Chapter 16 Boys fight
Cecilia
The principal’s office was the one place I hated more than the school’s field.
There was just something deeply humiliating about sitting in those stiff chairs while he stared at you like you were a public disappointment.
Especially when the reason involved fighting a girl outside a bathroom while half the school recorded it.
Rachel sat two chairs away from me with her arms crossed tightly over her chest. Alex leaned against the wall near the door looking bored out of his mind.
And Principal Watkins looked seconds away from developing high blood pressure. He sighed heavily while pinching the bridge of his nose.
“So,” he said slowly. “Would anyone like to explain why there is currently a video circulating around my school of two students physically attacking each other?”
Rachel pointed at me immediately. “She assaulted me.
“Oh my God,” I muttered. The audacity of this bitch.
“You tackled me to the floor!” Rachel countered.
“That’s because you pulled my hair first!” I scoffed.
“Because you insulted me!”
“You deserved it!”
“Ladies,” Watkins interrupted sharply.
We both fell silent. I clenched my fist tightly. I didn’t want to keep exchanging words with her, but her face and her voice were too annoying for me to be quiet.
His tired gaze shifted toward Alex.
“And you.” He frowned. “Care to explain what happened, Gomez?”
Alex shrugged lazily. “I don’t know. I wasn’t the one fighting, Principal Watkins. Why am I even here?”
He turned the screen towards him. “Because, young man, you were actively involved In the brawl.”
“I was separating them.”
Watkins looked unconvinced.“The video shows you carrying Miss Evans away.”
Alex glanced at me briefly before replying casually. “She was trying to commit murder.
”
“I was not.” I hissed.
He kissed his teeth. “You punched her.”
“She deserved it.”
Rachel gasped dramatically.
Watkins sighed again like he deeply regretted becoming calling us in here.
“Can someone please explain what the actual conflict was about?”
Nobody said anything and I didn’t blame them. I mean, how exactly were we supposed to explain this?
Rachel was jealous because Alex danced with me. Which only happened because I lost ping pong, which only happened because I got drunk. Which only happened because Alex blackmailed me into agreeing to our tutoring sessions, which happened because Watkins brought the suggestion.
Watkins looked between us expectantly. “Well?”
Rachel straightened slightly. “She was flirting with my boyfriend.”
Alex immediately spoke. “I’m not her boyfriend.”
Rachel looked offended instantly. “That’s not the point.”
“It literally is.” I snapped.
I rubbed my forehead tiredly. “This is so stupid.”
Watkins narrowed his eyes at me. “Miss Evans, watch your tone.”
“Sorry.” I wasn’t sorry, but then, we had to leave it at that.
The principal leaned back in his chair with another exhausted sigh.
“Since none of you seem interested in acting like mature young adults, all three of you will serve detention after school.”
Rachel gasped like he had just sentenced her to prison. “What?”
“You heard me.”
“But I have plans.” Rachel whined.
“And now you have detention.”
I bit the inside of my cheek to stop myself from laughing.
Watkins looked down at some papers on his desk. “You’ll be cleaning the old classrooms in the west wing.”
My smile disappeared immediately.
Absolutely not!
Those classrooms had been locked up for years because of renovation issues. Meaning…I shook my head rapidly. Dust! A horrifying amount of dust.
Rachel looked equally horrified. “My manicure…”
“I don’t care about your manicure, Miss Harper.” the principal snapped.
Alex looked weirdly amused by the entire situation which irritated me deeply.
Watkins stood up from his chair. “There will also be one more student joining you.”
I frowned slightly, wondering who else got detention with us.
Turns out that I didn’t have to think too much as the answer came ten minutes later.
And unfortunately, It was Justin.
I instantly stiffened when Watkins led him toward the dusty hallway after school. Justin looked annoyed more than ashamed, his backpack hanging loosely off one shoulder.
Watkins stopped in front of the old classrooms and gestured dramatically. “Here you are.”
The hallway smelled like dust and old books. Several cleaning supplies sat near the wall waiting for us. Rachel looked like she might cry.
Watkins turned toward Justin sharply. “And as for you, Mr Carter, leaking videos online while referring to another student as..” he checked the paper in his hand with visible irritation and cleared his throat, “a ‘crazy bitch’ is unacceptable.”
Justin rolled his eyes slightly.“I was joking.”
“You’ll joke while cleaning desks then.”
I stared at Justin in disbelief. He was the one who leaked the video?
Watkins pointed toward the classroom doors. “You will clean every room before leaving. Understood?”
A chorus of reluctant agreement followed and then the principal left.
The second he disappeared around the corner, Rachel groaned dramatically. “This place is disgusting.”
“You’ll survive,” Alex muttered.
Rachel glared at the dusty rag in her hand. “There’s literally dirt everywhere.”
“That’s usually how cleaning works,” I replied dryly.
She narrowed her eyes at me immediately. “This is your fault.”
I blinked slowly. “My fault?”
“Yes. If you weren’t getting all cozy with my man at the party…”
“He is not your ‘man’,” Alex interrupted sharply.
Rachel ignored him completely.
I stared at her in genuine disbelief. She was utterly and completely pathetic. How was someone this delusional functioning daily?
“You need psychological evaluation,” I informed her honestly.
Rachel gasped loudly. “Oh, so now I’m crazy?”
“You need to be cured of your delusions.”
“You danced with him all night!”
“Because I lost a game!”
“And you were all over him!”
I scoffed incredulously. “Rachel, Alex barely tolerates your existence. That’s honestly pathetic and if I were you, I’d probably want to leave the face of this earth.”
Alex choked slightly beside me. He was definitely enjoying this and acting like we weren't arguing about him when he's literally right there.
Rachel’s face darkened instantly. “At least I’m not throwing myself at every guy who gives me attention.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out and I closed it. Then I opened it again and before I could respond, Justin laughed from where he leaned against the wall.
I turned toward him sharply. “You leaked that video?”
Justin shrugged casually. “You looked funny fighting.”
My anger flared up immediately. “Why the hell would you even do that? Haven’t you humiliated me enough?”
“Oh please.” He scoffed. “You embarrassed me first.”
I stared at him in disbelief. “Embarrassed you?”
“At the parking lot,” he snapped. “You made it seem like I was a loser or some villian.”
I chuckled with disbelief. “You cheated on me.”
“You didn’t have to make a scene.” he scoffed.
I blinked slowly. Wow.
The audacity was genuinely impressive. Perhaps, audacity was on sale these days.
“So let me get this straight,” I said with a sigh. “You cheated on me while I was in the hospital, humiliated me by parading your bitch around, then got upset when I called you out on your bullshit?”
Justin rolled his eyes.“You’re so dramatic.”
Rachel nodded in agreement immediately. “Honestly.”
I looked between the two of them and then at Alex. “Am I in hell?”
Alex snorted quietly.
Justin pushed himself off the wall. “You’ve been acting insane since you came back. Perhaps, the illness affected something in your brain too.”
The feeling that suddenly overcame me was bad. I clenched my fist tighter, keeping my voice low. “Don’t.”
“No seriously.” He laughed humorlessly. “Everybody’s thinking about it. I'm just saying it out loud. You disappeared for months then suddenly came back acting like the world revolves around you.”
I clenched my jaw tightly. Alex straightened beside me slightly and Justin kept running his mouth.
“And throwing yourself at Gomez at parties isn’t helping.”
I froze. “What?”
He scoffed. “You heard me.”
My chest tightened painfully. “Excuse me?”
“You were practically acting like a pathetic whore and almost begging him to fuck you. And you call me the cheat? Everyone knows that's how you get by, Cecilia. By whoring yourself like the pathetic slut you are.”
It felt as though the world had come to a standstill. Even Rachel looked shocked.
What happened next surprised everyone, including me.
One moment, Justin was still talking about how I was so desperate for attention, and in the next, Alex was punching him directly in the face.
Justin stumbled backward instantly with a curse while Rachel screamed.
“You don’t get to call her that,” Alex looked like he was genuinly going to murder someone.