~~~~

Excuse the mistakes

Picture of Lillian (Daveigh Chase) on the side. I wanted to post it with the last chapter but I forgot.-->

~~~~

It was times like this that I hated being short.

I was standing in the reference section of the library, which had particularly high shelves, and I was trying to figure out how to get the encyclopedia I needed. It was pretty much a chemistry bible, and I knew for a fact it contained the article I needed for an A on my science project. However, it was on the top shelf, and without a stool, there was no way I could get it.

I looked around, searching for the library assistant to maybe help me. He may be old, and incredibly creepy, but he was tall. I could put up with his beady eyes for the thirty seconds it would take for him to reach up and grab the book. However, he was nowhere to be seen.

So, I resumed jumping up and down in a pathetic attempt to get the book. I’d managed to get the binding of the encyclopedia so that is it was sticking out somewhat, but I had yet to knock it down into my arms. I know; this might seem like a waste of time. However, I’ve perfected this method due to being shy and short.

“Here, let me get that for you.”

I froze, my cheeks burning in embarrassment, and I turned around to see an incredibly tall and friendly looking girl standing behind me. “You need that book, right?” she asked, grinning sweetly at me.

“Yeah,” I replied slowly, and the girl nodded and walked over to the shelf. As she reached up, I realized that she looked familiar. It took me a brief moment to recognize her as Aimee, the star of the women’s soccer team. She’d been hanging out a lot in Duke’s ever present following of girls, which I thought was a shame because she seemed so independent.

I’d never talked to her personally, and it was kind of weird that she would come all the way to the reference section of the library. Pretty much no one came over to the reference section because it was in the far back corner of the library, and it had a weird smell and was always freezing. Basically, if one could avoid this general vicinity, they would.

“Here you go, Harper,” Aimee said, as she grabbed the book and turned to face me.

That’s when I noticed that despite her wide grin, her eyes were sending a different message. They were narrowed, and somewhat crazed. Suddenly, I felt very uncomfortable, and I took the book from her hand slowly, as if any sudden movement would result in my immediate death.

“Thanks,” I said quietly, and I pointed out of the aisle, “I’m just gonna go check this out, so—”

“Harper.”

Aimee’s arm locked around my wrist, and she yanked me back roughly. Then, the next thing I knew, she had me pressed against a book shelf with both her hands on my shoulders, holding me there. She was a mere two or three inches away from my face, and her mouth was twisted in a dark scowl.

Was this actually happening?

“Keep your distance from Duke,” Aimee hissed.

“That’s impossible,” I replied, and then my eyes went wide as I surprised both Aimee and myself with my comeback. A couple days ago, I would’ve just nodded silently.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Aimee demanded angrily.

“I live with him,” I stated, more confidently than before, “Staying away from Duke isn’t exactly easy when he lives in the room next to mine.”

“I don’t care,” Aimee replied, her scowl returning, “Keep your hands off of him; he’s mine. You may have had your turn with him, but it’s mine now. I don’t need you in the way.”

Seriously? Duke had been here, what, a week and a half? Girls were already following him around like little puppy dogs, and whenever he gave one of them a fraction of his full attention, they would go nuts. Thankfully, he hadn’t brought any of them home, but I’d heard a rumor that he’d had some fun with a junior in a janitor closet. With Duke, I had no idea if the rumors were true.

Aimee’s grasp had loosened on my during her little speech, and I quickly took the opportunity to duck under her arm and escape her glare of fury. I took a few stumbling steps away so that I was standing at the mouth of the row of books, as if she attacked me now, it would be in full view of at least one witness.

“First of all,” I said, grabbing my backpack off of the floor, “You can’t dictate what I do and who I do it with. Second of all, you can have Duke; I’m not interested in him.”

Then, without hesitation, I hurried away from the reference and walked up to the front desk.  As I checked out the reference book, I noticed a pair of freshmen girls staring at me with wide eyes. I frowned at them, and as soon they realized I had caught them, the girls blushed and quickly turned away.

That’s weird, I thought to myself. I was never someone people stared at, or pretty much assaulted.

I took the book from the ancient librarian, and then after another glance at the girls, who kept trying to look over at my subtly, I left the library. I was happy to walk out of those doors, since in the past seven minutes, I’d felt like I was in the Twilight Zone.

Fifth period was a common free period at my school, since most teachers would reserve it for their lunch and not teach a class. So, the hallways had at least two or three people sitting in front of their lockers or just wandering around. As I headed to my locker, which was on the other side of the school, almost every single girl I passed stared at me.

“That’s her!”

“He lives with her!”

“What the hell does Duke see in her?”

“God, she’s so easy.”

At the last one, I stopped dead in my tracks and turned to glare at girl who’d uttered the words. Now, I wasn’t an aggressive person, but after what happened in the library with Aimee, I wasn’t exactly feeling like myself.

“Excuse me?” I demanded, my eyes narrowing.

The girl, who looked like a sophomore, blushed, and her eyes widened in embarrassment. Her friend looked equally as terrified, and they shared a look. “Look, Harper, I’m—”

“How do you know my name?” I asked, cutting her off. I’d never seen either of these girls before, and I didn’t go to the type of high school where everyone knew everybody’s first names.

“Ev-everybody knows your name, Harper,” her friend chimed in.

“What do you mean?” I asked, confusion leaking into my angry tone.

“Everyone knows that you and Duke—”

“Harper!”

All three of us snapped around to the opening of the hallway we were standing in, and I saw Olive hurrying towards me. She was wearing a determined yet worried expression, and as soon as she reached me, Olive grabbed my wrist and yanked me away from the girls without so much as a sound.

“Olive!” I spluttered, trying to pull my best friend to a stop, “Olive, let go!”

Olive ignored my pleas and dragged me into the first bathroom we came across. Instantly, I recognized the urinals lined up against the wall, and I managed to pull my wrist out of Olive’s annoyingly strong grip.

“This is the guy’s bathroom!” I cried, gesturing around me. As if to prove my point, a second later, the door swung open and a little freshman boy walked into the bathroom.

Olive’s head whipped around to face him, and she pointed towards the door. “Beat it, kid.”

“But,” the boy mumbled, his voice trailing off. He was obviously taken aback by the fact that there were two senior girls in a bathroom designated for dudes.

“I said beat it!” Olive yelled, jutting her finger out once again, “Find another place to take a dump. This bathroom is occupied!”

The boy turned right around and scurried out of the bathroom, obviously terrified of Olive. I couldn’t blame him because as much as I loved Olive, she could be absolutely terrifying. As someone who’d been on the both sides of her wrath, I could say it was smart for the boy to leave.

“Olive,” I said, regaining her attention. The sooner we could get this conversation rolling, the sooner it would be over, and the sooner I could get out of this bathroom. It smelled like piss and overpowering cologne, neither of which I was a big fan of.

“Harper,” she replied, putting her hands out like she was bracing herself, “I need to tell you something.”

“Great, well I need to tell you something too,” I said, and I gestured towards the door, “Those girls you pulled me away from? According to them, everybody knows who I am.”

“Yeah,” Olive drawled, “That’s not the only thing everybody knows.”

Suddenly, I recognized Olive’s expression. It was the one she had whenever she knew more than someone else. In this situation, I was that someone else, and I was not excited to find out what she knew. Knowing Olive, it couldn’t be good.

“Spill it,” I sighed, and I crossed my arms over my chest.

“Harper,” Olive said slowly, “Almost everyone knows about you and Duke.”

“What about Duke and me?” I asked, frowning, “Everyone knows he’s staying at my house; it’s not a huge deal.”

“No, not that,” Olive replied, shaking her head, “they know about you and Duke… at your aunt’s wedding.”

My jaw dropped and I took a step back. That explained so much; Aimee almost beating me up in the library, all of the staring I was getting from almost every girl I passed. Everybody, except myself, had heard about Duke and I making out at Aunt Jenna’s wedding.

Everybody.

That’s when it hit me.

“How did they find out?” I screeched, throwing my hands up in the air, “I only told you, and even if you told Lillian, she doesn’t go to this school!”

“First of all,” Olive said, putting her hands on her hips, “I didn’t tell Lil because you asked me not to, and second of all, you and I aren’t the only ones who knew in the first place. In case you’re forgetting, there was a second party who participated in your drunken adventure.”

“Duke.”

Before Olive could say anything or stop me, I pushed past her and out of the bathroom. I stormed through the hallways, past the girls who’d been whispering about me before, and I hurried down the stairs two at a time. After a few more seconds, I was standing outside of Duke’s English classroom, and I was pissed.

My parents had made sure I had a copy of Duke’s schedule, since for the first day, I was supposed to help him around the school. Despite passing that job off to Lauren, I still knew his schedule since I’d looked at it when I was bored in history.

After what seemed like an eternity, the ball rang, signaling the end of class. A few seconds later, students started pouring out of the classrooms all down the hallway, but I was focused on the door across from me. Every girl who walked out of that door gave me a dirty look, but I just ignored them.

“Harper; just the girl I was looking for!”

Duke walked out of the classroom with a giant grin on his face, and when he saw me, he spread his arms open wide. A couple of guys, who I recognized from the football team, caught sight of me as well, and they all started laughing. Duke got quite a few high fives as they all walked down the hallway to their next class, which just made my anger worse.

“We need to talk,” I growled, and I walked over to Duke. Before he could react, I grabbed him by his shirt collar and pulled him into the doorway of a long empty classroom that now served as storage.

“If you wanted to get me alone, you just had to ask,” Duke said with a laugh, and it took all of my strength not to reach out and slap him. Instead, I settled for jamming my finger into his chest.

“You told everyone what happened at the wedding!” I hissed angrily, “You told people that we made out!”

“Yeah,” Duke replied, frowning as if he didn’t understand why I was so mad. “What’s the big deal?”

“I’m not the kind of girl who gets drunk and makes out with people,” I said, trying my best to keep my voice low, “I don’t need people talking about me; about us. That’s not how I want to be known around here.”

“Chill, Harper,” Duke replied, putting his hands up in surrender, “It’s not that big a deal.”

“Yes, it is!” I cried, running a hand through my hair. “I don’t know about you, Duke, but I don’t want people talking about me and what I’m doing. My business is my own. I mean, tell people about whatever you want, as long as it doesn’t involve me.”

“Wow,” Duke breathed, his eyebrows shooting up, “you’re really mad about this, aren’t you?”

“Yes!” I yelled, and I blushed as people passing by glanced over at us. I took a deep breath, regained my composure, and my eyes narrowed at Duke. “I am just amazed at how ignorant you are, Duke. Just to come across as ‘cooler’, you pretty much labeled me as easy. All I wanted was to get through high school without having to deal with rumors, but in one day, you ruined that. I hope you’re happy.”

Then, I turned on my heel and started to walk away. I didn’t need to be the slut who made out with Duke and be late to class. I didn’t need a reason to explode in the middle of the school day.

“Harper!” Duke yelled, and I hesitated before turning around.

“What?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.

“I’m sorry.”

“Wow,” I said, raising my eyebrows, “That almost sounded genuine.”

Then, I left. 

~~~~

Update! So... what do ya'll think? Was Duke an ass for telling everyone? Will they makeup?

Also, just an FYI, Stupid Cupid is like a littleover 40,000 reads away from getting to 3 million, so if you haven't read it, or want to reread it, maybe now would be a good time... 

I have taken so many practice ACT tests in the last couple of days that it's not even funny. I have to take one tomorro wand I am not at all excited. But, if I want to get into college, I need to make sure I get a kickass score. UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

The song on the side is I Blame You, which is an original song written and performed by my good friend Erica (this is the third song I've promoted to ya'll). Go watch it and love it and comment!

I got to skype with imallergictoidiots for the first time yesterday, which was so much fun haha. We met through wattpad, so it was really cool :) 

FAN

VOTE

SHARE

COMMENT

~~~~