( chapter ten )

" It's dreadful what little things lead people to misunderstand each other. "

- L.M. Montgomery, Emily's Quest

❁

EVERYONE was starting to pack their things to get ready to go back to the campus.

"Man, I wish we could just have this all the time. I mean, it doesn't have to be just a ski trip, you know?" Erika said as she was putting some of her clothes into her bag.

"Why don't you be part of the student officers for our batch so that you could suggest those ideas in your head right now," Y/N said.

"Nope, not happening," Erika replied that made Y/N chuckle.

"You would make a good leader. No, actually. A great leader," Y/N said and chuckled.

"I'll take that as a compliment," Erika said and closed her bag.

Once they were done, they both went out of their room with the room key in Y/N's hand. Coincidentally, Tom and Harrison also went out of their room.

Tom saw Y/N first and had a smile on his face. "Good morning, love." He greeted which made Y/N look at him and blush. She looked at him with a smile before greeting him back. "Good morning, Tom."

Erika's eyes widen and looked at Tom and Y/N back and forth.

"Did you guy made up already?" Erika asked.

"Yup," Y/N said proudly and walked towards Tom. "Hi, Harrison." She greeted Harrison. "Why don't you go with Erika?"

Y/N saw Erika glaring at her with what she just said.

"I was about to, actually," Harrison replied and went to Erika. Her face softened when he went to her. She looked back at Y/N and glared at her one more time before focusing her attention on Harrison.

"Until now they haven't said anything about them but it's very obvious that they're together," Y/N said to Tom.

"Well, Harrison confirmed it to me," Tom said and that made Y/N shocked.

"What?! Since when?" She asked.

"He just told me last night when I talked about us," Tom said, wrapping his arms around her shoulders.

Y/N pouted and crossed her arms. "I'll have some girl talking to have with Erika." She said.

Once everyone was already complete, they started to go inside the bus. Tom and Y/N sat down beside each other this time.

After settling, he placed his head on Y/N's shoulder. "I've wanted to do this since yesterday on the bus." He said.

She smiled and placed her head on top of his. "Heavy?" She asked.

"Not at all." He replied.

They talked to each other until they both drifted off to sleep while on the road going back to the campus.

❁

After less than four hours of a road trip, they have finally reached the school campus.

Students were coming out of the bus one by one and getting their own bags.

Y/N and Tom stepped out of the bus together. "I'll get our bags. Wait here." He said and Y/N nodded before he went to get their bags.

While waiting, someone approached Y/N. Someone she didn't want to deal with.

"I see you're with Tom, again." Camille approached her. "Thought you guys have broken up." She added.

"I'm glad we didn't." She said and faked a smile at Camille.

Camille glared at her for a second before getting a scrunchie to show off to Y/N. Y/N's eyes widen when she saw the scrunchie that Camillie was holding. She couldn't believe it. It was the exact same scrunchie that Tom got from Y/N when they were at the party. It was her favorite scrunchie.

"Where did you get that?" Y/N asked, sternly.

"Oh, this?" Camille asked and showed off the scrunchie. "Tom gave it to me just recently. You like it?" She answered that made Y/N even more shocked.

"Anyways, see you!" Camille said in a very fake way and went away with her friends.

Y/N was still shocked and many thoughts were forming in her head. Many questions too.

"Hey! I got our bags." She heard Tom approaching her and he could see the tense coming from her face once he was near her. "Are you okay, Y/N?" He asked, concerned.

She looked at him and finally got the courage to ask him. "Were you with Camille last night?" She asked.

Tom was confused by her sudden question. "No. Of course not. Why would I let her in?"

"Then why does she have the scrunchie?" She asked again. "My favorite scrunchie." She added.

Tom couldn't answer until he finally remembered the scrunchie that he forgot to ask back from Camille since she already left the party at that time.

"Look, I'll explain it when we get to the car, okay? Not here-"

"I would rather walk home than be in a car with you." She interrupted him. "No, rephrase that. I would rather drive myself alone than to in a car with you right now." She then got her bag from Tom after she said that.

"Come on, Y/N-"

"My mother gave that scrunchie, by the way. Now it's on Camille's hair." Y/N said before she walked away from Tom.

Tom knew there was no point in stopping her so he remained standing.

She was walking away with her eyes already flooded with tears.

❁

Y/N spent the rest of the day inside her room, thinking about things that she should do. Everything was very confusing to her at this point.

It was already a quarter past six in the evening and she hasn't gotten out of her room since she got home at lunchtime. She didn't even have the feeling to eat for now.

She looked at her ceiling and sighed. Was everything that happened last night mean to Tom? Did he even mean what he said that they were real?

Different questions formed in her head for the past hours. There was even a point where she ripped off the contract that she and Tom made when they did the pretend dating out of anger, confusion, and frustration.

A knock on the door made her thoughts blew away from her head. "C-come in." She said in a soft tone.

"Someone is looking for you, sweetheart." She could hear her father say from the outside of her room. At first, she didn't want to get up from bed but she had to. She forced herself to get up from the bed and walked out of her room even with her messy hair.

"Thanks, dad." She said before going down to the front door to see who it was.

As she opened the door, she saw a familiar figure a few steps away from her. She sighed as she knew who it was a closed the door behind her.

When the person heard the door closed, he looked back and saw Y/N was already outside the house. He walked towards Y/N and just looked at her.

"What are you doing here, Tom?" Y/N asked.

"I want to explain-"

"I think everything is already clear enough for me." She said. "Don't waste your time lying to me, Tom." She added which made Tom felt a painful pang through his chest.

"I'm not lying, Y/N." He said to her. "Come on, just hear me out, love, please." He pleaded. He's practically begging her already. He wanted things to be understood by her. But it wasn't going anywhere to that.

"Just go, Tom." She said and looked away from him.

"Y/N, please," Tom begged once more and another voice was added.

"You heard her, men. Just go."

Y/N was shocked to hear who it was.

"Aiden?" She muttered to herself.

Tom was also shocked to see Aiden appearing beside Y/N. "I see what's happening here," Tom muttered, but loud enough for them to hear.

"What?" Y/N asked him, confusingly.

"It was Aiden all along, Y/N. It hasn't changed at all." Tom said.

"What are you talking about, Thomas-"

"It's still him, isn't it?" He asked her.

She suddenly got what he meant and couldn't answer. Although she could've answered no to him, she remained silent. She didn't have the strength the speak to him.

"Answer me, Y/N!" He said and Aiden pushed Tom away.

"Back off, man. Don't yell at her." Aiden said.

"Don't be a part of this," Tom said to Aiden and attempted to go to Y/N until Aiden punched him first.

"I said back off, man!" Aiden said. This caused Tom's anger to be even stronger and fought back.

"Stop it! Tom! No! Y/N said and tried to break Aiden off from Tom.

"Just go, Tom!" She started to tear up once again and when Tom heard her sobs, he stopped fighting back. He let Aiden go and Y/N was holding Aiden.

"Please." She said while tearing up.

Tom couldn't believe what was happening. He didn't say another word or two. He shook his head at Y/N in disappointment and finally walked away back to his car. He started to engine to his car and drove off.

"Are you okay, Y/N?" She heard Aiden asked. Luckily, Aiden didn't have any bruises or wounds on him.

"I-" She wanted to say that she wasn't but ended up in a different answer. "I don't know."

"I'm so sorry, Aiden, for dragging you into this." She apologized.

"It's okay, Y/N. I just wanted to defend you." He answered. "Let's get you inside to make you feel better." He guided Y/N inside her house.

Once they went inside the house, she was approached by Aria, who also looked very confused as she witnessed what was happening.

"What did he meant about Aiden, Y/N?"

Y/N was shocked when she heard her sister asked.

At this point, everything is definitely falling apart.

❁

"I used to like Aiden before me and Tom," Y/N admitted to both Aria and Aiden while looking down in the ground. "Even before you guys even got together."

Of course, both of them felt shocked at this revelation of Y/N.

"How-" Aria started but stopped for a while. "How come you never told me about this? You always tell me stuff like this." Aria asked.

"Before it was Aiden," Y/N answered. "He's our closest neighbor and friend and it was scary for me."

"Then what happened to you and Tom?" Aiden finally asked.

Y/N sighed at first before finally speaking up. This time, she's going, to tell the truth.

"Tom and I were actually just fake dated at first until yesterday." She admitted which was even more shocking to them. "He threw that idea and at first I was hesitant then I realized that I had to get over you, Aiden, because you're with my sister now. So I agreed to it." She explained. "He also wanted to get over with his ex-girlfriend which was an enemy of mine."

"Camille Richards? His girlfriend?" Aiden asked and she just nodded.

Y/N continued to explain everything that happened until what happened just recently which has caused this.

"We both agreed not to fall in love while doing this but, I guess we didn't get to follow it." She said. She felt another drop of tears coming from her eyes.

"And there is nothing wrong with that, Y/N," Aria said and went beside her little sister. "There is nothing wrong with falling in love with someone."

"The only thing wrong was that you didn't let Tom explain his side. You should hear it from him to be able to fix this if you still want to." Aria added. She wrapped her arms around Y/N who was now crying more.

"I love him, Aria, so much," Y/N said while sobbing. Aria stroked Y/N's hair to calm her down. "I know, Y/N. I'm sure he feels the same way, too."

"I'm sorry for not telling you this," Y/N added. "I'm really sorry."

"I'm sorry I forced you to tell me. I just wanted to clarify things." Aria said.

Aiden looked at Aria for a while and mouthed to her that he was going home. She nodded in agreement and Aiden slowly made his way outside to go home.

"Rest up, Y/N," Aria said. "After tomorrow, you have plenty of time to talk with Tom."

"But what if he doesn't want to talk to me anymore?" Y/N asked and sobbed.

"He will go through with me then," Aria said.

She helped Y/N walk towards her bedroom. She also hated how messy Y/N's room was.

"We're gonna clean your damn room tomorrow," Aria said and laid Y/N down on her bed.

"Thank you, sis." Y/N finally said. "I thought you would be mad at me for liking Aiden."

"It was shocking at first. But at least you didn't do anything that could trouble you more." Aria said.

Y/N mouthed 'thank you' once again to her sister.

"Sleep now, Y/N. You've had an exhausting day." Aria said. "Good night, Y/N." She turned off the lights and did not wait for the Y/N answer.

Y/N remained silent and sighed once more. Thoughts came to her head but she just closed her eyes and waited for her to drift off to sleep.

This was really a bad day for her.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

A/N: this was an intense chapter. i honestly don't know how to write an arguing chapter but i tried! hope you guys enjoyed it! love ya'll!

WORD COUNT 2,274 words
PUBLISHED march 30, 2020