I Dare You

I Dare You ch.13

THIRTEEN

Hayden's Point of View:

"Hello boys," someone greeted from behind me. I looked to my left and saw Gabriella taking a seat next to me. I mentally groaned because I didn't want to deal with her bullshit while spending time with the guys.

"Hey Gabriella," they replied. Obviously they weren't going to ignore her. She's popular and nice to look at.

"Where's Evan? I thought you two were attached at the hip," I said to her, smirking.

She rolled her eyes and waved a hand in the air nonchalantly. "Oh he's with his family for the rest of the break. I saw him briefly on Christmas before he left. But actually, I wanted to talk to you about something." She looked at the other guys with raised eyebrows. "In private," she added with a bright smile.

I rolled my eyes as my friends got up. "We'll talk to you later man," they said, leaving me with Gabriella.

I sighed, staring straight at her. "What do you want, Gabriella?"

She leaned back in her chair. "It's not something I want, but you might," she started. I raised my eyebrows in curiosity, waiting for her to continue.

"I thought I should warn you about Aurora," she said, causing me to freeze in place at the mention of Aurora's name. Ever since she was dared to kiss me, I haven't been able to stop thinking about her. I've only been hoping it's been the same for her.

"Warn me about what?" I prompted.

"I heard about some unfortunate things that she's been doing lately that affect you and me. Now before you interrupt me, I want you to know this is not just some random gossip or stupid rumors, alright?"

I narrowed my eyes at her. She was known to spread rumors, so why should I believe whatever she was going to say next?

"She's been doing a plan involving dares, and you're using it for a psychology project, correct?"

I nodded, not seeing where this was going. "Yeah..."

"Well, her original plan was to do dares that her friends suggest, all to get over Evan. Except that's not what she's been up to lately. Apparently she's madly in love with Evan, and she's just using this plan of hers to attract more attention to herself. She's been in love with my boyfriend this whole time. She's just stringing along people, mostly you."

A wave of confusion swept over me. "What do you mean?"

Gabriella rolled her eyes. "Oh please, I've seen the way you look at her, Hayden. Aurora just doesn't realize that you like her because she's in love with Evan. She's liked him for years, so she never considers anyone else."

I shook my head, slowly processing everything Gabriella was telling me. "She said she's getting over him though," I said.

"Of course she told you that. She wants you to stick around so Evan will get jealous that you're around her so much. My source told me that she reacted to Evan's jealousy just as she wanted to during the camping trip, so it's only a matter of time before she ignores you and goes after Evan."

"Who's your source?" I asked bitterly.

"Well, I probably shouldn't tell you, but it's Joel. He's friends with Evan, so he thought he should warn me that I should be aware of her plans concerning my boyfriend. Please don't say anything to him though. I wasn't supposed to tell you anything."

I crossed my arms across my chest. "Why are you being nice to me? We don't even get along that well."

She sighed and picked up her purse off the ground. "Hayden, I may not be the nicest person at all times, but I don't think people should be used like how Aurora's using you. She'll do almost anything to get Evan it seems, so I'm just warning you now. I certainly don't want to be blind-sided by her, and I'm sure you don't either. Maybe if we both keep our distance from her, she'll move on," she explained, shrugging when she finished. She got up from her seat and gave me an apologetic smile before leaving.