Rock, Paper, Scissors

11: Payback

Sadness and pain crossed his face and after looking at the grass and back at me he finally spoke, "It's Wilde. Mason Wilde.

When I saw him getting close to you, I knew he was planning on doing something and I couldn't let that happen. I confronted him and, well, I got this." He pointed at his eye.

My heart sank. Of course, Manson had to have an ulterior motive to 'like' me. I knew it.

Relief washed over me as I recalled our date, of how I almost give into him. I kept the tears at bay. I had always promised myself that I would never cry for a guy. There's no way I was going to cry for an asshole of a guy.

Manson. I had left him behind to go with Micah without a word. He didn't come after me, I thought he was being considerate, but I guess he was being judicious.

What bothered me, even more, was that Nick had tried to warn me, which made me hate him even more. Why didn't he use words back then? Why couldn't he simply tell me the truth!? I can't believe these guys.

I felt Noah's comforting hand on my arm. "I'm sorry," he whispered.

I let out a laugh. "Of course. See, I told you, Noah. I told you it was weird for him to have a crush on me." Although this was far worse than a prank or a bet. "And for fork sakes Micah!? You shouldn't have cut us off, that was exactly what he wanted; to isolate you from every possible support. You're supposed to be the smart one."

Micah pitied me; I could see in his face. He knew I was trying to act strong, to act as if it didn't hurt me since I never believed it in the first place.

The truth was it was hurting every cell in my body, but mostly my pride. How could I have fell for someone like that, I, who praises myself for being good at judging people's characters? How could I be misleded by him? How pathetic.

"When he threatened to hurt you, I asked Nick and Tyler to help me. They took me to their kickboxing gym to train and learn how to defend myself. They also kind of became my friends slash bodyguards." He let out a chuckle. "Manson didn't have the balls to mess with me while I had these guys by my side. In the end, I think that's why he targeted you."

"We don't sound so bad after all now, right goody-good girl?" Tyler asked in a taunting voice and I just responded to him with a glare. He let out a dry laugh as to make fun of me.

"I think having you always under our feet didn't help either. You have a talent to talk to me whenever Manson can see us." Nick added, in a stoic tone.

"Well, I'm sorry if I didn't know I wasn't supposed to be seen with you," I spat bitterly. "Maybe if you would have told us about it, told me about it when you had the opportunity, we wouldn't be in this situation right now."

"Jules, we both know that as soon as I'd told you, you would explode and act without thinking of the consequences. You'd probably make it worse for yourself."

I was offended by Micah's words. The fact that he wouldn't trust me or my control in the situation hurt me more than Mason trying to use me.

"Worse for myself?!" Did he have no clue of how hurt I was? "You know what, you're right. And that's exactly what I'm going to do. Explode. Clearly, your plan was shit, now is time to make Mason pay." I said and gritted my teeth.

If the other night I felt hot from desire, now it was out of the rage fuming inside me.

No one would use me and get away with it and most importantly, no one messed with my friends. I got up and looked down at Micah who was clearly panicking.

"What are you doing Jules?"

"We're going to see Mr. Ferguson, that distinctive bruise should be enough proof. Come on."