Treat You Better

Chapter Eighteen: Into the Den of (Rich) Lions.

"Don't mind her," I chuckled.

"Hey, Jason's rich, he could just buy another one." Hunter shrugged. "Come on, Sis, first period."

"Ciao, guys." Susan waved and followed her brother.

"Ciao," Angelo murmured before nudging me, "boyfriend."

I turned to look at the direction he gestured at and sure enough, Hale was stalking towards us. I gasped before I could control it.

"Don't worry, I'm not leaving your side." Annie whispered in my ear and I squeezed her hand. She had no idea how much I wanted to hear that.

"McGuire, what's up?" Hale greeted once he got to us.

"Frances, I'm good." The football captain nodded back at him with a smile. Hale exchanged a frosty glance with Angelo before settling his eyes on me, ignoring Annie completely.

"Is there a problem with your phone?" He asked. His tone was bad, I hated his tone.

"My phone? No. There's nothing wrong-"

"I've been trying to reach you since last night, Violet." He said, brown eyes holding back so much more than what he was letting on. "Why have a phone if you don't know how to use it?"

I quickly brought my phone out my back pocket with a sweaty hand and checked it.
"I'm sorry, I- it was on airplane mode" I stammered.

"Well I hope you had fun yesterday, seeing as you're no longer grounded" He continued with an icy smile, taking out his phone to show me Susan's status from last night where we were eating cake and watching a movie in my messy living room.

"You know what was most fun, Hale?" Annie asked, hands on her hips. "it's that you weren't there."

"Do you have a problem with keeping your mouth shut, Annie?" Hale snapped and Jason and I spoke up at the same time.

"Hey!"

But Hale only heard Jason.

"You don't talk to people like that, man, that's not cool. Especially not to Mary-anne." Jason said, putting his hand on her shoulder.

Mary-anne?

"It's Annie," she mumbled.

"Well I didn't know she was one of your girlfriends, now." Hale spat, regarding them with sceptical eyes.

"I'm not" Annie shrugged Jason's hand off her and I didn't miss the flash of hurt that crossed his face. Whoa, what the hell happened between them last night?

"Hale, you came here to talk to me" I reminded him though the last thing I wanted was his attention.

Hale rolled his eyes and looked down at me. "Mother wants you to come over for dinner tonight."

My eyes darted to Angelo the moment he said that. I don't know why. But he was staring right back at Hale.

I guess I just thought he could help me.

"Of course," I smiled as well as I could. No escape. "I'll see you there."

"You don't have a choice, your father said it would be good, seeing as we're going to Paris this weekend" Hale replied.

My face fell. He talked to Dad? I know I was keeping things away from my father but why did he have to be so blind?!

This weekend was just two days away.

"Guess you won't be seeing my girlfriend for a while." Hale sneered at Angelo before taking the coffee cup out of my hand.

What? He hadn't been getting coffee from me for days now and suddenly he remembered!?