Benefits

Ch. 11: How To Save A Life

" I sit next to him in class." I cross my arms.

He purses his lips. "Well, try to come tomorrow, yeah?" He says going back to the main subject at hand.

"Maybe." Probably not.

"See you tomorrow- wait..." His smile turns to a smirk. He raises his hand to my neck, and I slap his hand away, ready to protest what he was going.

"What do you think you're doing?" I snap at him.

"You have a hickey."

I widen my eye and look at the mirror next to me hanging on the wall. Yes. It did darken a whole lot within the last 15 minutes. "I-uh- it's-"

"No worries Dawn. We match." He moves his collar and displays his hickey on his collarbone. It was much darker than mine; it seemed to be a day old or so.

"Okay," I say awkwardly.

"Dawn!" My mom shouts from the living room. "Is the pizza here?"

"I have to go," I say to Dawson.

He nods his head." Alright. I'll see you tomorrow at school, maybe."

"Yeah." No.

---

"Babes, hold up!" Lauren runs after me as I'm walking to school.

This morning I made sure to put two coats of concealer for my hickey, as it darkened to the shade reddish purple. There were also little bite marks around it as well that I didn't notice before. Jake owes me makeup. "Oh hey."

"I feel we haven't hanged out in a while." She wraps her right arm around me.

"We can hang out today."

"Oh. Can't my moms making me go to this thing all day." She seems to stumble with the sentence but smiles reassuringly.

I knew it, but I decide to keep it to myself for now and confront her later about her lie.

I see Jake's car in the school parking lot when I walk onto the school campus. I didn't know why, but I found myself smiling as I saw his dark glasses on his face. That soon smile falls at an instant when I see a girl that follows him out of the car. It was the same girl from yesterday who was latched onto him. He pushes her away, with disgust, pursing his lips. "Oh come on. That's not how you were last night." She coos to him.

She kisses him, and he accepts the kiss cold-heartedly. All the while Lauren's yapping away about how Chad fucked her in the asshole in his bathroom or something like that. "Later Jake." She smiles up at him and walks away, shaking her fake ass.

He seems causal, but his glasses land on me. I stand there still, and he does the same.

"Dawn?" Lauren beckons me. Her eyes look at me with concern; then she follows my stare towards Jake. Her eyes widen. "What's going on?" We are literally ten feet away from him, and I can barely move from under his stare.

I finally break away from the staring battle and snap my eyes to Lauren. "I'll catch up with you; I have to talk to Jake about a project we're doing in class."

"Okay..." Her eyes are still confused. She walks away with judgment towards him.

I walk up to him, and his cold stare still goes through me. "Hi," I say with disgust in my voice.

"Hey." He says casually like he's done nothing. I sigh deeply while crossing my arms. He raises his brows at me."Is there something that you want?" He asks like he's innocently confused at my stature.

I crinkle my eyes. "Oh, I don't know Jake." I start, putting my finger to my chin as if I'm questioning myself when I really was just being sarcastic. "Maybe because of what happened yesterday, and I see you with-with-"