Chapter 19

I angrily waltzed into the class and slammed my angry fist into the first desk in sight. My untamed anger numbed the agonizing pain I felt in-between my fingers.
"You're going to break your fingers Peyton." Carlisle casually remarked, pulling a chair for me.
"I just can't help feeling this angry, they're going a bit too far for some dance." It didn't make much sense why the people I thought I knew, would try to frame someone.

"Maybe it just isn't for the dance?" He said in a suggestive tone, taking my fist in his hands to take a look and see if I had hurt myself.
His fingers gently caressed my knuckles, drawing circles on my skin, relieving me of the stress I was under.

"What do you mean? That they have a hidden agenda behind this?" I rephrased, making sure we were both on the same page.

Just as he parted his lips to say something, we heard the voice of the principal make an announcement, summoning me to his office.

"You should go to the nurse's office when you're done, you might have hurt yourself." He told me then let go of my fist, making his way towards the door.

It left me stunned how he cared only about my hand, and not that he was being targeted by some of our classmates.
"Hey Carlisle." I called out to him, he showed no sign of stopping, leaving me with no choice than to chase after him.

I grabbed him by the wrist then stood in front of him, blocking his path. He frowned his eyebrows at my persistence, but at this point, I didn't care much if he thought I was stubborn.

"Do me a favor and wait for me after school." I told him still holding his hand in mine.
"Okay." He responded without a hesitation whatsoever, leaving me at a loss for words. I immediately let go of him and walked away, probably too embarrassed by how easy to handle he was.

I could feel his stare on me the entire time till I was finally out of his line of sight. It was only then that I picked up the pace and bolted towards the principal's office.

Only to walk into a rather interesting scene.
Aside from the ginger haired woman in her late forties sitting across me, Olive, Trevor and Ace were for some reason also in her office. And for some reason, I couldn't shake off the uneasiness in my gut.

"Come in Peyton." The principal said, breaking off the string of thought in my mind.

"What is this about?" I blurted out all of a sudden, deciding to cut right to the chase. No matter how crass it might make me sound.

"I see you're too shaken up to remember your manners, but this is a serious conversation we're about to have." Her tone matched her dampened expression.

"Take a seat Peyton, your friends have taken the trouble to tell me what's been going on." She went on to say, gesturing me to settle down.

I noticed that all three of them had apologetic expressions drawn across their faces, something that I found off.

"Did something happen?" I managed to ask in a quiet tone, unsure of what was going on exactly.

The principal pushed back her strands of hair behind her ear then suddenly took my hands in hers. "I think I should be the one asking that." She retorted, staring directly at me.

"There must be a misunderstanding somewhere, nothing happened to me." Was my response, "I'm perfectly fine." I confirmed about to retract my hand from her sweaty palms.

"There's no use hiding it anymore Pay, he can't hurt you anymore." Olive chimed into the conversation, referring to someone in particular.

Thanks to my sixth sense, I was almost certain that this conversation was somewhat planned. Judging by the smug look on Ace's face, it was clear that he was the mastermind behind this.

"You're the victim here, no one would look at you any different." Olive rested her hand on my shoulder and passed a worrisome look to me.

"Ma'am, I can clarify, that there really is some sort of miscommunication, because there's nothing going on." I took a pause and withdrew my hand from her grip.

"I don't know what they might have told you, but Carlisle didn't do anything to hurt me."

"Whoever said we were talking about him?" Trevor rhetorically asked, turning the tables around.

"It's no use denying it, a number of eye witnesses have already confirmed that Mr Stoll has been bothering you. It wasn't the first time I've heard of the rumour, but the matter's gotten out of hand." The principal said, speaking as though her mind was already made up.

I ran my fingers through my hair in frustration that no one was even listening to me.

"Everyone in this room cares for you, which is why you need to speak up." She insisted, too headstrong to listen.

"To think that stalker drives everyday to your home, it gives me the creeps." Olive stated, adding fuel to the fire.

"That's not true!" I cried out, "none of their claims are true, and completely baseless. Carlisle has been nothing but nice to me, if anything the real jerk is..." Before I could say anything, a recording started to play from Olive's phone.

—“I want to go back and stay with him!”
—“Don't ever lie like that again, guys like him only live to hurt others. He doesn't deserve you.”
—“Oh really? And what would someone like you know about him?”
—“Get in.”
—“No. I am not going anywhere with someone like you. It's best you let go of me, or so help me I'll scream and have you arrested for kidnapping.”
—“Still, get in.”
—“How many times does someone need to say something before you get it? No means no, I can't get into a car with you, not after you punched my boyfriend in the eye and almost choked him to death”

It was our conversation in the parking lot, the day Carlisle had stepped in when Ace was getting forceful with me. And for some reason, Olive had a recording of that conversation. And more importantly, why some important part of it seemed to have been omitted.

The principal had an all knowing look on her face, she seemed convinced that I was too intimidated to say the truth.
"It's all a lie! That wasn't what happened, the real truth is..." Just before I could say more, Ace gripped my shoulders and furiously shook them.

"Are you still going to deny it and let him have his way with you? You have to stand up for yourself!" He dramatically announced, staring directly into my eyes.

My blood boiled at just how hypocritical he was being, if there was anyone who needed a punch it had to be the asshole in front of me.

"He knows just how timid you are, and that psycho is taking advantage of it." Trevor stated, "he actually attacked me when I tried to help you. He has a few screws loose."

"Everyone knows he's in all your classes and follows you around after school." Olive said, faking the sincerity.

"I think I've heard enough, I'm going to involve your parents, and make sure that Carlisle gets punished for what he's done." The principal announced in a firm tone, giving her final verdict.

It was that moment, that it dawned on me that these people cared nothing for the spring dance and getting signatures. It was painfully obvious that they were dead set on getting Carlisle out of our school.

The question now was, why they wanted him gone.