The Anklebiters

Pulling her hood over her orange-haired head, Hayley made her way down the crowded hallway to lunch. She tried not to look up too much, in fear that her eyes would connect with every other that was staring at her. It seemed that’s all she would see when she looked around nowadays: a pair of eyes, and another, and another.

Since the whole outburst in the cafeteria, Alex had hit his breaking point. He ended up switching out of every class he had with Hayley. It was no doubt that it was because of her, and the whole school knew that by now. The Anklebiters tried going around and convincing people otherwise, but it was no use. People believed what they heard first and not what they heard last.

Things had become even worse the past couple days when news went around that the Hustlers were blaming Alex for going out with Hayley and making them all look like a joke. She felt bad―terrible, actually―for causing the scenes that she did to make this stupid plan work for her friends, but she didn’t mean for it to all play out the way it did. She never thought she’d make them look like a “joke,” but that was a harsh word for it. Apparently, she made them so much of a “joke” that Zack and Rian left to find a group of friends with less drama concerning their lives.

How much damage did she really cause?

“I feel so bad for that Alex guy,” a girl whispered as Hayley passed with her squeaky Converse.

“I know, poor guy,” her friend muttered. “That Anklebiter is such a fucking bitch.”

Hayley rolled her eyes at the words. That whole plan was all planned to target Jack in the first place, but it ended up with everyone at fault. Jack and Alex’s popularity alone had only gone up since people started consoling Alex over his breakup and thinking Hayley to be the bad guy. She thought this all to be so unfair, because, after all, who came up with the plan in the first place? Her friends. Who lost all the respect her school had for her? Her. Who had one of the best guys to ever come into her life be taken away by just a stupid act? Her.

Everything about this was just so fucked up.

She needed to look up now, or she’d misplace her footing somehow in the hall. Her eyes met with Tay’s to the right, and she actually gave her good friend a genuine smile. But as soon as she looked left, her orbs locked with the boy that hated her most, and if she were being honest, she wouldn’t mind dying right then.

As she was making her way to Tay to ask if she were to accompany her to lunch, her ears couldn’t help but overhear every conversation, and they were all about her. She was getting real sick and tired of hearing her name being said from somebody’s mouth that didn’t know her, and the next words she overheard sent her into a literal frenzy.

“Hayley Williams has been such a mess since the thing,” a blonde boy said to his friend beside him.

“Well, she should be,” the girl next to him cackled softly. “A bitch like her should just fucking die for hurting such a nice guy.”

That’s it, she mouthed to herself, turning around to the two friends with her eyes blazing with fury.

“Hey!” She called out, letting her gray hood down and walking towards them. “You have something to say?”

The friends looked to each other, silence engulfing the hall.

“Say it to my face!” Hayley challenged. “C’mon, say it!” They wouldn’t budge, making her grow even angrier. “SAY IT!”

The female friend put her hands up in surrender, stuttering out, “S―sorry.”

“Don’t let me hear my name coming out of your dirty ass mouths,” she threatened, “got it?”

They nodded quickly before Hayley turned back in the direction of her friend. But it didn’t take a second before she was able to catch Alex’s glare in her direction. She saw Jack talking to him―chatting non-stop like he usually does―but it seemed like Alex wasn’t listening as his eyes narrowed in her direction. He didn’t even have to say anything to her. A guy like that―a guy that meant so much to her―didn‘t have to do anything but glare at her to make her want to rip her whole heart out.

He really hated her.

I mean, really hated her.

She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t go to lunch and have the stares and the talking continue. It was surprising how a simple look could make her whole mental stability spiral out of control.

She sprinted her way to the nearest ladies room, sparing herself the torture of high school. She found the first empty stall and plopped her butt down on the dirty floor. She brought her knees up to her chest, enjoying the feeling of solitude, and began to cry. She wiped away the tears with the back of her hand, hating the fact that she’s cried so many times in the past weeks.

I hate my friends, she thought, I hate them for persuading me to do something I didn’t want to do. They made me, our whole group, and the Hustlers look like a joke.

I hate Taylor. If it wasn’t for her stupid grudge against Jack all these years, everything wouldn’t have gone to shit.

I hate Alex. I hate his stupid smile. I hate his nice eyes and hair. I hate the way he smiled at me or the way he laughed at my awful puns. I hate how nice he was to me when I was going behind his back the entire time. I hate how he always made my day. I hate how gullible he was to my act, and how it started to not be an act anymore. But most of all, I hate how he made me fall for him, and I hate how he hates me now.

So I guess, overall, I hate myself.

I hate myself so much. I hate how I went along with things. I hate how I let my friends and popularity get to me. I hate how I fell for a guy I shouldn’t. And I hate how he now makes me want to kiss him and die at the same time.

“Shit,” Hayley muttered as more tears fell upon her cheeks, rubbing them away quickly.

“Hayles?”

The sudden familiar voice made her ears perk in interest.

“Hayles, it’s me,” Tay clarified as she puttered around the bathroom.

Hayley sniffled softly, knocking on her stall’s door and whispering, “In here.”

She carefully unlocked the stall, allowing her friend entrance, and as soon as Tay’s eyes landed on hers, she felt herself break down again. “Aw, Hayles,” Tay cooed, embracing her friend tightly and rubbing circles in her back. “You need to go to―”

“I hate myself, Tay,” she sobbed into the brunette’s shirt.

Tay shook her head as she leaned a little away. “That’s not true―”

“No,” Hayley disagreed, her eyes frazzled at her friend’s statement, “no, it is true. I do hate myself, and you know why?” Tay shook her head, and then started rubbing away her friend’s new tears as she whispered, “I hate myself because I love Alex.”

Tay’s arms wrapped around Hayley as tight as she could, even tighter than before. Hayley wanted to say how this made her feel possibly better, but she couldn’t. Not just because her voice seemed to be freezing up, but because the last person that had held her this tight was the boy she could never have again.

Notes

Let me just say something: I AM SO SORRY.
I haven't updated at all in a couple of months, and I could never be more sorry. I've been incredibly busy and I guess I took a hiatus without telling anyone stupid. Only a few people on here knew about the hiatus, so I'm so sorry for not informing anyone else.
I guess I am still kind of on a hiatus. It's my senior year in high school now, and I really need to buckle down with reality. I need to be doing a lot of crap and go to work, so I don't have time to update as often. I will try to update at random times, because this does have a few chapters left actually.
So the whole point of this was, Yeah, I'm wicked sorry, blah blah blah, kind of a hiatus has been going on, I'm sorry again, blah blah blah, please enjoy this sucky chapter. Soooo.. yeah.
Subscribe/ comment/ rate :)
Rock on \m/