Secret Crush

Chapter 14 - [The Valentine's are Rats]

The next day was another school regular school day but honestly… now that the wedding was getting closer, I could barely focus. My mind would wander all over the place and eventually I’d think about being and aunt and things like that.

And I couldn’t believe how well things were going.

Gina wasn’t one of those crazy, freaky brides who needed everything to be perfect… she was easy to talk to and it wasn’t too hard for her to let go of something she really wanted at the wedding. Like the fact that she wanted the boys to wear bowties but the boys refused to do that.

So she finally agreed to let them wear regular ties.

And how could I not be happy with the fact that Gina was happy? And so were my mom and dad! They were thrilled, actually. And my brother… wow… he tried not to show it but we all knew that he was really happy.

All the happiness was just awesome.

But of course, it’s impossible for this much happiness to exist in one person.

Someone always has to come along and ruin it.

I was walking down through the crowded halls after my last class of the day. Gale and I had been spending a lot of time together since the day of the first snowfall and we had decided to buy our wedding gift for Gina and Nate together.

Our plan was to spend the next few days after school roaming stores and looking for the perfect gift. It wasn’t that big of a problem for me because Volley Ball season was starting and Val was now busy almost evening. So I had prior promises with her.

And I even managed to convince Gale to let me pay for half of it. After all, it was supposed to be a gift from the two of us.

And just so I could earn some more money, I had started babysitting two kids that belong to a couple in my dads building. They were also super generous with money so my savings were going to skyrocket in a matter of weeks.

I smiled as I reached my locker, excitement filling me once more.

One of my favourite things to do in this world was to buy gifts for people.

And getting gifts for the best brother in the world and for his beloved future wife was even more exciting then getting gifts for anyone else

But suddenly, I felt an arm on my shoulder.

At first, I thought it was Gale, but when this person painfully turned me around, I knew it wasn’t him.

I was shocked when I saw Alison staring angrily at me. She looked exceptionally lovely today, with her curled hair and expensive silky peacock blue button up shirt. But the glare on her face made her look scary and therefore bad.

“Hi…” I started. “Is something wrong?”

Genevieve was standing close to Alison, staring angrily at me too.

Selene, however, kept a little distant.

“Listen bitch.” She started.

And honestly, who wouldn’t realize that something bad was going to happen after an introduction like that.

It was one loud introduction too, enough to make a few people turn around and stop to listen.

“I don’t know what your problem is.” She started. “I tried to be nice to you but obviously that didn’t work.”

“What’s wrong?” I asked, nervously.

If Val were here, this would not be happening.

“Don’t act like a dumb bitch.” She said, harshly. “If you think you’re better then me, think again.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I said, trying to fix this before it got worse.

There were way to many people here.

I didn’t like these eyes watching me.

“You are a nasty little rat and so is the rest of your family.” Alison said. “I don’t know what your brother did to trick Gale’s sister into liking him but she’s making a huge mistake.”

“Stop this.” I said. “You’re being really mean.”

“We all know about your family Naomi.” She said. “It’s no secret that your mom cheated on your dad.”

My heart stopped.

“And we know your brother’s probably going to do the exact same thing.” She said. “After all, being horrible clearly runs in your family.”

My eyebrows rose as I held back the tears that were coming. “That’s not true!”

It hadn’t been that long and a crowd had already formed around us. It wasn’t a big crowd… but it was still too many people.

“I mean, if it didn’t run in your family, you wouldn’t be throwing yourself onto my boyfriend.” She said. “Like, seriously? Do you really think you can get him?”

“I’m not trying to do that, Alison!” I said, arguing back. “We’re-”

“Stop talking Naomi. No one cares.” She said. “If you think you can get away with tricking Gale just cause the rest of your family did to others, then screw you.”

“Yeah.” Genevieve said, speaking up for the first time. “I mean, how much more horrible can your family get? It’s disgusting.”

A moment later, I saw Maria join the crowd.

She quickly pushed past the people and rushed to me. “What’s going on?”

“Oh… Mars.” Genevieve started. “Don’t you know?”

“Naomi’s moms a slut.” Alison said, keeping her eyes on me. “She cheated on Naomi’s dad not once but like, hundreds of times.”

“Didn’t you ever wonder why her parents were divorced?” Genevieve asked.

“That’s not true!” I yelled. My voice cracked.

“C’mon guys…” Maria said. “Leave her alone.”

“And then her dad put the blame on her mom but in reality, he was cheating a lot too.” Genevieve added.

“Right?” Alison said. “My mom knows a lady that he was with actually. How disgusting.”

And now I started to cry. “That’s not true!” I yelled again.

“Hey!” I heard Mr. Dmitri call, coming to my rescue. “What’s the commotion here? Break it up!”

The crowd cleared immediately after they heard Mr. Dmitri’s voice.

Alison looked at me. “Stay away from him. Or I’ll make sure the world knows more of your secrets.”

“Alison.” Mr. Dmitri called. “That’s enough. Get out of here.”

Alison smiled at Mr. Dmitri before she walked off.

And then Mr. Dmitri noticed me. “Naomi?” He placed a hand on my shoulder. “What…”

I could hear the shock in his voice as he watched me cry. I guess I didn’t look like someone who would cry.

“Are you okay?” He asked. “Tell me what happened.”

When he didn’t hear an answer from me, I heard him ask Maria. “What’s going on? Why is she crying?”

I sniffled loudly and kept my face in my hands, trying to cover my disgusting snot covered face as I cried like a big baby.

My primary goal here at this very moment was for Mr. Dmitri to not find out why this was all happening. I'd rather him not know about my parents and these rumors about them. That's why I started to cry louder.

He couldn't really ask Maria anything while he rubbed my back and told me to relax.

But I felt so embarrassed… and though I tried to stop to tell him I'm fine and that I was going to leave now, I couldn’t.

And then it got worse. “What the hell?” I heard Gale call.

A second later I heard Gale in front of me and I felt both his hands on my arms. “Mimi? What’s wrong? What happened?”

I sniffled again, starting to sob harder and more uncontrollably.

I tried to stop, but the closer Gale got to me, the more he bent down to see my face, the more I cried.

“C’mon Mimi, talk to me, what’s wrong?”

I worried with all my heart that Mars was going to say something to him. I just really didn’t want him to know what Alison said to me. That would just make it all worse.

But none of it was true.

My mother was not a slut.

We didn’t get along much but she was a decent, caring woman.

And my father was not a cheater.

I don’t know where that girl heard that from… but just thinking that people though so horribly of my parents… and my brother… broke my heart.

And suddenly I was crying more.

A second later I felt Gale pull me into a hug. He had one hand around my waist and the other holding my head.

“Just calm down.” He said. “Everything’s going to be okay.”

He ran his fingers through my hair as I cried on his shoulder.

Eventually, Mr. Dmitri left, telling Gale to come and tell him what happened tomorrow afterclass so he could deal with it.

And soon Maria left too, thankfully without telling Gale what happened.

And when my crying calmed, and I had thoroughly soaked Gale’s shirt, Gale managed to get me to his car, where we sat down and he tried to get me to tell him what happened.

I shook my head, wiping my tears away and feeling utterly embarrassed. “I just… someone asked me something…” God it was getting harder and harder to lie to this boy.

Suddenly his phone beeped.

He read the text that someone had sent him and then held his phone out at me.

“What did she say to you?” He asked.

I read the text.

It was from Blake. “Ppl r saying Alison said s**t to Mimi. U kno wat happened?”

I looked at him and took a deep breath. “Nothing.”

Another beep from his phone.

He read it. “She said s**t about your parents?” He asked, his green eyes wide in shock.

I shook my head. “No!”

He opened his door and got out of the car, making his way into the building again.

I got out of the car and chased after him. “Wait!” I called. “She didn’t!”

But Gale was not going to stop.

I felt my heart race in fear as he quickly found Alison and stopped her. “Are you crazy?” Gale asked her.

Alison looked at him, confused.

“Talking crap about her parents?” He asked. “That’s low! Even for you!”

Alison just kept the confused look up. “Is that what she told you?” She asked, looking at me.

“She didn’t tell me anything.” Gale said. “But do you really think you can cause a commotion like that and I wouldn’t hear about it?”

“I didn’t-”

“Just stop it!” Gale hissed. “Enough is enough. Naomi is my best friend and if you’re going to treat her like s**t, then fine. I’m done with you.”

He turned around and walked over to me, grabbing my arm and dragging me behind him.

This was bad.

This was really, really bad.