Best Served Fake

sixteen // girlfriend?

"Why is everyone staring at me?" Kai asked, when he found me at my locker after our second class of the day.

The clang of lockers opening and closing was secondary to the sound of conversation, as kids grabbed their food from their lockers and spoke in hushed voices. There were many hastily averted stares as people clocked our presence. Since homeroom, I'd had the feeling that everyone was talking about me.

And they probably were.

It had only been two hours since I'd given Jameson the ammunition he needed to spread gossip like wildfire, and he worked faster than I'd ever anticipated. Sympathetic smiles had greeted me around every corner, and one girl had even patted my back and vowed to hate Tommy and Sydney forever.

Kai was leaning against the locker beside me—Sydney's locker, though I hadn't seen her at it yet—and frowned as a tall guy from the football team strode past and held up a peace sign that held every ounce of despondency the gesture could possibly convey. "See? It's weird. I didn't realise just hanging out with little Valerie Williams would be such a point of contention."

I pulled a stack of books from my locker to free the backpack beneath them, struggling slightly under the weight of so many textbooks. These suckers were not made with short people in mind. Kai took them easily from me and stacked them casually in the crook of his elbow.

"Thanks," I said, poking him affectionately in the arm. "And I wouldn't think hanging with me would cause so much of a stir usually, no."

Kai raised an eyebrow. "Usually?"

I shrugged. "I may have told Jameson that I was hanging with you because Tommy and Sydney did the dance with no pants at Jack's party. And then given him permission to tell anyone he knows."

Kai gaped at me. "Val, that's everyone."

I pulled my lunch out from my backpack, and turned to him with a satisfied smile. "Oh, I know."

Zara Anderson and Cameron Davenport walked past, their eyes flicking to us with curiosity. I waved cheerfully at them, while Kai was still looking at me with something like disbelief.

He tapped on the metal of my locker until I turned my attention from Zara and Cam, back toward him.

"Yes?"

Kai ran a hand through his hair. "Are you okay?"

I tilted my head. It was not annoyance or frustration that I saw on Kai's face. It wasn't even surprise. He didn't seem particularly concerned that the attention of the whole school was on him; I guess he knew what he'd signed up for, and attention was hardly something he was unaccustomed to. But the concern plastered across his face was touching.

"Yeah," I said softly. "I mean, I was the one who told Jameson to spread the information."

His eyes seemed to pierce through me. "That doesn't mean it's easy."

"I'm not embarrassed by it, if that's what you mean," I said, lifting my chin. "I don't think there's anything to be ashamed of. I'm not worth any less just because he decided I was. It's not embarrassing that he decided two years wasn't worth as much to him as a quick lay with a girl he hates. I was not... defined by that relationship. Or by my relationship with Sydney."

That might not have been entirely true, but still.

"That's not what I meant," said Kai.

I snatched my books back from him and shoved them back into my locker. I didn't deign Kai with an answer. His words had stung; not because he meant them maliciously, or had insinuated that I was embarrassed. His words had stung because if that was what he had meant, he wouldn't have been wrong.