Chapter 58

Chapter 27 It had been a few weeks since Graeme told Grayson social services was going to get involved and so far, they hadn't. I didn't know if Grayson's family even called or if social services immediately dismissed it because Grayson was eighteen. I was hoping the latter was the case. Lately, Belle had been a bit distracted. She spaced out a lot and rarely talked and I had a feeling it had to do with Devon. Thalia and Devon were always together, acting like those annoyingly romantic couples. Even Grayson and I didn't act like that. "Belle," I said, trying to get her attention. She hadn't even touched her lunch. "Belle?" No reaction. I waved my hand in her face. Nothing. "I'm dropping out of school." Nothing. "I was abducted by aliens last night." Nothing. "It turns out I'm not actually Poppy McCormick. I was switched at birth and my real name is Kathy Einstein." Nothing. "I'm pregnant with Grayson's child and we're going to run away to Iceland together." Nothing. I did get a reaction from Grayson, though. He choked on his water, and coughed before talking. "What? We haven't even..." "I'm trying to get her attention, obviously," I said. "Nothing I said was true, doorknob." "Here, let me try," Grayson said, picking up a fry off his plate and throwing it at Belle. It hit her square in the face, yet he got no reaction. "Wow, she must be really spaced out. Devon?" "Probably," I said. I stood up. "I'm going to talk to that idiot. Nobody hurts my best friend." "If he tries anything..." "This is Devon we're talking about, not Ben," I said. "I'll be fine, don't worry. When she gets out of her spaced out faze, tell her I went to the washroom." I looked at Belle. "I'm surprised she can't hear us." I sighed and walked to the table Devon was sitting at. Thalia, of course, was sitting too close to him. They seemed to be having a private discussion, but I didn't care. I really had to talk to Devon, and I could care less if Thalia got mad at me. "Devon, can we talk?" Devon looked at me with a surprised look while Thalia, like usual, glared at me. "What about?" Devon asked. "Privately," I said. "Whatever you want to say to him, you could say to me," Thalia said, hooking her arm in Devon's. "Right, babe?" Devon looked back and forth between me and Thalia. His gaze settled on Thalia. "I'll only be a minute," Devon promised. "Whatever," Thalia said, scooting away from Devon as he stood up. I led him to a quiet corner in the cafeteria, crossing my arms over my chest. "How could you be so heartless?" I asked. "Look, if this is about what happened a few months ago with Grayson..." "It's not," I said. "It's about Belle." "Oh," Devon said. "What... What about her?" "Don't give me that," I said. "You told Belle you wanted to get back together with her, then you get together with Thalia, who, by the way, probably doesn't even like you." Devon scoffed. "Yeah, right." "So why?" I asked. "Why tell Belle you still like her, only to get together with another girl?" "Belle obviously doesn't like me," Devon said. "Seriously?" I asked. "Where did you get that from? She told you that you have to prove you've change. And what do you do? Ignore that and go for another girl. How stupid are you?" "Stupid?" Devon asked. "I am not stupid." "Really?" I asked. "You're taking the easy way out just so you won't have to do any work. Have you seen Belle recently? She's constantly spaced out, which never happened to her before. But ever since you started dating that backstabber..." "Hey, Thalia is not a backstabber." I raised an eyebrow. "Then you don't know her at all. First of all, yes, she is. Belle told her she liked you and was planning on getting back together with you and the next day, you and Thalia start dating." "... Belle said that?" The tone of Devon's voice changed from annoyed to a bit sad. I nodded. "Yeah, she did. She even told me that she knows you were a jerk for being involved in Grayson's shooting, but you were always so sweet around her." Devon shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "When we went to the haunted house, Belle said something about me not knowing the truth about Thalia. What was she talking about?" "Thalia probably doesn't even like you," I said. "She's probably trying to get Grayson jealous, or something. Grayson and Thalia dated a few years ago. Then she moved away and they broke up because Grayson didn't like the whole long distance thing. And when she came back, she was constantly flirting with Grayson, trying to get his attention, and sending me death glares." "Really?" Devon asked. "Wow. Um, let's say I still want Belle. What would I do?" I smiled. Thank goodness. "Well, first off, you probably want to break up with Thalia. And if there's one thing I know about Belle, is that she loves big, romantic gestures." Devon sighed. "Great, something I hate." "If you really want Belle back..." "Yeah, yeah, I get it," Devon said. "Big, romantic gesture. I'll work on it." "Good," I said, turning around to go back to my table. "Poppy, wait," Devon said. I faced him again. "Can you tell Grayson how sorry I am? I really didn't mean for things to go as far as they did. I just wanted to scare him, but Dedrick had other ideas. I never thought he was actually going to pull the trigger." The genuine tone Devon held told me he actually was sorry. "I think it would be better if you tell him that yourself," I said. "So he knows you're actually sorry." "Right," Devon said. "And... I'm sorry you got involved. Again, I only wanted to scare him." "Apology accepted," I said. Devon gave me a small smile. "Thanks." I nodded before walking back to my table. Belle was out of her spaced out, quietly eating her lunch. I sat down beside Grayson, giving him a subtle thumbs-up. "Where did you go?" Belle asked. "Washroom," I replied. "Are you okay? You were really spaced out." "I wasn't that spaced out," Belle objected. I raised an eyebrow. "Really? I told you I'm pregnant with Grayson's child and we're running away to Iceland, but you didn't even bat an eye." Belle widened her eyes. "You're what?!" "See?" I asked. "I was trying to get your attention. Don't worry, I'm not actually pregnant. Unless... I am." "Poppy, stop kidding around about that," Grayson said. "We've never even had..." "Shush, I'm talking," I said, looking at Belle again. "Is the whole Devon thing still affecting you?" Belle sighed and nodded. "Yeah. I thought it wouldn't. I thought I could get over it, but... I still love him." "You're what?!" a loud voice suddenly shrieked from the cafeteria. Everyone turned to the source of the noise, seeing Thalia standing from the table she was at. It looked like Devon was breaking up with her. "You're such a jerk!" Thalia reached for her bottle of soda and dumped it on Devon's head. She then slammed the bottle on the table before marching out of the cafeteria. Devon sighed and stood up, wiping his now-damp hair out of his eyes. I noticed he gave Belle a sad smile before walking out of the cafeteria. Belle stood up. "I'm going for a walk." Judging by the look in her eye, she was going to go talk to Devon. I didn't want to stop her, so I let her go. "You think they're going to make up?" Grayson asked. "I think so," I said. "Although, if Belle doesn't quite forgive him yet, Devon will be obligated to do a big, romantic gesture." "Oh man, then she better not," Grayson said. "I want to see that." "Honestly, me too," I said. I never really thought about Devon as the romantic type, but seeing him try to do a huge gesture to win Belle back would be quite the sight. Lunch ended shortly after and Grayson told me he had to get his pills from his locker since it was almost noon. He promised to meet me at my locker, so I headed there. "Poppy," a sharp voice behind me said. I closed my locker and turned around, seeing a full pissed off Thalia with her arms crossed. "This is all your fault." I furrowed my eyebrows. "What is?" She laughed cruelly. "Don't pretend you don't know. You go talk to my boyfriend then afterwards, he broke up with me. That is not a coincidence." "Why were you even dating him?" I asked. "You don't even like him." "And you would know that because?" she questioned. I was about to answer, but she wouldn't let me. "You know what? You are ruining my life. You stole the one boy who meant everything to me. You do not love Grayson as much as I do. You never will." "And that's how I know you never liked Devon," I said. "Because you can't get over Grayson. He doesn't like you anymore, alright? When will you get that in your head?" Thalia pushed me up against the locker, her eyes cold. "You think you're a perfect girl? You think you can just take whatever is mine away. I won't let you. I will take back what's rightfully mine." "Thalia," Grayson suddenly said. He was standing behind Thalia with his arms crossed. "Leave Poppy alone." Thalia moved away, turning around to look at Grayson. "I was just..." "Save it," Grayson said. "I heard what you said. Poppy did not take me away from you, alright? We dated a long time ago and you need to get over it. Stop treating Poppy like she's the bad guy in this." "We had something special, Grayson," Thalia said. "Something not a lot of people have." "Past tense," Grayson pointed out. "And now I have something special with Poppy. And trust me, what you and I had is nothing compared to what I have with Poppy." I smiled slightly at that. Grayson's words always made me feel like I was melting, even when he wasn't trying. "What do you even see in her?" Thalia asked. "For one thing," Grayson said. "She's not a bitch like you." Being called that made Thalia extremely shocked. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Finally, she scoffed and marched away. Grayson put his arm around my shoulder. "You okay, Flower?" I gave him a weak smile. "Yeah." Honestly, I wasn't. Seeing Thalia act like that made me wary of her now. I was already on her bad side and she seemed really determined to get Grayson back, even though Grayson made it more than clear that he wasn't interested. I was going to have to steer clear of Thalia.