The Battle of the Bands ✓

The Battle of the Bands | 20

When I walked into school on Monday morning, I wasn't sure what I'd been anticipating, but it wasn't what happened. All heads turned to look at me as I walked into the hallway and people were whispering about me.

I could only catch snippets of what they were saying.

"—she slept with her ex."

"She has a boyfriend and cheated—"

"I heard she puked while she went down on him."

"What a slut."

I felt a lump in my throat growing and my face heated up, and I rushed to find Kenzie so she could tell me what the hell was going on. But before I could find her, I ran into someone's chest as I wasn't paying attention to where I was going.

My gaze lifted from the ground and was met with vacant brown eyes, Carter Jacobs' eyes.

"We need to talk," he stated simply, his voice void of emotion. I nodded my head, not trusting my own voice as he dragged me away into an empty classroom.

"What- what the hell happened?" I choked out, staring into his eyes as if they held all the answers.

"I didn't wanna freak you out at the time," he started, closing his eyes for a moment, "but someone came in on us while we were, y'know," he said, staring at me wearily.

"You didn't think that was important to mention?" I raised my eyebrows, my voice rising, "What the fuck happened, Carter?"

"Well, I guess it'd be better to show you than tell you," he mumbled, pulling his phone out and tapping on a picture. My heart raced as the picture slowly loaded, and my stomach dropped when I finally saw what it was.

It was a picture of me naked as I was riding Carter, the picture having been photoshopped so that it looked as if I had a sticky white substance in my hair, with the caption, 'Kumwad Kylie in a sticky situation'.

Hot tears pricked at my eyes and my face visibly paled, my voice unable to form words. The lump in my throat grew to the size of a bowling ball, and the tears in my eyes threatened to fall.

I felt a strong pair of arms wrap around me and I closed my eyes, uncaring of who it was. The tears finally rolled down my cheeks and I realized how much my life was truly going to crumble.

How in the hell would I ever get past something like this? And what would colleges think, or my parents? Or, hell, what would my friends think?

"Shh, we're right here," Jack's soothing voice sang as we rocked back in forth. I attempted to calm my breathing as my heart beat against my rib cage, my throat choking on a sob.

My hands trembled and I felt someone entwine my fingers with their own, my eyes briefly opening to see Kenzie, who held a sorrowful look. I wasn't sure how long we stood like that, but I heard the bell ring and none of us made any moves to leave.

When I'd finally calmed down enough to talk, I pulled away from Jack and took a deep breath.

"Who did it?" I whispered, my gaze drifting off to nothing in particular. Everyone was silent, and I finally snapped my eyes towards the people standing before me.

"Who the fuck did it?" I yelled, my voice wavering slightly.

"Some freshman girl is what I heard," Nick finally spoke, his hands shoved in his pockets, "Everyone's saying she did it because she wanted to fit in with the popular senior girls."

I felt my temper rising by the second, and I suddenly wanted to punch this girl's face in.

"I'm gonna kill her," I muttered to myself, my fists clenching in anticipation.

"Hey hey, you've gotta calm down, Kylie. You're not thinking rationally," Kenzie said gently, reaching out to touch my wrist. I quickly jerked out of her grasp, making a run for the door.

A pair of arms wrapped around my waist and pulled me back and the tanned skin told me that it was Carter.

"I'm gonna fucking kill her!" I screamed, hurting my own voice.

"Quiet down before a teacher hears you," Jack spoke softly, "We'll figure this out."

"Like hell, we will. I'm gonna beat her fucking ass!" My blood boiled at the thought of someone doing this just for popularity. How pathetic must you be to do something so petty?

"C'mon, let's just hurry to class. If you show them you don't care then they can't hold it over you, can they?" Kenzie pointed out, her arms crossing.

I let out a breathy sigh and Carter released me. I clenched and unclenched my fists until I was sure that I wouldn't throat punch someone, then I leaned against the wall.

"My mom's gonna kill me," I laughed bitterly, "My mom's gonna fucking kill me."

"C'mon, Kylie. I've met your mom, she won't be that mad about it." Kenzie smiled softly, and I realized how truly lucky I was to have friends like these at this moment.

"Thanks, guys. Honestly, I mean it," I stated, shaking my head slightly, "We should go back to class, I guess. My attendance sucks as it is, it can't really take any more of this."

While leaving the classroom, I suddenly thought back to the party at Trevor's when that girl had flashed her boobs to the camera, and how I'd made fun of her for it. Now, I was almost in her shoes, and I could see how much it royally fucking sucked.

I took a deep breath when I finally stood in front of my World History class, reluctantly knocking on the door. My teacher opened the door and gave me a knowing look, saying nothing.

Sadly, my seat was at the back of the room, which meant I'd have to walk by literally everyone in class.

"Hoe," someone coughed, causing the class to erupt in laughter. I gritted my teeth and forced a smile, sitting in my seat, and setting my book on my desk. Heads kept turning to look at me and I was on edge for the entire hour, and by the time lunch finally rolled around, I felt like I could snap someone's neck.

As I walked into the cafeteria, the last thing on my mind was eating, but I forced myself to get a tray, knowing that anorexia wouldn't solve any of my problems.

I sat down at the table and everyone was walking on eggshells around me, and I finally reached my breaking point.

"Would you guys quick acting so fucking weird?" I finally snapped, causing the twins and Kenzie to all three turn their heads toward me. "Carter and I fucked, the picture got leaked, and the whole school's labeling me as a slut. Big deal, I'll get over it. But blatantly ignoring the subject isn't gonna solve anything. So quit acting so weird around me and just talk like you normally would."

We sat in awkward silence for a moment and I sighed, running a hand through my hair.

"I'm sorry, that wasn't meant for you guys. You haven't done anything wrong, I just—"

"Hey, it's okay," Kenzie smiled, placing her hand on mine, "We get it, you've had a shitty day and you're ready to pimp slap someone into next week, but we're here for you. Right guys?"

The twins both nodded their heads in agreement, and I briefly closed my eyes, letting out a sigh of relief. I interlocked my fingers with Kenzie's and smiled slightly, realizing just how lucky I was to have friends like these.

"Thanks, guys," I sighed, shaking my head slightly, "I honestly don't know what I'd do without y'all."