Repeat and Retribution

Chapter 32

“Crys,” Clyde was waiting for her within the hallway, catching her by surprise.

The man had this shadow in his eyes as he looked at her, sending a sort of heaviness inside her heart. It was like the look of anger and indifference towards her.

She could not help her brows from furrowing. “Hey Clyde,” she says in a cautious tone.

“Can I talk to you for a sec?” The man states as he kept avoiding her gaze.

Clyde was playing with his hands inside his pockets as she noticed that mannerism of his, whenever he was angry or disoriented. Seeing that she could not help but feel concerned at the cause of this.

“Sure, what’s it about?” she asks.

Clyde suddenly gave a funny look at the three girls who were behind her, she noticed that the man was suddenly a bit wary, though she just sees that her friends were as giddy and excited to meet the man, though they seem to also feel that indifference seeing as the man was not as approachable as Larse was.

“In private,” he states after a few moments.

“Uhm, will it be okay if we just go over there?” She points at the lawn in front of the building.

Sensing the sudden hostility on the man’s voice, she could not help but become cautious herself. So she decided to find a place where it was far from other people but was still visible to everyone.

Clyde nodded in agreement, she then turned to her friends and signals them to wait for a bit, which the three girls quickly bowed their heads.

“So, what’s this about?” She starts when they’re finally far from the attentive ears of the other students.

“What’s this I’ve been hearing lately,” Clyde hissed.

The sudden change in the young man's voice made her back away a bit, she was totally caught by surprise at his sudden actions.

“I don’t understand what you’re saying?” Her brows shot up.

“I heard you’ve been spreading rumors about Dana, why would you do such a thing! I thought you were nice and all, but doing this!” Clyde scolded, eyes glaring at her as he started pacing back and forth, hands raising in the air like some madman.

“Would you like to go to the guidance office to clear this out?” she tries to calm him down, as she too was getting confused now all of a sudden.

“What! Don’t try that on me Crys,” the young man’s voice became deeper, louder, and much harsher than before.

She was quite appalled because of Clyde's sudden outburst, she ended up gaping for a few moments as she suddenly lost her temper because of the man’s approach.

“Do not dare raise your voice at me! Don’t think you can come here, threaten and accuse me of something that I did not do! Where is your proof that I’m the one who did that, Ha! Show me your proof!” She says out loud making sure that everyone would hear, knowing full well that this method was the best option to reverse the man’s intimidation.

It seemed quite effective as Clyde was suddenly lost for words. “I…” he kept opening and moving his mouth but was unable to come up with anything.

“I will not stand here and be humiliated by you, I’m going to report this to the guidance office so that we can both get to the bottom of this,” she quickly continues, not wanting to give the man time to make a comeback.

“Yo-You’re the worst!” Clyde blurted out of shock.

It seems that made the man rethink what he had just done, as the plan to pressure Crystal into things did not work and backfired.

“Me! You’re the one who comes here pointing fingers and I’m the worst!” she rebuts, flailing her hands up in the air to get attention from the people around them.

She knew that a direct confrontation always made Clyde uncomfortable, especially if he is the one that is found to be in the wrong.

“I was just asking!” The man’s hisses.

“No, you are not. This is a direct accusation, Mr. Clyde Vancouver since you seem to be under the impression that I have been spreading rumors about your former girlfriend, which I for one do not know nor care about, what good will I even get from doing that!” she burst out as one by one students were starting to stand around them.

“Crys, you’re making a scene of this,” Clyde gritted his teeth, lowering his voice as his eyes were now unable to focus on her.

“Why wouldn’t I! That woman’s been scandalizing me for the past few days, and now you come here with those allegations, how dare you!” She mocks him, eyes teary as they had managed to find out that it was really Dana that made those pamphlets.

“So, you get back at her by spreading rumors!” Clyde lashes back at her for that comment.

She knew he was going to say that as she had anticipated it. “For what! For your information I will not stoop to her level.” she points out, face red as she walks a few paces closer to the man.

“Is this about the reason why they broke up?” Kathy butts in, trying to mediate the attention between them.

That got her attention as she quickly turned to her classmate who was now together with Elena and Denise. Several students were now gathered around them, listening in.

“Can you please elaborate on that?” she states, as she was no irritated because of this confrontation.

“All right, you made your point here,” Clyde blocks him.

It seems the man was now trying to take her attention, not wanting to further increase the damage that had been done.

“Shut up, you’re not the only person who wants to find out who's spreading these rumors,” she cuts him off, before the man could even utter another word.

“I’m out of here,” Clyde just raises his hands in surrender before walking out of there.

“Good riddance!” she says spitting the words out of her mouth. She turns her attention back to Kathy who was still standing there dumbfounded. “So, what exactly is this rumor?” she gestures her to continue.

“Well, I heard Dana’s been screwing with the whole basketball team,” the girl states smirking.

Her brow quickly rosed from that certain information. “Oh, and where’d you hear that?” she asks.

Though all three of them knew about it, since she gave hints to them, now was the only time that they were actually making a ruckus about it. She was quite aware that they would never dare tell something like that out in the open like that, so it was quite puzzled as to whom would start it.

“Everyone’s talking about it,” Elena added as they looked at each other.

“I heard it from a classmate of mine, she says someone saw Dana making out with Larse before,” Denise's face crumpled in a disgusted look.

“I thought it was Eric!” Kathy absent-mindedly corrected as it was the one that he had managed to tell them.

“Doesn’t Eric have a girlfriend?” Denise gasped as that knowledge was quite known all throughout the campus.

“I heard they broke up,” Elena said sadly.

Seeing as they had already managed to make a point from the scene. She walks out of there together with her three classmates, leaving a bunch of baffled students, whispering and murmuring at each other after hearing all the things that they had to say.

“I’m going to the guidance office to clear this out, I don’t what this causing trouble for me,” she tells them.

Crystal knew that if this came out, she would definitely be included in the primary suspects for this trouble since the school board already know that she and Dana have bad blood.

“We’ll go with you,” Kathy quickly says as all three of them walk side by side.

“Thank you guys,” she says, very pleased with having the support of her classmates.