What If

Chapter 20

I shoved all of my books into my locker, breathing out the breath I was holding in, and shaking out my arms to relieve them of the weight they had to endure. Running around to different parts of this giant building all day with a thousand pounds of books in your arms was really exhausting. They felt like noodles already.

Luckily, it was the end of the day, and I wanted nothing more than to go home, flop on my bed, and nap until bedtime. Then I would sleep some more.

"Hey," I heard from the other side of my locker door.

I jumped and screamed. Everyone around me turned their heads to see what the problem was. I was always easily scared by everything. I was just a jumpy person. Upon closing my locker door, I see Paul on the other side, leaning against the lockers, staring at me with a smug look on his face.

I hadn't seen Paul during lunch like I normally did and figured he had just skipped school for the day. He must've been with a girl or George or something.

"Paul, you can't sneak up on me like that," I whined. "I'm easily startled."

Ignoring what I said, he said "So, how was your night with John?"

He wanted me to say that I hated it and that John was a pervert and that I will always like him so much better than I will ever like John. But I'm not that much of an idiot to knowingly blow up Paul's ego-balloon. He tried to punish me by leaving me with John, so now I was going to punish him. "Really good, actually. We drew a little and talked. He's actually really funny and cute. I had a good time. A lot better than I thought it was going to be."

His face dropped immediately. He wasn't being coy anymore. He was visibly upset. "B-But I thought you didn't like John," he stuttered.

"I didn't," I admitted. I still didn't, but I wanted to make him mad. "I guess I just had to get to know him better."

"But-"

"Hey, Paul," a real cutesy voice said from behind him. It was a tall girl with wavy shoulder-length brown hair and a pretty face. Drop-dead gorgeous, actually.

Paul glanced over his shoulder and said "Hey, Natasha" and then turned his attention right back to me. "Y-You know John is a lady's man, right? I mean, every bird's the same to him. He doesn't really care about one in particular. Not even his girlfriend. You know he has a girlfriend, right?" All of this came out so fast; it was hard to keep up.

Natasha looked really hurt that Paul was ignoring her, but she was determined to get his attention. "Paul, I was hoping we could go to a picture on Saturday like you said we would."

Paul got a little frustrated that this girl wasn't leaving him alone. "Not now, Natasha!" he said, not even turning his head to her.

Natasha's mouth dropped open, shocked that Paul would ever talk to her like that.

Ignoring Natasha myself, I said to Paul "I know he has a girlfriend." No one had told me; I just knew from the future. "He really shouldn't. He's one of those single-for-life kind of guys."

The girl got angry and roughly tapped Paul on his shoulder. "Paul!" she said harshly.

Paul didn't even acknowledge her. He was so flustered and panicked that he could hardly speak to me either.

"Paul, that girl behind you is trying to talk to you. I would suggest you talk to her," I said.

"I don't wanna talk to her! I wanna talk to you!" he yelled. People around us stopped what they were doing to stare at the commotion of what was going on. Natasha was very offended by his comment, especially since she was standing right there. She glared at me through her hazel eyes, upset that I stole her love interest away.