Not Your Girl

Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven – I think he’s trying to turn fantasy into reality | Not Your Girl

It was one of those days. The air was like the Antarctic and trees were behaving like they were in a freaking hurricane. Yes, I know, I’m too dramatic for my own good. But the whether always affected my mood. I had woken up this morning by coughing so much that my chest ached for an hour or so. I had then realised that my lips had turned into a freaking desert and they were now practically swimming in lip balm. Being sick had never been my thing – in fact I usually didn’t get sick. But I guess it was something to add to the never-ending list of bad luck I had been getting since Ryder McKnight strolled into my life like he owned it.

I didn’t feel like going to school today, in fact, I don’t think anyone does when they’re sick. I was more worried about this sickness being a weakness then it being contagious which was something I was still deciding whether it was a good thing or not. I could only imagine the one thousand billion teasing names or comments that Ryder could lash out at me with today. There was no way I could get a day off. My mother had never let go of the day I came home and told her that I didn’t get school captain. Of course, this significant day has other names; the day I failed, the day I lost all of my hard work, the day I became the school’s slut, the day my life was ruined, the day my dreams were practically invited to throw themselves out the window, the day my dreams were murdered in cold-blood… but one name tops them all and in my head rules above the rest; The Worst Day of My Life. Anyway, you can only imagine how strict my mother would have been about school from then on. She had control of my life now. No dream career for me. It was all going to be ‘mummies way’. Yippee…

I trudged into the school like someone facing a death sentence. The second I walked in the door to the school hallway my eyes landed on Ryder making out with the red head chick he had walked into school with on the first day of the term. Why couldn’t he have picked her to be ‘his girl’? Seriously. He really was just trying to make my life miserable. I made a bee-line for my locker hoping that if I was lucky, Ryder wouldn’t see me. But just as I passed him a tickling attacked the inside of my throat and I burst out in a coughing fit. I covered my mouth with my hand as I cringed over, the coughing fit seeming to be infinite. Really, Jess? Really? You couldn’t have just kept your trap shut for a few for metres?

Once my coughing fit started to die I noticed a hand touch my shoulder and a pair of blue eyes watching me. I turned my head slightly to one side to see Ryder wearing a smirk across his lips. Fantastic. So much for getting by without him seeing me. This was just yet another thing to add to the list of my bad luck. My eyes instantly narrowed at the sight of the pain of my existence. Alarm bells went off to the spot where his hand touched my back.

“Hands off, pal.” I said in a wheezy voice from coughing. I slapped his hand off of my back coldly but the smirk didn’t leave Ryder’s face.

“Is my poor baby sick?” Ryder cooed, his hand reaching out and cupping my chin. I slapped his hand away again, scowling at him.

“I’m not sick.” I snapped back in a croaky voice. Going against what Ryder said was starting to come as second nature to me, even though it was a lie.

“Sure you are. You should hear yourself,” Ryder replied, his smirk turning into a devious grin as he flashed me his white teeth, “Want me to kiss anything better?”

I vomited a little in my mouth.

“No thanks, I think you’d only make it worse.” I spat bitterly but Ryder only chuckled. Seriously. This guy was like a brick wall. Did anything affect him? I had tried almost everything… but I wasn’t giving up yet.

“You know you love me.” Ryder teased but since it meant absolutely nothing to me, it didn’t affect me.

“And you know that I definitely do not.” I snapped a quickly reply. Ryder just chuckled to himself and tapped my nose with his finger. I wrinkled my nose and jerked my head, backwards and away from him. This only made Ryder laugh harder and I gritted my teeth as I turned away from him. I only got a few metres before I felt a tickling in the back of my throat again. I burst out into another coughing fit, my coughs sounding worse each time. I cringed over again, stumbling towards my locker and leaning against it with one hand as I covered my mouth with the other.