Rebellion Project (16 page)

Chapter 28

Bathroom Gossip

“It’s gorgeous,” Parker shrieked with excitement as she turned the small gold bracelet in her fingers Kayden had given me. I still couldn’t believe that it had happened only a few weeks ago and since then, despite a few attempts by Alexis and Jamie to ruin it, it had been blissful ever since. I guess they were still upset that he had chosen not to go out with his friends and instead spend the weekend with me. Ever since his friends had started taking little digs at him, saying he had a girlfriend, he wouldn’t spend time with them now, and when Kayden complained they pointed out that would he do the same to them. It was scary how similar boys could be to girls sometimes. “How do we know he just didn’t steal it?” she teased, breaking me from my thoughts.

“I honestly try not to think about that,” I stated with a head shake. I had been praying that he didn’t steal it, but knowing him it was possible. I chose to ignore it rather than ruin the moment he gave it to me though. “If I think about it too much it will start to bother me, and I like it too much to return it,” I said with a smile as I slammed my locker shut. I took a few tentative steps to see if Parker would follow me on the way to our class, or if she was going to skip today. She had been avoiding her history class since she saved Kayden and me from Principal Davis’ wrath. Alexis had figured out who ratted them out, and was making Parker’s time in class awful.

Kayden had tried to step in, but Parker refused. She said that she did what I would have done, and that meant she did the right thing. It had come to her attention over the last few months that doing the right thing was more important than skating by in high school with a social ranking. For a moment, I caught myself wishing she wasn’t my friend. That way she could get what she wanted and not worry about my actions affecting her even though I knew she wouldn’t trade me for the world. She was happy to see the change, and was pleased that Alexis and Jamie had gotten in trouble by being suspended for a few days.

“Fine, but if someone asks where you got it, then I’m ducking out of that conversation just in case it belonged to someone else at one point,” she said with laughter in her voice.

I was about to respond when we walked into the girls’ bathroom and almost collided with two people standing in front of the full length mirror at the entrance. I took an instinctive step back when I saw it was Alexis and Jamie. Suddenly I didn’t have to go to the bathroom anymore. They didn’t say anything for a while, just stared us down as if we were beneath them and a complete waste of their time. I glanced at the round wall clock behind them to see that we were about to be late to class, and no matter how much you changed me, I wasn’t going to be late to class for these two. I still had to get an education.

“Can I help you with something or are you just going to stand there like idiots?” I asked rather rudely, shocking myself at my own words, but I wanted to enter the bathroom, not cause a pile up outside.

Alexis and Jamie looked at each other for a moment, lifting their perfectly sculpted eyebrows at each other as if to say ‘can you believe she just spoke to us like that?’ before they rolled their eyes. I’m sure they had a hard time processing it since normally everyone just side stepped out of their way and told them whatever they wanted to hear, but not me, and most certainly not ever again would I let them walk all over me.

“Look, we only have one thing to say to you so we’ll get to the point,” Alexis said with an eye roll. We didn’t want to talk to her either, but since we couldn’t walk through them we had no choice but to stick around. Since they would just follow us to get out whatever they had to say, I’d rather it get done sooner rather than later. We didn’t really have a choice but to eventually hear what they had to say, so might as well make it sooner rather than later.

“That would be great, I have to get to class,” I said, pulling out my phone to show them the time. They didn’t appreciate my sense of humor, and didn’t bother to respond.

“We’re sorry we tried to get you suspended. That was a little low. We just wanted you and Kayden to break up,” Jamie explained with a flip of her brown hair. Something about that gesture made me angry. It was something so small that I should have over looked it, but I couldn’t. For some reason, with the connection of her words and the gesture, I just wanted to punch her in the face.

“Not that my relationship is any of your business, but why are you so intent on trying to ruin it? Can’t you just accept that he wanted to be with me and not at one of your stupid parties? I’m his girlfriend, and he didn’t like how you treated me there, so he didn’t want to hang out again. Get over it and let us be,” I stated forcefully. I pushed past them both, taking Parker’s wrist and dragging her behind me as I walked past them.

“You can walk away all you want, but that won’t change you, Lauren. Kayden likes you for what you’ve become, and once he figures out you’re still the same goodie-goodie you always were, he’ll dump you and go back to teasing you like he always did,” Jamie stated, hoping I’d stop to confront her since her tone still sounded like she wanted to fight. Too bad I wasn’t going to give it to her. I had won this fight, and I wasn’t going to belittle myself by stooping to their low levels. Although, they weren’t letting me leave without another jib to provoke me into a fight. Luckily Parker stood up to them before they could.

“Let me tell you something. I don’t know why you think you’re so entitled, but Kayden picked her. I don’t know if you guys had an on again off again relationship, or if you’re just obsessed. I also just don’t care. What I do know is she has him, and I will make sure that you do nothing to hurt her or their relationship. Whatever you attempt to do to them, or either of them separately, I will release ten-fold on you. Do you hear me?”

“Whatever,” Alexis said with an over-exaggerated eye roll. “Kayden’s dumping her either way once he’s completed the bet. We just thought we would give her the chance to end it before he humiliates her in front of the entire school. So much for our charity case,” she said as they both turned on their heels with a humph and a hair flip as they left us in their dust.

“What did you say?” I questioned, stopping them at the threshold of the girls’ bathroom.

Alexis once again looked bored when she turned to me. “Mac told us that he gave Kayden the challenge that he couldn’t convince you to date him and then have sex with him so he could take your virginity. It was all a bet, I’m not sure
exactly
what he gets out of it, but I know there’s a pot of money involved worth well over two hundred dollars by now and whoever predicted the correct amount of time gets the money. I think Kayden just found the entertainment factor what he needed it to be. So maybe you should release payback to him by ‘ten-fold,’” Alexis said, repeating Parker’s words.

“You’re lying,” I choked out. Anger was flowing through me, coursing through my veins. They just couldn’t believe he had picked me after getting to know me. They wanted to believe there was another reason, something that made sense to them other than the fact he chose me over them. They couldn’t handle it, and now they wanted an excuse. “You’re such liars. You dug really low for that one. Are you scraping the bottom of the barrel for that?”

Alexis shrugged. “Jamie said you wouldn’t believe us. Like I said, we wanted to tell you so you could have a chance to break his heart before he breaks yours. Bye.”

I turned to Parker, wondering what she thought, but she clearly didn’t believe them. “I’m so over them,” Parker stated. “I say you keep dating him. He may not be high on my list, but if it takes their egos down a notch then it’s worth it. They need to learn that they can’t have everything they want—that includes the guys too.”

“But what if they weren’t lying?” I asked curiously.

“You can’t believe them, Lauren. If those two girls actually set their minds to it then you could end up in some big trouble and that would mean goodbye academic scholarship to whatever school you choose. They are natural born liars. They don’t care about what’s true, they only want to manipulate others for their benefit. Don’t give in to them.”

“I agree, they need to realize that it’s not all about them,” I said, letting my new personality take over. I refused to be walked on by those two girls, but at the same time I had a feeling they weren’t lying. “The only way I’m going to know for sure is if I ask Kayden. I know he’ll tell me the truth and if I get a little ridicule from it, then I’ll take it over never asking.”

Parker sighed. “I can’t stop you, and if it makes you feel better, that’s fine. Just don’t expect him to take it well if they were just trying to manipulate you. When he tells you that he’s honestly head over heels for you, then we need to make sure they realize Kayden chose you over them, and there’s nothing they can do about it,” Parker stated with a wink. I let out a laugh to let her know that I heard and agreed with her, but at the same time I began to wonder. Had he really chosen me, or was he that same guy I knew before and just be using me to win a challenge?

I knew guys took challenges as a way to prove themselves. I knew if they didn’t, then they were looked down on. It was a pride thing, at least that’s how it went with Parker’s brother before he went to college. He had explained it to us when Kayden first started to pick fights and tease us. Some people just can’t change in life, and you have to accept that, but deep down I hoped Kayden had changed.

I hoped that he hadn’t used me to win a bet, and to just add another check mark to his list of girls. He was now a big part of my life. In fact, he was just as important as Parker. I didn’t want him to treat me the same way he did before. I would just have to make sure that if he did revert to his old self, I needed to make sure I could stand up for myself. It was time to find out what kind of man Kayden would be now, and after this was all over. I just had to figure out how to get him to tell me the truth and to see if he’d stick around after our agreement was over, or if I’d ruined it now.

Chapter 29

Doubting Kayden

I waited until the start of lunch to talk to Kayden about Jamie and Alexis’ confession. The waiting was eating me alive. I had to sit through two classes and force myself to pay attention to the teachers who were attempting to educate me on the Mean Value Theorem and another trying to teach us the lessons of the Battle of Midway. Needless to say, I didn’t learn either of those, and I’d have to take the time to teach myself before there was a test. It was just impossible to focus on them when I was trying to figure out what to say to Kayden.

There were so many ways this could go, and frankly, I didn’t like any of them. Most of them ended up with him breaking up with me or pushing me aside because I didn’t trust him. Either way he became furious with me, but I needed to know. If he became irate from my questions, that would be understandable and I could accept it. I just hoped it was because I was wrong, and Alexis and Jamie had tried to get under my skin, but if I wasn’t…I wasn’t sure how I’d handle that.

I approached Kayden before he made it into the lunch room, he was surrounded by a few friends who he quickly banished when he saw me coming. Once again I felt as if there was something in that group he didn’t want to be apart of. Was it the bet? Could it be something else? Maybe he just wanted to spend time with me, and didn’t want his friends breathing down his neck anymore. I was hopeful of anything that didn’t break my heart, but the more I thought about it I could only see that he had lied to me from the start.

He had no reason to feel sorry for what he did, he was never sorry. He could feel remorse, maybe, but even that was a stretch when it came to me. He had used his mistake to take advantage of me so he could win at a matter of pride. He may have fallen for me, as Parker claimed to have overheard on our double date, but he had started this with a lie. I could see it clearly now. I had been so hopeful, so out of other options that I had walked right into it. How could I be so stupid?

“Hey Lauren,” Kayden said, wrapping his arms around me for a hug, though when he pulled away and saw the anger on my features, his expression became worried. “What’s wrong? You look like you got bad news.”

“Kayden, will you tell me the truth?” I asked, as I tried to read his facial expressions.

He knew something was wrong. He immediately looked down at the ground in shame. He refused to look at me—he knew something. I placed my fingers under his chin and forced him to look at me. His expression was torn, half of him seemed to be debating and the other half looked like he was about to be sick. Something wasn’t right. “Kayden, tell me what you’re thinking about. You’re scaring me,” I admitted honestly.

“You’re breaking up with me,” he whispered. He looked down at the ground, seeming to be ashamed or distraught. I was sure I heard him wrong, because as far as I knew nothing like that had come out of my mouth.

“What are you talking about?” I asked curiously. “Where did that come from?”

“They told me you were going to do this, that you’d figure it out. I hoped you wouldn’t until I could explain it to you. I thought I could do this, but I can’t,” he said as he lightly pushed off of me and moved away. I followed his motions, bewildered at what he was talking about. I hoped he was talking about something other than lying to me, but what else could there be that he was hiding from me? I almost cried at the thought of what else he could be lying about.

“Kayden, you aren’t making any sense. I’m not breaking up with you.”
Yet
, I silently added while I waited for him to explain more thoroughly. I wanted to give him a chance to explain, and give me a few more moments to live in doubt.

He perked up instantly at my words and let a smile take over his features. “You’re not?”

“No, what made you think that?”

“Alexis and Jamie told me…” he said, but the way his sentence hung in the air told me he hadn’t finished yet. “They said you were going to break up with me. They told me what they said, and I realized I couldn’t do it anymore.”

My heart stopped at his words. “They told me I was a bet, that you didn’t actually have feelings for me, and that you took advantage of my need for your help. Did you use me, Kayden?”

Kayden tensed, suddenly nervous to talk to me. He started to stutter through an excuse, but each time he looked at me his story changed. Eventually he broke down. “I thought I could date you like a normal person, and just never tell you, but I can’t. The guilt is eating me alive,” he cried out as his hands went to his hair as if he was at a complete loss for what to say. The frustration etched perfectly into his features, and his sudden outburst was drawing a crowd. “I can’t do it! I just can’t, it’s impossible!”

“What are you talking about?” I cried, suddenly fearful of what he had been keeping from me. I just wanted him to tell me, now that he was attempting to evade it my mind was jumping from one conclusion to the next. Each was worse the thought before it. “What haven’t you told me?” I asked, but all Kayden did was groan as he started to pace. “Kayden, tell me right now! What are you hiding from me?”

“I can’t do it anymore, Lauren! Don’t you get it? I’ve lied to you, and I just can’t do this anymore,” he cried as if I should know the answer and I was just too afraid to admit it. “I also can’t bring myself to tell you the truth because…” He let the sentence fall, but I had a feeling I knew how he was going to end it. He was going to say he had changed, and he didn’t keep the lie going because he had to, but because he wanted to.

“What do you mean you lied to me?” I questioned. I couldn’t delve into what had changed between us, not yet anyway. I needed the truth first, and then maybe I could listen to what had changed. I knew how he felt about me now, because I felt it too. I could also feel my heart shattering into pieces when he finally admitted his actual charade.

“You were a bet!” he blurted out, gaining the attention of everyone within earshot of our conversion. “Well, not really a bet, more like a challenge or a dare. I did this to you for shits and giggles, it was all for fun! This wasn’t supposed to happen!”

“What wasn’t supposed to happen? You telling me the real reason you took up our project, was that it?” I asked, angry and growing livid by the second. I wanted to know, I wanted him to tell me the truth. Just for one moment, I wanted him to be honest with me, just this one time.

“I wasn’t supposed to fall in love with you, Lauren!” he stated, as his hand slammed against the locker door to showcase his frustration for everyone to see. “I was just supposed to get you to date me, seal the deal with proof we had done it, and then dump you. This whole long process of dating you wasn’t supposed to happen. I was dragging it out, I actually thought I could make it turn into a relationship. I could keep the dare a secret, and still somehow end up with you. I should have known that wasn’t possible.”

“What made you take the dare in the first place? Why did you go through all of this—for the money?” My voice cracked; I heard it, everyone around us heard it. It was painful, and harsh to my ears.

“No,” Kayden said. He rushed to me, and tried to touch me, but I moved away so he couldn’t. “I don’t get the money, the guys made a pot and placed bets when I started to drag it out. I took it because I’m a guy!” he exclaimed, as if that explained all of it. “They thought I couldn’t get you to go out with me or even hope for sex, so I took that as a challenge. I thought, no problem, especially when you wanted my help to change your reputation. I thought it would be so easy. I could help you, maybe not feel so bad about using you afterward because you really are a nice girl, and I shouldn’t have taken the challenge to hurt you. I did this for fun, and it was supposed to be so easy because they wouldn’t have to know that you came to me for help. It was supposed to be easy, but I fell in love with you, Lauren, so I can’t do it anymore, because it’s not right.”

“Excuse me?” I asked in shock, I was having trouble processing everything. I was a dare. He used me to prove his friends wrong. That’s not possible, not after all we went through, the dates, the gifts, encouragement, and the support. It couldn’t all be a lie, a farce. “Right from the start you were so nice, treating me like a girlfriend, taking me places, protecting me, helping me!”

“I did it to make it look believable! I felt awful for admitting your secret in school so I wanted to help, it just happened to work out for me as well.”

“You’re lying,” I stated in total disbelief. I couldn’t believe this, even knowing how much of a jerk he was before this. He wouldn’t have put this much time and dedication into a dare. It just wasn’t just for a dare. “You couldn’t have done all this and not had feelings for me.”

“I do have feelings for you,” he said, his voice and eyes pleading with me to see that. He just continued, and ruined any possible forgiveness I had for him, “But those came after. This started because they told me I couldn’t do it, and I was going to prove them wrong. But Lauren, listen to me. I was trying to find a way to tell you!”

“I can’t believe you,” I said as tears started to well up in my eyes. My vision was blurry, but if I blinked then the tears would fall. I couldn’t have that yet. I needed to hear what he had to say, I could break down after.

“You should. Yes, it was fake at the start, but I developed real feelings for you! I wanted to date you…that’s why I dragged it out. I wanted to start a real relationship with you.”

“That’s not true! You used me!” I cried, as a tear slipped down my face…the first of many to come. I just hoped that I could hold out a little longer.

“It is true, Lauren. I had to tell you, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have feelings for you. I just couldn’t hold it in any more, I had to tell you, but I love―”

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence!” I cried. “You don’t get to finish that sentence after what you did to me.”

“Lauren, I told the truth―”

“That doesn’t fix things, Kayden! My feelings are real, were real,” I corrected. “They were real the entire time. You abused them for your own gain! I should have known that there was an angle you were playing. There always is with you!” I screamed as I quickly raced out of the hall and into Parker’s awaiting arms. It’s time to leave, I
had
to leave. I begged her to take me home so I wouldn’t change my mind. I couldn’t hear any more of this confession, and then hear him lie to me again when he said he loved me.

“Lauren, come back,” Kayden cried as Parker turned us away from the crowd and led us out the door.

Before we left, I turned to him and made sure I had the final word. “No, I’m not playing this game anymore, Kayden. Thanks, but no thanks,” I said as I pulled open the front entrance door. “I did love you, that’s why I didn’t care that Alexis and Jamie were trying so hard to break us up, but they didn’t even need to try. You do well enough on your own to ruin relationships.” There was nothing stopping me as we left school, and everyone who had been watching us, behind.

“Lauren,” Kayden cried as the door slammed shut behind me.

I couldn’t believe it had ended like this.