Contagious Chemistry by Sian Webster (best ereader for pdf TXT) 📕

"A plan?" I asked Emily exasperatedly. "Why would we need a plan?"
"Well if you and Alex are going out you--"
"Alex and I are not going out!" I reminded her.
"But you just said that you didn't hate him--"
"But I never said that I was in love with him!" I pointed out.
"Uh, Abby, I'm pretty sure--" Alex started to say.
I turned around and faced him. "I was an emotional wreck last night, no thanks to you! Do you honestly believe anything I said?"
I didn't know why, but I was suddenly angry with everything. More to the point, I was angry with myself. I had gotten myself into a huge mess, and I wasn't quite ready to face the consequences. So I decided to go with my head rather than my heart.
A hurt look flashed across his face, but he composed himself quickly. "I take it that's my invitation to leave,"
I sighed. "For once, I'm glad that you can read me like an open book."
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and walked out of my bedroom.
I collapsed on my bed as soon as I heard the front door close.
"What was that?" Emily asked carefully.
"I can't do it, Emily. Too many people will get hurt." I told her.
"Abby, do you love Alex?" She asked me.
I nodded against my pillow.
"And does he make you happy?"
I nodded again.
"Do you love Jeremy?" She asked carefully.
The question took me by surprise. I didn't answer.
"I'll take that as a no..." Emily muttered. "Does Jeremy make you happy?"
"Not as much as Alex," I mumbled into my pillow.
Emily got up from her seat at my desk and sat next to me on my bed. "Just do what makes you happy, Abby. Screw everybody else."
I sighed. "I'm starting to think that this isn't just about me anymore."

***

I slept all day Sunday, easily convincing my Mum that I was sick after walking home from the Halloween disco on Friday night. The next morning, I was unable to convince her that I was fine, and she insisted on driving me to school. I went willingly; it got me out of any awkward situations with Alex on the bus.
After English first period had been spent watching Macbeth, and Ancient History second period spent making awkward eye contact with Alex, I practically ran to our tables at lunch and collapsed into my seat, resting my head in my hands. Thankfully, Emily was the first of the girls to reach me.
"Hey," she said softly, taking my hands away from my face. "Don't stress about things, ok? Alex just needs some time to cool off. And by the looks of things, you need some time to figure things out too. So maybe it's best that he's leaving you alone."
"I don't need some time to figure things out," I snapped back, getting up from the bench. "I need things to go back to the way they were before Alex Parker decided he was freaking in love with me!"
"Abby..." Emily started, clearly concerned.
I was about to snap something back at her like the fact that before all this, I never had a nickname, when someone yelled out from behind me.
"Hey! Abby!"
I turned around to see Jeremy running towards me. I narrowed my eyes slightly and turned back around without replying. I looked at Emily, the look on my face begging her for answers, but she just shrugged.
"Abby?" Jeremy said carefully as he got closer, putting his hand on my shoulder.
I shrugged it off and ignored him. Was he seriously that naive?
He grabbed my hand next. "What... What did I do?"
I turned around and faced him. "Oh, I don't know, maybe you should go and ask Casey over there." I nodded in Casey's direction.
"Casey?" He said in perplexity.
I rolled my eyes. "The fact that you don't even know..." I sighed. "I thought you were different, Jeremy. But I guess you're as bad as Alex Parker himself."
His brows stitched together. "Just tell me what I did wrong, Abby." He practically begged. "Just tell me and I can fix it, I promise."
"Oh, so you can fix the fact that you were making out with Alex's girlfriend nearly all of Friday night?" I snapped. By now all the girls had gathered around to see when was going on.
That stopped Jeremy in his tracks. He looked at Casey but she shrugged. "I-I... Uh... You...Weren't... Uh..."
"Meant to find out?" I finished his sentence for him.
He looked down at the ground and shifted his feet awkwardly.
"Yeah, well, it's pretty hard not to notice when the two of you were practically eating each other's faces off in the middle of the dance floor." I pointed out.
He didn't even look up from the ground.
Emily decided to step in then. "Jeremy Taylor, I hereby sentence you to banishment from Queen Bee and Co. Fraternising with anyone in Queen Bee and Co that is not your girlfriend is quite clearly against the rules, so now I take it on myself, on behalf of everyone here, to ask you to -- actually no, to order you to leave before you create any more drama which I ensure you, you do not wish to be involved in whatsoever."
"I'm so, so, so sorry, Absidy." He told me.
Emily took it on herself, once again, to answer for me. "I highly doubt that."
Jeremy sighed and nodded before walking off to his friends, his shoulders slumped.
Once again, I took my seat at the table and covered my face with my hands, tears pouring down my face without my permission. I hated crying in public. I hated crying in front of people, period. I saw it as a sign of weakness. And in that moment, I felt that I couldn't afford to be weak.
Before I hid my face, I caught Alex's eyes across the quad. For half a second he looked confused, but then he must have figured it out. I had broken up with Jeremy. Alex's eyes suddenly lit up, but the light quickly vanished when he realised how upset I was. He took a step towards the group, but he seemed to think better of it, and he stayed where he was with the rest of the jocks.
Breanna stepped forward next. "I now speak for the Queen Bee, as right now she is rather unable to speak for herself. Casey Foster, the first rule of sisterhood is to never, and I repeat, never fraternise with a sister's boyfriend. Or ex-boyfriend for that matter. To make this case worse, you already had a boyfriend of your own!"
Casey actually looked afraid of Breanna and the rest of us in that moment.
Breanna continued after a short pause. "Punishment for this offense?" She looked around the group of girls, and every one of them nodded, agreeing that Casey's punishment should be carried out. "Expulsion from Queen Bee and Co." Breanna finished.
Tears appeared in Casey's eyes, but, unlike Jeremy, she admitted that the "punishment" was fair, and she grabbed her backpack and walked away without another word.
I looked back over at Alex, my apology clear in my eyes (or so I hoped, anyway), and he gave me a small smile before walking over to "Queen Bee and Co".
When the girls noticed him getting closer, they formed a line in front of me. Emily and Stacy stayed by my side with questioning looks on their faces. They wanted to know if I could handle seeing Alex at that moment. They didn't realise that I invited him over.
I got up from my seat at the table and walked around the girls to Alex. I grabbed his hand and took him across the quad to the tree where Emily, Stacy and I used to sit. We sat down at the base of the tree, and before I knew it, I was crying even more. He stroked my hair and held my hand as I cried into his chest, oblivious to the fact that our entire grade was probably watching us in complete perplexity.
"I'm so sorry, Alex," I mumbled.
"What for?"
"For what I said on Saturday morning."
"Don't worry about it, Abby." He told me.
"I can't help it, ok?" I replied. "I was confused and I was angry at myself for getting into such a huge mess and I didn't know what to do,"
"Hey," Alex put his finger under my chin and made me look at him. "It's ok, Abby."
"Really?" I asked.
He nodded. "Really."
Before I knew it, my lips had found his and we were kissing like I had wanted to kiss him for days.
In front of the whole student population on the quad.
But in that moment, I really didn't care.

As I walked to my maths class with Alex's fingers entwined through mine, it was safe to say our entire grade was thoroughly confused. Every corner we turned there was a new bout of staring and whispering, and on my account, I thought I did well not to turn around and yell at them all. Alex smiled down at me.

"Don't let them get to you, Abby," He told me. "They're just a little confused."

"They're not the only ones." I sighed.

"Hey," He said softly, stopping me to the side of the hallway so we weren't in anyone's way and caressing my cheek. "What's wrong?"

I sighed again. "I don't know… I just thought… I was surprised at how indifferent Jeremy was when I told him I knew about him and Casey."

"Don't worry about Jeremy," He smiled. "I won't let him hurt you. I won't let anyone hurt you,