Chapter 3~

                 I was bitter for the rest of the week. I’ve been sent to the Dean’s Office almost everyday. They couldn’t do anything because I was already graduating and had all my credits.

          Today was Friday and I got to school early. I stopped at my locker to drop off some books that were unneeded. I hadn’t seen my pencil in my binder until it fell out onto the floor. I didn’t want to bend down and get it because I was wearing a tank top and mini skirt. I left it, I’d get when I was done. There was a big square mirror on my locker door.

          I stared into it, deeply. Who was I?

          I sighed and then my breath caught when I saw Matt walking towards me from behind. My heart pounded, as he got closer. His eyes met mine in the mirror. I closed my locker when he stopped next to me. I turned to face him, my back to my locker. I think I forgot how to breathe. He was so tall, his ocean colored eyes dark. I had to look up at him. He leaned down and I felt dizzy. I realized I was still holding my breath. I breathed out slowly through my nose. My lips were parted, slightly. He was so close; I could taste his breath on my tongue. I thought he was going to kiss me, but instead he bent down and retrieved my pencil from the ground.

          “Here’s your pencil.” He held it out to me.

          “My what?” I asked, staring like an idiot.

          “Your pencil, that you dropped,” he said.

          I blinked. I seemed to have forgotten time and place. “Oh, yeah, um, thanks.” I took my pencil. “Uh, I think you should get back to your, uh, girlfriend. Don’t want to keep her waiting, right?” Okay, I was coming back. I was feeling fine. “I’m sure you know how she gets when someone’s not on time.”

          “She’s not my girlfriend, anymore,” Matt said. “We broke up.”

          “Oh, how terrible!” I sympathized. “Why?”

          “I was interested in someone else.” As if to prove his point, he ran his thumb across my cheek.

          I hit his hand away. “I can’t believe you! Do you not know Beth at all? She’s going to come after me now! How could you, Matt? If you think I’m going to—after you broke up with—oh!”

          He smiled and put his hands on my hips, where they fit perfectly. “Do I make you nervous?” he asked, holding one of my wrists and felt the quickness of my pulse.

          “No,” I said, unsteadily.

          “Hmm, let’s change that then,” he smiled, again. He leaned down and brushed his lips along my jaw line, down to my beating pulse, to my throat.

          Again, I had trouble breathing. He pressed his lips to the corner of my mouth, tempting me. I was getting weak. I held his face with my hands and brought his lips to mine. I felt an electric shock through me. My heart raced away and my pulse joined it in their erratic beating. My lips parted and he took, using his tongue to explore. I pressed my body up close to his, feeling every muscle on his body. His arms were around my waist, crushing me to him. My arms were around his neck, pulling myself up to him. I was already on the tip of my toes.

          “You b***h!” We heard Beth say.

          Matt and I pulled away like two magnets repelling from each other. I flushed bright red, but it quickly passed.

          “I can’t believe you, Bridget!” Beth gasped, in disbelief. “After all we’ve been through together, you’ve deceived me as a best friend!”

          “We’re not friends anymore,” I corrected. “We haven’t been since the ninth grade. So, don’t you bring the deceiving crap here.”

          “Well, you could’ve respected the rules we made,” she went on.

          “If we were friends,” I finished. “I’m not a boyfriend stealer, Beth. He’s not your boyfriend. He’s single right now, so I can let him make his move.”

          She looked even more shocked as she looked at Matt. “I loved you, and I still do! How could you?” She was close to tears. She turned and walked away, shakily.

          I looked at Matt, shocked. “Oh, no. Matt, this isn’t good. Why didn’t you tell me she loves you?”

          “What would you have done?” Matt asked.

          “Not let you kiss me,” I replied. “What else could I do?”

          “You wouldn’t have resisted long enough,” he said. “I know you love me, Bridget.”

          My breath caught. “You don’t know that.”

          “Really?” He sounded accusing. “I notice you when you steal little glances at me since we were little.”

          I tried to hold my composition, but my blush gave me away. “Do you love her? And don’t lie to me. I can always tell when you—someone’s lying.”

          “Okay, then,” he nodded. “I do love her.”

          Even though I expected this answer, my heart still shattered into a trillion different pieces. I inhaled through my teeth and closed my eyes to stop the hurt.

          “Then, you should go to her,” I told him. I couldn’t bear the pain anymore. As if God was helping me, the bell rang. “I have to go to first hour.”

          In first hour, I saw Beth and Matt together again. Good, I’m glad for them. They deserved each other. They are so cute together, too. 

          Oh, hell! Who am I kidding? I thought. I can’t even be nice in my own head.

          I looked out the window as Brandon started on his one-hour lecture.

          I hurt so much inside and I can’t show it outside. Matt would be mine and Beth would get revenge.

          Laura had this class, but since we had assigned seats, she had to sit all the way across the room.

          Didn’t you say you weren’t going to be scared this year? a voice in my head spoke. You’re not going to ruin this year by sulking. You yourself said this is a new year and a new attitude. Live up to it, or you’re never going to have fun.

          “Ms. Sinclair, would you mind showing us what you are drawing? Since it seems to be more important than this class.” Brandon broke through the voice.

          I looked down at my spiral notebook and saw I had drawn Matt and I with his arm around my waist, kissing me. It was the exact picture of us together this morning. I looked back at Brandon, who was in front of the class, far enough not to see the drawing. I tore it out of the notebook and ripped it up.

          “No, thank you,” I said, staring Brandon straight in the eye.

          “Perhaps you should stay after class,” he said.

          “Perhaps not,” I returned.

          “Stay after class, Bridget,” he commanded.

          “Whatever,” was all I said.

          I still didn’t pay attention to him in class. I just looked outside at the view. The tall, pine trees with birds chirping already. The sun in the sky, brightening everything. The leaves a rich, emerald green and the grass a bright green.

          After class, I stayed in front of Brandon’s desk and waited until after everyone left.

          “Bridget, what is going on?” Brandon asked, looking concerned. “You know, I’m going to have to call your parents about this.”

          “I don’t care. They’re all the way across the country anyway,” I mumbled.

          “You can’t be living all alone this time,” he said, surprised.

          “I’m sorry, Mr. Holden, I’m going to have to leave. I don’t want to be late for class,” I said.

          “No, I’ll write you a pass,” he said. “Come on, pour it out on your dear old cousin.”

          “I don’t think so,” I shook my head. “First, you say not to consider you as a cousin and now, you imply you’re my cousin! You need a woman in your life, Mr. Holden.”

          “No, thank you,” he said.

          “Well, then, I’ll be on my way,” I said. “Come by the house if you want to talk later.”

          I made it to my next class in time. As soon as I walked through the door, the tardy bell rang. I sat next to Laura.

          “What took you so long?” she asked. “I was going to wait, but I don’t think Mr. Holden would’ve liked that.”

          “He wanted to know what was wrong, how come I don’t pay attention in his class,” I told her. “He said he was going to call my parents, but they were in California. So he’s, like, ‘You’ve been living all alone this time?’ As if he cared. You remember the first day of school and all, right?” Laura nodded. “Well, now he wants me to consider him my cousin. So I just left. I told him he needed a woman in his life.”

          Laura gasped at that. “That’s reasonable. Guess what?”

          I looked at her, curiously.

          “I think Joey Lynch is going to ask me out,” she spilled. “I don’t know, though.”

          “Joey, the receiver on the football team?” I asked, and she nodded. “Ohmigod! No way! You two would make such a cute couple! I mean, the way he gets on your nerves a lot and you tolerate it.”

          “No, see that’s why I don’t want to go out with him,” she said. We turned into our textbook as Ms. Morley walked down the aisle. When she was gone, we started talking again.

          “He makes fun of me too much and it’s so annoying,” Laura huffed.

          “How do you feel when you’re near him, when he ‘accidentally’ touches you?” I asked.

          “Angry, frustrated!” she hissed.      

          “I know that, but I meant inside,” I said, patiently. “What do you feel inside, apart from being violent?”

          “Well, I have a strange feeling inside,” she began. “My heart practically goes running at high speed when he comes near me and my pulse is its partner. And when he touches me, oh, I feel as if he’d shocked me! Help me, Bridget. I don’t know what’s going on!”

          “I’ll tell you what’s going on. Laura, you are deeply in love with Joey,” I told her. “And don’t try to deny it, because you won’t be doing a good job.”

          “But you don’t know Joey,” she reasoned. “He’s not a guy who wants love. All he and the rest of the football team wants is sex. And Beth is stupid enough to give them that, too. She is a s**t, but because she’s popular no one will believe that.”

          “Okay, we’re going to make sure Joey falls in love with you,” I told her.

Reviews

[MadasonBlue]

Oh, good, more plot!
That was a weird turn, though, first Matt likes Bridget and then, oh wait, he's just being stupid so now he's going back to Beth...
Yeah, I decided I don't like him.
Great job, though.

[Ameerah]

thanks again! i'm working on the 4th chapter

[Purpleoreo13]

Great Characters i love all your ideas
Really good!