"Paige, I know. I know everything, let me explain." Chris said in an almost whisper and in a plead. The girls became confused with the question on their minds: What is he talking about?
Paige finally gave in. She got up from her seat and pushed it in with great force, and walked away, Chris followed behind her. Paige led him into a corridor between the cafeteria entrance and the stairwell to upstairs. She leaned her shoulder against the wall, and looked toward Chris who was pale and white. He looked just as scared as Paige.
"I went to Bardel before I came here." Chris said simply in a whisper. Paige started to feel tears form behind her eyes: I knew it. Something inside of me was telling it to me, I knew it all along. She thought. Chris continued. "I-I was at the party, I heard Dean talking to a bunch of other guys before you came with your friend. He was talking about this really desperate teeny-bop cheerleader from Degrassi; he said that you looked easy, and that you would fall for anything. Simply because you were crazy for him."
Paige didn't know what too say. She wanted to run and cry, and scream, and break a few things. She scolded herself for making him think that she was easy and that she was some teeny-bop cheerleader. I'm a person too. She thought with an aching pain in her left and right temples. Her lips began to tremble as she held back her tears. She wanted to hear more.
"Then why didn't you warn me?" Paige asked, in a low almost whisper tone. Chris knew that she holding back her tears.
"I would have, but I didn't know who he was talking about. And if I were to say anything, Dean would have easily beaten me up. He has before." Chris said, looking down at the ground, beginning to feel guilty. "Then I saw you taking him upstairs, and I knew. I was going to say something, but I didn't know what to do. I was scared." Chris admitted. "I'm sorry."
Paige couldn't hold her tears anymore, the first one streamed down, and then they all embraced her red cheeks. She cried hard, sobbing hard. She didn't care anymore that Chris knew her secret before she even knew. She cried into Chris' shirt and he had his arm and patting her back, trying to console her as much as he could. And occasionally, he would slip the words "I'm sorry."
--
Later that day, after school, Paige was still poignant and heart-broken on what she learned what was eating her heart out along. She decided to go one place where her sadness can be relieved: The Mall.
When Paige stepped into the busy shopping mall, Paige was less then happy. The feeling didn't make her feel relieved from stress. It had no feeling at all. But she was determined to get the misery away. She went into one of her favorite stores, Charlotte Russe. Paige browsed in the many racks of the trendy and hip clothes, she saw some outfits that were interesting, but it was as exciting as it was for Paige before. Paige felt a different person; she wasn't a diva like she once was. She felt like a nobody. Paige walked out of the store.
Though Paige had left the store, she still remained in the mall. She walked by every store; she did a lot of window browsing. But as she walked past every store gazing through all the windows, she stopped and walked backwards slowly as she went back to a store that she had just passed.
"Wow," Paige mouthed, looking up at the name of the store in a spiky red font, "Hot Topic" was the name of the store. It was the answer to her calling; it was time for a change.
