Replaceable II
Ethan shifts uncomfortably as he looks between Alejandro and I. I was throwing him a bone and I could tell he wanted to take it and be forgiven but he didn't want to go against Alejandro.
But it seems like my forgiveness was more important for the next thing I know he's turning to me and nodding. "Of course Principessa, I'd love to-"
I get up and roll my eyes as I cut him off. "Yeah, yeah save the bullshit for someone who wants to listen." I call over my shoulder as I turn my back to the table and start walking towards the exit.
A loud thud sounds, one that sounds familiar to someone slamming their fist down onto the table. I flinch, my tuff facade wavers yet I refuse to turn around.
The only reaction I give is the tensing of my shoulders as a low stern voice sounds. "Enough." A long tense silence follows, before he continues. "Cut the attitude." His voice remains calm and collected, but the warning is still there.
I slowly spin on my heels, hating how submissive I still feel. I should have the upper hand not him.
I meet Alejandro's eye for the first time, and my facade crumbles a little more as his hard penetrating gaze drills into mine.
I plaster on a look of indifference before raising a brow. Those warm brown eyes take the moment to flicker around my face, his features softening slightly. He's going to say something, only when he opens his mouth to speak, I hastily turn around and call to Ethan over my shoulder.
"Let's go. I can't be late for first period. Need to keep up appearances. Wouldn't want to be deemed irresponsible." I throw back using the words Alejandro had spat at me yesterday.
And it's only when I hear Marco choke on his water yet again, that I allow a small triumphant smile to rest on my face as I make my way out.
. . .
"So what's got you in a mood, my little sour puss." Mason cooes squishing my cheek.
I slap his hand away from my face and then have to slap it away from my lunch tray as he tries to grab one of my fries. I glare at the boy across from me. "Shut up."
"You've been bitchier than usual since Monday." His teasing smile drops. "Just get it out so we can all move on with our lives."
After a moment of glaring at Jacob, I finally give in, "I'm pissed at Alejandro.... and giving him the silent treatment."
His brows raise in surprise. "How long have you been giving him the silent treatment?"
I glance to the side with a sigh, it was Friday, and the last time I'd been in a room with him was Monday at breakfast. "Five days."
"That explains it."
I peek up at him. "Explains what?"
"Those earrings," Jacob's lips twitch as he leans back in his chair. "You're not diamond earrings type of rich, Cam."
I shift in my seat and bring a hand up to fiddle with my new diamond earrings. They'd been placed in a box atop my neat bed. Mamá and I had been comfortable growing up, but not wealthy enough to splurge on diamonds.
Yes, I was mad but I wasn't stupid.
What type of person would give up a pair of diamond earrings?
I flicker my gaze down and pick a fry off my tray.
Although Alejandro hasn't forced me to talk to him, he's made his intentions abundantly clear and something tells me he's not the type of man to wait around for me.
"He missed my performance." I mutter lowly, in an attempt to flare that fiery anger that was there last week, but with time the flame has died down into a pit of loneliness.
"No one goes to those." Mason scoffs, moving forward to once again grab a fry while glancing at me like I'm crazy. "Voluntarily sitting through two hours of idiots who make the sound of dying cats bearable? Just to finally get to the last five minutes where you play?" He scoffs and shakes his head. "I love you Cam, but even I wouldn't subject myself to that."
I knock my fry out of his hand and watch it tumble to the ground. "I need new friends, you fucking suck."
"You're too unbearable." He rolls his eyes. "No one else in this school wants to be your friend."
And before I can rebuke, our attention is snapped to the girl that's running through the cafeteria like a mad man.
I watch curiously as Ava runs up to our table, completely out of breathe and still in her sweaty gym uniform. She only stops at the head of the table to catch her breath.
For a soccer star, she sure did suck at running.
"Guys!" She gasps coming to sit across from me - next to Mason.
She takes a few seconds to breathe asJacob covers his nose, a loud gag escaping his mouth. "And here I was, hoping you finally learned that there were showers in the girls locker rooms specifically for you to use after practice."
Ava ignores him and takes the seat next to him. "Did you guys hear about the fire?"
I send my friend a fleeting glance. I was in crisis mode and here she was going on about something completely irrelevant- "There was a fire that broke out at Art House. The same night we were there."
I momentarily snap myself out of my thoughts to blink at her. "But when-"
"That's the crazy part!" The pitch of her voice increases, catching the attention of the people around us, that is until she lowers her voice to a whisper. "It happened like fifteen minutes after we left. We were this close to being in it." I stare at the small - nearly non existent space between her fingers.
A rock forms in my stomach. "And what exactly caused it?"
I was a natural over thinker, and now that I was so heavily involved in Alejandro's line of business, I couldn't help but let my mind wander.
"I don't know." Her shoulders drop and she pulls my tray of food towards her and starts eating away at it while I can't help my mind that begins to race.
Not only had Alejandro been acting weirdly overprotective and overbearing, but my security had amped up to the point where it was interfering with my privacy.
I'd been annoyed, but was now realizing that it'd all started after that night, the night where Alejandro hugged me like he was worried...
Is that why he'd shown up? He thought I'd been hurt in the fire?
He cared so much that he'd dropped what he was doing to race to me-
No. He was an asshole, a piece of shit, and that stunt he pulled proved it.
But the sad truth is that I didn't entirely hate him.
In all honestly, I don't know how to feel. Why was it so hard to stay mad at him? I had never had a problem with dropping people the minute they did something to upset me before. Why couldn't I drop him?
I wasn't someone that just forgave and forgot. I held grudges, I dropped people left and right. But I just couldn't let Alejandro go.
And I hated it.
A throat clears, I look up to Mason who mouthes something along the lines of creep alert before glancing at something over mg shoulder.
I turn my head and catch sight of William standing behind me, his hands in his pockets and his eyes on me.
I send him the biggest eye roll I can muster. Was he stupid?
I was in the middle of the cafeteria and he was standing behind me like a lost puppy. He was drawing unwanted attention to himself. "Miss Rodriguez may I have a word?" He asks, glancing around, doing a shit job of being low key.
I had nearly forgotten about him these past weeks. And for a moment, I debate telling him to leave me alone, but I realize it'd look weird, and with a nod, I follow after him as Mason and Ava who stare after us curiously.
I hold onto my annoyance yet can't help but scoff as I stare at the back of his head. Was he trying to get caught?
"You haven't been coming to see me at lunch or after school." He mumbles starring down at the ground as we walk down a secluded hallway.
I shrug. "Well I've kinda been seeing someone else. So I don't think we can continue this anymore." I say in an attempt to distance myself from him.
I realized our thing needed to come to an end, I just liked the attention and it was not really fair to either of us.
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