Puckered Hearts

Chapter 10

•KAIA•

Rage seeped through my veins as I stormed into my room, slamming the door loudly behind me. I ignored Amy running out of her bedroom to see me, and I dropped my messenger bag on the floor.

I paced around the room while running my fingers through my hair in frustration. My head was spinning, and my heart felt like it was ready to burst out of my chest with how hard it was thudding in there.

The world felt like it just crumbled down to pieces today.

I fucking hate him. I hate him so much that I feel like strangling him to death right now.

This was all his fault. Everything started to go wrong for me ever since we first met, and today, he took it too far by interfering with my school work, which was my blood, sweat, and tears.

I had worked so hard on that presentation for two weeks. I stayed up all night to finish it, and this was the result? My hard work was dumped in the trash today because of the stupid stunt he pulled.

God! How I wish he was right in front of me right now so I could throw something hard at him.

"Kaia, are you okay?" Amy asked softly.

I paused and turned around to face her. Hot, angry tears were already welling up in my eyes as I looked at her.

"They failed my presentation, and I got a zero." I confessed with a shaky breath. "They wouldn't give me a second chance to present again because everyone thought that it was all a prank. I uploaded those nasty images on purpose."

Amy's face softened with sympathy, and she walked over and wrapped her arms around me.

I couldn't help but allow the tears to fall freely down my face. I was exhausted, angry, and disappointed all at once, and it was too overwhelming.

"I heard about what happened." Amy admitted. "I can't believe he would do that to you, and I'm so, so sorry about that, Kaia."

I slowly pulled away from the embrace and sniffed my tears back.

"It's my fault; I'm the one you should be mad at because I told him that you were working on your class presentation today and even told him where you were going to be."

My eyes immediately snapped back at her in surprise.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"He called me and asked for you. He said that Professor Kimberly wanted to know if you wanted to give that tutoring session another shot, but I guess that was a lie. I told him about your class presentation today and said you were going to be at the study lounge."

I looked to the side as the puzzle slowly started to fit all together in my head.

"I'm really sorry, Kaia. I didn't know he was going to do this to you and ruin your presentation today."

I mustered up the courage to give her a smile and reassure her that it wasn't exactly her fault.

It was her brother's.

It all makes sense now. He found out where I was and managed to swap the files on my laptop.

There were plenty of chances of how he managed to pull it off without getting caught by me because I was running all over the place today trying to get everything ready before class.

So, I wasn't really paying much attention to what was happening around me. As a result, he succeeded in getting away with it.

"What's his dorm room number?" Amy shot me a look of confusion.

"Uh... I don't really know. But I think it's on the third floor, in the fifth room on the left, with the letter sticker 'A & A' attached to the door."

I immediately spun around and walked out of the room again, ignoring her calling after me. I was too angry to listen to her talk me out of it anyway.

Adrian was dead wrong if he thought I was going to let this slide today.

•ADRIAN•

A knock sounded from the door, and I lazily pulled off my headphones and placed my game console on the table before heading over to answer it.

Biggest. Fucking. Mistake. Ever.

The minute I pulled the door open, she immediately started attacking me with her fists hitting my chest.

"What the fuck was wrong with you?" She screamed angrily at me.

I smirked and took a couple of steps back, away from her.

"How does it feel to have Karma slap you on the face?"

"You did that on purpose!" Kaia shouted again.

"Fuck yeah, I did. But it was nothing compared to the lie you created that everyone's been spreading all over school and social media, and now everyone sees me as a walking disease." I shouted back, and she scowled at me.

I was expecting this confrontation, but I didn't think she would come all the way over here to do it.

"Do you have any idea what that presentation just cost me?"

"Not my fucking problem." I snapped back before folding my arms together.

Did she actually think she was not going to be affected by any of it?

The only reason I pulled that stunt was because I wanted her to feel what it was like to be humiliated and laughed at by the entire school.

"You ruined everything, and now I can't get that same opportunity back to claim that twenty percent of my entire coursework that I just lost because of you." She seethed at me.

"Good! That little stunt you just pulled at the library too had also cost me my entire reputation, and now I'm a fucking joke to everyone. And for the record, I don't have STDs. But try convincing everybody that no one would still be around you because they're still thinking it's real."

She scoffed while glancing to the side, and my irritation got triggered.

"So what? You wanted to get back at me, is that it? Well, congratulations! The petty asshole in you finally got what you've wanted."

She took a step forward while glaring at me, and I clenched my jaw tightly.

"We're even now." She stated it firmly.

After a minute had passed, she finally turned around and walked out of the room. I quickly grabbed the door and slammed it behind her after she left.

I grinded my jaw as anger and annoyance surged through my veins, and when I turned around, Amir was staring at me with a look on his face.

"Please tell me that after everything that just happened today, you at least felt some sense of accomplishment with what you did for payback."

I leaned my back against the wall and glared at the window across the room. The answer to his question was right at the tip of my tongue, but my pride got in the way, and I never gave him any answer because, despite being pissed off at her.

I am more angry at myself for starting to feel regret for what I did.