His Number One : The Sequel to Chemistry

Chapter 24

The next school day, Tyler had skipped out on Mrs. Barkley's tutoring session in order to walk around the school with Mariah. Just because it'd make her "the happiest girl in the world".

Kaylin had walked into the session to look for him, but he wasn't where he usually was. Her next stop was his locker, but as she was coming off the hallway of Mrs. Barkley's classroom, she spotted him coming towards her. With Mariah. She quickly made a U-turn in order to avoid confrontation. But before she could disappear into a random crowd of students, her name was being called from a few feet away.

"Kaylin!" this was Tyler's second time calling her name and Mariah looked up at him distastefully as he did so.

Kaylin stopped, sighing as she slowly turned back around. The couple was approaching her now. She noticed they were holding hands but tried not to make it obvious.

"What's up?" she asked Tyler, completely ignoring Mariah's very existence. She didn't seem to mind though, or even notice. She was too busy scowling at Kaylin, pinpointing every flaw that could successfully be used against her.

She was so busy studying Kaylin with such an intimidating look, that the conversation being exchanged between her and Tyler hadn't even been processed in her brain well enough for her to have any clue what they were talking about. Until Tyler said, "You left your basketball at my house Saturday, you know?"

Mariah's gaze suddenly went up to Tyler as she dropped his hand. She held a bottle of Coca-Cola in the other. "You two were together on Saturday?" she asked, first looking at Kaylin and then at Tyler.

It was here that Tyler realized his mistake. "Yeah," he slowly admitted. "But only for a couple of minutes."

"So is that why you didn't text me back that entire day?"

"No, I was just busy-"

"You were 'busy'," Mariah repeated. "I told you I didn't want you hanging out with her anymore."

"What the h*ll?" Kaylin replied with a volume that was a little louder than a whisper. Her eyebrows furrowed in disbelief. "Tyler, you're not gonna sit here and let her control you like this, are you?"

He was speechless. He wasn't trying to make either girl mad and the only way he could think of successfully doing that is to keep quiet unless absolutely necessary. He opened his mouth to respond, but let no words escape. Then shrugged.

"I'm not controlling him," Mariah replied. "I'm just being careful. Now if you would kindly exit our lives, we can pretend like this never happened." She smiled.

"Wow," Kaylin grinned. "Am I really that much of a threat?"

Mariah's fake smile immediately formed into a straight line. She tightened her grip around her bottled soda as she took a step closer to Kaylin. She was shorter than her, but that didn't stop her from encouraging the confrontation. She stared with much loathe into Kaylin's eyes and said with so much aversion, "You wouldn't be a threat even if you held a gun to my head."

"Except you're the one holding the gun,"she replied in the same tone. She lowered her voice to where only Mariah could here what she was saying. "You're kidding yourself if you think Tyler would ever choose you over me."

This sounded like a challenge to Mariah, and Mariah loved challenges. She smiled deviously as she took a step away from Kaylin. "Well," she said as she secretively shook the bottle of soda at her side. "I'd really hate to mess up that beautiful white shirt of yours but-,"

Not really knowing what she meant, Kaylin looked down at the white blouse she was wearing. And as she looked back up, a pool of brown liquid was speeding towards her, and before she could dodge out of the way to take cover, it was too late. She looked down at a big brown stain that covered almost her entire chest. All she could do was gasp in utter disbelief. She looked up at Tyler, whose expression was almost identical to hers, for any type of help or protection.