I lean my hair against the window of Jax’s truck, the vibrating calming my pounding head. I forgot to take my meds this morning and only remembered halfway to the school when my head started pounding.
French is wedged between us as we pull into the school. I get out the second the truck stops and practically sprint into the school. I come to a dead stop when I realize I have to be in class with Jax.
I change my course, heading towards the doors that lead out to the football field. When I get to the bleachers, Glen is standing at the top, smoking a cigarette. The smoke billows around her as she spots me and snubs it out, grinding it below her foot.
“Hey Jax’s buddy,” she says, laughing. “How’s it going?”
“Got a pounding headache cuz I forgot to take my meds,” I say, climbing the chilly metal bleachers till I can sit beside her. “And also Jax almost kissed me and then made some stupid joke. Thank god he did though, I finally came to my senses and ran out of the bathroom. Not before banging my head on the door, of course, but whatever.”
“How did you bang your head on the door?” Glen asks, offering me a piece of gum.
I take one and unwrap it, popping it into my mouth.
“I forgot it was locked,” I say, leaning back and looking up at the rather clear sky.
“Do you do stuff like that a lot?” she asks, sitting down next to me and leaning back.
“Only when I’m flustered, tired, annoyed… nevermind, yes, I do,” I say, chuckling.
“SARAH MAE!” calls a male voice from below me and I scramble to sit up, falling from the bench in the process.
When I finally sit up, Jax is stomping up the bleachers towards me.
“What are you doing?” he asks angrily, eyeing Glen, who has lit another cig.
“Smoking with my friend, what does it look like?” I ask, plucking the cigarette from Glen’s hand and lifting it to my mouth.
Jax snorts and snatches the cigarette from my fingers before I can react. He inhales deeply before blowing a perfect smoke ring and dropping the cigarette to the bleacher, grinding it under the toe of his white air force.
“What the hell is your problem?” I ask angrily, standing up on the bench, which makes me still a few inches shorter than his tall ass self.
“You are skipping class, specifically a class we have together, which makes me think you are avoiding me, which will be hard to do since we have most of the same classes and live in the same house,” he snarls.
“Well, I am great at disappearing at a moment's notice dick wad,” I snap, turning to walk away with Glen.
“Don’t walk away from me,” he snarls, grabbing my shoulders and spinning me around to face him.
“I’ll walk away whenever I want and you can’t do shit,” I snap, trying to pull away.
His fingers dig into my shoulders and I twist my mouth up in a ragged smile.
“Let go of me before I hurt you, Jax. I haven’t had my meds today, which you wouldn’t know, since you don’t know me at all, and if you keep touching me, I’ll lose it,” I hiss, looking darkly into his eyes.
I can feel myself shutting down, the feeling flooding out of me and into a puddle around my feet, spilling down the bleachers and seeping into the turf of the football field. They won’t come back.
Something in my eyes must change, cuz Jax lets go of me, sighing.
“Sorry,” he says before trudging back down the bleachers and disappearing back into the school.
I sit down on the bleachers and lean back, my backpack slipping away and hitting the bleachers with a thud.
I close my eyes and imagine what my life would be like if I wasn’t scared to let someone love me.
Because when you’ve been burned, you stay away from fire.
BẠN ĐANG ĐỌC
If We Could Be Endgame
Lãng mạnSarah Mae has two rules. 1. don't cry, even when the pain is too much to survive, and 2. boys are nothing but trouble. She doesn't have anything against trouble, just not THAT type of trouble. She doesn't cry when her abusive mother is layed to rest...
