Chapter Six - Punishment Doesn't Fit The Crime

A plate full of sautéed veggies was placed in front of me, and I slammed my face next to it into the table, groaning. My nose felt flat against the surface as I shut my eyes, hoping for the day to be over already.

"Stop being so dramatic," said Mrs. Brooke, our housekeeper, in a monotone as I pictured her rolling her eyes at me.

"Please, Mrs. Brooke. This is tortu—" My nose caught a very familiar whiff, and I lifted my head to the bowl of spaghetti she'd just placed in front of me.

My eyes lit up. "I knew you weren't gonna do that to me." My hands started to reach for it, but she pulled it back, shaking her head. "You can have it after finishing your veggies."

"Reward meal, I see." My eyes narrowed.

"Exactly."

"Fine." It was easy eating the vegetables when there was a reward meal waiting to be devoured after them anyway.

"How was school?"

"Ugh you don't wanna know." I sighed while pouring the dressing she had prepared over the vegetables. The dressing was her speciality that made the veggies edible for me. "I got detention. And that's not even the worst part."

"Detention? You? Why?"

"The answer lies across the street."

She stared at me pensively. "Is that supposed to be a quest for an answer?"

"You're feeding me veggies after a very crappy day. I'd say we're even."

"Do you seriously expect me to go clue hunting across the street? Am I gonna find some test paper in the bushes, Becks?"

I chuckled. "No. But you're gonna find a certain arrogant ass who's somehow getting in my way a lot lately."

She pondered over my words with a little frown until it hit her and she blinked. "Oh no. This doesn't have anything to do with Matt Williams, does it?"

"Bingo."

"I thought you guys weren't talking since middle school."

"Good old days, Mrs. Brooke. Good old days."

She sat down across from me and held her chin in her palms attentively, saying with a grin, "I'm listening."

"Are you sure you wanna hear it?"

"Yes."

"Okay, I'll tell you. But remember you asked for it."

All Mrs. Brooke did was laugh and occasionally widen her eyes as I dictated the events of my entire day to her.

"Ink, huh?"

"Exactly. What kind of psycho keeps a bottle of ink handy?"

"I was wondering why you jumped straight into the shower the moment you got home. You never do that."

"I also had to walk myself home, so I was sweaty."

"Walk?" Her brows crinkled. "I thought you were riding with Meera."

"I was but I didn't want her to wait for me till after detention so I asked her to leave."

"Why didn't you give me a call to come and pick you up?"

"Because I hadn't taken a walk in ages. It felt good."

"In the scorching heat?" She made a face.

"The weather was fine." I waved my hand dismissively and got back to telling her everything that had happened. And when I finally concluded with how our detention ended, she burst out laughing and, to my annoyance, seemed a little impressed.

"You do realize you're impressed over him calling me a psychotic bitch, right?" I pouted. "You don't agree with him, do you?"

"Of course not. You're one of the smartest people I know." She ruffled my hair. "I just find it all a little amusing."

I concealed my smile with a grimace. "Oh, so my misery is now amusing to you. Good to know."

She chuckled. "You know that's not true."

After finishing my vegetables, I pushed the plate away and eyed the spaghetti. I wasn't really hungry anymore.

"You know, Becks. Maybe he didn't know you don't have a ride home," she said. She'd been quiet for a while and I realized she was still hung up on our conversation.

"He did. It doesn't matter. I wouldn't have taken him up on the offer anyway." I propped my chin on my palm, still glancing at the spaghetti doubtfully because I was full. I want it, I decided anyway with a shrug and grabbed the bowl, serving myself a small portion, just enough to satisfy my taste buds.

"Just call me the next time you need a ride."

"I will, but only when I'm not in the mood to walk."

"Okay." She got up to head back to the kitchen. "Oh, and before I forget, your mom wanted me to tell you that her and your dad won't be able to make it to dinner tonight."

Just like it's been for the past two weeks. I nodded while absentmindedly rolling the spaghetti around my fork. I had really lost my interest in it thanks to the veggies. Nice strategy, Mrs. Brooke.

"Can I take this up to my room to eat later? I've got a history test I need to study for."

"Sure."

I picked up my plate and headed up to my room. I should've been exhausted after the kind of day I'd had but instead, I had this splurge of energy from the anger I felt towards my enemy and I was going to channel all of it into acing my history test. The fact that he was unknowingly helping me was making me feel like a winner already. Ha! Take that L, Williams.

And boy, did I ace that history test the next day.

"I'm not even getting a C. That sucked," I drawled. "I'm such an idiot."

"Don't be so hard on yourself. You studied really well but ended up studying the wrong chapter. It's not your fault," Cheryl reasoned.

"I could've sworn the teacher said it was the second one."

"Nope. The first."

"I know that now." I rolled my eyes.

"She said we're going to start with the second one after the test. Look on the bright side. Now you're ahead in class."

"I knew the right chapter and my test still sucked." Meera wiped a fake tear.

"Jeez. Sometimes I don't wanna be seen with you guys." Mack shook his head, putting his arm around Cheryl. "I put my reputation at stake for you every single day, babe."

With a fake smile, Meera elbowed him in the ribs and he doubled over with a groan. "I was kidding."

"Now isn't the best time, Mack. Read the room."

"We're in a hallway." He blinked innocently, which made me smirk at Meera. She had it coming.

Mack was currently walking us—Cheryl more or less to class before leaving for his. I couldn't wait until Sean would do the same for me, if at all.

Our class wasn't full yet so we were lucky to ditch the front row and find seats in the second last row. The moment I settled in my seat, there was a tap on my shoulder, more like a poke with a pen and I turned around.

"Is it true?" he asked, "that you're dating my brother?"

I blinked at Aiden Williams. He was Matt's younger brother. I never got along with him either. Not because we were enemies or something, we just never hung out in general because of mine and Matt's equation.

"Dating your brother Matt?" I sputtered an unruly laugh. "What the hell are you talking about, Aiden?"

"You're not?" He had the audacity to look confused after asking a question like that.

"What even gave you the idea?" I was still laughing.

"Word on the street is you both were quite touchy touchy yesterday morning, rolling on the floor all passionately—"

"Fighting on the floor angrily," I corrected.

"Tomayto tomahto."

I rolled my eyes. The brothers were somewhat similar; popular jerks who thought they could have anything or anyone they wanted, hence their Casanova reputation. But all in all, Aiden was slightly less of a douchebag compared to Matt. Like a slightly better version of him.

"Some are even saying there was an aggressive make out session right on the floor before anyone could pull their phone out," he continued.

My lips twisted in disgust. "Who said that? Give me a name."

He chuckled. "So, it's not true. I didn't wanna believe the rumours so I just asked you."

"Why didn't you just ask your brother?"

"Because I know him. I just assumed it was true and even if it wasn't, he wouldn't have bothered denying it."

"Oh, trust me, in this case, he would have."

"Anyway..." He raised in his seat and waved at someone. "Hey, Candy! Could you come over here for a second?"

I looked back in confusion as to who this Candy was, then glared at Aiden. "Her name's Kimberly."

Kimberly walked over to us, pushed her round glasses up her nose and passed me a little smile. "Hey, Becks. I don't care what anyone says but I ship, okay?"

"What?" I asked, baffled.

"You and Matt. I thought you two didn't get along. But that was soooo..." She brought her hands together to her chest. "...romantic."

Romantic?

"Kimberly, what have you heard?"

"Just that you two were so lost in each other while making out in the boys' changing room that you didn't even realize when you fell out into the corridor."

I'd never had to worry about holding my food down until any of this.

"Wh..." I cleared my throat. "What?"

Kimberly quickly pulled her phone out of her pocket and clicked the screen several times while talking nonchalantly, "and was there any ink involved? Someone told me one of you had it on your face and then the other got it while you were...you know." She chuckled.

"No," I whispered, on the verge of tears. Somebody kill me. I must've had a funny look on my face because Aiden burst out laughing along with her. He was really enjoying this.

"Aw, Becks." He wiggled his brows. "How long has it been going on secretly, if you don't mind me asking? You guys must have been really sneaky, considering I didn't catch wind of it."

I gave him a death glare and he pressed his lips together to hold back another laugh.

"Here." Kimberly handed me her phone.

It was a video from that morning. Right from the part where Matt was holding my hands in the air and I was hell bent on getting the ink on him. While I was rubbing my face against him, my hair had curtained our faces and one could assume we were...making out indeed. Ew.

I was actually gonna gag.

"I never thought I'd see this day." Aiden grinned. "But you know what they say, there's a fine line between love and hate."

"It's nothing," I snapped.

"Yeah, tell that to the whole school." His brows lifted in amusement.

I gaped at Kimberly. "Did you send this to everyone?"

"I didn't send it to anyone. I received it from Gretchen, who got it from Stefanie, who got it from Chad's Instagram and Chad's got almost the whole school following him. Check out his caption though 'Williams, you lucky bastard' wow! Does Chad have a thing for you? Poor guy. He knows better than to make a move now that you're with Matt and..."

I tuned out the rest of it as I turned to my friends in horror. Their jaws were dropped at Kimberly, Meera being the first to recover and say, "I told you Chad's got a thing for you."

"Now Chad knows better than to make a move thanks to their shitty so-called Bro Code," I muttered.

Cheryl nodded. "I wonder who else does."

Shit!

*****

Even if I did have a thing going on with Matt, I'd say the punishment that I was receiving didn't fit the crime.

With the kind of looks I was getting in the cafeteria and hallways; it took everything within me to not climb on a table and yell the truth to everyone. I got dirty looks from most of the girls while some of the guys eyed me like I was the shit! Like the moment I would make myself available again, they would be totally up for it.

And why were all these girls so furious? Did that manwhore have a thing with every girl in sight? Or were they just jealous that a nobody like me was suddenly the talk of the school? Was this how it was going to be like with Sean as well?

I wouldn't have batted an eye if it was anyone else, but Matt? Ew. Just the thought of anyone even imagining me with him made my skin crawl.

Which was why I had to do something about it.

"Hey, Becks." Mack walked up to us as we were walking down the corridor. His wide grin was directed straight at me. "Haven't seen much of Matt since morning. Thought you'd know where he is. You know, going from enemies to lovers all of a sudden?"

"Great. You've heard about it, too." I sighed, looking around and raising my voice a notch as I hollered, "just how many people are talking about it? Do people at this school not have their own business to mind?"

That earned me a few weirded-out glances from the passersby.

"Hey!" A loud snap echoed across the hallway and the students in close vicinity stopped what they were doing to see what had happened.

The last person I was hoping to see was marching up to me with a cold, murderous look in her eyes.

"What the hell do you think of yourself, Rebekah?" she snapped, eyes blazing.

Oh great!

I rolled my eyes. "What do you want, Rebecca?"

"Ooh, this is interesting," Mack muttered.

She cut him a sharp glance before setting her witchy eyes back on me. "You stay the fuck away from Matt."

"Gladly." I raised a brow.

"Consider this your final warning."

With the way she'd walked up to me all angry and pissed, I'd expected more drama but right after saying that, she tucked her chin in the air, flipped her hair all dramatically and walked away.

"Okay!" I said animatedly after her, rolling my eyes but my jaw dropped when she raised her hand in the air and flipped me off without looking back and simply turned into another corridor.

A few students around us giggled while I gritted my teeth in annoyance.

"What a bitch!" Cheryl snapped. "What's her problem?"

"I think she's got a thing for Matt." Meera shrugged.

"You guys live under a rock." Mack shook his head. "I'm not sure if they're a thing but any girl would have to go over Rebecca's dead body to get to Matt. Even the senior girls don't wanna cross her."

Oh

"I remember this rumour from last year that she stuck gum in a girl's hair for getting too close to him." Cheryl frowned.

"And she didn't get detention?" I snapped.

"Worse. She got suspended for four days."

"How is that worse when you can just watch a series or something—"

"With a 5000 word essay to come up with reflecting on her mistake."

And somebody actually read that essay? Wow!

"Oh."

I would take detention over that any day. I never thought I'd think about what kind of punishment I would take over the other. I was a student with a good record, if not excellent. In all my school years, I'd been a good kid and now, only first week into the junior year and I'd already sat through a detention.

All because of one person.

God knows what else was coming up.

"Okay! Who wants crackers?" Mack rubbed his hands together and wiggled his brows at me, clearly trying to lift up my mood. When I narrowed my eyes, he chuckled. "I'll actually buy you crackers this time. I mean it. Come on."

"Really?" I smiled.

"Yep." He hooked one arm with Cheryl and the other with me, but looked at Meera and realized that she had to be involved as well, so he took her hand and curled her fingers around the hem of his jacket so she was following us like a child holding on to their mother's dress when her hands were full. "Just so you don't feel left out."

With that, the four of us started marching towards the vending machine like an army of ants on a mission.

"You can be so lame sometimes." Meera rolled her eyes at him but held on to his jacket anyway.

The four of us burst out laughing.

"We do look lame," I pointed out once we reached the machine.

"I don't care but ladies, you can let go now so I can buy you some snacks."

We let go and Mack walked up to the machine. After a war with the vending machine, he finally got me the fiery fingers and my mood instantly started to lift up. I ripped the pack open and devoured it, feeling a rush of dopamine, especially when I looked at the spicy cracker residue on my fingers, knowing that I was secretly going to lick it later to make myself feel even better.

But lately, the universe has had something against my joy. Because that's when I heard it. It was like being slapped in the face by a bug, unexpected and out of nowhere.

"Slut."

That's right. One of the girls had gone far enough to call me a slut while walking past me in the hallway. She'd whispered it and concealed it with a cough but I'd caught it. First, I was surprised and was wondering if I heard right, but when her friends started giggling, I was sure.

"What the hell?" I blurted out in surprise to their backs. "What did you just—"

"Come back here, bitch and say it to my face again. I dare you," Meera shouted, taking a furious stride towards them.

They increased their pace without looking back, practically sprinting inside the cafeteria.

"Don't listen to those idiots," Meera spat after them. "People will forget about this in a few days. I mean they have to. Once they notice that you and Matt don't hang out together at all, they'll just stop talking."

"You're making sense. But...why would they call me that?"

"Hey," Mack stepped up to me with a look of concern on his face. He pointed his chin towards the girls. "Those girls are in my class. I know them and you should know they're one of those dumb chicks who love putting their nose where it doesn't belong based on nothing but rumours. Don't listen to them."

I only gave a small nod in return to assure him that I was fine but I knew I was going to think about it all day. I grabbed another cracker and munched on it, trying to lift my spirits but a certain sight of someone walking in our direction made all my attempts vanish. The person walked like he owned the entire school and people would get out of his way if they didn't want any trouble. Like there was a red carpet rolling out right before him as if he were a king.

It was none other than my deeply despised nemesis.

The reason why I was going through all that shit. The reason why I had probably lost my shot with Sean already.

He was casually walking down the corridor like it was just another day of school for him. Well, maybe it was. People weren't suddenly looking at him like they hated his guts and wanted him gone.

When he was a few feet away, his eyes fell on me.

And narrowed.

So did mine.

And we went into a stare down as he slowly approached. My fists clenched tightly and when he was close enough, I inhaled deeply to keep myself calm.

Right before he walked past me, we both looked away at the same time and I finally exhaled. I couldn't even stand him in my vicinity so I started counting seconds until he would be far away from me.

But that's when an idea struck and I quickly looked over my shoulder. He hadn't gotten far enough yet.

"I'll be right back," I told my friends and snapped around. "Hey," I called after my enemy, marching up to him.

He threw half a glance over his shoulder, realized I was calling him and decided to keep walking, completely ignoring me. I rolled my eyes and picked up pace.

"Hey!" I caught up to him and blocked his way, holding up my palm. "Wait."

His eyes averted to my spicy fingers and his lips curled with distaste as he eyed me dubiously. "Whatever you're thinking of doing, don't. You don't wanna start with me right now, Andrews."

I blinked in confusion.

"What? Do you expect me to burn your eyes with this? It is a good idea. I'm going to write it down for later." I was going to create a list of torturing methods. List of torturing methods for Matthew Williams.

"Obviously, you have the mental capacity of a five-year-old." A little bored, he crossed his arms over his chest and asked with a straight face, "what do you want?"

"I'll come to that. But first, how many followers do you have on Instagram?"

He looked away for a second impatiently, then snapped his eyes to me as if waiting for me to come to the point.

I inhaled slowly. Patience, Rebekah, patience. "I'm assuming they're more than Chad's?"

He scoffed very subtly, keeping his gaze on me intact, still waiting for the point.

"I need you to post a story or something and let people know we're not together."

For a moment, he just scrutinized my face and when I started to wonder if he was going to say anything at all, a chuckle reverberated from his throat. "What makes you think you can ask me to do anything?"

I pressed my lips together in annoyance. "I'm just asking you to clear your own mess."

"I don't have to as long as it doesn't bother me." He shrugged, taking a step back to leave.

"Well, it bothers me, considering I just got slut shamed in the hallway."

Obviously, I didn't expect him to care. But still, I had to let him know that with the slightest hope of him having a moral compass and doing something to fix things.

But when he stopped in his tracks and started scanning the people around us with a little scowl as if he were affected by what I'd just told him, it took me by surprise.

His eyes became sharp all of a sudden and something within me shifted when he focused them on my face before asking, "you got slut shamed?"

I could only nod because for some reason, words were stuck in my throat. I was a little taken aback by his reaction.

"Everyone," he shouted, catching the attention of the people around us, including mine because apparently, I had drifted somewhere. I blinked and before I knew it, we were standing right in the centre of a small gathering of curious students.

"Leave her alone." He pointed at me with a jerk of his hand. I looked at my enemy in surprise. "Who she sleeps with is none of anybody's business. Even if it's the entire football team, it's none of your fucking business. Do I make myself clear?"

My jaw dropped as numerous chuckles erupted around us. Then my enemy turned to me with a little smirk and all my surprise was gone in the blink of an eye. There he was! The asshole. I was ashamed to admit I'd let him fool me in a moment of weakness and desperation.

"Happy?" he asked. Then he nodded at everyone and as if he held the whip hand around here and all he had to do was bark a command or in this case, just nod, everyone began to disperse.

"What are you doing?" I half snapped. "Why would you say that?"

"Just stating the facts or at least what I've heard. Apparently, the guys around here do kiss and tell." He shrugged.

What? Who could possibly say that about me? I hadn't slept with anyone. I glared at Matt, instantly understanding his game.

"So now you're spreading false rumours about me. This is a new low, even for you," I snapped.

He stepped forward and it wasn't until he lowered his face to look me square in the eyes, that I noticed the spark in his. "You don't faze me with all that big talk, Andrews. But hey! I'm no one to judge you. You got slut shamed? How very unfortunate, but that sounds like a you problem, considering that I warned you to not mess with me. It's not my fault most of the girls around here are crazy about me and decided to attack you. You've made your bed, Becks."

The way he said my name, really ticked me off and he knew that.

"Girls? Or you?" I snapped, stepping up to him. "We both know damn well who's the one attacking me."

He rolled his eyes indifferently. I couldn't believe he was shameless enough to spread rumours about me and not even have the guts to admit it to my face.

"You're such an idiot." I gritted my teeth. "Don't you see that it's your problem, too? Thanks to that stupid video, people think we're together. Do you want that?"

"Unlike you, I don't care what anyone thinks about me."

Leave it to Matt Williams to make me feel less about my own self with just a few words. Out of the two of us, I was the one who cared about other people's opinion on me. And that somehow made me weaker than him. But not anymore.

"You know what? Screw you," I said with a very sweet smile.

He clicked his tongue. "I won't give you that pleasure."

My mouth opened slightly and I almost blurted a 'that's not what I meant' but thought better of it and shot him a dirty look. "Get over yourself."

"For now, I have places to get to. So, if you're done wasting my time with your useless little mission..." He took a step back but not before snatching my crackers. I gasped, almost lunging forward for it but chose peace instead, watching him back away with it and wave it at me like a bone to a dog, asking to come get it. "I'll take this as a way of making up for wasted time."

I could cry right there. I was really looking forward to finishing them.

Holding my gaze, he pulled out one of the crackers and took a bite, then immediately scrunched his nose. "So, it's true what they say. You are what you eat. These are disgusting."

I watched in horror as he aimed the entire pack in the bin. For some reason, I thought he would save them at the last moment and shove it back at me with a 'just kidding'. But the moment they landed in the trash with a small thud, my heart dropped.

My crackers. My poor little crackers.

"Anything else?" He leaned forward with crossed arms, clearly mocking me. I remained quiet and he nodded. "That's what I thought."

With a satisfied smirk, he finally walked away.

While I stood there, staring at the trash in disbelief. He'd really gotten on my last nerve this time. Nobody messed with my crackers. Nobody. I wouldn't have minded if he'd eaten them all or walked away with them but to throw them in the trash right in front of me? When they were in the perfect condition and could be devoured by me?

Matt Williams was a monster.

"Wow you guys weren't kidding about their enmity. You guys must really hate each—oomph," Mack stopped talking and I assumed either Cheryl or Meera were responsible.

After about a whole minute, I heard him say behind me again, "I can buy you another."

I shook my head slowly.

"You haven't talked in a minute, Becks," Cheryl said. "You can have my protein bar—" she stopped abruptly, then corrected herself, "um, I mean we can totally go for pizza or milkshakes after school."

"And fries!" Meera added enthusiastically. "Anything you want."

I turned to them and the three of them were looking at me like I was going to explode any minute.

"Let's get to class for now. We're late," was all I said before walking past them.

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