Lies for Truth

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Over the last two days Jax became miserable. He promised Ariana he’d be her friend but it wasn’t easy. They continued to talk and share stories but it wasn’t the same, they couldn’t convince each other the attraction was gone. He didn’t go to her room anymore because he didn’t trust himself to lie beside her.

She wasn’t a stupid girl and knew the damage was done no matter how hard they tried to reverse it. Jax wanted nothing more then to see her smile again; he went through the pine trees that night trying to figure out a way on how to do that and came up empty.  

~*~

Ariana stared at the ceiling in her dark bedroom trying to fall asleep. It was alright that she didn’t sleep last night because there had been no school but tomorrow was Monday and everyday school was getting harder and harder. She was coping with the extra work but going in tired would affect her grade point average and that was definitely not part of the plan.

She tossed and turned groaning in frustration. She slept alone for as long as she could remember but now three nights without Jax and she was a mess. She turned on her side and pulled the pillow to her chest. It smelled like him. The scent of his after shave was actually comforting. That gave her an idea. She jumped from the bed and opened her closet. She had left his jacket on top of one of the packed boxes; she brought the garment to her nose and found the scent stronger.

She crawled into bed and held the jacket to her chest like a stuffed animal.

~*~

Jax leaned against the front door waiting for Ariana to come down that morning; everyone else had already left the house. He glanced at his watch, if they didn’t leave in the next five minutes they’d be late and he knew how much she’d hate that. He walked over to the staircase. “Ariana!”

“I’m coming!” she came running down the stairs with her hair loose around her shoulders. She always wore some kind of clip to school. It was obvious she was running late. “I over slept.”

She was pouting and he wanted nothing more then to kiss it away except friends didn’t go around kissing each other. “There’s still time and the way I drive you’ll be there on time.”

On the way to school Ariana clipped up half her hair like she normally did. He wished she would’ve left it down, he favored how the strands looked around her face.

“How did you sleep?” Jax asked.

“What do you mean?” she stammered while staring out the window.

“You said you overslept.”

“I slept fine, too good actually and I overslept.”

Jax didn’t believe her but it wasn’t important enough to push the matter. She’d deny it until she was blue in the face but he knew she missed him just as he missed her. She had told him time would help that they’d get used to each other as step-siblings but in reality time was the enemy deepening every memory they shared together and making the forbidden attraction soar.

He wanted to tell her it wouldn’t be that easy to move on, that he didn’t easily feel for another person but then he’d have to explain things he knew she wasn’t ready for. It was best and safe to let her be, to let her go to live a normal life.

Her soft voice interrupted his thoughts.

“I have a study group with Jolene after school. You don’t have to wait for me.”

“Ok.” Jax said as he pulled into the school parking lot.

“Thanks.” She rushed out of the car and inside the school before the first bell rang. At a slower pace Jax followed her lead.

~*~

Ariana hastily grabbed her books and put her bag away.

“Where’s your savior?”

She jumped at the sound of Charlie’s voice but kept her focus on her task. “Leave me alone.” She slammed her locker shut and walked away. Her heart was racing with fear she hoped didn’t show across her face.

Jolene jumped instep with her. “Is he still giving you trouble?”

Ariana hadn’t told anyone just how much trouble Charlie had given her. Only Jax knew what happened that day. “No more then usual. Where’s Laura?” there was no need to worry her friend.

“She’s out for the day for a dentist appointment. We still on for the library later?”

“Yeah I cleared it with my mom. I’ll see you later.” They said their goodbyes and she went into her first class. Sadly Charlie was in the same class, he didn’t miss an opportunity to glare at her. She hated that he sat in front of her. She tried her hardest to ignore him and listen to what the teacher was saying, taking notes for tonight’s homework.

Charlie turned around as the teacher wrote on the chalkboard. He grabbed her notepad.

“Give it back.” Ariana growled under her breath and tried not to draw any attention toward them.

“It’d kill you to miss a word and not be fully prepared huh? I don’t think there’s a bigger geek in this school.” He flipped through the pages of notes from various classes.

“Lucky for me. Give it back Charlie.” Her jaw tightened as tears glossed her eyes.

“What are you going to do for me?”

Heat surrounded her neck and ears; she wanted to scream her head off. “What the hell do you want?”

“For starters there’s a history paper due tomorrow.”

Ariana hated that yet again she was being bullied into doing his homework. “Fine now give it back.” She snatched her notepad back when he brought it close enough and engrossed herself in copying down what Mr. White had put on the chalkboard.

“That’s not all.” Charlie pointed out amused.

“Just spit it out and leave me alone.” She ignored him and kept writing.

“Meet me after school.”

Now she looked at him. “Are you insane? I don’t trust you and I’ll never go anywhere alone with you.” She stared at him and couldn’t believe he was acting as if nothing happened, as if he didn’t try and force himself on her. She kept a tight grip on her notepad and ignored him for the rest of the class. After a few minutes he gave up trying to gain her attention.

At lunch she confided in Jolene and told her everything desperately looking for advice. She told her friend about the run in she had with Charlie two weeks ago at the lockers and everything that happened that morning.

“I’m going to kill him!”

“Relax I don’t want to become this week’s gossip.”

“No I’m serious let’s just kill him and be done with it.” Jolene took a deep breath and lowered her voice. “I knew I liked Jax, it was a good thing he came back in. Why don’t you tell him to pound on Charlie again?”

“Because I don’t need him fighting my battles.” She also didn’t want to run to him every time she had a problem, she didn’t want to become any more dependant on him. 

“Ariana this is serious now, he attacked you and he could do it again. I’m really worried about this. Why the hell would he want to meet you if not to try something funny?” Those words bothered Ariana because they had been her fear, there was no doubt what Charlie wanted.

“You’re not helping.”

“I’m the realistic one, remember? It’s a good thing Laura’s not here she’d be freaking out, hell I’m freaking out. You should really tell Jax, he’s our best bet since he already knows most the details.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

Ariana sighed and leaned in closer to the table. “Because if I don’t stay away from Jax I might do something stupid like fall in love with him…if I haven’t already.”