I Spun the Bottle

I Spun the Bottle: Chapter Nineteen

Song for this chapter: “Bottle It Up” by Sara Barielles

“A-are you serious?” I managed to choke out in a mangled voice. I was stuck between feeling betrayed and being furious.

The fact was this: David was the male equivalent to Taylor. It made perfect sense now why they were going out.

“Of course,” he replied, the corners of his mouth lifted up ever so slightly into a barely visible smug smirk.

I bit my lower lip until I was sure I could taste my copper-flavored blood. “What’s your condition?” I finally asked, lowering my eyes to the floor.

“It’s just one tiny favor.” The corner of David’s lips seemed to curve up into a steeper slant. There was a strange, mischievous glimmer in his eyes.

“Why don’t I believe that,” I retorted in a low voice.

David must have heard my undertone comment because he frowned. “What you don’t trust me?”

Hearing his words, my eyes snapped back up to his. I glared at him, mustering up all the hatred I had towards him. I snapped. “Do I trust you? Are you seriously asking me that? Why would I ever trust you! You are nothing more than a condescending, degradable, selfish jerk I have ever met.” A shaky breath of air pressed through my lungs before I continued. “All I wanted was to get through high school on a low profile. Now, because of your bitch of a girlfriend took that damn picture it’s ruined! Now to make matters worse, you also have that picture! You ‘befriended’ me just to find out what she had against me, didn’t you!?”

My words started morphing together, becoming one giant glob of words. My eyes began to sting, and I didn’t know whether it was from anger or hurt, but I managed to keep a single drop from falling. The last thing I wanted to do was cry in front of the one person I thought I was developing feelings for.

“Did you just cuss?” David raised an inquisitive brow at me, almost as if he didn’t hear another word of my monologue.

“You’re a jerk!” I raised my voice two notches louder than it should have been, and he seemed to notice it.

“Shhh!” David held his right index finger in front of his mouth. “You’re making a scene again. If the teachers find us, we might get a detention. You don’t want that now, do you, Miss Goodie Two Shoes?”

“Don’t call me that,” I demanded. Right now, I really hated that nickname with such a passion.

“Oh yeah? Maybe I should call you…Carrot instead?” David watched me with a mocking manner, waiting knowingly for my reaction.

“W-where did you hear that!?” I narrowed my eyes at him. There was only one person that knew that nickname, and that was Austin.

An evil smirk filled his features. “I may have overheard an interesting conversation the other day.”

“In other words you eavesdropped on Austin and me.” I accused, a grim feeling washing over me. This was why I knew I shouldn’t have told Austin that.

“What?” he gasped in an overdramatic girly manner. “Me? Do that?”

I could hardly stop myself from rolling my eyes. “Shut up. It’s not funny—you’re not funny. Just tell me what you want me to do. The bell’s going to ring soon,” I told him, glancing at a nearby clock. There was only about five more minutes left in lunch. We were out here longer than I thought.

“Hmm,” he bit his lower lip. And even though I was more than annoyed with him, I couldn’t help but find that small action, slightly attractive. I felt my eyes skim his lips for a second before I realized what I was doing. I immediately commanded myself to stop. “You know what? I think I’ll just wait. Maybe I could think of something better,” David said, intervening with my thoughts. “Just forget I said anything…for now.”

Before I could protest, David sent me a quick wink and then he pivoted on his heel. He headed back to the cafeteria. “Hey, we’re not done talking yet…” I protested, but noticed it was just a waste of breath. David rounded the corner and disappeared from view.

Why would he suddenly change his mind about what he wanted me to do? Why would he even bring me out here if he wasn’t going to stick with his plan? What is his plan? A multitude of questions bombarded my mind as I tried over and over to think of the answers. Nothing came to me.

“Hey, where’s your pass?” An accusative voice crept up from behind me.

Surprised, a little squeak left my mouth. Turning my head to the right, I noticed it was one of the teachers. I didn’t have him for any of my classes but I heard he was one of the English teachers. Great, the last thing I needed was a detention. “Err…hi.” I tried a loose smile, but I wasn’t sure how it was showing up from his point of view.

“Do you have your pass?” he repeated, drawing closer to me. He was now about ten feet away.

“N-no. I was uhh just about to use the bathroom,” I lied, hoping that he’d buy it.

The middle-aged man stared at me suspiciously before saying. “The bathroom’s that way.” He pointed behind me, and to the left, the opposite direction from where I was standing.

“Right…well I guess I should go. I don’t have the strongest bladder.” I let another lie slip through my lips, before I turned around and headed in the direction of his finger. I didn’t wait for him to say anything or stop me, but once I rounded the corner, I glanced behind me. The middle-aged teacher nowhere in sight.

I entered the cafeteria, not bothering to even go to the bathroom. The bell was going to ring in less than two minutes, and my tray was still lying lonely on the table. I could feel several pairs of eyes on me. Instead of turning my eyes in the direction of Taylor and probably David, I kept them forward.

I found a couple of redheads and scurried my way over there. They both looked at me questioningly. And I knew they were going to asked me dozens upon dozens of questions.

“Well, what did he want?” Penny was the first to speak up. Her eyes drifted to the right of me, most likely looking over at David.

“N-nothing,” I muttered, lowering my eyes down to my half filled tray. Penny opened her mouth, but I quickly interrupted her, making a quick excuse. “Uh, hang on, I better throw this away.”

Before they could stop me, I picked up my tray and headed for the nearest trash can. I didn’t want to talk about this right now. Or maybe never at all. I was still not over the fact that David was doing this to me. It hurt. I thought…maybe for a second, that we were actually getting along.

Shaking those stupid, irrelevant thoughts out of my head, I emptied the contents of my tray into the trash before setting it on the rack. Just as I did that the bell rang. At last lunch was over. In my opinion, this lunch lasted a lifetime.

The cafeteria started to clear out, and I followed in suit. Only three more classes before I could go home. I prayed they would go quickly.

“Don’t forget.” Penny nudged me with her elbow, and I jumped. I didn’t know she was next to me.

“Forget what?”

“You already did,” she sighed, giving me a slight eye roll. “You’re going to see Jace after school today.”

“Oh yeah, I remember now.” I had totally forgotten about that.

“Okay, meet Cam and me at his locker. We’ll drive you there. M’kay?” She smiled, and all I could do was nod.

I was sick and tired of arguing today. Besides, I could use a little bit of cheering up. And Jace could probably help me with that.

“Alright.” I nodded to Penny just as she turned left and I turned right, continuing down the opposite end of the hall.

***

(After School )

I leaned against the wall next to the school entrance, waiting for the two redheads. For the rest of the day, I had thought mainly about David (even though I really didn’t want to). Every time I caught myself thinking about that jerk, I managed to pull my thoughts away long enough to catch the bell ring. I guess, I thought about him way too much today (just like right now).

Shaking my head, I threw David and his irresistible grin out of my mind for about the millionth time today. Just as I did this, Penny happened to walk out of the school doors, along with Cameron.

“Hey,” I greeted, just as I stepping into their view.

“Ah, there you are! I thought you ditched us and went home,” Penny said, a grin splitting her lips.

Cam tipped his head towards me, and I took that as a sign of hello. I gave him a slight smile before noticing the small bulk of papers in his hand.

“Is that Jace’s?” I asked, directing my eyes to the papers.

Cam followed my gaze and then nodded. “Yup, here you go.”

He handed the bulk to me, and I took them. The papers were light, but still quite a bit for just a day of absence.

“Alrighty then, let’s go!” Penny proclaimed before intertwining her hands with Cam’s before continuing towards her car.

I followed closely behind them, smiling to myself. They made such a cute couple.

“So what did David want?” Cam suddenly asked. I thought they had already forgotten about that earlier incident.

At the sound of his name, my eyes scanned the parking lot, looking for the familiar brunette. My eyes came up empty handed, except I could clearly see Taylor’s car in a spot across the lot. None of them were in sight. For a brief second, I wondered where they were.

“Lyn?”

“Hmm?” I shifted my eyes back onto Cam.

“What did he want?” he repeated the question.

I bit the inside of my cheek. “It was nothing. He just wanted to ask me a question…”

My lie was as transparent as mineral water. And by the look I received from Cam, I knew he didn’t buy it. But surprisingly, instead of pressing me further, he completely dropped the subject, shrugging as if it was no big deal. I let a long, almost inaudible sigh leave my lungs.

Once we got to Penny's car, I hopped into the back seat, while the couple occupied the front ones. The time it took to get to Jace’s house was about ten minutes. So the next time I looked up, I realized Penny’s car had come to a complete stop in front of his house.

Although I had only seen his house once, I could easily identify it. Suddenly my palms were getting sweaty. And I didn’t understand why I was so nervous. A feeling of butterflies filled the core of my stomach, making me slightly lightheaded.

It was just Jace. I told myself, trying to shake off the uncomfortable feeling. There’s no reason to be nervous.

I looked down at hands and noticed that I had started to crumple the edges of Jace’s homework. I tried as best as I could to smooth them out.

“I’m guessing you’re going to need a ride home?” Penny inquired, glancing at me through the rear-view mirror.

I shook my head. “No, I can ask my brother for a ride home.”

“You sure? I wouldn’t mind, really,” Penny insisted, but I shook my head side to side again.

“Nah, it’s fine. You already drove me here. Thanks though.” I smiled warmly at her invitation.

“Okay, if you said so.”

“Thanks for the ride. I’ll see you tomorrow,” I said before opening the door. “Bye Cam.”

Penny responded with something along the lines of no problem, while Cam bid his adieu.

Just as I was about to shut the door, Cam said something. “Remember Lyn, Jace is sick, so no smooching!”

My cheeks flamed. I turned to snap at him, but before I could, they had already zoomed down the road, disappearing out of sight within a few seconds.