Betting on You

17

s e v e n t e e n

"Cute shirt."

My head snapped up at the voice and my posture straightened at the sight of Stephanie. Her once flowing locks of curls were wisped up into a high ponytail and her blue eyes were fixated on the striped shirt that belonged to a boy who she was obsessed with.

"Thanks," I gave her a forced smile as I glanced down to my work, then around the library, then back to her as she pulled out the chair across from me and took a seat, "How was your cl-"

"Where did you get it?" she cut me off, her eyes never straying from mine, "The shirt, I mean. Weren't you wearing a different one this morning?"

There was no way she knew that this was Luke's. There was no way.

So I cleared my throat, "Harmony spilled her coffee on me after first period and my dad brought me this as a spare."

"Ew," and just like that I was out from under her scrutiny and we were on to a topic that she liked; Judging others, "Did that freak show trip on her own two feet or-"

"It was completly on purpose," I huffed, "F*ck, there is nothing in this world I could do to make her like me or at least treat me like I'm a blood relative. And I don't even know why she hates me! Just that her and Luke probably have the same reason."

"That's some juicy stuff," she mused, leaning forwards on the table, "Not as juicy Jared and Luke's fight the other day though."

I frowned before I could think to do anything else, noticing the Stephanie really did fail the bechdel test every time, just as Jaime had said earlier, "Didn't you tell me about it already?"

"Not the details," she scoffed, glancing over her shoulder before back to me, as if she had some juicy secret to share, "Like what their fight was over."

"Jared trying to take Luke's things," I shrugged nonchalantly, looking back to my notes, "Which to me is hardly something to get into a physical fight about."

Stephanie recoiled slightly in her seat, her expression morphing into one between curiosity and offence, "How the hell did you know that? Did you know that before me?"

My frown deepened, "You told me that this morning..."

"That's impossible when I just got word two minutes ago."

I felt my eyes widen a fraction and I suddenly felt a cold chill run down my spine because she was right. She didn't tell me, Luke did.

Oh my gosh, "Right! Right, I heard it through.. from..—Oh! That's right, Addison told me!"

At the name of the pro-gossiper who usually was the source of knowing everything about everything as well as spreading rumors at snap of Steph's fingers, the blue eyed cheerleader in front of me seemed to ponder. I didn't know where she had heard it from but I could only pray that it wasn't Addison at all. More than likely my story therefore wouldn't check out.

After a moment, she seemed to accept it, "Anyways," she dismissed, "Luke skipped second period maths and I was pissed so I asked the teacher for a pass and I ended up skipping the whole block," she launched in, not caring if I wanted to hear what she had to say or not, "And I ran into Jared who was also out of his second class and we were flirting and talking and one thing led to another and—"