Candice was relieved when the gym doors came back into view. Offering Jensen a smile she didn't feel, she lifted a hand in a half-hearted wave, "I'll see you in class on Mon−"

Before she could even comprehend what was going on, Jensen was sprawled out on the ground with Cooper standing in his place, fists clenched. "What the fuck?" Jensen cried, holding his jaw as he glared up at the other boy.

"Cooper!" Candice hissed, jumping in between the two, eyes wide in horror. "What are you doing?"

Cooper turned his glare on her and she fought the urge to take a step back at the hatred she found there. "Him?"

Bewildered, she looked down at Jensen on the ground behind her and then back up. "Him what? What are you talking about? We were just talking!"

Cooper snorted in disbelief, stepping back away from her. "How stupid do you think I am?"

Feeling her own anger rising, she crossed her arms and glared, "Right now? I'd say extremely. I didn't do anything wrong, and I don't appreciate you treating me like I did."

"Jay or Matt, I could understand, but him?"

"What are you talking about?" Candice snapped, noticing for the first time that they were beginning to draw a crowd. "I told you nothing is going on between Jay, Matt, or I. You're behaving like a lunatic."

"You were making out with him!" he accused, leaning in to shout into her face. "You let him touch you."

"You're delusional," she spat.

"And you're just like every other manipulative, cheap, and two-timing bitch in this school," he spat back.

That hit her like a knife to the heart and she felt the color drain from her face. The sound of snickers and whispers seemed to flood her senses and her stomach began to roll. At some point in their fight, it appeared that Jensen had scrambled to his feet and snuck off, so it was just the two of them, putting on a show for the rest of the school. She didn't understand; what had happened?

"Don't hurt me."

"I never want to."

But here he was; doing it anyway. She felt the burning of tears just as she felt the closing in of the crowd, but she didn't try to look away; she had nothing to be ashamed of here. "You're right; I am just like every other girl in this school," she informed him in a soft, flat tone. "Because I knew what you were, and I wanted you anyway."

She didn't need to understand exactly what it was that had happened to lead to this turn of events; she didn't need an explanation. He had turned on her in an instant. In front of the entire school. That was more than enough for her to call it quits from this little experiment of theirs. Uninterested in rejoining her friends, who she knew were bound to be on their way out here any moment as it seemed like the word was getting around and more people were joining their audience, she turned towards the school doors.

"Where do you think you're going?" he snapped from behind her, grabbing her by the elbow. "We're not done talk−"

His words were cut off as when he tugged on her elbow to turn her back around, she came with a furious right hook to his jaw. He fell back a couple of steps, blinking blearily as the pain spread. Candy glared at him, her eyes beginning to overflow with tears. "You don't get to touch me," she snapped at him. "Don't ever touch me. I have nothing else to talk to you about; I'm leaving."

***

He didn't try to stop her again, torn between white-hot rage and a crushing sense of sorrow. She'd cheated. He'd seen the proof; both digitally and with his own eyes as she'd come back from some isolated part of the school with the same guy who'd been in the photo with her. What right did she have to act like the victim?

"You son of a bitch!" He turned at the sound, just in time to find Faith flying at him with murder in her eyes. Matt caught her around the waist and yanked her back before she could make direct contact, earning him a sharp elbow to the face that seemed to nearly cause him to lose his hold, but he held tightly. "I'll kill you!"

"Fay, cool the fuck down," Matt snapped at her. "Half of the chaperones are on their way over here right now. You're going to get yourself suspended."

"Do you think I give a shit?" she growled, still fighting his hold, all of her focus held on Coop.

"What the hell happened?" Spence asked with a worried frown, coming up beside him. "What's going on?"

"She showed her true colors, that's what," he snapped, glaring off in the direction of the school doors she had fled out of. He could see Hope and Cyn's back profile as they raced after her and he very nearly snarled. Of course, she would be the victim in all of this.

"What's going on over here? Everyone get back into the gym!" Mrs. Franklin cried out as she pushed her way through the crowd. Once she'd finally broken through, her gaze fell onto Coop, no doubt in her mind that he was the sole cause of whatever had caused the disturbance. "What happened?"

"Nothing," Spence said with a laugh, slapping Coop on the back. "We just came out here to get some air away from the crowd. Right Coop? We're headed back now."

Ignoring them both, Coop headed for the door. He was over this shit.

***

Sera made sure to stay on the outskirts of the crowd around Coop and Candice, so most of their words were completely lost before they reached her, but she'd seen her moment of triumph. She'd heard the insults Coop had hurled and the tears on Candice's face.

The right hook had taken her by surprise; she hadn't expected the little nerd from before to do anything except crumble, but the result was the same. She'd won. Not only were they broken up, but Candice would have to hear her name whispered across the lips of the entire student body. She could almost laugh about it; Ellie had set out to ruin her life, but instead her sister, that annoying bitch, would be the one miserable.

***

Her wrist was on fire. Candice could hear Cyn, Hope, and Jay calling for her near the school entrance, their voices heavy with concern and worry, but she didn't want to face her friends quite yet. They'd all warned her against him in the beginning, hadn't they? Holding her right arm up close to her body, she used her left to wipe away tears that were caused by a mixture of physical pain and heartache.

She'd punched him. She'd never punched anyone in her life, and clearly, her form left something to be desired because even now she could see that her knuckles were beginning to swell, not to mention the pain in her wrist.  Pulling out her phone, she dialed her sister and held it to her ear as she was careful to stay hidden in the shadows, away from her friends.

"It's the middle of homecoming, what do you want?"

"Eleanor," she said, unable to keep her voice from breaking as the tears continued to fall. "Come get me."

The amused annoyance left her sister's tone immediately and there was no longer a trace of a smile. "Fifteen minutes."

***

The sisters sat at the kitchen counter in silence. When Eleanor had pulled up to the school and taken in her sister's broken state, and the way she held her right arm, her blood boiled and she wanted nothing more than to hunt down the culprit to dispense vengeance. Instead, here she sat, making quick work of wrapping Candice's wrist and icing her knuckles. Candice had done nothing more to complain aside from hiss out a breath in pain a few times, and she'd kept her gaze averted.

Finally, the wrist was wrapped, the knuckles were iced, and Eleanor couldn't stand it anymore. "What happened?"

With a sigh, Candice got to her feet and headed out of the room. "I don't know."

Eleanor stayed hot on her heels, refusing to wait, as she had regarding the Sera incident. "What do you mean, you don't know?" she snapped. "You've got mascara running down your face, your eyes are red, you can't stop sniffling and you punched someone. What. The Hell. Happened?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Candice snapped back, shooting her sister an annoyed look as she stepped into the bathroom and reached for the face wash. "Everything was fine. We were fine. I left to get some air, and I ran into my biology partner. He said he needed to talk to me about something."

"So you punched your biology partner?"

"No," Candice said through clenched teeth. "He wanted to talk to me privately so we went to talk. He told me that he cheated on our biology project. He got caught and he wanted to apologize and assure me that it wouldn't affect my grade. We talked about it, I was upset, and then we walked back towards the gym.

"Next thing I know, Jensen is on the ground and Cooper is standing over him. Then he−" Candice's composure broke then, and she turned away from the mirror towards her sister on a sob that made Eleanor ache. "He called me a manipulative, cheap, two-timing bitch."

Eleanor felt her entire body stiffen and she saw red. "He said what?"

As if her explanation had taken what remained of Candice's composure, she fell back onto the toilet and began sobbing into her hands. "How could I have been this stupid? How could I let this happen? How could I let him matter?"

Guilt wracked through Eleanor as she remembered her part in this; her encouragement for her sister to step out of her comfort zone. Reaching for the washcloth her sister had just been holding, she moved forward to grip Candice's chin as she crouched down in front of her, offering up a soft smile she didn't feel as she began wiping the makeup from her sister's face. "Believe me; he's the stupid one. He's going to regret this night for a long time." She'd make sure of it.

***

"Dude, I'm really trying to understand, but you're not giving me much to go on," Spence said, slamming his car door and rushing to catch up with Coop as he headed inside.

Coop shot him an angry look from over his shoulder as he unlocked the door to his house and stepped inside. Spence caught the door just before it could be slammed in his face and followed his friend inside. "What the hell happened?"

Coop clenched his jaw and struggled with the urge to lash out. Candy had managed to land a decent blow; his jaw was still sore. "Just get out."

"I'm not leaving without understanding just what the hell happened back there, man," Spence said stubbornly, trailing closely on Coop's heels. "You really liked her, Coop. Why would she punch you? Why didn't you go after her? What's going on?"

"She snuck off with another guy!" Coop shouted, punching the hallway wall. "She had her arms wrapped around him and they were making out. She's a liar."

"Candy?" Spence asked incredulously with a shake of his head. "There has to be a misunderstanding; she's not the type of girl to do that, Coop. What did she say when you asked her about it? Maybe it wasn't her."

"It was her," Coop growled. "There was no one else wearing that dress, and I caught her flirting with the same guy a few days ago."

Spence shook his head disbelievingly, "That doesn't sound like her. What did she say?"

"Said I was delusional."

"Maybe you are."

"I know what I saw," he snapped. "Don't talk about it again."

"You're making a mistake, Coop," Spence pushed. "She wouldn't just do that."

"But she did."

"There has to be an explanation."

"Drop it."

"Coop, I don't−"

"Drop. It."

On a sigh, Spence fell onto the Coop's bed and reached for his game controller. "Alright, well I get first dibs."

***

Eleanor shut her sister's phone off for the rest of the weekend and barred the entry for anyone trying to see her. She itched to track down and cause immense physical harm to one, Cooper Daniels, but Candice had locked herself in her room. Their mom was working all weekend, and Eleanor was hesitant to leave her sister alone in her misery. By Sunday evening, her patience was non-existent. She made quick work of picking the lock and burst into the room. Her sister didn't even lift her head.

"That's enough of that. Get up, let's go."

"I'm fine here thanks."

Eleanor raised a brow and crossed her arms, staring down at her sister's form beneath her comforter. "I wasn't asking," she stated flatly, leaning forward and reaching out to yank the blanket free. "Get out of bed and take a shower. You stink."

Candice sat up on her elbows with a scowl, "I do not. Get out of my room."

With a huff, Eleanor fell dramatically onto the bed on top of her sister, "Don't be such a drama queen; you're embarrassing me."

"I'm in my room, my door is locked and the only person I've talked to is you," Candice groaned. "Get off of me, get out of my room and leave me alone."

"Any guy who's going to treat you like he treated you isn't worth your time."

"Says the girl who locks herself in the bathroom to cry over a different one every other week," Candice shot back sharply.

Eleanor wasn't offended. She rolled off of her sister and settled in beside her. "Yeah, but you're smarter than me."

"Am not," Candice replied, surprising both of them and causing Eleanor to turn her head and stare at her sister. "I focus on school while you focus on fun. Your grades are fine. The only reason mine are better is because school's my life; for you, it's just a necessity."

They both fell into an awkward silence, unsure how to navigate their recently evolving relationship. After a few minutes, Eleanor shot out of the bed with her sister's left arm firmly in her grasp and yanked her up after her. "You need to make him rue the day he ever made the mistake of hurting you. He needs to see just exactly what it was he threw away over some stupid fit of jealousy."

Candice snorted, "He could replace me in an hour."

Eleanor stopped in her progress toward the door and swung around to lean into her sister's face with a malicious expression. "He can find a hot body; he can't find you."

***

Monday came and went without a scene. Candice told her friends (and an extremely irate Jay) what had happened the night of homecoming, and Cooper didn't bother to show up to class. Even Spence avoided her, though he at least offered her a half-hearted smile before turning his gaze away and keeping his distance. After turning her phone back on, she was both relieved and disappointed to find that he hadn't tried to reach her. There would be no reconciliation. Did she even want one after what he'd said to her? Yes, and that admittance made her even more angry.

Tuesday followed with much the same pattern, though she did spot him with Marie Hernandez, slipping into a classroom sometime in the afternoon. There'd been a brief moment when their eyes had met, and she saw the hatred that oozed out of his. She looked away first and continued on her way through the hall, trying hard to focus on whatever it was Hope was saying.

By Thursday, she managed to convince herself that it didn't matter; she didn't care. Until she walked into third period and found him already there, leaning back in his seat and watching her with that same accusing, hateful stare. People were whispering and watching; she saw Cyn towards the front, her gaze moving from one of them to the other with a worried frown. She lifted her chin and moved to her seat, refusing to so much as glance in his direction again for the remainder of the class. Not that it did her one bit of good because she could feel him the whole time; his gaze on her back, his whispered flirtation with some of the girls sitting behind him, his laugh...his smell.

She was out of her seat the second the bell rang, practically sprinting out into the hall as she felt the burn of tears she couldn't let him see. Fumbling with the combination on her locker, it took her three times as long as usual before she managed to wrench it open and shove her things back where they belonged, grabbing her coat and tugging it on before slamming the locker closed again. For the second time in her life, Cooper had managed to make her skip class, but she just couldn't handle being in the same room with him. Not again.

***

Coop was more pissed off than he would care to admit when Candy didn't appear for fourth period. It had been five days and she hadn't even tried to make amends or apologize. He'd thought for sure he'd almost had her on Tuesday afternoon when he let Maria drag him into a classroom, hoping for some afternoon action. Not that he'd been in the mood to oblige, he'd just let her make her offer and then sent her on her way. Even now, he didn't want anyone but Candy. Candy who had taken in the other girl's hand on his, and just exactly where they'd been going. Candy who hadn't burst in, in a jealous fit to stop it from happening. Candy who acted as though he were the one in the wrong.

To hell with her, and to hell with her lies. He'd seen the proof himself, hadn't he? Pictures were worth a thousand words, and that picture had been her. No one else that night had worn that dress, and even if they had, what were the chances they'd both been caught with Jensen? Wasn't everyone always saying that the simplest solution was often the most likely? She had been wrong. She had cheated. He was the victim here. So why did he feel like he was the one being punished?