Page 84 of A Vicious Rumor

I'd never been in a situation like this before. I was always the good girl in my last school. The girl that volunteered at the Senior Center, had a job to try and help her mom pay off her credit card debt, the perfect student, you name it.

I'd never been the gossip fixation for the school, and I'd certainly never been called a slut when walking down the hallway. When I first ran out of the science lab, I thought it was because people had heard me and Tyson, but then I noticed everyone looking at their phones and then at me.

I didn't know where to go to escape everyone so I just kept climbing the stairs higher and higher until I came to a door that said "Roof Access." At this point I didn't care if opening it set off an alarm. That might have been better because at least it would have broken up the drama currently floating around and all at my expense.

Except, it didn't set off an alarm, and I was able to sit up there and look down on the school the same way everyone who attended looked down at me. I was able to pull out my phone without anyone seeing me and stare in horror at the video on the other side.

It didn't matter that you could barely make me out. I knew it was me, and whoever took the video clearly knew it was me. I twisted my lips thinking about who could have been there that night. I seriously doubted Zachary would do something like this. It didn't make sense to ruin my reputation at the cost of his own. There was one person, however, that might have been really mad at seeing me and Tyson together.

Kitty.

I shook my head and sighed. It didn't matter now. None of this mattered. I was hurt, embarrassed, and mortified, but I had to figure out a way to stop tonight's fight. More than that, I still hadn't talked to Zachary about what I was currently carrying in my backpack.

I gave myself a few more minutes to validate what I was currently feeling about this entire situation, and then I pulled myself together. I fished my pocket mirror out of my bag to check how red my eyes were.

Crimson, but it didn't matter. I checked my watch to make sure that next period had already started. I didn't want to run into anyone in the hallways. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and texted Zachary.

"Meet me in the school club room in twenty minutes. I don't care if you have to skip class."

He responded with a thumbs up relatively quickly, and I made my way towards the principal's office to report a fight that was about to take place.

"Here," I said, putting the file down on the desk in front of Zachary. "It's what you asked for."

"Did you look at it?" he asked me, walking over to the door and locking it.

I nodded. "Yes. I had to know it was the right paperwork."

"What's it say?" he asked, coming over to sit behind the desk I was currently leaning against. The school clubroom for the Triad was just as posh as Zachary's room at his house. There was a large glass desk at the front and equally modern couches strewn about plus a TV on the far right wall. It looked like it belonged in a nightclub and not a high school.

"I don't know if now's the time to talk about it," I admitted. "I just wanted to hand it over to you quickly. I didn't feel right holding onto the information."

"Lily," he said, standing and gripping me by both shoulders. "Can you just tell me what's in the folder?" He looked down at it and shuddered slightly. "Honestly, I'm too nervous to look."

In that moment, my heart sank for him. This news would certainly crush him. I really didn't want to be the one that was going to deliver it to him, and more than that, I didn't know how to do it in a way that wouldn't cause him trauma later on.

A knock at the door saved us both. I turned to look, and it was Paper. Zachary walked over and unbolted the door. "What's up?" he asked.

Paper gave him a look. "Why is the door locked?"

"I didn't realize," Zachary said, brushing off the question.

Paper looked between the two of us, and then at me specifically. "Rock is looking for you," he said.

I shrugged. "He can keep looking. If you two are going to fight today, I don't want any part of either of you."

The club room phone rang, and Zachary ran to pick it up. "Yeah?" he asked. "Oh come on, Dad," he said, clearly irritated. "That's totally unfair." He paused. "Yes, fine, I'll be right there."

"I've got to go," he said, rushing out of the room.

Paper shook his head a bit sadly. "Still can't seem to get over the need to please his father," he said. "When the man calls, he basically forgets everything about himself just to jump for him. He'd get a lot more respect if he held his ground every once and a while."

I gave Paper an interesting look. "That's the first time I've heard you comment about either of the others to someone outside of the group."

"I guess I'm just tired," Paper said. He gave me another look. "He really is worried about you."

"He shouldn't be," I sneered. "If he were really worried about how I felt, he'd stop this idiotic fight."

"Something tells me you've already done what you could to make that happen," Paper commented with a raised eyebrow. "Could that be the meaning behind the urgent phone call just now?"

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