Rumours
1229 Words
KatieI pull away from Tyler and run down the hall to the stairs. Grade 12 boys’ gym class is first period this week. I sprint towards the gym.
“No running in halls!” I hear a teacher call out, but I ignore it.
I push through the doors of the boys’ change room. I walk in and I hear all the guys talking loudly to each other. “College chicks must be really hot if your brother cheated on this,” I hear a guy say as I turn the corner and see them all.
“Katie?”
“What are you doing in here?”
“You do know this is the boy’s change room, right?”
“Unless you’re looking to give us a live show?” They start hollering.
I look through the faces until I find him. He’s shirtless when I come up to him and I’m very aware of his height right now. “You think this is funny?!” I yell at Jared.
“Why are you yelling at me?” Jared says all innocently.
“I know it was you,” I say. “I know you did this. I just don’t know why. Why would do this to me?”
“What’s the big deal, Katie?” Jared says. “Half the guys at this school have seen you with less on anyway.”
“You’re unbelievable,” I say. “What did I do to you? What did I do to make you want to hurt me like this?”
“Katie, I never told you to take that picture. I never told you to send it. You did that all on your own. Not everyone is as perfect as they seem,” Jared says.
“You’re the one that sent that picture?!” I hear a voice say beside me and look to see Evan without a shirt as well coming up to us and he does not look happy.
“Chill Evan,” Jared says. “Just a joke. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Doesn’t mean anything?!” Evan yells at him. “You can’t do that to someone. Just because a girl gives you a photo doesn’t mean you can go and spread it around. Doesn’t matter what she did to you, there’s no excuse.”
“I never gave him that photo,” I say sternly to Evan. I can’t believe that he thinks that I would.
“Then how did…” Evan starts, and I give him a look. He turns to glare at Jared. “From your brother? That’s disgusting. You are even worse than I thought.” The warning bell rings.
“I think I’m done with this conversation,” Jared says and turns away to go back to his bag.
“No way,” I say and grab his arm and pull him up to face me. “I can’t believe you would do something like this to me. All out of spite. Are you mad that I dated your brother? Are you mad that after I broke up with him, I still didn’t give you the time of day? I’d never date you, Jared. Not in a million years. And your brother has nothing to do with that.”
“Instead of getting mad at me, why don’t you go to the guy you gave the photo to in the first place? Because without Devon, this never would have happened,” Jared says.
“Boys!” a loud voice calls into the change room and walks in. “What’s taking so long?” Mr. Stark’s eyes fall onto me. “Are you lost, Ms. Ryder?”
“I was just leaving, Mr. Stark,” I say and then I turn to leave, angrier than I have ever been before.
When I walk out of the change room, Colin is leaning up against the lockers, waiting.
“Colin.” I run up to him. “I have to talk to you.”
“Your ex-boyfriend’s brother is even worse than I thought,” Colin says angrily.
"Colin," I say and grab his hand. "I'm so sorry this happened. I never meant for that photo to get out. I sent it to Devon and then I deleted it off his phone when we broke up…"
“Katie, this isn’t your fault. I’m not mad at you, I’m mad for you,” Colin says. “I’m going to kill him.”
“I have to call Devon,” I say. “I have to talk to him.”
“Katie, maybe you should wait a bit before you talk to him,” Colin says.
“Everyone is looking at me, Colin,” I say. “Talking about me, laughing at me, I can’t do this.”
Colin grabs me to hold me in a tight hug and I start crying into his chest and he strokes my hair. “It’ll be okay,” Colin says. “You’ve got me and I’m not going anywhere.”
“You don’t deserve this,” I say, pulling away from him.
“And you do?” Colin says. “No one deserves this.” And then he looks over my head. “Hey!” he yells out and then lets go of me and walks away. I turn and see Colin walking up to Jared. “You are literally the worse person,” Colin says.
“Why don’t you go back to your science experiments and w***e girlfriend,” Jared says. Colin pushes him. “Big mistake, nerd,” Jared says, and he pushes him back and they start going at each other.
“Guys, stop!” I yell at them. They don’t and people crowd around. “Jared, Colin, teacher!” Jared stops first and Colin just glares at him.
“You think you are some big shot, spreading around a photo of a girl that you haven’t even been with?” Colin says.
“Sorry that you are one of the few guys in this school that hasn’t seen her dressed like that,” Jared says.
Evan steps in and pushes Jared towards the gym. "Let's go," Evan says.
“This isn’t over, science boy!” Jared calls out as he disappears behind the gym doors.
“I hate that guy,” Colin says as he comes up to me.
“Pretty brave of you to take on a hockey player,” I say.
“I’m not completely weak,” Colin says. “And besides, Jared may be stronger than me, but he’s not a good fighter. I could have taken him.”
“Think smarter, not harder?” I say.
“Exactly,” Colin says. “We should probably head to class though.” I take out my phone. “Call him later, Katie,” Colin says.
- Writer
