"All good?" I flinch and turn around, only to find Ashton Fellan sitting on the hood of my car.
Instantly my passive look turns to a smile. "Yeah pretty much."
Ashton gets down from the hood and walks over to me. "Then what're you still doing here?"
I furrow my brows. "What'd you mean?"
"I've been watching you for the last five minutes. You haven't moved an inch since you got out of your car."
I hesitate to answer that. "No I was just- I'm just-"
"Thinking about how to face Derek?" Ashton answers for me. I blush and avoid looking in his eyes.
"Yes that," I mumble. I arrived at school early five minutes ago and since then, I'm having a mental debate about whether I should face everyone or just drive back home.
I'm not sure if I'm ready to face Derek after yesterday. His car is missing in its place again, which makes it harder to tell if he has arrived at school or not. What if I freak out in front of him? Better question, how'll everyone react. But how this guy always knows what's going on in my mind better than me is the mystery of the century.
Ashton slings an arm around me and pushes me to move.
"Hey! What're-"
"I just can't watch you cowering behind your car over nothing," Ashton says and pushes me towards the gate. "It's just a breakup."
Easy for him to say. I sigh and try to remember yesterday. Maybe Ashton's right. It's just a breakup after all. But that's not what the population of our school thinks.
They all are sending disgusted looks in our way when they see us taking towards the building together.
Seriously guys? Get a life.
But the problem occurs when Grace stops us right in front of the gate.
She stands in front of us and crosses her arms. "Where were you two yesterday?"
Ashton and I look at each other before looking back at Grace. Miles and Owen catch up behind her.
Ashton furrows his brows. "Did any-"
"Dude it's all fucked up," Owen cuts his friend panting.
"Why? What happened?" Ashton asks.
Miles opens his mouth but Grace interrupts him. "Let them answer my question first," she says. "Miles and Owen said Ashton told them you two were skipping school. But what happened after school? We couldn't find you anywhere. We couldn't reach your phones either. Do you guys know how worried we were?"
I hesitate to answer that. Did something bad happen after we left? I run my hand inside my pocket but it's empty. Again.
I left my phone home yesterday. But they could've called Ashton unless he too-
I look at Ashton. "Don't look at me like that," he says. "Nobody called me."
Then we all turn to Owen. He shrugs. "I thought Nyako or Miles was supposed to call him."
"No, it was you," Miles states.
Owen lets out a hesitated chuckle. "I was?" He looks at Grace who nods.
And there's that awkward pause again. I shake my head and look at Grace, who looks like she's about to kill someone.
So I try to cheer her up. "Do you know One Direction is coming back?" Even though it's a lie, I think this will cheer her up.
But nothing happens. At least not from her side.
"Oh my gosh! Really?!" Owen jumps up and down.
Ashton and Miles look bewildered too. "Why didn't you tell me that before?!" Ashton asks me and together, three of the boys start their fandom like middle school girls.
Grace looks at me and then back to the boys. As if finally feeling our nonchalant gaze on them, three of them stop jumping.
"What?!" Owen says. "Not all the boys think they're gay."
About time someone agrees.
"The only gay I see here is you," Grace mutters but Owen hears it.
"What did you say?!" He asks her.
Grace ignores him and turns to me. "Kiara it's not the perfect time for joking. If One Direction was coming back, you would've been the last female on the planet to know that." I roll my eyes, just because I like to concentrate more on real news doesn't mean I'm less of a 'Directioner'.
"Now back to the business," Grace continues, "Kiara and Ashton, you two better start explaining where the two of you have been all afternoon and evening."
"It wasn't his fault," I finally tell them. "After Derek and I broke up, I wasn't feeling well, so Ashton took me home and we went out later."
"And look where it got you!" Grace yells before my words can register in her head. Once it did, she turns to me. "What did you say?"
I look at Ashton. He clears his throat. "Uh-I didn't tell anyone that Derek broke up with you? I thought you would like to be the one to break the news to them."
Then I turn back to my friends. "None of you knew about it?"
They shake their heads.
"This all makes sense now," Miles mumbles and turns to Grace.
"What makes sense?" I ask him.
Grace is the one who answers, "We thought you two were-" she pauses.
"Grace?" I shake her. She turns to me and engulfs me in a hug. "I'm so sorry Kiara we misunderstood you two?"
"What are you talking-"
My voice gets cut short when Miles joins the group hug.
"How are you dealing with it?" He asks.
"I'm over it," I tell them and pull back. "Seriously guys, I'm fine. Moreover, it was just one day, how much did we miss?"
"The question is how much you haven't missed," a voice says from behind us. We turn around and find Jason walking in our direction. He stops right in front of me and shoves a poster on my face.
Another one?
I peel the paper off my face and read it. A gasp leaves my mouth when my eyes fall on the picture of Ashton and me.
It's from Friday afternoon when Ashton and I talked about ignoring each other. He has me captivated against the locker. My face is barely showing, but anyone can tell it was me. Below it, there's another one from yesterday, when Ashton was holding me as I was crying in his arms.
Someone was following us the whole time!
The gestures were both friendly. But from the angles they were taken, anyone would assume we were making out in both of them.
Ashton snatches the paper from me and curses loudly when he sees the photos.
I look at Jason. He nods.
Suddenly all the looks Ashton and I are receiving since we enter school is starting to make sense.
Because everyone thought Ashton and I were screwing around while I'm still in a relationship with Derek.
But before I can say anything, someone shouts Ashton's name.
We turn to the two approaching boys. Asher and another guy, someone from the football team if I'm not wrong, are running in our direction.
"Asher, Nolan," Ashton says, addressing them.
"Dude it's all fucked up," Asher says.
"What happened?" I ask. The other boy, Nolan, looks at me and turns to Ashton. "Just go check your locker."
ð¸
New cover^^^^
PS. I might not be able to update tomorrow. Though I'm not sure yet.
Very very important: this chapter was written before One Direction announced their 10 years' reunion, I didn't even know about it until a friend of mine mentioned it to me last July. So whatever you're going to find next, it's totally a coincidence.
Also, please leave votes and comments (on this chapter and rest of the book if you haven't already) if you're enjoying it. Your votes will help this book to reach to more people and that will mean the world to me.