I was too scared to leave the bathroom, but by the time 10:30 rolled around, I was bored out of my mind.
The tears had stopped, but I’m sure I still looked like a mess. I just wanted to go home for the rest of the day, as I was definitely not in the mood for any of this. But I’m not sure what Hunter would do if I did.
So I sat on top of the toilet in the girls’ bathroom, replaying the look on Harry’s face. Anger. Disbelief. Hurt. I never wanted to be the one behind that look, but I was. And it hurt. A lot.
At least Scottie knew something was up. I need to talk to him, and I don’t know where the best place to do that is. If I invite him over, or go to his house, Hunter might find that fishy. But if I talk to him at school, maybe he won’t think anything of it? Especially since he probably wouldn’t expect me to talk about it in such a public place. I’ll tell him at lunch, which is at 11:05. I just need to stay in here a little bit longer.
I thought about everything that’s happened. So, Cassidy must have been the one to tell the principal on us first, as Hunter said he found out about us through the school camera. He couldn’t have told the principal two weeks ago if he only found out on Wednesday. But why would Cassidy tell on us? It doesn’t make any sense.
I’m assuming that Cassidy knew for a while, since Scottie and I have always talked about him at lunch, and she’s in first hour with me so she probably noticed the subtle looks we gave each other. So she must have been working alone at the time, since she couldn’t find any proof to give to the principal. But why would Cassidy want to get us in trouble? What does she gain from Harry losing his job and me possibly getting expelled?
Unless her goal was never to get him fired. Maybe she just wanted to cause problems with Harry and I. If that was her goal, she succeeded, since he didn’t even look at me for two weeks. But why would she do that? Does she like him? Probably, I mean, who doesn’t?
So she was working alone in the beginning, spurred on by her own jealousy. She succeeded in her plan, and separated Harry and I. But then she must have noticed that it didn’t work, when he helped me with my worksheet in the hallway. Which is why she asked me what we were doing, and why she seemed so suspicious. Because she thought we were done talking to each other.
Wednesday comes around, and that’s when Harry had kissed me in the hallway. Hunter had saw it, and since Cassidy and him are neighbors, they’re probably good friends, right? So she was the first one he told about it. She took this as a chance to form an alliance, as they both had the same goal. To separate Harry and I.
But who left me the notes? Hunter was with Scottie after school, and Cassidy was with me when the last note showed up. So there has to be a third person in on it, also helping them. Who would that be? I didn’t know Hunter much at all, so I don’t know who he’s good friends with, other than Scottie. And Cassidy has been sitting with Scottie, Chelsea, and I at lunch everyday, so I don’t know any of her other friends either. But someone else is helping them, I know it.
I had a headache again, partly from crying, partly from stress, and partly from thinking too much. The lunch bell rang, and I reluctantly stood up from the toilet seat. Even though I was bored, I never wanted to leave this stall or bathroom.
I opened the door, and walked out into the main part of the bathroom, looking at my reflection. I looked a proper mess. The green eyeliner I had used from Hunter’s mom was smudged all down my face, and there were dry tear streaks down my cheeks. My eyes were bloodshot and puffy and my nose was red.
I wiped underneath my eyes, trying to clean up the makeup, but it was to no avail. It only slid further down my face. By the time I finally got it all the way off, my eyes and cheeks were even redder than they were before, from scrubbing so hard.
I splashed water on my face afterwards, and that seemed to help my appearance a little bit. I then realized that we didn’t have any paper towels in here, and I groaned. I walked back into my stall and grabbed toilet paper, attempting to dry it with that. I ended up with it stuck all over my face. Cute.
Once I finally picked all of that off, I left the bathroom and went straight toward the cafeteria, planning on telling Scottie about everything. I don’t know why I didn’t do that in the first place, I know that I can trust him and that he’d believe me over anyone. We may have been fighting more lately, but we’ve also made up, and that has to mean something.
I wanted to scream when I saw who was sitting at our booth, though. Hunter and Cassidy were sitting next to each other, surprise surprise, and Scottie and Chelsea were on the other side. I walked over anyways, and decided to be brave.
“Scottie, could I talk to you for a minute please?” I asked him, hoping Hunter wouldn’t catch on as to what I was doing. He did.
“Randi! Where have you been, lunch started 10 minutes ago! Sit down,” he smiled at me and I returned a small one, trying to convince everyone that I was happy. I wasn’t.
“I just need to talk to Scottie really quick,” I said, hoping I didn’t sound too suspicious.
“No you don’t,” He said, “You need to stay here and hang out with me. I haven’t seen you all day, I miss you.”
I refrained from rolling my eyes as he squeezed Cassidy into the wall, making room for me on the edge of the booth. Great.
“Do you honestly think I can fit on that?” I asked, raising my eyebrow. It was probably the size of my wrist.
“Well, either that, or you can sit on my lap?” He offered, patting it. My eyes widened and I obediently sat down on the edge of the booth. There was no way I was going to sit on his lap.
He put his arm around me and I rolled my eyes then, wanting to shove it off but knowing that I couldn’t. Scottie was staring at us, and I couldn’t tell if he was jealous of the fact his arm was around me, or mad at the fact that I didn’t seem happy about it.
I hoped it was the latter.
I didn’t listen to any of the conversation that was going on around me, but I know it mostly consisted of Cassidy and Hunter talking. You could tell that they were best friends, even though Cassidy told me yesterday that she never talks to him.
I looked around the cafeteria, and my eyes automatically flickered to Harry. He was sitting at the teacher’s table, not engaging in conversation like he normally does. His eyes were on his plate, and his fork was playing with his food. His curls hung over his eyes and even from all the way over here, I could tell he was sad. I looked down at my hands, before looking across the table at Scottie. He was now looking at Harry too, before returning his gaze to me.
A tear began to roll down my face, but I quickly wiped it off with the back of my palm. I couldn’t cry, not here.
“What do you think of that, Randi?” I heard Hunter say from right next to me. I cringed at the spit that also came out of his mouth, landing on my ear.
I wiped it off before replying, “About what?” in the fakest happy voice I could muster.
“We all wanna go on a group date to Chessington World of Adventures. You in?” He asked me and I felt the tears again. I just went there on Tuesday. With Harry.
Scottie knew this fact too, and I’m sure he saw the hurt look on my face.
“Um, could we go somewhere else? I’m not a fan of amusement parks,” I made up an excuse, although I think he already knew that I went there with Harry. He just wants to make this as miserable for me as possible.
“Oh, come on, it’ll be fun,” he grinned, and I shook my head no. I was not going.
“Are you sure?” He said, squeezing my shoulder tighter. I knew that was a warning. If I don’t go, he’s going to release the proof.
“Actually, yeah, I’ll go,” I said, but it ended up coming out slightly monotone.
“Good,” he replied, returning to the conversation he was having with Cassidy.
I looked back at Harry to see him already looking at me. But when he saw that I looked toward him, he quickly averted his gaze back to his plate.
I felt the tears again, but tried with all of my might to push them back. You just need to survive lunch, Miranda, then you can go back to the bathroom and cry your little heart out.
As soon as the bell rang, I sprung up and walked out of the cafeteria, not even looking back at the small group. I knew Hunter wouldn’t be pleased, but he also wouldn’t be too happy to be seen with his ‘girlfriend’ crying, so I was doing him a favor.
Apparently, Harry had also rushed straight out of the cafeteria, as I had bumped into him on the way out. I looked up at him, before looking straight back down and trying to walk past him.
He grabbed my elbow, pulling me back, “Have- Have you been crying?” He asked me in concern. That only caused me to want to cry harder. Here I am, breaking his heart, yet he’s still concerned about me crying.
“No,” I said, shaking my arm out of his grasp and pushing past him to go into the girls’ bathroom and cry again. I don’t want to do this. I want to go back to the other day when we were snuggled up on his couch watching Hook.
I walked into the bathroom and looked in the mirror at myself, noticing how truly ugly I looked while crying.
I heard the door push open and I quickly scrambled into a stall, so nobody could see me like this.
“Miranda?” I heard someone say.
Wait, I know that voice. I opened the stall door and saw Scottie, who was looking at me with wide eyes.
“What is going on?” He blurted, obviously confused at the past day’s events. All I did was run into his arms and hug the shit out of him. He squeezed me back and began running his fingers through my hair.
“What’s happening, Mer?” He whispered softly, and I just shook my head before breaking into more crying fits. I don’t think I’ve ever cried this hard before.
I managed to calm down after a few minutes, and Scottie brought it upon himself to take his sweatshirt off and lay it on the bathroom floor, before sitting us both down on it, whilst he was still hugging me.
“What are you doing in the girls bathroom?” I asked, breaking the long silence.
“Looking for you,” he stated, rubbing soothing circles on my back. “What is going on with you and Hunter and Harry?”
“A lot,” I sobbed, and he pulled me closer.
“You can tell me, Mer,” he whispered, rubbing my arm now.
I hiccuped, “It-it was Hunter,” I managed to spit out.
“What was?” He asked and I wanted to roll my eyes at the fact he couldn’t piece it together. I didn’t want to have to tell him, I was scared at how he’d react.
“He, he wrote the notes. He has proof about me and H-Harry, and,” I paused after I hiccuped once again, “And he said I have to be his girlfriend, or, or he’ll give it to the p-principal,” I explained, hoping he could understand me through my cries.
“What the fuck?” He said and I cringed. Here we go. “Who the fuck does he think he is? And to think I wanted to turn him gay, fuck that. What is he, crazy?” Only Scottie could make me laugh at a time like this. Harry probably could too. Too bad I wouldn’t know.
“I think so,” I said, “He, Scottie, he has pictures and e-everything. I have t-to do this, or Harry could lose his job,” I told him and he nodded his head.
“Shit, Miranda,” he sighed, “What are you going to do?”
“What do you think? I’m gonna fake date Hunter so Harry doesn’t lose his job,” I said.
“Nuh uh, you are not giving up. We have to fix this, we can’t let Harry get away from you because of one psycho guy,” he argued and I half smiled.
I wasn’t crying anymore, and I took that as a good sign
“And turns out, Cassidy is the one who told the principal about us and she helped Hunter with all of this. She followed me when I went to Harry’s flat and took pictures, because Hunter was too busy with you and Erica,” I told him and he rolled his eyes.
“I always knew we shouldn’t trust her,” he said, which he probably didn’t but I was too happy that he was believing me to care. I don’t know why I ever thought he wouldn’t.
“And she thinks I don’t know, because I forgave her yesterday, but she called me ‘Randi’, and that’s the nickname that only Harry has called me so she had to have been the one watching us. Plus Hunter told me about how he called his ‘good friend’ to spy on us since he was with you guys. And get this, they’re neighbors! She told me she hasn’t talked to him in a while since they drifted apart, but did you see them at lunch today? That didn’t look like people that haven’t talked in years,” I pointed out.
“Yeah, Hunter’s told me about her. They spend every minute together. Well, except for when he was with me, of course, but yeah. That bitch was definitely lying,” he said.
I groaned, “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how much longer I can stand “dating” him. And I absolutely hate the thought of hurting Harry. He saw us together this morning, and you have no idea of the look he gave me.”
“I know, I saw him at lunch. Poor guy,” he said sadly.
I frowned, “Don’t look at me like that, I’m doing this to help him!” I defended myself.
“I know, I know, I’m not blaming you. I’m just saying. But I’m not just gonna sit back and watch you date a psychopath. We have to think of a plan to get you out of this,” he thought out loud.
“I appreciate it, but we’re at a dead end. They have proof of Harry and I kissing, and pictures of me and him walking both in and out of his apartment,” I sighed.
“Were the pictures clear?” He asked me and I shrugged.
“The ones of us kissing at the school weren’t, they’re from the school camera. But I don’t know about the ones taken at his apartment.”
“Wh-You guys kissed at the school? Did you want him getting fired?” He exclaimed and I rolled my eyes.
“He kissed me! I tried telling him to be careful!” I defended myself, but I know it was just my fault as it was his.
“Well, what’s done is done, I guess. But,” he dramatically paused, a smile creeping its way onto his lips, “I think I have an idea.”
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Update, yayyyy :) What do you think Scottie's plan is? Enjoy x