Chapter 12: His Revenge

After what happened in the bathroom, I learned one thing. Trash juices and whatever else they were mixed with do not come out of white sneakers.

Trust me. I scrubbed my shoes for hours. Soap, hot water, more soap, the stain remover my mom always uses. I tried almost everything, but it still didn’t work. My shoes looked like they’d survived a zombie apocalypse. Wonderful.

Now I have two sneakers with a weird design. The first is blue paint, the second is dirty trash juice.

I sighed. I had no choice but to shove my feet into the ruined sneakers because I didn’t have anything else to wear. I quickly slung my bag over both shoulders and left the apartment.

Like normal days, Wade leaves before me in the morning. I breathed a sigh of relief. I remembered what I’d said to him last night. But I wasn’t guilty.

I meant every word I said and I didn’t care what he thought or felt. Because in the first place, we shouldn’t even be talking if we weren’t both stuck in that two-month deal.

By the time I got to campus, it was strange because the whole hallway was flooded with people. I didn’t know what scene was happening, but I didn’t care enough to look at it or watch.

I adjusted my glasses and walked. Minding my own business. But before I could get far down the hallway, I heard Chloe’s loud voice.

"Layla!" She called. Chloe sprinted toward me, her hair bouncing as she ran.

For one terrifying second, I thought a building had caught fire.

"I saw your photo!" I frowned. "Maria poured a trash bin on you?! Why didn’t you tell me?"

I sighed, but then I froze when I realized. "How did you find out?"

"Your picture’s going around online!" she said.

My lips parted and I couldn’t speak. Right, I almost forgot. The blondie took a picture of me yesterday. I squeezed my eyes shut and held my head. Great. More trouble.

"But that’s not all," she whispered under her breath. "Come with me!"

She tried to pull my hand, but I stayed in place.

"Where? Chloe, I don’t have the energy for whatever you’re going to show me. It already happened yesterday, so there’s nothing I can do—"

"Just come with me! You need to see what’s happening in the hallway!"

"What?" I frowned.

"It’s Wade!" she informed me.

I felt a wave of anxiety but forced myself to ignore it. I looked away.

"No," I pulled my hand from hers. "We’re not speaking, and I refuse to talk to him."

"This is serious! Just come with me!"

"No—"

Before I could finish, she was already dragging me away. She ran fast, so I had no choice but to run after her.

When we got closer, I realized there were even more students in the hallway than I expected.

"Excuse me!" Chloe said, pulling me through.

"Ugh! Can you move?!" she said, shoving a guy out of the way so we could get through.

Whatever was happening, the whole University had decided today was for entertainment. It felt like almost every student was here.

We stopped, and that’s when I saw what was really going on. I couldn’t believe it.

I saw a group of girls kneeling in the middle of the hallway. The same girls who kicked over my paint bucket. The same girls who warned me and dumped a trash bin on me. The same ones who turned my week into a complete disaster.

They were kneeling up front, heads down, their bodies shaking, probably from fear and shame with so many people watching them now. And for the first time since I’d met them, none of them looked confident. Especially Maria, the blondie and the leader.

"What’s going on?" I asked, frowning.

"Look," Chloe pointed.

On both sides of the girls were guys standing like guards. I recognized them. They’re part of the hockey team. What—

I looked to the front of the girls and froze when I saw a familiar guy.

Wade Scott was standing in front of them. He was wearing his school uniform now. His face was dark.

He wasn’t shouting, not smiling, just watching. His aura was heavy, he looked terrifying right now, and he didn’t look like the normal Wade Scott I always fight with. He looked completely angry.

"He found out..." Chloe whispered.

My stomach sank. I bit my lower lip. I had no idea what he was going to do. Wade is a very unreadable man. None of the students dared to interrupt. No one had the guts to stop whatever was about to happen.

"Who started it?" he asked in an ice-cold tone.

And the moment he spoke, the crowd went even quieter. Not a single person tried to speak.

"I don’t like repeating questions. Who started it?" he repeated.

And when no one said anything, everyone gasped when four guys from the hockey team suddenly showed up.

My eyes widened when they were carrying four trash bins full of stuff, and it reeked — the exact same thing the girls had dumped on me.

"W-wait!" One of the girls panicked.

"We didn’t mean to—"

"You want to lie?" Wade challenged. "You’ve got one chance."

Even I was scared by what was happening right now. Wade wasn’t shouting, but the calmness in his voice was somehow scarier.

"P-please, Wade! I'm sorry!" Maria apologized. "It wasn't supposed to get this bad! I swear!"

The crowd erupted into whispers and gasps.

"So it's true?"

"They actually did that?"

"I thought it was just rumors."

"I even saw her wearing Ethan's hoodie!"

I bit my lower lip.

"We were just trying to scare her!"

"You poured trash on her," he said.

"We didn't mean—"

"You thought I wouldn't find out?" he warned.

I was startled when the four guys moved with the trash bins.

"Please, no!"

They were about to dump it on the girls the same way they did to me, but I quickly stopped them.

"Wade." I called. "What are you doing?" I asked.

He ignored me and signaled his guys to keep going, so I immediately stepped in.

"Stop! What the hell! Don’t you think only they’ll be in trouble if you do this?!" I scolded.

"Get out of the way, Layla." Wade said, and there was a threat in his voice.

What? He thinks I’m scared of him?!

"Stop it, Wade. You don’t need to do this. It’s none of your business anymore!" I said, and their attention turned to me.

"It became my business the second my name was involved." he explained.

I glared at him.

"You’re just making things worse, Wade."

His fist clenched and his jaw moved. He signaled his guys. I looked at them and they put the trash bin down.

"T-thank you, Layla!" One of the girls said.

I watched them run off, the students slowly started leaving too, and Wade and I just stared at each other for a long time.

When they were finally gone, he spoke.

"Stop being too kind. You’re not in a world of angels." he said and turned away from me, which made me feel irritated.

"I’m not being nice! I just did that because our situation will only get worse!" I argued.

I tried to follow him.

"Stop! I’m still talking to you!"

He stopped and I almost bumped into his back. He turned and faced me, so I quickly stepped back.

"Funny," he let out a dry, sarcastic laugh. "I thought you didn’t want me to talk to you. I thought you didn’t want me anywhere near you."

I rolled my eyes.

"I don’t. I’m only talking to you now because what you’re doing is wrong and you’re just getting us into trouble."

"Do I?" he asked.

I was startled when he walked closer to me, so I quickly stepped back.

"I’m just ending the mess that happened because of me, Layla. Stop telling me how to handle this."

He stared at my face for a moment before moving away from me.

I stood there too stunned to answer. He spoke again, and this time his voice was colder.

"Stay out of my way, Anderson."