Deadly to Love (2 page)

Even though I didn’t really want to talk about it I knew Chloe was itching to find out all the details so decided I might as well tell her now and save myself the hassle later on.

“It was horrible, I had finally persuaded my mum to agree to us going away together and was going over to tell him. When I reached his house I could see them through his window, she was sat on his lap... and they were... you know... making out while his hands were under her shirt.” I paused for a second trying to gather my thoughts. “I didn’t know what to do so just stood on the doorstep, and when he noticed me he came rushing out trying to get me to listen. Since then I have had at least four texts and a few phone calls but I’ve switched it off now as I didn’t want to see them anymore.” I sighed remembering the lies he had sent me.

“What an asshole, how can he treat you like that after two years? It doesn’t matter you don’t need him, you can do way better.” She was almost shouting down the phone, sounding more angry than I was.

“You want me to come over?”

It was times like these I was grateful to have a friend as good as Chloe. She had always been there when I needed someone, even when I had got into the most ridiculous situations, but I could tell she didn’t really want to step out in this weather.

“Nah I wouldn’t want you to ruin your hair in the rain.”

She laughed down the phone at my dig about her consistent worry about having perfect hair. Asking if I was sure that I would be OK I could tell she was torn between coming over and taking me at her word.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.”

Talking to her had made me feel slightly better and I could hear the relief in her voice as we spoke.

“OK, I’ll see you tomorrow at school then?”

Smiling to myself at the image of her running around in the rain getting soaked and squealing about her hair going frizzy, I agreed and ended the call, feeling slightly more normal.

It had turned out that I didn’t go down for dinner that night; instead I chose to stay in my room alone. The rain continued to fall heavily and I stayed sat in my window until I could no longer see the heart of the city on my right and the damp, dense forest to the back of my house due to the fading light. I hadn’t realised how tired I was so before I knew it I felt myself drifting into a peaceful sleep, in which I could escape reality for a few hours.

Sadly my peace didn’t last long as it was interrupted by a loud, ear shattering, chiming noise from somewhere near my feet. Squinting through dazed eyes, I tried to focus on my surroundings but the early morning sun that was beaming rays of light into my open window was making it impossible. The chiming continued as I hunted around my bed covers blindly. I don’t know when I had moved or been moved to my bed by someone – probably my dad – but I was thankful that I didn’t have a stiff neck and back from spending the whole night in a window.

Finally I found the source of the annoying sound and as my eyes adjusted I saw that the alarm on my phone was the cause of the problem. The message “GET READY FOR COLLEGE!” was flashing on my screen like it did every week day. Obviously switching it off had had no effect on my alarm settings, which was unlucky. I had forgotten that it was a Monday with all the chaos and resentfully I dragged myself into the en suite bathroom that was joined onto my bedroom. Hoping a shower would wash away some of the problems I was facing and maybe lift my mood slightly I let the water relax me.

After spending an hour in the shower I had little time to think about what I was going to wear. Instead I threw on my scruffy denim short shorts, a pale t-shirt and flip flops as I could already feel the heat from outside building, which was weird considering it had been bucketing down with rain yesterday. My hair was still slightly damp from my shower and the sun was drying it into small, wavy ringlets that were too pretty to be tied up so I decided to leave my hair down and applied some make-up. When I was finally ready I trudged downstairs, preparing myself for the onslaught of questions I presumed I was going to receive from my family but as I entered the kitchen I found nothing odd. Mum was still in her dressing gown, cooking something over the stove and Dad was sat at the island dressed in his usual work attire, while reading the paper.

They both looked up at me but Dad quickly dropped his head back to his reading after giving me a gruff hello.

Me and him were so alike, we both hated mornings and the idea of having to be forced to sit around the table eating with Mum drove us both insane.

“I made pancakes,” Mum’s chirpy voice broke through my thoughts and even though I knew she meant well, I just couldn’t handle sitting with them so early, due to all the problems spinning in my head.

“Sorry Mum, I’m late. I have to go for the bus now.” Luckily this was true and I was proved right when she checked the oven clock.

“Oh... well OK, I’ll give them to your dad, have a good day at college.”

She smiled as I left the kitchen, before heading out the front door, picking up my bag on the way out.

A light summer breeze that I was grateful for drifted gently across my face, cooling me as I walked to the bus stop. The usual people were already gathered waiting. Furthest away from me was a group of young high school kids, who were giggling about something. Then there were a few adults on their way to work and then nearest me were people from my college. It was obvious from the hushed whispers and frantic glances thrown my way, that they had been talking about me before I arrived. No doubt it was about my recent break up with Ian, but luckily I had never spoken to any of them so no one pushed for answers or comments.

Even though I wasn’t happy about my personal life being the main source of gossip on a Monday morning – as it would linger for the whole week - I was glad that people were talking amongst themselves instead of questioning me.

The bus arrived shortly after and before long I was taking my regular seat, plugging in my iPod and on my way to what I predicted would be a hard day at college. I had turned up my music loud enough to drown out the incessant chatter of everyone gossiping and was staring out of the dirty window, so when Chloe sat down beside me and hugged me I almost flew out of my seat with fright.

“What the..” My words were cut off by Chloe’s contagious laughter and we both sat there clutching our stomachs in pain from laughing too hard at my reaction.

“Who else did you think it was Rea?” she said when we both had calmed down.

I knew Chloe had done it on purpose as she loves scaring me. And for once I wasn’t going to complain. Chloe had managed to brighten my day and momentarily made me forget everything else that cluttered my head.

“I was thinking. I didn’t realise we were already at your stop, you just startled me,” I said, looking slightly embarrassed as I took my headphones off and bent down to put them away in my bag. As I struggled to find the inside pocket in my bag to put my iPod in, I heard Chloe’s faint murmur. Her serious tone surprised me as it contrasted so drastically with what she was like minutes before.

“Um... If I were you Rea I would not look up right now.”

As her words registered, I noticed that the bus had gone unnervingly silent, which was something that never happened. Turning my head to look at Chloe I mouthed the words “why not,” as I didn’t want everyone to overhear our conversation.

“Just trust me and pretend you’re looking through your bag a little longer,” she whispered, not looking at me as her eyes were focused on something at the front.

Choosing to ignore Chloe’s warning I uncurled myself and noticed that practically all of the college students on the bus were staring at me with eager expressions on their faces.

“Chloe... Why is everyone staring at me?” I said nervously as I looked around.

Chloe didn’t reply though; instead she nodded towards the front of the bus. That was when I saw what everyone else had noticed and hurt flooded through me. Ian was making his way down the bus, holding hands with the girl he had been with yesterday. I hadn’t noticed before – as I wasn’t really interested - but it was a girl from my photography class, Alesha.

I thought that it was typical of Ian to pick one of the prettiest, most popular girls in our year as his new girlfriend. She was captain of all the sports teams, editor of the college newspaper, as well as many other extra curricular groups and top of all her classes. I couldn’t help but think that they made a perfect couple as they walked down the bus; his tall athletic figure, tanned skin, short brown hair, strong jaw line and her beauty was bound to make them the new power couple in the college. It didn’t make sense as to why he was ever with me in the first place when I saw them together.

As they approached us Ian’s eyes locked with mine, a cold expression washing his face as he led Alesha past us. The suspense on the bus heightened in that moment; everyone hoping for a fight or argument to kick off presumably, but it wasn’t going to happen unless Ian initiated one.

Once they had sat down and everyone had resumed talking Chloe turned to me. “Can you believe him? You only dumped him last night and he’s already parading her around!” she said in an angry whisper before adding, “you going to be OK?” in a more concerned tone while squeezing my arm in comfort.

“I know, I thought it would take at least a week before he made that official, especially after all of the texts he sent me last night. I had ten when I woke up. Oh well I’ll cope with it.” As I mentioned the texts a thought registered in my head. “Hang on, Alesha lives over the other side of town doesn’t she? Why would she get on this bus unless...”

Chloe could see where I was going with this and her face set in a grim line as she cut me off. “Rea don’t. You will only make yourself feel worse.”

She rested a calming hand on my shoulder but her words were no use. I had already connected all of the dots in my mind.

“That asshole text me begging for forgiveness and a second chance while she was still at his place doing god knows what,” I said incredulously. I wasn’t able to comprehend the fact that the Ian I had known for two years would have ever considered doing something like that.

I spent the rest of the short bus journey staring into space, trying to avoid thinking about what those two did after I had left. I didn’t even notice the bus had come to a stop. It was only when Chloe tugged at my arm did I move to get off it and start what I expected to one of the worst days in my life.

The day just kept on getting worse and worse as it moved on. Everywhere I went people parted with hushed whispers, accusing glances and sniggers. It was just as unbearable as being in high school and that fact I found hard to believe.

My morning classes were pretty much all the same, they came and went in a blur of unhappiness. A few people questioned me for intimate details but once faced with silence and a steely glare from whatever friend was with me and myself they tended to return to gossiping amongst themselves.

Facing all this inquisition I had never been more thankful to have Chloe’s support. After every class, she was waiting to walk with me to my next lessons, snapping at anyone who uttered a word about me; the most common ones being, “can’t see what he ever saw in her,” or “I’m not surprised he cheated.”

By lunch time I was feeling worse than I thought possible, and just wanted a black hole to open up and consume me so I wouldn’t have to sit through anymore of today.

Making my way out of a typically boring Geography lesson I headed towards the cafeteria but was stopped when someone pulled me into one of the empty Spanish rooms I was passing.

“Oh stop struggling Serena. It’s only me.”

His voice sent a nervous shiver down my spine and I was appalled that he still had that effect over me.

“I’m sorry, but when someone you can’t see drags me into a room it’s an automatic reaction,” I snapped, aware that I still had my back pressed too closely into his chest. “What do you want Ian? You made it perfectly clear this morning who you chose,” I said as I pulled myself from his embrace and turned to face him. He grimaced at my comment, while reaching his hand out to cup my face. I swatted his hand away as he began to speak.

“How you doing?” he asked, avoiding my question entirely.

“What the hell? How do you think I’m doing?” I hadn’t realised I was shouting until Ian placed a silencing hand over my mouth, which caused me to glare at him. He held it there for a few seconds, but when he removed it once again I continued to speak in a furious whisper. “In the past twelve hours I have been cheated on, lied to, been made a laughing stock and I’m providing the main source of gossip and entertainment for the whole college, all because of you, and you have the audacity to ask me how I’m doing?” My hands were moving in erratic gestures as I spoke.

“You haven’t given me a chance to explain,” he said, his eyes pleading with me for a second chance.“Rea it’s always you I -”

“Don’t bother Ian, if you care about me at all, do not finish that sentence,” I said harshly, cutting off the words he was about to utter. “It’s over Ian, you made your choice when you paraded Alesha around like a trophy this morning. Just leave me alone OK,” I said, my voice fading as I added the last few words.

I could feel my heart re-breaking all over again as I turned to leave and a few tears escaped from my eyes, which only made me want to leave quicker, so as not to let him see. I had just reached the door when he was suddenly behind me, spinning me around and pinning me against the wall. I was too stunned to react and before I could stop him, he bent down and let his lips touch mine. As soon as they met mine everything else was forgotten. It was just him and me in that moment and much to my resentment I started to kiss him back. It was only when I felt his rough hands toying with the edge of my shirt did I snap back into reality.

“Ian stop,” I mumbled against his lips and I felt him smile as he continued, his hands moving higher underneath my shirt.

“Ian stop it now,” I said more forcefully as I turned my head to the side, breaking the kiss, while pushing his chest.