28

                                    

                                          
Before I could even process it all, the Principal and a few other teachers were there, pushing the crowd away, yelling at everyone to leave. Everyone but us. I couldn't care less. I was inside the bubble again. Roman's bubble. His arms were around me, his hand holding my head against his shoulder. 
Nothing else mattered to me at this moment, not even the fact that Principal Stoll yelled at us that we had taken a harmless prank and turned it into a bullying episode. And then she threatened to call all our parents and have us all expelled for this. I think that was when Auden snapped and told her to do that. He said he was waiting for his dad to be on this school's campus. Glaring at him, she turned and left after making sure Clarissa was alright. Clarissa gave me one last glare before she walked past me, paint dripping off her as she went. 
"This is wrong," Dawn said, her eyes burning with anger as she glared at Roman and Auden, "Just because she bullied one of us doesn't mean we should be stooping down to her level."
Ugh. Just my thoughts.
Auden shrugged, "Well, it's done now," he said carelessly, "And she should be grateful that we poured washable paint on her and not the paint that she used on Addie's locker."
"You still made her a laughing stock in front of everyone," Dawn muttered, unhappy, "That's not how we go about things, Auden. You know that."
"I do," he said, "And if she had stopped with just vandalizing Addie's locker, I wouldn't have taken it this far, trust me. But you should've seen this Facebook profile that she created under Addie's name – it was horrible what she has written there."
My heart thudded with fear as he continued, "Granted the account was private and didn't have many friends added to it, it was only a matter of time before she made it public," he said, "According to the last pot that she had made, she was building that crap up for a big reveal or something."
A shiver ran down my spine at that and I held onto Roman tighter. "Adeline," he leaned closer, his mouth hovering over my ear and I felt a shiver running down my spine again, this time a different kind on hearing him address my name so sweetly, just like he used to do when we were still together, "You're shaking."
Looking up at him, I remembered the last time Clarissa spoke to me, "She wanted me to stay away from you."
"What?"
"Clarissa – she has a crush on you, and said I'll regret it if I didn't stop hanging out with you," I said, "Maybe this was her way of retaliating."
"That bitch," he muttered under his breath, "Let's get out of here."
Pulling away from him, I relished the fact that his hold tightened around me, refusing to let me move any further away, "Where?"
"Anywhere," he said, "Anywhere that's not here."
I smiled a little, my heart thudding against my chest. My Roman. "I thought we weren't talking?"
"Do you think I care about all that?" Leaning closer, he rubbed his nose against mine. An action that sent every nerve ending in my body into overdrive. I didn't care about all the reasons why Roman and I broke up, I didn't care that there could be people around who could be watching us right this moment, I didn't care that half those people were teachers – all I cared about was Roman, and his arms holding me. "I don't care, Adeline. I don't care that we are fighting. I don't care that we aren't on talking terms, but you as well as I know that I care about you. Or I wouldn't be here, holding you."
"This is a bad idea," I murmured, tightening my hold around him nonetheless, "We broke up for a reason and this is only going to complicate things for us."