"Does that include-"
"Yeah, it includes him."
My heart almost jumped out of my chest. If 'everyone' included Samuel, that means that he has seen the newspaper as well. And if he has seen it, then...
"Eleanor," Marisol said gently and touched my arm, but I shrugged her off and stood up, gritting my teeth and grabbing my backpack. I took the newspaper as well.
"I gotta go," I said and speeded walked away, leaving Marisol behind with a solemn expression. I didn't want to just leave her there because she was a victim like me, but I needed to find someone. I had to find one specific boy named 'Samuel Rose' immediately.
As I rushed through the hallways, I couldn't help notice that people in every corner whispered and eyed me as I passed. Many of them had the newspaper in their hands and looked as if they were totally engaged in whatever they were reading which rarely happened. The Harken Paper was the most unpopular thing in the entire school. Barely anyone paid attention to it so it was usually left out most of the time.
I could understand why suddenly everyone wanted to read it, but right now, this didn't matter to me. I would make their lives a living hell after I had a little talk with Allison and tracked down Samuel. The only problem with that plan was I didn't know where to find either person. Harken High was a huge school and I barely even knew where the PE room was. I lost count of how many times I had to find Marisol so she and I could go to PE together just because I 'lost my way'.
Thankfully, finding Allison wasn't that hard. In fact, as I was rounding a corner, fuming to myself, I accidentally bumped into her and she went down, papers and pens flying everywhere. I didn't feel even a tiny bit sorry that the girl had landed on her behind because to me, she deserved it.
"Ow..." Allison groaned as she rubbed her back. She looked up and saw me glaring down at her with my arms folded. As soon as she saw me, her face brightened and she grinned.
"Oh, hello Eleanor!" she chirped in that fake voice of hers as she jumped up and dusted off her pants. "How are you today?"
"Shut up," I growled and held the paper to her face. "Care to explain?"
Allison blinked once, twice, and then again. She looked like she didn't believe what she was seeing. Or, at least, she tried to pretend, but failed miserably because I immediately detected her phoniness.
"I-I don't know what that is," she stammered and laughed nervously, pinning a stray piece of hair behind her ear. I narrowed my eyes at her and gave her one of my most famous 'looks'.
"Oh? Then why did it say here that you were the one who wrote it?" I asked and pointed out her name. Allison's face paled for a moment before she regained her confidence and she smirked. That was right. That stupid girl smirked.
"Yeah, I wrote it," she agreed. "You have a problem with that?"
Her usual fake voice was gone, replaced with maliciousness. But that was perfectly fine with me. Now I could battle her in her true self.
"I do," I told her with an even more intense glare. "Why did you write this article?"
Allison shrugged and said casually like everything was perfectly fine,"Cuz it's the truth."
"But you never even interviewed us about that!" I exclaimed.
"Yes I did," Allison shot back.
"You never asked us questions about our personal lives!"
"I asked you in the beginning!"
"Those weren't even real questions!"
"They were legit!"
I couldn't believe this girl was calling 'What is your favorite color?' a real interview question for an 'important' newspaper article.
"Look, I don't care whether your little questions are legit or not, but you need to take the newspaper off the school campus completely right now," I said with a hint of a dangerous tone, but Allison didn't back down. She held her ground and glared right back at me.
"Too bad," she spat, her voice slowly turning into venom. "It's already out there. I can't do anything to stop it."
Her comment made flames erupt within me. Allison Waysley was going too far. If she didn't erase the newspaper this very second, I was prepared to literally strangle her.
"How dare you-"
"Oh yes I dare," Allison cut in and she took a step towards me, her voice and body defiant. For a second, a wave of shock spread through my body. No one had ever defied me before. Marisol was another story.
"The school deserves to know the truth by now," she continued and took yet another step towards me. I took a step back out of sudden fear which wasn't like me at all. Something was churning in my stomach and began to make me feel sick. Since when had I gotten so weak? I wasn't like this before. At least, not until I met Samuel Rose. Speaking of Samuel...
"Um, excuse me, but are you the author of the school's newspaper?" a voice asked from behind Allison, making her jump slightly and whip her head around to find the source of the voice. Believe it or not, it was Samuel standing there, holding a copy of the paper in his hands.
Allison's devil-like face immediately changed to her sweet and perky self.
"Why, yes I am!" she chirped and gave him such a big smile that I wanted to gag. This girl was desperate. "Is there anything that I can help you with today?"
I wanted to reach up and drag her away, but my hands remained at my side. I couldn't do a thing. I had to force myself to sit tight and watch as Allison explained the ugly truth to Samuel. What could I do? I admitted it. I was a jerk. A really big one. One who made Samuel seem lesser than me. The truth was out now. And he knew.
"Yes," Samuel answered and returned her smile. My heart clenched tightly. God, please no.
He opened the newspaper to the page of the article and asked, "And are you 100% these are true?"
"Of course I am!" Allison faked-exclaimed and batted her eye slashes. "I am always 100% true!"
"Then, may I see the questions and answers made by you that you used to interview Eleanor and Marisol?" Samuel asked politely. My world almost froze. Wait, what? Maybe I had already died from embarrassment and went to Heaven. This was just my imagination.
But amazingly (and thankfully) it wasn't because Allison's face suddenly paled and her cheerful self faded away.
"That's...uh, I... This is..." she stuttered, trying to find a way out of this. I was still in plain shock. Was Samuel, the Samuel Rose, helping me, a helpless idiot?
Allison swallowed and nervously tucked her hair behind her ear. "Uh, I don't have them."
"So you don't have any proof that everything you wrote is true, correct?" Samuel asked calmly. This was a dream then. I was just dreaming. But once again, reality proved me wrong.
Allison's face paled even more. "N-No! You've got it all wrong!" she stammered. "I can explain. This really is the truth!"
"But you have no evidence," Samuel pointed out. "How can we all believe you without evidence?"
I felt like I was watching a play or movie or something like that. This was all too good to be true.
If it was even possible, Allison's paled even more. "T-That's... Why would you care?!"
Samuel simply smiled as if the comment didn't have any effect on him at all.
"Because then you'll just be telling lies."
I guessed that was what made Allison feel completely humiliated. Her pale face went from as white as a blank sheet to as red as a red hot pepper. Without any more words, she pushed past me and hurried away, her face beet red and cursing under her breath.
I watched her go, stunned. It was when Samuel talked that I came back to reality.
"Are you okay?"
I shook myself out of my daze. I couldn't space out right now. Definitely not now of all times.
"Y-Yeah," I said at last, my heart hammering against my chest.
I was curious though. I had yelled at this boy, glared at him, made him feel like a lesser. So why? Why was he being so nice to me?
"Why did you help me?" I blurted out my thoughts and mentally slapped myself for saying it aloud.
"Because you looked like you needed it," Sa
muel explained, but that still wasn't enough for me.
"But why me?" I pressed. "You read the paper right? So why did you help me even after reading the paper?"
"You already saw for yourself," Samuel gestured to the empty hall in which Allison had fled from. "It's not true."
"What if I tell you it's true?"
"Then I'll believe it. But you haven't told me yet so I refuse to believe anything written on this paper," Samuel said firmly.
I still don't get it. Samuel Rose is standing up for me even though I was a jerk?
"It's true."
The two words escaped my mouth without a thought and echoed through the air. Silence followed afterwards.
This is the part he turns and walks away, I thought bitterly, regretting that I had a big mouth and prepared myself for the worst. This is the part where he tells me I'm pathetic and leaves.
But Samuel didn't move. Not even one inch.
"Eleanor," Samuel's soft voice broke the silence. "It's not true."
My head snapped up at his words and I asked without thinking, "How do you know? What, are you God or something?"
Taking my insult as a joke, Samuel smiled in amusement. "I'm not God, but I know that nothing on this paper is true. You're not a mean person who looks down upon people. You have a heart. You're human."
And once again, like all the other times, Samuel's words shocked me. He believed that I had a heart. That I was not the jerk I think I am. Am I?
"Y-You think so...?" I asked softly. Samuel nodded.
"Of course!" he beamed and, in a sudden movement, took my hand in his warm ones. Vivid electrical sparks flew off of our hold. My breath hitched in my throat and my mind went haywire.
"If you ever need my help again, just call," he said and let go of my hand. Our moment ended there. He gave me a wave and was gone as quick as he came. It felt like he appeared from thin air and disappeared like a fleeing shadow. It felt like he was watching over me.
I was left standing there, staring dumbly after him. My heart was still pounding in my chest like a drum.
Samuel had held my hand. Sure, it was for just a second, but that second lasted longer in my imagination; it lasted for all eternity.
Samuel's touch still lingered on my skin where it tingled and caused waves of tangled emotions to flood within me. My face was flushed, but what truly bothered me was the unruly beats of my heart. They were too uneven for my liking.
"-ello, Eleanor?" a voice called out to me and a hand appeared in front of my face, waving up and down. I blinked and broke out of my transfixion.
"W-What?" I looked around until my eyes set upon Marisol who was waving in front of my face.
"Good, I thought you were dead," Marisol joked half-heartedly. "Seriously though, girl. You disappear on me for half of lunch and then I find you standing in the middle of the hallway?" She shook her head. "This is a grand story. What were you doing?"
Samuel's smile flashed in my mind. I shook my head to clear my thoughts.
"Nothing," I mumbled as I gathered myself again.
"O... kay," Marisol drawled. "But that doesn't explain your empty stare."
"That's nothing too."
Being the best guesser in the whole planet, Marisol's face brightened when she guessed what truly happened.
"Oh..." she smiled. “Mr. Hotshot moment? This should be Breaking News."
"I think I've had enough with 'news'," I growled. Marisol laughed and she propped an elbow on my shoulder and jutted her hip out.
"Details, El," she grinned. "Details."
I sighed, losing the game again. "Fine," I huffed. "But don't blame me when the story gets long."
Marisol laughed. "Don't worry. I love long stories. Just make sure to include all the dirty details."
I punched her arm, causing her laugh even more.
"Okay, okay, just kidding." She grinned as the bell ring above our heads, warning us that lunch break was almost over. "Story time?"
CHAPTER 12: Life in Color and Stardust
Chloe invited Marisol and I over to her house on Saturday. Marisol immediately agreed, saying, "Oh yes! Of course!" As for me, I was a little hesitant. Even though I agreed in the end, I couldn't help thinking that I had either gone mental and crazy or maybe I had completely lost my mind. Either way, my answer shocked me.
Marisol seemed pretty happy about my decision because she gave me giant hug and a squeal.
But, I didn't just say yes due to my recent outburst of crazy thoughts. I had my own reasons.
Ever since I noticed that I had begun to act weird around Samuel, I had decided to give myself a break and have a day where my mind was clear without a thought about him. Another reason was because I was lacking fresh air. My dad and Bailey were rarely home even on the weekends so that meant I had an entire day to myself.
It wasn't as fun as you thought.
I usually drabbled away my time on Facebook, but after a while, I came to agree with the quote: Facebook- Wasting people's lives since 2004. After I got bored with messaging with my friends, I was left with nothing else to do. I guessed going over to Chloe's at least saved me from boredom. The only thing I needed to watch out now was to not let a particular comment slip.
Ever since my heart started to beat way too quickly when I was near Samuel or maybe it just skipped a beat in all, I had come to a dreadful conclusion. I couldn't even say it out loud in my head. When I thought about it, my head span and I felt like fainting.
The red blush tainted my cheeks every time when his melodic voice rang out. My blood thumped in my veins when he smiled at me. My head throbbed when his fingers ghosted over mine.
The truth was unavoidable. For now, as long as Marisol and Chloe didn't know, it was fine. I was actually starting to hope that Samuel would mess up again like the time he spilled coffee on me so I didn't have to face the ugly truth.
But of course, with the world throwing stones at me, I would never get my wish.
Marisol came to pick me up the moment I finished eating my breakfast and handed my empty plate and glass to our maid who usually came during the day to help clean the house. I explained to her that I was heading over to the house of a friend of mine and she nodded, not really paying attention as she washed the dishes.
I hopped into Marisol's red convertible and we drove off.
"What do you think we're gonna to do today?" Marisol asked as we rushed down the street. Because today was a Saturday, there were barely any cars in sight, allowing us to go twice as fast.
I shrugged.
"Who knows? The girl is crazy so I guess something life-threatening?"
Marisol giggled. "Right." She used her best imitation of Chloe's voice, "Let’s make haste and climb the wall!"
I snorted and rolled my eyes, but inside of me, I was happy to see that Marisol had returned to her usual self. When she heard me tell her the story about my little encounter with Allison, she had gotten mad at her for hurting me. She seemed even madder when I told her that Allison had mocked me in front of Samuel.
I didn't try to stop her anger. I was mad myself at Allison for insulting me too and in front of one specific boy. The thought of being taunted just didn't sit right.
Apparently, Chloe had given Marisol a short cut route to her house so we arrived there within ten minutes. It felt like forever for me since I was so deep in thought.
"And Ta-Da!" Marisol sang and made a grand show off of Chloe's house. It turned out that Chloe, having to move to America for such a short time, lived in one of the apartments near our school. It was one of those newly built ones that cost almost as much as a normal house.
"It's so tall," I stated as I glanced up, shading my eyes from the blazing sun.
"Yup," Marisol agreed as we walked in. "Welcome to Sidelane Apartments." She walked up to where the elevators were placed and pressed the elevator button and it lit green. We waited for it to come down as Marisol fumbled around in her purse for a moment before pulling out a sheet of paper. She quickly
scanned through it before saying, "Ah-ha! Chloe lives on floor 12. That's like, really close so we won't have to fly up too many floors."
"Good," I mumbled. Like Spring, I wasn't a huge fan on motion going up and down. This pretty much explained why I was close to throwing up each time we went on a roller coaster.
There was a Ding! and the doors in front of us slid open. We stepped inside and Marisol pressed the button labeled '12'. For the entire ride up, I tried not to puke. By the time the doors slid open again to reveal the twelfth floor, I was prepared to sprint to the nearest restroom and make do there.
Marisol walked happily down the hallway and I half dragged myself after her. I was not sure where she got her energy each day because in the mornings, I was basically a dead slug.
We stopped in front of a dark brown door with a gold platter nailed across the top with the numbers '1245' engraved into it. Marisol glanced down once more at her paper before folding it into a small square and stuffing it back into her purse.