Chapter 149 Second time

Chapter 149 Second time
Skylar's POV

"Cheater!"

The word hit me before I even turned the corner.
I rounded into the hallway and found a crowd already gathered near the lockers.

Elias stood there, backed against the lockers, his bag still slung over one shoulder like he hadn't even had the chance to put it down before it started.
"Everyone knows how he really got that grade," someone said, one of the cheerleaders, standing at the front of the crowd with her arms crossed, clearly enjoying the attention this was earning her. "My cousin's in that class. Nobody jumps from a C to a ninety-eight overnight. Not without help."

"Maybe he's just smart," Elias said, his voice tight, trying and failing to keep it light.
"Smart people don't need to cheat," someone else called out, and the crowd laughed again.
"I didn't cheat." He shook his head, his composure cracking. "I studied, that's it. I actually studied."

"Sure you did."

I pushed through the crowd, shouldering past two guys filming the whole thing on their phones. "What is going on here?"
The cheerleader in front, Maddie, I thought her name was, glanced at me and smirked. "Oh, perfect timing. Ask your boyfriend."
"Ask him what?"
"About his sudden genius phase." She raised an eyebrow. "Word is he's been getting help. A lot of help."

"That's not true." I looked between her and Elias, my stomach twisting. "Who told you that?"
"Everyone's saying it." She shrugged, like the source didn't matter as much as the fact that enough people were repeating it. "It's not exactly a secret anymore."

I grabbed Elias's arm, pulling him away from the crowd before this could go any further, ignoring the whispers following us down the hallway, someone calling something after us that I refused to let myself hear clearly.
I didn't stop until we'd rounded the corner into the quieter stairwell, the noise from the hallway fading behind us.

"Skylar." Elias whispered.
I looked at him properly and I saw how badly this had actually shaken him, his hands trembling faintly at his sides. "I swear to you, I didn't cheat. I don't even know where this came from. I studied for that test for two weeks, I barely slept, I know I'm bad at maths but I…."

"I believe you." I said it immediately, without hesitation, watching his shoulders ease slightly at that.
"You do?"
"Of course I do." I held his gaze steadily. "I know you, Elias. You wouldn't do that."
He let out a breath, some of the tension draining from his face, and gave a small, disbelieving laugh. "This is the second time you've had to pull me out of some public mess."

"Guess it's becoming a pattern."
"Guess so." He managed a faint smile, though it didn't quite reach his eyes yet, the fear still sat there underneath it.
I opened my mouth to say something else, some reassurance, when it clicked.

This had Ryan written all over it. I didn't need proof, I just knew.
Every guy I'd ever shown real interest in ended up with something going wrong around them, some accident, some sudden falling-out, some reason it never worked out. I'd spent years telling myself it was bad luck or coincidence, anything other than the obvious answer sitting right in front of me.

"Skylar?" Elias frowned, noticing my expression change.
"I need to go check something." I squeezed his arm once. "I'll find you after, okay? Don't listen to any of them. None of this is true, and everyone's going to know that soon enough."
I left him there before he could ask anything else, my pulse climbing with every step back toward the main hallway, scanning the crowd until I spotted him.

Ryan stood near the far end of the corridor, leaning against the lockers, two girls hovering close, laughing at something he'd said, completely unbothered by the chaos he'd apparently set in motion.
He saw me coming before I said a single word. "Give us a minute," he said to the girls, not even glancing at them, his eyes locked on me.

They peeled away, glancing back once, and then it was just the two of us.
"Sky." He straightened slightly off the lockers. His calm expression made my hands curl into fists at my sides.
"You look upset." He said.
"You did this." I stopped a few feet from him. "You started that rumor about Elias."

He didn't flinch. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said, though the faint curve at the corner of his mouth said otherwise.
"Don't." I stepped closer, my whole body tight with fury. "Don't stand there and lie to my face. You said something to those girls, and now the entire school thinks Elias cheated on a test, and you knew exactly what would happen the second the words left your mouth."

Satisfaction settled into his expression, like my anger was exactly the reaction he'd been hoping for.
"You need to stop." My voice shook, but I held his gaze anyway, refusing to let it waver. "This ends right now, Ryan. I mean it."
"Stop what, exactly?" He tilted his head, his usual maddening calm still sitting over his expression. "I haven't done anything."

"You know exactly what I'm talking about, Ryan, so cut it out." I stepped closer, my hands curling tighter at my sides. "I don't get it. I don't say a single word when you're off flirting with half the girls in this school. I don't follow you around, I don't ruin things for you, I don't insert myself into your life every time you try to be with someone. So why can't you just extend me the same courtesy?"

"Why do you always have to make yourself part of my business?" I kept going, the words spilling out faster now, years of frustration finally finding somewhere to land. "I'm not a little girl anymore, Ryan. I don't need you deciding who's good enough for me, who I'm allowed to spend time with, what's safe and what isn't. That's not your call. It never was."

"Isn't it?" He said quietly.
"No." I said it firmly. "It's really not. So stay out of it, stay away from Elias, stop whatever this is, and let me actually live my life without you interfering in it every single time I get close to someone."
"You really think this is about him," he said finally.
"What else would it be about?" My brows furrowed.

"You looked happy at that fair." He suddenly said, "Really happy. Stuck on that stupid ride, laughing about something."
I stared at him. How did he know about the fair? I didn't even tell Mom.
"How do you know what I looked like on the Ferris wheel," I said slowly.

"Oh my god." I gasped when he remained quiet. "You're actually stalking me now." I scoffed
He didn't deny it, proving me right.
He picked his bag up off the floor, slinging it over one shoulder. "Get to class, Sky," he said. "You're going to be late."

I watched him walk away, my hands still shaking at my sides. He's going to try stop me from going to the dance with Elias. I know it.
"Stay away from homecoming," I called after him. "Stay away from us."
He stopped, but didn't turn around. "I wouldn't miss it," he said, "for anything."

He turned and walked off before I could respond, and I stood there in the empty hallway, that one sentence sitting heavy in my chest, wondering exactly what he meant by it.