Yours Truly, Ramona

chapter thirty | the bad and the evil.

*possible trigger warning*

~

I'm livid. I'm absolutely, fucking livid.

Jasper's back in school today, and I'm going to have a word with his cheating ass. The more I've thought about it, I'm pretty sure Jasper doesn't have a cousin named Claire, and I don't think it's a coincidence that Claire from jazz band wasn't in school yesterday.

Today, I'm on my way to music theory and I can see Jasper standing by his band locker from down the hall. Lord help me, because I don't want to get suspended for beating the shit out of this asshole.

I stomp down the hall, not caring that I'm harshly shoving other students out of the way.

"Where were you yesterday?" I ask once I bring myself to stand in front of him.

He looks up from his phone with an unamused and unfazed glance.

"I had a baseball game down in New Hampshire."

"Really? Is Claire on the all-boys baseball team, too?"

His expression changes momentarily, knowing damn well I've just caught him in a lie.

"Okay, Mona, I know this looks bad," he starts, talking to me in a soft voice as he puts his phone back in his pocket. "But I promise you nothing is going on between Claire and I."

I cross my arms across my chest, not putting up with his bullshit or feeding into whatever lie he's trying to make me believe. It's a classic boy excuse, and I refuse to fall for it no matter how amazing his cologne smells.

"Then why did you just lie to me. You said you were at a baseball game when you were really skipping school with a whore."

I immediately grimace at my use of the word 'whore' as I hadn't really meant to say it out loud.

"This is why I didn't want to tell you!" Jasper claps back in a loud voice. "Because I knew you'd get crazy! God damn, Mona, I was just hanging out with her. I'm not fucking cheating on you."

I back down as his voice turns into a genuine, promising, whisper.

"Trust me, Mona. I only want you."

He pulls me into a hug, which pushes the thoughts of infidelity to the back of my mind and instantly makes me feel better. I feel stupid for getting so worked up over this. I should trust him more, but yet I don't. And although he's being reassuring, I still don't know if he's actually telling the truth.

I pull away from him and look in his eyes, a smile spreading across my face. No words come out of our mouths, although the emotion between us is enough to fill the space and tell me that he really does care. He has to.

Bleeeeeeeeeep

We snap out of our gaze and take notice of the other students around us and the fact that we need to get to class. He takes my hand in his and leads me down the hall towards the music theory classroom.

The last two periods of the day are relatively normal, as they always are. Mr. Rohan gives his normal lecture and Jasper and I make ample time for flirting throughout the class.

Things get a little weirder in seventh period, though, when I see that Luis isn't in class. It's strange, considering he was at lunch only a couple of hours ago.

Where are you? I text Luis although I don't get a response until the period is nearly over and it's time to go home.

Call me, he responds. I'll explain everything.