Eva's PoV

My mood was different to normal as I headed into college with my headphones blaring out heavy metal to calm my nerves. There I was, trying to be nice and support someone and it gets shoved back in my face. Well screw Ashton. If he wants to mope about and his friends don't give a shit that's not my problem. I tried to help. I tried to be friendly and offer him support and instead I got an earful.

'If I tear you open wide, take a look inside, are you pretty? Can I get inside your mind, see what I can find, are you pretty? So just take off that disguise everyone knows that you're only pretty on the outside!'

The music was so loud it felt like my head was vibrating as I stalked into college with my eyes down and my music up. I weaved through everyone until I reached my locker, grabbing my books before slamming it shut and walking towards my classroom for registration. I couldn't hear anyone's conversations over my music, which meant I was probably missing a lot of information but today I didn't care. Today I was going to literally focus on myself. That's what I said I was going to do from the beginning but I got caught up in the whirlwind of gossip.
I pulled the door open and walked straight into class and - unfortunately - straight into someone, my books tumbling to the floor as their phone flew up in the air and crashed onto me as we both fell on our butts. Instinctively I paused my music as I looked over at the person I'd just knocked over. Of course, it was none other than Ashton Irwin.

"I'm sorry." I whispered to him as I noted his friends storm over to us, probably ready to bite my head off. I picked his phone off my chest and checked the screen wasn't cracked but what I saw on the screen shocked me. It was my text conversation with him from last night. He'd typed out a response but hadn't sent it. He'd saved my number as 'weirdo' which wasn't great but it was better than stalker. Was he talking about me to his friends? Had he shown them the messages? My stomach dropped as I looked back up to him, now surrounded by his friends. "It's not broken." I styled out as I passed the phone back to him, hoping he hadn't noticed me looking at it. I stood back up and began to pick up my books as all the boys stood around, refusing to help.

"You need to watch where you're going, earphones." Luke snapped as he looked me up and down disapprovingly. The other boys burst into laughter at my new nickname.

"Earphones. I like it!" Michael said to Luke, high fiving him. It was like watching a bunch of ten year olds.

"I said sorry!" I snapped as I yanked my books into my arms and tried to walk past them, fully fed up of today already. They didn't like that reaction though, and Calum moved to block the way with his arms crossed over his chest.

"You want to start something?" He snapped at me, his eyebrow raised as he waited for an answer. Unfortunately, once again, I couldn't think of anything to say. "That's what I thought." He said as he slammed his hand onto my pile of books, knocking them all to the floor once again. "Earphones." He added before the four of them left the room and slammed the door shut behind them. I grabbed all my books and threw them onto my desk, slumping into my chair with my head in my hands as I put the music back on and selected another heavy song to take the anger away from me.

Mr Williamson walked in and offered me a small smile as he set everything out on his desk minutes before the popular girls all came in and began their morning gossip. I'd definitely got here earlier than usual. I looked over to the girls who were all in a huddle whispering and had the sudden urge to pause my music once again, something telling me I needed to hear what was being said. I pressed the button on my earphones and silenced the music, keeping my gaze down as I listened into their conversation.

"You wouldn't believe it. It's all to do with Amber." Hannah said to the rest of the group who had a mix of responses.

"Really? He's down because of a girl? I'd have assumed he'd have moved on by now or had at least ten rebounds!" Paris laughed.

"I think it's cute. It shows these bad boys actually have some feelings." Peace smiled dreamily, receiving some tuts.

"The only feelings they have are in their dick." Frances snapped, proving there was some history between her and one of the bad boys.

"Hey, at least you can say you had sex with Michael! Girls would give a right arm to sleep with one of those boys!" Grace added, proving that these popular girls had no actual feelings or sympathy for anyone, not even their friends. I rolled my eyes but held back from sighing in case they then knew I was listening in.

"Who did you even hear that from?" Peace added, reverting back to the original piece of gossip they had been told. "About Ashton?"

"Amber, duh!" Hannah said in a bitchy tone to her 'friend'. How these girls even functioned and stayed friends was beyond me but I was just glad not to get involved. "I don't do shitty sourced information, thank you." A few seconds of silence followed before the girls all carried on talking about which of the bad boys they'd rather have sex with and just like that, I switched my music back on and kept my head down, hoping to drown out their awful conversation. How did Mr Williamson do it? He literally switched off until the bell would sound. I pulled my phone out of my bag and unlocked it, heading to the conversation I'd had with Ashton. Do I tell him his gossip is out? Prepare him for the interrogation he was going to receive as soon as he sat down?
I typed out the message, letting him know Amber had passed the information onto the popular girls who were already spreading it like wildfire and how he needed to prepare for questions but something made me hesitate. What if he thought I had spread the rumours? What if he called me out in class? What if I got a barrage of abuse like I did from my last text? But he was going to respond. I didn't read it but he'd typed a whole message out for me. Maybe he was apologising? Who knows. I bit the bullet and pressed send, quickly switching my phone onto silent in case he responded in class and heard my phone chime. Let's see what happens now.