Hello ladies and Gentleman, so I think this story will be at the most 20 chapters, I’m starting to get the plot for the next book all aligned, although it is still a little vague, but hopefully I’ll get more on it once I start to write it up, I already know who it is going to be about, but no, I will not say anything. Mwahahahah it’s because I’m evil, anyways I hope you enjoy chapter 16!
The time before lunch is short-lived and I dread the approaching break-up talk that I’m going to have to approach Collin with. What should I even say; I’ve never broken up with someone before. Normally a person would be scared that their ex would be weepy, and clingy or something right?
Not me.
The fear that Collin is going to have some sort of mental break down and throw punches at me, nearly has me paralyzed. Walking guardedly into the lunchroom, I search the crowded tables for Jason and Sadie. The Faces of people who I don’t know or just don’t care about riddle my vision before my eyes land on a waving hand that belongs to Sadie. Jason is sitting silently next to her watchfully dragging his eyes across the cafeteria bustle, before his eyes land on me and he smiles widely.
The smile reaches his deep brown eyes, and his whole appearance seems to brighten instantly. His body sits up slightly straighter, and his shoulders push back with an air of cockiness. His chest puffs out without him noticing, and it reminds me of biology class when the teacher had lectured on a male Love Birds preening their feathers to attract a female.
I jog over to where the pair of them are sitting, placing my bag down across from Jason and sliding onto the bench. “Hey!” I greet enthusiastically.
“Hey!” Jason echoes, staring at me with loving eyes, under the table I feel his foot slide over to mine, the tip of his shoe coming up to brush against my ankle. In turn I brush my foot against his ankle and soon we are playing a resilient game of footsie.
“Oh my gosh, you guys seriously, I’m still here, yeah hey Caleb it’s great to see you too, you want to give me some of that foot action?” Sadie huffs dramatically.
“No he does not, that’s reserved for me sorry.” Jason responds cheerfully.
Sadie just frowns at the pair of us, and bites into a shiny red apple that had been sitting on the blue table top before looking at me and saying the one thing that I had been dreading all day long. “So, you’re breaking up with Collin right?”
Taking a strenuous gulp I nod, “Yeah, do you see him?”
Sadie perks her head higher above the crowd, gazing across the sea of teenage bodies, “Oh there he is, sitting next to Marcus and some of the other annoying lacrosse players!”
Nervously I look up at Jason, and he can see the worry in my eyes. His hand slips out from under the table and reaches across the blue surface clasping onto mine gently, running circles over my skin with the pad of his thumb. Flushing I look quickly around the lunchroom to see if anyone’s looking but realizing my familiar mistake I stop myself. Do I honestly care if someone is looking? No not really, and if Jason isn’t minding it then neither do I!
“Hey,” He murmurs gently, “Don’t worry, I won’t let him hurt you.” The sound of his voice makes me want to snuggle against him, but seeing as how there is a table between us, and we are sitting in the middle of the lunchroom the latter is not likely to happen.
Nodding I stand and pull my hand out of Jason’s taking a few deep breaths then giving them both a thumbs up before walking away towards the table of lacrosse boys. The few feet across the lunchroom that I have to walk across seems like an eternity, but eventually I find myself standing next to the group of boys.
Marcus is the first to notice me, his handsome features slipping into a look of curiosity before his face brightens pleasantly. “Hey Caleb!” He greets, causing the boy next to him to snap into attention. Collins blue eyes dig into my flesh. “Hey Marcus, is it alright if I borrow Caleb for a second?” I ask shifting nervously under the gazes that are all places on me in curiosity.
“Oh?” Marcus asks in surprise looking over at Collin before smiling and nodding, “Of course!” Collin stands and walks over to me, when he gets closer I turn and lead him away from prying ears. We stop by the doors to the lunchroom, and Collin digs his hands into his pockets in reserve.
“So, what’s up have you decided to stop being a bitch?” He questions training his eyes onto me.
The way he speaks to me makes me jerk in annoyance, “Collin I wasn’t being a bitch, you hurt me!”
Collin rolls his eyes lazily, “Yeah whatever, just because you’re so weak your bones are like peanut brittle doesn’t mean that I was trying to hurt you.”
Deciding that the boy in front of me is a lost cause I sigh, “Whatever it doesn’t matter, that’s not why I wanted to talk to you.”
Collin looks at me curiously his normally apathetic features suddenly turning into a look of childlike curiosity.
“Really, why then?” He inquires crossing his arms over his chest, in a manner that seems almost protective.
This is it. This is where I bring it crashing down on him, and break his heart, or piss him off. I can’t decide which one it will be. Shuffling my feet nervously I look at the floor before bringing my eyes up to steadily look at him. I can’t show him weakness, wouldn’t he like that? Wouldn’t he like knowing that I’m scared of him? “I want to break up.”
The words leave my mouth before I even realized I was saying them, and for a moment I stand in shock at myself. Did I really say it that fast? Was it really that easy? Collin stares at me for a moment in disbelief, “What?”
“I want to break up.” I say more assuredly then before, and the sudden feeling of empowerment makes me stand up a little straighter, “I want to end our relationship.”
Collin trembles. Now this is when he flips out, he’s going to shove me on the ground, he’s going to punch me in the face, he’s going to swear at me and call me a whore. This is what I suspect, but the look that crosses Collins face is nothing that I imagined it would be. The boy’s face contorts into a childlike face of abandonment, and I see tears shining in his eyes.
“Collin-”I start reaching my hand out to him, but as soon as I speak it’s as if my voice breaks the spell. Collins face contorts into a look of pure hate, and he slaps my hand away from him.
“Don’t fucking touch me!” He hisses, then before I can respond he storms out the doors, rushing swiftly down the hallway. As soon as he Collin is gone Marcus is standing next to me, “What happened?” He orders, a look of worry and something else that is far from brotherly concern displaying itself on his face.
Not wanting to out my ex I just shrug, Marcus glares at me in fury before dashing out the door after Collin. When he’s gone I’m still standing there, in mental shock. What the hell just happened? Did I just make Collin cry? It was hard to say, because as soon as he let any emotion show he had thrown up another wall, a wall of sheer hate.
“What was that?” Sadie asks, trotting over to me, Jason at her hip.
“I-I have no idea.” I whisper under my breath, still starring down the corridor after the two boys. Everything seemed ten times more confusing now than it had before. In my eyes Collin had always seemed like a happy guy, until his true colors came out, but even then he had just seemed apathetic and constantly annoyed, nothing like the wounded boy that had been standing next to me moments before.
“Don’t feel bad Caleb, it’s better for both of you.” Sadie comforts, rubbing her hand on my shoulder.
“Yeah, I know I’ve just never seen him like that before you know?” I start back towards our table. The three of us sit in silence for a while before the bell rings and we have to go back to class. On the way out of the lunchroom we walk past Chad’s locker.
Why does everything seem to be going to shit right now? I think this to myself as I see my brother flirting up some slutty looking blonde girl. If Sadie saw him, she would be so horrified. I realize too late that Sadie is standing right next to me. My best friend’s eyes widen when she sees him with the girl, her lips tighten and a tear slides down her face before she turns away from me and runs down the hallway towards the girls’ bathroom. Shit.
My body is moving before I have time to process what’s happening. I grab Chad by the shoulders and slam him back against the lockers, not paying any attention to my injured wrist as his back creates a deafening crash against the metal. The blonde girl that was standing with him screams and backs into the crowd of students that is starting to gather around us. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I scream in my brothers’ face.
“Get the hell off me Caleb!” Chad commands in rage, letting his hands remain at his sides, no doubt trying to remain the mature sibling in this situation. Even though the whole cause to problem is his own fucking stupidity.
“No, do you realize how much your hurting Sadie?” I hiss in his face. Chad makes a face of pain at the mention of Sadie’s name, but soon he just shrugs it off. “Whatever man, she can do what she wants if she isn’t going to listen to me.”
“What, because she won’t stop hanging out with me?” The ludicrously of the conditions chad had given Sadie concerning me makes me want to rip his face off. Never before have I felt such intense rage at my very own brother, but Sadie is my best friend and he is fucking up with her.
“Yes, because no matter how fucking good I am to her, she always runs back to you, it seems like she can’t keep her fucking hands off of you. What kind of brother are you huh, do you even have feelings asshole?” He growls, and before I know what I’m doing my bandaged hand is connecting with my older brothers’ face.
The sound of knuckles on flesh is louder than I imagined it would be, and the pain from the force of the punch has me wincing as I pull away from where Chad has fallen on to the floor, clutching my wrist. “There is nothing going on between me and Sadie, if you would get your head out of your ass maybe you would see that, instead of just instigating the end of your fucking relationship for no real reason!” I shout.
“Caleb, calm down.” Jason says from behind me, reaching to grab my forearm. Chad stands up slowly, turning to face me, his sneakers squeaking against the linoleum. His hand goes up to touch the already tender looking spot on his jaw where my fist had connected with his flesh. The look on his face is one of disbelief, as if he can’t believe that his baby brother gave him a fairly illustrious right hook.
His surprise only lasts a few more second before Chad’s fist is flying towards me at full speed, smacking into my face. The impact sends my head spinning, so badly that I can’t even tell when I land on the ground. After my dizziness wears off, I bring a hand to my face touching the heated area. When I pull my hand from my face, it comes away covered in red coppery liquid. My tongue flicks out and I can taste it in my mouth and feel it running from my nose. The sound of Chad’s footsteps coming towards me speedily sends my head flicking up, to see the bigger boy looming down at me, but before he has time to even touch me Jason is grabbing my older brother and ramming him into the wall with an incredible force. “Fuck!” Chad shouts, as Jason heaves him by the front of his t-shirt.
“DON’T YOU EVER FUCKING TOUCH HIM LIKE THAT AGAIN!” Jason bellows threateningly in Chads face, Chad looks stunned at Jason’s over protection for me.
Jason looks pissed, his whole body is turning red, and the veins in his body are popping, his muscles bulging from beneath his shirt. His fists are clutched tightly in Chads t-shirt and his breathing comes out in quick heaves. I want to calm him down, but I’m too freaked out to go near him, damn that boy could go green and rip his pants any minute now.
“Jason,-put me down.” Chad chokes out; Jason doesn’t move winding his hands tighter into my brothers’ shirt. He isn’t going to kill my brother is he, I mean sure chad pisses me off all the time, but still I don’t want him to die. Where the hell are the teachers?
“JASON!” A high pitched voice screams. Still on the floor and bleeding profusely from my mouth and nose I turn to see Sadie storming towards the two angry boys. “PUT HIM DOWN NOW JASON!” she screams. My respect for her reaches its highest limits as I watch the girl storm towards Jason, and begin to pound her delicate fists against his back. “PUT HIM DOWN ASSHOLE RIGHT NOW!”
Chad looks at Sadie in adoration, “Baby back away, you shouldn’t get involved in this shit.”
Sadie scowls at Chad, “Like hell Chad Mowery, and don’t you dare call me baby, I’m still as pissed as I was at you yesterday if not more, how could you punch your little brother, would you fucking look at Caleb’s face chad?” Chad turns to look at me. Holding my still bleeding nose with my fist I blush and look away, whipping at my similarly bloody mouth with my free hand.
“Oh shit Caleb!” Chad groans, Jason finally lets my brother down, and as soon as Chad’s feet touch the ground he is dashing towards me. “I’m so sorry Caleb, are you okay?” He asks in distress, “I would say I didn’t mean to, but I totally did man, I’m sorry I was just pissed off.”
“Iss pine,” I mumble through my bloody face, and laugh at the ridiculous sound of my words, but it the chuckle comes out as more of a bloody sputter and Chad winces.
“Come, on we should probably get you to the nurse or something.” Chad looks over at Jason, “Come on and help me Jason.” Jason nods, rushing to my other arm and the two boys heave me up just as a teacher busts into the clearing.
“All three of you, principals’ office right now!” She orders furiously.
Jason looks at her irritably as we walk past and spits, “A little late aren’t you?”
The teacher flushes mumbling something inaudible before walking ahead of us to the principal’s office all the while shouting at the crowd of students to head to class, as the tardy bell had already rung.
The stupid bitch of a teacher makes us go straight to the Principal office not even allowing for me to clean up in the bathroom even though I’m clearly dripping my life juice all over the fucking floor. When the three of us walk into the office The Principal is just setting his phone back into his cradle. “Ah, so here are the troublemakers!” He says enthusiastically, “Please take a seat.” We do so, sitting in the couch that is pushed into the corner of his office, the couch is a little small and I end up sitting half on Jason’s lap. He smiles and wraps his arm around my waist unnoticeably, causing me to blush behind my still bleeding face. God this is so unattractive.
“I’ve just gotten ahold of your mother,” Principal Franklin informs us. We all let out small groans. “She says that she is on her way immediately and to keep you here until she arrives.”
“Sir, Caleb is bleeding profusely can I take him to the bathroom to clean up before his mom gets here?” Jason pleads. Principal Franklin looks at Chad questioningly.
“Oh yeah he’s fine, I’m the one who punched Caleb.” Chad assures him.
“Very well then, yes you may take him to the bathroom right in the main office.” He agrees gesturing to us both. Jason nods and pushes me gently to stand before hauling himself up behind me and grabbing my elbow, leading me out the door and down the small hall in the main office to the staff bathroom. We quickly enter the small room shutting the door behind us. The bathroom is completely white, which freaks me out a little bit since I’m bleeding all over the place, why the hell would they make a bathroom completely white?
“Here lean down over the sink.” Jason orders, gently bending me over the porcelain bowl, the chill of the glass makes me shiver in discomfort. Why was it so cold? “Is your wrist okay?”
I nod as the blood from my nose drips steadily into the dish tainting the white with its rich coloration. Jason grabs some paper towels from behind me, and moves to wipe the drying blood from my nose and mouth. “This is no nasty!” I whine in complaint.
“You shouldn’t have punched him, did you not think he would punch you back?” Jason asks.
“I don’t know I just wanted to knock some sense into him.” I pause examining my still bleeding nose before reaching over to the paper cup dispenser and pulling out a cup. I fill it with water then dump the warm liquid into my mouth, swishing it around to rid myself of the coppery taste, before spitting it out, I repeat this a few times while washing the still flowing blood from my nose. “Shouldn’t I be leaning my head back or something?”
Jason snorts, “No, the blood could go down your throat and upset your stomach, unless you want to risk throwing up I wouldn’t try it.”
“Nasty man!” I wail in frustration, Jason laughs at my disgust.
“Here turn towards me.” He orders, and I obey letting him pinch my nose closed while he wipes away the remaining blood from my face. We both stand there in silence for a moment before I speak, “What exactly are you doing?”
Jason chuckles his perfectly formed eyebrows rising, “Have you never had a bloody nose before?”
“No, never.” I respond truthfully, and this causes him to smile before explaining the procedure, “I’m pinching your nerves so that your blood clots.”
“Oh.” And again we slip into a comfortable silence. Five minutes pass and Jason removes his hand from my nose, signaling the end of the blood flow. Turning I rinse my face off once more, and dry myself off with a paper towel before examining my face in the mirror. There’s a small cut on the side of my lip that is slightly puffed up from where I had bitten myself when Chad punched me. My nose doesn’t seem to be bruised at all, but there’s a mark forming on my right cheekbone where Chad’s fist connected with an incredible force. “I look horrible.”
“You look fine.” Jason disagrees from behind me wrapping his arms around my waist; wanting to the face bigger boy I quickly turn in his arms leaning the small of my back against the sink. “You have battle wounds that you can brag about.” Jason chuckles against my forehead. Smiling I laugh and drawl sarcastically, “Oh yeah, you should see the other guy…..he’s completely messed up, you can barely recognize him.”
Jason laughs loudly, then leans down and places a gentle kiss on the corner of my mouth that is devoid of injuries. Sighing I tilt my face up and gently nuzzle Jason’s nose with my own. Jason smirks then leans down tilting my head to the side, before nibbling on my earlobe gently. “Mm,” I moan quietly, “Jason, we can’t we’re in a school bathroom.” He groans into my neck sending shivers up my spine.
“We’re going to get suspended huh?” He asks pulling away from me.
Shrugging I stare up at him, “Probably, at least for tomorrow I bet it would have been worse if we hadn’t been related.”
Jason frowns, “But we aren’t related.” Smiling I go to open the door, letting Jason fallow after me, “I know but we all live together, so they probably assume it’s just some stupid sibling fight.”
Jason nods “Yeah I guess.” Then we both go silent as he opens the door to Principal Franklin’s office. As soon as we step inside, it’s as if a bomb goes off.
“What were you thinking!” my mother screams at me, “I raised you boys to be more mature then that, so please explain to me, why I was called down here!”
“In my defense,” I mutter once she has gone silent, “It was all Chad’s fault.”
Mom looks from me too chad, “Chad Mowery, is this true?” She asks sternly placing her hands on her hips. Chad looks at the floor and nods; mother sighs tiredly and sits on the couch next to Chad, “What exactly had you so angry that you punched your brother in the face?”
“Technically I punched him first.” I defend protectively. Mother turns to look at me in surprise, “You punched Chad?”
“Yes I did.” I say proudly raising my bandaged wrist in a fist of victory. Mother stares at me, “You punched your brother with your injured wrist?” puzzled I look at my wrist then nod. “Come here!” she sighs tiredly. Silently I walk to my mother, and place my arm in her outstretched hands. Her delicate fingers pull my bandage off of my wrist, and then she lightly presses down on my appendage.
“Ow!” I wince jumping and pulling my wrist out of her hand before backing up against Jason. He places a hand on my shoulder stopping me.
“You said it didn’t hurt!” he scowls down at me. Grinning sheepishly I shrug.
“Well now not only do you have a sprained wrist, but your face is also bruised up!” Mother complains in exasperation, “What do you think your father is going to say?”
Chad and I glance at each other than muffle a laugh; to be honest our dad would probably laugh at us and say “Boys will be Boys.”
Mom just rolls her eyes at our immaturity and looks at Jason, “And what exactly was your part in this?” She asks losing her angry tone, for a caring one.
“Jason saved me!” I enthuse patting him on the head, “He’s such a good, loyal puppy!”
Mother smiles letting loose a laugh before turning to Chad, “Saved him?”
Chad blushes, “Yeah he kind of put me in a chokehold against the lockers when I was going to go at Caleb again.”
“Again?” she questions, gesturing to my face, “That was one punch?” I blush and Chad nods.
“Hey, I have delicate skin!” I frown at my mother, “How often do I get in fights, I can’t even catch a ball let alone block a fist from slamming into my face.”
This causes everyone to laugh, “Well,” My mother finally says turning to the principal, “What’s the punishment Mr. Franklin?”
“Well,” He sighs, “Since they didn’t harm another student except for each other, and their brothers, I will go easy and say your suspended all three of you for tomorrow but your back here Monday morning bright and early.”
“Alright boys get your stuff, you’re going home, then I have to go to work,” She turns to the principal, “Thank you so much for being so understanding, I’m sure this will never happen again.”
Mr. Franklin just chuckles, “No need Mrs. Mowery I have a brother too, I remember how we were back in high school, your boys are actually quite well behaved.”
Mom snorts then says her goodbyes before dragging us out the door, “I want all of you to go straight home, do you understand me!”
“Yes ma’am,” we all nod, and then watch as she disappears into the parking lot, before heading back to our cars.