When Perfect Meets Crazy novel Chapter 40

“Are you guys good now? Or do I need to teach Claire a lesson?”

Those were the first words out of my mouth when the couple returned. They were both wearing placid expressions that gave me no clue as to how the conversation had gone but I was leaning towards still together seeing as there was no hostility or crying and to top it off, they were walking back together.

“We broke up,” Ian announced.

“What?” I blinked.

He nodded.

“No.” I shook my head in denial. “No. Claire doesn’t get to have this. I should’ve known she would do something like this. Look, Tammy, Ian and I? We’re no--”

“It’s fine.” She gave a one shoulder shrug. “It’s not that. I know him. We dated for almost two years. He’s not the type to cheat. He detests it.”

“So... why?”

I wasn’t following her logic. If that wasn’t it, then what was the problem? There shouldn’t have been any.

“It’s not you and him. It’s him and apparently something he can’t tell me.” At this, she flashed him an accusatory glare, then sighed. “The long distance thing wasn’t really working anyway. I guess it’s just time.”

All I could do was blink.

She adjusted the strap of her purse, flashed him a forced smile, then walked away.

“Take care of him. He was good to me,” she called over her shoulder on her way out.

My eyes narrowed, the incredulous look finally falling off my face.

“Did you,” I faced Ian, “just use me as an excuse to break up with your girlfriend?”

“Ex,” he corrected.

“Clearly.” I hissed. “Did you?”

“No.”

I eyed him up, distrust blatant in my gaze. It definitely felt like it from where I was standing. But on another hand, that had to be the cleanest, friendliest breakup in history. If he had used me as an excuse, it shouldn’t have gone down so smoothly. I wasn’t sure what to believe.

“So why did you break up?”

“We... I don’t want to tell her. I don’t... I don’t know.” He heaved a sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Like she said, the long distance thing wasn’t working. There was no point anyway.”

I decided to ask the obvious. “Why didn’t you just tell her?”

He shrugged.

“You told me,” I pointed out.

“You found out,” he corrected.

“She is your girlfriend.”

“Was.”

“Yeah, ‘cause you wouldn’t tell her.” I hissed.

We were literally just going round in circles.

“Can we just drop it?”

“It’s your relationship.” I shrugged. “Oh sorry, was.” I sniped. “Now, it’s nothing.”

I went in on Monday ready to let Claire know her ploy, whatever it was, had failed. I spent the rest of Sunday trying to figure out what her goal was. It was unlikely but it could’ve been for Tammy to issue an ultimatum for Ian to stop hanging out with me. News that I was friends with one of the Carringtons had rocked the school and with him actually showing up to -sort of- pick me up twice, it could be that Claire felt threatened by my growing popularity. After all, it was the only place she excelled beyond me.

Or her endgame could’ve been for Tammy and Ian to break up with me coming out as the relationship wrecker. If that was her plan, then Tammy had pretty much put a stop to it when she followed my account last night and liked some of my hairstyle pictures. For some reason, some white girls tended to love the black afro and protective styles.

Anyway, I wasn’t even following Ian so Claire had little to go on if she wanted to go down the relationship wrecker route.

I might not have been able to trace the plot back to her but I wasn’t going to spare her any dignity when it came to rubbing the soiled plan in her face and lunch in the cafeteria, surrounded by all our mutual friends and a fair amount of eavesdroppers was the perfect setting.

“Mae, do you remember Ian?” I called out.

Luckily, she was seated on the opposite side, at the extreme end of the table. I was seated in the middle with Claire just two seats down on the same side as Mae. My voice rang out clear, interrupting -and putting an end to- ninety percent of the side conversations. My relationship with a Carrington was that much of a hot topic. Any bit of information about it was decidedly juicy. Conversations at neighbouring tables also died down in favor of eavesdropping.

I smiled inwardly.

“Like I could forget,” Mae replied, a surprised look on her face.