"Hey Tyler!" Lola rushed up to a very disgruntled looking Tyler, who was busy trying to get into his locker.
"Oh hey Lola." He stopped the moment he saw her and she noticed he looked slightly embarrassed. "Listen I'm really sorry if I did anything stupid that night. I was kind of drunk and out of it."
"You didn't do anything," Lola waved her hand at him dismissively but inside her heart was plummeting to her stomach. Did that mean he didn't remember the kiss on her cheek or their time together on the bench?
"Really?" He asked her.
"Anyway Tyler, I was planning to write about our class president on my blog. I usually do school related stuff and what better way to get more readers than an article about Tyler Raeken," Lola blurted out quickly before she could chicken out.
She cast a nervous glance at her friends who were standing by their lockers pretending to converse with each other. In truth, they were sneaking glances her way every few seconds. This was all part of their latest plan.
Tyler laughed and shrugged his shoulders. "Well that's a first. I think if you wanted more traffic on your site, you should write about Eva or Damien, people the students actually want to know about."
"No, you don't realize how important your role in this school is," Lola pushed, trying to butter him up with her compliment. "You are the link between us and the school administration. Without you, there is no us."
She internally cringed after those last few words. Who knew stroking a man's ego would be her specialty? She hoped he wouldn't think she was being over the top.
"I mean if you put it that way," Tyler replied proudly, playing into her words like putty. "So what do you need?"
"I've prepared some questions and was hoping if I could tail you around for a few days? Just to see how your life works around here."
Tyler leaned against his locker and smiled at Lola flirtaciously. "Sure no problem. I usually run my errands during and after lunch. Meet you at the cafeteria then?"
"Yeah, sure," Lola replied, her heart pounding. She couldn't believe she'd just pulled off that lie.
The truth was Lola's blog had just been created yesterday and had all but three loyal readers so far - Hanna, Nalini and Damien. They'd concocted this whole thing so that she could tail him around the school offices with a proper excuse instead of just trying to get close to him for romantic reasons.
Julian had insisted on it.
Lola left Tyler as he continued to struggle with his locker and walked over to her friends.
"Did it work?" Nalini whispered.
"Yup, I'm meeting him during lunch," Lola replied and her two friends squealed silently. She rolled her eyes and took out her books from her locker for first period. "By the way where's the list of questions I'm supposed to ask him?"
"Here," Hanna placed a small slip of paper into the palm of Lola's hand. She quickly placed it into her pocket and nodded gratefully at her friend just as the bell rang.
The girls rushed to their respective classes and their rudimentary schedules continued as per usual until the bell rang for lunch. Lola speed walked to the lunch hall, waiting for Tyler but he was no where to be found.
She frowned in confusion, weren't they supposed to meet here? She waited around for a while but eventually gave up when he was a no show. Lola grabbed a sandwich and sat with her friends at their usual bench, all the while keeping an eye out for him.
"That's weird. Where is he?" Lola muttered. She thrummed her fingers along the wooden bench and swallowed the last bite of her sandwich. Lunch was almost over and still no sign of Tyler. She looked at the bench nearby where he usually ate with his friends but he was missing.
Lola didn't want to admit it but it kind of hurt that he had stood her up like this.
"Maybe he had some work to do?" Hanna suggested hopefully.
A few of their classmates started murmuring and acting all weird and Lola turned her head to the source of their fascination. Damien Reed was walking across the hall, towards them. He sat down at their bench and smiled widely.
"Hey girls, how's it going?" He ran a hand through his hair and gave Nalini his signature smirk.
"Not good, Tyler was supposed to show Lola around during lunch but he's missing," Hanna explained and the school's famous playboy turned to Lola.
"Shall we look for him?" He suggested and Lola stared at him thoughtfully. Why didn't she think of that?
"Damien, why are you sitting with these nobodies?" One of Eva's cheerleader friends stopped by their table and glared at the girls.
"These girls are my friends," Damien replied non chalantly.
"Are you serious?" She squared her shoulders and stared at each of their faces slowly. She then placed her hand on Damien's shoulder and smiled at him suggestively. "I miss you. My bed misses you. Are you coming over today?"
"Umm, I'll text you?" Damien said awkwardly. Apparently his answer didn't appease her in the slightest. Her face turned red and she cast the most vicious stare at Lola, Nalini and Hanna, as if it was their fault that Damien had just brushed her off.
She marched away and walked back to her table where the rest of the cheerleaders were sitting.
Lola's eyes followed her as she sat down and then she saw Eva staring at them. The sight alone made Lola turn towards Nalini nervously but her friend didn't seem to notice. She was busy fighting with Damien who had just stolen a chip from her plate.
Lola couldn't help but feel that Damien's involvement with things were attracting the wrong kind of attention especially from Eva and that was the last thing she wanted. Eva had the entire grade at her beck and call and her break up with Damien hadn't been a happy one.
Everyone in school knew that. The last thing they needed was to draw attention to themselves, especially since they were hiding a high profile fugitive.
"Damien, I don't mean to be rude but you sitting here is attracting all kinds of unwanted attention," Lola finally spoke up, interrupting them.
Both of them stopped bickering over fries and Damien straightened up. He looked around at the dozens of eyes staring at them and nodded after a long pause.
"Study session today after school? I'll pick you guys up from Lola's house," He whispered.
The girls nodded in agreement and then he got up and left. He sauntered between the benches, winking at a few girls who had been ogling at him.
Nalini scoffed when she saw a few of them blush.
"He's such a flirt," She exclaimed.
"You two seem to be hitting it off pretty well," Hanna pointed out.
"Yeah, too well. Eva looks like she's ready for murder. I think you better dial back with him, we don't want a jealous ex girlfriend on our hands," Lola warned.
Nalini laughed at them dismissively and shook her head. "There's nothing going on between Damien and I. And I don't give a damn about Eva's jealous ass. They broke up years ago, she should be over it by now."
"Are you sure? He seems pretty flirty with you," Hanna said.
"He flirts with the entire school. Girls, I like him but I'm not delusional. I'm not going to fall for his tricks," Nalini assured her friends. "And since we're talking about this, I think Lola you need to be careful as well."
"What do you mean?" Lola asked, frowning.
"Well you're conversation with you-know-who got pretty heated that night."
Lola crossed her arms over each other defensively, she knew exactly who her friend was talking about. "You're being crazy. There's nothing going on between me and you-know-who."
"Good because for all we know these guys could just be using us because we're the only ones willing to help," Nalini said and her sentence made Lola slightly angry.
"Trust you to think the worst of people," Lola replied.
"I just don't want you to get hurt. I saw the way you were staring at him the entire time-."
"The way I was staring at him?" Lola's voice raised a notch. "What about the way you and Damien touch each other all the time?"
"Girls, calm down," Hanna said cautiously.
"I am calm. I just don't think we should get carried away with these people," Nalini said.
"I hate to say this but Nalini's right Lola. Guys like them have never exactly gone for girls like us before. You saw the way they talked about our friends," Hanna said, referring to the way the boys had belittled their friends Adela and Mady.
"I know," Lola's voice came out small, her chest constricted. Why did it feel like she was lying to herself? Was Julian just pretending to be nice to her only because she was helping him?
"Let's just help these guys because we're nice people but that's it. No feelings or funny business," Hanna held out her pinky finger for her friends to take.
Lola and Nalini glanced at each other, both taking a second longer than necessary before entwining their fingers with Hanna's.
"Deal."