The Perfect Candy

Chapter 25: How Does It Feel?

A/N: This is the final chapter guys, and I really hope you enjoy. Please let me know what you think, and if there's anything you think could use some work. Whose story would you like to see next?

"What are you doing here?" Coop stepped outside Friday morning to find Eleanor leaning casually against his car as if she hadn't a care in the world.

She opened her eyes at the sound of his voice and something violent flashed through them, accompanied by a calculated smile. "I'm here about my sister."

"Not interested," he said, walking past her towards the driver's side door.

Her hand caught the door before it could open enough for him to get in and he looked up in irritation, only to find himself staring into the eyes of a woman bent on retribution. "Too bad."

Feeling the anger that never seemed to be all that far from the surface in the past week bubble up, he glared back at her. "She was caught making out with some other guy, alright? I'm not the bad guy here."

"My sister never kissed a guy until she met you," Eleanor snapped at him. "And what? You think your irresistible charm just awakens the eager whore in us all? Come back down to earth."

"I saw it."

Her eyes widened in surprise at that. "You saw her making out with another guy? With your own eyes?"

Irritated that he was the one standing here defending himself, he scowled. "I saw the picture. It was her. Same dress, same hair, same asshole she was walking back to the dance with."

"A picture from who?"

"What the hell does that matter?" he snapped. "It wasn't the first time I'd seen her hanging around that guy, alright? I know what I saw."

"Then you're an idiot," Eleanor informed him simply. "He asked Candice to talk to him that night because he'd been caught cheating on their group project."

That information gave him pause. "What?"

She narrowed her eyes at him and leaned forward, poking him hard in the chest. "You know my sister well enough to know how seriously she takes school and following the rules, so you tell me; would she be making out with someone who had just jeopardized her grades?"

"I think the picture answers that question pretty clearly, don't you?" he replied evenly, unwilling to admit the unlikeliness.

"Then the picture's wrong," Eleanor stated flatly. "And maybe you should stop and consider who it came from; what they could gain from something so stupid. Either way, you need to stay the fuck away from my sister because if you can treat her the way you treated her that night? You don't even deserve to say her name."

She walked away with those parting words, leaving him to think back to the night in question and wonder just how stupid he could've been to have taken the information provided by Sera at face value without question.

***

Candice was surprised to find Spence waiting for her by her locker with a sheepish grin. "Hey."

He had been Cooper's friend first, she told herself, it was natural that he hadn't been around for the past week. He hadn't been mean to her, just absent. It still hurt. "Hello."

"How are you?" he asked, turning to lean against a single shoulder as she opened her locker. "Are you okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" She wouldn't fuel the fire; she wouldn't give him anything to report back to Cooper if he so chose. She collected the books she'd need and shot him a bored look.