Jealousy Best Served Devious (Clash Of Cliches Book 1)

Chapter 16- All Smiles

A/N: Thank you for reading, commenting and voting! I'm so grateful for you all :) and I hope you're enjoying reading like I'm enjoying writing!

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Chapter Sixteen- All Smiles.

They say that an elephant never forgets. Neither does Arielle, when it's something important to her (like new teddy bears, Doc McStuffin's DVD's and Bob). Every day after I came home from school over the next few days, she would come up to me, asking when Tyler was taking her to the arcade.

"He said he was gonna take me and mommy gave me money so I can buy stuff," she kept repeating like the android I'm sure she secretly is, a ten-dollar bill in her chubby fist. Batting her eyelashes up at me (seriously, who taught her that? It sure wasn't me!), she continued with a syrupy, "Please, Kay-Bear?"

I'll admit that I was hedging on the whole arcade mall trip because a) I hate the mall and b) Arielle acted so erratically in public. So I kept it under wraps, hoping that Tyler wouldn't remember his offer and Arielle would forget (haha, yeah, right). Didn't happen, which was why I found myself grumpily putting on my sneakers in the kitchen as Arielle danced happily around the kitchen.

"Don't buy her any candy, don't let her play video games with bright flashing lights, and please don't let her get another scarf," mom hectored, her eyes stern.

Arielle skidded to a stop in front of mom and looked up at her. "I want a new scarf though, mommy," she said pleadingly.

"You don't need one, my love," mom said soothingly, gently chucking a pouting Arielle under her chin. "Go put your sweater on."

Curly pigtailed hair bouncing on her shoulders, Arielle stomped off to her room to get a sweater.

I feel your pain, Arielle.

Well, maybe on another level. It's common knowledge that I hate the mall. I can't stand shopping, and because of that, you'll only see me at the mall a maximum of once every three months. In the past six weeks, I had been at the mall twice. This was my third go round and I wasn't looking forward to it. Mom had taken the opportunity to give me money to make me buy some clothes while I was there. "You need new shoes, since your Uggs got ruined when you were dunked. And you're going for dinner with Tyler's family on the weekend. Buy a cute dress for the occasion," she told me last night as I took the money, annoyed. Humph. She was always trying to get me to go shopping.

Why doesn't she understand?

Tyler arrived, I grabbed Arielle's carseat and, hand in hand with my little sister, we left the house.

"Hey, Arielle!" Tyler jumped out of his car and completely ignored me lugging the carseat down the drive way as he focused soley on a beaming Arielle.

How gallant.

I wasn't sure why Arielle liked Tyler so much. Sure, he was nice to her, charming, really good with kids... oh, I get it. Anyway, Arielle had never taken to anyone the way she had taken to Tyler, and, as I opened the back door of Tyler's car and started securing the carseat safely, I could hear her giggling away to Tyler.

Sure, chat with my little sister while I do all the work.

I was definitely feeling salty. Shelley had kept her word and wasn't talking to me at all. She straight up ignored me yesterday when I was talking to Janessa at my locker and she showed up with Brandon. So nasty, so rude. And when she really had to tell me something, she used either Brandon or Janessa to relay the message. I had tried talking to her on one occasion, and she froze me out. My self-esteem wasn't strong enough to withstand another episode of her coldness, so I gave up. Let her talk to me when she's good and ready. I did nothing wrong apart from wanting to be with Ryder so badly it was a personal ache. Why didn't she want me to be happy?