“Oh, game on,” Felix said.
They all laughed as the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch.
Matt’s fingers intertwined with mine as we all walked out into the hall. But all of us stopped when we saw two cops standing outside the cafeteria.
One of them stepped forward. “Felix Green, you’re under arrest for the possession of drugs on school property.”
Felix laughed. “What?”
“We found drugs in your locker,” the cop said.
“That’s not possible.”
“Mr. Green, you need to leave the school grounds immediately,” the principal said. “You’re hereby expelled. An investigation…”
“An investigation? But I don’t have any drugs in my locker…” Felix’s voice trailed off as the cop held up a bag of white powder.
“You need to come with us right now,” he said.
The sound of laughter made me look behind me. Freaking Cupcake. With his arm around Isabella and a huge grin on his face. I knew without a doubt that he was behind this. They both were. Isabella winked at me and my heart sank.
Her words from several weeks ago came back to me. “I’m going to break you, Sissy. And I’m going to do it by breaking everyone around you.”
Felix seemed to have come to the same conclusion on who had set him up, because he yelled, “What the hell, Cupcake?”
Cupcake shrugged his shoulders. “I didn’t do anything. You can thank Brooklyn for this. I saw her on the phone earlier. She probably turned you in.”
What? I took a step forward, but Matt grabbed my arm to hold me back.
Felix didn’t even look over at me. “Fuck you, Cupcake. Brooklyn had nothing to do with this and you know it.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” Isabella said. “This is all definitely happening because of her. Nothing like this ever happened before she moved to the city. It’s a shame she doesn’t just leave.”
They were doing this because of me. God. She was trying to destroy everyone around me.
“He must have put the drugs in my locker,” Felix said and pointed to Cupcake. “He set me up.”
“Mr. Green, I’m not going to ask you again, you need to leave the school grounds immediately,” the principal said.
“But I didn’t do anything.”
The cop grabbed his arm.
“It was Cupcake!” Felix yelled. “He’s selling drugs on school property. He’s putting them in his gross sugar cakes. He had to be the one that planted drugs in my locker. You should be arresting him.”
Cupcake just laughed. “I haven’t done anything wrong.”
“You haven’t done anything wrong? You fucking raped Kennedy, you disgusting piece of shit.” Felix lunged at him, but the cop caught his arm.
No. No, no, no. Oh, shit!
There was an audible gasp from the students around us. But Kennedy’s gasp was the only one I was focused on. Tears pooled in the corners of her eyes as the cop handcuffed Felix and dragged him away from Cupcake.
“Everyone get to class!” The principal yelled. “Now!”
“How could you?” Kennedy said as students rushed past us. “You promised you wouldn’t tell anyone. I told you I liked Felix. How could you do this to me?”
“Kennedy, I’m so…”
“Sorry? I don’t care if you’re sorry. You promised.”
“I know, it just kind of came out at homecoming…”
“He’s known since homecoming?! Are you freaking kidding me?”
“I was just trying to help. I was so worried about you.”
“Save it, Brooklyn. I always have your back. Always. And the one time I ask you to have mine, you don’t.”
“Kennedy…”
“I was barely holding on as it was. You know that. And I was finally excited about something. But this whole time Felix was just being nice to me because he felt bad for me?”
No. “Of course not.”
“You think he’d actually like the poor girl from the wrong side of the tracks?” She tried to wipe away the tears that were pouring down her cheeks. “My life isn’t a fucking fairytale like yours, Brooklyn. God, Felix probably still likes you. Because everyone always just likes you. No one will ever want me.”
“Kennedy, that’s not true. Someone will want you.”
“Someone? Just not Felix? You sabotaged me. You knew I liked him and you ruined everything. He’ll never look at me the same. And God, I really can’t freaking look at you right now.” She ran off toward the bathroom.
I went to follow her, but Matt grabbed my hand. “I think you should give her a second to cool off.”
Isabella laughed as she walked past us. “Two down,” she said. “That was easier than I thought. Only one to go.” She placed her index finger in the center of Matt’s chest.
Matt grabbed her hand to push it away.
“Funny,” said Isabella. “We’re already holding hands.”
Matt dropped her hand like it had burned him.
“No matter. I still have a month to ruin this relationship. See you on Thanksgiving, Sissy.” She blew me a kiss and walked away, her high heels clicking loudly on the floor.
“I didn’t mean to,” I said through my tears. “I thought Felix would talk to Cupcake and fix it. I thought…”
“Why’d you tell Felix and not me?” Matt asked.
“I didn’t mean to tell anyone. It just kind of slipped out at homecoming…”
“At homecoming, yeah I heard you. Which means you kept it from me for weeks, Brooklyn.”
“I wasn’t keeping it from you. Kennedy asked me not to tell anyone.”
“But you told him.”
God, he sounded so pissed. “I’m sorry.”
Matt took a deep breath. “Maybe next time you need help with something you should ask your fiancé instead. Then maybe none of this would have happened.”
“You weren’t my fiancé then. We weren’t even together. Matt…”
“Because you wouldn’t come talk to me. You just broke up with me without even letting me explain my side. We only ever fight when you don’t talk to me. And when we got back together you looked me in the eye and promised me no more secrets. So what the hell is this?”