Go Away

Halsey’s heart stops beating for a moment as Nathan kisses her full on the lips. Her eyes widen in shock but her body cannot react. He presses his lips against hers and his strong musky scent is drowning out all her thoughts.

Nathan is surprised by the girl’s reaction or lack of one. Her lips feel soft, making him deepen the kiss. She slightly puckers when his tongue brushes against her lower lip and Nathan can feel her tremble.

He slightly opens his eyes to study the girl he’s kissing. Her bright chocolate eyes are covered by a pair of thick rimmed glasses. She has a sweet vanilla scent and her lips taste like honey. Her heart shaped face is terrified and she’s scared stiff.

“You sick son of a b*tch!” Lydia’s screams break their kiss. Both of them are a little breathless. Halsey lowers her head, unsure of how to react to what happened while Lydia is furious at Nathan.

“You dumped me for this…THIS?” She yells and points at the plain jane. Halsey feels even more embarrassed.

“I…I…” Halsey stammers but Nathan is indifferent.

“Yes, I dumped you for her,” he claims and puts a hand around Halsey’s shoulder, his grip too tight for her to escape. “You got a problem?”

“You…you’re that nerd from 12B, right?” Lydia demands.

“I-I…”

“I’ll get you for this!” Lydia yells. “You’ve embarrassed me you little sl*t-”

“Get out of here, Lydia,” Nathan yawns. “I’m not interested in this bullsh*t.”

Halsey is too shocked while Lydia fumes. The latter stomps on the ground and storms off, secretly vowing revenge on the nerd.

Once Lydia is gone, Nathan coldly pushes Halsey away. Up close, Nathan is even more intimidating.

But Halsey has to admit that even in the middle of a crowd, Nathan Jacobs will stand out. His dark hair is messy but it only enhances his charm. Playing long hours of basketball tanned his skin a little and yet, he is still quite handsome. With a towering height, he is one of the most popular boys in the school. He is only a few weeks older than Halsey and they even share a few classes together. 

They’ve never spoken to each other but she is terrified of him. Nathan has a fiery aura which intimidates everyone else around him. Despite his popularity, Nathan is cold hearted. He and his friends are notorious for looking down on others and even bullied people to the point that many left school. His father, Daniel Jacobs, is a multimillionaire so Nathan gets away with everything. 

“Listen here, nerd!” He calls her in a scathing tone. “If you tell anyone that I kissed you, I’ll make your life miserable in school. Got it?”

Halsey lowers her head and mumbles something.

“The f*ck did you say?” Nathan scowls. “Speak up, would ya?”

“That…was my first kiss…” Halsey mumbles in shame. She imagined her first kiss to be with someone she loved. In her mind, she wanted her first kiss as something special and sweet. The man who’ll kiss her will be the man she’ll be deeply in love with.

Now, her first kiss has been cheapened by the notorious bad boy of the school. Every time she will think back to this moment, she will only feel shame and ridicule.

“You should be glad then,” Nathan says warily. “Your first kiss was from the most popular guy in the town.”

Halsey’s head is lowered in shame and embarrassment. She wants to retort, hit this man for taking away something so precious from her but her hands are shaking. He is gazing at her with wariness and disdain.

“Don’t ever tell this to anyone otherwise I’ll not spare you,” he warns again. “Unlike you, I’ve got a reputation to protect. I don’t wanna be seen with someone as pathetic as you.”

Nathan loathes weak people. He treats such people with disdain and feels nothing but disgust for them. If one can’t have an iota of self-respect, he doesn’t give a cr*p about them.

With that, he walks away from the weakling, leaving her alone in the dark.

For a long time, Halsey tries to re-collect her thoughts. Tears sting her eyes and the image of their kiss won’t go away. She stands there, crying alone.

DING!

Her phone rings, interrupting her thoughts. Halsey quickly wipes her eyes and takes out her phone to see that it’s her best friend, Lincoln.

“Hales, where are you?” Lincoln’s voice comes from the other end. “I’m here at the cafe! Let’s go home.”

“Uh…I’m coming!” Halsey says and quickly hangs up. She quickly dashes to the back kitchen, washes her face and wipes it dry. Reaching for her locker, she slowly changes into her t-shirt and jeans while trying to wipe the memory of the kiss.

Lincoln can’t find out about this, she tells herself. He’ll freak out.

…

“Who’s that hottie?” One of the girls whispers at her friend. She points at a boy with strawberry blonde hair who is sitting at a table. He is barely eighteen with tousled hair and a smooth round face which exudes a boyish charm. His long, lanky legs are partly exposed because of the basketball shorts he’s wearing. Even though he’s wearing a hoodie over his jersey, his muscles are bulging and visible.

“That’s Lincoln Wright!” the girl’s friend giggles. “He goes to school with us.”

“How come we never see him around?”

“That’s coz he’s always hanging around at the library,” the girl’s friend explains. “He plays underground basketball and is really good but he refuses to join the school team.”

“Why?”

“Coz of his old rival, Nate Jacobs.”

Lincoln ignores the chatter and idly scrolls through his phone as he waits for Halsey. 

“Linc!” 

He looks up to see Halsey. She forces a smile, hiding her anxiety but he senses something is wrong.

“What’s the matter, Hales?” He frowns. “You don’t look so good.”

“Uh…” She fidgets her fingers. Lincoln’s eyes fall on the blisters on her palm which she sustained earlier.

“You burnt your hand?” he exclaims. 

“Y-Yes…A customer spilled coffee and it splashed on my hand.”

Lincoln stands up and pokes her on the head. “How many times have I told you? You gotta stand up for yourself! Mom is gonna freak out about this.”

“Don’t tell her!” Halsey mumbles, looking at him pleadingly with her large eyes. Lincoln sighs.

“You know I can’t say no to you when you look at me like that!” He smiles. “But I’m taking you to the pharmacy first.”

“Okay.”

Halsey is glad that Lincoln isn’t asking her any more questions. She slowly follows him out of the cafe, painfully aware of the disgusted looks she is attracting for even standing with Lincoln.

They have been best friends since their childhood. Their mothers were schoolmates and were inseparable. When their kids were born, they made each other the godmothers of their newborn. So when Halsey’s parents died, Charlotte immediately took her in and raised her alongside Lincoln. 

But Lincoln is also one of the most popular boys at school. Unlike Nathan who relishes his popularity, Lincoln doesn’t care. He hangs out with Halsey most of the time or plays basketball with his friends at the park near their home. He can easily play for the school team, but there’s only one problem with that.

They enter a pharmacy which is not far from their home. The pharmacist welcomes them warmly.

“Can you please take a look at her burn?” Lincoln asks her.

“Sure,” the pharmacist replies. “We have a nurse inside. She can take a look at your girlfriend’s injury.”

“Friend,” Halsey politely corrects her. “We’re only friends.”

“Oh. This way then.”

Halsey follows the pharmacist to the nurse’s room, unbeknownst to the dark expression on Lincoln’s face. 

“Just friends…” he mutters and waits for her to come out. He takes out his phone and scrolls through his social media feed when someone walks into the store. Lincoln briefly glances at the new entrant and freezes.

“You,” he says curtly to Nathan who is also glaring at him.

Nathan’s nostrils flare at the sight of the person he despises the most: Lincoln Wright. 

“Don’t get on my nerves, Wright,” he grits and walks past Lincoln to pick medicines from one of the shelves.

“I hear that your team lost the match against the Eagles last week,” Lincoln comments. 

“You shouldn’t be worried about my team!” Nathan sneers at him. 

“The coach asked me to join again,” Lincoln taunts him. “I’m thinking this time, I might actually take up his offer-”

“Really?”

Nathan turns around only to grin at his rival. “You wanna join the team?” he asks. “Well then. I guess, you wouldn’t mind if I leaked our little secret then, right?”

He steps forward and leans closer to Lincoln’s ear.

“Imagine what it’ll do to your mother,” he whispers. “When the world finds out her dirty little secret.”

Lincoln’s fingers clench into a fist and he is about to punch Nathan when a voice calls him out.

“Linc?”

Both of them turn around to find Halsey standing there, looking from one man to the other. She is dreading that they will end up in a fistfight and Lincoln will hurt himself.

Their rivalry is infamous throughout the school. No one is sure how they became rivals but it has been like that for as long as Halsey can remember. All she can recall is that when they were in playschool, Nathan had played a prank which nearly caused a commotion around the school. He had left a fart bomb in one of the ventilators and when it exploded, chaos ensued.

Unfortunately, he pinned the blame on Lincoln and even hid a few of the fart bombs in Lincoln’s bag to implicate him. The teachers suspended Lincoln for a month and even put it on his record. Since then, both of them harbored an intense rivalry which is still going on.

Nathan’s eyes narrow at the clumsy girl from the cafe. Their gazes meet and Halsey is shaking with fear. He is giving her a warning look, threatening her to keep quiet about what happened between them. 

Halsey cannot do so anyway. She is still terrified of him and looks away to address Lincoln.

“Let’s go,” she urges. She pulls Lincoln’s sleeve, praying that he’ll listen to her. Lincoln glowers at Nathan but seeing Halsey’s state, he doesn’t stretch the issue anymore.

“Don’t you dare join the team!” Nathan warns. “I mean it, Wright!”

Lincoln is about to retort but Halsey winces. She doesn’t want to see him fight and get hurt.

“Please Linc!” She begs. “Let’s go!”

She pulls him by his arm. Lincoln has no choice but to go with her.

“He’s a maniac!” Lincoln snarls once he’s outside. “Why’d you stop me?”

“Charlotte wouldn’t like it if you were hurt,” she mumbles but Lincoln is frustrated. He kicks a pebble on the ground in anger.

“Calm down!” Halsey consoles him. 

“How can I be calm when he’s the one who’s always picking a fight?” Lincoln asks angrily. “I just…I just wish he’d go away!”

Halsey reaches over to pat her friend on the head.

“Don’t let him get to you,” she says. “He’s a…jerk!”

“You know you should really work on your swear words,” Lincoln chuckles in spite of his anger. “You can’t curse at all!”

“It feels too vulgar,” Halsey mumbles.

“But that’s what I like about you, Hales,” Lincoln admits. “You’re not like other girls. You’re naive and innocent.”

He pokes her cheek, teasing her. Halsey gives him a small smile, oblivious to the warm affection in his eyes. Something occurs to her.

“What did Nathan say that made you so angry?” she asks curiously.

Lincoln’s jaw clenches but he replies, “He was being his usual arrogant self,” he says. “It’s no biggie.”

Halsey wants to ask more but Lincoln’s expression makes it clear that he doesn’t want to talk about it.

What’s wrong with them? She wonders.

They silently walk towards their house while a lone figure stares at them.

Nathan studies the girl who is walking alongside his greatest rival. His hatred for Lincoln runs really deep and anyone who’ll be on Lincoln’s side will face his wrath.

“Halsey Scott,” he mutters. Slowly, he turns around and walks towards his car, thinking about how to keep Lincoln away from his team.