Page 57 of The Wrong Bachelor

“Does it look like I care?” he asked, striding across the distance between us. He grasped my arms tightly and looked deeply into my eyes. “Are you okay?”

“I take it you saw my locker,” I responded.

“Yeah,” he said, through gritted teeth. There was so much anger in his eyes that I felt breathless. “And I’m going to find out who did this and make them pay.”

“You gotta line up buddy,” Hayley said from behind me. “I’m making them pay first.”

Cole’s eyes flicked over my shoulder and he nodded. “As long as I get a piece of them that’s fine by me.”

I shook my head at the two of them and took a step back. “You guys don’t need to go defend my honor. It’s fine. This will all blow over soon. You’ll see.”

I didn’t wait to hear them disagree with me and walked from the bathroom before they could get a word out in response. There was no point planning revenge on someone who in all honesty would probably never be found.

I went to my locker, ignoring the eyes watching me and the cruel words scrawled across the door, and grabbed my books and went to class. As I sat down at my desk, people still watched me. They whispered amongst one another, and though I couldn’t hear their words, I knew they were all talking about me. I hated the attention, especially knowing what they all thought of me.

I was the tease who wouldn’t put out.

I was the slut who jumped from dating one guy to another.

I’d been through this with the hot list, and I couldn’t do it again. I couldn’t handle the pressure of these people’s expectations, and I couldn’t deal with the weight of their judgment.

The spotlight I was suddenly under again was too much to cope with. So I was left with no choice. I had to get out of the True Love contest, now more than ever.

16

Cole

“You’re not going to believe this,” Angus said, drawing up a chair and sitting beside me.

I was barely listening though. My eyes were searching the cafeteria for Madi, but I couldn’t see her anywhere. Even Hayley was nowhere to be found. The two of them hadn’t been sitting at our table at lunch since Madi and Jake broke things off. They’d spent most of their lunch breaks with Teagan and some of the other drama kids, but today they were notably absent.

I suspected it had something to do with the insults that had been written across Madi’s locker. My teeth clenched as I tried to control the rage that boiled up inside me as I remembered the words. Madi was none of the things that had been written there, but I’d seen how quickly she believed them. How fast she’d begun to pull inside her shell again.

I’d only had two classes with her today, but it made me sick to see how much she had changed in the few hours since the start of the day. I’d seen her arrive at school, and she’d been smiling as people congratulated her for the ice skating episode. She’d practically received a hero’s welcome as she’d walked down the corridor. Everyone who watched the show loved her. And so they should; she was the best thing about True Love.

Watching the episode had made my heart beat faster and put a stupid grin on my face. I’d replayed the moment when Madi crashed into me and we fell onto the ice several times. The camera had zoomed in on our faces as she lay on me, and the way she had looked at me was so intense that it made my stomach clench tightly as I relived it. I could still remember the way she’d felt in my arms. The moment had felt magical. Watching it back made me so excited to see her again, and I was certain that anyone watching the episode could only love Madi more as it progressed.

Then those words had appeared on her locker. Those stupid words. And it was like a dark shadow had been cast across Madi’s light. By fourth period, she was hunched over her desk and not responding to any questions. Her hair had been draped over her face, and the bright girl I knew had disappeared.

She’d reacted in a similar way last year when the hot list came out. I’d watched, unable to do anything as she’d changed herself so that no one would pay her any attention. It had broken my heart to see her do that to herself once. I wasn't going to let it happen again.

“Cole?” Angus said, jerking my attention back to him.

“What is it?” My voice sounded every ounce as grumpy as I felt.

“We had nearly fifty thousand views last night,” he replied.

“What?” I shook my head, my focus now entirely on Angus.

“We had fifty thousand views. Our charity show has gone viral.” Angus was grinning from ear to ear. “The local news even contacted the school this morning about doing a piece on it.”

I frowned. All I could think about was how this would affect Madi. Would it upset her further knowing how many people had been watching us?

“Cole?” Angus snapped his fingers in front of my face.

“Sorry, what?”

“I said you’re famous, man.”

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