Forever Yours

chapter ten

Present

Joel: Can't wait to see you today, Lo :)

Me: Me neither <3

Joel and I have been talking non-stop for the last four days. Mostly texting because once his mom found out he went out while being suspended, she was angry with him. Thank God, he didn't say it was me he was with; I don't need her not liking me already. Today is Monday, Joel's first day back at school after his suspension. I'm so excited to see him, I can hardly stand it. I still can't believe Joel is my boyfriend. It blows my mind. And it's about to blow everyone else's because Joel is way too popular for me. I have to stop thinking of it that way though. Or else I'll never think I'll be good enough for him.

I've been debating that with myself these past few days. Is Joel too good for me? I'm such a loser and he's the most popular boy in school. Everything with Jack just makes me feel as though I'm not worthy enough to be with a guy as amazing as Joel. And I know my classmates will extra make me feel that way with their whispers and pointing and glares. But as of this moment, driving to school to see Joel, all my worries are behind me.

I pull into my designated parking spot and see as Joel pulls into his across the parking lot. We both get out of our cars as fast as humanly possible and start running over to each other. I jump into Joel's arms as soon as we're close enough. He kisses me, fingers wrapped around my flowing hair. I can feel our smiles in the kiss.

"I missed you," he says quickly.

"I missed you," I repeat, and we go back to kissing. It's like we haven't seen each other in years, not just mere days.

Finally, he lets me back down on the ground and that's when I realize our PDA didn't go unnoticed. Stares are all around us. We look at each other and laugh. Mia comes running over and wraps her arms around both of us. "That was quite the show you two!" I nudge her playfully with my elbow.

"Hi Mia," Joel and I say in unison. She just gives us a wide grin and starts skipping towards the front entrance. We look at each other smiling and walk behind her. He grabs my hand and I'm screaming with joy in my head.

Just as I thought, walking through the hallways, my classmates are whispering and pointing. Joel's with her? Aw, they're so cute! He's so dreamy. She's so lucky. I hear comments from each clique as we pass by. I'm almost to my locker when I pass by Brooke and her posse. She gives me this disgusted look and even though I hear her whisper mean words to her friends about me, I don't really care anymore. I got Joel and she didn't. Joel is in no way a prize to be won, but I'm sure that's how she sees it. She's still staring at us, so I give her an evil grin. She scoffs at me. Take that bitch.

It feels like an eternity before I see Joel again at lunch. "Hey beautiful," he says as he approaches and gives me a swift kiss on the lips.

"Hey handsome," Mia says to him and winks as if he was talking to her. We all burst into laughs. "Okay, but really Joel, you need to tell your friends to stop glaring at us every day." She's talking about the football boys that are only a couple tables away. Glaring at us—of course. Ryan the angriest of them all.

Joel turns back to us with a sad look on his face. While I absolutely despise Ryan and all the other boys, they were Joel's friends, and I can tell he misses them. "Joel, why don't you just go talk to them." He gives me a confused look as if he wasn't expecting me to say that. "Look, I love you hanging out with us every day, but we can't be the only people you speak to for the rest of high school. I'm sure if you just talk to them, they'll understand. And if they don't, they were never your friends to begin with."