[Note : This chapter runs parallel to chapter 26 and 27 meaning what happened there and what is happening here is all happening on the same day and at the same time. I suggest you go back and read whatever was in that chapter so you can keep up. If that's a chore, I'm putting a brief recap of Chapter 27 here, proceed only after reading this recap.]
Chapter 27 Recap
Clara gets back home to find Josie watching tv and everyone else is doing whatever they were doing. Carl, Samantha and Stella were the only one's who weren't home. During dinner, Clara watches the news of the flood in Cambodia and the report of seven missing doctors, she hyperventilates and worries about her parents. Stefan takes her out for ice-cream where they see Carl and Stella in compromising situation and Stefan punches Carl.
THIRD PERSON POV
When Carl woke up Monday morning, his plan for the day included having a heart breakfast, joke around with his siblings until he drops them at school, hurry up to his college and make out with his amazing girlfriend Tanya as soon as he sees her before pretending to study in his classes.
He actually did have a hearty breakfast, teased his favorite sister Clara all the way to school even though he should have at least pretended to be a strict brother who's kid sister was drunk on a school night and then headed off to college.
Tanya was still not around when he got up to his locker and while he waited, something else caught his attention.
At the back of the west wing where most of his classes were, was the old, abandoned college building, what used to be the old east wing until a few years ago. And there, in the broken debris of bricks and stones were a bunch of girls.
Carl would have ignored it, after all, he was never the one even slightly interested in girl drama unless it was for his Tanya and his sisters but when a familiar blonde head caught his eye, he knew he had to at least see what's it about. His hasty footsteps took him down the stairs and towards where no one but stoners went to get high before he could even think twice about it.
"So it is true that you're crushing hard on Gemma from Biology." A red head laughed as she pushed around the blonde who look terrified upon hearing the accusation.
"Of course she is, Mel. It's so clear when Miss Royalty here keeps giving googly eyes to Gemma throughout the lecture. And how she follows her around all around the college." The blonde with blue highlights said twirling her hair as she smirked at the lost, scared puppy.
"Sh - she's just my friend!" She blabbered but it didn't sound convincing.
"Stella?" Carl called out her name, slowly and cautiously still unsure of what he'd heard.
"Oh, Carl." The red head, Meredith said smiling flirtatiously at him as the other three girls turned to face with exact same grin plastered on there face too. However, the blonde he had his eyes on was petrified, eyes wide with Carl presence around too, so much that he could already see the tears building in her eyes.
"What's going on here?" He asked facing the four bitches, his voice cold.
"Oh." The other blonde, Nadine smirked as she put her hand on Carl's arm which disgusted the guy as he took a step back. The blonde's smirk, however, never faded. "Did you know that little miss goody-two-shoes here is into girls? I mean, it was pretty obvious, her crush of Gemma Ackerman from biology."
Gemma Ackerman was the prettiest girl in the college, platinum blonde, semi tanned skin, good sense of humor and a bitchy attitude. She was also Stella King's best friend, as the college knew and the exact opposite of the shy angel that Stella was. Gemma was a devil and these girl were her pawns.
"What are you on about?" Carl asked in a disgusted voice and Stella flinched. He didn't mean it in the way she was thinking, for sure and he needed to let her know that he wasn't the enemy. "Gemma and Stella are best friends. Do you think Gemma will appreciate you girls cornering her best friends?"
The blonde with blue highlights, Nicky scoffed. "Please, Carl. Do you seriously think Gemma gives a shit about anyone but herself?"
Jessica, Nadine's twin sister snorted at that. "In fact, she is the one who told us about Stella's little, teensy, tiny crush on her."
Nadine, Jess, Nicky and Meredith laughed at that. "Though we are still surprised how we failed to notice the obvious." Nicky said and turned to terrified Stella, walking towards the other girl like a predator and took a strand of her hair, twirling it like Mother Gothel. "I must say, Miss King was pretty good at hiding her...... taste."
Their was disgust in the red head's voice and Carl fumed, fisting his fingers. He took three long strides and reached Stella, pushing Nicky away and hiding Stella from the gazes of the four Satanic girls.
"And what's wrong with her taste..... unless you realize how much of a bitch Gemma is?" Carl asked, folding his arms over his chest and narrowing his eyes at the girls.
Nadine scoffed. "Gemma is the prettiest girl in school, Carl, everyone likes her. But that's not the point. The point is that Stella likes her and she's a girl."
Carl looked at the blonde with disbelief written on his face. "And what's wrong with a girl liking a girl? Don't tell me you haven't ever seen a gay person." He felt Stella shiver and whimper behind him and he turned slightly to look at her petite figure, seeing her shaking his head in negative. He understood that she didn't want to let the college know about her sexuality, whether or not it was true. He turned back to the four girls and continued. "And besides, how do you know for sure that Stella is into girls? I know she's not, I dated her back in high school."
Jessica rolled her eyes. "Don't fool us, Carl. Tanya told us you had been together since sophomore year."
Carl cursed under his breath but didn't falter. He felt Stella's fingers tighten around his arms but he didn't turn to her. "Freshman year, we went on a few dates but since our families aren't on good terms, we called it off." He lied effortlessly. "Tell them Stella." He ordered the petite girl, bringing her out in front from behind him. She could only nod, still scared that her biggest secret was on the verge of being revealed to the world.
The four girls gritted their teeth in annoyance, whispered something among themselves and then turned on their heels, leaving the other two alone.
Carl turned to Stella and his face turned soft from the stoic mask he had from talking to the girls. He raised his fingers to wipe the dried tears on the girl's face and smiled kindly at her. "Hey, it's okay."
"Thank you." Stella whispered and looked down towards the ground. "But you didn't have to do that. It's true anyway."
Carl frowned and lifted her face up by holding her chin. "And there's nothing wrong with that, Stel. It's completely natural. What's wrong, however, was them trying to tell your story. It's your life, your sexuality and your secret. You decide when you have to come out and heck, if you want, you can live in the closet all your life though you don't deserve that. You deserve to live free and as you want but no one can and should force you."
Stella lips trembled as she tried to stop crying. "But everyone will hate me if they knew, Carl. My family, all my friends. You saw what Gemma did after I told her."
Carl frowned even more. "You told Gemma?" He sighed in deisbelief. "Why would you do that, Stel? She's a bitch."
Stella hiccuped. "But she's my best friend."
Carl scoffed. "No she's not. These bitches you think of as friends are not your real friends, Stella. They'd drop you the first thing if they don't need you anymore. They're with you only because you're good at studies and do their homework. "
Stella flinched at Carl's words but she knew it was true. Carl saw her expressions and cursed himself under his breath. "Shit, Stella, I didn't mean it that way. There's nothing wrong with you if they aren't being good friends. It's their fault for being selfish bitches for not seeing what a gem you are." He sighed when Stella started crying and hugged her small body. "Hush now, stop crying."
"Carl?" A familiar voice broke the duo's trance they pulled apart and turned around to face the intruder.
Tanya looked skeptically between the two of them, her eyes narrowing when she saw her boyfriend's arm half wrapped around his enemy's waist. However, instead of jumping through conclusions, she faced him with a straight face.
"Nicky and her pawns came to me just now. They said they saw you and..." She passed Stella a fleeting glance, not knowing how to feel about her. Tanya had no grudges with Stella but due to her boyfriend's enimity with their family, she preferred to stay away. "..... um, Stella getting....uh cozy back here."
Carl smiled slightly at that. He considered himself the luckiest guy in the world to have an understanding girlfriend. Any other girl in Tanya's place would have already jumped to conclusions, slapped Carl for cheating and broken up but not his Tanya. She preferred conversation over assumptions and even the thought of breaking up with her made him sick.
He stepped away from Stella and reached closer to Tanya whose expressions still didn't falter but her insides lighted up with Carl's proximity. "They were bullying Stella over something. I came to help."
Tanya knew she believed Carl, she could see it in his eyes. However, she crossed her arms and raised her brow, silently asking the real matter.
Carl sighed and shook his head. "I'm sorry baby." He turned to glance over at Stella who seemed uncomfortable with the couple and back to his girlfriend. "It's not my secret to tell."
Tanya looked at the tear stained face of Stella and back at her boyfriend whom she loved with all her heart. She believed him and he knew she did. However curious she was, she wouldn't pry. As Carl said, it wasn't his secret so Tanya wasn't bound to know.
She smiled slightly and reached her tiptoes to kiss Carl's cheek and then turned towards Stella. "Hey, do you wanna, maybe head to the washroom and touch up the make-up? I know mine's all smudged."
Carl bit his lip at that. Tanya rarely wore make-up and even today, it wasn't smudged. He knew she was just trying to help Stella as he had done he couldn't help but feel proud and lucky to have found such a perfect girl for him.
Stella knew that Tanya wanted to help and for that, she was grateful. In fact, she was grateful for the couple that Carl and Tanya were who helped her when she least expected. At least she didn't expect that from Carl. Her grandmother's stories about how the James' family were cons and goons made her laugh now.
She nodded at Tanya's offer, passed Carl a thankful smile and walked away with the girl.
* * * * * *
"I can't believe I fell for your prank, boo!" Gemma pouted, batting her eyelashes in fake innocence at Stella.
After the fiasco in the morning, Gemma had been informed about Carl's interference and she had confronted Stella who had effortlessly laughed and pulled off the "it was a prank" card as Carl had suggested. Gemma, however, was a cunning witch and she somehow saw an opportunity to cause a gossip for college as well as have the one guy she's had eyes on forever - Carl.
Stella, who was sitting in the cafeteria with Gemma and the four girls from the morning, trying to avoid the pain of her best friend's betrayal laughed. "It was fun." She turned to the four girls sitting across from herself and Gemma. "But I can't believe that you told them too. They were so rude and harsh."
Gemma fake gasped and turned to glare at the four girls who just rolled their eyes at Gemma's acting. "I told you all to be supportive!"
Stella knew it was a lie but she didn't comment. "It's fine now, Gem. It wasn't real anyway so it doesn't matter."
Meredith scoffed from across the table. "I still don't believe that it was a prank."
"Me either." Nicky said, glaring at Stella who almost faltered. Almost.
"Whatever, believe or don't believe, it won't change the truth." Stella said.
She wasn't exactly a weakling, Stella King. After all, she was a King. She knew when to stand up for herself or defend the people in need but everyone has their weak moments. For Stella, it was this morning when she was scared by the sudden confrontation of her sexuality, her secret. For anyone who has had to come out like this knows how scary it can be.
Stella wasn't exactly ashamed of being a lesbian but she was scared of the reactions she'd get. Specially now after seeing her so called friends bully her over it, even though it was college and not high school, her fears had intensified. She didn't even want to think how her family would react if they knew.
"Hmph." Jessica sighed in annoyance. "If you want us to believe you, Stella, then prove to us that you're not into girls."
"And how would I do that?" Stella's strong exterior was faltering from the inside but she didn't show. At least she hoped she didn't.
"Oh, I know." Nadine looked up towards the open field beside the cafeteria where the boys had their lunch usually and smirked. "Go on and kiss Nathan Andrews."
"It's a dare!" Nicky said excitedly and clapped her hands.
Before Stella could protest, Gemma turned to her with her fake innocent looks. "I think it's a good idea, boo. Nathan is hot and once you kiss him, who knows, maybe it'll lead somewhere romantic." She turned to her pawns with an evil smirk. "And it surely will shit these girls' mouth forever."
The four girls nodded, grinning at Stella. "Yes, we won't accuse you again."
"But..." Stella started to protest but was cut of by Gemma.
"Come on, boo. They even dared you. You can't back out."
Stella sighed, internally scared at the prospect of kissing a guy. First, it strangely disgusted her and two, Nathan was a certified jerk. Even if she was straight, she'd think twice before kissing him, let alone think of the prospect of dating him.
But Gemma was right. It'd shut up the girls for sometime. At least until they're done with college and then Stella could start her life and life her way, hopefully come out as she's ready.
She sighed and nodded. "Alright. I'll do it."
* * *
DOUBLE UPDATE. Make sure to check the next chapter.