Chapter 2

Athena checked her wristwatch for the thousandth time that night. Her brows were already wrinkled and her face was morphed into discomfort.

"Have you called his phone?" her mom asked disturbed as well.

"His number is not going" Athena replied as she dialled the number on her phone again. She had dialled that same number that night more than the times she had called him after they started dating.

"Is he okay?" her mom asked again as Athena shook her head.

"Mom, I don't know" Athena replied as she dialled the number again. Just as she was about to drop her phone again, the phone connected.

"Andrew" Athena called out in surprise.

"Babe, I'm sorry. Can you meet me at the party pretty please?" a male voice drifted into her ears and Athena blinked her eyes surprised and taken off guard.

"Meet you at the party?" she asked.

"Yeah. I've got to go meet you there…"

"Are you o…." Athena didn't get to finish her statement when she realized that the line had been cut off.

She blinked her eyes as she turned back to the phone.

"What the hell is going on?" she asked as she stood up.

"What did he say?" her mom asked as Athena grabbed her bag.

"He has something up; I'm going to meet him at the party" Athena replied as her mom sighed and nodded.

"You are late already, let me drop you off" she said as Athena shook her head.

"No thanks Mom, the driver will drop me off" Athena said as she hurried out of her room. For some reason, she had a lingering bad feeling and she immediately attributed it to Andrew. After all, he had never used that kind of tone on her before and neither had he hung up on her before.

Something must have happened, she thought.

She got into the car and told the driver to speed up. She grabbed her phone and started scrolling through her Instagram feed. She went to Andrew's page and realized that she couldn't see his posts or stories any longer. A frown creased her face immediately, Andrew couldn't have removed her from his list of followers, could he?

Athena raised her head to tell the driver to hurry up once more, she really felt that something had happened. She checked the time once more and she was sure that before she reached the party, the whole event would have ended up to remain the last event and the most important one. The crowning of the year's best couple.

Athena chuckled seeing her friend's posts. She hadn't arrived and they were already having fun without her. They weren't even that bothered that she hadn't arrived. None of them had called her. She heaved a sigh of relief as soon as the driver drove into the school premises. She hurriedly got down while she walked towards the hall.

Flashing the students who had turned to her a small smile, Athena searched through the group for her friends and Andrew. She didn't have time to realize that everyone who was staring at her had awkward expressions on their faces.

"And this year's best couple…" Athena rubbed her forehead as soon as Lola started talking. She still hadn't managed to find Andrew or her friends in the horde of the students. Since they were going to call their names soon, Athena decided to wait so they could climb the stage together.

She quickly wore a smile realizing that a lot of students were staring and glancing at her. Athena furrowed her brows when she realized that some of them were murmuring things she didn't understand. Her brow furrowed even more when she finally grasped a word.

"What's hilarious?" she asked no one in particular in a low voice as she chuckled.

"Jokes?" she asked again as she shook her head while watching for the girl on the podium to announce she and Andrew's names. At that moment, the girl turned and their eyes met. She smiled but Athena instantly felt discomfort at her smile. It wasn't the usual smile she gave her each time they ran into each other every morning.

"Andrew Orez and Bethany Mathews!" she screamed into the microphone as Athena felt herself going numb. She couldn't hear anything. She did hear Andrew's name but the second name was by no means wasn't her name.

Bethany Matthews?

The name sounded way too familiar, by the time her brain could click, she could see her own boyfriend and childhood friend standing on the podium; hugging and kissing each other without zero restraints.

She didn't need to look around before realizing that everyone was laughing and pointing at her. They were saying all kinds of things but Athena couldn't make out a word. She still couldn't understand what her boyfriend of two and half years was doing on the stage with her childhood best friend. She watched them get crowned and watched till the duo walked up to her while everyone made way for them.

"Hello Athena, won't you congratulate us?" the girl asked as Athena stumbled backwards lightly as she stared unbelievably at the scene unfolding right in front of her eyes. She swallowed her saliva as she turned to her boyfriend meeting his brown eyes.

"Babe, there's an explanation for this right? Why are you with Bethany?" she asked quietly as Andrew chuckled.

"Babe? Nah, it's Andrew. And to be honest, I hate the fact that I have to break it to you right here and right now but I never really liked you. You always acted like you were some hot shot girl and I did think there was something special about you; so when the boys made a bet and I was to make you to date me, hell; I didn't know how I was supposed to keep up because I liked your best friend. We just had to date that's all" Andrew replied and Athena could feel herself getting twice as numb as before at each passing second.

"I…... I.... I... I was a bet?" Athena asked in a shaky voice as Andrew pursed his lips and nodded.

"Unfortunately yes. The date period was a minimum of two years and I don't think I can go any longer than two years. So we done" Andrew replied as Athena suddenly realized what everyone was saying earlier.

This was hilarious.

She was a big joke.