Rumors
734 Words
The next morning, Ava walked through the school gates with her hoodie up and her head down. She usually didn’t care who noticed her. She liked it that way—blending in, invisible. But today, everything felt different.
People were looking.
Not just looking. Staring.
She could feel eyes on her from all directions, like tiny pricks of heat on her skin.
As she walked down the hallway, she heard it.
Whispers.
“She’s the one who ran into Ethan yesterday.”
“Did you see how close they were?”
“Someone said she touched his face.”
“She probably planned it.”
Ava clenched her fists inside her sleeves. Her face burned with embarrassment, even though she hadn’t done anything wrong. It had been an accident. A stupid, messy accident.
She hadn’t even touched his face.
She walked faster, weaving through students, trying to block out the noise.
Then she saw him.
Ethan Thompson was leaning against his locker, earbuds in, casually talking to one of his teammates. He looked calm. Untouched. Like yesterday hadn’t happened.
Ava’s heart gave a strange little jump. She hated that it did.
For a second, she thought he might look up. Maybe smile. Maybe explain to people that it was nothing.
He didn’t.
He didn’t even glance her way.
She dropped into her seat in homeroom just as the bell rang. Zara sat beside her, chewing gum and tapping on her phone.
“Girl,” Zara said, turning to her. “You’re literally trending. Did you fall on top of him or something?”
Ava groaned and buried her face in her arms. “No. I bumped into him and my stuff fell. That’s it.”
“Hmm.” Zara smirked. “Well, people are acting like you two made out in the hallway.”
“Of course they are,” Ava muttered. “This school lives off gossip.”
Skye walked in a minute later, quiet as always, and sat across from them. She slid a piece of paper to Ava. It was a folded note with hearts drawn on it.
“What’s this?” Ava asked.
“Someone left it in your locker,” Skye said softly.
Ava opened the note.
“How much did you pay him to talk to you?”
Her stomach dropped.
She crumpled the paper and shoved it in her bag. “I hate this school.”
By lunch, the whispers had turned into full-blown stares. Ava couldn’t eat. Her appetite had disappeared.
She walked to the library alone, hoping to hide out.
But Ethan was there too.
He was sitting at a back table, earbuds out this time, scrolling through his phone. When he looked up, their eyes met.
Ava froze.
For a second, neither of them said anything.
Then he smirked. “Still crashing into people, or are you good today?”
Her face hardened. “Still ignoring people after you ruin their day, or are you just that full of yourself?”
He leaned back in his chair. “Relax. It was a joke.”
Ava crossed her arms. “You could’ve told people it was nothing.”
“I didn’t know I had to manage your reputation,” he replied, not unkindly, but still with that annoying calmness.
“You don’t,” Ava snapped. “But you knew what people would say. And you let them.”
Ethan’s jaw tightened, just slightly. “They were going to talk no matter what.”
She shook her head. “You’re a coward.”
Before he could answer, she turned and walked out of the library.
Her heart was pounding.
Not because she was scared.
Because she was angry.
That night, at home, she lay in bed staring at the ceiling.
How had her life gone from quiet to chaos in just one day?
All because of him.
She didn’t even like him.
Right?
He was just a boy with a nice face and a bad attitude.
And yet… she couldn’t stop thinking about the way he’d looked at her. Not in the library—but in the hallway. When their hands had touched. When something had passed between them.
Was that real?
Or had she imagined it?
She didn’t know.
But deep inside, something whispered that this wasn’t the end.
Something else was coming.
And it would hit her harder than that hallway crash ever did.
- Writer
