Chapter 11
Rumours…
My stupid alarm wakes me up again, I really don't want to get up but I don't want to stay at home either. School is the better one of my options and I can try and forget my whole weekend by going to school. My friends are there and I have all the subjects I like today.
I walk into the kitchen to catch my brother drinking out of the milk carton. He sees me standing in the doorway and lifts the milk carton in a salute. Boys are so gross. I guess that means I'm not going to have cereal for breakfast then. I pull out the bread and stick it into the toaster before I realise that Mitch was up before me.
"Why are you up so early Mitch?" I ask suspiciously. Waking up is not my brothers forte.
"Oh come on, can't I be up before you wake me up?" He says quickly. If I didn't know any better I would think he was guilty.
"Something has to be up to get you to wake up before me. So what did you do this time?" I say even more suspicious of him. If there's one thing I know about my brother it is his inability to do anything right.
"I didn't do anything Kaila, seriously I didn't!" I look at him pointedly, "Ok, ok! No need to glare! Ok so I did do something but it wasn't that bad." I inwardly sigh, this is the part where he confesses and I'm forced to be the responsible one and take over the problem.
I nod slightly, "That's what they all say. So what did you do Mitchel?"
"Ah well, I reversed into dad's car last night when I was sneaking in. It's not that bad, one of the back lights is smashed that's all." He says hurriedly trying to explain himself to me. Could he get any worse?
"That's bad. Do you have any money to use to repair it? Dad's already got enough on his plate at the moment, so try and not worry him, please?" I say quietly.
"I have some money left but not enough to cover all the expenses. Can you lend me some money to get it fixed?"
"Sure I'll give you some of the money I saved from working. But you can only use it to get dad's car fixed ok?" I stare at him, making sure he does what I say.
"Ok just stop staring at me like that, it's creepy!" he says shivering. He walks out of the kitchen and back to his room. At the moment he leaves the kitchen my toast pops.
I hurriedly eat my breakfast and pack my lunch then I go and get dressed into my school uniform. Just as I'm walking out the front door, dad calls out to me. The closing of the door kind of muffles it, so I'm not entirely sure what he said.
I walk down to the bus stop just in time to catch the bus. Ash, Sam and Nathan are sitting up the back of the bus. I make my way to sit next to them. Suddenly the whole bus has gone silent the popular girls have all gone silent and I can feel them staring daggers at my back. I look up at the end of the bus at Ash and she smiles encouragingly at me. I frown confused at what's happening and sit down with the others at the back of the bus. The popular kids never shut up.
"Do you know why the popular girls are staring at me?" I ask Ash.
"No idea, have you done anything that could merit a rumour?" She asks me speculatively.
"Not that I know of, it could have been when I chose to where a leather bomber jacket."
"Oh definitely because people like them don't appreciate the good old fashion leather jacket." Ash says agreeing with me. She rolls her pretty blue eyes and sticks out her tongue to emphasise this.
The bus ride is preposterously awkward the popular people from our school didn't resume speaking casually instead they were whispering and sneaking peaks at me. Each time one of them stared at me it felt like my skin was burning.
I walk into school on Monday morning thinking that by coming to school I can forget about my semi crappy weekend. It's then that I notice that all the girls are glaring at me. Some are talking to each other in hushed tones and staring daggers at me. It's worse than what happened on the bus. I wonder what happened to make them gossip about me? I really hope Josh didn't tell anyone about my dad. I haven't done anything rumour worthy, have I?
"Oh my god I just heard the news Kaila, it turns out everyone is glaring at you because they think you're trying to break up the miracle couple. Did you seriously kiss Josh?" Ash asks me giddily. God how did everyone find out about that? And why is she acting so happy?
"Actually no, I didn't kiss Josh, he tried to kiss me but I told him to back off because I don't help people cheat on their girlfriends." I say indignantly. I run my hands through my hair to keep my hands steady they're shaking like crazy. How can this be happening?
"Tough luck someone saw him trying to kiss you. But go girl for telling him to back off, what a jerk, I never thought Josh was that bad." Ash says almost to herself.
"Save me, I have so many classes with him! It's going to be so awkward and on top of that everyone's going to be staring daggers at me." I complain to Ash. I must sound like a big loser now.
"Poor babe, well you have Biology and music with me so we can separate ourselves from Josh. And you have maths with Nathan. That leaves only two classes alone with Josh, just history and PE." Ash says trying to be helpful but it doesn't really help much.
The bell goes and I run to homeroom. I walk in the door just before Josh and our homeroom teacher. I run to sit next to Nathan there's a spare seat between him and this nerdy looking guy, I hurriedly grab it forcing Josh to sit on his other side.
"What's the matter Kaila? Why don't you want to sit next to Josh?" Nathan whispers to me. He sounds a little bemused so I'm pretty sure he's heard the rumour already.
"Josh tried to kiss me at the movie theatres and some girls from school saw and now all the girls in our year level are glaring at me." I whisper back, I look across at Nathan and realise his face has this oh that's really bad expression.
"Crap, it is girl wars all over again. This happens every time Josh likes a new girl, all the other girls get jealous and when she's a normal girl the worse it is for her, so he has to date the popular girls because they seem to be in his league but only problem is they're not really into loyalty." Nathan explains quietly with his eyes glued on our teacher.
"That explains it. All the glaring and the whispering behind my back are because all the girls want Josh, right?" I whisper back morosely.
"That pretty much sums it up. I feel bad for you. Until you get a boyfriend they won't believe that you're not interested in him." Nathan shakes his head, "You two would be the best couple ever."
"I don't think so, our principles are totally different." I say pointedly glaring at him.
"You might be right about that. Josh has no principles, he sees something he likes. He goes for it no matter what." Nathan says conspiratorially. I notice Nathans' gaze flicker down to the teacher's bottom and back up.
"Talking about no principles, I was wondering if you have a thing for our roll call teacher." I look at him curiously no wonder he's Josh's best friend.
"Not really, she just has a nice arse. I'm an arse man myself, don't tell Josh that I told you this, but he's a breast man." Nathan confesses to me sneakily, I'm not sure if there is an ulterior motive behind this info but who really knows when it comes to Nathan.
"Don't know why he chose me then. So the teacher is the reason why you run to homeroom all the time. And I'm guessing that the back row in the class gives you more cover to check her out." I say conspiratorially, he looks at me mortified. It's almost like he thinks I can read his mind.
"Something like that, am I really that transparent?" Nathan asks me worriedly. He flicks his glance towards the teacher as if she's going to turn around and tell him that she knows he's checking her out every day in roll call. I doubt that she even realises this, my opinion is that she's blind but has really good hearing.
"Not really, I only noticed when you quickly glanced at her arse and then you smiled cheekily. And then I realised the rest out." I shrug like it's no big deal. "Wouldn't your girlfriend be mad if she found out that you're checking other women's butts out?"
Nathan looks at me thoughtfully then looks back towards the front of the room. I guess h
e's uncomfortable talking to me about these kinds of things. "She would…if she was talking to me right now. You could say we've reached a rough patch in our relationship." He hesitantly says.
I look at him horrified that I pushed on a sore point, the poor boy must be so confused about this and I don't know what to say to that. "That sounds bad." I lamely say, yeah way to go KJ say the most caring thing ever.
"Yeah, that pretty much sums it up." Nathan says happily. "Unfortunately Josh isn't as lucky as I am. I advise you to avoid the popular group until the rumours die down." He looks at me like he's about to add something else but changes his mind instead.
"I agree there, they'll fry me alive if I'm not careful. Stupid Josh, this is entirely his fault." I don't care if he hears me, it is his fault anyway.
"Kaila, you are aware that I can hear you." Josh says angrily, yes I do realise that Josh and that's the whole beauty of it!
"Josh you're such a dumb ass sometimes, it was so obvious she was saying that so that you could hear it." Nathan points out he looks at me then rolls his eyes as if to say so obvious.
"Sh… Ms Thomson is glaring at us." I hiss at them it's funny because this is the same reaction we got for the How I Met Your Mother moment. Seriously if she pulls us up again I think I might burst into a fit of giggling there's no helping it this time.
Josh glares at me then replies, "Why is it my fault that the other girls don't like you?" I just look at him, how does he not know what he did? How does he go around without hearing the rumours and accusations flying around, the whole school knows and it's not even half past nine.
"Do I have to spell it out for you boy?" I don't think he likes what I'm implying, just because his face screws up with annoyance, oh I'm really starting to enjoy this, patronising him is so much fun. I stick by my theory that guys are so not cute when they're annoyed. "Because some gossip hungry girls saw you trying to kiss me and thought I was willing to help you cheat. Now your girlfriend hates me and I might be counted as a relationship wrecker." Well that sounds really simple but the fact is it isn't, it's complicated, very complicated. Well not really, Josh tried to kiss me at the movie theatre. Some girls who are best friends with his girlfriend saw him and immediately reported back to the queen bee, how else could my life get worse? But to piss off the queen bee, trust my luck!
The bell rings and we all walk out of the classroom to our next class, I have double music, it's lucky we have Mr Jacobs for music he's very easy going he's also pretty young, with this rugged guitarist look. He also doesn't mind us talking he says "It helps you put feeling into your work". I'm going to get extra credit for that one. If he wasn't one of my teachers I would definitely be into him. Ash is in the class along with Josh, it's always pretty fun but I don't really want to spend much time with him, it would be better if we had no classes together but unfortunately I only have like two subjects without him. I mean it's not like I don't like him at all it's just I don't want any more rumours spread about me. I never thought I would be the most talked about girl in my second week of school. On the other hand I never expected to be labelled a boyfriend stealer.
I can't believe the rumours that are flying around about me, it's truly unbelievable. But I'm not the type of person to get hung up about these things. I probably won't be staying here long anyway. I think the infatuation Josh feels for me is that of seeing a new face in his environment and wishing to get to know me better. The fact is he doesn't like me he's just curious about me.
I feel like the only reason why he'd make a pass at me is because he feels sorry for me, it's almost like I'm pitiable to him, which really pisses me off. I'm a force to be reckoned with moron!
I believe him when he says he wants to dump Ali but I don't like the way he's going about it, cheating isn't going to help him out of the situation it's just going to drag other people in. All he has to do is go and tell her how he feels and say it in a nice way and they will break up. I know that sounds rich coming from the girl who has had a lot of short relationships and they all ended with a mutual understanding that we're just not meant to be. There's really nothing to it!
I still feel like no matter which way you look at it Ali will not react well to being dumped by Josh, actually I think she'll blame me for the break up. Seriously high school is so stuffed up. Just because the cool guy breaks up with the cheer leader because she has such a lame personality, the cheer leader will always blame the nerd or geek who was caught talking to him, and you know what they were talking about? How to do Pythagoras Theorem in lay-man's terms. Just makes me think the cheerleader type really does have the worst type of personality, you can't exactly say I'm wrong, now can you?
I really can't understand why Josh likes me, I know it should be curiosity but something about the way he stares at me suggest that it's something more than that. I don't know how to explain it…it's like his eyes are taking in every detail of my face, the way I rest my hand under my chin, the way I chew on my pen. I feel like if someone asked him about me he would mention all these things, it's kind of like I took an exam and now he knows the way I work. I find it completely scary but at the same time it is just as compelling! I don't know if I'm wrong and I don't really want to know if I'm right either. It's just every time he looks at me with those scrutinising eyes I feel like he knows me really well, like the way Nat knows me. It's strange that I should think of Nat while I'm looking at him, rather I should say staring at him. It never occurred to me that Josh could be Nat's brother, sure he has the same qualities as Nat and he has the same x-factor as her but in reality he is very different to his family. It's scary how different he is to the rest of his family, they are all pretty laid back and calm while he is pretty out there and forever changing his mood. But now I know who he is, I realise he looks a lot like Ricki, they all move in the same way but I never noticed that about Josh. I guess it was because I wasn't expecting him to be Nat's older brother.
I look down at my sheet of paper that should be blank because I know I haven't written anything down, but sure enough there in small capital letters is two words written by Ash: WAKE UP! Well she has that right at least, how can I pay attention when Josh is sitting across from me and I'm not supposed to talk or acknowledge him? But then again, how can I be so hot for someone who has a girlfriend and only wishes to use me to break up with her? It's like really Kayley, how can you be so dumb? He doesn't want you. He just wants to use you! It's obvious yet that fact keeps slipping from my mind. But I need to concentrate I'm in class and I cannot keep day dreaming about a certain hot guy, I will never get my work done if I do.
Ash nudges me in the ribs really hard it's almost like someone decided to punch my ribs. I yelp but it doesn't really fix the sore rib. I grumpily turn my head in Ash's direction she's grinning cheekily at me, if I didn't know better I would think she enjoyed nudging my rib! I roll my eyes at Ash but she sticks out her tongue at me. We really are childish, at seventeen years of age we should at least be past the sticking out tongue stage.
"Why did you nudge me?" I splutter at her cocky manner. I'm taller than her I could probably catch her if I tried.
"Why did you roll your eyes at me, then?" She grins at me evilly, but I can't help but laugh at her. I guess she's just someone who makes me laugh all the time, it doesn't bother me that she was poking me actually I was just curious about why she did it. But I can probably guess that now, she wanted me to stop being in la-la land and start being my chatty old self. I've only been friends with them for a week but it feels like I've known them forever. Strange as it sounds they really know me quite well and it doesn't bother me. Actually I'm starting to hope that my brother won't get in any trouble and I will be able to stay here for the rest of high school. It would be great to do year 12 with people I am friends with.
"So you nudged me, why?" I try asking again, this time Ash smiles and looks like she decides to answer properly.
"Well on Wednesday Sam is going to his Air Force Cadets thing and he asked me to come, but I j
ust realised that I have a family thing on then." Ash looks at me meaningfully as if pleading me to go in her place, "So I was wondering if you could go in my place I know it would mean a lot to Sam, It's some sort of social event for the higher ranked Cadets, something like a dance or camp fire night or something." And there it is, I was right, but I already decided to go with Sam without any further pleading.
"Sure, the least I could do for a friend." Besides I like hanging out with Sam he's kind of the left out one in our group. I guess Cadets keeps him busy, I wouldn't mind seeing what they do at Cadets. It's a shame that Ash won't be able to go but I hope Sam won't mind that I'm tagging along instead.
"Ok so here are the details, Sam will pick you up at five then drive you to the place the social event will be held. You can wear jeans or whatever, something casual Sam said. Sam will take you home when it finishes." This sounds like a very strict army operation I'm not sure if I should be scared or not.
"So does Sam know where I live?" If he does I'm going to be really suspicious of him for a long time.
"No. Where do you live?" Ok so any qualms I had about everyone is now put to rest.
"I'll tell Sam at lunchtime, it's really close to Josh's house. So he won't have much trouble finding it." And if he does manage to get lost he can call Josh to figure it out. Speaking of the devil I look across the table at him and realise his face has gone from sweet content to absolute fury, I'm guessing he's jealous of Sam. Well he doesn't really have a right to be jealous I'm not going out with him and I never have gone out with him. He's my best friend's brother that alone would make him taboo.
"You can't go out with Sam." Josh says really loudly, a statement not a question! Does he really think he can tell me what to do?
"F.Y.I. Josh she's not, as you put it, going out with Sam. Kaila is going to a social event with him as his friend. You know how he gets when we don't go along with him to these Cadets things and everyone thinks the poor boy has no friends. Besides Kaila's hot so that might help him out a bit." Ash glares at Josh for a couple of seconds then continues to defend my honour, "Besides I don't think you should be concerning yourself so much in Kaila's love life anyway. Aren't you the one who got her in all that strife with your current girlfriend, who coincidentally I told you, you should never have dated in the first place?"
I never realised how rocky Ash and Josh's relationship was until that very moment. I could see that Ash was trying to be a good friend and protect him from people who just wanted to use him for popularity. And he was annoyed because he thought he was in love with Ali but realised he was wrong about her and Josh just does not want to admit he was played for a fool. But he's jealous of anyone who gets me for a girlfriend but in the end I still like him.
"Ok so I get the picture, let Kaila go be with someone else, is that what you're telling me? Let go of someone I might actually love and watch her be with my friend?" Wait did he just say he loves me? "I can't do that Ash, I just can't." Josh looks sadly down at his hands. He looks like he's about to cry, but instead he looks up at me fiercely, "I don't want to see you with someone else Kayley." His voice almost cracks on my name, I just want to hold him and tell him there will be no one else.
"Well until this 'blows over' you can't be with Kaila, you need to break up with Ali anyway. You know she's only using you right? She never loved you Josh I can tell you that much and you've known that the whole time. You should have dumped her earlier. I can tell you have been putting this off the whole time. You want Kaila right? Well break up with queen bitch first." Well that's one way of saying it Ash. I guess her gruff way of saying break up already is somewhat arousing. It's definitely unmistakable there's no way Josh could get what she is saying wrong now.
"I agree with her Josh, the longer you put it off the harder it will get to tell Ali that you don't like her anymore and that you're not sure that you ever really liked her. The fact is it is just going to get more painful to say the right thing. You're going to end up considering her more than yourself. Just one thing Josh, if you really liked her you would tell her the truth because it is the right thing to do." I know I'm sticking my foot in it but he has to realise that it's more painful not knowing why the person doesn't want to be with you than knowing they don't love you.
Josh just looks at me like he's hurt to hear me say something like that, it's almost like he expects Ash to say harsh things to him but when it comes from me it's another matter altogether. "Kaila I know that it'll be hard on her, but I did…do love her. Really I do."
"If you still love her, you wouldn't have put the moves on me." I say blatantly, well you can't blame me, he is the one who tried to cheat on her and now he has the balls to say he's still in love with her, how much of an idiot is he? Does that mean he would cheat on her anyway and still say he loved her and the other girl?
"She's right Josh, you can't say you still love her and mean it when you've been acting like Kaila is the love of your life." Ash looks at me and rolls her eyes. Like this is just common knowledge, well it should be. "Quit denying it we all know you're not in love with Ali. And I sure as hell know she doesn't love you. We skaters should never get involved with the cheerleaders or jocks for that matter. Conformists and nonconformists just don't get a long, you should know that Josh!"
"I know, I know, I don't want to break her heart though. I don't want to see her cry." Josh looks down at his hands sorrowfully.
"She won't break up with you. She'll make it out to be Kaila's fault not yours. Everyone will think of you as the saint and Kaila as the hoe." Ash apologetically looks at me, but I've already hooked onto the point, if Josh doesn't hurry up and tell Ali the truth, the queen bee will make my life a living hell. Well look at that!
"Look you don't have to tell her at recess you can pull her aside at lunch. But you do have to do it today, no way am I earning the title of hoe when I seriously don't deserve it." I look at him pointedly to see if he understands what I'm telling him.
Josh looks at me woefully, but I just glare back at him. Finally he gives up and admits defeat. "Ok, today at lunchtime, you happy now?" I look at Josh apologetically but it is his own fault for leading Ali on.
I'm not sure what I should think about Josh, cheating is the lowest especially when your partner thinks you're in a monogamous relationship. I really feel for Ali she would still want him even if she had to share him with someone else. She would seriously forgive him for anything-except of course breaking up with her-clearly she is delusional but then again she's like the "head cheerleader" of the school without an "established" cheer squad, make me puke, why don't you? Jeez cheerleader type girls are just too perky it makes me want to climb back into bed or throttle them-depends on if I feel homicidal-but what is with the, I'm-so-cheery-and-perky-and-it's-not-even-lunch-time-attitude? Do they want to be killed early on by their follower "peeps"? Just shoot me already, cheerleaders should be exterminated on the terms that they are unnaturally high and mighty as well as being totally creepy, something like them cannot be HUMAN. The U.S. Army should take them away and mutilate their bodies on the grounds that "cheerleaders" are really ALIENS. Whatever that really means?
I guess I might be jealous that cheerleaders can change the view of the other cliques not only that but they're allowed to date the hottest guy at school. I wish I could do that, walk up to the guy I like all sassily and tell him right there right then that I liked him and would he like to go out with me, but I'm a shy type of person and I doubt I could ever do something so brave. Having Josh come onto me is one thing but telling him the truth about how he makes me feel is another thing entirely! They have the right to do whatever they want. High school is just another hierarchy.
I can't help but think about the possibilities of what Ali will do to Josh for dumping her. She could spread major rumours about him. She could make it hard on any girl that dares to look his way. Ali is a very hard person to understand.
I watch Ash without listening to her, then I realise both Ash and Josh are starin
g at me. "Um why are you both looking at me like that? It's almost like I'm a case study…"
"Not a case study, we're just trying to figure out how to keep you out of trouble with Ali." Ash looks over at Josh again then turns back to me, I feel like I'm being assessed. "Maybe this whole thing with Sam could help you, if we dressed you up a little more and showed how bubbly you are with us…you know you're prettier than Ali, smarter too. If we showed you off more you could take her place as most popular girl."
I turn my head in Josh's direction, he doesn't look too happy about this. He looks agitatedly at Ash then looks at me with a seriously frustrated look on his face. "You don't need to do anything to make yourself popular, I like you the way you are now."
"Yeah well I like myself the way I am as well, and I never would want to become one of them." I say acidly. "When does this lesson end, I'm so hungry."
Ash looks at the times in her diary then consults her chunky man watch. "We have ten minutes left give or take a few minutes."
"Ugh I want out. Can't we just play the instruments why do we have to do theory this lesson?" I moan tiredly. God I sound like a whinger but who cares I want food and I want to process what I just heard.
Josh looks up at Mr Jacobs, we all know he isn't doing work on his computer he's emailing his girlfriend or that's what we think. It could actually be you tube but I highly doubt that. Ash thinks he's checking out his blog, but at the moment Ash thinks everyone who goes on a computer is looking at their own blogs. I must say continuously being on your blog is just lame. "Hey Mr J, can we jump on the keyboards?"
Mr Jacobs looks up at us slightly confused. We can tell he's forgotten that he was supposed to be teaching a class. "You can do whatever you want, knock yourself out." This teacher is really laid back almost to a fault. We walk over to the keyboards and Josh starts hammering out a tune on the keyboard. Ash just rolls her eyes as if to say show off! I never realised that Josh was some sort of child/teenage prodigy, but here he is playing trills and hard looking finger work.
Josh turns around and winks at me then starts to play a harder song with his eyes shut. I can't help but think serious show off. Ash just shakes her head as if she's thinking typical. I guess that is just Josh, that's just who he is…a serious show off.
Josh then decides to play a show tune with a cheeky expression on his face. I swear he's close to jumping up and dancing on the table tops whilst singing, actually that wouldn't be that bad. That would totally make my day. And I really need something to make my day today, between Mitch this morning and finding my dad passed out at home on the weekend, I'm not sure where I should fit in anything good. I still can't get over how quickly things are happening, only this morning I wasn't talking to Josh and already I've forgotten my grudge and I'm even helping him dump his super popular girlfriend. What kind of day is this if I'm already dealing with all that stuff?
After ten minutes of Josh playing show tunes I am almost thankful when the bell finally goes. I am so hungry it's not even funny. I swear it feels like I haven't eaten in a week or something. Crazy much…? I walk briskly -technically it is running but that's disgraceful- out of the classroom and to my locker. Josh isn't too far behind me although I wish he was a million miles away, right now. It's not that I don't like him it's just I don't want to upset Ali any further by obviously throwing my friendship with Josh in her face. What should I do? I can't tell Nat what is happening at school after all it is her brother I'm thinking about.
I wish Nat was here with me right now, don't get me wrong the other girls and I get along like a house on fire the only thing I can find fault with is the fact that they aren't Nat both Nat and I are versatile so we fit into a lot of different groups, by becoming friends with Josh I have agreed to remain in this group, without meaning to I have limited myself to a limited amount of friends. If Nat was here with me she'd know what to do to fix the situation with Ali.
Behind me a deep soft voice laughingly says to me, "Kaila don't think so hard, it makes you look scary." Without even turning around I recognise the voices owner. For a second before I realised the identity behind the masculine voice, I thought it was Josh coming up behind me. My heart started beating frantically my stomach lurched and my mouth seemed to dry of any moisture. I stared horrified at my locker door, anxious to walk out of the small locker area without him realising my dawning horror. But then a miracle happened my brain recognised the voice as someone else's and my heart slowed to a normal pace. It was only Nathan. Not Josh. Nathan. Thank god, I don't know what I would have done if it had really been Josh. It was at that moment that I understood. I wasn't annoyed with Ali I was jealous that she had dated Josh. I felt insecure, what would happen if Josh realised he wasn't in love with me and decided he would dump me in the same way he was going to dump Ali? I felt sick.
"Hey Kaila are you alright? You don't look so good. Maybe you should go see the nurse?" The concern in Nathan's voice brought me back to reality, I had no right to think of things like Josh being 'in love' with me. What he felt for me was probably just a sister-brother feeling.
"Yeah I'm ok Nathan. I was just feeling a bit dizzy that's all, I missed breakfast." Like that was explanation enough, lies, I hate telling Nathan lies but I'm not sure I can tell him the thought of Josh possibly dumping me made me want to pass out or barf either or.
"Well ok then, but eat recess ok Kaila. I don't want you passing out before maths. Don't leave me alone with Mr Smith!" Nathan looks at me playfully but I can still see concern in his eyes.
"Nah I'm cool now, how about we go get us some junk food." I look imploringly at him. He looks back at me with a well-okay-then look. Just as I was thinking victory is mine, Josh walks into the empty locker room. My heart starts that funky beat again and I can't help think that his dark brown hair looks really soft and I can see where his uniform has bunched up around his bulging muscles.
"Kaila, you okay? You look really pale. Maybe you should go to the nurse." Josh hands his books to Nathan and walks over to me looking at me worriedly. I can't think of anything to say to make him stop coming closer to me. I shut my eyes hard trying to get him out of my mind but instead he places his hand on my forehead. "You don't feel like you have a fever but I think you should go to the nurse."
I open my eyes up wide, I can't believe this. Josh thinks I'm sick, well that's ok let's just hope he doesn't realise it's him that is making me feel that way. "Josh seriously I'm fine, I just haven't eaten today that's all." I look across at Nathan again begging him to get rid of Josh.
"Hey you, get your hands off my lady." Nathan says mock jealously, Josh just laughs at Nathan instead. "Oh come on man, don't shoot me down like that I have just as much chance with her as you do. Actually I think she likes me more because I'm honest." Josh looks down at me bewildered and confused.
"Nah you have no hope with a woman of her degree, leave it to the big guns boy." Josh gratingly says towards Nathan but he sounds too serious for it to be taken as a joke. I look uncertainly up at Josh, he returns my look with an -I'll-talk-to-you-about-this-later- kind of expression.
"Don't worry about it boys, you're both off my list anyway if I was going to date anyone from our group it would have to be Sam. He's the only one who isn't flirting with me outrageously, oh and Mike but he isn't really my type." I grab my food out of my locker and start to walk away from them.
At recess we always sit inside the cafeteria but at lunch we go out into the stadium and have our lunch there. I find Ash at our table defending herself and Flick from the attacks (verbal that is.) coming from the cheerleader type looking girls. I can pretty much make a bet -almost guaranteeing that I'll get my money back- on who they are arguing about. 1) Josh 2) Ali 3) Me. I walk closer to the little group of people looking extremely angry at each other wondering which one I should back up. Ash looks up and sees me coming towards her, she looks at me sadly and then she turns back to Ali's fashion crazy henchmen. Ash being a woman of dignity stands up and yells so the whole cafeteria ca
n hear. "Who cares what you want, Josh doesn't want to be with Ali. And he's not cheating on her either." Ash looks at me warningly but it's too late the clones have realised I'm here and they start advancing on me.
"You bitch. Why did you have to spoil it?" one particularly ugly clone snaps at me, I stare at her completely shocked. Then I turn cold with fury.
"I didn't do anything! I didn't encourage him, I even told him to leave me alone." I shout at them. But they aren't listening anymore.
"It's your fault entirely. Before you came here they were happy. They were god like. Now Josh isn't a god anymore!" the girl from the bus yells at me.
"He wasn't a god to begin with. Josh is as human as the rest of us." I stare at her angrily. What is with these girls? Just as I'm planning my escape all the yelling ceases and the whole cafeteria falls silent. Josh strides into the middle of the girls where I'm standing as tall as possible, also helps that I'm a good head taller than most of them. Josh grabs my arm and yanks me out of their midst but instead of dragging me towards the table he starts dragging me out of the cafeteria altogether. I walk faster to keep in pace with him, but instead of slowing down he speeds up. I try to speak but I don't know what to say. I'm sure he would appreciate me saying something like: hey that wasn't too bad, actually I found it totally hilarious; is really going to get me in his good books.
He keeps tugging me, soon I realise we're getting awfully close to the parking lot. Now I have to speak up I can't let him take me home because of this. "Josh look; I know that wasn't necessarily the smartest thing I've done, but hey, they were saying stuff so I just couldn't take no more. You okay Josh? This whole silent fuming thing is not working for me."
I half expected him to smile instead I got Mr Angry Sarcasm, even Angry Anderson would be pleased by him. "No Kayley I'm not okay! You were just ganged up on by a group of cult like teens and not because you were defending yourself but because you were defending me. It's supposed to be the other way around. FYI I wasn't fuming!" I can barely suppress a giggle from bubbling up.
"Josh it's cool I don't mind I got to yell at them as well. I wasn't defending your honour either; mine was at stake as well." I look evenly at him, it is funny how calm I feel and how riled up he is.
"Yeah I realise that Kaila but it's my fault they're ganging up on you. Maybe I should wait a few days then dump Ali once this has died down." Josh looks back at the school hopefully like all this mess is going to be over soon.
"Sorry to burst the Josh bubble but this isn't going to die down not now after you literally dragged me out of there it looks a whole heap worse than it was." I stare at him hoping to see dawning understanding instead I'm rewarded with his facial expression showing dawning horror.
"Oh crap. We're in for it now I guess it is now or never huh? Ali is going to skin me alive and I don't even mean metaphorically speaking." I feel sorry for Josh going out with a girl like Ali must be hard there has to be so many requirements and restrictions on him as a partner.
"Yeah it has got to be today Josh. I can handle the clones but you have to get to the queen bee to stop any chance of war." I stare at him then laugh, "I sound like something out of Star Wars." Josh and I are laughing so hard that we don't notice Ali walking up to us.
Ali walks up to us and in her falsetto voice sardonically says, "I hope I'm not disturbing you two but I wish to talk to my boyfriend." Now I can definitely understand why Ash doesn't like her.
"Yeah go ahead we were just finished talking about some history stuff. I'm sure there are way more important things for you to talk about." I wink at Josh then flounce off making sure she can see my curvy figure and immeasurable height, well at least it would seem that way to a shortie like her. I want to make her feel as insecure as possible against a curvy woman when her looks are very waif-like.
As I am just nearing the cafeteria the bell for 3rd period sounds. I spot Ash leaning coolly against a wall in the corridor and I idly walk right up to her. She nods her head lazily but hurriedly asks, "What happened just now?" I almost laugh at the simplicity of the question and the complexity of the answer.
I give her a look that says -you-don't-want-to-know. But obviously she does. "Josh went psycho about his duties in defending me. Then it dawned on him that he has to tell Ali as soon as possible. Then the woman of the hour turned up and left the loveless couple to their devices." I nod considering if I left anything out. "Yep that pretty much sums it up."
Ash just looks at me widely then she shakes her head as if to clear it. "Wow just your luck. Well at least he'll be able to do it now, although I was looking forward to seeing her fully humiliated in front of the whole school." Well that's Ash for you.
"Remind me next time I'm going to dump someone I should invite you along." I smile at her evilly and she smiles back at me.