Scarred | ✔

Chapter 26: Cliché.

"I saw him and I wanted to punch him right away, but Dwayne said that it would be wrong if I judge him instantly."

"Dwayne's right." I concluded.

"You don't want someone to punch him?" He looked at me like I was insane or something.

"I want to punch him. Scratch that, I want nothing to do with him."

Ignoring my last sentence, James laughed. "I've said that again and I'll say it yet again, you never fail to surprise me."

I just rolled my eyes.

"I'm sorry for behaving so off the wall at school. It was just so unpredictable, probably the last thing I would've expected. I've made my peace with the fact that maybe I'll come across him again someday, but I have to compose myself that I really don't give a shit about his existence and that I'm really over him." I told him, secretly thankful for the fact that he didn't ask me what the deal with Adrian was.

Sometimes I thought James was too generous for my own health.

"Are you really over him?" James asked but quickly came up with something else. "I'm sorry, not my place to ask. I'm sorry too, for nearly yelling at you and everything."

"It's okay, you're allowed to be human sometimes too. I totally and completely forgive you." I said pushing a small smile and ignoring his previous question.

I didn't quite know if it was his place to know or not, but I admit I perceived disappointment on his face when I didn't say what he wanted me to.

I couldn't let my guard down in front of him, because that only meant letting him see all my scars, examining me thoroughly under a microscope.

But why did I feel that I had still let him in at some point? That's when it occurred to me.

"How did you get in here? I thought I had locked it." I supposed.

"Well, I felt pretty shitty leaving you there like that so I called Conan and asked if you were home. He told me that you've been locked in your room for two hours straight and he has no idea what's going on. I told him what happened today at school and he literally freaked out hearing his name. That's when I thought that it really was something very serious, so I dropped by and your mom let me in giving me a spare key to your room so I could unlock it." He explained.

I hadn't really seen Conan all day and I remember when he knocked but I was too busy in my thoughts to bother opening the door.

"Ugh, I feel terrible. I didn't expect to cause quite a commotion." I said burying my face in my hands.

"You should've seen the football field. Greg had it worse. It feels like he's guilty for what happened. Are you okay?" He finished slowly, scrutinizing my actions as I stood up to wash my face.

"I'm fine- I'm better actually." I answered from the washroom.

When I came back, I saw James had picked all of the pictures and placed it on my study table.

"You wanna go out to eat? I'm guessing you haven't had anything since morning." James said.

As he said it, I really felt hungry which made me nod slowly and him to chortle.

"I have something in mind." He said as he left my room hoping I'd follow.

I left the house quietly not in a mood to answer any questions. Molly and Chet were busy playing Call of Duty so they had no idea when I sneaked out too.

It was evening and the sun was starting to set. I didn't know I'd slept that long.

The drive was quiet and I didn't bother to ask James where we were going because halfway through I already knew the answer.