The sound of chatter echoed throughout the hallways, bothering me far more than it should. My face was permanently pulled back into a scowl, annoyed by the excitement that filled the air. No doubt they were all discussing my little confrontation with Mr Lachey.

Breanna had relatively lessened my worry. She was right; Mr Lachey would undoubtedly be in more trouble than me, him being a teacher who openly bullied a student. Of course that was a little exaggeration, but he had it coming. And thanks to nerd boy Higgins, I had footage to support my claim.

Walking through the cafeteria doors with an accomplished smirk on my face, I was myself again. Renewed with energy, I basked in the glory that I was the topic of discussion throughout the cliques and took my seat at my usual table filled with jocks, cheerleaders and other highly praised students. No sooner than I had properly positioned myself on the seat did the flood of questions spill from the mouths of my table’s occupants. Gleaming with satisfaction and mirroring the energy of my crowd, I shushed them all and opened my mouth to re-count the previous incident in great dramatic detail.

Before a word could leave my mouth, the cafeteria doors open and Jared stepped in, with a proud smile resting perfectly on his tanned face. His hypnotic green eyes were wildly scanning the length of the large, chatter filled room and the distinct look of love that he proudly sported on his sleeve made my heart fall into an unsteady rhythm. His blonde hair was curling slightly at the base of his neck and around his ears, radiating soft angelic warmth that he always seemed to have.

Jared was in short, perfect.

I couldn’t exactly pinpoint one distinctive trait that made him stand out.

It was just him.

The way he made me feel; how he’d always open my doors and pull out my chairs. Whenever we watched scary movies together, he’d pull me into his side and let me bury my face in his shoulder whenever I felt scared- which was throughout the entire movie. My family loved him, and I loved his family.

We’d been together for nearly two years, but we’ve always had that spark of chemistry from our first year, that undoubtedly became much more throughout high school

Jared’s eyes lit up in recognition when he glanced my way, and I waved him over to our table, still a bit too dazed to acknowledge that he was fully aware of the location of our table, seeing as we sat here since the beginning of the year.

I missed Jared more than I had originally thought. His recent absence left a void that was only filled by his warmth and I was ecstatic by his presence. My giddy smile, however, slipped completely off my face and disappeared into thin air as Jared walked straight past me.

I did a double take so fast I was sure that I was in danger of getting whiplash, but my eyes followed Jared’s rushed, purposeful strides. With a confused frown on my face I got to my feet and followed Jared to a table away from ours, filled with the school’s website nerds and I noticed a certain Jeffrey Higgins missing. Breanna always followed through with her plans, I thought proudly to myself.

“-I’m in love with you and I need you to know that” the desperate pleas tumbling out of Jared’s mouth snapped me out of my reverie and I was almost elated.

Almost.

My heart dropped to my stomach as the blood pumped through my veins so quickly I thought I would pass out. Jared was saying foreign words that he had yet to utter to me, but he wasn’t even looking at me.

 He wasn’t referring to me.

He didn’t even acknowledge my presence.

His girlfriend.

“EXCUSE ME?!” I shrieked. The sound so shrill it reminded me of the days back when I was a spoilt eight year old who threw tantrums whenever things didn’t go her way.

Some things never changed.

The cafeteria grew relatively quiet, unanimously casting a metaphorical spotlight upon Jared and I. The crowd conspicuously leaned closer to our direction in hopes of witnessing every single event that transpired.

Jared turned at last, startled by my outburst and his eyes widened in surprise for a split second, before quickly hardening in determination. The tilt of his body revealed a petite brunette whom, up until recently was the sole receiver of Jared’s misplaced, heartfelt confession.

Questions hurled themselves at me from different corners of my mind and I willed myself to come up with several plausible reasons to explain the situation before me, but before I could make sense of the whirlwind of thoughts scattered inside, Jared beat me to my own voice “Listen Georgia, you’re great and everything but it’s just- you’re not her and-”

“WHAT THE HELL IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!” I shrieked, not permitting him to utter those vile words.

This was some sort of sick joke and I couldn’t play along any longer. I grabbed his hand with mine, turning him to completely face my frantic state, showing him that I was done playing his sick little game and that he should drop the façade.

He shrugged me off and put both hands on my shoulders, his eyes were guarded and a bit surprised as they tentatively held mine captive, as if I were a vicious animal and any sudden movements he made would result in chaos.

At that moment I sure wished I was indeed a vicious animal, preferably a hyena or coyote, so I could attack anyone in any given moment and walk away victorious. But the fight at hand seemed larger than a predator prey situation, and I was losing.

Realization dawned upon me and a wave of dread filled my stomach. I was glad that I had skipped breakfast and hadn’t had time to eat lunch, because if the avalanche that seemed to be ever present in my stomach was anything to go by, I’d be in the middle of a battle to keep my food in my stomach and not on the floor at this moment.

Rage came like a flip of a switch as I stared at the girl behind Jared. Her mousy brown hair fell limp, barely scraping against her shoulders and her large hazel eyes widened with terror at the play in which she undoubtedly became one of the leads. Before I knew what was happening, I lunged at her, screaming profanities that would make my grandmother bathe me in holy water.

In my head, I had her pinned to the ground and was clawing at her porcelain face as she begged for mercy, but in reality, Jared had anticipated my move and barricaded her from me, holding both my hands captive as I kicked and flailed my body like my goldfish that I took out of his bowl to have a tea party with when I was four.

Jared’s eyes hardened, as did his hold on me and visibly shook with anger. “Don’t you ever touch her” he spat venomously “If I so much as hear that you hurt her in any way I swear Georgia, I’ll make sure you regret it.”

Not once had Jared ever regarded me with anything but kindness.

With the realization that this was the reality and I could feel my sudden burst of anger diminish into complete nothingness, I felt my walls crumble and a few traitorous tears cascaded freely down my burning face. Both Jared and I knew that once I started crying, I ended up producing enough tears to drown both myself and a few unlucky bystanders.

At the sight of my tears, Jared’s eyes softened slightly and he dropped my arm as though my previous rage had finally pierced the surface of my skin. At least I hoped that it did in fact hurt him. Nonetheless, I used it as my scapegoat and ran straight out of the cafeteria.

               I was instantly regretting my choice of shoes.

Tears cascaded freely down my cheeks, creating an impenetrable layer of moisture between my eyes and my surroundings. Wiping them away proved to be futile, because the moment my hands made contact with my face, a fresh new wave of tears made their way down like the pouring of rain on a stormy night.

I was surprised that my feet had successfully managed to carry me towards the bathroom I had left only a few moments earlier. To think that if I had waited a bit longer before exiting, I could’ve spared myself the humiliation and heartache, or at least delay the inevitable for a short time.

I stumbled into the bathroom and clumsily locked the doors. For once I was thankful for the lack of proper lighting, not wanting to see my reflection.

I sank to the floor and propped myself up against the door, ignoring the blatant fact that it was most likely infested with roaming bacteria and other horrible things, and frankly, I couldn’t care less at the moment.

Too bad cleaning agents could only kill 99.9% of bacteria.

*****

               The ache in my bones told me that it was time to get up off the floor. My body could only handle the rigid, awkward position of my head cradled between my knees for a certain amount of time, and I was way past the limit.

My neck and arms protested in exhaustion and I briefly wondered if I had dehydrated myself with all the crying I had previously ensued.

Bracing myself, I took slow, haggard steps as I made my way towards the countertops and leaned against the cool marble for support. My reflection stared back at me, and for the first time in a long time I was disheartened by what I saw.

My eyes were tinted red around the rims, absent of moisture due to my previous escapade and swollen slightly. My entire face was pale and blotchy in the most random areas with visible tears streaks, and my hair was tangled and slightly mussed. I looked like I was auditioning for a role in a zombie apocalypse movie, to say the least.

               The final bell had rung, a shrill piercing sound bouncing off the empty hallways, snapping me out of my lifeless daze. I was not sure of the exact time spent staring at my reflection in the mirror, but it had been long enough for the image of myself to completely morph into a pattern of colourful swirls and pixelated patterns.

I debated on going home, but the mere thought of the brazen public behind those heavy bathroom doors mortified me, and frankly, I did not want to chance a run-in with my mother at home just yet.

I weighed my options, or really, my only two options.

Either I squared my shoulders and walked out of the building with a poker face and chanced crumbling in front of my mother, or worse, Jared, or I braced myself for impact and brought to light the matter of my meeting with the Headmaster, which was scheduled to commence in less than five minutes, although I was at least a ten minute walk across campus in the opposite direction.

I chose the latter.

I knew that I was unprepared both physically and emotionally for drilling questions and crude remarks, so I bowed my head and ducked my way cross campus, unnoticed by the public, to face the last thing that I needed right now.

               The Helan Common room was the official waiting room of the Headmaster. Everything was furnished top to bottom in heavy oak and marble, but my eyes skirted around the immaculate room carelessly and my head pounded with an ache of a thousand drums.

“Mr Radford will see you now.” The secretary’s voice pulled me out of my dazed state; I seemed to be doing that quite often now.

Her wary eyes followed my every move, assessing my physical state and looked at me with pity.

Mindlessly nodding my head, I made my way to the grand cherry oak door, which would’ve been considered intimidating with its nine foot height and five foot diameter, but considering the circumstances, I was far less concerned with my fate.

               Mr Radford mirrored the framed photos of his father hung proudly throughout the building.

They were both strikingly handsome men despite their age, and judging by the similarities between the two, our school’s founder seemed to have been photographed around the same age that Mr Radford was currently.

Decked out in an Armani suit, Mr Radford was quite intimidating. The room’s Victorian décor failed to diminish my worry. It instead reminded me of what I assumed an 1800’s vampire’s study would have looked like, causing the skin between my eyebrows to crinkle even more.

Today alone I’d visibly aged about three years and at this rate, people would start confusing me for my mother and despite her graceful demeanour, no teenager wants to be a spitting image of someone twenty six years their senior.

“Miss Holden, is it?” he asked, his eyes crinkling in the corners. That unconscious action softened his appearance and vaguely reminded me of my grandfather.

“Yes” I stated nervously, and then added as an afterthought “Sir.”

I fidgeted with them hem of my blazer and took a seat on the plush chair across from Mr Radford, sinking into the velvety fabric.

“Now. I’ve been given a reason for your presence here today, and after having my secretary look over your school file I was wondering if you could run me through the incident that took place?” he stated, leaving no room for objection.

Nervously wringing my clasped hands together I recounted the ‘incident’ to Mr Radford. He made no comment throughout my half-hearted explanation and every time I glanced at his face, his features were warped into a stoic, business- like expression.

               The meeting in fact, was overly exaggerated on my part and I blew out a breath of relief the moment I stepped out of Mr Radford’s chambers. After I was finished re-telling my version of the argument, Mr Radford had merely nodded and flashed me a look of understanding.

Mr Radford had also assured me that since the outcome of our classroom dispute was not a matter of high importance and that my record seemed to be pristine, my parents weren’t needed to be notified just yet.

Mr Lachey, however had already met with Mr Radford prior to my session with him, and my unsettled stomach rattled with curiousity at the thought of the pictured he had painted to the Headmaster. 

****

Author's Note:

so the second chapter is up and i've updated the cast! Smell that? It's PROGRESS! 

This chapter is dedicated to @hepburnettes because she's on my very short list of favourite authors on here and her works are all amazing x

Bear with me because i'm not going to rush the plot and so i'm sorry if this isn't quite interesting. BUT next chapter things will start to progress, and you'll meet a new character! ;)

Let me know what you thought about this chapter in the comments, I'll love to hear your feedback xx

oh and ps. i'm not a very mean person so i'm so sorry if the cafeteria scene sucked.