bitter | e.d

| thirty-four

now jack is the one losing his cool, his hands noticeably balling into fists. "I don't get scared. especially not by your dipshit ass," his mouth twitches angrily. "why don't you just admit you caught feelings for the girl?"

my breath catches in my throat, and I swallow thickly. my pulse starts going noticeably faster and it frustrates me.

I speak through my teeth, "I don't fucking like her."

he laughs and ignores my words. "not only did you lose her to me, but you finally caught feelings for a chick. a lot of firsts today."

"I haven't lost, don't get ahead of yourself," I grumble at his cockiness. "did you go down on her?" I question, and he hesitates, as I expected. "didn't think so."

"you don't know what we did." the corner of his mouth curves into a sly grin. "only evie and I know what we did." my jaw tightens while I look away, and he notices. "that bother you?"

"I know for a fact you didn't get to fuck her. there's no way she'd be that desperate."

jack lunges at me, his hand grabbing my shirt and balling it up into a fist. our faces are inches apart while he snarls at me, and I take pleasure in seeing him so pissed off by my own doing. "strike a nerve?" I taunt, mocking what he said to me just a few moments ago.

I suddenly hear footsteps, along with the sound of leaves crunching, and lennox's voice faintly in the distance. at least, it sounds faint because my senses are so acute to anything jack might pull.

"what the hell is going on?" she exclaims, one of her hands going on jack's arm and the other on my shoulder. "come on, break it up, meatheads." she tries to will us apart, but isn't strong enough. jack keeps his grip on me tight.

"don't test me, dolan," he finally says through a clenched jaw, and he spits a little. "you're brother might be my best friend but I don't give two shits about you." he lets go of me with a shove, and I straighten myself out.

"if you give two shits about breathing another day, then I highly suggest you keep the fuck away from evie," I warn aggressively and feel my heart beating fast in my chest, my entire body tensed all over.

lennox comes up to me and places her palm against my chest as if trying to keep me grounded. "jesus, that's what this is about?" she scoffs, looking between us both. "you looked like you were going to murder each other."

"there's always tomorrow," I murmur, my glare still set on jack. 

lennox sighs. "god, take a walk, guys." her hand that was on me falls back to her side. "in different directions," she clarifies with a raised eyebrow.

"you got it, lenny." jack nods, his entire demeanor back to normal, almost like he was never raging just a minute ago. "I got somewhere to be, anyway," he smiles at her and throws a wink my way.

I watch him turn around and practically skip in the direction evie went. he can't be that fucking stupid, I think to myself. "he must have a fucking death wish," I mumble under my breath but before I can take a single step after him, lennox is there to stop me.

"hey, on second thought, you're coming with me." she steps in front of me and grabs my shoulders to spin me around. then with a light shove on my back, we start walking opposite of jack and the rest of the camp.

my mind starts replaying the events of the last 10 minutes, analyzing the conversation jack and I just had while we walk. I'm acutely aware of how flushed hot I feel, how rigid my muscles are. my head is spinning and all I seem to want is to see evie's fucking face right now. or hear her voice. just have her here in my sight, where I can see she's okay.