What can possibly be Ashton's greatest secret?
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Grace tugs my sleeves furiously when I walk out of the cafe. "Where were you?!" She yells. "I thought they caught you."
My lip turns upward. Miles looks at me suspiciously. "Kiara?" He says.
I tell them everything that they have spilled out to me without acknowledging.
Miles's jaw drops as I tell him the full story. "It was 'them' all along?!" He says. "They stole the picture from just under my nose without me acknowledging it?"
I nod. He's lucky Ashton isn't around. Or he might have beat the life out of him seriously this time for taking the photo in that party.
Even thinking about him hurts right now. I almost can't believe that my own heart is aching for his asshole-ic presence so badly.
"Those motherfuckers!" Grace growls. "Lemme get my hands on them-"
Miles and I grab her to stop.
"Don't be stupid, we don't have any proof," I tell her.
Grace turns to me. "What do you want me to do? Sit here and watch them destroying everyone?"
I shake my head. "No, we need a plan," I tell them. "But before that, I need to talk to someone."
Miles and Grace appear to read my mind.
"But how'll you get him?" Miles asks. "No one other than Nyako and Owen knows where he lives."
That's a good question. I can't even call him because he didn't pick up his phone even after I called him like a hundred times in the last few days.
I try to think of any other option to get in contact with him, just when help comes to us itself.
"Anyone looking for a certain Fellan's address?" We turn around and see Natasha Thompson leaning against her car in front of us.
* * * *
I don't know how many of you have imagined yourselves in this position, but I can assure you I never imagined myself to be stuck under the same roof with my archenemy.
We made a stop at my house. I grab a basket of cookies that mom baked this morning knowing how much Ashton loves her cookies. He literally lived on them when he used to visit my house every day.
Natasha doesn't question the basket when I come back and drives her car silently.
"So," She starts. Only if the silence lasted forever... "Early applications ended, huh?"
I snap and turn towards her. "Oh, I almost forgot to ask, did you receive your letters from Harvard yet?"
A vein pops out in her forehead. "I was just trying to start a conversation here."
"Well guess what? I don't," I tell her and look out of the window.
I see her reflection sighing. "I'm sorry Kiara."
"I wonder why," I mutter. Natasha grips the steering wheel tightly.
For a moment I thought she was going to stop the car and kick me out. Instead, she says, "You were not the only one."
"What?" I look at her this time.
"You weren't the only one struggling," Natasha continues. "You know my family Kiara, how serious they are about schools and grades and following rules."
I nod. Natasha's parents were always the hard ones to deal with. As their only child, they expect the world from her.
"Ever since high school began, they started expecting the world from me," she says.
"But your grades were always good."
Natasha shakes her head. "No, it was never good enough for them," she spats. "They always expected better from me."
I snort. "Like what? Take AP classes in the freshman year?"
Natasha snorts. "Maybe," she says. "I was so damn tired of trying to impress them. Because that was the only time I got to spend some time with them."
People always pitied Natasha for that. Both her parents are successful lawyers. But even as a kid, Natasha hardly had her parents around. I remember she used to spend most of the evening and weekends in mine or Cora's place because her parents are out of town. She had a nanny but even her nanny believed she needed more close company. So she used to bring Natasha to our place so she won't feel lonely.
"At that time, I was so busy trying to make my parents happy I hardly remember who I was," she says. "That's why I ignored all of you. Because I was jealous of you guys. Jealous of your freedoms."
I try to say something, something to make her feel good. But nothing comes out. So I sit silently.
"You know Cora was struggling with her grades too," Natasha mutters. "She told me about it."
I gasp. Really? "I didn't know," I tell her truthfully.
"I know," she says and glances at me from the corner of her eyes. "You were her best friend, you two were always closer than Ashley and I. And so she was afraid that you would leave her if she tells you about her struggling."
"I would've never done that." Tear peeks in the corner of my eyes.
Natasha shrugs. "She made me promise not to tell you about it. promised her not to tell anyone. I did as she told me," she pauses. "I don't know what happened when she found out that you were struggling with grades too, she started lashing the anger of her own failure on you by mocking you every now and then. I thought she was just acting by emotion and will get over it soon."
"But she never did."
Natasha shakes her head and sighs. "That's exactly not the case," she says. "Then she found out Eric had an interest in you and got furious over it."
I choke. "Eric who?"
"Eric King, Sophie's brother, and the ex-football captain," Natasha says casually. "The guy Cora was crushing on back then."
"Yeah, I know that but there was nothing going on between us," I tell her. "We were merely friends." Eric was two years older than us. We used to talk at parties.
"Yes, but do you remember the time he used to follow you everywhere? It was probably after Christmas holidays in freshman year."
"Yes, I remember, but he didn't use to follow me everywhere!" I snap. "And did you think I would've led in especially after knowing Cora had a crush on him?"
"No, but that wasn't stopping him from hitting on you."
"He did no such thing," I tell her.
Natasha shakes her head. "You don't know, but he used to come to us to get your number from us. He even asked Cora for your number while he merely looked at her. She was so furious about it." Knowing Eric, he was probably lost in his own thoughts.
"So she started humiliating me to lash her anger on him by joining you two with her?"
"I can't tell about Ashely, but I didn't want to get myself in more mess than I already was in," Natasha sighs. "I should've stopped her from spreading those rumors about you two, but I wasn't sure about your intentions either."
"You were the ones who spread those rumors?" The rumors I never talked about after that day. The rumors Ashton heard when he joined our school. The rumors that ruined everything I used to be and made me a new me.
The rumors of Eric and I making out every day after school where in reality I was tutoring him for English lit. He was struggling with English lit and came to me to ask for help since it was the only subject I was good at back then. I used to tutor him after school. He told me to keep it a secret because he didn't want others to know about it.
But when that rumor started spreading, his girlfriend of two years, Elle, broke up with him and moved out of the town without letting him explain things to her. And everyone blamed me for ruining their relationship. Before those rumors, we were somewhat friends as we shared many classes together. But now, she hates my gut along with my friends for ruining her brother's relationship.
Eric also stopped talking with me after that day, saying it's for the best if we were never in each other's company again.
Natasha hangs her head low. "I'm sorry."
I look away, with my eyes shining with tears. Have they ever thought about what those rumors did to me? How can they expect me to forgive them after all those things they have done to me?
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