Abused and Unloved~

Chapter Seven

His presence frustrated me mainly because I couldn't figure out his overarching intention. Was I a charity case to him? A social experiment? Was he trying to boost his ego by conquering the unconquerable? I don't know— and it killed me that he somewhat had the upper hand because of it.

"Hey Cortez, how's your sister?"
"Fine, she just needed a minute to be dramatic."

I looked everywhere but at his face, I found his eye contact to be too intense and constant for me.

"What's wrong with your face?" Suddenly I had no problem meeting his eyes and dropping my eyebrows into a scowl. Without waiting for a follow up sentence to leave his mouth I scoff and move to push past him.

Jayden catches my arm with a chuckle pulling me back to my original spot, "I didn't mean it like that, you just have a bruise you didn't have yesterday." His cold thumb brushed against my tender cheek gently as the rest of his hand cupped my jaw and I was too distracted by the attentive way he studied my cheek to come up with a valid excuse.

"I um.. I knocked into something." His hand dropped as he met my eyes and raised an eyebrow, "You're quite the klutz." I merely pursed my lips and shrugged weakly in response.

"Well I spoke to Anthony yesterday afternoon, made him explain myself, and advised him that that's not how he should treat a girl— or anyone really. He agreed to apologize to your sister."

I was immediately taken aback by his words and wondered if I'd heard him right.

"Wait— he agreed? Y-You spoke to him?"

He runs a hand through his hair with a casual shrug unfazed by my evident bewilderment.

"Yeah he's one of my mentees. Plus he was just projecting, he had done something with another girl closer to his age and— skipping over the gory details, I basically let him know it wasn't okay. Cheating just doesn't sit right with me... for personal reasons." I was tempted to dig into what those personal reasons were but I feared if I got him to open up he would expect the same in return which is something I couldn't deliver on.

"Thank you, I gue—"

He catches my shoulders and begins to turn me around, "Look there she is," And he points her out to me through the window of our building. I was able to spot for myself Anthony approaching her from a few feet away, but as I zoomed more closely in on Kaylee's expression I could tell it was already one close to tears.

"Is she..." I shake Jayden off of me and swerve around people to get to the door that led outside.

"Cortez where are you going?" I ignored his call from behind me and continued at my steady limping pace reaching her before the remorseful younger teenager could.

"Kaylee what's wrong?" She sees my face and quickly tries to alter her appearance but it was too late, I had already seen it.

"Don't make me ask you again." Kaylee tries to hold it together for a moment more but the facade shatters and I'm left thinking about the million things that could make her feel this distressed.

She was visibly breathing much quicker than normal and she was fidgeting with her hands over her stomach in a way that she never does.

"I didn't want to tell you this morning cause I'm sure you have enough on your plate. But—"
"But what?"

I was growing impatient as she paused to gather her thoughts looking away from my face and spasming her fingers.

"When I was getting ready this morning I stopped by mom and dad's room... they were talking about what they were going to do with you— with us. I guess because I know who or what they really are, I'm not the favorite anymore."