Nine
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"Okay, now spill!"

It was later after school that same day, and Audrey and I were lounging on my bed. She had refrained from bringing up the photo booth incident all through dinner—most likely because we were eating with the rest of my family—but it appeared she couldn't wait any longer.

I groaned and stuffed a handful of gummy bears in my mouth. This could buy me another two minutes of stalling.

Audrey sighed and popped a few in her mouth while she waited for me to finish, turning her attention to the tv that was on the wall across from my bed.

When I finally swallowed she jerked her head back in my direction. She grabbed that damned photo-strip off of my dresser, but I ignored her for another minute before I felt her burning holes in the side of my head.

I sighed and started explaining in detail all that had happened which, compared to what she was thinking, was really nothing.

Her excited face dropped down into one of disappointment. "Are you sure nothing...else happened between you guys? I mean, look at this one, he's kissing your cheek! Those soft, sexy lips were on your cheek!"

"Yes, I'm sure, Audrey...and that wasn't romantic, he just did that out of nowhere because he knew it would piss me off."

She sighed. "You should stop ruining it! I mean, he obviously wants you. You could get into bed with that."

I gasped. "Audrey! I'm not that easy, thank you very much! And tons of girls have gotten into bed with 'that'. I'm not about to be used like all of them were."

She smiled. "That's why he likes you, Lauren. You're not like the rest." She said the second part extra dramatically, making me both laugh and roll my eyes.

"He doesn't 'like' me, you delusional freak, he just wants an easy shag."

She raised an eyebrow. "Shag? What are you, British now?"

"No, but one of my best friends, Charlie was. I guess some of his vocabulary rubbed off on me."

"Are you sure that's not the only thing of his that rubbed off on you?"

My eyes widened and I threw my pillow at her. "We were just friends, you sicko!"

She started laughing so hard she couldn't breathe and, as much as I tried to look mad at her, I couldn't help but laugh with her.

She finally recovered and looked at me somewhat slyly. "While we're on the subject, you never told me how cute your brother is. Now I'm disappointed I hadn't met him until today."

I sat up straighter. "First of all, what subject?" I asked with alarm.

"Yeah," she sighed dreamily. "I first ran into him when I went downstairs for a drink earlier and he was unloading dinner with your dad. Totally my type."

"What the fuck?" I asked, too stunned to hide the horror creeping into my voice.

Her expression broke and she collapsed into another fit of laughter. "I'm totally messing with you! Consider it payback for not telling me about the pictures with Tyler until you were forced."

I sighed in relief. "Oh, okay."

"He is cute though."

I gave her a pointed look before we both started laughing again.

After finishing up all our sweets and watching a few movies, Audrey headed home due to the fact that it was still a school night.

...

The next morning I actually woke up in a good mood, and managed to take a shower shorter than 25 minutes.

Trent had one of his friends picking him up, so mom and I left while he was still in front of the tv, eating cereal.

When I got to school, things got weird. Some people were ignoring me, business as usual, but a few others weren't even trying to hide the fact that they were blatantly staring at me. What was even more shocking were the glares I received from multiple girls.

Maybe I had something on my clothes? I looked down. Nope, still just my purple top, blue skinny jeans and black converse.

Why the hell was everyone acting mental today?

We still had a good ten minutes before classes started, so I was leaning against my locker, in the crowded hallway.

Some random girl with piercing black eyes approached me, glancing back and forth from her phone screen to my face. Resting her manicured hand on her hip, she sneered at me. "You're such a slut, you know that? Nobody likes you." She then shook her head in disgust and walked away.

Still shocked and confused from what she said, I was frozen. Then, after processing her words, I yelled back at her, "What the hell are you talking about?"

I got no answer, she just kept walking, the black curls of her hair bouncing on her shoulders as she moved further and further away from me.

After the bell rang and I was walking to English, random guys I had never associated with were motioning with their thumb and pinky up to their ears, the universal sign for "call me".

I had no idea why this was happening but the feeling of dread was settling deep in my stomach.

Girls were giving me classic bitch glares or condescending shakes of their heads. Great, I'm a slut magnet.

I got to English and settled into my chair, immediately turning around to face Audrey.

She had shock and pity in her eyes, and I was almost afraid to ask, but I had to. "Can you please tell me what the hell is going on?"

She pulled out her iPhone and loaded up her Facebook, oddly enough. My heart started pounding with dread as she went to a specific persons page.

Tyler Morris.

Scrolling down, after a few posts, was a picture of our photo-strip from the movies. My blood boiled when I saw the caption was, "The newest babe I got with on Friday night ;)".

Looking it over one more time, I gasped as I read that it already had 238 likes and 97 comments. There were even a few shares.

Carly, who was also in this class and seated next to Audrey, laughed with something akin to gleeful anticipation in her eyes. "Ooh shits about to go down!"

My hands turned into clenched fists as I realized what he did. I was boiling with fury. He was so dead.

...

By the time the bell rang at the end of third period, I was ready to beat everyone's head in with a shovel. Gathering my stuff, I tore from the room, heading to my locker.

It was time for lunch. Joy. I was coming back from my locker, heading to the cafeteria when someone called my name.

I turned and looked. It was some really tall, well built guy with auburn hair. "Hey, babe, you free tonight? We should hook up, you know, if you're really giving it out for free."

I glared at him, my heart racing. "Fuck off." I spat the words with as much venom I could muster before spinning around and walking into the cafeteria.

It had been about five minutes, and I had just about had it with everyone's glares and snickering.

"I'll be right back," I said to my friends, standing up. I heard them call out in protest but I ignored it, feeling many eyes on me as I stalked across the cafeteria.

I made my way over to the devil himself, and yanked him up out of his seat. Had he been expecting it, there was no way he would've budged because he was way bigger than me. But now he was standing up, looking down at my furious face, before realization dawned on him and he started laughing.

A good portion of the cafeteria had gone silent watching me and now I turned and faced the nearby tables. "Listen up." I roughly poked Tyler in the bicep. "There is no way in hell that this asshole and I ever 'got together'. He is a prick that started that rumor, so I would really appreciate it if you could all piss off."

I was afraid he would say something back to embarrass me, but then I noticed Trent was also standing up, glaring at Tyler.

"Tell them, man. That's my sister you're messing with," Trent stated, making me feel nothing but love towards him for the moment.

Tyler sighed and ran a hand through his hair, looking half apologetic. "It's true, it was just a rumor. We haven't had sex...yet."

I gaped at him. Did he really just say that?

I shot my brother a grateful glance, before flipping Tyler off and walking away. I was grateful it only took the cafeteria approximately 0.5 seconds to resume conversation all around.

I didn't walk back to my lunch table. No way in hell was I staying here another second, so I walked out the main doors and left.

Already walking down the sidewalk, a little tear was threatening to slip from my eye when my phone started buzzing in my front pocket.

Sighing, I wiped the tear away and answered my phone, noticing it was Trent.

"Trent, I'm fine."

"Where are you?"

"Not at that damn school, that's for sure."

"Where?"

I sighed. "I'm going home, Trent, thanks for... having my back in there."

"Sure. Do you need me to come with you or whatever?"

"I'll be fine, okay? Talk to you later." Before he could respond, I hung up.

The tears were silently streaming down my face now. I couldn't believe he said I had sex with him. I've had sex one time, and it was a huge mistake. He had screwed me and screwed me over, dumping me the next day.

I knew what I wanted to do. I pulled my phone back out, and dialed the number I had memorized by heart.

"Lauren?"

"Charlie."

Hearing the anguish in my voice, he went from happy to concerned. "What's wrong, babe?"

A strangled noise came out of my mouth, and I burst into tears. I probably looked like a wreck, thank god no one was around as I walked through the neighborhoods towards my house.

After a minute, I told him everything. From the first day I met Tyler to now.

Instead of telling me what an asshole Tyler was, he completely surprised me. "I don't know, babe, you should give him a chance. maybe he did it for a reason."

Give him a chance?! "What the hell, Charlie? What makes you say that from anything I just told you?"

"Come on, Laur, you know when Kayla and I first met, she was a total bitch. Now look at us."

He was right. Mine and Alyssa's best friend, Kayla, had immediately hated Charlie when they first met, but it was only because she secretly liked him. They had been together for almost two years now.

"I don't think the same situation really applies here, but whatever," I grumbled.

He laughed. I sighed at the sound. "I miss you Char."

"I know, babe, i'll call you soon."

"Okay," I whispered, hanging up with a frown.

It took me a while, but I finally reached my house. I ran inside and upstairs. After pulling my hair into a messy bun, changing into sweatpants and one of my brothers shirts and washing off my tear streaked face, all I wanted to do was sleep.

But, no, God hates me. That's what I was thinking when I heard the doorbell ring and I trudged down the stairs. I was the only one home so I had to answer it.

I wrenched the door open to see deep brown eyes staring down at me.

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Muahahaha. See that was longer, right?