"Hey, what are you doing out here?" Julian asks as he approaches us.
"Sorry. I came to check on her," I tuck a piece of my hair behind my ear and glance at Mia.
Julian scrunches his brows, his narrowed eyes painted in concern as he looks over at Mia. "What happened?"
"Don't worry," she smiles sympathetically and then places a hand on my tensed shoulder. "I should probably go fix my makeup and then look for Mario."
I nod shortly and smile at her.
"Was she crying?" Julian asks after Mia abandons us.
"She's alright now. Mario problem."
He nods as his facial features slowly relax and then he turns around to look at the people entering the school. A mischievous smirk immediately forms on his lips.
"Maybe we should...stay here for just a second?" He steps forwards and I involuntarily inch away from him.
I bite my bottom lip whilst smiling. "But we can't."
"Come on! It'll only take a few seconds," he pleads softly as he pulls me behind a tree, clutching me against it with his hands securing my wrists. "I'm sure they won't notice."
I giggle. "I'm serious, Mr. Davis. You'll go to jail—"
He interrupts me by pressing his lips on mine and after a few seconds, his tongue asks for permission. I softly bite his bottom lip and he deepens the kiss with full forces.
He breaks the kiss and runs his fingers through his hair, letting out an impressed sigh. "I forgot how good you are at this."
I smile, my cheeks reddening as I push his face away from mine playfully and roll my eyes. "Dork."
"Come on," I grab his hand and lead him to the school entrance. "Mario is probably freaking out right now."
He frowns and then lets out a pouty sigh. "Great."
I flash him an apologetic smile and continue on my way to the gym.
He comprehends that with my brothers around we can't get too intimate. He agreed to go on this dangerous journey with me and abdicating doesn't seem to be one of his desires. I really don't deserve him.
We go near the food area and I resume the process called 'hungrily snatching snacks into my mouth as if I've never seen food before in my life'.
"What?" I raise one of my eyebrows at Julian after spotting his amused facial expression as he watches me eat.
"It's like you've never eaten before," he laughs as he steals a chip from my hand.
"Well, I didn't have lunch," I defend.
"Why?"
"Because I had to prepare myself for the dance," I say in a duh tone. "Why else?"
He rolls his eyes and pulls my arm as he starts dragging me to the dance floor.
"But I'm not done yet," I whine.
"Shut up."
"Hey, don't tell me to shut up. If I starve to death, you would say the opposite, wouldn't you?"
He chuckles. "Up shut?"
I slap his arm and glare at him whilst he breaks down into laughs.
As we get to the center of the dance floor, he twirls me around in a fine manner. I giggle as our chests collide. He wraps his arms around my waist while I loop mine around his neck.
The song changes to a calmer one and we take a look around us, finding everyone else with their Valentines, dancing slowly and romantically.
He smiles, his lips pressed together, and his eyes slightly sparkle.
Being in his arms after what felt like ages is the best feeling I've had since last year. He can make my knees go weak, he can make my face turn into a tomato, my stomach engulf with butterflies and my heart to feel overwhelmed with love.
I am not certain if what I felt and still feel for him can be named love but I know that the feeling is enormous, let alone mutual too. I can see it in his caramel eyes when he looks at me. I can feel it when he takes my hands in his and squeezes them as if insinuating that he doesn't want to let me go. Ever.
My whole body feels warmth as it appreciates his touch. We move our bodies along the slow beat and find ourselves smiling idiotically. I crook my face in his neck and absorb the good scent.
"Happy Valentine's day, Bug," he whispers in my ear, his sweet breath making its way to the nape of my neck.
My hands grip on his neck a bit tighter as I lie the side of my face on his chest. "Happy Valentine's day, Jules."
Right now I don't care if Mario and Marvin are watching us. All I care about is never letting Julian go. This time I promise that no matter what...we will not be separated.
Even if it means causing trouble.
***
"I don't fucking care, Mia!"
"Then this is the end of us, Mario Johnson!"
"Fine! It's the end."
I scrunch my eyebrows as Julian and I hear all these yells come from one of the corridors of the school. We walk to the corridor and encounter Mia and Mario.
With tears draining from her red and puffy eyes, Mia runs away from this location whilst Mario throws his hands in the air in a frustrated manner.
My stomach drops as I notice how infuriated he is, his big hands turned into reddened fists and his tight jaw clenching. I unwrap my hand from Julian's warmth and run towards my brother. "What's going on?" I ask exasperatedly.
He neglects me and then walks past my spooked petite body, taking big and furious steps towards Julian.
Shit.
"You fucking caused this!" Mario points his finger at Julian, narrowing his eyes. Julian, however, doesn't move a single muscle, not seeming frightened, only distraught.
I run to where the two of them are and stretch my arms in between them to avoid a collision.
I narrow my eyes at Mario. "What are you talking about?"
He tries to jump onto Julian but I push him back and glare at him.
"Fucking calm down, Mario, before I call security," I warn.
Julian places his hand on my shoulder and murmurs. "It's okay. I've got this."
My brother runs his hand through his hair and frenetically punches one of the lockers.
I softly gasp as I cover my mouth with my hands and then worriedly stride towards him. "Mario!"
I grab his cheeks with one finger on each side and turn him to face me. "Count to ten."
His chest rises and drops savagely as he tries to control his temper but then he obediently counts from one to ten in a rapid manner. He shuts his eyes and takes a deep, calming breath.
I let my arm fall and cross my arms over my chest. "Good. Now tell me what all of that was about."
He manages to control his temper yet continues to glare at Julian, his jaw muscles ticking. "Mia broke up with me."
"I kind of heard that," I mutter. "But why?"
He sighs frustratedly. "Because of your stupid date."
I frown. That makes absolutely no sense.
"What did he do?" I carefully ask.
"Put his filthy arms around you, that's what," he groans through clenched teeth.
I roll my eyes, uncrossing my arms. "Come on. Not this again, Mario. You should really stop with this crap, okay?"
"I won't stop worrying about you until you stop bringing dicks into your life!"
I scoff, feeling my heart ache. "Well, I'm sorry to say this but the only dick in my life is you."
Hurt crosses his face, however, I continue blustering, not giving a crap about his feelings. "I seriously can't believe that you argued with your girlfriend because you weren't giving her attention and only kept watching me as if I'm some two-year-old!"
"You are a two-year-old when you're around boys!" He retaliates and it stings more than it is supposed to. "You can't fucking control your hormones!"
Instantaneously, I feel tears forming in my sorrowed eyes. "All I did was have someone as my date for the dance yet you're acting like a fucking asshole!"
As the last word comes out, he roughly pushes me on the chest, causing my forceless body to fall flat on my butt.
"What the fuck, man?" Julian yells madly as he runs over to where I am to help me get up, his eyes transmitting nothing but pure wrath.
I let out a small sob and shake my head in disbelief, tears crawling down my cheeks. Julian's hands turn into fists as he tries to get up, his jaw clenching.
I immediately stop him by pulling his arm. "Don't. Please."
He lets out an angry sigh but listens.
"You better watch your tone when you're talking to me, Kylie," my brother alerts, his hands turning into fists once again. He turns to look at Julian. "And this better be the last time I see you with her, capisce?"
Julian chooses to ignore him or else he'll let his fury get the best of him. And then he turns to look at me, concerned. "Are you okay?"
I nod and watch Mario march away.
"Fucking asshole," I mutter as I wipe tears off of my face.
Julian wraps his arms around me in a comforting manner. "Let him chill. He's just angry at Mia, that's all."
Not true. He's angry at Julian because he saw us get too intimate.
I was so stupid! What was I thinking when I let Julian and I get into that position? It is unusual for two exes to get too intimate with each other. Unless, of course, they are back together.
I sniffle as I let go of Julian. "Maybe we should go."
He frowns, scrunching his brows. "But Ky—"
"I want to go!" I cut him off, pushing back more tears. "Please, just let me go home."
He takes a few seconds to nod and then finally walks with me to my car. We drive to his house in silence and once we arrive there he hesitates to exit my car.
He turns to look at me carefully. "You don't have to, you know?"
I turn to face him as well, turning the car off.
"You don't have to defend me in front of your brother, I can stand up for myself. I should've been the one to yell at him, not you."
I shake my head, disagreeing. "No. You did well in keeping your mouth shut or it could've gone way much worse."
He sighs and places his hand on top of mine, looking at them for a few long seconds. "So now what?"
I look up at him, gulping, and then avert my puffy eyes from him.
"Do you now want me to avoid you? To pretend that we didn't make out or felt the way we felt when we got back together or what we feel every time we're close to each other? Because you know perfectly well that I'm not going to do none of that shit."
"Then how can we keep this going, Julian?" I turn my head to face him, letting tears fall. "How can we be together when we'll have three of my brothers up on our asses?"
He places his hand on my cheek and wipes my tears with his thumbs.
"They don't have to know. We don't have to let them know that we're together—"
"How's that going to work?" I interrupt, shaking my head as my hand flails. "Tell me how hiding a relationship from everyone is going to work?"
"We can make it work, Kylie," his tone gets louder as he digs his eyes on mine. "As I said before...let's give it a shot."
I analyze his pleading facial expression for a minute and then let out a quitting sigh.
I place my hands on his cheeks and pull him for a long, hard kiss.
I pull away and connect my forehead to his. "This should better work because it'll kill me if they expel you from my life just like—"
"It's just for some time," he assures faintly. "They'll be okay with the idea of you dating after a while. It's just for some time. Trust me."
"Okay... Okay, fine."
***
"You're home early," Mom states as I close the door behind me.
I sigh and walk towards her to plant a kiss on her cheek. "And aren't you supposed to be out with dad?"
Her eyes dart with sadness and she quickly averts them from mine to the huge TV screen. "Uh, he canceled the dinner."
I furrow my eyebrows as I place my minaudière on one of the settees. "Why?"
"He had another plane to pilot," she says, sympathetically smiling but the sadness and tears in her eyes are evident.
I pout as I embrace my arms around mom's neck, standing behind the couch she's sitting on.
She pats my arm. "It's okay, honey. He rescheduled."
"But Valentine's day is today."
"Who said it's the only day couples should go out and have a romantic time?"
"Right," I nod, unwrapping my arms from her to walk around the couch so that I can sit on it.
"You haven't answered my question yet," she reprimands.
"You didn't ask me. You simply stated that I'm early," I point out.
"Why are you home early? Aren't you supposed to be having the time of your life with Julian right now?"
"How's being on the Valentine's dance with Julian and with my overly protective brothers sending us death glares 'the time of my life'?" I ask, making quotation marks with my fingers.
"I'm pretty sure I told them to behave."
"Well, Mario decided to ignore you, as usual," I force a smile and then ball my hands into fists. "Because he's an imbecile and a love wrecker."
"What happened?" She asks, concern evident in her voice.
"Oh, you know, just some typical stuff. He practically stalked me and Julian; argued with Mia because she wanted him to give her attention and not to me nor Julian; broke up with Mia because of the argument; lost his temper; punched a locker; called me a two-year-old; pushed me on the chest which caused me to fall abruptly on the floor; and lastly, he told Julian to stay away from me."
I purse my lips and look up at mom. "Sounds like he behaved, doesn't it?"
Mom lets out a disappointed sigh and rubs my arm in a soothing manner. "Dear Lord. He's getting grounded for good this time."
I shake my head. "What good will it make? It's just going to make him get more pissed."
She raises an eyebrow. "He's invading your privacy, your love life..."
"What makes you think he'll stop doing that if you ground him, Mom?"
She stops rubbing my arm and forms frowns on her forehead. "So you don't want me to ground him?"
"I want you to tell him to stay the fuck away from my life."
I realize that my tone has gotten a bit louder and anger is slowly building up inside of me. I get up from the couch and grab my minaudière from the settee, deciding to go to my room and drop this conversation.
"Kylie!" Mom calls but I ignore her as I run up the stairs.
It's not mom's fault. She's just trying to help. But she doesn't understand. She doesn't know that even if she grounds Mario or even Mark for life they'll never stop wanting to ruin my love life.
They are the only ones that can take that stupid idea of not allowing their little sister to date out of their minds. The only ones.
I lock my bedroom door and take my phone from my minaudière to call Scarlett. As it beeps, I put the call on speakerphone and place the phone on my bed. I unzip my dress and remove it from my body, feeling a slight weight being dissipated from it.
"Where the hell are you?" I hear Scarlett's voice come from the other line.
I walk to my closet and grab my pajamas. "Home," my voice comes out a bit hoarsely, tears forming in my eyes. "I'm sorry for leaving you guys."
"Oh-oh, I sense some low key sadness. I'll be there in a few."
"No, Scar, it's fine," I lie as I slip into my pajama shorts. "You just have a good time with Ethan."
"Are you kidding me? You think I'd rather be celebrating when my best friend isn't?"
I sigh as I stretch my body out on top of my bed, grabbing my phone afterward and staring at the funny photo of Scarlett popped up on the screen.
"We can talk tomorrow, Scar."
"You sure?"
I inhale deeply and blink away tears. "Yeah. Sure."
I hear a sigh from the other line and then someone shouts her name. It sounds like Ethan.
"Don't ruin your night because of me," I say tentatively. "I promise I'm fine."
"I swear that if I find out you're lying—"
"Bye, Scarlett," I cut her off and then hang up. I bury my face in my pillow and let my eyes drift me to dreamland.
___
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Poor Kylie. Mario is such an ass, ugh. Do you like him? If you do then all I have to say is "Respect." What did you think of Mario's reaction? Do you think he's exaggerating or maybe he has the right to be like that to Kylie?
And what about Kylie's father canceling the dinner with her mom? Sad, isn't it?
The picture on top is of Nicholas Hoult cast as Mark Johnson. Thoughts, thoughts, thoughts, people! Gimme your opinions.
Next Update: Wednesday (or Tuesday if this chapter reaches forty views) :D
Spoiler: Scarlett will be very mad at Kylie for lying to her about being okay when she was devastated. And Mia and Mario? You'll have to wait to find out what happens to them.
Keep voting & commenting.
Also, I would like to start dedicating chapters to people who are supportive and absolutely nice to me. Starting with @FeetFootFeat (hilarious username by the way). Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!