Chapter 45

Chapter 14 "No," Grayson said, shaking his head. "Absolutely not." I frowned, leaning against the hood of his car. "Come on. It will be fun." "Cut me that crap, Poppy," Grayson said. "I am not going to a stupid Halloween dance at this school. I don't do costumes." "Grayson, please?" I asked. "I don't want to go alone and we could enter to win the best couple costume." Grayson stared at me for a bit before snorting. "I'm not going. Dances are stupid. Costumes are stupid." "Please?" I asked again, stepping towards him and resting my hand on his chest. My other hand moved to the back of his neck, twirling my fingers in his sandy blond hair. Grayson bit his lip, shoving his hands into his pockets. He was trying his best not to cave in, I could tell. "No," he said, his voice cracking a bit. I reached up, pressing a kiss on the corner of his mouth. Grayson groaned. "I swear, someday you're going to be the death of me." "Is that a yes?" I asked. "Alright, fine," he said. "Sometimes, I have no idea..." I interrupted him, and thanked him, by pressing my lips to his. He removed his hands from his pocket and wrapped them around my back, pulling me closer. And at that same time, I pulled away. "Thank you." "Yeah, whatever," Grayson said. "Now for the love of God, give me a proper thank you kiss." I rolled my eyes, pulling him towards me as our lips connected. I knew Grayson hated school dances as much as he hated costumes because according to him, he didn't do 'dress-up'. So having him agree to going to the school's Halloween dance in two weeks made me love him even more. Grayson placed his strong hands on my hips, lifting me up and sitting me on the hood of his car. "You're so irresistible," Grayson murmured against my lips. "I don't know how I can say no to you." "You can't," I said, giving him another kiss. "You love me too much." "That, I do," Grayson said. He leaned down to kiss me again, but he was interrupted by the first bell of the day. "That stupid bell." I hopped off his car, intertwining my hand with his and pulling him inside the school. Tony wouldn't appreciate me being late because I was too busy kissing my boyfriend. He would probably separate us in class and change our lab partners. After getting our stuff, we went to the biology classroom and got there literally a second before the bell rang. Tony told everyone to begin reading chapter three from our textbook, then write all the definitions of the chapter's terms. Too much work for me, but whatever. Grayson pushed our desks together, receiving a glare from my brother, but he ignored it. "I'm just going to copy off you," Grayson said. "I'll consider it as payment for me going to the stupid dance." "Come on," I said with an eye roll, opening my textbook to chapter three. "It will be fun." "So long as your costume is a nurse." Annoyed, I punched his shoulder. "Don't even go there. I'm not going to be one of those girls who were provocative clothing on Halloween because I can get away with it." "Babe, I'm kidding," Grayson said. "Besides, I'd have to beat up a lot of guys for checking you out. What costume do you want to wear them? Because if we're entering to win best couple costume, I have to look sexy." I rolled my eyes. "I don't know yet. But I'll make sure you look handsome." "Screw handsome. I'm sexy." "I think you need a reality check." "The only check I need is the one to check you out." "Very funny. Now shut up and let me work." Grayson, surprisingly, allowed me to start doing my work. But he started copying everything I was writing down, claiming I still owed him for going to the dance. When I told him I repaid him with a few kisses, he told me it wasn't enough considering he saved my life a few months back. "Are you still on that?" I asked. "I never left it, babe." "You know what? Fine, copy my work. I'd rather not argue with you." Grayson smiled victoriously and continued copying my work. It wasn't long before Tony actually noticed and told Grayson to move his desk back to where it was. Muttering something under his breath, he did exactly that. When biology finally ended, Grayson walked me to my English class, kissing my check before walking towards his class. After the bell rang, our teacher announced that we were going to be given a poem that we had to analyze with the person she was going to assign as our partner. And just my luck. Everyone's partner was one of the two people sitting beside them. Mine was Henry. When we received the poems, we both read it to ourselves. That was until Henry opened his stupid mouth and started talking. "You know what I find funny?" he asked. Knowing I wouldn't be able to ignore him, I sighed. "What?" "How the principal is will to lie to the students to keep one student's secret safe." I furrowed my eyebrows, confused at what he was talking about. "When did the principal lie?" "Remember that email she sent a while ago?" Henry asked. "Saying how the whole suicide rumor going around is false? That's when she lied." How on earth would Henry know that it was... "It was you," I said, his smirk a confirmation. "You started that rumor." "Darling, I didn't start no rumor," he said. "I just told everyone the truth on why we were on lockdown. They deserved to know." "You had no right," I said, getting up from the desk and asking my teacher if I can go for a walk because I was feeling really stressed. She allowed me, thankfully. I didn't want to be in the class any longer because I was pissed and upset at the same time. Pissed that Henry knew that Grayson tried committing suicide and he decided to tell the whole school. And I was upset because the person who started it all was the one who was constantly hitting on me. I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and dialed Grayson's number. I knew he was in gym so he probably wasn't going to answer right away. Or he was. "Is everything okay?" he asked. "You never call during class." "I know who started it," I said. "Started what, exactly?" he asked. "Poppy, where are you? I'm coming to you." "Outside my class," I said. "Alright, I'm coming," he said before hanging up. Not even a minute later, Grayson walked up to me and pulled me into a hug, knowing something was wrong. "It's okay, Flower. Why don't you tell me who started what?" "Henry," I said, looking up at Grayson. "He was the one who told everyone about the lockdown." "Henry?" Grayson asked. "The boy who's constantly hitting on you? That Henry?" "Yeah," I said. "Just... please don't go ballistic. I wanted you to know because I didn't want you finding out some other way." The dark look in Grayson's eyes told me otherwise. He was not going to let it go. He muttered that he had to go back to class, so I did as well. For a fraction of a second, I considered warning Henry, but I decided against it. I knew Grayson wouldn't beat the crap out of him. Correction: I hoped Grayson wouldn't beat the crap out of him. For the rest of my English class, I ignored Henry and worked on analyzing the poem alone. I didn't want to talk to Henry, or even look at him. He was a sick person for telling people that Grayson tried committing suicide. It was personal. When class ended, I hurried to get my stuff packed, but I ended up spilling my pencil case, taking an even longer time to clean it up. Once it was put in my bag, I hurried out of the class. At the nearby lockers, there was some sort of a commotion. Please don't be what I think it is... Good god, it was. I pushed my way through the crowd of students, only to see that Grayson had Henry pinned up against the locker, fisting his shirt. "I heard you were spreading crap about me," Grayson said, his voice cold. I hated seeing him like this. "It's not crap if it's true," Henry snapped. "You might want to be careful talking about your attempted suicide with the possibility of people overhearing." "Grayson," I said. "Let him go." Grayson stared intensely at Henry for a few moments before releasing his shirt. "Listening to your girlfriend?" Henry asked. "That's odd, considering you're what everyone considers a heartless jerk." Grayson, his anger reaching the maximum, was about to launch himself at Henry, but I was quick enough to stand between them. Not wanting to hurt me, Grayson reacted quickly and stopped in his tracks. "What is going on here?" Mrs. Goth asked suddenly. Everyone turned to see our principal standing there, her arms crossed. "Grayson was threatening me!" Henry said. "I did nothing wrong!" "You started the rumor about me!" Grayson objected. "Because of you, everyone keeps looking at me!" "I started no rumor! I was telling the truth!" "Enough," Mrs. Goth said sternly. "Henry, you have no right to do what you did. And Grayson, you can not go starting fights if someone angers you. You have detention after school today. And you, Henry, need to come with me to my office." Henry sighed, grumbling as he followed Mrs. Goth to her office. Grayson took the opportunity to storm out of the school. I followed him, knowing it wasn't a good idea for him to be alone when he was pissed. "Grayson," I said. "I told you not to go ballistic." "You think I care if he gets hurt?" Grayson asked. "He's such a jack a--" "That doesn't mean you can fight him," I said. "He was just looking for a reaction." "Well, he got one," Grayson said. "I swear, one day he won't be lucky." He threw his head back, taking a deep breath. "I feel sick, Poppy. Like, really sick." "You seemed fine this morning," I said. Grayson rested his hand in his forehead, closing his eyes. "I can't... I feel dizzy." He stumbled a bit, though he was standing still. I quickly grabbed his arm, keeping him from toppling over. "Come on, let's get you to the nurse," I said.