All along, I stayed close to Hunter until we suddenly ended up pressed against each other in one corner of the dance floor. Hunter’s cheeks were slightly flushed, and there was a wide grin on his face as he leaned down and tentatively brushed my cheek with his lips.
My breath caught in my throat for a second. “Why did you do that?”
Hunter smiled cheekily. “I’m just returning the favor.”
I rolled my eyes at him but couldn’t stop a sheepish grin from creeping onto my face.
Hunter looked at me for a moment, and it felt like hours. Then he took both of my hands and leaned in again. This time, he placed a kiss even closer to the corner of my mouth.
“I don’t think I’ve ever kissed someone on the cheek before on a date,” he then said thoughtfully. “It’s usually a little more than that.”
My head felt like it was filled with cotton at this point, but his words still managed to draw a quiet “Do you like it?” from me.
“Hm. It’s innocent and sweet…Kind of like you.” He laughed.
I bit my lip and looked away for a second, just for him to reach out and turn my face back to him. Then he kissed my cheek once more, almost grazing my lips this time.
I narrowed my eyes at him and leaned back, just a bit so I could look him in the eye. “Hunter, what are you trying to do?”
He didn’t even sound remotely shy when he said, “I’m trying to take it slow so that I don’t mess things up, but it gets pretty damn hard when you do things like biting your lip like that.”
“You like it when I bite my lip?” I asked, surprised that he even noticed.
“I like pretty much everything about you.”
“You don’t even know me that well.” I pointed out.
Hunter grinned and gripped my hands even tighter. “Give me a few weeks. You’ll be so fucking in love with me, Jules Hatcher.”
I raised a brow at him and tried hard to hide the fact that my heart had just skipped a beat at his words. “You think?”
“I know that for a fact,” he said before he pulled me back onto the dance floor.
***
An hour or two later, we were back at my house, sitting in the car. It was after 1:00 am by now, but I didn’t feel tired at all.
“Are you coming back to school tomorrow?” Hunter asked.
“I don’t know…” I sighed while playing with his fingers in my hand.
“Come on, please?”
“Aw, you think you’d miss me already?”
“You’re too full of yourself, Jules.”
“Says you.” I laughed.
Hunter’s only reaction to that comment was a slight quirk of his lips. “So, was tonight as bad as you expected?”
I shook my head. “It was really nice. Do you…Do you think we can go there again?”
Hunter’s face visibly lit up at that. “See, I told you you’d like it.”
I shrugged and unbuckled my seat belt. “Seems like you’ve been right about something for once, huh?”
He rolled his eyes and pointed at the door. “Get out, idiot. Sleep well.”
Laughing quietly, I opened the door. “You too. See you tomorrow.”
Chapter 21
As soon as I arrived at school the next day, I noticed that something was off.
I felt nervous, anxious like everyone was staring at me as I crossed the parking lot. And, unlike all the other times I had been paranoid about this, I realized after I glanced over my shoulder that I wasn’t imagining things. There were actually quite a few eyes following me.
I crossed the parking lot as quickly as possible, not just because of the stares in my back but also because it was raining heavily.
Against my hopes, the attention on me didn’t get any less intense once I was inside the building. On the contrary, as soon as I entered through the big glass doors, some girls in the foyer were glaring at me.
I tried not to let my confusion show and looked the other way, only to see Victoria coming towards me with a murderous expression on her face.
I expected her to just walk past me. Instead, she tightly grabbed my arm, long nails digging into my skin, and hissed, “I can’t believe you have the nerve to show up here today.”
“I…What do you mean?” I asked, gradually getting annoyed, and pried her fingers off me.
The scowl on her face slowly turned into a gloating smirk. “So you don’t know yet…” She all but giggled and turned around to walk off. “Well, have fun today!”
“Victoria, what are you talking about? Hey, come back!” I shouted, but she already disappeared into another corridor.
With an irritated groan, I turned around and headed towards my locker. It seemed like people were whispering and laughing as soon as they saw me. By the time I arrived at my locker, I was close to having a panic attack. I had never been one to handle attention well, so this was pretty much my worst nightmare coming to life.
My hands were shaking when I opened my locker and searched for the books I needed for the next period. I had no idea what this was all about, if there was something on my face or if my outfit was weird, but whatever it was, it was attracting everyone’s attention.
When Nate suddenly appeared next to me, I nearly sighed in relief. “Thank God. Nate, do I look weird? Like, is there something on my face or on my shirt?”
Nate shook his head with an unusually serious look on his face. “No, you look fine. Uhm…Are you sure you want to be here today?”
I slammed the door of my locker shut. “What are you talking about?”
He bit his lip, looking uncomfortable. “It’s pretty stupid actually, but everyone here makes kind of a big deal of it…Uh…”
“Come on, just spill it. It can’t be that bad.”
Nate grimaced and leaned against the locker. “Actually, it might be.” He took a deep breath. “A video got sent to a bunch of people last night…”
“What kind of video?” I asked, wondering what it had to do with me.
“A video of you and Hunter in a gay club.”
For a few seconds, I didn’t even understand the meaning of that sentence. Then, everything around me seemed to spin. I steadied myself on the wall behind me so I wouldn’t break down on the spot.
“No,” I said, nearly choking on the words, “No, no. That can’t be true. I…No one was supposed to know—”
“Hey, it’s okay. Jules, calm down. It’s alright,” Nate murmured and took hold of my shoulders, shaking me. “Really, breathe. It’s okay…You’re fine.”
“Who knows?” I asked after a moment of trying to control my breathing. “Who saw the video?”
“Everyone,” Nate said reluctantly. “They sent it to everyone. I think it’s on YouTube, too…”
I swore quietly under my breath, blinking in an attempt to stop the dark spots from dancing in front of my eyes. “Show me. I need to see it.”
“Uh, are you sure you want to do that?”
“Yes. Just show it to me, okay? They didn’t send it to me.”
Nate hesitated before he finally handed me his phone and played the video.
I gulped when I saw that it was almost four minutes long.
At first, you couldn’t see much, then there was a quick overview of the dance floor, zooming in on a few gay couples to make sure it was clear what kind of club it was. After about a minute, the camera focused on the corner where the couches were. You could vaguely make out Hunter and me, even though the lighting was bad and the camera work was shaky.
We were talking, while I was still holding Hunter’s hand. Then, when Hunter went off to get drinks, it cut off and jumped straight to the scene where he was dragging me to the dance floor.
I prayed that the video would just end there. Whoever filmed it surely must’ve gotten bored of watching us at some point, right? But no luck. Seconds later, you could see us dancing, slowly moving away from the crowd until we ended up in one corner.
From there on, I had to fight the urge to throw Na
te’s phone to the ground. Everything was getting gradually worse and what might’ve looked normal and casual to some, in the beginning, had now become obvious.
The cameraperson mercilessly continued to film us as Hunter leaned in to kiss my cheek while holding both of my hands. Even from afar, you could see me blushing and biting my lip but not moving away. Then the video finally stopped, and the screen turned black.
I stared at it for a moment, unable to move, let alone process what I just watched. Eventually, I felt someone took the phone from my hands, and I looked up to see Nate slipping it back into his pocket with a pained expression.
“I don’t…Who filmed this?” I asked, voice not more than a whisper.
Nate shook his head slightly. “I was hoping you’d know. Did you recognize anyone in there? Anyone from this school?”
“No. If I had, I would have gotten out of there.” I rubbed a hand over my face, trying to collect myself. “What does everyone think?”
“They think you’re just one more hook-up of his…You aren’t though, are you?” he asked carefully. “I mean, did you two…”
My eyes widened. “What? No, Nate. We just went to that club. He kissed my cheek, then he drove me home. That’s all.”
Nate looked like he wasn’t sure whether to be disappointed or relieved. “Oh, alright. So…What are you going to do about the video?”
“There’s not much I can do, is there?” I asked, sounding a lot bitter than I had intended. “It’s out in the open.”
Again, I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I slowly counted to ten and tried to calm myself down, but that was a hard thing to do while still feeling like screaming and crying and punching someone in the throat.
“They all know.”
Nate opened his mouth to say something, but whatever it was, it got drowned out by the ringing of the school bell. He sighed.
“I have Chemistry now…Will you be fine on your own?”
Even though I felt like begging him to stay and skip school with me, I nodded and motioned for him to go to his class.
He sent me one last sympathetic smile before he walked off.
I watched as he disappeared in the corridor, then I took a deep breath and headed towards my own class. Along the way, I noticed people staring and mumbling things when I walked past them. The same happened in my French class. I felt like everyone’s eyes were on me, so I spent the two hours staring down on my desk and not daring to put my hand up even though I knew all the answers.
At least that had given me the time to think. I made a plan for today and the following weeks: to avoid Hunter in public, to not listen to what people were saying behind my back, and to not talk to anyone else about the video. And I still didn’t want to meet Emily, a desire which was probably mutual.
Obviously, I had absolutely no luck with any of these things. Only two hours later, I saw Hunter coming towards me in the corridor. As soon as I spotted him, I turned around and pushed through the crowd to get away before he could reach me.
***
The next days at school weren’t much different. Wherever I went, gossip and laughter seemed to follow. Some people actually had the nerve to come up to me and say their opinions on the video, Hunter and me, and my sexuality straight to my face, as if any of these things were any of their business.
Hunter tried to call me multiple times, but I hadn’t picked up or replied to any of his messages. I didn’t know what to say, so I thought it best to not say anything at all.
I still hadn’t figured out who filmed the video, so there was nothing I could do to have it taken down. It was too late now, anyway. I was sure no one at this school hadn’t at least heard of it.
I had assumed the talk about it would die down quickly since it was, God knows, not the first time Hunter was seen with someone in public and cheek kisses were probably by far not the most scandalous thing he’d been seen doing, but somehow, this seemed to be interesting enough.
Now there were different parties who all had their own opinion on the matter. Most people were just curious if there was actually something going on between us. Some seemed to be incredibly jealous of me while others congratulated me. A few people apparently felt the need to tell me that they thought it was great that I was into boys and that they were proud of me—keep in mind that these were people who had never once talked to me before—while others yelled homophobic insults at me.
Needless to say, I kept any interactions with people other than Nate as short as possible.
It was Tuesday, exactly one week after the night at the club, when Nate finally got me to have lunch in the cafeteria with him, instead of hiding in my car in the parking lot.
At first, things were going quite well. I was sitting at one table in the corner with Nate and Alexis, both of them were begging me to talk to Hunter, which I refused, and no one else tried to talk to me yet. That was until Sean suddenly came up to our table, three of his football teammates following him. The look on his face was sardonic as he braced his arms on the table and watched as we fell silent.
“Hey, Jules,” he then said lowly and turned his head to look me in the face. “How does it feel to be interesting all of a sudden?”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Great. Awesome, really. Never been happier.”
The grin on his face didn’t falter at all as he said, “It’s quite a nice video, huh? You and Hunter are so sweet. Cheek kisses, hm? Exciting.”
I tried hard to suppress my scowl and keep a neutral expression. “Yeah? So I should probably thank whoever filmed and posted it…”
“Oh, don’t bother,” he said, and I could tell how much he was enjoying the situation just by looking at him. “It was a pleasure. You know, the opportunity was there, and I knew you’d be delighted to have everyone see it. It’s something worth sharing.”
“So it was you,” I said, not quite a question. Anger was boiling in my veins, making it impossible for me to stay calm. “What the hell were you doing at that club?”
Sean only smiled even wider. “What do you think? I went there to get laid. It’s not like you can find hot guys who also happen to be queer at every corner, and that club is the only one around.”
I felt like screaming. Instead, I balled my hands into fists under the table and tried to hold his challenging gaze. “What do you want? What do I have to do for you to take the video down?”
Sean shook his head, giving me a patronizing smile. “There’s nothing you could possibly give me for me to do that. I don’t want anything from you.”
“Then why did you do it?” I hissed. “What did I do to you?”
Now the grin finally left his face and revealed a cold, angry expression.
“You have to ask?” He stepped closer, jabbing a finger at my chest. “You are the reason why Hunter dumped me!”
Before I could reply, Alexis suddenly intervened. I could see that she was furious with the way her fingers were gripping tightly onto the edge of the table, knuckles turning white.
“Sean, are you really that stupid? Hunter told you he won’t have a relationship with you. You knew what you were in for. That he broke it off with you was inevitable, and it’s not by any means Jules’s fault.”
“Shut up…slut,” Sean spat.
Alex’s eyes narrowed dangerously as she slowly got to her feet. “And this is exactly why Hunter prefers Jules over you,” she said calmly. “Because unlike you, he knows where the limits are, and he knows not to overstep them. Whereas you really don’t know when to stop or give up, do you?”
“She’s right,” Nate said and glared at Sean. “You need to get over yourself and stop blaming your situation on Jules when it’s all because of your own attitude and the fact that Hunter doesn’t want relationships. Outing Jules against his will and spreading a video you weren’t allowed to film won’t help you get Hunter back.”
Sean was pale now, the smirk wiped off his face. He was completely silent for a moment before he growled, “Say what you want. I know tha
t I achieved something by posting that video. Seeing Jules, this defeated is satisfaction enough for now.”
My jaw dropped after hearing his words. “Wow,” I eventually said after regaining at least a bit of my composure. “You’re taking petty to a whole new level. You do realize that you’re going to get into trouble for this, right?”
He snorted, raising a brow at me. “What are you going to do? Call your lawyer-daddy on me? Sue me?”
I held his gaze and lied. “I might, but that’s not what I meant. What I’m talking about is: Did you think about Hunter’s opinion on all of this? Do you think he’ll be pleased that you put that video up, without his consent? You publicized a private moment that he didn’t want to share with anyone at this school.”
Sean tried hard to look unaffected as he shrugged. “Do you actually think you’re that important to him? Who knows. Maybe he’s already forgotten about you, moved on to someone more interesting. You’re just another unimportant fling to him. Two weeks from now, he won’t even remember you. Trust me.”
I swallowed against the lump in my throat. “Are we done here? There are about a thousand people I’d rather talk to right now.”
With that, I turned around and got out of there as quick as I could. Once I left the cafeteria, I didn’t have any idea where to go and just paced around the corridor for a moment.
I froze in my tracks when I suddenly spotted Hunter coming towards me. Without a second thought, I turned around and walked in the opposite direction, pushing through the stream of students. I wasn’t sure if the sound of his steps following me were just my imagination or real, but I didn’t look back to check. Instead, I slipped into an empty classroom and shut the door behind me. I just needed five minutes of alone time right now.
After a few seconds of hesitation, I dropped my bag and coat onto a table and sat down on the windowsill in one corner, where you couldn’t see me right away in case someone entered the room.
Why You Shouldn't Lend A Bad Boy Your Clothes Page 18