Chapter 30

Lauren

Monday morning, Lauren rushed out of her second-period class toward her locker, hoping to find at least one of her girlfriends. She pushed through crowds of students and shoved people aside to get to where she needed to be. When she reached the senior hallway, she found Jayda walking with Evan. The couple looked so happy being in each other’s company that she hated to break into their conversation, but her issue was more pressing.

“Jayda!” Lauren called from a few feet away.

Jayda spun around and saw her friend nearly tripping over her own feet trying to get to her. “Lauren, what’s wrong?”

Lauren subconsciously gripped Jayda’s arm and pulled her away from her boyfriend. “Please, tell me that you did not say anything to anybody about what we talked about on Saturday.” Her eyes were nearly bulging out of their sockets.

“I promise I didn’t.”

“Not even to Evan?”

Jayda was silent for a moment.

“Jayda, you promised!”

“No, Lauren. He already knew before you even told us. I swear I didn’t tell him a thing.”

By this time, Danielle and Brenda had joined them.

Lauren looked wildly at them. “Did you guys say anything?”

“Lauren, just calm down,” Danielle said when she noticed that students were starting to stare at them.

“No, I will not calm down! I had Fabian Swatters come up to me last period and ask me if I would sleep with him since I slept with—”

“Lauren!” Brenda covered her friend’s mouth before she could say any more. “None of us said anything. We gave you our word.” She dropped her hand, giving Lauren control over her lips.

“Well, how did he find out?” Lauren asked with tears in her eyes. She looked around and noticed several people glancing toward her. When she looked farther down the hall, she saw Jarred standing around with the same group of guys she usually saw walking down her street. She pushed through her friends and marched right up to him. “I need to talk to you.” She grabbed Jarred’s arm and dragged him out of the building.

“Lauren, you need to check yourself,” Jarred said as he snatched his arm out of her grasp. “What’s your problem?”

“You.” Lauren pointed a slim finger in his face. “You are my problem. Why did you do it? Because I wouldn’t go out with you? Was it because I was so mean and hateful toward you? What? Did you want to get back at me for all I’d done to you?” She hit him against his chest. “Why did you do it, Jarred?” she screamed.

Jarred took a few steps back, placing distance between him and Lauren. “First of all, don’t put your hands on me. Second, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She lowered her voice. “You told about what happened between me and Sterling.”

He rolled his eyes heavenward and gave a loud sigh. “I don’t know where you’re getting your information from, but I didn’t say anything about you to anybody. I do have better things to do with my time. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get to class.”

Before he could walk away, Lauren grabbed his arm. “Don’t lie to me, Jarred. You were the only person who knew and you’re the only person who had motive. It had to be you.”

Jarred chuckled menacingly and shook his arm out of Lauren’s grip once again. “Girl, you are so full of yourself. Trust me, I’m not the only person in this school who has motive to ruin your precious reputation. You maybe popular, but it’s not ’cause people like you,” he snidely informed her. “Now, what you need to do is watch how you handle your business around school.”

“What?” Lauren asked in confusion.

“I wasn’t the only person standing at the door that day when you and Mr. Sterling decided to put all your business on Front Street by handling it during school. I was just the only one you saw when you walked out of the room. There were plenty of people standing outside of Mr. Sterling’s classroom and it wasn’t to hear your little secret. He did have another class to teach that day. You aren’t the center of the world, Lauren.”

Lauren watched as he walked back into the school building. Seconds later, Jayda, Brenda, and Danielle rushed out to her. They bombarded her with questions, wanting to know if Jarred had been the one to reveal her secret. All Lauren could do was cry. She knew that her reputation was ruined. Sterling would lose his job. And she would have to apologize to Jarred.

 

Brenda

Brenda sat down at her regular lunch table and began to eat. She couldn’t believe that Lauren’s secret was out. The rumor had been circulating around school since second-period. Apparently, Fabian couldn’t keep the gossip to himself. Sometimes guys were as bad as girls when it came to running their mouths. Brenda knew that by the end of the day, Sterling would be called into the principal’s office and repercussions were inevitable.

If Sterling admitted that the rumors were true, he’d probably be fired on the spot. But if he denied them, he’d be placed on paid leave until the school could schedule a hearing. That would cause Lauren to have to miss a few days of school so that she would be able to testify. By the time the whole situation came to a close, Sterling’s and Lauren’s names would have been dragged through the gutter and back.

“So is it all true?” Traci asked as she sat down at the table along with Daphne.

Brenda sighed. “Is what all true?”

Daphne stretched her neck out dramatically as she rolled her eyes. “Girl, stop playin’. You know what we’re talking about.”

“Yeah, we know you got the dirt. What’s up with Lauren and Mr. Sterling?”

Brenda pretended to play along as a wide smile spread across her face. “Ooh, I’ve been waiting all day to tell somebody this.” She moved to the edge of her seat as if she were about to reveal a top-secret plan, and was amused when the two girls leaned in also. “What’s going on is . . .” She dramatically paused before saying, “Really none of your business,” she snapped.

The girls sucked their teeth and moved back into their seats. Brenda knew they were upset, not because she’d caught an attitude with them, but because she hadn’t revealed the information they were so desperately seeking.

“Whatever,” Daphne said. “Everybody knows anyway.”

“Apparently, you don’t,” Brenda said. “If you did, you wouldn’t be asking me.”

“It’s ’bout time somebody got something out on Lauren.” Traci laughed as she spoke to Daphne. “She acts like she’s such a goody-goody. I knew she was just like everybody else.”

“No, that’s where you’re wrong,” Brenda cut in. “Lauren is not like everybody else. She doesn’t talk about her friends behind their back. She doesn’t act like she likes somebody just to get something from them, then turn around and say that she never liked them.”

“I didn’t say I never liked her,” Traci stated evenly.

“And what makes you think I’m talking about you?” Brenda asked curtly. “Maybe it’s because you know you’re wrong.” She stood and placed her tray into the trash can before leaving the cafeteria and heading toward the library: the only other place administrators allowed students to go if they didn’t want to eat during their lunchtime.

When Brenda walked into the massive room, she headed toward the computers. They were nearly full, but she found an empty one right next to Ken. Ken? Brenda’s heart fluttered involuntarily at the sight of him. She had been dwelling on her problems with him since Saturday, when she’d revealed to her friends her true feelings about the situation. Having to see him in her class every day didn’t help matters either. She decided to take the empty seat next to him, hoping she could get him to talk to her.

“Hi,” she said softly as she sat down and signed on to the desktop.

Ken barely glanced at her before returning his gaze to his computer screen.

“Working on the anatomy assignment?” she asked, noticing that the title of his paper dealt with what they’d been studying in their science class.

This time he didn’t even look her way as his fingers continued to race over the keyboard. Brenda gave up and decided to use the time to work on the assignment her human anatomy teacher had given the class. But with her unsolved problems with Ken on her mind, she couldn’t concentrate on the work. She decided to use the Internet to e-mail him, knowing that, just like every other student who used the computers in the library, he would be logged on to his e-mail.

After signing on, she looked up Ken’s e-mail in her address book and began to pour her heart out on to the screen.

Ken,

I know you don’t want to talk to me and you don’t have to.You don’t even have to respond to this e-mail. All I want to say is that I’m sorry for hurting you. I led you on and that was not right. You were honest with me about your feelings and I wasn’t.

Well, I’d like to be honest now. When I first began seeing you and Zane at the same time, I didn’t think anything was wrong with it. I figured that I was not in an exclusive relationship with either of you, so I had the right to see whomever I chose to.

It wasn’t until you asked for an exclusive relationship that I began to feel bad. I had already begun developing feelings for you, but I didn’t want to let you know that because I was afraid of getting hurt. There’s so much behind that statement that’s hard to explain right now, but I guess I can just use the phrase “Like mother, like daughter.” I’ll leave the interpretation of that up to you.

I realized I was in trouble when a few days later, Zane asked me to be his girl also. I was already in too deep. It wasn’t planned, but I had already allowed my feelings for you to grow a little too much. I didn’t want to choose between the two of you because I felt that if I allowed my heart to lead me, I’d choose you and I knew that that would only lead to more trouble. Not that I felt you would break my heart, but I was not used to feeling what I felt for you. So I kept you hanging on to the possibility that I’d be committed to you, when in reality, I was terrified of, but a little pleased with, where our relationship was headed.

I just hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me. I know there’s not a possibility of our relationship going back to how it used to be and I wouldn’t want it to. Right now, I need to focus on what’s important and that’s my schoolwork. I do hope that we can be friends, though.You were a really good one.

Always,

Brenda

She gazed at the length of her letter and felt that she’d written too much, but she quickly clicked the send button before she lost her nerve. As she waited for Ken to receive the e-mail, she resumed working on her assignment. Ten minutes later, she received a new message. She quickly opened it when she realized it was from Ken.

Apology accepted. Friends are good.

Brenda closed the message just as the bell, ending her lunch period, sounded, and then she logged off the computer. She and Ken arose from their seats at the same time. He turned toward her and gave her a small smile before walking out of the library. Brenda knew things were looking up. One down, one more to go.