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“Did a tornado hit this room?”

I was currently cleaning out my drawer, throwing all of my old clothes in the trash bags, knowing I would never see them again. They were sizes too big for me anyway.

Hayden makes sure not to step on the multiple piles of clothes scattered all over the room before he reaches me.

I don’t turn to him and he takes a seat on my bed. “Seriously, lately you’ve been acting weird. You even ditched the lecture, Professor McAdams was asking about you.” Hayden continues and for some reason, he sounds worried.

Why was he worried?

“I’m fine so stop acting like you even want to hear my problems,” I say a little too harshly, pulling out more piles of clothes before looking at him to see he had an almost offended look on his face.

His chin was pulled back as his eyes were slightly narrowed. “What the hell are you talking about?” Hayden asks, furrowing his brows.

“You know exactly what I mean,” I say flatly but he still looks confused. “Actually I don’t.” He says back, pursing his lips in a funny way.

“Listen I’ve been hearing the rumors about you and I just want to know if you’re okay. What they did to you, it was wrong.”

When Hayden says this, I physically slump back, closing the drawers and taking a seat beside him. “Talk to me,” he says, bumping his shoulders against mine.

“I just feel like I don’t know who I am anymore. When I was with my boyfriend everything was so much easier and I think—”

“Don’t give up already Char,” I freeze when he cuts me off to say this.

Char.

I turn my head to look at him to find he was already looking at me and my eyes widen slightly.

“Life isn’t supposed to be easy. You’re not supposed to depend on someone. I know you’re going through a lot but don’t give up. When you get through this, imagine how much stronger you’ll be, not only for your boyfriend but for you.”

Hayden’s words…why were they always what I needed to hear, why did he always make things so much clearer for me?

“You seem to know what I need more than I do,” I say through a chuckle. "Can't you like manage my life for me?"

“I have a way with these things.” He says through a shrug. "Funny thing you would say that, I'm not taking management or anything but I'm taking business."

“You’re majoring in business!” I gape and he chuckles at my reaction.

“Why’s that so hard to believe?” He tilts his head to observe me and I find myself turning my body to face him more.

“You’re just so sarcastic and cold and you don’t care about anything. Everything’s so carefree about you,” I explain. “Well, I guess you’re serious sometimes…it might actually suit you.”

“What the hell are you even saying,” he laughs.

When he starts to laugh I find myself stopping and staring. He had dimples and they were so cute. His teeth were straight except for his extremely sharp canines but I thought it suited him so well.

His laughter was so carefree. Just like him.

“Why are you being so nice to me?” I ask out of nowhere and his laughter finally subsides as he turns to look at me once again. When he finally seems to realize what I said his laughter comes to an end.

“When I first met you I thought you were so mean and cold but…”

I didn’t know what to say.

I just knew I was wrong on what I thought about him, I judged him too quickly, and I was completely wrong.

“You were the only one to actually be indifferent at first, reminded me of high school,” I say, looking down at my hands in my lap with a small smile on my face. “Now that I think about it…it was kind of refreshing.”

“How so?” I find Hayden furrowing his brows as I met his penetrating gaze. Talk about eyes.

His were gorgeous.

“Well, you weren’t like the rest of them. You didn’t treat me differently just because of the way I looked,” I explain and if possible his eyebrows furrow more. “Now that we actually took time to get to know each other, you’re nice to me not because of the way I look but for me.”

When I say this, a flicker of an emotion I couldn’t quite put my finger on flashed in his eyes, but it left just as quick as it came. I tilted my head and smiled. A real smile.

A smile that I knew held many promises because I don’t think I’ve ever felt like this before. “I think you’re my first real friend,” I tell him, my smile growing.

He really was. I’ve never had a friend before and the feeling made me happy. To my disappointment, Hayden doesn’t react. Instead, he turns his head away, our gazes breaking and my smile drops.

“Hayden?” I ask— my tone laced with concern.

“Yeah, no yeah definitely…we are.” When he turns around and flashes me his smile, it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “But what are you going to do now, about the rumors and stuff?”

His question has me thinking and forgetting about that little slip-up he just gave me.

“I think I’m going to give the people what they want. If they think they can stomp all over me they have another thing coming for them. I promised myself I would get through this and I will. I guess I’m going to have to make a reputation for myself, one where I’m sure will make everyone back off."

“Umm,” Hayden scratched his brow. “So you want to make a reputation for yourself? Are you sure about that, you could just ignore them?” Hayden offers.

“I know you, Jack knows you, the people who really know you know whatever those people say isn’t true.”

“I can’t just ignore it,” I tell him seriously. “I thought I could but I can’t, I’m not strong enough for that. So I’m going to pretend...pretend to be what they think I am.”

And maybe they’ll stop talking. Maybe I’ll be old news to them and soon it’ll all pass.

…

After I threw all of my clothes out I called Clark later that day and we went shopping for a whole new wardrobe.

“What is this, underwear?” Clark holds something up and I shake my head through a laugh.

“No, that’s a crop-top,” I tell her, still shaking my head and chuckling.

“How can someone wear this thing?” She asks through a face. “Don’t tell me you’re buying this, it’s not even you.” She says, trying to put the piece of small clothing back on the rack and I snatch it before she does, dumping it into the cart.

“That’s exactly the point.”

I get back to Central West in a completely new wardrobe.

Clark was walking beside me, trying to catch up with my long strides as I walk over to my lecture building. I was wearing a burgundy crop-top and washed blue jeans that fit perfectly. I had a bun placed on the top of my head as I walked with my chin in the air.

“Are you comfortable with the…attention?” Clark asks wearily from beside me.

Not really.

But I had to get used to it soon; it was the only way I was going to make it out alive.

“It doesn’t bother me at all,” I lie.

Clark narrows her eyes at me as I take my handbag from her and apply my lip gloss. That made one guy stop to stare, I even smiled at one of his friebds walking and he nearly tripped.

“I’ll see you at work Clark,” I say before walking into my lecture building and she stands there wondering what the hell just happened.

When I enter my lecture room, all eyes are on me.

Professor McAdams still wasn’t here and so I took my seat beside Hayden, whose mouth was slightly left ajar. I set my bag down and pulled out my pen and notebook, before applying more lip gloss.

A girl could never have too much lip gloss on.

“What the hell are you wearing, where are your sweats and your baggy shirts,” Hayden whispers from beside me uncomfortably. I think it was because of how most of the guys were looking  at the fact that I sat next to him.

“That’s old news,” I say, flashing him a smile and he gives me a weird face.

“Why the hell are you talking like that?” He asks again.

“Hayden,” I sigh. “I realized I need to change. I couldn’t be the same shy girl who got hurt every time someone made a rumor about me. I’m trying to embrace it as you said; it’s the only way I can make the rumors go away.”

“By pretending it doesn’t hurt you?” Hayden asks with an incredulous look on his face.

“Exactly,” I say. Before Hayden can say anything further, Professor McAdams walks into the room and the place goes deadly silently.

McAdams' eyes meet mine and they widen slightly before he clears his throat and begins his lecture. The entire time I can feel Hayden’s gaze on me but instead of worrying about what he thought, I kept my head held high and focused.

Maybe that was why Hayden never got hurt because he looked like he never cared? So now I’m just doing the same, I’m simply not caring.

Like this, I’m sure nothing could ever get to me.

…

I’m the first to leave the lecture room, Hayden hot on my heels.

As I fast walk down the pathway outside back to our dorm, I tell myself I need to get back to our room, and then he can talk at me and make me feel bad. But right now I was doing so well.

I was pretending not to care so well and I couldn’t have him ruin my act.

“Char!” He calls after me and I walk faster. He was starting to catch people’s attention.

“What a skank, so eager to get back to your dorm room aren’t you!” A familiar voice says from beside me. The boys beside Mary are snickering and I try to bite back the tears already threatening to spill.

How could she make it look like that so easily?

I turned back quickly to see Hayden was already catching up.

Snapping my gaze back to Mary, I see she’s walking by my former club-mates; all of them had triumph smiles on their faces.

“It’s not what you think!” I say back, my fists clenching at my sides. There I go caring again.

“Whatever you say, you can’t fool us because we know who you really are!” Mary says and her posse giggles, everyone already starting to gather by the time Hayden gets here.

I find myself trying to steady my breathing, I was having an anxiety attack. The stares, the rumors, all the whispers, and snickers. It was all too much. It was all so new to me and I didn't know what to do.

They got what they wanted once again.

They knew how they were making me feel even if the boys dug it. They knew I didn’t want to have that kind of label on me because that wasn’t who I really was and they were using it against me.

So I had to show them they were right.

“Actually,” I start when my eyes focus on someone in the distance who was also in the crowd.

I grab onto Daniel’s collar, he was standing amongst all the commotion with wide eyes and slam my lips against his which induces a couple of gasps to be heard.

“There you are a sweetie,” I say in my sickly sweet tone once I pull away. “I was actually running to meet up with my boyfriend. I didn’t want to keep him waiting.” Daniel is staring at me with wide eyes and so is everyone else.

“Is there a problem with that?” I whirl around to face Mary and her posse and they’re just as surprised as everyone else.

I try to find Hayden in the crowd but he’s nowhere to be seen until I see him in the distance, walking away.

Mary shakes her head at my question, still completely flabbergasted.

“I didn’t think so."

"Why don’t you find something better to do than gossip and spread rumors that are totally untrue? It’s sad honestly. It’s one thing being not so appealing on the outside, but it’s another when you’re not so appealing on the inside.”

Some of the boys laugh, some hiss at my harsh words and others mutter a low, ‘ouuu’, clearly finding the whole situation amusing.

I catch Mary’s face before she’s off running and almost regret saying that. Almost.

But she deserved it.

Turning back to Daniel who’s still speechless, I pull him back into Building C before anyone else can say anything further.

__________________________

So that happened :0

Don't worry its all apart of my plan and things will start to work out soon for Charlie. Its all about character development. I want all my characters to develop, even Mary😂

I bet all my Hayden fans didn't really like the ending, eh?

Oh and more of Alex soon ;)

Comment and vote! Love you❤

xxx