40 - The Stranger Was A Jerk &... No Consequences, Tom?
“And Stephanie broke up with Harry?” Laura reiterated, trying to grasp a hold of everything she had missed out on as we walked in a sort of clique, several of us almost falling right on our butts in the middle of the diner every now and then since we were more focused on the story than on the floor, chairs and other obstacles beneath and around us. It actually probably looked like a scene right out of Mean Girls or any other chick flick like that, with all of us gossiping about our drama-full lives.
“And then I went to the woods and cried my eyes out the rest of the night,” Stephanie finished explaining to my cousin who still had her face scrunched up in confusion. The last part none of us knew and we all turned to face Stephanie bewildered. Just the thought of such a fragile girl spending her night alone on the woods was enough to send us all over the edge.
“Is that why you never went back to your cabin?” Missy questioned, it being exactly what I was thinking of. I swear that girl was too much alike to me, it was almost hilarious. The only thing keeping us apart from each other was Niall, even if that was a bit ironic since we had the same taste in guys as well.
“Yeah,” Stephanie replied simply with a grimace of a smile. It was obvious she felt a bit ashamed over her actions. But I knew how valuable some alone time was when everything was crumbling around you, so I was not going to judge her on that.
“That is so dangerous! A coyote could have killed you!” Sophia wailed with a bewildered stare as she stood in front of Stephanie, grabbed a hold of the poor brunette’s shoulders and shook her as if to wake her from a bad dream.
“Or it could have turned you into a werewolf!” Eleanor interjected with wide eyes, which made me giggle slightly because it meant she actually believed what she was saying. Supernatural stuff had never been my thing, but apparently these girls were head over heels over supernatural shows.
“But it’s a coyote, not a werewolf,” Stephanie rebutted with a frown. The fact that she was actually discussing that with the other two brunettes made me giggle as I looked away, searching for the rest of our friends. As usual, the biggest table with the most people and noise would be the one we would direct ourselves to.
Eleanor was about to give a comeback when I focused back on them and decided it was best to intervene or this would go on forever. And it would literally be forever. “You all need to stop watching so much Teen Wolf,” I deadpanned with an eye roll directed to all of them.
“But it’s so good!” Sophia defended as she bawled her hands into fists and waved them in front of my face to make her point even clearer.
“Too good!” Eleanor whined in agreement, stomping her feet on the floor as a protest.
Laura took a deep breath as she rested her head on my shoulder for support as if she was overwhelmed by so much information and drama. I would not judge her for feeling overwhelmed actually. It was all too much for us. “Wow, where have I been?” she mumbled more to herself than to us.
“With Johnny,” Eleanor teased in a sing sang voice with a cheeky grin as she wriggled her eyebrows at my cousin.
Laura immediately blushed, looking away from us. She shook her head because she was feeling embarrassed. I knew her well enough to see that. I felt a pang inside my chest at that sight. I smiled weakly. I was happy for my cousin, I will not deny that. But a cute couple was the least I needed after finding out about what I had done when I was drunk. And I was not even taking into account that Tom would leave me once he found out and Niall was not interested in getting back together with me –not that we were ever actually together.
In the end, I was afraid of being on my own, which I soon would be. I sighed and turned to see Stephanie doing the same. We sighed deeply and painfully. For different reasons, but we still both had relationship demons haunting us. And I was pretty sure she was hurting as much as I was.
“I really loved him, girls. I still do,” Stephanie mumbled, sniffling from all of the tears she had shed already.
I sighed, hugging her tightly against my chest so she could understand she was not alone, that she had us by her side. I was not able to believe that so much drama could follow a girl around. I mean, we were ordinary, next-door girls, all we wanted was to have fun –very Cindy Lauper, if you ask me- and all we got was drama, unnecessary drama and in huge amounts.
“Oh god, Kaylie, that’s the lad you were making out with!” Missy hissed, bringing me back from my world of reflections, as she held onto my elbow rather tightly.
I frantically and nervously turned around to see who she was talking about. Stephanie did the same, craning her neck since she was a bit smaller than me, incredibly curious to see who it was. I was sure the other girls were craning their necks, as well. And right now, I highly doubted any of us cared about being subtle. Unless the guy had been as drunk as I was, he had taken advantage of me. All I could remember where his green eyes, and they were enough to send me over the edge.
As my eyes landed on the infamous stranger, I felt my heart fall down to the pit of my stomach. I sucked a sharp breath in, not being able to believe what I had done. Since I had first seen the guy, I knew he was trouble. But that had not stopped my drunken self from kissing him. He was the guy I had seen that same morning and that had called me a freak. I felt my cheeks drain out from their color as he quickly spotted me and caught me staring at him. His eyes were filled with recognition right away and mine were probably filled with terror.
A smirk played on his lips immediately as he walked mischievously towards me, not looking anywhere else and not caring about the other people he bumped against on the way to me. Such a rude guy! I tried to retrieve and hide, but my mind and vision were blurry and he was faster. “Hi there,” he greeted wryly.
“Y-you,” I stuttered nervously.
“Yes, me. We had a good time last night, didn’t we?” he asked me, stepping closer and causing me to hold my breath as I stepped back, bumping into one of my friends. “Such a shame we were interrupted,” he mused next, turning to glare at Missy. “You’re no fun, you know,” he told her while pouting sarcastically.
“Shut up,” the blonde girl grumbled as she stood in front of me, as if to protect me and to stop him from getting any closer. And I was very grateful to her for that.
“Oh crap, Niall, Liam and Tom are coming here,” Laura whispered. I felt my hands start to tremble, and after a quick glance towards the three guys, I turned to see this Jasper guy. For what I could see he had no intentions of leaving, and that would only get me into so much more trouble.
“Oh, do I get to meet your friends today?” he inquired in a fake chirpy tone while clapping his hands. At a lack of words, I scowled at him. But, in all honesty, I could not bring myself up to talk to him. He had such a strong character that all you could do was fight or flight. “We’re moving fast, aren’t we?” he chirped next. I was not a good one at fighting.
Liam and Tom stayed behind because Andy walked up to them to talk, but Niall was already next to us. “Good morning ladies,” he greeted. He tried to smile, but his gaze was stuck on Jasper, as if he did not get a good vibe from the guy. No one did. “Good morning,” he added, a bit coldly and stretched his hand out for Jasper to grab a hold on and shake. He had probably noticed how tense we all were due to the presence of the mischievous guy.
“Why, hello there. I surely hope you are not Kaylie’s boyfriend. She’ll be in great trouble with you if you are,” Jasper said without any stutter, as if he fed on my misery. I gasped and stepped forward, grabbing a hold of Niall’s arm and trying to shove him out of the place, out of the conversation and away from Jasper, aka the life wrecker.
“What do you mean?” Niall inquired, brushing me off and stepping even closer to Jasper. Oh crap.
“Not that he is her boyfriend,” Missy intervened harshly and I turned to see her. She had a frown on her face and was staring expectantly at Niall. I felt terrible when he did not even bother on turning around to acknowledge her, correct himself or apologize. Anything he would have done would have been better than just ignore her. He was just staring down at Jasper as he waited for his answer. And that made me feel something weird at the pit of my stomach.
“All I can say is that she is a great kisser,” Jasper giddily replied. “You know, a gentleman cannot talk about his hookups. For the lady’s wellbeing,” he added as winked at me. I gaped at him, and then turned to look at Niall. He had clenched fists and was taking menacing step towards Jasper, who seemed as if he was waiting for it.
Seriously, what was wrong with that guy?!
“That was hardly a hookup!” Stephanie managed to huff. And for that sweet, petite girl to defend me meant shit was going down. I could feel my whole face light up in a bright crimson tone. And the air was starting to dense up. This was a nightmare coming to life.
“You’re not a gentleman,” Laura scoffed at Jasper.
I did not even bother on them; my gaze was stuck on the confused blond in front of me. Why did he seem so taken aback by it? Or was it something else? Was I misinterpreting this? But then, what was I not seeing? What was I missing? “Niall-”
“Is it true?” Niall exclaimed as he turned to look at me, not stepping away from Jasper, though. I looked around and saw that we had several people’s attention by now, much to my misfortune. I turned back to face Niall to see his hurt expression and I gulped, feeling incredibly guilty and terrible with myself.
“We should go,” Laura told Niall, grabbing a tight hold of his arm and shoving him away. He turned to face me one last time with a questioning look that assured me this was not the end of this conversation, not that we had been directly talking. Jasper had taken it as his job to tell Niall everything.
“Go away,” Stephanie intervened in a hiss to Jasper right away, frantically looking around to see if anyone was looking at us. I knew I had to tell Tom, but I would rather tell him when this guy was not around. And I did not want everyone else to find out, if they had not found already. The voice tones around here had risen up considerably.
“I think we have not been introduced. I’m Jasper,” he introduced himself, wittily stretching his left hand for Stephanie to shake while sporting a sly smirk. She gaped at him and stepped back, being just as intimidated by him as I was. He had just such a strong character, and he stepped on everyone, not caring what he did or to whom. I really did not like this dude.
I saw a spark ignite in his eyes as he stared at Stephanie for a little longer. I felt like protecting her, since I knew he was trouble. I furrowed my eyebrows and grabbed her shoulder, walking with her away from him as he just waved us goodbye sarcastically.
I saw Missy flipping him the bird through my peripheral vision before following us and the last I heard from him was his satisfied and mocking laugh. “Nice seeing you, Kay!”
“Who was that lad?” Liam asked as he met us as we made our way to the tables where they all were. Luckily for me, no one else had seen him and they had not even heard the conversation. Liam was looking over at Jasper while sporting a frown since he saw us so shook up and flustered.
“No one,” I hurried to say. I could see Tom next to Andy looking over at me and then at that Jasper guy. He raised an eyebrow questioningly at me and I nodded, making him understand I would talk with him about it later on. He furrowed his eyebrows and walked up to me, apparently wanting to talk about it now. Lucky me…
“What’s wrong?” he questioned. Soon enough, no one was around us and I cursed under my breath, not being able to believe that I would have to have this conversation right now, right before breakfast. I was not going to enjoy it.
“See-see that guy I was talking to?” I stuttered. My voice’s pitch was an octave higher and I hated being put in such a position, even though it had actually been me who put myself here. All for wanting to drink my problems away. Never again.
“Yeah?”
“I…last night-I was drunk and…” I looked away from him. His expectant stare only made me sick to my stomach and I just wanted to start sobbing. I was seriously never drinking again. “I made out with him,” I blurted out with my eyes closed. I could not see Tom straight in the eyes when saying that. I did not only constantly faint and had unresolved business with my ex, but I also got drunk and went around making out with strangers. I was such a mess, and I was sure he was breaking up with me right away.
I winced when he started talking, expecting the worse. “Oh…” was all he said with a strangled voice and it painfully lingered in the air, mocking me. I gulped and finally forced myself to open my eyes. What I found in front of me was a sympathetic smile of his. “It’s okay. It did not mean anything to you, did it?” he inquired.
“N-no,” I muttered, not being able to believe his reaction. Niall had been so flustered and Tom looked so calm. Did he even care?!
“Then it’s alright,” he said as he placed a chaste kiss on my forehead.
“Wait.” I pushed him away and frowned at him. I shook my head as I tried to understand what was going on. “You’re not mad?” I questioned with raised eyebrows.
“Why would I be? You already said it did not mean anything. You were drunk, you made a mistake. It’s okay, Kaylie.” He smiled once again and hugged me tightly. I was in too much of a state of shock as to push him away once again.
“Tom…”
“I just don’t want to lose you over something as stupid as that,” he replied, not letting me say anything else. And I had no idea of what to say, anyways. Right now I just felt like yelling. I have no idea of what or to whom. But I good yell is what would give me some peace of mind, of that I was sure.
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Hello! So, I have a confession, I don't like the You & I video :/ Do you?
Okay, anyway, I hope you liked the chapter. Remember to check out Back To Love and Breakeven.
I'm excited for the direction this book is taking. I am killing my own feels. I also have an idea for a new book, I will work on it and post it soon, after I finish these stories I suppose.