Chapter Forty-Two…
Is it true you’re fucking Mr. Armstrong?
Slamming my phone down on the table, I let out a groan of pure anger. Leonie, who happened to still have my number, had wasted no time in spreading it about the school.
So now, I was receiving constant texts every five minutes. Some of them had been similar to this one, asking me random questions about Jord. Others, had been much more offensive.
You stupid whore, I hate you.
That one had been particularly pleasant.
Jord sent me a wary look, one that had been present on his face for most of the evening. “Another one?” He asked, a question he’d repeated many times now.
Matt also made a sound of disapproval. “This is getting ridiculous.” He commented, shaking his head with anger. “Is there nothing you can do about it?”
I shook my head despondently. “The only excuse we ever had to deny a relationship between us was you, but it will just look even more suspicious if I suddenly decide I’m ‘dating’ you again. It’s not going to work twice.”
Matt sighed. “Good point.” He agreed. “We should have just kept up the act for ages in case something like this happened.”
I laughed. “If this hadn’t have happened, I would have just told you what a stupid idea that was, but I’m actually wishing we had now.”
“I think I’d rather put up with the rumours.” I heard Jord mutter from beside me, a grim look on his face as he remembered the last time Matt and I had pretended to date. That had led to our first kiss, which had made it all worth it for me.
As well as the obvious jealousy I’d failed to notice. Looking back, that had been pretty entertaining too.
Matt appeared to have heard him and sent him a knowing smirk. Matt had been aware of what would happen when he’d proposed our fake dating. He knew Jord would be insanely jealous, which was probably why he’d suggested it in the first place. I, however, had been surprisingly naïve.
“How long do you think the gossip will carry on for?” Matt queried suddenly, changing the course of the conversation slightly.
Once again, there was no answer to his question, the only certain response I could give was: “a long time.” it wasn’t going to die down any time soon, unfortunately.
“Well, how long have you got left at school?”
“It’s January now, so four months. We leave in May because it’s our last year, it’s like study leave.” I explained, even though Jord would obviously knew this.
“Well, I don’t think they’ll last for four months.” Matt replied hopefully, sounding unsure even himself.
Rumours like this one didn’t just disappear though. This was the kind of gossip that would get more and more extravagant the longer it went on. When it started to die down, someone would come up with another development, some other dirty thing we’d achieved. It would go on and on and on, without anyone feeling remorse.
We all released a simultaneous sigh when my phone buzzed again on the table.
I was tempted to just leave it, not bother with the insulting message that was no doubt waiting to be read. Only when I glanced on my screen, it was Grace’s name that was flashed up on the screen.
Smiling in both relief that it wasn’t an unknown number and because my best friend had text me, I picked it up and wondered what she wanted.
Transformers 3 came out today, really wanna see it, do you wanna come? You can bring Mr. Armstrong with you if you like. X
I grinned at the message. Transformers was a film that was a guilty pleasure of everyone.
Quickly, I glanced at the two brothers in front of me. “Coming to see Transformers 3 with me and Grace?” I inquired, wanting to text her back as soon as possible.
Instantly, Matt was nodding. “Hell yeah.” He agreed. “I love Transformers! I’m going to miss Megan Fox though…” He trailed off, his eyes glazing over with easily identifiable lust.
Immediately Jord was nodding. I assumed he was answering my question, but I soon realised otherwise. “I know, right? Megan Fox was the best thing about Transformers.”
I gaped at him incredulously. “I’m not sure I want you to come watch Transformers.” I muttered, miffed.
Jord just grinned at me, sensing the clear jealousy. “She’s nothing compared to you, babe.” He accompanied the cheesy phrase with a wink, making me blush unnecessarily.
“Yeah, right.” I muttered, lowering my head.
Jord chuckled. “Come on, even as a girl you’ve got to admit that she’s something nice to look at.”
I just gave him a flat look in answer to his question.
“Well, then put it this way. You’ve been watching the Australian open the last couple of weeks. Can you honestly say that the only reason you’ve been watching that isn’t because you find Rafael Nadal hot?”
This time it was my turn to grin cheekily. “He’s something nice to look at.” I used his words. “I mean, look at those biceps.”
It was safe to say that Rafael Nadal was the only reason I watched any form tennis.
As soon as I’d mentioned the word biceps, Jord had his own arm out. He flexed his muscle, showing off as it twitched attractively. “I have nice biceps.” He defended himself smugly.
I had to admit that he was right, but still, they were nothing compared to Nadal’s. “Well…” I considered, making the most of it and prodding his exposed arm thoughtfully, biting my lips as he flexed again. “I suppose they’re okay.” I finally allowed him, smothering a snigger and his offended expression. “But Nadal has a nice arse as well, I’m afraid you just don’t even compare in that department.”
“Are you trying to make me get my bum out?” Jord teased, raising a taunting eyebrow at me.
“Well, I can’t say I’d be complaining.”
A tortured groan came from the sofa opposite us as Matt buried his head in his hands. “Enough!” He complained. “I don’t think I can deal with your flirting any longer.”
Jord and I shared a grin and he opened his mouth, fully ready to make another cheeky comment to continue Matt’s torment, but he was interrupted before he even got time to speak.
“Don’t do it!” Matt cried, before suddenly appearing confused. “How come you didn’t deny it?” He asked, puzzled.
I looked at him, lost. “Huh?”
“The flirting thing.” He clarified, still leaving me baffled. When he realised that I still wasn’t with it, he gave me an exasperated look. “Normally you’d deny the fact that you were flirting to the hilt, but you just accepted it that time. It was weird.”
He gave me a suspicious surveying, whilst I just laughed uncomfortably. I knew exactly what he meant and I knew exactly why. It was because we’d become more comfortable around each other. There was none of the ‘we shouldn’t be doing this’ attitude between us, none of the knowledge that we knew we were pushing our boundaries, anymore. We had accepted the fact we were together, so with that had come the acceptance of the natural way we acted around each other.
“So,” Jord changed the topic quickly. “Have you text Grace back yet?” He checked. “Only I don’t think it would be a good idea to go to the local cinema.”
I hadn’t even thought of that, but it was a very important point. Having only come out today, I knew it would be packed out, mainly with people from school. I can’t even imagine what would happen if people saw us watching a film together - they’d become even more ruthless.
They’d have actual proof then.
“Which one shall we go to then?” I inquired, wanting to be offering a suggestion to Grace if I was going to put the point forward.
“Chesterfield?” Matt put his opinion forward, having moved on from the flirting thing. “It’s only twenty minutes down the motorway.”
Jord and I both nodded in agreement. I quickly typed out a message to Grace, telling her my thoughts and asking her what time. Also, if she was going to book tickets online, because it was bound to be packed, even if Chesterfield was a lot smaller.
She replied to that, agreeing that she would book the tickets, but when she’d checked they’d only been available for the 9 o’clock one, asking me if that was okay.
I assured her that it was, before even consulting Jord and Matt. They’d be fine with it.
And if they weren’t, then they’d deal with it.
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The sun had long since set by the time we pulled up outside Grace’s house. I’d resorted to simply turning my phone off after I’d finished my many a time interrupted texted conversation with Grace, leaving it at Jord’s house so I didn’t have to worry about the abuse that was being sent to it.
Being the lazy people that we are, a honk of the horn was all that we bothered with to alert Grace of our presence. She heard it though and was out in an instant, taking the spare seat next to Matt in the back.
I’d obviously called the front seat, knowing it would be contested by Matt, but also that Jord would favour me and I would be the one sitting there.
I spun around in my seat so that I could greet Grace. “Hi.” I beamed at her. I’d not been out in so long, doing something so…normal that I was far more excited than I should have been. “You don’t mind going all the way to Chesterfield, do you?” I checked, making sure I wasn’t inconveniencing her too much.
She shook her head instantly. “Of course not, I understand the situation.” She assured me, smiling knowingly at Jord and I, making me want to groan. I was going to have to ignore these little gestures if I didn’t want to give anything away.
Matt seemed to have a sudden burst of realisation and I felt myself panic. Grace had been talking about the situation and now Matt looked to have realised something?
But, it was a false alarm as a guilty look then took over his face. “I really should have invited Lydia.” He remembered.
I laughed, partly at myself for being worried and partly at Matt’s pale face. “I think we should just not tell her this happened.”
“Well now I’m definitely going to mention it!” I announced, grinning wickedly at Matt, who looked horrified. I’d been given compassionate leave from work for a work, just so that I could get back into my normal routine, but no doubt I would be seeing Lydia before that.
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Twenty minutes later, we pulled up outside the Cineworld cinema in Chesterfield. It was already busy and we’d arrived earlier to get good seats. Of course this wasn’t the only film playing, but I could predict the majority were here for Transformers.
After collecting our prepaid tickets and buying ourselves some popcorn and drinks (all large, of course), we made our way through to the theatre.
As predicted, it already had quite a few seats taken, but on the back row, there were four seats left in the very right hand corner. Picking up our pace, we took them right before a couple, who sent us some particularly evil looks.
That just made us all laugh, though, as we put our over-sized 3D glasses on.
Just as the adverts began, I heard something that made my heart stop beating momentarily.
“I can’t believe what happened at school today.” A girl in front of us said, her voice carrying a strong Sheffield accent. “Everyone says this girl a couple of years above us is having an affair with her teacher.”
Nudging Jord, without taking my eyes off the back of her head, I caught his attention so that he saw what I was so immersed in. When I saw that he was looking at me, confused, I gestured to my ear. “Listen.” I whispered, pointing at the girl in front of us.
Her friend, who she’d presumably been talking to, spoke then. “Really?” She asked, sounding quite fascinated. “That sounds awesome! I wish I was sleeping with a teacher, I bet its so exciting, being so risky.” I smiled ruefully. She had no idea what she was talking about. “Is he hot? Or is he really old and gross?”
The first girl giggled. “He’s gorgeous.” She replied dreamily. “His name’s Mr. Armstrong.” I felt my head fall back against the seat. She carried on blabbing about how hot he was, but I could feel my breathing hitch as she talked about him. She knew us.
She knew who we were and right now, she had the power to ruin us both.
I shared a panicked look with Jord who had turned suddenly pale. We were trapped. If he decided to try and escape, then the girl would no doubt recognise him. Perhaps she didn’t know who I was, then I could go and he could follow inconspicuously.
Her next statement foiled that plan, however. “Yeah, with this girl called Jessica something. I’ve seen her around school before, she’s nothing special, I don’t see why someone so hot would see anything in her to be honest.”
Jord’s hand, which had subtly holding mine, as we were sat in the far corner, tightened and I saw his jaw clench. “You’re more than special, Jess.” He whispered to me softly, his voice tight with anger.
I felt a smile tug at the corners of my lips, despite the severity of the situation. The fact he got so mad, just because someone had made a dig at me, ensured me that his last statement was true.
When I glanced around to Matt and Grace, I saw that they were also rigid, having caught on to what we were so tense about. “What do we do?” I asked Jord, keeping my voice particularly low, so the two prying ears in front couldn’t hear us. Even if they didn’t know Jord’s first name, I didn’t want to risk anything.
He shrugged, looking helpless. “I don’t know.” He admitted. “We can’t do anything without drawing attention to ourselves.”
“We’re going to have to just sit here.” I worked out, my shoulders slumping.
This had turned out to be a terrible idea after all. We were going to have to travel to Scotland the next time we wanted to do anything public. I’d thought Chesterfield would be far enough away, but that had just backfired on me terribly.
The movie trailers began then and the lights dimmed, lulling me into a false sense of security. Matt and Grace being so engaged in the trailers allowed Jord to drape an arm over my shoulder, pulling me into his side.
I was beginning to relax slightly, but still the tension was there, even if Jord’s comforting embrace was soothing me.
I let myself become engrossed in the trailers as well, laughing along with everyone else and finding myself actually having a good time, just like I’d hoped I would.
Then, I noticed two members of the cinema staff coming up the aisles towards us. They seemed to be looking straight at us, so I nudged Jord letting him know they were there. Only, when they reached their destination, it wasn’t us. It was the two girls in front of us.
“May I saw your tickets, please?” One of the staff asked, giving pointed looks that meant they knew their tickets were invalid.
The two girls paled, rifling around in their bags and pretending to come up short. “We had them earlier,” the girl who had been slagging me off tried to assure the man.
“Yeah,” the other girl agreed feebly.
“I’m sorry,” the second staff member, a woman this time, told the girls, not sounding at all sincere in her apology. “But I’m afraid you’re going to have to come with us.”
The girls got up then, doing what I knew they would and facing the wall behind us, looking directly at us.
And before the recognition had time to even hint in the girl’s eyes, I did the only thing I could think of.
I kissed Jord.
Full on the lips.
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Finally an upload! Sorry it took me a while again, hectic week!
This chapter kind of had a life of its own, and I had no idea what was going to happen at the end until I got there, but I like how it turned out! Hope you liked it too ;D
And the part about Rafael Nadal, SO TRUE. He is HOT. His biceps are to die for, and his arse *drool* when they zoom in on it when they're bending over and waiting for a serve. *Tongue out* I even find his groans, which are normally so annoying in tennis players, I find attractive.
I think I'm in love.
Anyway, thanks for the support! I now have over 300 fans! So impressed by that! And over 60,000 reads! EEK!
Please vote, comment, fan? I thought this chapter was okay, lots of J&J :D
And I LOVE the song, even if I've listened to it so many times I'm becoming sick of it...