015

  Jenna Brooks's POV

  As I saw Conrad approach us, my breath hitched in my throat. Why was he here all of a sudden? What happened to 'I think we should keep the distance for a while'?

"I need to speak with Jenna." Conrad said, turning to Liam who was still standing there. 

"But I'm talking to Jenna right now," Liam replied.

Conrad suddenly grabbed my wrist and my eyebrow's furrowed in confusion. Why was he doing this to me? Why can't he just tell me what exactly he wanted?

"I need to talk to you, Jenna. Now." Conrad said again, his tone intimidating.

As he tried to take me away, Liam suddenly grabbed my other wrist, "I was here first!"

Both of them were now holding both my hands and it felt like they were going to split me into two halves. Why not just do it now?!

I yanked my wrist off Liam's hold but Conrad's grip was way too tight. He pulled me towards the quiet auditorium while I whispered 'I'm so sorry,' to Liam whose gaze followed us until we disappeared. Now in the quite auditorium, Conrad let go of my hand.

"What do you think you're doing, Conrad. Liam and I were talking." I blurted out.

Conrad rested on the wall and crossed his arms, putting on his signature smirk. "I don't want you to be friends with Liam."

The way his words came out, gave me big daddy creeps. Who was he to tell me who i should and shouldn't be friends with? Liam and I are just building our friendship—if friends actually kiss and if friends make out, Conrad had no right to tell me to stop being friends with him.

"And Olivia too," he added.

Oh, no, he didn't! Olivia's literally the sweetest person alive! Why would he ask me not to be friends with her?

"Olivia is a great friend" I defended.

  He took a step closer to me, his arms still crossed and a smirk still on his lips. Does he ever get tired of smirking?

"You're really naive, Jenna. Oliva is manipulative. I don't want her slutty ways to rub off on you."

Oh my goodness! He just called Oliva slutty? The same girl he's been pursuing? The same girl he's trying to win over? Such a hypocrite.

"If she's as slutty and manipulative as you claim, why are you all over her?"

"Because…" Conrad suddenly stopped like cat got his tongue. How could he be so mean?

"That's what I thought." I replied and turned to leave but his voice momentarily stopped me.

"Don't get too close with Liam, he has a lot of secrets. And Olivia also, her slutty ways might rub off on you. Or maybe it already has."

Did he just indirectly call me a slut? Yes, he just did. He actually did. My bright eyes glared at him as I clenched my fists so tightly that my knuckles turned white. 

"I find everything you just said triggering but I'm not going argue. I'm just gonna walk away and pretend all this never happened."

And with that, I walked out of the auditorium feeling like someone just stepped on my ego. I had really expected more from him. How could he be so mean to me? How could he say such a thing about me? I guess he doesn't consider me his friend anymore—we weren't even friends to begin with. I hate you, Conrad. I hate you.

As I walked back into the class, Olivia was already waiting for me. She was holding a little box in her hand. A jewelry box. She grinned and pulled me to a seat before opening the box and bringing out a set of bracelets. Silver ones. They were two. Each bracelet had half a heart and when joined together, became whole.

"One for you," Olivia said, taking my hand in hers and putting the bracelet around my wrist.

A few weeks into our friendship and she's already handing out expensive friendship bracelets? Olivia is so cool. How could Conrad call someone like her manipulative and slutty? He's definitely out of his mind.

I helped Olivia put the bracelet around her wrist as well, it looked nicer on her though. Figures, anything expensive looked nice on her. She's so lucky to have rich parents and be pretty at the same time.

"I love it," I grinned.

"I knew you would love it, thanks for being my friend, Jenna."

No, I should be thanking you for being my friend. For giving me that chance to be friends with a cool girl like you.

"You're the best, Olly." I replied.

"My parents got it from Italy, it's really expensive and the only person I could give it to, was you,"

Awwwnnn. Olivia's really really really nice.

"Thanks a lot, Olly,"

Conrad soon walked in, disrupting our beautiful moment. He didn't bother to look at me, I think he was angry or something. But he didn't have the right to be angry. I was the one insulted along with my friends and he was trying to play the victim.

He stood by the door as if he wanted to be in sight while Anika, one of the mean girls, was watching him out of the corner of her eyes—I think Anika's a mean girl because she was the one that locked me in the janitor's closet the other day along with her minions whose name aren't even relevant enough for me to remember.

I hate when females are so obvious with their crushes. If you're obvious, some other little bitch can come along and exploit that crush, use it against you, betray you with it. I learned this from Mom's long-winded speeches about trusting women even less than men. "Men, they'll hurt you without ever really knowing you," she often told me. "But women... women will know you deeply, intimately, and then hurt you. You tell me which is worse."

I pretended to be engrossed with talking to Olivia as I watched Anika walk up to Conrad and chat up with him overanimatedly. And for too long. And with too many flirty blinks and hair tucks and "inadvertent" touchings of his arm. She was doing it all wrong. Poor thing. 

Two hours later we were on our way back home. Jamie was seated quietly, his face buried in a book, as usual. Jeanette's gaze was fixed on her phone. Conrad didn't ride the car with us, Jeanette said he had started riding his sports bike again.

"Why would someone ride a sports bike? That thing is dangerous," I said.

Jeanette looked up from her phone and glanced at me, then smiled. "Let him ride his sports bike. He wants to die young."

She immediately glanced back to her screen but the way her gaze stopped abruptly on my wrist, statled me. She was staring at my bracelet. Yes, Jeanette. I know it's pretty and expensive, my best friend gave it to me.

"That bracelet…" she trailed off.

"Is expensive, I know."

Jeanette's gaze suddenly turned serious as she took my hand in hers and examined the bracelet. Then she stared at me for a long time in a way that made me worried.

"You should've told mum to get you one. This bracelet is a knock-off. I could get it anywhere for five bucks."

My jaws dropped.