Redamancy [Heart to Heart #1]

chapter thirteen

Katherine

"Morning, people." Paige covers her yawn with her hand as she steps into our first class for the day. I blow her a kiss and she winks at me, blowing one back at me. "You're still here. Why?" She asks William, who's already seated behind Hero and next to her usual seat.

William raises his brows with a pout forming on his lips and Paige sighs, rolling her eyes. "I'm joking. Jeez..." She sets her bag on her chair and and rests her hand on her hip. "Like my outfit, William?" She turns around slowly, flaunting her cute outfit when she notices William glancing at her one too many times. She's wearing a really cute outfit, like always; light-washed jeans, white t-shirt and a sage green blazer. "I was going for something cute and simple."

"You? Simple? How much for the jacket, babe?" Elena walks up to us and asks, having heard Paige's comment on her outfit.

Paige smirks, shrugging her shoulders and avoiding to answer the price question, which means only one thing — enough to make that blazer not simple.

"Katie, how long have you been dating Hero Sinclair?" Elena questions and I snap my head towards her, utterly shocked.

"What? I'm not dating Hero. How did you come up with that?"

Elena wets her lips. "I heard a couple of first-years talking about it in the bathroom. You're like an IT couple in their eyes." Paige stiffles a laugh, causing me to glare at her.

"Wassup?"

Turning our heads towards the door, we all watch as Hero casually walks in, one strap of his school bag hanging from his left shoulder.

"You. With me. Now." I grab him by the elbow and pull him out of the classroom, ignoring people's stares. I lead us to the nearest empty room, Hero complaining about me pulling his arm.

"Who did you tell?" I push Hero inside the empty classroom and close the door behind us.

Hero's eyebrow furrow. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Kitty Kat."

"There is a rumour going around that you and I are dating! So, who did you tell?" I clench my fists at my sides.

"Why would I tell anyone?"

"Because you were there!" I exclaim, narrowing my eyes at him.

"Yeah, so were you. And your fucking ex and his new chick and probably a whole bunch of other students, because it's a high school hallway," he says, sitting on top of the teacher's desk. He crosses his arms looking at me expectantly.

I sigh, pushing some stray strands of hair behind my ears. "Okay, fine. But we need to do something to let everyone know that.. this.. isn't a thing." I gesture to the space between us.

"Katherine, it's literally just a rumour. It'll be forgotten in a couple of weeks," he says and gets up again. "Unless..." he trails off.

"Unless what?"

"Unless we don't let it die down and we use it to our advantage." He takes a few steps closer to me and I tilt my head to look up at him.

"What?"

He smirks and pushes my hair behind my shoulder. "I mean, think about it," he whispers. "You could make Brown jealous, show him that you've moved on and that you're better off without him. That you don't care about him anymore."

"I don't care for him."

"Okay," he mumbles.

"Okay?"

"Okay." His voice comes out soft and my eyes almost flutter shut. I don't realise how close we are until I feel his minty breath fan my face.

I glance at his lips, before looking back up at his green eyes. "Assuming that we play this game," I ponder, "what's in it for you?" He tilts his head in question. "What's your gain from all of this?"