Gabriella Hart
My hand began to sting from slapping James round the face. I couldn't concentrate on anything when tears were surrounding my eyes. I jumped into the car and drove at least five hundred metres away from his house before I stopped and pulled up.
Tears suddenly came streaming down my face; I never normally cry in front of people and that's why when I do cry, it's away from a lot of people.
Resting my head and hands on the steering wheel, I evaluated what had happened. I had kissed Caleb and James had been angry with me, yet he knew all this time that he had done something ten times worse.
My phone was going off every few seconds as James was constantly trying to text and ring me.
Pulling myself together, I drove back to Caleb's hoping that he would be there. I just needed him right now. I pulled my car up onto the drive and stared up at the monstrosity of a house I was staying in; I should count myself lucky, I would've had to stay with James otherwise.
I didn't know whether to blame James cheating on the fact that everything happened with my mom and dad or the fact that I had to stay with Caleb. Would James have cheated anyway?
The door slammed as I walked in with my eyes almost bursting from redness and soreness. My eyes and head hurt and I knew that James and I were officially over. I couldn't be with someone who I once trusted so much, yet hurt me more than anyone ever could.
Every time I repeated what had happened in my mind, my heart broke once again, breaking into smaller pieces each time. "Hey, Gabby I was wondering if-," Caleb stumbled into the room; oblivious to my emotion until he noticed the redness in my eyes and the way I was attempting to hold myself together.
"Are you okay?" He ran over to me, pulling me into a tight hug. Feeling his warmth felt like tiny butterflies surrounding my body. In this moment, I wanted to kiss him but I knew it would be wrong and it would feel too much like revenge, no matter how desperate I was to get it.
"James-" I was struggling to get the words out as I attempted to say the words I had been attempting to say in my head for the longest time. "He cheated on me.' The words stabbed my body again as he suddenly pulled me into his embrace.
Without even thinking, I pulled away from his arms and stared deep into his eyes. I knew that I only wanted one thing at this moment. Therefore, forgetting about everything else in my mind, I forcefully pressed my lips to his.
Our lips were in sync together, and I had never felt safer than where I was right now. We stumbled up to his room and to his bed. I wasn't quite sure what I was doing as I felt the soft comfort of his sheets underneath my back.
Our lips continued to move together and my hands were wrapped up in his hair when he pulled away and hovered over me. "We can't do this." Caleb said to me from his upward position. My arms were slowly retracting from his neck as he looked down at me with guilt in his eyes.
I knew we couldn't do this and I knew it was just a way for me to gain revenge on James, but I felt annoyed at Caleb for some reason. The anger that I felt for James was still built up inside me and was coming out to Caleb.
I stormed out, pulling my top back down in the process as it had slipped up during the midst of our make out session. Once again, tears rolled down my cheeks. Boys really weren't worth the tears I seemed to shed a lot.
Seeing as the rest of the people in the house were at the science fair, I avoided Caleb for the rest of the night - even though he didn't attempt to bother me - and went to bed. I didn't attempt to eat because I didn't think I could stomach anything with the lump that stayed within my throat.
• • •
After almost falling out of bed, I tapped the turn off button on my phone alarm and mentally groaned that I would have to actually get up for school.
The fact that I would also have to face three people that had slowly ruined my life in the past few weeks, was also making me want to fall back into bed and sleep for a lifetime.
I pushed myself up and stepped into the bathroom and into the shower, locking the door behind me.
I couldn't help but think that I would be completely alone today. It's not like I really had an abundance of friends without a knife stabbed into my back. I had practically destroyed the friendships I had, or they had destroyed it themselves.
As I climbed out of the shower, I changed into a loose, white top and some black shorts as the weather today was unbelievably beautiful.
"I'm going walk to school today because I've got loads of homework to do at the library," I mentioned to Katherine when I walked downstairs to see her making breakfast. I'd intentionally gotten ready twenty minutes before Caleb had woken up, not because I had homework but because I didn't want to see him.
"Ok, you sure you want to walk? I can drive you if you want." Whilst grabbing some fruit, I insisted that I walked to gain some fresh air before smiling and leaving the house to walk to school.
The hot wind was heavy on my shoulders as I walked alone down the long street towards the school.
To make matters worse, today was also the annual football game against our biggest rival high school, so classes were cut short and we got half the day to watch the game. Which I was now not too pleased about because I was meant to go with Flora.
When I arrived at school, there were the odd one or two people who swarmed around, probably doing the same and going to the library to catch up on some last minute homework. Although, that wasn't exactly the reason I was here.
I sat down on a small bench in the middle of the school with my knees up to my chest and checked through several apps on my phone, not really doing anything too productive.
My life was going to be extremely sad today. I sat for about a half hour before nearly hundreds of students were now around the halls, dressed in our school colours and with colours painted all over their faces. A few familiar faces crossed by me but not Flora, James or Caleb yet.
My first period, unfortunately was chemistry with Flora and Caleb who sat right beside me.
I ran in just before the bell, as Flora and Caleb would never get there this early. I sat at one of the front seats, completely ignoring the seating plan. The bell finally rang and everyone crammed into the classroom.
As soon as I saw Flora, my hands automatically clenched and I felt an urge to get up and lunge at her for what she had done to me and my relationship with James. Although, he was also at fault.
Flora gave me a questioning and puzzled look to which I replied with a scowl then faced back to the front. Mr Davies walked in after and looked at me strangely, realising that I was sitting in a completely different seat to my usual one.
As I was one of his favourite students and he was a young, friendly teacher, I gave him a pleading look to which he nodded, pretending to know what was going on, then carried on to teach the class.
• • •
The bell rang for second period and luckily; I had a free period to sit at my fun bench again. Unluckily, Flora had a free period too, and we would usually go to the library together and study, or sit outside and talk for the full hour.
Running out of the room, I tried to avoid Flora by running into the girls' bathroom and pretend to re-apply my make up, despite only wearing little concealer and mascara.
The door suddenly slammed open and Flora strutted in with a once again, questioning look on her face. Was she really too stupid to understand why I was angry and upset?
"Hey Gabby, what's up with you today? You're being weird," she asked, oblivious to my anger building up. If it were visual, smoke would currently be steaming from my nose and ears. "Are you really that stupid?" I shouted back at her with my arms crossed.
The anger was really building up inside me and I was ready to burst.
Still with the same plain and questioning look, she waited for me to give her a reason.
"You cheating, lying whore." I shouted maliciously, but feeling better that I had gotten it out. She swallowed back a lump in her throat and began to walk towards me with realisation plastered across her face. "I am truly sorry Gab-," as she tried to finish, my hand swung forward and punched her straight in the face.
Never have I ever thought that I would punch my best friend, and never would I have ever realised how much it physically hurt to punch my, now ex best friend.
Blood gushed from her nose as I turned and sprinted out of the bathroom and into the now empty hallway and out into the school parking lot. My day was going worse than I had expected, and my expectations were already pretty low.