Ella's Twisted Senior Year(35)
“Kennedy won’t ever stop. She’s more powerful than I am in this stupid school’s social hierarchy and she’ll ruin me. She’ll ruin us.”
I sigh through my nose and even laugh a little as it all becomes so very clear to me. “I should have known we’d never work out, Ethan.”
He frowns and his Adam’s apple bobs. “Don’t say that, Ella.”
I shake my head. “This is high school. High school is drama. This isn’t some romantic teen movie where the loser girl gets her happily ever after with the popular guy.” I throw my hands in the air. Now that everything makes sense to me, I don’t know why it took me so long to realize it. “Just because we’re friends doesn’t mean we’ll work out. High school won’t let us.”
“So what?” Ethan says, his voice hushed because he’s just a couple of inches away from me now. His fingertips graze my cheek. “High school will be over soon. You’ll start your cupcake business and I’ll branch off my T-shirt business and we’ll be in charge of our own lives. High school won’t matter anymore.”
The very idea of what he’s saying warms me to the core. He presses a soft kiss to my lips. “We can make this work out.”
Both of our phones buzz at the same time. Curious, we reach for them. A number I don’t recognize has texted both of us, along with dozens of other numbers in one massive group message.
“Are you f*cking serious?” Ethan says through clenched teeth.
The photo message is another poorly photo shopped stab at me. This time it’s a shot of a porn star in between several guys, doing terrifying things to each other. My face is pasted over the girl’s face and the caption reads: Look at all the boyfriends I’ve stolen!
Tears fill my eyes, completely shattering my mental self-image of being stronger than all of this. I’m not strong enough to take this on with grace.
I turn my phone toward Ethan even though he has the same message on his own screen. “This is why it won’ work,” I say, blinking back tears. “We have to end this.”
“Ella,” Ethan says, reaching for me. I shake my head.
“Maybe one day it’ll be different, but not now.”
Ethan wipes a tear from my cheek and I step away, marching back out into the open because I know it’ll help me keep a straight face if there’s a chance of having an audience. “Bye, Ethan.”
Chapter 19
Ella does this not-so-subtle thing of ignoring me for the next two days. April is now her ride to and from school and she’s gone in the morning before I’m even out of bed. The rec room is like a sealed fortress, the door always closed, the girl of my dreams always on the other side.
Without any of the same classes, I never see Ella unless I go seeking her out, which I don’t. If she wants time away from me, I’m not going to be the pushy desperate fool, trying to win her back. I’ve been on the receiving end of that kind of crap from Kennedy and it’s not cool.
But my willpower to avoid her in the hallways doesn’t work on the rest of my longing. I still think about her constantly, memories of her lips and her smile consuming my every waking moment. I’m not even sure how I managed to fill out the online application to the University of Texas last night. Every single blank made me want to write her name.
Name: Ella
Address: Ella
High school: Ella
Although UT has always been my choice school due to their close proximity to home and cheaper tuition than some fancy overpriced university, I spent three hours researching schools farther away last night. Maybe getting out of here after graduation is what I need. With my T-shirt business being so successful, I had spent most of junior year arguing with my parents to let me skip college and branch out on my own in business. They’d convinced me to at least try college, going for a business degree to help with my entrepreneurial goals. Now, attending college several states away from the girl who won’t talk to me sounds like it might be a great idea.
It’s not even ten o’clock yet as I lie in bed, staring at the spackle splotches on my ceiling. Tomorrow is another school day and I’m sure Ella will ditch me for April yet again. Just when stopping for donuts and coffee had become my favorite part of the day, now it’s a chore to swing by and have Ms. Kim ask where the girl went.
I punch the pillow to fluff it up and shove it back under my head. It doesn’t help. I can’t sleep. I can’t stand being away from her.
For one guilt-inducing moment I wonder if this is how Kennedy feels every night when she’s trying to fall asleep. I never meant to hurt her—definitely not as much as Ella’s avoidance hurts me—and now I actually feel bad for my ex. I have been ignoring all of her texts and calls, though they’re less frequent with each passing day. Of course, Kennedy is playing dirty, posting those photos of Ella online. She kind of deserves to get her calls ignored.
Luckily, no more crudely photo shopped photos have surfaced online, or elsewhere. For a while there, I was afraid she’d decorate every wall in the school with a print out of Ella as a tornado, but everything seems to have stopped. I bet that’s playing perfectly into Ella’s plan. If she ignores me, the taunting goes away.
I groan and roll onto my side. This is all my fault. If I had only talked to her that day at the pool, got to the bottom of Corey’s lies and made things right back then, maybe we’d be together now. I wouldn’t have a crazy ex and Ella wouldn’t have years of hatred built up against me.