"What are you going to do to me, in school?" The boy asked, smirking. His little friends snickered. They made me cringe.
Jason raised his eyebrows, and gave the kid the tiniest shove ever- making him fall to the floor. "That."
Jason paid for his burger, ignoring the lunch lady shouting at him, grabbed my wrist and dragged me out of the cafeteria.
"Farrah!" Hayley called after me.
"Castle!" I yelled back.
"What?" Jason asked.
"Nothing." I shook my head.
Jason took a huge bite out of his burger and sprayed me with some of it as he said, "So what do you need to talk to me about? May as well do it now."
"Uh, I, you, Cameron, I...Cameron hates me!" I burst out.
"What now?" Jason questioned, taking another big bite.
"Ugh! Me and Hayley were arguing about if I like liked Cameron and I said no, kinda loudly, and Cameron heard and he walked off and now he hates me!" I babbled.
"Interesting." Jason muttered, inspecting his burger. "So what was the outcome?"
I frowned at him. Was he not listening? "Cameron walked away, so now I think he hates me."
"Not that. Do you like Cameron?" Jason laughed.
"I don- stick to the current issue!" I cut myself off.
"Okay, so you like Cameron. Go tell him." Jason said simply.
"It's not that simple!"
"Ah, so you do like him."
"Jason!"
"Farrah!" He mimicked me.
"You are turning into Cameron." I frowned.
"So do you like me too?" He winked.
"Not funny."
***
I tried to stop myself thinking about Cameron as I was walking home. He was just stuck to my brain now I had admitted to myself I liked him. Jesus, why was it so complicated? I always had to go and say something stupid. I could just imagine what would happen if I ever got married.
"Farrah Poppy Chambers, do you take blah blah blah as your lawfully wedded husband?"
"I-" Sneeze. "Will."
"Will?" Mr. Blah blah blah cried. "It's 'I do' you stupid girl! You don't really want to marry me, do you?"
"What? No!"
"I knew it!" My fiancé sobbed.
"What an awful woman you are." The priest scolded me.
Yes. That would go down a treat.
I sighed, trying to take my mind off of him. This was so weird. Not long ago, I didn't like him, but Tanner. Maybe I always secretly liked Cameron? Maybe my brain was hiding it from me? I was contemplating this, when a hand clamped around my mouth and an arm wrapped around my waist. I tried to scream but I was nearly suffocating. Whoever this person was, they dragged me backwards and chucked me in the back of their car. I saw them through the car window, wearing a black ski mask.
Oh sweet baby Jesus! Was I about to be raped? Murdered? I struggled and sat up, trying to open the car door. But I recognised the car...
"Don't damage my car!" My kidnapper groaned.
"Jason?!" I shrieked. "You jerk! I nearly shit myself! Why did you do that?"
"I wanted to make it more dramatic. You're supposed to be coming to mine tonight." Jason reminded me.
"Evil boy!" I growled. I clambered into the front seat, with Jason moaning in my ear about how I shouldn't do it, how it would wreck his car, the usual guy stuff.
We pulled up to Jason's house, and I saw Brody talking to a girl outside the front door. Jason attempted to get out of the car, but I tugged on his sleeve so he stayed in.
"What?" He whined. "I'm hungry!"
"Ssh! Look at Brody and that girl!" I giggled.
"Girl?" Jason blinked. He leant over me, peering out of the window. His hair got in my mouth and I spat it out irritably.
"You need a haircut." I frowned. I thought of Rayne and smiled. She'd probably love to do his hair.
"You need to stop eating my ha- Christ! Is he gonna kiss her?" Jason cried.
"Keep your voice down!" I scolded, looking out of the window. I was really surprised Brody hadn't noticed us.
"He kissed her!" Jason cackled, falling back into his own seat. The whole car was physically shaking from him laughing.
"And why is that funny?" I wondered aloud.
"I-it just is!" Jason was literally wiping tears from his eyes. "Oh my God look! There's Mom!"
He was right. I saw Helen bustling out of the front door, and the girl pulled away from Brody. I had to laugh too. Poor Brody.
***
"You're so nosy." Brody glared at us. While Jason was eating pizza, I was talking to Brody about the whole kissing scene.
"It was cute!" I protested.
"You don't spy on someone when they're kissing someone!" Brody cried.
"I suppose not." I said awkwardly.
"It was freakin' hilarious!" Jason chuckled.
"Like your face then?" Brody retorted.
"OooOooh." I looked between the brothers.
"Shut up Farrah. Come on, we can talk upstairs without this brat. I can teach you how to play the Xbox." Jason said to me.
"Oh, joy!" I rolled my eyes.
We got to Jason's room, and I collapsed on to his bed, rolling onto his dark duvet, pulling it around myself so I looked like a caterpillar. He laughed at me and took a picture.
"Facebook!" He joked. Or at least I hoped he was joking. But no, my phone buzzed in my pocket- the sound that meant I had a Facebook notification. When I rolled out of my cocoon, I unlocked my phone and saw Jason had tagged me in the photo. Meanie.
"So you like Cameron?" Jason asked, setting up his Xbox.
"Yes." I sighed.
"Why are you sighing? Surely that's a good thing?" Jason puzzled.
"Not really. I just got over Tanner- it makes me seem a cheat."
"It really doesn't. You worry too much." Jason smiled.
"We'd never be together anyway." I sighed. "He doesn't like me."
A smirk tugged on Jason's lips. "Maybe he does. Only one way to find out."
He handed me an Xbox controller. "I'm not gonna tell Cameron."
"Well that's stupid. You'll still be friends, you know." Jason told me.
"Would we? He already hates me." I wailed.
"Aw, Farrah." Jason struggled with dealing with what was considered 'girl talk'.
"What if he finds out about me kissing Tanner? That'd be awful! He doesn't seem to like Tanner."
"Maybe he just doesn't like you and Tanner, together." Jason said.
"Why wouldn't he?"
Jason rolled his eyes and instructed me to shoot someone in the game.
"How?" I panicked.
"Press that!" Jason pointed, taking out like three zombies.
"I can't! Ah! Oh no! I'm dead!" I chucked the controller at Jason, who flinched and dropped his own, dying as well.
"Yeah, maybe we should play a different game." Jason chortled. We heard a giggle outside the door. Jason scowled. "Get lost Brody!"
We heard him scamper off. Jason got up to change the game, and I went on my phone. It beeped just as I was about to click on an app- I had got a text from Cameron.
SO UR WITH JASON. U GOT OVER TANNER FAST.
What? I frowned and saw there was a video clip attached. I pressed on it, and saw it wasn't a video, but a voice recording. A very edited voice recording.
"So you like-" Buzz. "Me?"
I recognised Jason's voice and gasped. Jason looked over in confusion.
"Yes."
"Aw, Farrah."
"I'm not gonna tell Cameron."
I gasped. How the hell did Cameron get this recording?
"Yeah, maybe we-" Buzz. "Shouldn't."
"He already-" Buzz. "Doesn't seem to like-" Buzz. "Me."
"Well that's stupid."
I gasped. I thought the recording was over, when suddenly a door slammed in the recording. I wondered who it was supposed to imply had left the room.
In the recording, I sighed.
Well it was Jason that had 'left' then. Another voice,
mine, came back into the recording. The volume was turned right down, as if to make it seem like I was whispering.
"What if he finds out about me kissing Tanner?"
My eyes bulged. Cameron knew about it? Worse, he thought I was dating Jason secretly, and that I was cheating on him with Tanner!
The clip ended, and I stared at my phone in disbelief.
"W-who could've...?" I trailed off.
"Brody." Jason growled. "Brody sent that to Cameron."
"He wouldn't!" I gasped.
"That's his revenge for us, because we saw him and that girl earlier." Jason sighed, running his hand through his hair.
"Uh-oh."
Chapter 27
I got up off of Jason's bed, shaking my head.
"Brody is a sweetheart. He'd never do that, surely?" I asked Jason.
"Ew. First, never call my ass of a brother a 'sweetheart'. Secondly, he would so do something like this." Jason spat.
"Aw, man!" I whined, tearing at my hair. "This is so stupid! Why does Cameron have to overreact? And Brody for that matter."
"I'm not dating you!" Jason wailed. I frowned and he smiled sheepishly. "I mean...you're awesome but you're a good friend, not a girlfriend."
"Better." I nodded.
"C'mon, now we need to go and kill the little twit." Jason signalled at me and stomped out of his room, me running behind him. I hated my short, little legs. Jason was striding towards his little brother's room, and I had to run to catch up with him. It was ridiculous.
"Brody!" Jason raged, throwing open the door with such force, I was surprised the wall didn't break. I was scared of what Jason would do to his brother- after all Jason was a street fighter. He never had a scratch on him, (bandaged fingers didn't count as a scratch) but from what I had heard, the person fighting him always ended up going to hospital.
"Hello, Jason. Hi, Farrah." Brody grinned, almost mocking us.
"You little brat!" Jason picked up his brother from the spinning, blue chair he was sat on, and tipped him upside down. His red hoodie fell up, revealing his pale stomach. My mouth dropped open as Jason began shaking his brother wildly.
"S-st-stop it!" Brody managed to get out.
"Why did you record us speaking?" Jason demanded.
"F-f-for f-fun!" Brody cried. "S-stop shaking me!"
"So why did you send it to Cameron?" I cut in.
"I d-d-didn't!" Brody wailed. Jason dropped him, and I shrieked, scared he would break his neck or something.
"You didn't send it to Cameron?" Jason narrowed his eyes at him. "Liar!"
"Ow." Brody moaned, rubbing his neck. His adorable blue eyes peered up at us. "I didn't send it to Cameron. I sent it to Farrah, to see what you'd do."
"You didn't send it to me." I puzzled. "You sent it to Cameron, who sent it to me, and now he thinks me and Jason are dating!"
"That's bad for you. I'm sorry. It must be so embarrassing to have people think you're dating that douche." Brody chuckled.
I giggled. "Yeah."
Jason poked me in the ribs. "Rude. Anyway, it does matter a lot what you did, because Farrah likes Cameron and now-"
"Jason!" I slapped the back of his head. "Why did you tell him?"
"Oops, sorry." Jason laughed.
"If I did that, you'd batter me." Brody frowned.
"That's because you're you." Jason replied simply. "And back to what I was saying. Farrah likes Cameron and he thinks we're dating."
"Just explain to him you're not. Stupid people." Brody told us, getting back on his chair, turning to his laptop.
"He won't talk to me." I sighed.
"Oh, the dramas of love!" Brody teased.
"Shut up Brody. Come on Farrah, we're going to see Cameron." Jason informed me.
I'd been inside Cameron's house only once before, for his party. But it was dark, filled with people, no adults and reeked of alcohol. I'd also been in his back yard, (what an awful memory) but I didn't think that counted. Jason's car pulled up in front of Cameron's house, slowly. It looked completely different to when I saw it before. It was very clean, very white, and definitely looked rich.
"Get out of the car, Farrah." Jason tapped on the window. I realised he had already got out, and I was sat in the car still, staring gormlessly out of the window at Cameron's house. I swallowed my embarrassment, unstrapping myself. I opened the car door and ended up hitting Jason- whoops.
"Sorry." I apologised. I shut the door, and Jason locked the car. We trooped up to Cameron's front door, which was green. Jason knocked loudly, and pressed the doorbell at least seven times.
"This way they'll know it's me." Jason grinned, pointing to himself.
"Or an angry bear." I scoffed, smiling. A blonde woman came to the door, undoubtedly Cameron's mother. Her green eyes were bright and sparkly, just like her sons.
"Hello Jason. Hi...?" She smiled brightly.
"Farrah. Farrah Chambers." I introduced myself, sticking out my hand for her to shake. She shook it warmly with both hands.
"Allie Carter. Come in, come in." She pulled us through into her hallway, shutting the door behind us. "Cameron is upstairs. He's not in the best mood, mind."
"Thanks." Jason nodded, grabbing my wrist and dragging me upstairs.
"Do you want a drink?" Allie called after us.
"No thank you!" I called back, seeing as Jason didn't bother to reply. Instead, he barged into what I assumed what Cameron's room, which made Cameron jump.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Cameron demanded, scowling at us.
"We came to tell you the truth!" I declared.
"The truth?" Cameron rolled his eyes. "You're so dramatic. About what?"
"Me and Jason aren't dating." I told him, flopping onto his bouncy bed.
"The recording-" He began.
"Was fake." Jason cut him off. "Surely you could hear all the little buzzing noises when it switched clips?"
"It was your voices!" Cameron protested.
"Ugh! She wasn't talking about me!" Jason groaned. "She likes-"
I hit him in the stomach and he frowned at me.
"Let me guess, dreamboat Tanner West?" Cameron said, in a cruel mimick of my voice.
"No!" I cried.
"Whatever. Just go, please. I've got stuff to do." Cameron told us.
"Dude don't-" Jason started.
"Look, me and you? We're cool. Just leave it." Cameron said to Jason.
"How about us?" I whispered, a strange tingling feeling running through my body as I said, 'us'.
"Just go home, Farrah." Cameron sighed, turning away from me. I swallowed back my disappointment, obeying him, backing out of the room.
I got downstairs and saw Allie, her face filled with concern.
"Everything all right? If Cameron's playing up, just ignore him. He is such a little kid sometimes." Allie told me.
"Everything's...great." I smiled, acting badly. "Thank you for letting us in. It was nice to meet you."
Her frown was replaced with a warm motherly smile. "And you, dear. See you soon I hope! Cameron talks about you so often."
Cameron talked about me?
I smiled and waved as I exited her house.
Not any more.
I got nearly half way down the street, my stomach dropping painfully as I realised Cameron really didn't like me, when I thought of something. In chick flicks, the girls always ran away and broke down. When they meet up with the guy again, the guy always tells the girl she should have just come back into his arms.
It was worth a try.
I marched back up to Cameron's house, banging on the door fiercely. Allie answered the door again, her little, pink mouth forming a surprised, 'o' shape.
"Hello Farrah...again." She smiled, a little confusion written on her face. "Do you want to come back in or...?"
"I just forgot something." I lied.
"Oh, of course. Come in." She nodded, opening the door wide enough for me to squeeze through. She stared after me as I walked upstairs, smilin
g at me when she caught me watching her.
I knocked on Cameron's door- it was best to be polite. When he didn't answer, I just opened the door anyway, and Cameron sighed when he saw me.
"Why are you here again?" He groaned.
"I need to ask you something." I told him.
He paused his video game he was playing with Jason, and stood up. "What is it?"
I walked right up to him, stopping right in front of him. Cameron looked a little weirded out, staring down at me. I made myself taller, slowly pushing myself on my toes, before whispering, "Do you believe everything you hear?"
Cameron's eyes widened, and his mouth dropped open a little.
"You...you...I said that!" He gasped.
"Too right. Now answer me." I said firmly. I was winning!
"No. I'm not that stupid." Cameron shook his head. My mouth began to twitch into a smile, but he started talking again. "I know you and Jason aren't dating. But you did kiss Tanner, and kept it a secret from me. Did you honestly think I would tell you he's bad news, if it wasn't true?"
"I-"
"Yeah. You don't trust me, Farrah. You don't like me either. I know that now." Cameron informed me.
"But I-" I tried again.
"Dude, you can't-" Jason also tried cutting Cameron off.
"Whatever. See you later, Farrah." Cameron waved me off, going back to his game.
That was it. I wasn't winning. I had lost.
Passing Allie's confused face one more time, I left Cameron's house. I dropped in to see my Aunt Tessie, hoping it would cheer me up.
"Hey, honey." Tessie smiled at me.
"Hey, Tessie." I greeted her.
"What's up?" She frowned.
"Ugh, boys." I grumbled.
"Oh dear." My Aunt sighed. "Did you...find out about...your Mom?"
"Yes, I did. Thanks so much for telling me." I said sarcastically.
"Now, now. It wasn't my place to tell you. Come on sweetie, cheer up. Who's this boy then? Your Mom tells me you've been spending lots of time with Jason something?" My Aunt asked.
"Yep. He's my friend, though. The boy bugging me is Cameron stinkin' Carter."
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