"... and I told her that my girlfriend did that too, and she actually did a double-take as if to say 'WHAT? You. A girlfriend. No way' and- Cass, are you even listening to me?" Jai broke off his rant to stare at me as I scanned the locker room, feeling as though I was not alone.
"Yes, yes, yes. Sorry," I said, grinning at my phone screen. I couldn't let him know that I was afraid of being overheard. I mean, how would that make me seem? Like I was ashamed of being associated with him? Probably.
But then again, it was true, wasn't it? Every day, I made sure to come to the locker room during lunch, when I knew that it would be empty. It was just because of the way I portrayed myself, not because of him, I thought, for about the millionth time. It was the only thought that satisfied my conscience.
I loved Jai. He wasn't the issue here. It was more to do with my tough, no-nonsense, me-before-you attitude. I made it seem as though love were a foreign concept to me and that nothing could be prioritised over my future. Which, then again, was completely true, because I knew Jai thought the same way.
We were both competitive souls who wanted nothing less than a six-figure salary, a house with a white picket fence and people to boss over. Having perfectly aligned goals was pretty much all it took for us to fall head over heels for one another.
Whispers. I scanned the room quickly for any signs of people, but soon dismissed it as my paranoia.
"Then she asked me if she went to my school or lived in my complex or something, and I told her she lived in another continent and she actually laughed out loud. Hands on her stomach, tears in her eyes kind of laughter! I mean what-"
Whispers. Again. I could make them out more clearly now. They were coming from the janitor's closet a few feet away. I tuned out as Jai continued to ramble on about his aunt Parvati who couldn't believe that a total nerd like him could land a girlfriend, much less an exotic blonde one. Hey, her words, not mine.
I slowly tiptoed towards the closet, turning my phone volume down so that they couldn't hear my boyfriend's oh-so-interesting tale through the door and get alerted of my presence.
"It's her handwriting for sure!" Gasped a voice, followed by a loud 'shush' from another.
"Where did you find this?" Asked the first one, who was beginning to sound vaguely familiar.
"She's in Bio Lab with me. I never would've guessed it. For some reason, I just assumed that all the splits had the same handwriting. Come to think of it, I've never seen any of theirs except for Elody's, 'cause she takes English with me and I'm always borrowing her notes."
"Thea, this is some serious stuff," said the voice that I now identified as belonging to my former best friend, Veronica.
I made an attempt to move closer to the door, and in the process, accidentally stole a glance at my phone. Jai was then moving his hands angrily in front of the camera, clearly frustrated with me for not listening to him. I made a gesture with my hand to indicate that I needed a minute, then proceeded to eavesdrop once again.
"Do we tell Will?" Thea asked.
"No, of course not!" Veronica said, and I could almost imagine her giving Thea that look that made people feel stupid in her presence. I knew that look would no doubt cause even someone as intelligent as Thea to feel like she'd lost a few brain cells. It definitely had that effect on me when the two of us were friends.
"Why's that?" Thea questioned, and I knew Veronica was rolling her eyes. She was rather predictable that way. Board her train of thought immediately, or wait at the station of eye-rolls, exasperated sighs and a steady stream of curses. It was no joke that everyone was intimidated by her. Everyone, that is, except for Brynn, who'd showed up one day in the halls threatening to spill Veronica's secret if she didn't stay in her place.
Maybe this was it, I wondered. Veronica's revenge plan on Brynn.
"Well, if we tell Will, he'll scream at Brynn for writing those letters because he's so goddamn protective of Daisy-and rightfully so. That girl has gone through enough trouble. And then Draven would come charging out of nowhere at Brynn's rescue and all hell will break loose," Veronica said steadily, and it took all my effort to stifle a gasp.
Brynn had written the letters to Daisy. Those taunting, awful letters that sent the poor little girl in tears on more than one instance. I couldn't even stomach the thought. Essentially, it meant that Holly had sent the letter to herself.
"True. We just need to focus on breaking up Draven and Brynn for today," Thea said determinedly.
Another stifled gasp. It was getting harder and harder to listen as the minutes passed without a large, audible reaction.
Break up Draven and Brynn? Why would they want to do that? I knew that I didn't come off as much of a sucker for love-okay, perhaps that was an understatement- and I also knew that I could be a preacher of how relationships were a huge distraction from the more important things in life, but this was Draven. Although I'd lost all feelings for him romantically, he'd once played a very vital role in my life. He was my first love, after all. I still cared about him.
I'd never seen him happier. He'd finally found a girl just as driven and passionate about theatre as he was. I'd seen them make absolute fools of themselves in the hallways several times, by reciting lines from various Shakespearean plays and insulting each other in Old English. It was honestly quite amusing to watch.
Deep down, I knew that I wasn't his first love, though. It was Brynn.
And perhaps that's what led me to do what I did next.
I tiptoed out of the locker room as quietly as possible, careful not to tip them off that I'd overheard their conversation. When I'd made it safely back to the corridor, I plugged in my earphones and unmuted Jai.
"I'm sorry,"I mumbled, while I walked towards the parking lot. Will, Ted, Ava and Holly always hung out there during lunch. We still had fifteen minutes of break left, so I had to make it quick.
"What happened?" Jai asked, sounding annoyed.
"Some stuff," I muttered distractedly. I could see that he was trying his best not to rage at me.
"Would you like to tell me what this "stuff" is?" He asked, drawing the quotations with his hands. God, he was so extra sometimes. It was oddly endearing.
"Jai, I love you, but I'm kind of in a hurry right now," I said, trying to sound apologetic, but instead sounding snappy and offhand.
"Cassie, when are you not?" He asked, making me halt in my tracks.
Jai and I were both fire. We were both driven, focused and passionate. Most of the time, we fought fire with fire. To make an explosion, we were the perfect match. But it was times like these, when we felt like it was getting too chaotic, that one of us stepped down a little and gave in.
It was rare, mind you, because the two of us had too much ego to actually admit that we were in the wrong. Yet, when we knew that our fire had left burns, one of us would be the rain.
"Okay, listen, I'm not the only busy one. You're always bogged down by your JEE prep and your after school tuitions. And tell me, how many exams do you write in a year? It seems like there's never a time when you're not studying for some test," I snapped. Well, this wasn't one of those rare occasions. I was rubbing sticks, readying myself for the ignition.
He took a deep breath. "Fair enough. But the only difference is, when I'm with you, all of that other stuff is out of my mind. It doesn't seem that way with you. Whenever you're talking to me, your focus is elsewhere." Oh, look, here comes the flame.
"That's not true," I retorted. Oh, but it was. "You're all I care about right now." Untrue. Why I was feeding him with these lies, I didn't know. I should've just poured it all out to him. The stress, the worries, the plans.. I should've given him half the load to carry. But I knew what the real problem was: my pride. And so, I added fuel to the fire.
"Okay, you need to be somewhere," he said, giving up.
"No, I don't-" I started to protest, but his expression softened. "It's okay, Cassie," he soothed. "You must have a lot going on right now, with cheer practice and final results coming out this week. And then there's college apps and essays to worry about. I get it." The rain. Oh, thank heavens, it's raining.
"Oh, you don't even know the half of it," I laughed, easing up at the sound of his understanding voice. And just as easily, we fell back into our rhythm again.
"Please. I have so much more work than you!" he argued, causing me to laugh sarcastically.
"Yeah, right. Totally. Because writing an exam is soo much harder than level 2 pyramids. Sure, sweetheart."
"Do you know what the pressure is like here? You have no idea what Indian kids go through. I want to do engineering, on top of that. The competition is insane!"
I pulled a face. "Okay, you are not pulling the brown kid card on me again!"
He laughed, and I felt my heart warm at the sound. As much as Jai and I challenged each other to bring out the best in one another, we also took comfort in each other's presence. We calmed each other down when our days got too hectic, and we'd listen when one of us wanted to rant our hearts out about the corruption in the education system. That happened very often, by the way.
"Go," he urged, smiling at me.
"You sure?" I asked, unsure whether there was still a little ember flickering somewhere in his mind.
"As positive as a proton," he said, and I grimaced.
"Is being cringey your way of getting rid of me?"
"Bye, Cassie," he grinned, then disconnected. I checked the time, then quickened my pace when I realised there were only five minutes left. I needed to get to Ted and Will before Veronica could get to Draven.
I didn't know how she planned to do it, but I was pretty certain I knew why. She wanted to put Brynn in her place. Why Thea was helping her was beyond me, but I needed to act fast.
I rounded up the corner to find Will and Ted sitting on the floor, leaning against a set of lockers. Ava was nowhere to be found. I bit down on my disappointment. Ava would've been a good asset; no one cared more about Holly and her alters than she did. Not even Will.
"We need to talk," I said quickly, surveying the area for an empty classroom. "It's important," I added, when they made no attempt to move.
"What happened?" Will asked, looking bored. He hadn't been my biggest fan ever since I kicked Daisy out of the cheer team, and this was his way of making me know that.
"It's about Daisy," I said urgently. Ted's gaze flicked in my direction, then in Will's, but he didn't say a word.
"She's gone," he muttered absently.
"She- what?" I asked, unsure whether I'd heard him correctly. "She's gone? what do you mean gone?"
"Look, Cassandra, this isn't a good time, okay?" Ted said frustratedly. His eyes looked red-rimmed and exhausted. Perhaps it was somehow linked to Ava's absence.
Judging by his reaction on the Daisy front, I decided to switched tactics and address the Brynn-Draven issue first.
"Veronica and Thea are scheming to break Brynn and Draven up," I said hurriedly. Both Ted and Will lifted their heads in surprise.
"And why would they want to do that?" Ted questioned suspiciously, as if he thought I was lying.
"Because Brynn knows something about Veronica that she doesn't want leaked, and her only solution is to take away the one person Brynn cares about." Will looked hurt when I said this, and that was when I remembered his silly little conquest to get Holly's alters to fall for him. For the record, I never thought it would work. I mean, they were all so different that it pretty much qualified as five-timing.
"So what do you want us to do about it?" Ted asked in a monotone. He still looked nonchalant, but I could tell by the way that Will's jaw had hardened that I'd got his attention.
"And why do you care?" Will asked, suddenly serious. "What's in it for you?"
I lifted my chin up confidently, and I looked him square in the eye. "Contrary to popular belief, I have a heart. It once belonged to Draven. I still care about him, and I've never seen him happier."
That was the most open I'd been about my feelings with anyone other than Jai. I had to keep reminding myself that this was for Draven and that it was worth it.
"Look, Brynn's done enough to Will already. We have no reason to help save her fairytale romance," Ted snapped, rushing to defend his best friend.
"What do you want us to help with?" Will asked, rising to his feet, completely ignoring Ted.
"We're going to fight fire with fire," I smiled.
. . .
A/N Grab your popcorn, everyone. Here comes the climax.