Chapter Fifteen

So I waited. And waited. Until I finally got another message from Damien. “We’re there. Come on down.”
So I rushed downstairs, trying to avoid any looks from Aunt Clara. Thankfully for me, she was still asleep.
I looked at the two boys in the front seats of Damien’s car. They looked sharp in their dress shirts and their fancy get-ups.
“Whoa,” I heard Charlie say. “You look amazing.”
“Oh, please,” I said, laughing. “This looks ridiculous.”
“Maybe so,” Damien said, “but it’s got to be better than what Chrissy looks like.”
“Are you kidding me?” Charlie said. “Of course Paige looks better than Chrissy. Paige always looks better than Chrissy.”
My cheeks turned red. “Thanks, Charlie.” I got into the back seat of the car. “You two are looking pretty good yourselves.”
Damien smiled, and Charlie laughed.
“Please, Paige,” Charlie said. “Damien always looks better than I do.”
“Oh, Charlie,” I said to him. “You both are handsome.”
“Yes, but I’m hot,” Charlie joked.
Damien laughed.
So we continued on in this fashion until we reached the school. There was a surprisingly large amount of people there. I didn’t expect that many people from that school to be that into dances and stuff like that.
“I see Chrissy,” Charlie pointed out, giggling.
I looked out the window, and saw where he was pointing. I saw Chrissy, too. Her puke green hair still in a butchered mess, and her dress super stained from what Damien had done.
“Wow,” Damien said. “I half thought she wasn’t going to make it tonight.”
“She’s with the Great,” Charlie said. “That is the only reason why she’s here.”
I smiled at myself, starting to get excited for part three. “Yeah. Of course.”
So we got down from the car, and proceeded towards where the big crowd of people was going. Charlie inched closer to me, and we ended up holding hands.
“Ready?” Damien whispered into my ear.
“More than ready,” I answered. “Just say when, all right?”
“You got it, Paige,” he said, winking at me.
I smiled, and proceeded towards the dance.
I wasn’t much of a dancer. So I stood by the wall and sort of just gazed around and watched everyone else make fools out of themselves instead of me. Charlie wasn’t exactly happy at the idea that I wasn’t doing anything, so every now and then he’d try to convince me, but I kept turning him down. I felt a little bad, because I could tell he wanted me to dance so badly, but I just couldn’t find it in myself to actually dance.
My phone in my purse vibrated, and I took it out. Charlie looked at me.
“Who’s that?” he asked.
“A text from Damien,” I answered. I flipped my phone open.
Charlie looked around. “Where is Damien?”
The text read, “Hey, meet me by my car.”
“He’s at his car,” I told Charlie. “He needs something from me. I’ll be right back, all right?”
Charlie gave me a sad smile. “All right.”
I smiled back, and left the gym and quickly and briskly walked out to the parking lot. Damien was leaning against his car, looked down towards the ground. He looked particularly mysterious considering the fact that his car was under a lamp light, which shone down on him, casting a shadow.
“Damien,” I called. “What’s up?”
“You ready to start part three?” he asked in a deep voice, looking up at me.
“Sure I’m ready.”
He smiled. “Cool. I’ve got the coffee in the back. It’s not that big of a mug, I’m sorry, but I figured it would be easier to carry if it was just a small thing, you know.”
I went to the trunk, opened it, and picked up the coffee mug the size of my forearm. “No, it’s perfect. Is it full?”
“Yes, completely full.”
I felt the side. “It’s hot. Perfect.”
“Yes, I practically baked it,” he said.
I laughed a bit. “Good. I need it to be scalding.”
“Don’t worry, it is.”
“And are you ready on your part?” I asked.
“More than ready,” he said, licking his lips with his tongue.
“Awesome,” I said. “Let’s get to it.”
So together we walked back into the gym. As we walked through the crowd of dancing people, I saw Charlie, still standing against the wall. He looked at me, but he didn’t smile.
I felt a little awkward, so I didn’t smile back.
Damien and I walked over to where the DJ was, and Damien said something to him. Something I couldn’t hear because the music was too loud. But I didn’t need to hear it. I already knew what he said.
“Hey, hey, yo, yo, listen up!” the DJ said into the mike once Damien was finished saying something to him. “We’ve got a little announcement here from my home boy Damien!”
Everyone stared. They looked slightly angry because the music had stopped, but slightly intrigued at what could have caused the disruption. Charlie was in the back, barely paying attention.
“Thank you, sir,” Damien said. “My fellow students,” he said, as if he was running for president or something. “It’s a pleasure to have you all here today. I would like to request a little something from you. Please, could you move over to the sides for a bit? I would like to create an empty space in the middle of the gym.”
A wave of confused chatter flowed through the crowd. People looked around at one another in a bewildered state.
“Excuse me,” Damien said again. “Now would be a good time.”
Everyone looked slightly taken aback, but obeyed what Damien had said. They all moved in unison backwards, creating the empty space in the middle of the gym. I was surprised this whole thing was actually even working.
“Thank you all so very much,” he said. “Now, I have just a couple more requests from all of you, which will be greatly appreciated. First, I’d like your full, undivided attention.”
Silence hit the gym in an instant, and everyone was staring at both Damien and me. I didn’t know whether to feel awkward, or to just ignore it completely.
“Thank you all again,” Damien said. “Now, I’d like your attention on Paige.” Everyone turned to look at me, and I simply smiled.
I walked over to the center of that empty area in the middle of the gym, and I turned around once to make sure everyone could see me.
“You got this, Paige,” Damien said, still talking into the mike. “Do it just like we planned.”
I nodded at him, and smiled at everyone staring at me again. “Hey, everyone,” I said loudly, my voice slightly shaking due to nervousness. “How is everyone doing?”
No one answered me.
“Um, all right, then,” I continued. “I hope you’re all enjoying this dance. I know I am.”
Still no answer.
“Okay…” I said. “Well, like Damien, I’d like to request a little something as well. And that is a conversation.”
Everyone started muttering to themselves in confusion, trying to understand what I meant.
“No, not a conversation like that,” I said, laughing. “I want to have a one-on-one conversation with a special someone in front of everybody here today. If I could have her come up here, Chrissy White.”
Another wave of silence filled the gym, and soon, Chrissy came out of the crowd, and joined me in the empty space.
“What do you want, Paige Aarroh,” she whispered to me so no one else could hear.
“You’ll see,” I whispered back, winking at her. “So my fellow students,” I said, talking to the crowd again. “My friend Chrissy, here, has been terrorizing my other friends as well as terrorizing me. Now, this is a shocker, so brace yourselves. As you can see, my friend here has… changed her style a bit in the past couple of days.”
“I knew you had something to do with it,” Chrissy screamed.
I ignored her, and continued my speech. “So now I’m going to tell you how it happened. You know that boy over there, right? That was talking to you all in the microphone earlier?” I pointed over at Damien. All heads turned to him for a brief second, and then back to me. “It was him. Well, not only him. Him and I. We did it.”
“I KNEW IT,” Chrissy screamed, her voice high pitched and irritable. “I KNEW IT WAS YOU, YOU LITTLE BITCH!”
Everyone gasped, but I simply smiled to myself and ignored it.
“Why did we do it, you ask? Well, let’s just say it was a calling. You could say it was revenge, but we just wanted to set order again. So that’s why we did it. But the thing is, we’re not done.”
“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?” Chrissy continued to scream.
“Yes. We’re not done. You see, a little while ago, Chrissy came to visit me at work. Sweet thing. She gave me some coffee for all my hard work. Now I’m about to pay her back for that.”
I walked over to Damien, and he handed me that huge mug of coffee. I didn’t think twice, and I didn’t give Chrissy a chance to say anything. I quickly stepped over to Chrissy as fast as I could, and pulled off the cap on the mug.
“I hope you like it hot!” I screamed, and dumped it on her. The whole gym exploded with gasping noises.
Chrissy screamed. It wasn’t just a scream. It was the shrillest noise that had ever come out of any human being.
I winced at the noise, but continued to dump it on her head until the last drop was gone from the mug. I watched her as she acted in a similar way as I did. Falling down to her knees. The coffee flowed down to her dress, staining the green into brown, and she cried in a similar fashion when the liquid penetrated her eyes. I just stood there, and laughed.
“Thank you for those few words, Paige,” Damien said into the microphone. “Now I’d like one more person to come out to this empty space we all have formed here. Mister Alexander ‘the Great’ Carlson.”
The Great came out, looking bemused and unsure of what was going on. “Um. Hello, I guess.”
“Hey, Alexander,” Damien said. His voice was quiet and calm, but since he was still talking in the microphone, everyone was able to hear. “I’d like to compliment you.”
“Thanks…?” he said, his voice nervous. “Um, on what exactly?”
“On your choice. I think Chrissy is an amazing girl. Far superior than any other I have ever met or seen.”
“I’m sorry?” Alexander said.
“Chrissy is very beautiful,” he said. He moved away from the microphone, and walked up to Chrissy, who was still on the floor. He offered her his hand, which she took. Damien pulled her up so she stood up straight.
“You are very beautiful, Chrissy,” Damien said to her. “I think I might be in love with you.”
“What?” I could tell she tried to scream it, but was unable to.
Damien moved into her too fast for me to see exactly how, but by the time I blinked and opened my eyes again, Damien was kissing her, lip to lip. I smiled to myself. Alexander was starting to back away slowly from the whole oddness of it.
Chrissy pushed Damien off of her. “EW, WHAT IS WRONG WITH—” But before she completed her sentence, she turned around, and saw the Great slowly walking out of the gym. “Alexander, please wait!”
The Great was leaving the gym, and Chrissy was running after him. “Alexander, I didn’t do anything! Please wait!”
Damien smiled in that same mysterious way that he did when I met him a little while ago by his car. Slowly, he proceeded back towards the microphone. “Thank you all again for your attention. I will hand the microphone back to our DJ for the night. You all can continue your dance.”
“Yo, I don’t know what that was,” the DJ said, taking the mike from Damien. “But I think we should just continue with this party!” He hit a button on his laptop, and another song started playing. It took a little while, but eventually everyone filled the center of the gym again, and everything was back to normal.
“So it was you,” someone said. I turned around. It was Charlie.
“Hi, Charlie,” I said, smiling. “Yeah, it was us. We really showed her, didn’t we?”
“Yeah. I guess. Listen, Paige. I’m feeling… not so well. Do you mind if you spend the rest of the night with Damien? I’m going to walk home.”
“Charlie, are you okay?” I asked, worried.
“Yeah, I’m all right. Just… yeah, don’t worry about me. I’m going home. I guess I’ll just see you later, okay?”
“All right, Charlie,” I said, disappointed he was leaving. “Feel better soon, all right?”
“Sure.” He gave me another smile, and then left.
I looked around for Damien. He was nowhere in my sight. I walked around the gym, passing people who gave me a lot of awkward looks, which I just ignored. I still couldn’t find Damien. I was getting a bit worried, but then I realized that it would be smarter if I just waited for him somewhere where I knew he would show up. I left the gym, and went into the parking lot to stand by his car.
After a while, I didn’t know how long I was waiting. I was slowly falling asleep due to boredness, but then finally, Damien showed up, coming into the parking lot from behind the gym.
“Paige,” he said, his voice quiet.
“Hey, Damien, where were you?” I asked him.
“Oh. Just… um… well, are you ready to leave?”
“Huh? Oh. Uh, yeah… I guess…”
“Okay. Get in the car. Should I drop you off at your aunt’s house?”
“Yeah, that would be great. Hey, do you think I could ask you something?”
He got into the car, and I followed him. “Well,” he started. “I think you could ask me whatever the hell you want, but it may or may not come with an answer.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Are you all right?”
“That would be a perfect example of a question I will not answer.”
“Okay…”
“Is that all you wanted to ask me?” he said. I only just noticed how bitter his voice was sounding at the moment.
“No. Um, I was just wondering… what do you think is up with Charlie?”
“What is up with Charlie?” he asked.
“Well… I saw him after we were done with part three, you know? And he seemed really… weird. He told me he wasn’t feeling well, and told me to just spend the rest of the night with you. And I asked him if he was okay, and he told me not to worry about it. So… what do you think is up with him?”
“Hm,” he said. “Well, I have a theory. Charlie… well, let’s just say he’s not too fond of me anymore.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I am going to tell you what I think,” he told me. “Now, this may or may not be true, but this is just my opinion.”
“Tell me.”
“You see, Charlie liked Jessica before, right?”
“Yeah, he told me that.”
“Jessica liked me.”
“Of course. That’s why you two are going out.”
Damien took a deep breath, and then exhaled it slowly. “Right. He… he wasn’t exactly ‘thrilled’ with the idea that we started going out, right? So he was sort of bitter towards me. But then he cooled off for a bit, got over Jessica, and that’s why we’re all right now.”
“Yeah, that’s why you two are still really good friends.”
“Exactly. Now, Charlie likes you.”
“Mhm.”
“And… I think that he thinks I’m ‘stealing’ you away from him like how I ‘stole’ Jessica away from him. He trusted you and all when you told him that nothing was going on between us, that’s why he wasn’t murdering me up until that point.”
“So what happened tonight?”
“You broke his trust.”
“I what?”
“I don’t think he trusts you like he did before.”
“What? Why? What did I do?”
“If you remember, earlier the two of us told him that it wasn’t us who did anything to Chrissy. And just now we just sort of admitted it in front of everyone. And he was disappointed by the fact we didn’t tell him the truth because you’re like his girlfriend and I’m like his best friend. We lied to him.”
I didn’t know what to say. The news sort of caught me off guard.
“Also, in addition to that,” he continued, “we did the Prank, right? And we didn’t include him in it at all. He felt left out, I guess. Also, the two of us were alone that whole time. He probably thought you were cheating on him or something along those lines.”
“But I wasn’t!” I forced the sound out of my mouth.
“I know you weren’t,” he said. “But I’m not Charlie. You should probably talk to him tomorrow or something.”
“Yeah. I think I will.”
“That’s good.”
“Can I ask you something else?”
“You can ask, but like I said before, I might not answer it.”
“Are you in, like, a bad mood or something?”
“Yes,” he answered simply. “Yes, Paige, I’m in a very bad mood. I’m slightly agitated, very disappointed, and upset beyond reason.”
“Are you all right?”
“No, I am not okay. But I guess I will be in later time. Maybe. Maybe not. It all really depends.”
“Oh. Um. Anything I can do to help?”
“I don’t think so, Paige. Not at the moment, at least.”
“Okay. Can I ask what happened?”
“You just did ask,” he said. I was getting a bit tired of the snide remarks. “But I’m not going to answer it. I just… I just don’t really feel like talking about it, is that okay?”
“That’s fine, Damien, I get it.”
“Thank you for understanding.”
“Of course.”
“We’re almost at your house.”
“Oh. Thanks a lot.”
“Anytime, Paige.”
He slowed the car down, and stopped by my door.
“I’ll see you later, okay, Damien?” I said, getting out of his car. “Feel better, all right?”
“Sure thing, Paige,” he said. He didn’t smile. “Just don’t worry about me. I’ll see you tomorrow at work. Good night.”