Popularity Rules

by Shamika Lindsay

  “You should’ve seen your face,” she said gasping for air.

  My brows pulled together as I watched her face light up with laughter. She looked a lot better smiling than frowning and that’s saying a lot. I looked at her expectantly urging her to honestly answer my question.

  “I’m not going to tell you,” she continued, a ghost of a smile playing on her lips.

  Her whole demeanor had me on edge, I was waiting on her to freeze me out, and I couldn’t forget how embarrassed I was yesterday when she made that powerful innuendo. My feet decided to defy my brain and moved closer to her, she surprised me with the vulnerable look in her eyes. My hands joined the rebellious act my feet were in and my fingers pushed a wet lock of hair out of her face. My own boldness surprised me.

  Avery’s eyes didn’t leave mine throughout the entire exchange however brief it was in actuality, and for some reason, I didn’t want her to. She broke me out of my trance by looking down. “You have a girlfriend,” she whispered.

  I pulled my hand away from her reluctantly and ran it through my hair. I knew I had a girlfriend but at that moment I didn’t think about Gina and that made me feel a whole lot worse than I was feeling yesterday.

  Avery chuckled. “Don’t look so disappointed. There are tons of other girls who are dying just to get your attention.”

  “Why are you so hyped up on the fact that I’m a player? I’m not,” I said, already defensive.

  Avery averted her gaze from me. “I’ve dealt with people like you. Have you wondered what might’ve happened if I hadn’t spoken up when I did?”

  My heart thumped guilty and I swallowed nervously. “Nothing would’ve happened,” I replied, very unconvincing.

  Avery narrowed her eyes at me and placed her hands on her waist. “Listen, you may talk to the other girls and make them swoon, but that crap doesn’t work on me.”

  Back to being cold in an instant, I had been expecting it after all. “Are you bipolar?”

  A small smile flickered across her face. “Are you going to waste your training time talking to me?”

  I couldn’t help the responding smile I gave at her words. I nodded at her and headed in the direction of the changing rooms, I was making progress.

  The water and the slight sting of chlorine in my eyes felt familiar as I took a gulp of air and tore the goggles from my face. I felt a mixture of serenity and lethargy, Avery came up for air a few moments after and climbed to the side of the pool, making me follow suit. The droplets from my hair fell into my eyes but I ignored it and instead focused on the sudden thirst for air.

  We had spent about twenty minutes doing laps across the length of the pool and I felt the need to exert myself more than I already was to match Avery’s speed, durability and consistency.

  “You should join the team,” I blurted out before my mind could think better of it.

  I may have disturbed the quiet calmness that encompassed us the entire time we were in the water because Avery looked surprised. “No thanks, I’m trying not to get noticed and you’re already making that hard enough already.”

  I sighed and moved my feet slowly in the water. If she felt suffocated by all the attention I received in just a few days, imagine how I felt. “Wouldn’t you prefer to be sleeping now?” I asked, turning the conversation in a different direction. “Normal girls wouldn’t be here.”

  Avery shrugged. “If you haven’t noticed, I’m not necessarily normal. A normal girl would be ogling over you.”

  “And you’re not?” I challenged. I noticed she referred to my appearance with obvious disdain. It was almost as if she resented me because of how I looked.

  “No,” she replied, meeting my eyes levelly. “I’m more into the thin geeky nerd who wears glasses.”

  I stared at her for a moment trying to decode whatever message she was hiding in her words.

  “Jason,” she said, startling me with the incredibly taciturn effect of her voice. “Stop pitying me. I can see it in your eyes.”

  My mouth opened and closed a few times, I was not expecting her to say that. “I wasn’t—”

  “You were,” she said, silencing me, “I’ve seen that look on numerous occasions.”

  A chilled silence surrounded us, and I kept my eyes on the still water in the pool. Maybe even just a little bit, Avery was right; I pitied her. It was just that when someone seemed so unfixable—broken you had to feel sad for them.

  Avery stood suddenly and faced away from me. “Your team will be here soon. We don’t want them to be getting any ideas, do we?”

  I stood as well. “I don’t care.”

  “Well, I do. I wouldn’t want your reputation to be ruined—after all, I’m the crazy new girl.”

  I snorted. “No one thinks that.”

  She gave me a flat look. “Goodbye, Jason.” I watched as she walked purposefully, head held high, she was almost at the changing rooms when she slipped and almost fell. I stifled a laugh at how embarrassed her walk became. So much for a dramatic exit, Avery.

  “Mr. Forbes, can you stop staring out the window and actually take some notes?” my Physics teacher called to me.

  I blinked and looked over at him. I ran a hand over my face, muttering a sorry. My mind felt especially cluttered today, I couldn’t focus on my teacher going on about the seventh time about momentum and its importance in daily life. I ignored the girl waggling her fingertips at me and checked my watch. We had much too much time left. I couldn’t just sit there and expect to focus on that nonsense.

  I requested a hall pass and exited the classroom with an audible sigh. Thankfully, the hallways were almost deserted, and no one had a chance to talk to me. The restrooms were a small distance away and I didn’t intend to stop walking—that is until I saw Gina and Breanna in a heated conversation. Gina noticed me first and recoiled from Breanna a bit.

  “Jace,” Gina said, trying to force a smile onto her face.

  Breanna narrowed her eyes at me. “Ass.”

  “Dog,” I said. Not missing a beat.

  Gina pulled me away from Breanna before I could have a chance to bite her head off or vice versa. “Why can’t you be nice to each other?”

  I narrowed my eyes at Breanna. “I know that a dog is a man’s best friend, but some animals should learn their place.”

  Breanna’s mouth fell open in surprise as she glared at Gina before tethering away in her monstrous heels. I smiled slightly, happy to have won that one, which was very rare in my case.

  “Jason, although that was pretty funny you shouldn’t disrespect my friend,” Gina said, trying to sound reproving.

  Because she was looking quite adorable fake pouting and because I was suddenly in a good mood, I held her close to me adjacent to the wall and pressed my lips to hers. Gina seemed surprised, I could tell because she took a while to respond but when she did, she was pretty into it.

  I came to my senses a few moments later. As of late it always seemed as if I always chose the wrong moments to kiss Gina because as soon as I pulled away, I noticed Avery approaching us. There was no denying what was happening here because we both had our hands around each other’s necks still—it was pretty obvious.

  Gina smiled at Avery with her fingers still wrapped around my neck. “Hey, it’s Amanda, right?”

  Avery’s eyes snapped to mine, and I saw her lips turn up slightly. “No, it’s Avery and you’re Gina, right?”

  Gina looked pleased that she remembered her name; she slowly disentangled herself from me and beamed at Avery. “Have you gotten used to the whole school yet?”

  Avery shrugged. “A whole lot less murders, that’s for sure.”

  Gina sent an uncomfortable look to me while I tried to assess if she was joking or not.

  “I’m kidding,” Avery said, looking away from me.

  Gina didn’t look convinced and I was sure I didn’t either. There was something seriously wrong here, but I didn’t know what.

  “Um, I have an assignment to finish before the
period’s over,” Gina stated, not taking her eyes off Avery. She reached up and kissed me on the cheek and threw another wary look towards Avery. I watched as she walked down the hallway not turning around once.

  “I thought I told you to stop pitying me.”

  My eyes flashed to hers and my brows pulled together slowly. “I’m not pitying you, I’m worried.”

  After Avery had left the pool I couldn’t help but attempt to piece the story of her life together but that was hard when there was nothing but nonexistent information and opinions to use.

  “Don’t worry about me; you don’t know me to be worried,” she said in a frustrated whisper, folding her arms.

  I looked over her head and towards the door leading outside. “I know we have Chemistry together.”

  Avery huffed. “You shouldn’t say things like that with your girlfriend bound to walk by here.”

  I feigned an innocent look. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. We have Chemistry tomorrow just so you know.”

  Avery managed to look embarrassed. “You just—you’re just—ugh!” she exclaimed, throwing her hands up.

  I laughed at her frustration and leaned casually against the wall. “You know it’s pretty funny that Chemistry is the only class we have together, isn’t it?”

  Avery glared at me. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  There was obvious unease all around her, it made me smile a little, this wasn’t the normal unease the girls I spoke to had, this one was subtler, nicer.

  “I like Gina,” she stated, measuring my reaction.

  Three words have never made me feel more guilt-ridden. I felt terrible for standing here with Avery and not texting Gina or something. Or even the fact that she trusted me enough to leave me alone with an attractive girl. I then realized that I couldn’t hurt Gina. As much as I didn’t think we were compatible, I couldn’t hurt her.

  I ran a hand through my hair. “I-uh-have to go.”

  Avery pressed her lips together and nodded. And I wasn’t sure if I heard right or if I was starting to get deranged, but I was a few feet away when I heard, “Don’t be the bad guy.”

  When I turned to see if I heard right there was no one there. I shook my head to clear it of the jumbled thoughts.

  Chapter

  V

  The cafeteria seemed filled with an agonizing burning smell. The small queue of people were standing back and looking on, paying rapt attention, these things didn’t happen regularly but when they did, it was gobbled up. Apparently, something had caught fire and the workers were trying to douse it. I walked to our usual table, completely unaffected by the whole disoriented state of the room.

  “Prime example why all of the staff should be fired, huh?” a guy sitting to my right remarked.

  I chuckled at the joke that wasn’t as funny as he made it seem while I looked at the crowd of people gathering to watch instead of standing a safe distance away. A loud explosion could be heard, and I could tell that a can had fallen into the fire. The group of people drifted back slightly. It was a wonder the fire alarm wasn’t triggered and all of us ushered outside. But the things that happened in this school no longer surprised me.

  Something flashed by my eyes and I quickly looked around, just in time to see Avery hurrying from the cafeteria—there was an aura of panic in her movements. I muttered a 'be right back' to the guys before heading into the direction she went.

  At first, the hallways seemed pretty deserted. I looked around expecting her to jump out at me, but she didn't. A sound from the right made me pause and listen for a while. I entered the dimly lit room and looked around for any sign of life. I was about to leave when a small cough met my ears. I headed to the back of the room and saw her sitting on the ground with her knees pulled to her chest.

  “Why'd you run out there as if you started that fire?” I asked with a stiff laugh, perching on a desk in front of her.

  Avery looked up at me somber and terrified. "It's starting again."

  My brows furrowed at her words. "What's starting again?"

  She rested her chin on her knees and sniffled a bit. "I can't get away, can I?" she said looking as if she was talking to herself rather than to me.

  "Get away from what?"

  I was startled as a tear fell from her eye and travelled down her nose. Pretty soon she was sobbing, and I couldn't just sit there and watch her cry. I left the desk and sat beside her on the cold, hard floor. At first, she didn't seem too perturbed by my presence, but she tensed as I placed an arm around her shoulder.

  I actually thought she would've shrugged my arm off, but she didn't. After a while, she leaned into my chest and wrapped her hands tightly around my torso. I stroked her hair while she cried her eyes out. It took all the strength I had not to press my lips against her forehead.

  I think something was pretty wrong with me because of my strange interest in Avery—a girl I'd just met. But my perception the first day I met her was spot on. Avery was pretty damaged, and I felt a need to protect her for some reason.

  She moved beside me, and I held my breath. After all the crying had died down I assumed she had gone to sleep and I wasn't planning to wake her. It was pretty comfy sitting there with her. I also felt guilty as if the guilt was eating out my heart piece by piece.

  "I'm sorry,” she whispered from my chest, her voice sounding hoarse.

  I sighed heavily. "Why? Don't be, everything will be fine." She was quiet for a moment and I searched for something to say to keep the conversation going. "Had a nice nap?"

  I felt her hands tighten around my torso for a moment before she replied, "I wasn't sleeping. Your stomach is too hard."

  I chuckled slightly at how straight-forward she was being. The fact that she wasn't ruffled by our position surprised me, I expected her to jump up and shout profanities at me, but she was pretty comfortable it appeared.

  Avery exhaled deeply and disentangled herself from me. I waited for her to move away but she didn't, she merely rested her head on my shoulder. "You think I'm crazy, right?"

  "Yeah, what else would I think about you?"

  Avery's head shot up from my shoulder and she looked surprised. "What?" she asked in bewilderment.

  "You're crazy," I clarified. "You're the craziest person I've ever met."

  Avery stared at me open-mouthed for a while before a small smile crept on her face. "I thought you were nice." I shrugged while she assessed me with her red-rimmed eyes. "Thanks for not being too afraid to tell me the truth."

  I was startled when she rested her head on my shoulder once more. I guess I'd have to begin to get used to her being cordial to me. It was weird, I couldn't even fathom the possibility of this happening a day before.

  "There was a fire before," she said in such a drifting voice that I wasn't sure I heard right.

  "Where?" I asked, trying to match her tone of voice but failing miserably.

  There was an audible silence for a while before she spoke again. "It happened—"

  Before she could finish, there was the sound of students outside speaking loudly ready to enter the room as their next period began. It seemed someone had a class here and if we were caught we'd be in colossal amounts of trouble; we were not allowed to be in a classroom at lunch. The lights were turned on from outside and I could hear the teacher instructing the students to get in a blasted line. The door swung open and I shifted us both us to the left so he couldn't see us.

  The teacher stood at his table, setting up the materials he was going to be using. I motioned to Avery to slide to a table off to the side with a cloth covering. As the teacher opened the door to accommodate the students I made it under the table as well. The only problem though, was that I didn't get an opportunity to close the cloth covering properly. If someone had very sharp eyes they could've seen us.

  Before I had a chance to pull it all the way the students all filed to where we were. It seemed as if there was a sea of feet in my peripheral vision. The only voice I
readily recognized was Gina's; things couldn't get worst. She sounded so happy and relaxed that I couldn't imagine her face if she saw us.

  I pushed Avery against the wall and she narrowed her eyes at me, I gave her an apologetic look as I tried to fit us both into small space.

  "Hey, did you just see that curtain move?" an unrecognizable voice asked.

  I picked up Gina's voice immediately as she responded. “Probably some mice,” she said dismissively.

  The person, however, wouldn't let it go. I could sense them getting up. Only a few more steps and they'd find out what horrible creature was hiding there. I closed my eyes to avoid the impact of the shaming blow that was bound to occur.

  “Mr. Matting!” I heard the teacher shout.

  There was painful silence for a moment before I heard the boy's meek answer that there was a rat in the cupboard. Everyone took his revelation in for a moment before I heard the sound of feet scurrying away from the cupboard. I sighed in relief as a very frustrated teacher ushered them all outside.

  It was a good thing that the school was overrun by rodents or no one would've believed that stupid story. I pushed myself out into the classroom and waited expectantly on Avery to follow suit. As she crouched beside me on the floor I could see her trying her very best to not meet my gaze.

  I just knew she'd say something to make me not want to be in this situation with her. And to be honest, I was tired of the back and forth. Besides, the guilt was gnawing at my heart and pretty soon I'd be left with hollow emptiness in my chest.

  My phone beeped and shattered the thoughtful silence.

  'From: Gina (the girlfriend)

  To: Jason (the wanna-be player)

  Hey, you'd never believed what just happened.'

  I sighed deeply. I could more than guess, I experienced it too. I cringed slightly at the screen of the message. I'd put 'the girlfriend' in brackets as if I needed a reminder that we were dating. I quickly typed a reply.