Hello guys, how are you? I know this update is late but I couldn't do anything about it. I was supposed to update yesterday but people took me to the beach and then when I got home I had to leave again, so I only got time now to update, please forgive me.
Also, last chapter I had so many lovely comments, I'm aware that some of them are because of the bookclub but they were lovely nonetheless. Thanks for all the you guys have said. The theories were the best part of it all to be honest.
And I think I have the worst ship names, like how do you pair Gina and Jason or Avery and Jason? I'm sorry but that doesn't work. Tell me what you think.
P.S. This is dedicated to TearyAngel because she was the first comment from four weeks ago and that was without the help of a bookclub. So I thank her a lot.
Chapter III
“I heard what happened,” Gina said, running towards me with her ponytail bouncing all over the place. She was acting as if was involved in a drive-by or something. The only thing shot was my ego.
“I’m fine,” I replied, with an audible sigh.
Gina pinched my cheeks and moved my head from side to side. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
I pulled her hands away from my face and held them. “I’m fine,” I repeated with more emphasis this time.
“Don’t worry about her. I’m sure she’s some freak. I mean, who transfers in the middle of the school year?”
I nodded in reply as she ranted on and on. A normal girlfriend would’ve attacked me about what she’d heard but instead she asked me how I was. Despite some of her issues, Gina was a really nice person, way too nice for me. Maybe I was the one with the problem.
To stop her from talking and making me guilty, I grabbed her face and kissed her. As much as I didn’t think Gina and I were meant to be together, I still cared about her.
Bianca, one of Gina’s best friends, approached us and cleared her throat. I slightly hoped whatever phlegm she had there would choke her. She was the school’s judgmental bitch, as bad as that sounded, and although she wasn’t a part of our group she still succeeded in making her friends’ life hell.
“If you’re quite finished playing tonsil hockey, I’d like to speak to Gina.”
I narrowed my eyes at her as I stepped away. Bianca wasn’t as popular as she wished she was. And because the school wasn’t the queen-bee ruler ship type she wasn’t well known. Although I suppose if she was I could’ve gotten off a little easier. I didn’t know why Gina was friends with her though, they were completely different.
“Yeah?” Gina asked, smoothing her hair down.
Bianca looked her up and down and wrinkled her nose in disgust. “Why’d you wear that top today? I told you I hated it. It looks like trash.”
It irritated me that Gina wouldn’t stand up to this girl, if it was anyone else she’d probably pounce on them already. “Um, I think it looks fine.”
“Well, it looks like crap,” Bianca declared, examining her fingernails before turning her gaze to me. “I think that womanizer label fit, hmm Jason?”
I exhaled forcibly through my nose and turned to Gina, deciding to ignore Bianca. “I’ve got to go, see you later.”
She nodded uncertainly and turned to Bianca once more. I pulled my keys out of my pocket and dangled them around my finger. Normally, I’d go for a ride to clear my head if I was confused, but now driving didn’t see very appealing. There was one place I wanted to go very much.
The parking lot was still quite full as I pulled out of it; it was a reminder that the time was still early. There was light traffic as I drove into the business center of the town. I just wanted to get to one place and get there quickly.
The grey building loomed over me as I parked in the spacious parking lot. The upper floors had huge glass windows and I was positive my mother was seated in one of those top offices, clacking away at her computer. The law firm wasn’t necessarily my favorite place to hang out – I actually hated it. The fake prestige was covered up by the lies lawyers told. I didn’t necessarily trust my mother because of that. Lawyers were trained liars after all.
The receptionist smiled at me as I entered the brightly lit lobby. I made my way to the chrome looking elevator. It took a while for the doors to open and by then I was tapping my feet impatiently. After a moment of mind-numbing elevator music I was on the floor my mother’s office sat.
A few of her associates greeted me but I kept my face impassive. The door to her office was slightly ajar and I pushed it open further. Like this morning, she choked on the latte she was drinking; her reactions nowadays seemed a little too comical.
After putting a hand to her throat she raised her eyes to meet mine. “You’re visiting me at work? You never visited me at work.”
“I’m not here to visit you,” I responded curtly, taking a seat in front of her large mahogany desk. “I want you to tell me the truth.”
I searched her face for any indication she was going to lie to me, she remained stock-still. “Listen, I have a lot of work to do, I’ll talk to you later.”
I stared down at the carpet in frustration, something was going on. I was about to retort on why I had to know when she abruptly stood and flipped through some files in her hands. I didn’t miss the small tremor of her hands. It seemed as if this was way more serious than I thought. Her five-inch stilettos sunk into the carpet as she exited the room quite briskly.
I sat still for a few moments, staring at her desk. I could feel some unspoken danger lulling around here and it made me cringe in unease. I sighed and stood, running my hand through my hair. I jumped a little at seeing a lady with fiery red hair staring at me.
“Um, hey?” I called, a little uncomfortable. How long had she been standing there?
The lady looked past me to the interior of the office and her eyes snapped back to mine, something about her was keeping me on edge. “You’re Jason,” she stated, it wasn’t a question. “Seems to me you’re a little confused.”
I looked at her a little bewildered. “Uh, what?”
“I overheard you talking to your mother.”
Overheard wasn’t the word to be used when we weren’t even speaking that loudly. Eavesdropping would’ve been perfect for the sentence.
“…and I was thinking I could fill you in on some of her cases.”
I scratched the back of my neck uncomfortably. “Uh,” as much as I wanted to say no, a level of intrigue plagued my mind. “What do you know?”
She smiled widely and I wondered briefly if she’d suddenly grow fangs and stick them into my neck. She motioned me out of the office and into the now deserted hallway, my legs felt stiff as they moved out of the room. She looked up at me once more and smiled, pulling me in the direction of the dimly lit portion of the hallway. What had I gotten myself into?
The room she led me to overlooked the parking lot; I glanced out and spotted my car among the other ones. I turned back towards the room and saw that she got comfortable on a large conference table. The table spanned for quite a length and she chose to sit near to me.
Her feet were on top of a chair and she tapped her nails on her knees. The small action made me even more uneasy than I already was; she patted a spot beside her on the table.
I stood a good distance away. “No thanks,” I muttered, uncertainly.
She pouted a little. “Fine, do you want some coffee then?”
My eyes drifted to the coffee machine in the corner, the coffee looked about three weeks old and besides who had coffee machines in such a dimly lit room? My mind suddenly drifted off to what the room could’ve been used for and I grimaced at the thought.
“No, I just want to hear what you have to say.”
She sighed and looked away from me maybe she thought my interest in what she had to say was more than that. I noticed she was about in her early-twenties which probably meant she was an intern or something.
“Okay, I’m not going to bite,” she announced, getting down from the table and smoothing her skirt down.
I wasn’t even sure my mother was connected to Avery through her cases but something kept pulling me to find out more. I sat beside her on a cushioned chair and matched her stare with a serious gaze.
“I just started my internship here and I found some of the cases really interesting. There’s a really big room where there are a ton of files on past case and all the evidence gathered.”
“How are you sure you know what I’m looking for?” I asked suspicious.
She looked flustered. “It’s just because…I-um- wanted to help.”
My brows furrowed on their own accord. “You wanted to help without knowing what you were helping me to do?”
“Um,” was all she could get out before I stood.
Something was fishy here and I wasn’t going to surround myself with it anymore. I ignored her trying to call me back. As much as I didn’t trust my mother I didn’t want someone to mar her name to me and since she wouldn’t tell me anything it made no sense going from this angle. Besides, I had enough assignments to take care of anyway.
By the time I got home, night was already drawing near. When I left the office, I decided to take the more picturesque route home and apparently the more scenic the route the longer it took to get there.
I hopped out of the truck and shut the door forcibly. So far I’d gotten nowhere and it was irritating me. It was weird that it had been two days since I met Avery and my life had already been thrown into turmoil. The fact that she had been absolutely horrible to me didn’t change the fact that I wanted to protect her for some reason.
I half expected to see Avery shivering beside the garage door, I was a bit disappointed that she wasn’t there; I just wanted to do something – anything to feel as if I was helping her.
“Why so glum chum?”
I swiftly turned around and exhaled the apprehensive breath I was holding. “Hey,” I called unenthusiastically.
Jade strolled over to me and smiled slightly, I was surprised that she was being this cordial to me. Although we spoke, it was mostly her taking digs at me. I guess she resented the fact that I was a bit well-known at school. She even made me promise not to speak to her there; she made quite an effort in not making me even see her. And because I was on the opposite side of the rumor mill I didn’t hear much about her.
But, I was definitely worried – when I did hear things about her it wasn’t good. And what proper older brother let their little sister be hurt? From what I could see Jade was being self-destructive, I was surprised that I hadn’t seen cuts on her wrists. The small bits of rumors I heard about Jade were near repulsive but I couldn’t stop them anyway.
“Can you do me a favor?” she asked, blinking up at me. So that was what this was all about.
I sighed and ran a hand over my face. “What?”
She looked behind her to the darkness then back to me. “Can Derek stay and watch a movie? The ‘rents won’t be home for a while.”
I tried to make out anything in the darkness behind her but my eyes met nothing. “You know how they feel about having people over when they’re not home.” Knowing my parents they’d probably have a mental break-down.
“Please,” she begged, jutting her bottom lip out. I tried to counteract the puppy-dog look she was giving me with a stone cold grimace but I couldn’t.
“Fine,” I replied in a huff, turning to the house.
I flickered the lights on and turned to see who this ‘Derek’ was. I couldn’t say I was surprised at the towering bad boy standing beside her. I sized him up immediately; he looked like someone who had a lot of words but not a lot of action. I could easily take him.
“Jason Forbes,” he said grinning at me and reaching out his hand to shake. “Nice job on that swim-meet last week man.”
I grunted in reply before heading to the foyer and switching on the light there. On a small table a small note was folded neatly and placed atop it. My forehead creased together as I tried to figure out where the note came from. My parents got professional white-washed envelopes, not a small piece of paper. The curiosity overcame me and I picked up the note. I faintly remember curiosity something something cat.
‘Thanks for everything’
-A
I smiled at the elegant script that I remembered staring at in Chemistry class. So far it seemed that Chemistry was my only class with her. Today I’d actually sat on the edge of my seat in World History class and the same for Literature. I felt as if I was thrown head first into a whirlwind.
I was extracted from my reverie by some muffled voices in the living room. I hurried there just in time to see Derek towering over Jade with a threatening glare. I actually thought Jade would’ve stood her ground but instead she was cowering away from him.
“What are you doing?” I inquired; making sure some poisonous venom was injected into my words.
Derek looked around at me and I saw him tense a bit. “She was talking back to me,” he said simply, turning back to Jade as if he was going to slap her in the face.
The dude couldn’t be serious. He was just about sixteen and he wanted to act all big and macho. “We’re living in the 21st century, girls do that.”
He gave me a flat look as if to say, ‘not to me’. In an instant, he grabbed Jade’s forearm and spun it around forcibly. I could see the pain playing across her features. “You will not do that again,” he said slowly, deliberately as if talking to a toddler.
It seemed like a thin sheen on red was drizzled before my eyes. Who had the nerve to come into my home and try to harm my family? Apparently Derek did. I tugged his arm away from Jade and he stared at me in wide-eyes surprise. I shoved him away from her so forcibly that he fell back a little on the coffee table. He scrambled up to his feet and away from me. I’m sure my fists would’ve connected with his face if he hadn’t held his hands up in defense. All the motivation to physically hurt him had drastically diminished.
“Get out!” I said so angrily, I felt myself shake.
Derek scrambled over the place for a bit before remembering where the door was. I ran a hand over my face once more as the door slammed slut behind him.
Jade stood rooted to the spot she was and rubbed her arms in slow constant motions. “I don’t need you to protect me.”
“If you didn’t feel the need to take douches into the house I wouldn’t have to,” I said, the anger still rolling off my words.
For a moment there was a tense silence surrounding us. I felt a bit sorry for semi-shaking at her.
“I’m sorry Jade,” I said finally. I didn’t want her to resent me anymore than she already did.
Instead of seeming happier that I apologized she still had a sulky expression on her face. There was no winning with her was there?
I sighed and headed to the kitchen. How did a socially awkward person become popular anyway?
So there was no Avery in this chapter! Sorry about that, but I had to give some background. I'll be uploading another chapter soon. :) Thanks for reading
NOT proofread again. Sorry but no time.