C1 Chapter 1 - Valentine's Day
*Olivia Jillian Hunters' POV*
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"Hey, OJ, look! It is your boy, Harvey. Do you wanna talk to him first? I can wait. Not that I am gonna eavesdrop, but I will wait till we are good to go. Or do you want me to go ahead first? I could, too." Grace Thales, one of my closest friends, asked me curiously as we got sight of my boyfriend, who has been eyeing me as he walks in the hallway with his group of friends.
"Oh, umm, no. I will just tell him something before we proceed." I answered as I closed my locker after getting the things I needed for my morning classes, and I saw her smile become wider.
"What? I love you? Eeeeet! Oh, damn, I am so single." She teased me, and I just glared at her playfully.
"Shut the hell up, Gracey!" I told her. That just made the idiot laugh like a witch on crack.
As Harvey Jon Ferrer, the academy's quarterback, and I'm proud to say that he's been my boyfriend for more than two months now, went near us, I felt my cheek warm up as he proceeded to check me out from head to toe. Can't he stop it?
"Hey, that's... that is... That red dress is... You look... Firey. Is that a word? Well, what I mean, Babe, is... you look amazing. Yeah, amazing. Good morning, by the way. And, this is for you. Happy Hearts' Day." He stuttered in remarking and greeted me with his bright handsome smile as he handed me a red rose in his hold that I didn't notice that he was holding. And I turned to look at my dear friend, who seemed to be exploding anytime soon when I accepted it, and the guy kissed the back of my hand.
"Thanks, Babe. Happy Valentine's Day, too. I'll see you later, okay?" I told him, to which he winked at me in reply, and he bid us goodbye as they went to his locker with his pals. Well, yes, he asked me out for a dinner date tonight, and I'm just so excited about it.
"Oh, I am gonna melt! I wish I had a girl complimenting me like that. Or just me having a girl to compliment and give flowers to. Damn! She better come quickly to my life." The hopeless romantic Grace let out while we continued to walk to our classroom, and she kept on blabbering things until we arrived.
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We still have ten minutes before dismissal time in the afternoon will come, and here is our History teacher giving us an assignment. Not just an assignment but a pairwork for next week, where our partners are the ones who picked the same number as we have and the teacher is the only one who knows who that is. It's a surprise, and it is this young woman's way of making us work with someone we don't usually talk to. It's crazy, and I am a bit nervous about it.
Well, it's just that someone is coming near my way and carrying her piece of paper that she picked from the box after she asked the teacher for her partner's name, and she is someone that I would pray down to my grave for her not to be my partner in any class activities. I will really trade my soul for a corn chip if it happens.
When she looked my way with her cold stare, I turned my bitch mode on quickly. I would be very challenged to work with her if so. But damn, I am not sure if there will be no blood to shed, though.
As my seatmate noticed my uneasiness, she nudged me and asked, "OJ, do you think that Sydney Roswell will be your partner?"
"Grace, wish me luck that she is not because I could just kill her first. You wouldn't want me going to jail, would you?" I told her in a whisper, and she cleared her throat when the blue-eyed blonde-haired girl stopped at our table. Can't she just go and ask for another partner from the teacher?
"Grace Thales, meet me at the library tomorrow, right after class in the afternoon." Sydney Roswell, the mean girl, uttered and left when my seatmate answered with a trace of surprise, "Yeah, sure. Of course, Syd!"
"Damn, OJ! We are partners. Am I gonna die? Can you help me out? What if she... she is... A vampire, and she will be devouring me? Can you go with me tomorrow? Please?" The freaking girl let out and held my arm so tight, and I just giggled at her.
Then we both looked up to the another person who went near our table.
"Hi, uh... Olivia! Umm, we are partners. Good to see you. I mean, it will be nice working with you. You set the schedule, and I will just give you my number. Here. Just give me a beep. Bye!" The girl began while stammering, and it's Emma York, she is one of Sydney's best friends.
"Alright, it's going to be great working with you, Emma. I will surely message you. Bye!" I told the girl in response, and she left with a bright smile on her face.
"Well, we will surely have great activities next week. Let's go and meet with the girls and announce your blazing news, Gracey." I let out as I kept my things and stood up to leave with my friend.
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"Hi, Miss OJ Hunters! Someone wants me to give this to you." A guy from the other class approached us and handed me a white scented envelope with a bouquet as we were about to turn left in the hallways, and I told him in reply, "Thanks. Tell them my thank you, also."
"Who the heck is that that gave you such things, OJ? Isn't it Harvey? Nope? No chocolate? Fine." Grace uttered as we both looked at the things in my hold.
And I told Grace to hold for a while the pretty flowers. I just want to read what the letter in this scented envelope says about the person who gave it to me. Maybe it's from Harvey.
"Come on, come on, open it, girl." Grace cheered excitedly, and I finally got the sight of the things inside the envelope.
"What the hell is this all about?" I cursed when I saw before me pictures of my boyfriend and someone else. Not just someone but a person who I hate the most. Now I hate her more than anything.
"Holy shit! Who the fuck sent you that? Should I kill that bitch now, girl?" My friend let out angrily when she saw it, too, and I felt my heart beats faster as I saw the rest of the pictures of them both so sweet, and one of them is the two of them kissing.
No, this is not real. How can he do this to me? And with Sydney Roswell? They certainly are the worst!
I roamed my gaze around the hallways to find a particular blonde backstabbing bitch, and I inhaled deeply to keep my cool as I saw her just went inside the girls' restroom. Gotcha!
"OJ, where are you going?" Grace called out to me when I hurried inside the room to follow and confront the girl. How dare she steal someone's boyfriend just like a damn candy? Didn't she realize that there are hundreds of other guys out there and in this academy? Or maybe she just did it on purpose to mess with me? Hmm, probably.
"OJ, OJ, OJ, girl, get back here!" I heard my friend panicking while trying to pull me and back out from my plan in making a scene, then I slammed the main door of the restroom open and closed as I walked in with my very furious aura.
When I saw the girl at the sink, I gritted my teeth, and some of the students in here noticed me and made way for me. This bitch has nowhere else to go, and she can never deny this shit that she has done to me. She needs to pay.
"Roswell!" I called her, which made her head turn to me, and the sound of my right hand meeting her left cheek was heard inside.
Shock and surprise were clearly written on her face when she turned back to look at me.
"What the fuck, Hunters? What the hell is your fucking problem?" She cursed and belted as she looked at me with disdain, and I thrashed the pictures in my hold at the counter near the sink.
"My problem? Is... you!" I hissed and saw that she took a deep breath and closed her eyes like she is trying not to get angry.
"How dare you snatch someone else's boyfriend? Don't you have anything else to do with your boring life, rather than getting on my nerves? What the hell did I do to you for you to treat me like this? Are you that desperate in trying to bring me down and---" I blurted out with all my contempt towards her, and she cut me off with a loud scoff.
"Hold on a damn freaking second, Miss Defaming Biatch! Did I hear it right? Me, stealing someone's boyfriend? Like who? Well, I presume yours, according to these pictures, and because you just barged in here slapping faces without knowing the truth. And, for the fucking information for your dumb accusing ass, I have nothing to do with your concern. Is this your only proof that I have been working on bringing you down? Making your boyfriend cheat on you? Well, with all of my truth, even if you won't believe it, I have nothing to do with your asshole boyfriend." She countered sharply and grabbed a few pictures to look at them, and she snickered.
"Deny all you can, Roswell, but you are not getting away with---" I asserted, but the blonde bimbo has been having fun in cutting me off.
"Believe all you want, Hunters. I don't need to explain myself further. It's between you and your pea-brain to think about this humiliation that you just did to me." She contended, and I was about to spat at her when she tossed the pictures in her hold at my chest and rolled her eyes at me before heading out of the place with her minions. I swear I will never go easy on her. She declared war, and war is what she will get.
When I noticed that the girls in here have been looking my way with their knowing stares, I glared at them, and that made them avert their attention to something else.
"Girl, do you think we need to ask your boy about this if it is true? Well, I know he might deny, but we need to, right?" Grace asked me after picking up the pictures on the floor, and she might be right. I need to know what these pictures are all about. I was just so angry at seeing that blonde.
"Yeah, I will ask him," I answered as I walked out of the restroom and dialed Harvey's number on my phone.
"Where are you?" I asked the boy on the other line sternly as he picked up the call, and I kept on walking in the hallway till I reached the locker area where my other friends had been waiting for us and looked so worried.
"Babe, hi! Umm, I'm here at the field. Our practice game is about to start. Are you okay?" He answered, and I hung up as I turned around to go in the opposite direction. I will talk to him now because I can't disregard it. I need damn answers.
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He smiled widely as he jogged near me and stopped, then greeted me, "Hey, what's the matter? You could have told me that you are coming here. Is everything alright, Babe?"
"No, nothing is alright. Answer me at once and with the truth, Harvey. Have you been cheating on me?" I began with venom in my voice that made him baffled as he opened his mouth, but no words came out.
"Are you cheating on me?" I repeated sternly, and he shook his head in response.
"No. I would never. What-what made you say that?" He replied and looked so uneasy since he never saw me in this mood before.
"And what is the meaning of these shits? Isn't it you and a damn girl? Not just any girl but the girl whom you knew I never liked. How will you explain it? Am I just a joke to you? Am I just a damn toy that if you can't get what you want, you would just creep behind me to look for someone who can?" I asked, which shocked him as he saw the pictures that Grace handed him, and he turned to look at me with his face in turmoil.
"What? No. I am not... I... I don't know where you got these, but this is not true. And, no, fuck, I would never cheat on you, Liv." He reasoned out, but I just let out a sarcastic laugh.
"Isn't it why you and Isabelle broke up, too, before you have set your eyes on me? You freaking cheated on her for weeks with Jacqueline. I thought you wouldn't be doing the same thing on me, you jerk. You are surprised that I knew? Oh, I just openly talked with your exes before and the other girls that have been involved with you. I should have known that you wouldn't treat me like her, and I should have cautioned myself. Well, I guess once a cheater would always be one. Almost all of you, men, are just full of flattery and promises." I let out when I remembered what the cheerleader, Isabelle Sanchez, had told me a week after I became this bastard's girlfriend. He may not know everyone on the campus as a playboy, but he did cheat on his past relationship. And he is not the first guy that cheated on me, too.
"No. Liv, please, listen. I swear, it's not what you think it is. Believe me." He begged while his teammates were looking our way, and some were murmuring something.
And I inhaled deeply before I spoke to tell him what I came here for.
"Believe in your lies, Harvey. Well, maybe you would do good with Sydney. I just wish you the best then, and I hope she treats you well." I told him, and his eyes widened when he heard it.
"Liv, don't do this. I already told you the truth. Please." He uttered while looking so worried, but nothing can change my mind. He could be telling the truth or a lie, but I don't care anymore.
"No. We're done, Harvey. I am just not the one for you. And, you, neither, to me. I'm sorry." I affirmed and let out a sigh before I walked away to leave him looking so broken.
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I walked to the parking lot of the academy, and I never noticed that Grace was still following behind me.
"If ever you need someone to talk to, I will be just one call away, OJ. Remember that. Okay?" She told me as I stopped in front of my car, and I turned to look at her.
Then I nodded my head in response and didn't say a word, and she showed me a reassuring smile.
"I will. Thanks, Grace. Tell the girls I need to go home early. I'll just see you whenever." I replied as I opened the car door to get in, and she bid me goodbye while giving me a way to drive out.
My tears finally fell from my eyes as I drove on the highway halfway through our house. And when I arrive there, I need to let go of all these burdens that I feel in me. I need someone to talk to that could make me feel alright. I need my Mimi. She knows exactly what to do to make me feel better. She may not be someone who is related to me by blood, but she treats me as her daughter—more than how my stepmother for a decade does.
I have been driving at a reasonable speed while I wipe the tears that stream down my cheeks, and I try not to sob. I just can't believe what I am experiencing. What did I do in my life that is so bad to deserve being cheated on twice? He was my third boyfriend, and I thought he would be different. But can I blame him or... I think I need to blame the girl. She really could have done it to see me suffer and lose focus on my studies. What a damn sick strategy. She could have done something worse. Well, if she dared to mess up with me like this, then she better wait for my vengeance. She just has to wait because a storm is coming her way.
When I noticed the traffic light in the distance turned yellow, I accelerated to pass through the crossing while it was still not red, but then I heard a loud honking sound on my right. And as I turned my head to look at the commotion, a fast-running cargo truck was driving uneasily. I speed up, not knowing that there is a white van from the other lane that has stopped on my route when its driver sees the out-of-control truck that is about to go our way, and I have driven through the vehicle before me.
What I did is... I just closed my eyes until I heard a clash.
