Chapter Nine

Delaney

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.

Yeah. Right.

You may think that's true when you're watching someone else get trashed, but when you're the victim, it all changes. On that Monday after the disastrous encounter with Carlie, I would have preferred being pelted with rocks and tree branches rather than endure the stares and whispers that were directed at me.

"Is Caleb a good kisser?" one girl asked in English. I just gaped at her, appalled, until she looked away.

I spent my first four periods waiting for lunch, wanting to get away from my curious classmates. But when I sat down next to my best friend in our usual spot outside, she just glared at me.

"How could you?"

I pulled a vanilla cupcake out of my lunch and raised an eyebrow. "How could I what?" I asked tiredly, licking the pink frosting off the top.

"How could you go out on a freakin' date with Caleb Payne?"

I froze mid-lick and stared at Lizzy. "It wasn't a date."

"Then what was it?" she snapped.

"Um..." There really wasn't anything I could say, so I just stared at her blankly with my tongue on the cupcake. "Well, not a date."

"I think you're lying, because you know what I heard?" Her tone was dangerous.

"You're going to tell me even if I don't ask, aren't you?"

Lizzy narrowed her eyes. "I heard that Caleb was cheating on Carlie. With you."

"He wasn't," I promised, groaning. "Carlie was cheating on him. With Stevie Jackson. I swear on my life, Liz, I wouldn't willingly do something like that." Being tricked into it, of course, is another matter, I thought bitterly.

"Then why were you there?"

"I...because..."

"That's what I thought. I didn't realize you were that kind of person, Del."

"That's because I'm not!"

"Yeah, whatever," Lizzy muttered, gathering her things. "Oh, and you might wanna go and like, check Justis Kaye's Chatterbox page. He posted a video that you might find interesting."

I felt my stomach plunge down to my toes.

"I'm gonna go over to Samantha," she informed me, getting to her feet. "Maybe you should sit with your new boyfriend." The bitter sarcasm in her voice stung. It made me angry.

"So that's the kind of friend you are, then?" I demanded. "The kind that ditches a friend whose rep is being trashed, just because she wasn't involved in the scandal?

"Thanks, Lizzy," I said sarcastically. "Thanks a lot."

That gave her pause, but she didn't sit back down. Instead, she backed away, her expression conflicted. "You have frosting on your nose," she murmured, before hurrying away.

When she had gone and I was alone, I pulled out my phone and went to Justis' Chatterbox profile. Sure enough, there was a new video, posted that morning. I didn't want to click it...but I did anyway.

The picture quality was crap and the sound faded in and out, but it was obvious what was happening. It showed everything from Carlie pulling up the table cloth and seeing me to Carlie running out of the restaurant in tears. And it had something like five hundred comments. I felt sick.

Unlike Lizzy, I didn't have other friends to go to for comfort. Without her, I was a total and complete loner. A loner with forty minutes to kill. I spent most of it sitting outside, in my usual lunch spot, eating my cupcake, but when I was done, I had nowhere to go and nothing to do.

For the most part, the Arbor was empty. Occasionally someone would pass, giving me a wide berth and a gaping stare, but other than that, I was alone. Against my wishes, I wondered where Caleb was. I wondered if he was with Carlie, after what had happened, or if he was eating somewhere else.

I wondered if he was telling the truth, when he said he'd had nothing to do with what happened.

And I wondered if he was sorry.

○●○●○●○

In art, which was sixth period this week, I sat as far away from Carlie as I could and tried not to meet her eyes. Which wasn't very easy, when she kept turning around to glare at me.

Ms. Shea's lecture on Picasso went completely over my head as I attempted to shut Carlie out. I focused on the paints in the corner, the blank canvases on the wall, the ceramics sculptures hanging from the ceiling—on anything but her and her group of Followers.

Not that it mattered. The girls next to me were obviously gossiping about me, based on the furtive looks I was getting from them. I wondered where they got the nerve to trash me right in front of my face. Couldn't they at least wait until they were behind my back to start talking?

When at last the final bell rang, signaling the end of the day, I was at a bursting point. I was angry and upset at everyone and everything, and I didn't know whether to scream or cry.

I snatched up my books as quickly as possible while everyone left around me. But as I shoved my pre-calculus textbook into my backpack, someone knocked into me and sent all my stuff flying onto the floor.

"Oops....my bad."

I turned around slowly, trying to stop myself from slapping the smug smirk right off Carlie's face. For once, she was alone, not surrounded by a group of girls. It was just the two of us in an empty classroom.

I stared first at her seat, right by the door, then at my seat, it the far back corner, then back at her. "Bit of a roundabout way to get out of the room, don't you think?"

She bristled, but didn't crack. "I just wanted the exercise."

Attempting to mirror one of her unimpressed expressions, I gave her an appraising stare.

"Yeah," I said innocently. "You need it."

There was a beat of silence. Then, Carlie burst into cold laughter. Now, while I wasn't expecting her to erupt into tears at my comment, I certainly didn't anticipate that she would find humor in it.

"Oh, Delaney, you have so much to learn," Carlie said.

"Do I?"

Rather than answering my question, she asked, "You think you know me, don't you?"

I raised an eyebrow, unsure of how to answer. "I know that you're an angry, jealous, ice-cold Popular who would do anything to be Chosen. Isn't that all there is to know?"

Again she laughed, her eyes hard. "Just as I thought. Typical bitter Loser. But as much as you may despise me, Delaney, you must know that I'm not nearly as stupid and shallow as I act."

"Caleb said you were smart," I admitted, saying his name without thinking.

Carlie, however, didn't even flinch. "Caleb. You're so naïve for ever associating yourself with him. He may be a good actor, a good liar, but he doesn't know anything about true Popularity.

"But I do. I know how to read people's emotions from their faces. For instance, right now, you're fed up and upset, and, wondering about whether you can trust Caleb. Which you can't, by the way."

I felt my eyebrows fly up.

"Spot on, wasn't it? It's a handy skill to have, you know. Most people are an open book. If you can figure out their weaknesses, you can know right away how best to use them to your own advantage.

"Oh, don't give me that look, Loser. It's no secret that my Popularity didn't come from being well-liked. I know how to manipulate people, captivate them, and then throw them into oblivion as soon as I'm done.

"So in answer to your question, Delaney, yes, you have very much to learn. Popularity isn't as straightforward as it may seem. Any Popular can tell you that, no matter how they achieved their rank. It's a whole system, and to fully understand it, you have to live through it. For now, though, there's only one thing you need to know. Lesson number one: don't ever underestimate me. You, my dear Loser, have no idea what I am capable of. So you'd better stay the hell away from my boyfriend, or I'll make sure you regret it until the day you die."

Carlie regarded me for a moment, then shoved me so that I stumbled back into a desk.

"Now get out of my way."