Falling for Hadie by Komal Kant

as she chewed her bagel. “You’re not the one who did anything wrong! Bennett’s the one who cheated on you, yet you get called a whore! How does that make any sense?”
    “It doesn’t make sense, Ray, but they don’t care about that. All they care about is that I embarrassed their friend at Kendall’s party by confronting him in front of everyone. His friends were probably the ones who egged him on to cheat on me in the first place.”
    “Don’t make excuses for him, Hadie,” Mariah scolded. “He deserved a lot worse than you confronting him at the party. If I were you, I would’ve kicked him in the…”
    “Ray, seriously!” Estella bumped her shoulder against Mariah a little too hard and Mariah tipped over. Estella covered her mouth and helped her back up. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry!”
    Mariah narrowed her eyes and pushed Estella backwards. Before I knew what was happening, my best friends had turned into a pair of pushing, giggling girls. A moment later, Lana and I were somehow dragged into the pushing game which was quickly turning into a tickling match.
    Dirt and bits of grass were getting all over our clothes, but that didn’t stop us. It was the first time in days that I had let myself laugh unreservedly.
    I could be happy without Bennett. I would be happy without him.
    “Um…Hadie?”
    Our laughter ceased and I sat up, looking around to find Ashton Summers and Luca Byron standing in front of us with equally amused expressions on their face. In comparison to Ashton’s immaculate appearance, I must’ve looked like I lived on a farm the way the grass clung to my pants and hair.
    Feeling my face flush, I hastily stood up and brushed the grass off my clothes the best I could before meeting Ashton’s eyes. “Hey, um…we were just…I’m not even sure what we were doing.”
    Ashton smiled and a dimple appeared in her cheek. She looked a lot happier than she’d been in the last few weeks. It might have had something to do with the way her hand was entwined with Luca’s. I’d be happy too if I was dating a guy like him. Luca was hot, sweet, kind, and in a band. He was the kind of guy I needed to date—someone who would love me no matter what and stand by me. But everyone knew he only had eyes for Ashton.
    “I just wanted to see if you were…okay. You know, after the whole Bennett thing? I saw you two fighting at Kendall’s party.” Her blue eyes studied me in concern.
    I doubted there was a person in the senior year that hadn’t seen the fight between Bennett and me. And the ones who hadn’t seen it had heard all about it by Monday morning. News travelled around this town like crazy.
    “Yeah, I’m as okay as I’m ever going to be,” I said with a shrug.
    “I feel like it’s my fault,” Ashton said in a quiet tone. “It’s like I created a monster. I’m not talking to him again; I don’t think I ever will. Not after the way he’s been acting lately. I never realized just how important popularity was to him.”
    “You’re not the only popularity-sucking leech in this school,” Luca said, pushing his thick, dark hair off his face as he gave Ashton a teasing smile.
    Ashton’s mouth fell open and she shoved him. “You did not just say that to me.”
    Luca’s smile grew. He obviously loved getting a reaction out of her. “And what if I did?”
    “Then I’m going to…”
    Ashton didn’t get to finish her sentence because Luca swooped in for a quick kiss. Feeling super awkward, I glanced back at Mariah and Estella who were brushing the grass off themselves. This entire situation was bizarre. Who’d have thought that a cheerleader could ever date a tattooed rocker?
    Mariah pretended to gag when I caught her eye, and I tried to stifle a laugh. Unfortunately, I kind of failed and Ashton looked back at me, her face slowly turning red.
    “I’m sorry about that! I’m so embarrassed!” She gave Luca a glare, but there was no sign of anger on her face. “You need to go.