Bubble Gum Kisses

**Kapittel 38** ***Vanessa***

**"Miss Vanessa Cole Hathern and Mr. Friso Drew de Vries,** please come to the guidance office."

I drooped my head as the announcement boomed on the four corners of the classroom, echoing to the empty and seemingly endless halls, rattling its neat tiled floors. My face began to grow pale as tension raced its way all over my body. I could feel the curious gazes of my classmates and most especially the instructor sharply pointed in my direction. Geez, did announcements have to be that loud that the other neighboring establishments could hear the announcement? "That's pretty much of an unusual welcome considering someone's first week in school. Don't you think, Ms, Hathern?" commented the instructor insouciantly with a sigh for a brief pause before continuing: "Please proceed to the counselor's office."

"Yes, sir." I immediately rose from my seat and hurried my feet to reach for the door. I heard seats fumbling as the crowd began to whisper. They weren't even making any efforts to make their whispers less audible. "What happened, why is she getting called?"

"You didn't see what she did to Drew earlier? She punched him in the face!"

"Wait, what? When?"

"Just this lunch break, hello? Are you blind? We were together that time!"

"Girl, looks like she's not just blind, she's also deaf. It'd be impossible if she didn't hear about it, the news has already circulated the school!"

"Please, her head's full of air so cut her some slack."

"I don't have air in my head!"

"Right..."

"But, oh my God, Drew? Like Friso Drew de Vries?" The one and only.

"Like yeah?"

"Duh."

"Oh. My. God. That is literally like so insane." Excuse me, that guy was making me insane.

"She's insane. How in the world did she get the guts."

"I saw it with my very eyes, she punched him square in the face!"

"Poor Friso. His cheek was so red, it might have bled."

"Seriously, you're worrying over that?"

"Of course! It'd be a problem if his beautiful face gets hurt."

"Sigh, I guess. Considering it's the only good thing about him." Damn right.

"Hey!"

"Ugh, she's so getting what she deserves."

"But hey, she's awesome doing Drew like that." Gee, thanks?

"Shut up, Corey. It wasn't cool."

"From the point of view of someone from the varsity basketball team that is being taunted by the football captain and his team? I wanna disagree." "Whatever."

"All right, everyone. Settle down!" the foul discussion ended abruptly when the teacher spoke again, asking them to be quiet. I finally left the classroom with a small sigh, and I listened to the class continue its discussion as if nothing happened.

I stared at the empty hall as the wind blew against me with a harshly hot breeze. Great, even the odds were on Friso's side. I released yet another sigh, starting to walk to the office I was summoned to, battling the urge to grab a book and cover my face with it to at least ease my embarrassment since it was useless. I couldn't contain the level of humiliation rising in my chest. I haven't had even the slightest record of the guidance counselor's office, not even once. I kept a clean slate on my record since time immemorial since having at least one could blow my chances of getting into a good university, and most of all, it's humiliating for a striving straight-A student to be reported to the counselor. But what's done was done. I already punched Friso. My first had already clashed against his cheek, and I happened to do it in front of the student body. Of course, getting reported was the result of it. I have already thought far of the consequences such as getting head-to-head with that first-class butthole but it seemed that I was looking far ahead that I missed looking at what I was stepping.

"Gosh," I sucked in a breath. I heard my phone ring, and I pulled it off from my pocket faster than the speed of light.

From: Georgia

Heard someone took a video and posted it in the school's community forum on Reddit.

To: Georgia

Say what?!

To: Georgia

What community forum?

From: Georgia

https://www.reddit.org/r/TKHS/comments/493jak/Drew_got_punched/

With clammy hands, I immediately tapped the link she sent and was immediately redirected to my Reddit app that showed me a 4k quality video of myself sending Friso's sharp jaw a strong jab before grabbing Asher and running away like a madman on amok. I could hear several loud gasps as the camera zoomed to Friso, who was forcibly taken a few steps back, wiped off the blood slipping down his nose, and gave it a slow, long lick.

A hot flush of shame sank into my chest, thawing the coldness of the nervousness. God, I feel like digging my own grave and burying myself today. The video was fast, and only had a duration of less than a minute but it moved dastardly slow from my point of view. The video repeated itself, and my heart thumped louder and louder every time it got to the part where he licked his own blood. I could see his lips were raised into that sardonic, arrogant smirk that I hated and his eyes were looking far ahead like he was just looking at a prey run far away, knowing that he could always catch it again.

Even though I was reluctant, I scrolled down to read the comments. I instantly regretted it. A flood of comments came on my screen, seemingly endless as I couldn't find the end of it the more I scrolled down. I couldn't find the end of it. Some comments expressed surprise, but most were animosity. Comments were asking about me being plain stupid or mentally incapable of hitting their campus king, several even made fun of me for having such an outrageous audacity. From: Georgia

Everybody, even the kids in junior high and middle school now knows about what happened.

From: Georgia

I heard someone posted it on TikTok but it was immediately taken down.

To: Georgia

If it's taken down on TikTok, how come it's not taken down on Reddit?!

From: Georgia

Who knows?

From: Georgia

I heard that the video is deleted but it keeps getting posted again.

I immediately facepalmed after reading her latest message. Oh God, what I had gotten myself into? Looks like I was too behind from hindsight to even think about the aftermath aside from incurring Friso's wrath. But this could be part of it, he probably had the video retained on Reddit. Gosh, it was my fault anyway to get my emotions the best of me. I should have done better and restrained myself further, even when he mentioned dad. Still, I couldn't fathom how thick his face was to mention dad after what had happened before.

"Excited to see me?"

My entire body shook, causing me to automatically turn my shoes to see who was speaking to me, clutching my chest. I staggered back when I felt his hot breath fan over my forehead, slightly blowing my bangs to the side. Speak of the goddamned devil.

"You..." I trailed off with a sharp sigh evading my chest. My chest felt like it lept and bounced on the ground. I looked up to meet eye-to-eye with the devil's spawn himself. He was staring at me with sheer playfulness in his stormy orbs. I hated to admit it, but I couldn't deny that he looked dangerously striking in his bedraggled phys ed uniform, but he still bore a certain je ne sais quoi as he'd still be dashing even if he wore rags. Heck, he'd probably make rags into clothes that one could walk a runway. His hair was unkempt and bullets of sweat raining down his forehead. It looked like he rushed here from Physical Education class. Even though he looked like he ran a marathon and should have smelled like a marathon, instead, he had this scent of amber fougere. So, he was still wearing the same perfume as his dad, huh?

I brushed my eyes downwards and saw that there was a bandage on his nose and on his lower lip that was stretched for the same arrogant grin decorating his face. The same

arrogant grin that I rubbed off earlier. I looked over to his neck when I spotted a pink spot over his glistening sweaty skin and realized it was a kiss mark made out either of a lip tint or some tinted lip gloss. Looks like he got himself busy during P.E. with some other kind of physical education.

"Looking at how you're drooling while looking at my face, it seems that you are excited." His remark interrupted my trail of thoughts like a needle popping a bubble.

"You were the one who keeps on uploading the video, aren't you." I immediately confronted him with a deathly glare, ignoring is remark.

His eyes widened for a second. "Still sharper than a needle, I see." The playful grin plastered on his face grew wider.

**

Thank you for reading Bubble Gum Kisses! To keep up with my work, future works, and endless frustrations on Twitter: *https://twitter.org/RiosMorpheus***