4. Payback Between Us

After our unsuccessful attempt to teach Jesse a lesson, I didn't forecast another revenge plan looming on the horizon. It was going to have to wait. Or maybe we won't do it after all.

I ignored Claire at first because I wanted her to feel guilty of what she did yesterday. But even I couldn't be mad at her for too long and eventually I forgave her the second she mentioned that she was going ​to pay for my lunch for a month.

"What about Jesse?" I asked Claire. We were by our lockers, retrieving our books for our first class. I had Physics while she had English.

"What about him?"

"Don't you want to punish him for using and then dumping you?"

"Um...I don't really think we should do that. Not after what happened yesterday. I'm over him. And I want to avoid him as much as possible. That's best for both of us," She said with a small smile in the end.

"Uh, okay," I was a little disappointed. But that was exactly what I was expecting. She was not the bad ass type.

"Hey, do you know that Brian is not in school today."

"I didn't know. What about him?"

"Don't you see! Your plan worked. He must be in his bed nursing his bruises."

"But I feel so guilty of doing that to him! Even though he is such a jerk."

"It's okay. He'll be alright."

I nodded, "I better go. Bye."

"Yeah, bye," she replied and then I walked towards class.

~

"Hey, did you hear that Brian was attacked by two girls yesterday? One of them threw blue paint on him and then started hitting the crap out of him?" Josh asked us.

I choked on my water and Claire stared at me. We were in the cafeteria. Apparently, the whole school knew about it. Darren, Josh and Tyler were laughing at this. How mean. Should I do that to them too? That way they'll know how it felt to be in Brian's place.

"Um...no," I said. I looked at Claire and she had her eyes on the food in front of her. She was biting her lower lip, controlling herself from laughing along with them.

I felt more guilty because of it. He didn't deserve it. I was stupid. I should have checked who it was. It was not Jesse. His asshole-ish behavior was totally justified. I would be angry too if I get attacked like that.

Darren, Josh and Tyler went on gossiping about some other stuff and I went back to my food.

~

Two days after our prank gone wrong, Brian still hadn't returned to school. I wondered if I hit him that hard. If that was it, then I would definitely not try it again. Of course, I could make exceptions to abominable people like Jesse Winters.

I was in the locker room, retrieving my Chemistry books. Claire was with me. She was talking about Darren's party and she had finally said that she herself wanted to go and not because I told her to.

I was checking if I had left something undone in my Chemistry homework when an angry fist banged my locker door shut. I jumped a little at that.

I looked up and there he was, the wrong victim, Brian. He was glaring at me. Behind him was Jake. He was smirking at me which turned into a charming smile when he eyed Claire. When Claire saw him, he winked at her and she blushed. Ugh! Teens and their freaking hormones.

"What are you doing? Get your hands off of my locker," I spoke calmly, diverting my attention to Brian. He was looking like he was going to burst any second.

He didn't reply but banged my locker again.

"Hey! Didn't you hear me? Go break your own locker, not mine."

"Why. Did. You. Do. That. To. Me?!" He shouted.

I sighed, "Please don't create a scene. I am telling you for the hundredth time that I didn't want to do that to you."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Bri-" Claire started speaking but I cut her off.

"Look, Brian. I wanted to do that to somebody else, not you. My plan failed. I accept it was my mistake and I am apologizing to you again. I'm sorry. But you are over reacting now," With that I walked away with Claire before he could say anything.

Claire tried saying something but I quickly told her that I had to go to class. She nodded.

I entered the class. Chemistry. My favorite subject.

I took a seat beside the window, a few seats behind. The class began.

Ten minutes into the class, the teacher was explaining a reaction to us when the door swung open and Brian walked in.

"Brian, why are you late?" The teacher asked him. "You've never been late."

"I couldn't find my books, sorry," Brian looked around to find a seat. Unfortunately, a seat was empty in front me.

Please, don't see me. Please, don't see me. Please, don't see me! Please-But he saw me. He smirked, walking towards me and sat on the seat in front of me.

The class progressed. And Brian was...annoying me.

He sat there, towering before me and I couldn't see the teacher.

"Brian," I whispered. He didn't turn back.

"Brian!" I spoke a little louder, poking him with my pencil.

"What?" He turned back.

"Lower your balloon of a head. I can't see anything!"

"I don't care," He turned back to look at the teacher.

I couldn't even have my only favorite class in peace. Somebody had to be there to spoil it.

After some time he started kicking my feet. I backed my feet to keep them out of reach of his legs but he still managed to kick them.

Why was he doing that to me? So I also started kicking him.

"Brian, you jerk. Stop doing that!"

That idiot just chuckled. The bell rang and I sighed with relief.

I began packing my stuff in my bag. My classmates all but ran out of the class, happy that it was over. But Brian didn't.

Instead he turned around.

"So, who did you want to do that to?" He asked.

"None of your business," I replied, a bit rudely.

"It is. It happened to me. Do you know how much the bruises hurt for the last two days?"

"I don't care!" I imitated his previous tone.

There was no one in the class now. I started to leave too. But he stuck his foot out and I tripped over it. If he hadn't caught me by my waist and prevented me from falling down, I would have broken my nose.

He caught me by my waist and drew me on his lap, cradling me like a baby when I tried to wriggle out of his grasp.

"Let me go!" I shouted in his ear.

"Shut up," he said.

"What do you want?!"

"Payback."

"Huh?" I asked, pushing him away and standing up.

"I want payback. You did a mistake messing with me. And now I want payback for that."