Chapter 15
“Since when are you speaking with Violet? Texting her?” Ayden asked during class a week later, noticing Violet signaling to her phone, gesturing for me to check my messages. “Have you been speaking with her often?”
“No,” I said a little too quickly. “No. She just…it’s none of your business.”
I had been texting with Violet. The night after she gave me her number, I needed advice on how to get Hero’s forgiveness. It’s kind of funny to think I was going to the person who wasn’t getting any forgiveness by the people she hurt. Hey, it worked though. Hero ended up forgiving me.
Hero arched an eyebrow. “Show us the texts.”
“She doesn’t have to do that,” Ayden said.
“What?” Hero asked. “You just—”
Ayden stared into my eyes. “I know you’ll do the right thing and stop talking to her.”
Hero folded his arms and leaned back in his seat.
“I know what I’m doing,” I assured the both of them. “I won’t let her manipulate me.”
I pulled my phone out and checked my messages. I turned my phone’s brightness down and clicked on Violet’s message, using my left hand to cover the screen.
The message read: “My birthday’s coming up soon. Will you attend my birthday party?”
Should I really attend the party of a girl who ruined my friend group?
If they found out, they would never forgive me.
They wouldn’t believe she changed. But maybe she could prove them wrong.
I turned around in my seat and glanced at Violet, sitting by herself in a corner, before sending a message that read: “I’ll be there.
Try not to make it obvious to the boys that we’re friends though, please. ”
Friends. I couldn’t believe I was calling her my friend after everything she did. But I did.
“Yeah, I understand” was her response.
I sighed in relief, then put my phone away in my backpack.
There was a group assignment today. It was an assigned pairing—we couldn’t choose our group.
All three of us got separated into different groups.
My group consisted of Reese, Gwendolyn, and Xavier.
Ayden’s group consisted of Imani and Kayden.
Hero’s group consisted of Colin and… Violet.
Since Violet was in a group with Hero, maybe it was an opportunity for her to prove she’s changed.
As I approached my group, I got three different looks.
Reese gave me a smirk—I couldn’t tell if it was a ‘you are hot’ smirk or a ‘I am superior’ smirk.
Gwendolyn gave me a disgusted look. Xavier gave me an intrigued look.
Xavier didn’t seem to fit in with them; he had an innocent face, glasses too big for his face, with dyed purple locs down to his shoulders.
In other words, he’s a nerd. I couldn’t see people like Reese and Gwendolyn being friends with him. Not a true friend, anyway.
I took a chair from the desk in front of theirs and sat down. As everyone settled down into their groups, I noticed there was a lot of tension in Hero’s group. Hero hated the both of them, Colin disliked the both of them, and Violet knew that she was not welcomed by either of them.
“This will take a couple o’ days to complete,” Miss Kennedy explained, handing out a rubric to everyone. “Y’all will, in a group, write a research paper about a topic of y’alls choosing.”
Xavier shuffled through his backpack and pulled out a piece of paper.
“What’s that for?” Gwendolyn asked, tapping the paper.
“For brainstorming ideas,” Xavier responded, pushing up his glasses. He had a quiet, soft voice, which was a nice contrast to Gwendolyn’s bratty voice. Reese and Gwendolyn glared at each other and snickered. Ugh, they were so insufferable. They turned their heads to me at the same time.
“What?” I asked.
“Well, you’re smart, aren’t you?” Gwendolyn asked.
“Uhm, I guess?” I replied.
“Think of an idea, then.” She blew out a bubblegum she had been chewing on. It made a loud sound as it popped.
I rolled my eyes. This was not feeling like a group assignment.
“How about…bullies?” I suggested. It was the first idea that came to mind. Researching about bullies might actually be beneficial for them. Maybe it would help them change for the better.
Xavier let out a small chuckle, but instantly stopped when the two of them shot a glare at him.
“What are you implying, huh?” Reese asked with a cold tone.
“Nothing,” I said calmly. “It’s just an easily researchable topic.”
Reese and Gwendolyn narrowed their eyes, trying to intimidate me. It wasn’t working.
Reese glanced over at Xavier and smacked him upside the head. “Why are you writing that down?”
Xavier dropped his pencil. “S-sorry.”
“Where are your better ideas?” I asked, directing my question at Reese.
Reese sucked his teeth, then scoffed. “Fine, you win.”
“Great, let’s start.”
Opening up my laptop, I began to research. I jotted down important statistics in my notebook.
“This topic is stupid,” Gwendolyn muttered. I glanced up at her but not for long, turning my attention to the other groups, wondering how Hero and Ayden were doing. Hero was hiding his phone under the desk, texting somebody. Ayden seemed to be doing just fine. He was even laughing with them.
“Earth to Peppy.” Reese snapped his fingers.
I shifted my attention back to my own group. “Did you say something?”
Reese smirked as he stared at Ayden’s direction, biting the edge of his pencil. “You see it too, don’t you?”
“What?” I asked.
“Your friend clearly belongs with us,” he whispered, leaning in.
My eyes widened and I glanced over at Ayden again. “No— no, he’s nothing like you guys.” I shook my head.
Reese didn’t say anything back. He just leaned back, and tapped his head with the pencil, gesturing for me to use my brain.
As I continued to jot down my research, his words wouldn’t leave my mind. I slammed my pencil down. “Why do you think that?”
“Think what?”
I crossed my arms. “Do you have a memory of a goldfish?”
Reese exhaled. “You have eyes, don’t you?” He pointed to Ayden, who was still laughing. “Has he ever laughed that hard with you? I seriously don’t know why he would choose someone like you to be his girlfriend.”
“That’s ironic.” I scoffed. He definitely had the memory of a goldfish.
But that’s right… Ayden chose to be my friend. My boyfriend. He’s authentic. That’s the difference between him and them. He didn’t care about his social status.
* * *
As Violet was walking out of the classroom at the end of the school day, I gave her a quick wave, but she quickly looked away. Strange.
“Hey, what did you choose as your topic?” Hero asked, popping up next to me.
Ayden popped up on the other side of me.
“Bullies. My idea,” I snorted.
“That’s bold,” Hero replied. They both bursted into laughter.
As we walked down the hallway, they took turns explaining their group topic.
Hero’s group topic was pollution. Ayden’s group topic was cat behaviors and their meanings.
He learned they all shared an interest in cats, so they spent most of the time sharing their own cat stories with each other.
That explained the laughter. Reese was wrong.
“How was school?” Marina asked as we entered the car. I told her all about the research paper. She occasionally glanced in the rear-view mirror and nodded. In my peripheral vision, I noticed Hero staring. Afterwards, the ride home was quiet, so I reached into my backpack to check my phone.
But my phone wasn’t there.
I frantically searched through my backpack, unzipping every section, but I couldn’t find it anywhere.
“What are you looking for, dear?” Marina asked.
“I can’t find my phone.”
“Do you think you left it in the classroom? I can turn back around,” she suggested.
“Can I try to search for it?” Hero asked before I could respond.
“I already—” I paused, then handed my backpack over. “Knock yourself out.”
I stared out the window, admiring the houses we passed by.
“I found it!”
I jerked my head around to see Hero pulling out my phone from my backpack. He handed it to me with a grin. “You’re such a klutz.”
“Where was it?” I asked suspiciously.
“The— the bottom,” he said, looking at the backpack.
Was he lying to me? I checked my messages from Violet—there was a new message.
“Sorry, Pepper. I can’t talk with you anymore,” it read.
I glanced up from my phone. Hero. I knew this was his doing.
“You took my phone, didn’t you?” I accused.
He shook his head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“That was my phone, wasn’t it?” I gasped. “In the classroom. You were on my phone.”
“Pepper—”
“What did you text Violet?” I asked harshly.
“She’s bad news. I did it for y—”
“You don’t get to decide who I’m friends with!” I yelled. “What did you say to her?!”
“Hey!” Marina shouted, looking at us through the rear-view mirror. “Stop fighting. We will discuss this as a family when we get home.”
A family. She considered me family.
For the rest of the car ride, I tried texting Violet but none of the texts went through.
I was blocked. As we pulled into the driveway, Hero couldn’t wait to get out the car.
He opened the door while the car was still moving, taking his backpack with him, then slamming the door shut as he got out. He swiftly walked into the house.
When the car came to a complete stop, I slowly opened the car door, swinging my backpack over one shoulder before gently closing the door behind me. Marina got out shortly after, walking closely behind me.
Walking into the house, I noticed Hero sitting on one end of the three-seated sofa in the living room, with crossed arms. I sat at the other end of the sofa, leaving an empty space between us.
Instead of sitting in the empty spot, Marina pulled a chair from the dining room and sat across from us.
“Hero Castell, did you take Pepper’s phone?” she asked sharply.
“I just wanted to see what Violet texted,” he muttered.
“Violet…” she repeated, trying to recall where she had heard the name before. “Your ex?”
Hero nodded. “She’s manipulative and trying to get into Pepper’s life again.” He turned to look at me. “I didn’t want you to fall for it.”
He stared deeply into my eyes, and I stared back. I broke the stare, turning to face the wall. “She changed,” I insisted. “And that doesn’t give you the right to take my phone and check my texts.”
“People don’t change.”
“You did.”
I turned back around, regretting my words.
Hero had softened his eyes for a moment before hardening them again, getting up from the sofa.
He opened his mouth to speak, but he couldn’t seem to get the words out.
His mother tried to get him to sit back down but he stormed upstairs, and seconds later his bedroom door was slammed shut.
Marina sighed. “I’m sorry about him. Things have been rough.”
“It’s fine.”
It wasn’t fine. It was far from fine. This wasn’t the Hero I knew. What changed?