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Chapter 17: Queen B's Schemes

Finn's POV

It had been ten days since January started and things have been going smoothly. The school election had also been going on which I didn't give two shits about but hey, at least it's an excuse to not be in class and just be in an auditorium watching two people fight like the "woke" high-schoolers they were. Giving the audience false promises that they'll probably forget once they won. 

Heather and I have been alright. We've been like we once were and it was a fresh experience. But I knew that that had to change. Oliver and I have been getting closer. Ever since the completion of the project we did back in December, we've been talking more frequently, no secrets, no avoiding and no immature problems. Jason have been adamant about photography so we rarely ever see him especially that Winter started and there were beautiful sights to take photos of. And last but certainly least, Bella have reminded everyone in the school every single day that she was the most popular person in the school and that she was better than everyone. I didn't pay mind to her nonsense since it was never a fact that an Oompa Loompa looking and pickle juice smelling bitch was 'better' than everyone else.

It was currently lunch and Heather and I were peacefully talking shit about people we don't like when I felt someone sit beside me. I immediately knew that it was the damn blond guy that was the root of all our problems because I could recognize his scent. 

"Hey Heather, Frederick." He greeted so casually like he didn't just call me by my real name.

"Can you quit calling me that?" 

He pouted and tickled me by my waist. "No, baby." He joked before pinching my cheeks.

I slapped his hand away just as Heather giggled. "You two should date. You're too cute." She joked.

My smile faded all of a sudden. I looked at Oliver to see him unexpectedly smiling like Heather didn't just make a joke about us.

"Uh... I-I'm fine." I sputtered before focusing on my food. 

"Hey, by the way, Finn. Are you available later?" Oliver asked me as if Heather's statement couldn't just potentially ruin everything. He couldn't read the room and he was making it worse.

"Uh... Yeah, I am."

"You should totally come with me to get coffee, I wanna discuss some things." 

He's literally making it worse.

But I couldn't refuse it, or else he might get hurt and we'd be back to square one so I just nodded as a response. 

. . .

Oliver pulled over in front of the newly opened coffee shop.

I looked at him just as he flashed me his signature attractive smirk. "Does coffee sounds fine to you?" He asked.

"Well that's not very British of you." I teased to which he just laughed. "I mean, we're here already, I'm not gonna make you drive farther for other stuff." 

"Alright." He said before exiting the car with me instantly following suit.

We got into the shop fell in line and as soon as we reached the front. The barista working fumbled around with the money he was holding before composing himself with a charming smile.

"Hello, welcome to Irma's coffee shop, what can I get you?" 

His eyes fell on me and he looked tense for a moment before once again, composing himself. 

I was still confused with what happened when Oliver cleared his throat loudly which made the guy look at him. "I'll just get an Americano, thank you." He said with a sarcastic smile which quickly dropped.

The guy then turned to me and flashed a smirk. "How about you?" He asked and I swear I saw him wink. 

"Uh, I'll just have a caramel macchiato." I said with a polite smile. 

"Alright, mind giving me your names?" 

Before I could answer for myself, Oliver had already beat me to it. "I'm Oliver, and he's Finn." 

"Finn, huh? Cool name. I'll call your names when they're done." He said before leaving the counter and going into another room.

Oliver and I sat down on the seats by the window. Oliver huffed with a frown as he turned to me, a look of disbelief on his face.

"Can you believe that guy? He's literally too obvious." 

I raised an eyebrow at him. "What do you mean?" 

He gave me a look. "He was flirting with you Finn." 

My eyes widened a little before a smirk played on my lips. "What, you jealous or something?" 

He shook his head nonchalantly but I could still see that his jaw was clenched. After a few minutes of sitting around, doing nothing. We heard our names being called.

"Finn and Oliver?"

I looked up to see the barista holding our drinks. I was about to stand up to get it when Oliver beat me to it again. As he was getting the drinks, I noticed that they were talking and I could make out a few words being passed between the two of them like 'single' and 'boyfriend'. I knew what they were talking about and it made me blush. The barista looked guilty as he nodded before Oliver returned to our table.

"What was that?"

He rolled his eyes. "He asked if you were single." 

"Oh really? I mean... he is kind of cute."

"Just drink your damn coffee." He said in annoyance which made me laugh.

We fell into a comfortable silence for a couple of minutes, just the usual chatter of the people conversating and the often sound of the bell whenever someone would enter the store were the sound around us. The air smelled like freshly brewed coffee and it relaxed me.

Oliver stared at his fingers as he messed with the tissues. "So... I think we should talk." He said, breaking the silence. 

My eyebrows raised as I was just about to take a sip. "About what?"

"Us."

"US is a disgrace of a country, I agree." I joked. His lids hung, making him even look more tired of me. "Okay, okay. I'll stop. What is it?"

"Months ago, I know I said that I'd court your best friend, right?"

I nodded, urging him to continue, but instead, he reached for my hand over the table as he took a deep breath which he seemed to have been holding all this time.

He closed his eyes as he bit his lip while I was dying of anticipation. He was taking his sweet ass time.

"But I... I found someone else along the way. And that thing with Heather? That was me in denial, I kept denying to myself that I liked this person, especially since I'd already started courting Heather. But I realized that it was only temporary."

My heart started to beat faster than it already was. I looked at how he was holding me hand, laced through mine, how his big and calloused hands compared to my medium sized and soft hand looked and felt. And then I looked at him again.

"Okay, I'll just say it. Finn, in the past few months we've been together. You've seriously made my life so much better. I started stirring away from my friends whom I didn't realize were such bad influence on me. You've made me laugh even more than I probably did the year before I met you. You're a star."

I didn't think I could handle everything he was saying at once. My face was all flushed and hot because of what he was saying. He couldn't mean all of those, right?

"Oh, and I almost forgot. How you blush when I say sweet things to you. You have literally became my world in just a few months and I wouldn't have it any other way." 

"Oliver, stop. If you're pranking me right now, I'm gonna beat your ass. You can't just say all that and expect me to be fine." 

He chuckled and brought my hand to his lips and gave it a kiss.

"Okay, okay. I'm just gonna say it. I like you, Finn. I'm not joking, I'm legitimately in awe of you and everything you do."

My heart was in my ass, my stomach was in a frenzy and I was positive I was gonna pass out. I couldn't believe what he just said. And I was just wishing to the stars that I wasn't dreaming. I almost bashed my head into the wall just to make sure.

"Like me... Like, like-like me?" I asked in disbelief.

"Yes. I like-like you Finn Vasco." He smiled, a genuine smile this time.

I was about to celebrate... when I realized something that made my heart fall in my stomach.

"Wait... But what about Heather? She actually likes you a lot." 

And then his smile faded. I immediately regretted the decision of bringing it up. It was like all the brightness in the room disappeared, like the atmosphere and the air around us turned cold.

"I... don't know. I wish I knew what to do. I wish I knew how to control my feelings." 

We were once again submerged into silence. I knew that both of us were scared and worried about what was to come next. We were in a tight situation with no good possible way out. I was just angry, angry at the world for putting us in this predicament, for making this situation more complex than it needed to be.

"But don't mind that. All I do know is that I like you, Finn." He said.

I shook my head, still in disbelief. "Why?"

"If I listed every good thing about you. It's gonna be midnight by the time I'm done."

He looked at me affectionately. By the way he stared at me alone was enough to persuade me to also tell him a long kept secret of mine regarding my feelings towards him.

"Well, for the record. I like you too. I've liked you ever since the start of High School." 

His eyes widened before he broke into a happy smile. "You don't understand how that made me so happy. How you make me happy." 

I looked down at his lips just as he licked them subtly. I cleared my throat and looked away. I instead looked out the window and I then realized that this whole time we were in front of the ice cream shop we first hung out in.

"Oh my God. That's the sucky shop."

Oliver gasped playfully. "How dare you, Finn. That's my favorite ice cream shop." Oliver said as he pouted but damn, even if it was just a joke, he still looked adorable.

I rolled my eyes. "Stop pouting or I might just fall in love."

"That's the intent." 

I playfully hit his head to which he just kept laughing. His laugh sounded very rich. His bright smile felt like it was lighting up the room and was the only thing letting the sunlight peak through the clouds. His smile could probably cure sadness and he could slay everyone with it.

As I was looking out the window for any sign of commotion, I let the previous events sink into me. This guy who was popular, and hot, and a total jock, this guy who everyone loved and adored, this guy who made guys and girls fall to their knees- well that was an exaggeration, but I don't doubt it didn't happen- but the fact that the guy of my dreams just confessed to me that he liked me the way I liked him. It all felt surreal, like a dream, like a fantasy. And it's all coming true. 

This was the guy who I thought would never even acknowledge my existence. The guy who was too damn good to be true and unarguably too good for me. 

He likes me.

. . .

It was Monday, also known as the worst day of the week, and I was walking down the deserted hallway alone which I know isn't convenient since I'm very prone to bullying and being beat up but I needed to pee, I can't just hold my pee in.

As I turned the corner, I stopped in my tracks as I realized there was someone in front of me.

"Finn." 

"Bella."

She crossed her arms on her chest, giving me a stern smile. 

"Remember how I promised you you wouldn't last after you messed with me? Because no one messes with me, and it looked like you didn't know better than that." 

"Oh yeah? Well I'm still in this school, and I'm thriving." I said, flashing her a mocking smile.

She laughed suddenly with a shake of her head. "That's funny." Her face turned serious. "But you're not wrong. Do you even know what spot you're in in the leaderboard, huh?"

"I thought you already knew I don't give two shits about that." 

She shoved her phone into my face and I will admit, what the screen displayed really surprised me. I was in the 6th place, just above Mia, one of the popular cheerleader.

"You've been seriously a pain in the ass and you're only a couple points behind Mia. And that top five that you see? The people there have never changed, no one left, no one entered ever since I step foot in this school. But you." She suddenly grabbed my wrist, gripping painfully tight. "You're gonna ruin everything!" 

I roughly removed her hand off of my wrist. "Stay the hell away from me! I don't give a shit who's where in that damned list!"

"No. And you won't have to anymore. Once I make you embarrass yourself." 

"I think we've established the fact that you can't rid of me. You've already tried every tactic in the game yet you still haven't beaten me. To be honest, it's just pathetic. So damn pathetic how you keep running your mouth that you're the most popular person here yet you can't do anything about me. Now THAT'S embarrassing."

"You rat-"

"I'm not gonna let you disrespect me like that anymore, Bella. Let's face it. You're all bark and no bite, and everything you throw at me, I get away from, you're just some trashy person who has no life and personality besides peaking in high school. You only prey on people who you know are insecure and can't defend themselves. Well guess what? I'm neither insecure nor defenseless, it seems like it was you who messed with the wrong person."

"Oh yeah? Well let's see you be able to get away from this." 

She angled my phone so she could show me something without it being within my reach. And what I saw next made my blood run cold.

It was a compilation of photos. Photos of me and Oliver, holding hands, smiling at each other. It didn't look like much evidence until I saw myself, with my head on Oliver's shoulder in that very familiar parking lot.

"That's what I thought." She said with a cruel smile. "You drop out of this school, leave me and Oliver alone, happy, and never show your face again here... Or you're dead for the rest of the year and the next." 

I swallowed nervously as I took a step back.

"Oliver would stay away from you once he sees these, and he'll bring his little girlfriend... who I'm going for next. So tick tock, Finn. You're time is running out. You have exactly twenty-four hours to decide. Toodle-oo darling!" She blew a kiss before skipping down the hall.

After every good thing that have happened in the past week, of course it needed to be ruined. And it was because of that bitch-face Bella. But this time, it's a lose-lose situation. I won't be able to sass my way out of it. And there wasn't a better choice. It was either I leave Oliver and never see them again... or their lives here are ruined along with mine. I've never loathed Bella more at the moment but there was one thing she was right about.

The clock really was ticking for me. 

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