The Whisper Seekers

Rumor Mill

I had to beg my mom to let me stay home from school. I faked the stomach bug that kept me in bed all day Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, but by Wednesday morning, my mom was forcing me to go back to school. I had managed to sneak into my room and shower up before she found me to ask about boating on Saturday, but I avoided the conversation by saying I was sun beat and needed to sleep. When I wasn't ready to face anyone the next morning, I used my sunburn to help fake my flushed face and she bought my bug until this morning.

"Ellie, you've missed enough class with what I assume is Senioritis. You're going to fall behind and you can't afford to fail any classes," she says as she sits at the end of my bed. I have the comforter over my face and I'm curled into myself while facing away from her. "I don't know what's going on with you, but you have to go to school. I'll be back up here in a half-hour and you better be ready or I'm dragging you to school in what you're wearing."

She leaves my room closing the door behind her, but I continue to lie in my bed annoyed that I have to face the music. I eventually had to turn off my buzzing phone after ignoring all the calls and texts from Liam, Harper and Derek. Derek must have left fifteen messages begging for me to forgive him and pleading for me to take him back, blaming the alcohol for his atrocious behavior. I turned off my "read" notifications so he had no idea if I was reading his apologies or not. By the twentieth message, he started to get mad and said he was better off without me.

Harper wanted to know why I came looking for her and Liam just wanted a chance to explain himself. I slowly became more and more annoyed because it showed Liam clearly had a working phone, he just chose to ignore me for the two days before we went boating. Lily had told Harper that I had a bad fall on the boat so she assumed I was recovering from that and I didn't correct her. Liam tried coming over yesterday after school, but my mom said I wasn't allowed to have visitors. Everyone is trying to talk to me but I'm not ready to talk to any of them. I'm still trying to process what happened and I didn't want anyone's opinions on what went down. Harper probably would have told me it was about time I slept with Derek so why did I wig out when the opportunity arose?

I continue to lay around, debating whether to go to school in sweatpants and a ponytail but then decide on spending extra time getting ready to show Liam and Derek what they missed out on.

I pull on my favorite jean skirt that flaunts my long legs and pair it with a white crop top that sits at my waistline, so it doesn't completely go against dress code. I straighten my hair, smooth away frizz and pop my lips after applying coat after coat of lip-gloss. I strap on my wedges and am spraying on some perfume when my mom comes back in to check on me.

"Oh, well someone looks nice today!" She says and my confidence comes booming back. I grab my bag and strut out the door.

**************

I continue my strut all the way to biology class and I take a seat that's far away from both Liam and Derek. I notice Harper is also sitting away from Liam and she doesn't smile at me when I walk in, but instead, gives me a pouty sad face.

Ellie! Finally! I've been worried about you. I hear Liam tell me. I don't look over at him so he continues, Are you okay? Please let me talk to you after class he begs and I finally turn to look at his anxious face.

Being left in silence sucks, doesn't it? 

My snarky reply has his face falling but I don't care. I refuse to look at him again, so he turns back around defeated. Derek finally spots me but quickly looks away. Seriously? She's sitting over there? Fine. I won't talk to her if she's going to continue to be dramatic.

I roll my eyes at Derek's immaturity and I immediately spot Ian stroll in. I've been so wrapped up in my world that I forgot about the homecoming events. I could have missed something important being planned while I was hiding out at home.

Unfortunately, Ian says nothing of importance the entire period and I remember I never got the chance to tell Liam what I heard on Friday. Liam keeps glancing over at me but I try not to think about anything other than bio. I hear Harper dwelling the whole period over how Liam told her he couldn't go to homecoming with some lame excuse. She also wondered why I just showed up at Liam's and why I have been M.I.A. She's also upset that she doesn't have a date a little over a week before homecoming. I know I ruined it for her, but she doesn't blame me because she doesn't seem mad at me. I also don't know how she could blame Liam's behavior on me since she's clueless as to our weird relationship- whatever that may be now.

The bell rings and Harper makes a beeline toward me, desperate to talk to her best friend that she hasn't seen in 3 days.

"Ellie! Oh my god, where have you been? I have so much to tell you. Did you lose your phone?" She asks and I catch Liam lingering by his desk as Derek darts out of class without looking at me.

"No, I've been really sick. My mom took my phone away until I was better," I lie and she gives me a horrified look, like she can't imagine having her phone taken away. I take her arm and lead her out of the classroom before Liam is able to talk to me. I see Lily in the distance and she pushes through the crowd when she sees me.

"Hey! I haven't heard from you since Saturday. Are you okay?" She asks as she throws her arms around me.

"Yeah, I haven't felt well so I stayed home, I think it was too much sun." I tell her and she dips her head down before quietly saying, "I heard about you and Derek. I figured that's why you stayed home." I look over to Harper and now know why she looked sad this morning. Sucks Derek broke up with you.

I catch on quickly and shake my head, "Oh no, I'm fine with that. I mean it was mutual he just turned into a jerk." I say with an awkward smile. They both lean in to hug me and I can't believe Derek told everyone he broke up with me. I didn't say a word to anyone about Saturday and here he is telling everyone that we broke up. What has he said the reason was? I stopped reading Lily and Harper's text at some point on Monday and now I need to go back and see if they had already tried to discuss this with me.

On our way to gym, most of the cheerleaders come over to hug me and ask if I'm okay. So this is what I missed in the two days I've been gone. The whole school thought I stayed home because I was embarrassed that Derek dumped me. I stick with my story that it was mutual, but I'm beyond annoyed by the time we reach the locker room. I aggressively open my locker but Harper quickly shuts it.

"Is that why you came to find me on Saturday? Because Derek broke up with you?" and why you showed up looking like hell She asks and I know she won't let me go without answering.

"Yeah, I was really upset but my phone died while we were boating so I couldn't call you. No one answered your front door, so I checked Liam's house. I was just embarrassed when I felt I interrupted your moment," I say hoping I convinced her.

She laughs, "Well I guess his mom would have interrupted it anyway. When Liam took me home, he didn't say a word to me. Then he called me on Sunday and said his mom needed him to go out of town next weekend so he couldn't go to homecoming. It just sucks because while you guys were boating, we went and picked out his tux and everything." She sits back on the bench and puts her head in her hands.

"Well since I don't have a date either we can go together?" I ask as I sling my arm over her shoulder. "I would be honored to have you as my date. Even if we aren't the pathetic and ugly that you think friend dates are reserved for." I joke but she doesn't look up. I put my hand on her back and rub between her shoulders. I'm the one that gets dumped after a year of dating, but here I am consoling Harper. Lily gets done changing and walks over to us. She sees Harper and drapes her arms around her.

"It will be okay Harper," Lily encourages and Harper looks up revealing her tear-stained face.

"I know I just really wanted to go with Liam," she says through her sobs and Lily and I go back to hugging her.

"Hey, let's skip gym and go get a coffee? Go shit talk about the disappointing guys in our life," I suggest and her face lights up a little. 

"Yeah, I also need to know how the hottest couple here suddenly broke up over the weekend," Harper says with her eyebrow raised. Lily sighs as she grabs the clothes she just changed out of and heads back to the stalls.