Page 51 of The Pucking Kiss

My heart started beating faster. There is no way that Kathy knows my secret. She’s just trying to intimidate me.

I steeled myself, “You’re not the only one who knows how to play the popularity game, Kathy. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.”

“I find it really hard to believe that you somehow revamped your whole image in such a short time….” she crossed her arms out in front of her, unwilling to let it go.

“I guess when you decided to leave my life, good things finally started happening to me,” I said without skipping a beat.

I was not going to give her the impression that I was scared of her. Not anymore.

“Whatever it is, I’m going to figure it out.”

“You know, Kathy. It didn’t really have to be like this between the two of us. We could have stayed friends, and you could have had this together with me. But you didn’t, and now it’s your loss.”

My words were concise and intentional. I wanted her to feel bad about what she had done to me.

“Enjoy your fifteen minutes of fame,” she finally replied, her gaze shooting daggers at me. “But the moment that Bryan decides to dump you, it’s going to be game over.”

“In your dreams!” I got up and left before she could get in another word edgewise. She couldn’t just expect to bully me like this and always have the last word.

The old Romai would have put up with her intimidation tactics. But the old Romai was dead now.

As I walked through the busy school hallway, my mind was still preoccupied with thoughts of Kathy.

I needed to do something to prove to her that she couldn’t speak to me like this anymore. Distracted, I made my way against the bustle of students, keeping to myself and lost in my own world.

But as I turned the corner and reached my locker, a familiar figure blocked my path.

“There she is,” It was Karl. He seemed a little too happy to see me, and I looked behind me to see if there was anyone else he was referring to. “I mean you, Romai.”

“Oh, um,” I straightened my back, “What’s up, Karl?”

I eyed him suspiciously. We’d only spoken a few times during practice, and the only thing I remembered about him was that Bryan didn’t particularly like it when I spoke to him.

That’s when the idea hit me.

Bryan didn’t like it when I spoke to him. Maybe the only way to make him realize his feelings about me was to spend some time with Karl.

“Busy day, eh?” he gave me a confident smile.

“Oh, I’m used to it by now,” I laughed, albeit nervously.

“I know. You’re like the smartest girl in school,” he took one step closer to me. “I hope you know that I think that’s the coolest thing ever.”

I blinked, wondering if I had misheard him. Since when did jocks like Karl think of nerdy girls as cool? Usually, the kind of girls they considered worthwhile to hang out with were scantily clad teenagers.

“Hm, well, the more you know.”

“The more you know, indeed,” he busted out laughing. “Nice haircut, by the way. It suits you.”

Was it just me, or was Karl actually trying to flirt with me? The whole thing felt quite bizarre, but I spotted Bryan approaching us from the other end of the corridor and decided to put on a show.

After all, it didn’t hurt to try and make Bryan just a little bit jealous.

“Oh, you like my hair?” I said, doing a dramatic hair flip. “I just got it done this week.”

“Oh, you should have gotten it done a long time ago. A girl as pretty as you should be given compliments daily.”

I blushed slightly. He was definitely trying to flirt with me now, which didn’t even make sense because, to him, I was still dating Bryan!

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