The Serial Bully

chapter 28~trouble in paradise

Cara hunkered down on the seat beside beside me and set her lunch tray on the table. she looked around suspiciously before dropping her voice to a hushed tone "yesterday, in the group chat I wasn't actually being truthful."

I gave her a shocked look "about what?"

"Making Josh jealous. I only said it because I wanted to make lily feel better and move on faster. Mehn at first I thought it was a good idea but after a few hours of deliberation I'm convinced it was a silly idea. My conscience has been pricking me." Cara smacked her hand on her forehead

"Look on the bright side, lily looks authentically happy. See, she's smiling and chattering and your brother's friends seem to genuinely like her." I glanced over at her table and it was true. Dave's friends seemed taken in with her and were hanging on her every word

"But I still lied. I lied. I lied." She insisted looking distressed

"I'm sure everything will be just fine." I massaged her right shoulder reassuringly not knowing exactly what advice to give in this situation.

"Maybe you're right and...." She trailed off as Josh sat in front of us looking extremely tired, he muttered an "hey"

"Hiii, Josh" Cara greeted looking extremely guilty before beginning to ramble

"As we were saying, valentine is tomorrow. Isn't that exciting? So many things to look forward to. So many gifts that'll be given and received. Woah, my gosh look at my mouth go."

I quickly cut in to give her enough time to calm down "social media is all abuzz with the news, although i doubt anyone truly understands the meaning behind it. What's valentine? Why's valentine? I've never understood I won't lie to you."

"Same here." She nodded agreeingly before heaving in a deep breath and adding calmly

"Who's your val? Is it Cole? Or you're one of those people that  doesn't care about Valentine?"

"I dunno, valentine used to come with so much drama. I kinda have a dread of Valentine now." I admitted

"What kinda drama, spill." She demanded

"There was once this guy he was two classes ahead of me, he gave me a present. It was a huge teddy bear. So soft and fluffy and cuddly. And You won't believe all the havoc it caused. Apparently there was a girl in his grade who had a crush on him and was expecting the gift to be hers, for some reason not apparent to me. Long story, short she blew a fuse mehn. She raged, she threw a hissy bitch fit. It was a nightmare come true." I shook my head as I recalled the memory and another memory popped up causing me to smile plaintively

"So in another instance also. I think I was around fifteen or so, I'm not exactly sure. I was the only girl in the class receiving the most gifts. You should have seen the looks I got, for a week people found excuses to be mad at me for no damn reason. I walked wrong, talked wrong. Was quiet in the wrong way. The passive aggression mehn." I paused before continuing

"There's also one more memory I can recollect clearly, I was fourteen when this guy gifted me something really expensive. I was hesitant in taking it at first but later gave in after much persuasions. Fast forward to a few weeks later when I discovered it was a stolen item. I felt so damn embarrassed." I closed my eyes and shook my head

"That's just crazy, but don't worry nothing of such sort is going to happen this year." Cara smiled before scrunching her face

"Wait a minute, Cole told me to give you something, a box that closely resembles a jewelry box. But I forgot it in class. As soon as lunch break is over I'm giving it to you." She assured, I just nodded and smiled in return.

"He was in a hurry to get to the laboratory. I think he missed a practical and he had to make up for it. Otherwise I'm sure he'd have given it to you himself." She assured winking at me

She turned to josh "you're unusually quiet today, you okay?"

Josh looked up from his food slowly "I have an intense raging headache"

"Poor baby." She massaged his head lightly

"So could you take a bullet for me?" Cara asked us. She seemed to be in an unusually chatty mood today.

"No" Josh deadpanned

I gave Cara an incredulous look "what?"

"Come on. Yes, no, maybe." Cara pressed

"I love you but no, I couldn't. I wouldn't even take a bullet for me why would I take one for you?" I inquired

"I saw a movie with the main character asking his girlfriend that question and she said no, she was portrayed as evil because she couldn't." Cara explained

"That's silly." I remarked

Josh stood up from the table, he looked from me to Cara "I'm going to the nurse's office, my headache has gotten worse"

"Poor you, bye." Cara waved before whispering to me

"Hopefully he doesn't come back worse off than he was in the beginning."

"Why do you say so?" I whispered back, wondering why we were even whispering in the first place

"Cos the beds in that room are hard, like very, very hard. It's like it's stuffed with smooth large rocks instead of foam. And the supply of medicine is like really limited."

"Oh, wow." I shook my head as was just placing my spoon on the table. I opened my mouth to relate an experience I'd had but shut it abruptly when I suddenly felt something splash on me. I whipped my head in that direction, it was juice, red ripe bright strawberry juice spilled all over the front of my white shirt and the culprit a green eyed girl, just eyed me warily

"Oops, my bad" she didn't look in the least bit sorry

"What the hell?" Cara exclaimed

"Don't be so dramatic, look on the bright side, red is so your colour. I made you prettier." and with that she moseyed out of the cafeteria,leaving me to stare dumbly in the direction she'd just stood a few minutes ago. People like this exist? For real?.

An acute sense of embarrassment washed over me as I came to the realization of the eyes staring at me. I wanted to vanish into thin air or close my eyes and open it and realize it was just a nightmare.

"Im so sorry this happened to you, that girl can be unbelievable at times. It's insane." Cara symphatized

"Could you direct me to the restroom?" I sighed

"I'll come with you." She offered and began to lead me to the restroom. I couldn't help but smile ruefully, it wasn't even valentine yet and bad things were already happening.

A/N: my phone's Percent is too low for me to properly edit.