in the air.
“How’s it going Ninzi?” His smile was infectious and I found myself smiling back.
“All good, Cammy.”
He plopped down next to me and started reading our script for the play so far. “Where’s the kiss?”
Both Cole and I froze. We looked at each other wide-eyed before shifting our gazes to Cam who missed the exchange as he scanned the paper.
“Huh?” was my clever response.
“You’re doing a Romeo and Juliet play and there’s no kiss?” Cam asked waving the papers in my face. I was too dumbfounded to reply. “I know you would rather kiss this brother,” he continued pointing at himself, “rather than Mr. Grumpy over there.” We still didn’t reply and Cam got bored easily so he made his way to play Xbox.
After Cam left, there were a few minutes of silence before Cole said, “He’s right you know.” My gaze snapped to his and I was surprised I didn’t get whiplash.
“Huh?” came my response again. I mentally face-palmed myself. “I mean there’s no need for a k-kiss. I mean…” I stuttered.
“It doesn’t have to be a proper kiss. Look, I know that our kiss that day was a mistake and shouldn’t have happened.” I cringed, a little hurt. Though I had said the exact same, it sort of hurt more coming from him. “But we can just pretend to kiss or something.”
“How?”
Cole ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know, we’ll figure something out.” With that the silence lapsed again.
The rest of the week passed with me trying my best to forget about the kiss when that’s the only thing not letting my sleep at night. But what worried me more was Barbie. She wouldn’t give me a death glare or look our way in English, she would ignore me, and she didn’t look my way, period. It was quiet with her, almost too quiet. I wondered what she was up to. It was like the calm before the storm.
The storm did come. It was Monday lunch and we were just chatting away as usual. “Do you know there’s a huge party in the coming two weeks or something?” I had overheard some bimbos talking about it.
Jess nodded. “Yeah, Nicole’s.” I looked at her in surprise. “It’s her birthday,” Jess explained. Barbie’s birthday? That was like the perfect time to pull a prank on her! But how would I get an invite? Just then the cafeteria door slammed opened and everyone looked to see Nicole looking smug. She was up to something and everyone could tell because it went silent. She met my eyes and smirked before pulling a chair from a nearby table and climbing on it.
She cleared her throat. “My fellow colleagues,” she started and I rolled my eyes at how she sounded. What was she, Obama? “I have some important news to tell you.” Barbie looked at me again and I narrowed my eyes at her. “Everyone knows the Freak right?” she asked pointing at me and every head turned in my direction but I continued to look at Nicole. “Well, did you guys know that she didn’t just move here from the UK?” I froze and my breath caught. No, this could not be happening. This was her revenge, her getting back at me and right now I was starting to regret ever meeting her and Cole. How did she get any information about me? She smirked obviously seeing my response.
“She was thrown out of her house.” I almost sighed in relief because that was so not the story. “By her Mom.” I went rigid and looked at her in shock. Then my temper flared. She didn’t know anything! I glared at her and slowly stood up. I looked around to see everyone staring at me like they finally believed I was definitely the Freak. Cam was downright glaring at Nicole in disgust and Cole… I looked at Cole in shock because he too was glaring at her. “She really is a Freak that her own mother didn’t want her.” Barbie’s voice brought my gaze back at her. Everyone waited for my reaction, for me to start crying and run to the bathroom but I didn’t. Instead I stood on my table and I could see everyone look at me in anticipation. I firmly held her gaze as I started to strip.
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