Living With The Bad Boy [COMPLETE][VERSION ONE]

Chapter 24

Coming to school today was a horrible idea, wasn't it?

The car pulls out of the parking lot without a word from either of us, and I make it clear I'm not in a talking mood, staring out the window and letting the raindrops hit the window of the car- the tears I'm trying my hardest not to shed.

Because this would maybe be the worst place for that.

But it's all just too much. Just way too much all at once- like everything's piling on top of each other until I'm suffocating, the air in my lungs crushed under the weight of all the moments replaying in my mind. I've spent so long trying to be invisible, to not draw attention to myself, and today that all came crashing down in so many horrible ways.

My mind is in such a thick fog that I don't even notice as the car swerves off the road back to Turner Manor, slowing down and coming to a stop.

"Are you coming, Red?" Jase asks, his voice snapping me back to reality.

"What?" I ask, blinking as I look at him. His door is ajar, his legs half out of the car already, but he's waiting for me.

"Where the hell are we?" I ask, looking around at my surroundings, though it's hard to see anything through the rain pouring down. It's strange to see rain this early in the year, but there's that good old January thaw for you...

"Luna's Bakery," he grins. "C'mon, Little Red, before I have to drag you out of there myself."

"Jase- it's literally pouring rain," I say, resisting an eye roll. "And besides. You're only doing this because you feel bad for me. I'm not in the mood to be pitied."

"Who said anything about pity?" Jase asks, his head swiveling back into the car. "I'm just in the mood for some hot chocolate- and I have an important matter to discuss with you," he smirks, the dimple in his cheek deepening before his eyes travel to my not-exactly-rainproof hunter green sweatshirt, and he throws a balled-up blue rain jacket at me. "Now can we go? Because I wasn't kidding about dragging you out of the car, you know. I mean, I'd prefer not to look like I was trying to kidnap you, but-"

"Okay, okay, I'm going!" I say, not being able to resist a grin as I drape the jacket over my head and shoulders like a blanket, stepping out of the car and slamming the door shut before the rain droplets can get in there, too.

"This is a terrible idea," I say to Jase, laughing. "It's literally pouring rain- we're going to get soaked."

He grabs my hand, pulling me forward as sparks shoot up the tips of my fingers, through my shoulders, sending shivers through my entire body. "Hurry up, then!" he says, running across the parking lot with me in tow.

By the time we get to the door of the bakery, we're both soaked and I'm so out of breath, I could've just run a marathon, not sure if the pounding in my heart is from the running or the fact that Jase's hand is still clasped around mine or from the fact that as he opens the door, shoving me through and closing it behind him, we both practically fall against the wall, his body pressed against mine- warm and solid. It takes almost everything in me not to melt into him, the attraction between us stronger than the bond between lithium and fluorine. It's like all of those romance novels I've always loved to read, that moment when you realize just how soft the other person's lips look, the way they're staring at you exactly how you're staring at them. It's the way sodium chloride forms, two atoms practically pulled together by their opposition, each side forced to come together as one.

But atoms don't have free will. I do.

"We... should probably go order," I say softly, breaking us both out of whatever trance we seem to be in.