Chương 17: Not in my favor
"You set me up."
"Huh."
"YOU. SET. ME. UP!" Renee yelled at Aubrey who stared at her blankly. He slowly blinked at her angry figure and shrugged.
"I didn't, you just put everything in place for it to happen."
"Saintclair was never to know." She stressed as she paced in the small stairwell. His eyes showed no care for her anxious image. He continued to munch on his breakfast sandwich.
"Well he knows and you're the leader so you know how to deal with it right?" He asked her with an unreadable expression on his face. She paused and stared at him with a million thoughts in her head.
"Yeah…" She whispers to herself. The two receive a notification from just the person they were speaking about.
"I hope you have a back up plan."
"I can save this of course I can." She chewed on her nails as a thought in the back of her mind revealed itself. "Of course I can. I have leverage." She beam which in return made Aubrey light up. "I have this." She tossed her phone to Aubrey and the contents on the screen made him both surprised and elated. "Should I use that?"
"Post it."
His phone went off with a flurry of messages rushing in which wasn't that uncommon but he had a gut feeling he was gonna regret opening his phone.The contents on his screen was not just unsettling but invasive. His fist clenched onto the steering wheel as he threw his head back as angry tears filled his eyes. Just hold it in, just push it to the side because there is nothing he could really do about it.
He has bad judgment. He knows that but he thought he could look past that and give them the benefit of the doubt but he was wrong. Trust no one that belongs to the Chronicles he needed to install that back into his mind.
He jumped out of his car like on autopilot scanning the crowd of students whose eyes were all on him. Eyes filled with varying emotions, from sympathy to envy to laughing at him but he didn't care as of now he needed to find that and get rid of it. As he spotted her near the quad they both made eye contact and she understood what was in his eyes. She followed him to a class room across the school that was not in use during the mornings.
"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?" Zayn yelled as his voice bounced off the walls in the enclosed space. "Are you psycho? Well you are right? Why would you be so stupid to post that?" This wouldn't be the first or last time she would hear that today as the same sentiment was asked to her by Ebany and Mormon. "Delete it." It all made her feel so stupid. Aubrey wasn't a great supporter because he took no responsibility in egging her on. "Fuck, what did I do to you? I never hurt you in any way yet you're set on ruining me." She had tears in her eyes as all the conversations piled together.
"You hurt Saintclair." She whispered.
"Huh?"
"YOU hurt Saintclair!" She said much louder and all Zayn could do is stare in utter confusion.
"How? I have never down anything to any of you."
"Aaron likes you and he's dating Saintclair and if you hurt him I feel it too so you hurt Saintclair."
"You lack logic. Delete that shit!" Zayn yells as he exits the room leaving the girl there. Her phone dings and she already knows where this is going.
she saw a message from the chronicles group chat pop up. The whole morning everyone in the chat was fighting over this and she still hasn't responded.
'Meeting at 10:00.' Stclair
'Be punctual' - Stclair
"Bad Idea, bad, bad idea." Ebany whisper yells to Renee in the hall. "Everyone knows it's you dumbass. Can you delete it before Saintclair sees it?"
"Too late, he just texted me fuming." Mormon mutters quietly. "Everyone knows, this is your fault."
"Delete it now!" Ebany demands pushing her in the shoulder. "Who even made you think this was okay to post." She peeked over at Aubrey sitting in class who turned to give her a smile and thumbs up. Her eyes roll as she thinks about her judgment. Aubrey wasn't looking out for her best interest like she thought. She didn't expect him to even trigger Daniela. That wasn't the plan because there was no plan. She seeked Zayn out of the kindness of her heart not because of Aubrey's favor but that did not go the way she thought it would.
Saintclair walked past her into class; he didn't even offer her a glance and it made her feel somewhat like a disappointment.
"Take a deep breath." Tiffany mumbled to Harry.
All the members were all Side eyeing her as well as Saintclair who seemed so annoyed to be in her presence.
"Ok let's start." Saintclair said annoyed as he refuses to make eye contact with her. "Great you deleted it but awful that you put it out there."
"Everyone knows." Mormon says out loud. "Nothing is in your favor, it was never gonna be in your favor because you posted it."
"But it wasn't her idea." Saintclair adds which makes all eyes switch over to him.
"What do you mean? She filmed it and posted it."
"There was someone who encouraged her to do it though. Isn't that obvious. She makes dumb judgments as long as you fuel them." Saintclairs eyes fall on Aubrey who pretended to not know it was him. "It's you isn't it? Who else would be other than you." Aubrey shrugged.
"We thought it would be a good idea."
"Well you were wrong. What fucking sense doesn't it make to post that. It's fucking embarrassing. You have a reputation and you both just spat on it. Come on, who did you think was gonna come out on the good side of this huh? Zayn? He doesn't care, he probably wishes you didn't post what you did but he's gonna come out unscathed because…"
"He didn't post it." Tiffany and Mormon said in unison finishing Saintclair's sentence.
"Wait wait can I ask one more question?" Mormon asked with his hand raised. Saintclair sighed but gestured for him to continue. "Are you and Saintclair fucking? I feel like I'm the only one brave enough to ask these questions." Everyone in the room makes brief eye contact as they all gasped like if Mormon just admitted to killing someone.
"That's not even true in the slightest. He's with Aaron and not secretly messing around with Renee. Were you really listening to Daniela's drunk rant?" Aubrey asked from across the table.
"It was funny." Mormon said his gaze goes back to her as a mischievous spark gleams in his eyes. "So what's the punishment?" Saintclair didn't even think about that all he wanted to do was rant about how stupid he thought she was. "Remember she didn't ask for permission and went rogue? She didn't even speak to her and we move as a group so I say punishment.
"You chose on your own to post that and you didn't ask for our opinion. We're a group and we don't make individual decisions." Ebany glared at Renee and she could feel her feelings. Vote if you think she should be reprimanded or excused. Mormon's hand is the first to fly up followed by Ebany. Tiffany heavily hesitated but after seeing Harry's go up she half raised her hand. Surprisingly Aaron didn't but Aubrey did. Her eyes widened as she watched her friend beam with a smile against her. Tears welled up in her eyes as she accepted her fate.
"Fuck…" She whispered to herself.
"You and Aubrey came up with that and should have said something cuz yesterday could have gone worse. People only knew about that because Daniela went live on instagram." Is he really going to reprimand her for making a Solo decision?
"Last time I checked I'm the one who made this." She distastefully side glanced at him.
"And I'm the one who runs it."
"Okay, okay Um... It was me, I'm the one who helped Renee. We did that as a lil win for the group cuz I thought it would make things a lil better cuz you know Zayn knows a bit too much but it clearly didn't go to plan."
"Who came up with the idea?"
"Me!" They both said in unison. Renee would rather take the blame than Aubrey and if he thought he was helping it wasn't working.
"Which?" Saintclair asked, leaning back in his seat.
"Fuck! It's me. I did it. Renee just did what she had to do and I baited Daniela from her live comments." Aubrey swallowed thickly. Saintclair got up from his seat and crossed the room into the corner.
"I don't get it. Like Ebany said, We're a group, We make decisions together so I don't get why you two made such an ass decision. Yes you're a leader and you made this but you also said we make decisions together." He glared at Renee and it made her feel so small. "So as a group we will make a decision on what will happen to Renee and Aubrey. Mormon pull out the randomiser." Mormon pushed his phone to the center of the table. No one could ever come up with any good reparations other than Mormon which is why he made a wheel of punishments.
The wheels spun wildly while they waited impatiently for it to stop. The number one spot landed on the word "Apology". The other spots read; "Delete", " Embarrassment", "Banning" and "Losing Privileges."
"Well, I guess the wheel is going easy on y'all. Write a joint letter and send it on the group chat tomorrow. Are we done here? The meeting is over." Saintclair left the room first and he still seemed pissed.
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