Masterpiece | Christian Akridge

2.7

oh btw this is Mr. Jensen for those of you that don't know who he is (I feel really bad for you if you don't) which I highly doubt but ^^^

Tanner

The next morning at school I was at my locker, scrolling through my phone when the door was slammed shut, and I jumped. The noise caught some people's attention, and they stopped for a moment to look.

"What the hell Christian?" I asked, eyes wide. I hated when people stared.

"When were you gonna tell me?" he asked. I looked at him for a moment. His tongue slid over the front of his teeth as he waited expectantly.

"Can you elaborate..." I said.

"Oh, don't act dumb."

"You're confusing me." I said, really hoping he would drop it and save the arguments for later.

"Is that so? Because you really didn't seem that confused when you and Jackson were practically having sex with each other at that party!" he hissed through clenched teeth.

I scoffed.

"Don't act so innocent yourself. Did you think I wasn't going to find out about your little flirty messages with Kennedy? How clueless do you think I am? Jack and I were drunk and upset and it meant nothing. Plus it was months ago, drop it." I said, opening my locker back up.

"Oh you're real cute." he snarled, tongue flicking across his bottom lip.

I reached my hand up, prepared to smack some sense into him when his hand shot up, wrapping his rough fingers around my wrist to block anything from happening.

Our gazes locked, and he had this hard look in his eyes. The same look that he had when we were first together; when all he cared about was keeping any and every guy away from me.

"You're my girlfriend, did you forget that?" he asked.

"I didn't go out with you so that you could act like you own me." I said, yanking my hand away as an adult walked up to us.

"Is there a problem?" one of my junior year teachers asked sternly. Somebody must have went and got him.

"No, not at all." Christian said, not breaking eye contact. There was a blank emotion on his face.

"Tanner, I'd like to speak with you." the teacher said.

"Okay Mr. Jensen. " I said softly, and Christian scoffed, stomping away.

-

I walked into Mr. Jensen's classroom, and tossed my bag onto the floor, and sat down in one of the desks as he barely sat on the edge of his desk, crossing one leg over the other, and doing so with his arms.

"Tanner, what are you doing?" he asked.

I looked directly past him and stared at the blank white board.

"How's the wife and kid doing?" I asked, rubbing at my now sore wrist.

"Don't avoid the question." he said.

"What do you mean?" I asked, turning my head slightly to look at him. His gaze was hard, but concerned.

I had been able to talk to Mr. Jensen about anything ever since I had been a freshman. Because he was the baseball coach, he and my dad had become close friends when he stopped by one day to personally congratulate Michael for leading the team to a win.

Michael became the Golden Boy of the school and Mr. Jensen's team, and he had let me baby sit him and his wife's baby a few times, so he became like my own personal counselor, and friend when nobody else would listen, not even Jack.

"You and your brother, it's crazy. You both are cream-of-the-crop students and you want to throw it all away for some kid you like?" He asked.

"I hear students talk. Us teachers talk just like you kids do. 'The Golden Boy's little sister and the new baseball captain.' It seems to me like you two were doing fine, so what happened?" he asked, genuinely worried.

I looked down at my hands, seeing my now pink wrist made my stomach lurch. What had just happened began to settle in.

"We both made some bad decisions, and we kept it from each other. Which obviously was a bad idea because look where we're at now." I scoffed, blinking back tears as a lump formed in my throat. I tried to swallow it away, which I failed completely in doing so.

"I'm sorry. You know that if anything ever happens, you can come talk to me. I was a teenager once, I'm pretty sure I'll understand." he chuckled, standing up straight. I nodded, standing up myself and grabbing my bag, muttering a 'thanks' as I exited the room.

I made my way to first period, taking my seat in the back as I waited for Jack to enter. The late bell rang, and a minute later he shuffled in, head down, nearly slamming his books onto his desk.

"Are you okay?" I asked. He refused to look at me as class started, but I ignored the lesson.

When we had a few minutes of free time after the lesson, I waited for a moment or two before turning in my seat to Jack.

"Jack, what's wrong?" I pushed.

He looked up at me, and my mouth almost dropped wide open when I saw his eyebrow was cut and his skin beginning to swell around the injury.

"Let's just say I had a few choice words when your boyfriend confronted me." he sneered, giving me a sarcastic smile.

The bell rang, and Jack stood up, shaky fingers reaching up to brush across his eyebrow as I watched.

"I have to go to the nurse." he said, beginning to walk away before he turned back around and glared at me.

"And can you remind Christian to take off his ring before he punches somebody?" and with that, my best friend zoomed out of the classroom.

-

I made a bee-line through the crowd of students waiting outside after school and was met with Christian leaning against my car.

"I'm sorry." I said, finally giving up.

His jaw clenched, and he refused to look at me, just stared directly ahead, the same blank look on his face as before.

"I'm driving you home." He said, ignoring my apology and opening the passenger side's door, moving to the side.

I climbed in, and he nearly slammed it shut.

No words were spoken as I handed him my keys and he turned on the car, the song Dissolve Me began playing from a mixed CD he made me for my birthday.

"How are you going to get home?" I asked softly, breaking the uncomfortable silence.

"We're going to my place first, and then I'm taking you home."