Chapter 7
The following Monday saw me up and dragging myself about the house. I tried finding every reason possible for not leaving the house because of the dread that had filled me for the entire weekend. By now it was too late for any worrying or calls to change his mind. It was done and over with and all I could do was go to school and face them or find a reason to stay home. In the end, Mother threatened to bash my skull in if I didn't leave and that was when I grabbed my bag and made a run for it.
The strangest thing greeted me as I entered the school building. Everyone was whispering. It could only mean something had gone down but with the weekend only just behind us, how could anything have spread so fast? Dumb question, these were teenagers with smartphones, of course it spread.
"Kai!" Madelyn ran up to me. "Kai, did you hear?" She looked positively excited. This was what my friend lived for; gossip. She enjoyed a spot of it whenever she could and never hesitated to fill me in on happenings around the school, whether they were confirmed or not. I would almost call her a Data Carrier too but something told me she wasn't nearly as diligent nor thorough and only cared for surface gossip. This was the healthy sort of intrigue. Jonie Matthews needed to seek medical help at the earliest convenience.
"Hear what?" Was I going to regret asking that? I usually did at my old school but then it was usually about me. Here I had done nothing. Jayden had gone to Carmen's and she had kept her mouth shut. A part of me was interested in finding out what was said about others when the news was not about me. It almost felt like...I was included. Certainly Madelyn wouldn't have come running to me so excitedly if I was the hot topic.
"On Friday night Jayden went to Carmen's house for a late night 'study' session, it's all over the school." Hayley explained, now hurrying over to be a part of the gossip as well.
"Yeah and now Erin is pissed." Madelyn continued, reveling in the mess that had taken place over the weekend. Madelyn was to gossip, as Jonie was to Data Collection and when Maddie got that look on her face, I began thinking it wasn't healthy for her either. "Everyone's waiting for the big confrontation." Just then, the hallway went silent. I turned and saw Carmen strutting down the hall as if she was on top of the world. She had an arrogant smirk on her face that said she knew people were talking about her and she loved the attention. Her friend, Jessie, whispered something to her but she shrugged it off as she kept walking. Nothing would ruin her morning; she'd slept with the President of the Student Council. She had gotten Jayden Pryce into her bed. Such an accomplishment shouldn't have meant much but with the way she managed to wow those around her as she walked back, one could tell this was a really big deal.
"And we thought you were getting ahead of yourself." Lara mumbled, coming to a stop by Hayley. It was official. He did sleep with her. I didn't know why but that thought hurt. Somewhere deep down I was hoping that he didn't but there was no denying it any further and all my hard work of getting myself to not care during the weekend was shattered in a pinch.
"Hey Kai what happened to your eye?" Madelyn asked, now actually looking at me. Despite my best efforts I couldn't cover up my black eye so I had given up. It was no use, I was no Jonie. What little makeup I did have I got from my neighbor and never made a habit of using it for fear my mother would find out.
"Oh . . .um my little brother was uh practising his Tai Kwon Doh and I accidentally ran into his fist." That seemed a likely story. A lot of people had problems with their little siblings, though it was likely less extreme than my own case. Accidents still happened, so they should have been able to relate more than if I'd read them the bill and the receipt of what really happened. This was Carmen's day, there was no need for the focus to suddenly shift to me—not so long as I could help it.
"Ouch, didn't you like want to kill him?"
"Yeah, I'd have knocked him over so hard my mum would feel it."
"Definitely..." I lied. If that was really the case and I really had run into Matt's fist I would have to take it graciously then hide, in case mom saw it as me hurting her son's wrist. It would only get worse from there."But my mom tried convincing me it was an accident and you know I couldn't be bothered with a lecture on forgiveness so I just let it slide."
"Brothers." Madelyn said rolling her eyes. I'd learned that she had one of her own but he was older than her by a year. They bickered often enough but if you asked her, she'd swear she loved her brother. The same could not be said for me.
At lunch, I sat alone in the corner waiting for my friends to join me. I saw Jayden walk into the lunch room. He was about to head over to me, looking a little worse for wear, when he was stopped by Carmen. He looked extremely annoyed but she only flipped her and kept smiling. It wasn't anything like I imagined it would have been, seeing them together. They weren't all over each other as if they'd found a new love over the weekend, in fact Jayden didn't seem to want anything to do with her. I looked to the table Jayden normally sat at and saw Erin staring out intently. Her gaze then turned to me, the stare was icy. If looks could kill I would have dropped dead maybe a thousand times in that one moment. The girl was livid.
"She blames you, you know." My head whipped around and I saw Jonie sitting right behind me. I gave her a puzzled look, both wondering what she was talking about and when she'd managed to get behind me. As was typical of her, she chose only to answer one question, despite deciphering that there were two. "Ever since you made your little announcement three weeks ago others have become bolder in their approaches to get Jayden. They figure that if a new girl can do it then so could they—especially since you tried and you're still breathing." She explained with all the nonchalance of an outsider looking in; free from any repercussions that might hit everyone stuck on the inside. "To them you're a guinea pig and you've passed the test so they figure it's safe to tread the waters."
I stared at her. What was with these people? I was a person, not a project to be watched carefully; something no one at this school seemed to understand very well.
Jayden walked away from her and came to sit with us. He seemed frustrated and tired, as if today was a nightmare he was still muddling through and no matter how he tried he couldn't wake up.
"So you slept with her..." I said tonelessly without looking at him. For as much as I'd told myself I wouldn't bring it up, it was the first thing out of my mouth. My impulses were acting up again. I hadn't been able to get them under control since my first week here. Onto week three and they were still getting the better of me. He didn't answer, he didn't even acknowledge that I had spoken. An awkward silence sat amongst us at the table. None of us knew what to say. Nothing seemed right.
The minutes trickled by this way before Carmen walked over to us with a girl I didn't know.
"Carmen said that you and her . . .well . . . that you two slept together on Friday night. Is it true?"
Jayden glared up at Carmen. "Are you going to go around telling everyone?"
"Well I don't see why I can't tell my friends. I mean guys sleep and talk so why shouldn't I?" She smiled spitefully down at him. He stared up at her with a now passive expression but said nothing.
"Attention students, can Jayden Pryce and Carmen Phillips report to the Principal's office immediately." The Principal ordered over the intercom. Jayden's expression grew dark then. He got up and they walked off. Jonie pulled me up and said we had to follow. Slowly she was trying to turn me into a data carrier too. At one point she called me her prodigy, told me I was still impressionable and therefore a good candidate. I had to admit that it felt good being incorporated and I had a feeling that she knew that; that that was the reason for her decision and not my actually potential for Data Collection. I might have been flattered if I didn't feel it was out of pity. She'd seen my wounds, she knew my story and suddenly we were great friends? I wasn't buying it.
By the time we got to the Principal's office the door was already closed. I expected us to wait until they came out but then Jonie took out this device that looked like something straight out of a movie. She put one in her ear then put the other in mine. I looked at her, unable to prevent the rising curiosity. Was this how she retrieved data? Was this even legal? "Let's make this clear; you tell no one of my data retrieval methods, got it?" I nodded then she took something resembling a transmitter from her bag and began tuning it. Soon I could hear voices.
"I am very disappointed with the allegations that have been going around the school. What's this I hear about you two participating in sexual activities then spreading it about the school in such a scandalous fashion?" The Principal was furious.
"We're sorry, Sir, but we couldn't help ourselves. At least it wasn't at school." Leave it to Carmen to make a joke of such a serious matter. I didn't know her all that well but something told me she couldn't see the severity of this whole thing.
"I wish you young people would learn to control yourselves more often. You both have detention for two weeks."
"What?!"Adamant protest. "Sir I thought you said these were allegations! Furthermore, you can't just go by the word of one girl. This is slander!" Jayden argued, "I refuse to be punished because of what that piece of filth says!"
"That's enough young man; I will not allow you to speak of your fellow school mate in such a manner. Now I don't know why she would lie, she has no reason to, am I right young lady?"
"That's right, Sir."
"Good, you start detention this afternoon. Don't be late." I heard chairs being drawn along the floor. Jonie grabbed the ear piece from my ear and threw it in her bag. She then got rid of everything else and took me to sit on the bench by the Principal's office. The door opened.
"What happened to that cat that kept showing up at your house?" She asked me. Cat? Huh? What was she talking about—oh!
"Um, my brother shot him with his sling shot. The poor thing never came back." I said, falling into the story as quickly as I could.
Jonie turned from me, as they entered the hallway. "Oh, hey, how did it go?"
"Quite fine." Jayden said with spiteful smile now across his face. He was up to something. The false calm and way his smile didn't quite meet his eyes told me as much. Carmen had pushed the wrong button and was about to find out why people seldom did.
"We got detention but it was worth it." Carmen commented a smirk in place just for me. Was she trying to prove a point? She now had detention and Jayden's disgust. Of the two of us, I could guarantee I was in the better position. If you asked me, this was just the wrong approach entirely. If she really wanted to get on Jayden's good side, I supposed she could have tried compliments or sob stories. The Lord knew Jayden was proven to have an affinity for broken things.
Jayden's smile remained on his face as he walked off. I turned to Jonie and saw that she was now smiling. In that split second I'd taken to watch Carmen, the two had devised a plan and I was woefully out of the loop. It was typical and bound to happen with an attention span like mine.
By the end of the day people were whispering again but this time it was for a very different reason. I saw Madelyn walking away from someone who had just whispered something to her. If anyone knew what was going on it was her, she was up in everybody's business and shamelessly so. She wasn't as good as Jonie but she was still pretty resourceful when it came to gossip and she happened to be my friend so I wouldn't have to go hounding her for details, oh no, simply asking was always enough.
"Madelyn what's going on?"
"You will so not believe it. Okay so you know how Jayden and Carmen went at it last Friday, right?"
"Yeah . . . ?" That part I knew. What I was interested in was what suddenly caught everyone's interest. It couldn't have been the detention both received. As far as I knew, students received detentions like they were going out of style.
"Well it turns out that she might have given him some kind of disease." My eyes widened in horror to mirror hers that were alight with excitement. Somewhere in all the gossip, she missed the memo that such things were not smiling news. Something like that could seriously mess a person up. I stared at her, my mouth hanging open. Was she serious? Had Jayden really caught something? "Yeah Someone overheard someone else talking to somebody who said they heard from someone who was getting the info directly from some other dude who heard from his girlfriend who was having an affair with the football team captain so she got to hear from him cause he was talking to someone else that Jayden found out right after they did it and that he got really pissed."
I wouldn't even begin to question how she was able to keep a story like that straight. "Are you sure?"
"Positive, she was crying in the bathroom for the whole of fifth period."
"Whoa . . ." That was the only thing I could think of to say. Was that what had Jayden looking the way he did earlier? It would explain so much. Anyone would be upset having contracted something from someone they didn't wish to sleep with in the first place. It was the ultimate betrayal. Carmen must have known she had something—why give it to Jayden? What had he ever done to her? I found myself wondering if it might have had anything to do with Erin? Revenge on her? Hope Jayden slept with her too and passed it on? This just wasn't making any sense.
The hall turned dead silent; an indication that one or both of the parties being gossiped about was coming. I turned and saw Jayden coming down the hall. He was stopped and greeted by one of his friends. They exchanged a few words and a chuckle then he walked over to me. By all indication, he had gotten over any and everything that had plagued him only hours ago. I knew he tried not to let things bother him too much but this was serious! STDs were nothing to make light of. Didn't he know the effect they could have depending on the type they were? How was it possible for me to be more worried than he was?
"Jayden did you get any news about whether or not you are infected?" Madelyn asked eagerly. Leave it to her to dive right in and who could blame her when he didn't look at all bothered? "What does she have anyway?"
Jayden smiled. It was almost as if he was enjoying this...but he shouldn't have been. "No, no results yet and the disgusting bitch has syphilis." Madelyn nodded understandingly. I could already see the string of people she would relay it to and I could see firsthand how gossip spread in a place like this one.
"It's a shame, I heard she's been sleeping around for a while. Now her boyfriend's breaking up with her 'cause she had sworn she was a virgin and now all this."
There was a slight shuffle in the hall. I looked to the other end and saw Carmen walking towards us. There was the ever present whispering again and I knew how she felt. For that reason alone, I couldn't find this situation funny; no matter how much joy others took from it. At my old school I was the subject of most conversations, though I was never asked to join any. You never knew what it was like being truly ostracized until you fell into a situation like this one. She walked right up to us with tears in her eyes and little colour in her face. Curse my selectively bleeding heart and the way it made me feel toward the girl who'd threatened to ruin my life only last week. The problem was that I empathized. It wasn't hard. I'd been there. I couldn't detach myself from the situation even if I wanted to.
"How could you?" She whispered, her voice cracking on the final word.
"Well why shouldn't I tell my friends? Girls sleep and talk so why can't I?" Her own words, shot right back at her. I could tell they'd taken her aback.
"Yes but you're lying." She protested. "And now my Ethan hates me!"
"That's your fault, you offered remember?" He really was enjoying this.
"You are going to take it back! Tell everyone you're lying because you know you are! I don't have syphilis! Jayden, please!"
"Yeah and you didn't sleep with me either." Jayden retorted sarcastically. Even though she was the one who got herself into this mess, I didn't think it was right, none of this was. The vultures were waiting for the next piece of gossip to take and run with, they always were. This was the easiest way to ruin anyone's reputation and it seemed like such a low blow. By now everyone was watching and listening in. "And besides I only told two guys, I have absolutely no idea how it spread to the entire student body." My eyes travelled to Jayden immediately, my brows crinkling in disbelief. He was lying, either that or he knew exactly who to tell to make the news spread. Either way he knew she would be slandered and he knew it would be big.
"Please take it back! What can I do to make you tell the truth?" She was begging. Yet another thing I was used to.
"Well, first I want you to go to Principal Wilson and tell him you were lying when you said we slept together and tell all your friends then let them tell their friends that you were lying."
"But I'm not, we did have se—okay fine." She didn't have much fight in her.
"And I want you to apologize to Kai for threatening to ruin her good name, don't you ever threaten her again or things won't be so civil."
She gazed into his eyes and realized just how serious he was.
"Fine, just please."
Jayden smirked. "Alright let's get to the Principal's Office."
Everyone followed them to the Principal's Office and we waited anxiously for them to be through. When they came out Carmen was in tears but Jayden seemed quite content. "There I did my part now do yours." She pleaded.
"Ah ah ah, first apologize."
She looked at him then turned to me, defeated by the day she'd once felt so great about. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to threaten you and it won't happen again." She turned back to Jayden expectantly.
"She has to accept it first." Now he was just being cruel.
She turned to me once again, now with pleading eyes.
"Of—of course I accept it." I couldn't say no. If I were in her position I would have been dying to have it accepted. The thing was, no one took pity on me at my old school. Nobody thought that maybe I'd had enough. I would only be like them if I did the same. She mumbled her thanks then looked to Jayden again.
"Alright." He finally conceded with a sigh. "Though this was a lot of fun, Carmen doesn't have any form of STD. I lied because she was screwing with my patience and I wanted to teach her a lesson. Also, we most certainly did not sleep together, please, I have standards. Now, you guys can return to your boring gossip-less lives until someone else has interesting news worth spreading."
Everyone began leaving with mumbles. They accepted the truth as it was and began heading out of the school. Carmen went to find Ethan, she would try convincing him but it was no use. Even though she probably really was a virgin, that status changed after last Friday night. It would have been stupid to tell him she still was; he would ultimately find out and it would only lead to further humiliation. The best she could hope for was a smooth resolution in which he accepted all that had happened and agreed to move passed it.
I looked at Jayden as the crowd dispersed with my most matter of fact expression. "You're cruel."
"Only when people mess with the people I like." He said slinging his arm around me as we began to walk. I decided to let it stay there, it would do no harm and if I let myself be honest it felt nice.
At any rate, it wasn't the worst feeling in the world.