5. The Kiss and The Drama

C H A P T E R  5  :  S C A R S  T O  Y O U R  B E A U T I F U L

The way you left, scarred my heart brutally. And I do not know how writers do this, because it is anything but poetic. There is nothing poetic about the way your absence taunts my lonely heart.

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The next day, Kelsey could hardly believe her own eyes as she watched him walking towards her table at the back of the classroom. It was French class in the last period and unlike the other classrooms, Ms. Josephine had chosen what used to be a Biology class as her second home. She had said that the long table for two would make it easier when they needed a partner to practice their French speaking skills.

Usually, Kelsey would have Bryson sit beside her but after the incident and her lack of response to his numerous calls and texts, she found herself sitting alone with an unoccupied seat next to hers. Out of one corner of her eye, she had seen him walking through the door then heading to Rachel's table. He had given her an apologetic smile before engaging in a conversation with his new partner. She felt a stab in her heart. In all the years they had been best friends, no one had ever come between them, yet right now, looking at how Bryson was talking to Rachel as if Rachel was Kelsey, made her feel a twinge of jealousy. She was sure she would not be the only person to feel this way. Anyone who saw their best friend getting too chummy with other people, especially when they were not on good terms, would feel it too. She swallowed back her emotions and tried her best to maintain her expression. No matter how much she wanted to grab Bryson and bring him next to her, she was not ready to forgive him. The incident that had just happened two nights ago was still fresh in her memory and so was the wound in her heart caused by his betrayal.

All of a sudden her view was blocked by a tall guy with messy dark hair. It was him again. It was Flynn Ascott.

“What are you doing here?” Kelsey slid her gaze from Bryson’s back to the guy next to her. “I know you are not from this class so do not make me ask again.”

This was the fifth week since the school year had started and even though everyone in the class probably did not remember her, she remembered every single one of them. Sometimes it was a curse to have a good memory. Thus she would definitely remember him too. Flynn Ascott had the type of face that one could not forget even if one was desperate to. It bothered her how his presence bothered her, how her body was fully aware of how close their bodies were once he sat down on the seat next to her.

“I changed my mind. It turns out Spanish is not really my thing,” Flynn answered, although what he had said was not really an answer to her question. “So here I am, learning the language of love.” He paused to give her a devilish smirk. “With you.”

She placed her left arm on the table and turned her body towards him so that they were face to face. “Are you always like this or do you just happen to be on crack today?”

“Well, you know how bad I was smitten by you.” Again, he was using the word she had used earlier just to annoy her and Kelsey fought the urge to roll her eyes. “This will be proof of that.”

She snorted. “Hmm, maybe I slapped you way too hard that it messed up with your brain.”

“No,” he smiled seductively which made him look even sexier than usual.

Sexier?! She scolded herself. Shane was just as good looking as Flynn, so stop thinking like he was any different! You had seen tons of hot guys on the internet, guys who were much hotter than Flynn freaking Ascott.

“Oh, was it not hard enough?”

He chuckled at her sarcasm which she thought was rather weird. A guy with a huge pride like him would have flipped yet he did not. His face was a depiction of amusement. Out of curiosity, Kelsey slid her gaze off his face and saw his hand curl into a fist. Yep, he was angry alright. Or at least annoyed and she could not blame him. If she was in his position, she would have been angry too yet right now, she did not give a damn.

Although one question remained, why hadn’t he flipped? Why did he pretend that she just said the most ridiculous thing ever? What was his angle?

“No,” he said one more time. “You are only messing with my heart. And my head.”

For a moment, Kelsey was confused. What the hell was wrong with him? But once she heard some female voices saying, “aww”, and noticed that nearly the whole class had their eyes and ears on them. She realized that he was just playing his role, fulfilling her request. It made all sense now. Why else would someone like Flynn Ascott who could have any girl he wanted would want anything to do with her?

“You should stop before you embarrass yourself by saying something you regret,” muttered Kelsey softly.

“Because since that night,” Flynn continued, “I can not seem to get you out of my head.”

What night? He had made it sound like they had spent a night together which they clearly had not. Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see Bryson's shocked face, he too was probably thinking that she had cheated on Shane with Flynn. That was not what she wanted, this was not what she had requested of him.

“Are you delusional?” She raised her voice a little higher so their shameless audience could hear her better. “Until today I did not know you even existed.”

That was not entirely a lie. Sure, she had heard whispers about him but until today, they had never been faced to face nor even being in the same room.

“Damn, that hurts.” He ran his hand through his hair, looking frustrated as if he was truly devastated by her rejection. Damn, he must be very good at acting. “Are you trying to talk me out of this?”

Kelsey lifted one quizzical brow. “Is it working?”

“Nope. I am a fighter when it comes to love.” His eyes held hers as he added, “I do not easily give up.”

Before Kelsey even had a chance to say anything, a fist was slammed on her table. She dragged her eyes off of Flynn who immediately jumped on his feet to the tall figure standing beside their table.

The uninvited guest was none other than Kat, the girl from Mitch Hammer’s backyard and the cafeteria a few days ago. Just like Flynn, Kelsey knew by heart that Kat did not belong to this class. It seemed that everyone was interested in French, huh. Note the sarcasm, Kelsey fought the urge to roll her eyes. The girl next to Kat, however, did. Her name was Alessandra Beckett, a cheerleader who loved to gossip with Rachel and her gang.

“So it was her, wasn't it?” Kat's eyes were on Flynn. She placed her hands on her waist and tried to tower over him although he was literally taller than her. “She was the one you slept with last night.”

“I don't know what you're on about.” Flynn's answer was neither an agreement or denial, which annoyed her. He was supposed to speak the truth, tell his Barbie doll that they had not slept together last night. Make up some excuses like how he could not get it up. Any reason would do as long as he would leave Kelsey out of it.

“Oh, yeah?!” Kat folded her arms in front of her pink crop top. “Then why don't you explain to me why you suddenly said 'I gotta go' while we were clearly in the middle of something?”

“I do not have to explain anything to you.” Flynn stared at Kat with a bored look on his face. He'd probably had this kind of conversation more than once because he didn't seem to be bothered by it.

“But you owe me some explanation if you want this relationship to continue!” protested Kat, raising her voice as if by doing so, she would finally convince the bad boy that she was the one. Kelsey almost felt bad for her. Almost.

“I am sorry to break it to you, Luv, but we are not an item.” He winced then turned to Kelsey with an apologetic look on his face. “Cack! I forgot that I should only reserve any endearment for you, K.” He put one hand on his chest and heaved a sorrowful sigh. “Believe me, it will not happen again.”

Kelsey refused to show any emotion on her face. She glanced at the door, hoping that Ms. Josephine would come here any second. She wanted the class to start as soon as possible and for this unnecessary drama to cease.

Kat, however, seemed to have a different plan. “What?!” She leaned forward, nose flaring that Kelsey could imagine flame and smoke coming out of her ears. “Then what do you call everything that happened last week, hmm? What do you call, you sneaking into my bedroom, us making out in the gym locker, me gobbling your doorknob before class on Friday? What did you call those?” If Kat heard the whistle made by the boys inside the classroom, she chose to ignore it.

“Booty call?” Flynn lifted one brow and gave an uncaring shrug of his shoulder. “You name it what you want but you were never my girlfriend. I sleep with girls but I do not date them.”

Kelsey could see that Kat was on the brink of breaking down and when she watched the other girl blinking her eyes multiple times to refrain her tears from falling, she saw herself in her. She recalled that night when Shane had publicly embarrassed her at Mitch Hammer’s party and she hated it. Although it was quite stupid of Kat to get involved with someone like Flynn who was famous for being the notorious man-whore and it was silly of her to come here and confront him, Kelsey felt bad for her.

Gosh, did Kat forget about the cellphone, the internet, and YouTube? This embarrassing moment could be up on the site before school was over.

Yet looking at her, Kelsey realized that Kat was just a girl who had feelings for a guy who did not feel the same way, and she did not deserve to be treated like this, being humiliated in front of everyone.

“Hey, look, just for the record, I did not sleep with him.” Kelsey stood, although it did not make much of a difference since the other two were way taller than her midget self. “As I have said, I did not know him until today and I did not know why the hell he keeps on following me either.” She did not have any clue how to make Kat feel better but this, hopefully, was a start.

However, the funny thing about how the world run was that sometimes goodwill was not always well received.

“Are you fucking kidding me? You did not know him? Everyone does.” Kat glared at her from her lofty height and Kelsey wished she still had her mom's heels on so at least she would not be this much shorter than Kat. “This is all because of you! I kinda get it now. Shane has dumped you so you are now after Flynn, aren't you, slut?!”

Kat lifted her hand, about to struck Kelsey with all her might and Kelsey was ready to step back to avoid her hand, but before she could move a muscle, one hand caught Kat’s wrist, preventing her from slapping Kelsey.

“Not my princess, damn it! Just naff (= fuck) off, Kat!” Kelsey watched with surprise as he continued to grip Kat's wrist despite her struggling to free herself. “Don't you dare lay one finger on her?!” He finally let go of her hand as he said one of his catchphrases that he had used on Kelsey previously, “I will break you."

“Good afternoon, class!” Ms. Josephine made her way to her table at the front of the room, completely oblivious to the ominous tension floating in the air. She adjusted her glasses resting on the bridge of her nose and placed the books she was carrying on the table. “So how are you today?”

And only then, had Ms. Josephine Langford realized the tension inside the room. She scrunched her nose, frowning. “Who are you, people? I do not recall having you two in this class.” Her eyes moved back and forth on Kat and Flynn.

Flynn was the first to react. He let Kat’s wrist go and after giving her a hard look, he took long steps towards the front of the class and handed her a small piece of paper.

“Ah, I see so you changed class.” Ms. Josephine put the letter on her desk and folded her arms. “Can you tell me why?” she asked, lifting one brow.

At that moment Kelsey thought if there was one more person who did not fall for Flynn's charm besides herself, it would be Ms. Josephine.

“I would like to be fluent in the language of love,” answered Flynn, not knowing this could lead him to trouble.

Kelsey fought an urge to roll her eyes when she saw some of the girls in the class look at Flynn in pure admiration. Ms. Josephine's question was simple and straightforward yet she knew if it were her, she could never reveal the real reason she had picked French over the other languages. It was too personal and she was certainly not the type to share personal things with strangers.

“Try again, Mr.—” Ms. Josephine paused and glanced at the paper, “Ascott.” Even his infamous surname had no impact on the teacher and Kelsey had more than respect for her because of that. Not many people would stand tall knowing they faced an Ascott; some would tremble and make an idiot out of themselves.

“Okay, well, the girl I like speaks French so I want to learn the language in order to understand her better. I heard you are a very good French teacher thus here I am.” Flynn ended it by shrugging one shoulder. Even though Kelsey could not see his face, she had no doubt that he was putting his innocent face on.

Ms. Josephine slid her gaze to Kat who was still standing there like a hawk, giving Kelsey her murderous glare and blaming her for her own broken heart. “How about you?”

“I—I am not here for your class.” Kat bit her bottom lip nervously, finally taking her eyes off Kelsey.

“Then could you please leave? I am about to start my class and we are behind schedule.” Ms. Josephine raised one brow when Kat did not move or make any gesture that showed she was going to leave. “Well?”

Kat probably had not heard what Ms. Josephine had said as she continued staring at Kelsey and Flynn, her eyes went back and forth between the two. Kelsey felt really uncomfortable but she did not want to show it, she refused to show any sign of weakness. High school was cruel and she knew once people learned about your weakness, a dent in your armor, they would exploit it.

“If you do not leave immediately I will have to send you to Principal Wilson,” said Ms. Josephine, louder this time.

Stomping her way to the door, Kat left with a huff and the class finally started. Before she left, she paused by the door and gave Kelsey another murderous glare, and mouthed, “This is not over, bitch.”

“Miss Whoever Your Name Is, if you do not leave, I will give you a detention card and it will not look pretty in your record.”

Ms. Josephine’s warning finally woke Kat’s brain as she hurriedly left.