Love Bites *DISCONTINUED*

Thirteen

"Rian!" Jackson chipperly called my name from his group of lacrosse friends.

I apologetically looked at Isaac before sliding out of his arm and sulking over to where my asshole of a boyfriend stood. He gave me a kiss and I felt disgusted that he thought he could just use me like this again. "Hi."

"Cheer up Rian. You're making me look like an ass," Jackson demanded, snaking his arm around my waist.

"That's because you are an ass," I spat, earning a chuckle from a few of his friends.

Luckily the bell rang loudly before he could respond to my smart comment so I sprinted away from him and to my first class of the day where I would see Isaac. I knew he had seen everything and I would have a ton of explaining to do.

"What the hell?" Isaac was seething with anger as soon as he asked me about Jackson the second I sat down behind him.

"It's what I told you about. I did not want to go back out with him, believe me. I hate him. A lot. But I had to do it. He found something out that I couldn't afford to let everyone know. I'm sorry. But I promise it'll be over soon," I reassured him with a small smile.

"No no no. That's not okay Rian."

"What?"

He ran a hand through his hair. "Rian I thought you liked me!"

"I do! I really truly do. I just couldn't let everything be exposed!"

"You know he will do it no matter what, he's just that kind of person," Isaac retorted, flailing his arms about.

"No he wouldn't. He can be sweet..."

"Are you really defending him after he blackmailed you!?" He exclaimed, earning a glare from Ms. Blake.

I didn't know how to respond. It had become a habit to defend him. He really wasn't an asshole on the inside. He just did it to hide his emotion; I guessed I was the only person who ever saw the true Jackson Whittemore. Ugh I hated how I was so easy to forgive.

So I got up without a single regret and I walked right out of the classroom, books and all, ignoring Ms. Blake's attempts to make me "get my ass back into the classroom". I didn't want to discuss this anymore with him. I couldn't. It broke both of our hearts and I wasn't going to let everyone see me cry in the middle of class.

So instead, I strided rapidly to the library and seated myself in the far back corner near the mythology section. Every time I had ever felt alone or sad or pissed off in school I always came here to my secluded corner. No one ever found me and no one ever cared if they saw me so it was the perfect place to just de stress.

I replayed the conversation between Isaac and me a thousand times in my head before I noticed tears were streaming down my face yet again. I couldn't believe how much I had cried in the past few days. I hated this. This feeling of weakness, of sadness, of betrayal. I hated feeling lost and insecure.

Leaning my head against the mahogany bookcase behind me, I closed my eyes, hoping a book wouldn't fall down and hit my face. And yes it has happened, no it was not a good experience. What had my life come to?

"Rian?" I heard a voice say my name softly with restrain.

I opened my eyes slowly and saw Jackson peering down at me from the end of the row, one hand on the strap of his backpack that was slung lazily over his left shoulder. "What do you want?" I spat angrily.

He took a step towards me cautiously, like I was a deer he needed to approach calmly. "What happened?"

"Like you care," I pressed the heels of my hands onto my now closed eyes until the blackness turned red, my foolproof trick for stopping the tears.

"I do," He assured me softly. I felt his body slide down the bookshelf until he was right next to me. "What's wrong? You know you can talk to me."

"No I can't. You've blackmailed me, bullied me, hurt me in more ways that I can count and dumped me with no good reason. I can't trust you anymore."

"I know I've done some bad stuff. And I'm sorry, I really am. I was stupid to break up with you for Lydia and I missed you a lot when I wasn't with you. But you obviously wouldn't listen to me so I had to seek other measures to get you back. Blackmailing you was wrong. And you can dump me right here right now and I will never talk to you ever again. I would never ever tell anyone anything about that stuff. Besides I think your blog is amazing, helping people get through shit. You don't have any secrets on there worth sharing that I saw, I just wanted you to think I knew. So again, I'm really sorry and if you never want to see me again I'm totally okay with that," The look on his face was one of guilt and true sincerity. I knew he meant every single word that he said. And in that moment I fell back in love with the person I never thought I would.

I leaned my head against his shoulder, letting him wrap a strong muscular arm around my shoulders. "Thank you. And I forgive you, for everything. I'm not going to understand why you did it all but it's a thing of the past."

He smiled, relieved before kissing my forehead. "So tell me, what's wrong?"

"Just a fight with a friend got me pissed off, it's nothing. Don't worry about it," I said, not wanting him to hurt Isaac.

"You sure?" I nodded. "Well in that case, how about I drive you home so you can get your guitar since today is the day of auditions for the talent show?"

I sat straight up, accidentally head butting Jackson in the nose. "Shit! Sorry! But that's today!? I totally forgot! I'm not rehearsed at all!"

"You're good at pulling stuff out of your ass at the last second so you'll be fine!"

"No no no I just make it seem like I pull it out of my ass. In actuality it's always someone else's idea!"

He laughed whole heartedly. "What about an Artist vs Poet song? You know almost all of those."

"OH MY GOD I GOT IT!" I screamed, then covered my mouth, forgetting I was in a library. "Can we go get it now?"

"Yeah let's go."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: HI GUYS!!!! First I want to tank everyone soooo much! This story is so close to 1K reads!!!! It really means so much to me! I hope you all like it as much as I do!

Second, I want to have a contest type thing when I get to 1K reads and 100 votes! So please spread my story around and keep voting!

Also comment what you think about Rian! Is she going to stay with Jackson? Or leave him for Isaac?

Also, this story has a lot of deep stuff in it pertaining to mental disorders. I want everyone to know that if you are dealing with something you are NOT alone. Someone loves you and cares about you. Hell, I care about you and I don't even know you. So please lovies, stay strong and keep fighting because it will pay off. Remember, as Winston Churchill once said "if you're going through hell, keep going". Nothing stays bad forever! And I apologize if anything in this book is triggering to anybody I know it's hard to read things like this.