Chapter 2

“What’s his name?”

I turned off the hair dryer I was using to dry my braids and turned my head to see Abigail standing in the doorway of my room with a towel on her hair. “Huh?”

“At the diner. The boy with the brown hair,” she replied as she walked into the room, plopping herself down on my bed, and I furrowed my brows before realizing that she was talking about Tyler. “What’s his name?”

“Oh.” I dropped the hair dryer on my dressing table, clicking my tongue when I noticed the glint in her eyes and her lips curved into a smile as she waited for me to reply. “Ah, I know that face. It’s the Tyler is so ‘swoony and dreamy’ look. It’s a very common expression around here.”

Why wouldn’t it be a common expression though? He was the most beautiful boy I have ever seen and his stunning smile -when he smiled - demanded undivided attention. His face was the kind that stopped you in your tracks and he was used to it - the sudden pause in a person’s natural expression when they looked his way followed by overcompensating with a nonchalant gaze, a weak smile and a blush.

He was handsome alright, but inside he was horrible.

Abigail raised her brow. “Are you saying I don’t have a shot with him?”

“I’m saying you don’t want a shot with him. Sure, he looks friendly, he looks like a great guy, he’s funny, he’s super popular.” I pressed my lips together and she leaned forward a little, waiting for me to go on. “... But he also comes with about eight HBO seasons worth of drama. Trust me, you’re better off without getting involved with him.”

A goofy grin appeared on her face as I got up from the stool, grabbed my phone from the dressing table and headed towards the bed. “But I love Game of Thrones,” she said and I let out a laugh while sitting next to her.

“Even after the finale?”

The smile instantly fell off her face and she grimaced. “Ugh,” she muttered and stared off into the distance before furrowing her brows. “Those people, except Luna. Are they your friends? It didn’t seem like you…  liked them.”

“You could say that,” I replied with a shrug, not wanting to think about them.

I didn’t tell her and Dia everything about my former high school. I only told them bits and pieces but not enough for them to be able to put together and realize I was bullied. I told them about Lana and Asia before Lana suddenly ghosted me and I also told them about Tyler but the Tyler I told them about was the sweet little boy that hugged me when I cried, not the horrible boy that made it his mission to make me cry after his mum and dad decided to split up. I never mentioned his name whenever I told them about him though.

“Ah, mum said I should text her when we get home,” I muttered as I unlocked my phone before composing a message and sending it to mum.

“I could say that they’re your friends or I could say that you don’t like them?” she asked with her brows still furrowed and I let out a sigh as I fiddled with my phone.

I hadn’t told her and Dia that I was bullied because moving to London was sort of a fresh start for me and I didn’t want them to feel sorry for me but since the three of us would be attending my former school in a couple of days, they were most likely going to find out.

“You could… You could say that I don’t like them. They don’t like me too and were actually pretty mean when we went to school together. We didn’t exactly run in the same circles so -”

“Why was that bitch being all nice then?” she cut me off with a frown and I drew my brows together.

“What bitch?”

“The blonde bitch.”

“... Candi Sparks?”

“No, the…” she trailed off and her lips parted slightly as stared at me for a couple of seconds. “The other girl’s name is Candi Sparks?” she asked and when I nodded, the corner of her mouth twitched.

She looked like she wanted to laugh and I snorted because a lot of people reacted like that when they first heard her name. But why wouldn’t they? It sounded like a stripper’s name.

“Wait, it’s actually Candi Sparks? Not a nickname but her actual name?” she asked and I nodded again before she barked out a laugh. “What were her parents thinking? But no, I’m not talking about her. I’m talking about the guy. The blonde guy that tried to hug you.”

“Oh, Shane. He probably just...” I trailed as my phone beeped with a text notification but I didn’t check it. The thought of seeing Tyler and his henchmen at school again made me a little bit nervous but I wasn’t scared and I was done with them pushing me. If they tried to push me, I would push back because I didn’t come back here to be their target again.

I still had a week before school resumed so I decided to not spend this week thinking about them because the only thing that would do is make my mood sour. “Forget about them,” I stated and quickly decided to change the topic because I knew she would want to press me for information. “Have you called your mum?”

“I -” Realization dawned on her face after a couple of seconds and she quickly got to her feet. “I should call her. She’s been blowing up my phone with text messages. I’ll be back soon.”

I let out a sigh, stretching my hands above my head, after she left my room and my eyes darted to my window. The curtains were pulled back, giving me a view of the window of the bedroom facing mine in the house next door… Tyler’s house.

When Dia, Abigail and I got here from the airport in the morning, I had hoped that I had a new neighbour but that hope was squashed when I saw Tyler’s father step out of the house. Unlike his son, the man had been quite happy to see that I was back and he wanted me to come over to see Tyler’s siblings but I made up an excuse of me being really busy today because I hadn’t wanted to deal with Tyler that early in the day.

Tyler wasn’t the only douchebag that lived on my street. Noah lived in the house across the street and his mom, Mrs. Beckett, was the woman my mom was going to have keep an eye on Dia, Abigail and I and drop by to check on us every weekend.

I got up from my bed before walking over to the window so I could close the curtains but when I was about to, the light in the room across mine suddenly came on, revealing Candi who was standing in front of the window, and I jolted with a squeak. Candi was also visibly surprised and she stumbled back a bit as angry looking Tyler came into view.

He stiffened again when he saw me like he had done in front of the diner half an hour ago and I assumed that when he saw me then, he thought he had been hallucinating. He stared at me intently, probably wishing I would just disappear, and I tightened my hold on the edge of the curtains as it finally hit me that Candi was in Tyler’s room.

… They were in his room… together.

My stomach churned. Unwanted images of the boy that used to hug me and make me smile whenever I was sad flashed through my mind and my mouth went dry. He was probably going to screw her and even though I knew they usually had sex, I still felt sick.

Candi turned her head to the side and said something to Tyler while wearing a stupid smile that I really wanted to punch off. Tyler didn’t reply and she faced me again before raising her hand, giving me a small wave.

I slowly let go of the breath that I didn’t know I had been holding and finally closed the curtains. “I don’t care,” I muttered in an effort to convince myself that what the two of them were most likely going to do in his room didn’t faze me but I couldn’t lie… It did.