“So, what do you think I should do then?” I ask Lauren, chewing the floppy piece of french fry slowly in my mouth, savoring the saltiness. Lauren taps her chin thoughtfully. Kai seems to be ignoring us as he spoons mouthful of the vanilla ice cream to his mouth. So it surprises me when he answers.

“Just talk to Mai. Tell her she shouldn’t be doing this. You didn’t do anything wrong,” he scoffs and carries on pigging out on his ice cream. Whenever Kai eats, everything looks so appetizing. I turn to Lauren and silently ask for her approval. But she is staring with a disgusted look on her face at Kai. I laugh silently as she waits for Kai to realize that she is staring at him. When he does, he has a little bit of ice cream around his lips and he grins guilitily at her. She smacks her own forehead in exasperation and grumbles as she wipes off the white stain with napkin from Kai’s lips. Kai just smirks and gives a careless shrug.

“For the sake of all that is sweet, attractive and innocent, Kai, can you eat less like a pig?” she scolds him.

“I am just being myself around my best friends, okay? And well, my girlfriend apparently,” he blows his hair out of his eyes and Lauren presses her lips together, not daring to smile.

“You pig you…”

“You still love me,” he cuts her and carries on eating. She huffs and slaps him on the arm before turning to me.

“But Kai is right. As much as you don’t like it, why don’t you talk to her? I mean, it’s not even your fault Kris refuses to go with a knithead like her. And people will listen to her,” she nods, knowingly.

“But, ugh. What if she doesn’t? It’s not like I did anything in the past few days to change her mind so she can be nicer to me,” I whine in dismay and stuff more fries in my mouth.

“Kimmy, listen. At least you can try. You don’t know if she decides to suddenly be nice, right? And she’s really crossing the line anyways,” Lauren mutters some profanities under her breath.

“Fine, okay. I’ll try,” I resign as I stand up and dump the contents of my tray in the bin.

“I have to go to class, but see you guys around, okay?” I pick up my bag and give them a hug before I leave.

“Love you, Kimmy. Remember, we are behind you!” Lauren tells me before I leave and Kai grins and nods as he agrees. When I am almost out of the cafeteria, I turn back to see Lauren’s head leaning on Kai’s shoulder and Kai just slightly leaning back on her head. I wish I could do it too. Every couple should yearn to be like them.

I don’t know if this is a good kind of coincidence, but none other than the infamous Mai happens to be standing near my class. Our last encounter replays in my head and I flinch at the memory. I can’t be scared and back off. I dig my nails into my own skin and grit my teeth.

“Hey Mai, can I talk to you?” I try my best to smile as sincerely as I can. In return, she is smiling as wickedly as she can to me. What is fairness in this world?

“Sure. Go ahead, Kimmy. What do you want?” her voice is laced with sweet, sick poison. The way she uttered my name is like mentioning something unworthy of existing in this world.

“Somewhere private maybe?” I ask her, politely of course. This time, I won’t make a mistake of letting her humiliate me in public again.

“No, I like it here, Kimmy. There is nothing wrong here, right? So what is it that you need to tell me?” she bats her eyelashes and smirks. What do I do now? I clench my fist and decide to go ahead with my plan. What’s the worst she can do?

“Right. The thing is, whatever you did and said in front of everyone last week. That was out of line. I didn’t do anything to wrong you, so why are you doing this again?”

She smiles smugly. “Maybe because I bet you are secretly dating Kris. And then oh right! You also run around going out with other boys like that Luhan boy. He is pretty though, isn’t he? Too bad I had my eyes on Kris. But, the point is…it isn’t nice to steal someone else’s crush or even…potential boyfriend Kimmy,” she wags a long, manicured finger at my face and it’s beginning to tick me off. I wish I could break her nails for her.

“What potential boyfriend? He wasn’t even interested in you the slightest bit,” I spit. She has no right to sprout lies and rumours about her and Kris. For all we know, Kris’ girl might hear about this and Kris is not going to be happy. Her eyes turn to slits and I could have sworn they turn red too.

“He was, miss know-it-all matchmaker. What do you know about him? Huh? You think you know everyone’s love life. Well you don’t!” She hisses and her voice drips with so much hatred and anger that I am shocked. Who knew she would overreact to something small like this? It’s not like she found Kris and I walking hand in hand or anything. We are just…friends…

“I know enough to say that we are not dating and we are just best friends. So tell all your followers in school and set the record straight about me. I am not some emo girl who goes around matching people everyday of my life and my dad has nothing to do with this. So you take him out of this mess,” I say quietly but with power behind my words. When I am done speaking, I realize I have been backing her up so she is leaning against the locker already, with my shooting her a penetrating glare.

“Lies. I never liked you anyway. You don’t think I see what you go around the school, but I do. Kris is just the last straw, okay little girl?” she sneers and the next thing I knew, I feel a cold hand against my cheek.

Smack!

Ow. Hot. Hot. My cheek burns with embarrassment and pain, stinging deeply into my veins. Blood rushes to my head as I try to reassess the situation.

Mai just slapped me. In front of the whole crowd of students that are now watching us.

But … why is she in tears…?

“Wha..” I splutter. Tears are making its way to my eyes too. I can’t deny that the girl has put in some power in the palm of her hands. I touch my aching cheek and my ear is still deaf from the sound of her slap. Buzzing…and whispers is all I can hear.

“How dare you…. You boyfriend-stealer!” Mai shrieks, pointing accusingly at me, her eyes stained with tears and I wonder why mascara isn’t at least running down her face so she would look ugly now. She sobs and rubs her eyes. Then she turns dramatically to the crowd of people and fakes covering up her sad face.

“What?” I don’t know what to do. I am completely lost. I did not steal anyone’s boyfriend. She has no boyfriend if she is talking about Kris. And… what? Wasn’t she the one who slapped me?

“Boyfriend-stealer,” someone from the crowd shouted and a few girls come forward and start crooning and soothing Mai, rubbing her back gently and pulling her away from me. They are giving me dirty looks.

“I did not do whatever she said!” I yell at them, but I can hear my own voice breaking. I don’t know why, but my walls are breaking down. I can’t go against this many people. I am framed. Can’t they understand? Why do they trust her?

 “Liar! We believe Mai!” a boy shouts and I can see his face clearly. He is my classmate in English class… I have never done anything wrong to him. I don’t understand…

I think it’s the whole situation swallowing me whole and overwhelming me. I think it’s the fact that I can’t think of a way out of this. I think maybe its because I can’t get out of this gracefully. Or maybe it’s the pain and being consumed by humiliation for the past week. But right then and there…I just want to break down and cry. I just want to curl up into a ball and disappear from the world. I don’t want anyone seeing me like this, but what else do I do? Run?

A familiar face pops up from the jeering crowd, making rude faces and shouting inappropriate words at me. The worst thing is… I know quite a few of them.

“Stop!” the boy cries. “Stop this!” he tries to break free from them and some of them actually listened. They stop chanting and their names calling. They let him pass and he continues to push through the rest. When he comes to me, I am still in a state of shock and subdue, frozen with fear of the crowd and disbelieve.

“Let’s leave, Kimmy,” he grabs my hands but I jerk away and pull it back hastily. I can’t think…

“Kimmy,” he calls out to me, worried and slightly panicking. He reaches out again but I do the unexpected.

I run away from my savior. I don’t think, I just run away from all of them. Run, Kimmy, just run.