Hi, everyone!

This here is a new story and to join along in the fun, you'll want to familiarize yourself with the song, "Lovefool" by the Cardigans. For which this story here is based on the name. 

______________________________________________

Time to get to work.

I plopped myself onto the bed, propping my legs between the comforter and a pillow to get situated. To the right of my laptop rested a notebook and a pink clicky pen. To the left sat three Blowpops, all watermelon flavored of course.

My hand instinctively plugged the earbuds in as the password screen prompted me to input the eleven digit code: l-o-o-f-e-v-o-l-1-7-&.

Even after three years of helming this blog, I still had no idea why my older sister, Hannah, chose this silly password. How has no one hacked into the site, yet, was beyond me?

Welcome, the screen greeted and served as my cue to start the ritual. With the sucker unwrapped and in my mouth, I hit play for the music to begin.

The fast melodic beat poured into my ears as I started scanning all the messages in the blog's inbox.

Dear, I fear we're facing a problem

You love me no longer, I know

And maybe there is nothing

That I can do to make you do.

Full of the usual fare, ten titled Questions for Lovefool caught my attention. One of which I'd chose for tonight's post.

"Wow, I guess the weekend was busy," I muttered while perusing the forty-three other messages. Seeing names like Max Jansen and Austin Mickler surprised me with the comment Naughty List behind both. This had to be good.

I scrolled through a few more. All the usual suspects: Blake, Taylor, Shawn, and Brent. But then my eyes zeroed on the last message's subject: TANNER WILSON - CHEATING!

Well then. I couldn't help myself and ignored the others to open the email.

Dear Lovefool,

Thought this would interest you.

The cursor clicked on the attachment, and a video appeared. Luckily it lasted only about twenty seconds and didn't take long to get the gist of the sender's intent.

From the background and all the movement of the different people on the screen, it was easy to ascertain it took place at a party or something. One that I didn't receive an invite to of course. Not that I cared. At least I kept telling myself that.

But that was just another perk of being me, Harriet Byrne. To everyone at Summit High, I was a nobody, a wallflower whose pasty white skin faded into the background along with the other unknowns.

The only people that even noticed me at school, besides the teachers, were my best friend, Mavis Lewis and her next door neighbor, Matt Toose. But I truly believed that Matt only befriended me under duress by Mavis.

The picture centered on a guy sitting on a couch. A girl with long blond hair sat on his lap, and the two were making out.

Okay, no biggie.

The person recording the interaction murmured, "Is that Tanner?"

A female voice answered, "Yeah, I think so."

Think so?

I couldn't use that. There had to be more convincing proof than that if someone was going to get outed anonymously by me.

Although not considered a full-fledged reporter yet, I was the student editor of the Summit Ledger. That responsibility alone meant I had to hold myself to the same journalistic integrity whether a column in the school paper or here on my blog.

Also, it would be unfair to place someone on the Naughty List without them earning their rightful spot. Even with the name Tanner Wilson.

The video continued for a few more heartbeats when off screen someone yelled, "Hey, Tanner."

Prompted by hearing his name, the male on the couch extricated himself from the blond and frozen still on my laptop was none other than Tanner Wilson. The girl had turned her head, and I couldn't doubt her identity either. And it wasn't Claudia Crowder, Tanner's current flavor of the month. 

No, this was better. Juicer even.

 Brittany Parker, the girl in the video, also happened to be Claudia's best friend.

Small world, huh? Well, at least Tanner's world was about to get a little smaller. Yeah, like a petri dish after I published here in a few minutes.

Per protocols established by my sister, we never disclosed what information that we gained. We only updated the lists, and let our readers form their own opinions. Many a time I'd been on the receiving end of a nasty message sent by an irate individual who felt they were unjustly placed.

I'd ignore them of course. A couple even threatened legal action, but with my mom being a lawyer, Hannah had already posted the disclosure on the page where the Naughty List was located. It simply stated that this was a satirical site, based solely on opinion, and not to be taken seriously. 

The primary purpose of the site was to help forlorn teenagers that had questions about love and just life in general. Not everyone had the best support system, take me for example.  With divorced workaholic parents and a sister away at college, sometimes it was nice to have someone to talk to if needed.

So, if a reader wanted to vent about their parents or ask about what to do when their boyfriend cheated on them, I leant an ear and told them what I would do, if it were me.

And in the spirit of cheating, and boys by the name of Tanner, I posted the question sent to me by user Lulu1224.

Dear Lovefool,

I don't know what to do. I just found out a couple of days ago that my boyfriend of almost two years cheated on me. To say that I am heartbroken is an understatement. He says that he's sorry and that it will never happen again, but I don't believe him. What should I do? Should I stay with him and try to make it work, or?

It didn't take long for me to type out my response.

First of all, let me say how sorry I am that you have to be going through this. Not only was your heart broken, but I have a feeling that the trust that you had in your boyfriend is now gone. As a little girl, my aunt told me that the hardest thing to ever win back once lost was trust. Love comes and goes in waves, as does friendship, but trust is essential to everything. You need to trust in love, in friendship, in life. Without it, you remain lost and struggle with constant worry and stress.

So to answer your question, if it were me, I'd break it off with him. You can do so much better. Regardless of anything else, you will always be wondering in the back of your mind if he's cheating again. Because it could happen, and I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to take the risk. He already had his one shot and blew it with you.

Remember, don't be a fool in love. That's my job.

Lovefool

Once I finished typing and hit enter, I updated the standings for the Naughty List. The info on Blake kept him at number five. The message about Max was a load of bull as I suspected and crossed him off the list immediately. Shawn took the fourth spot, followed by Taylor at  number three for five weeks running. That boy would undoubtedly hit number one if he didn't stop dating his way through the majority of the senior class. It was disgusting.

I shook my head at the Austin Mickler message. Sent to me by his ex-girlfriend, it claimed that once she told him about her pregnancy, he dumped her and told everyone that she cheated on him behind his back. Even the gossip trickled to a nobody like me, so I had no choice but to give him the number two spot. Just for being a jackass alone.

I typed Tanner W. at the top of the list and backspaced once. Twice. Three times and my stomach sunk. Deep down, I secretly wanted it not to be true, even though all proof that I'd seen was to the contrary. Granted Tanner was a flirt and a bit of a jerk; he wasn't a known cheater.

At least not that Lovefool had ever heard. Or me. And when it came to him, I certainly would have paid attention.

Forcing myself to do what was needed, I typed his name and hit enter before I had second thoughts again.

Darn it! Out of all people, why did I have a crush on him?

The only thing left to do was close down my laptop and wait for tomorrow. Maybe I fretted for nothing? Maybe no one would even see the post and notice Tanner's name in the number one spot or infer at all what it meant?

Even though whoever sent me that video would probably post it to Facebook or Twitter as proof.

A cold sweat settled over me at the realization that it was too late to take it all back now. It was out there for the masses to see. As bad as I wanted to recant and delete the post, I didn't owe Tanner anything. Shoot, he didn't even know I existed.

And that was for the best.

Or was it?

__________________________________________________

So what did you think???

Make sure to add to your library for updates and vote and comment, please!!!

Look for another update tomorrow! XOXO

and also many thanks to EmmaHavana for the wonderful banner and cover for this story!!! She is pure awesomesauce!