a/n: i am dedicating this chapter to PercyandAnnabeth4eva, thanks for the support! Go read her story, if it's her luke hemmings fanfic or another one of her works, it doesn't matter.
Sorry I took forever to update, i worked on this chapter for about three weeks/a month.
WARNING: this chapter is more than 15,000 words. This is longer than chapter nine
Please comment if you find any spelling mistakes or things like that, just don't keep commenting about it.
~Mikayla's pov~
'I lay in my bed awake at night,' I hummed the lyrics lowly because it literally explained my situation right now.
It was five o'clock in the morning and I've been awake for almost two hours. I had to get up for school in another two hours, but what if since I hadn't gotten my usual amount of sleep I would start spacing out during classes, or worse, actually falling asleep?
I had tried numerous of times trying to drift back into sleep by closing my eyes and relaxing and hoping the sounds of the rain splashing would help, but nothing seemed to be working. So after my attempts and fails of going back to sleep, I had grabbed my phone and plugged in my earphones then started listening to my music, turning the volume to full blast and closing my eyes.
As the song was ending my notification ring tone had interrupted the slow closing of the song and I had just about jumped out of my bed with my eyes popping open from the fright.
With a huff I unlocked my phone and slid down my notification bar. The message icon showed and next to it was Jacobs name.
I furrowed my eyebrows because he'd have to be awake also. I clicked on the new message and it took me to mine and Jacob's conversations, which were very little.
'I'm picking you up at 7:30' It informed me.
Scrunching my brows further in, I started typing.
'Why'
It was short and simple but that was all I could think up.
After I had switched my phone to vibrate 'Welcome to the Black Parade' by My Chemical Romance started playing and Jacob had replied back in a minute.
'You're awake?'
Then I had began typing back,
'And because it's raining and I know you dont have a car' he explained.
'Yes I am awake and you dont have to drive me to school' I insisted. It was a long distance from our houses. We lived on different sides of the town, he lived on the more rich side while I lived on the not-poor-but-not-on-the-loaded-side-either side. My father helps pay for the house believe it or not and I have my job at the diner.
Although I didn't want to walk in the rain especially alone, I couldn't have Jacob feel like he has to drive me. He might have something to do before school starts but then has to drive me and turns up late for whatever it was because of me. And if everyone sees me getting out of the car with Jacob, people would start to notice me, something completely out of my comfort zone. Layla is popular but she knows how I feel about being the center of attention so she tries to bring as little attention to us as she can when we talk.
'I do'
'No you dont it's a long drive I dont want to take time from you' I responded and sent the message shaking my head even if I knew he couldn't see me.
'I know I dont have to, I want to' was his reply then he added a moment later, 'I'm going to walk into your house and kidnap you in my car if I have to'
But his first reply was enough to stop me from giving a list why he shouldn't pick me up and drive me to school as something settled in the pit of my stomach, most likely gratitude.
'Why are you awake?' I asked instead of arguing further.
'Couldn't sleep I think I had too much candy, you?'
I smiled at that as my mind flashed back to when we had returned to my house with our bags of candy, ice cream, and soda. When we had walked through the door the guys were laughing at something Max had said and were already eating some candy. It turned out while me and Jacob had gone to he store, Max walked the short distance to his house and grabbed some candy he had stashed from his parents. This only meant we had twice as much candy, plus the ice cream so after we were done watching the game we were all pretty hyper and it had thankfully got my mind off of Aiden. Everyone had eventually left my house, though it was almost nine thirty and I had started getting a little nervous that my father would come enter the house any second, meet the boys and greet Jacob, then when the house is clear of anyone else, beat me. But thankfully he hasn't even returned home.
'Me too'
Me and Jacob had continued talking for the remainder of the two hours we had until we needed to get ready for school.
⋆⋆⋆
As I was tying my converse I looked outside my window where there was splashes of the rain water from outside. I heard the storm wouldn't let up until the end of the week, I got up and walked down stairs to the washer and dryer because I had done a load the night before.
Opening the door I let it swing shut behind me as walked to the dryer and pulled out a sweater. A loud bang of thunder interrupted the peaceful pats of water on concrete, and I quickly faded the sweater for a jacket when I heard thunder from outside.
As I was swinging on my jacket, someone had ripped it from my hands then wrapped their arms around me from behind and started dragging me out of the room.
I had screamed thinking it was a robber or my father.
The person laughed wholeheartedly. "Shh, it's Jacob," he said before he lifted me up so feet weren't skidding on the floor and only a couple of inches above the it instead.
I pushed at his arms wrapped around my waist, trying to get out of grip. "Let go of me," I said after giving up and concluding he was much more stronger than me.
"I told you, I was going to kidnap you if I had to and you weren't coming out when I honked," he responded.
I shook my head, "I didn't hear you, so if you can let me go it would be great," I said as he opened the front door then closed it. He kept one arm around me and the other over my head as an effort to kept me dry. He dropped me on the passenger seat and closed my door after warning me to buckle myself. He walked around the car and started it then turned on the heater. I rested my head on the headrest as silence took over the car, but it was comfortable.
After a while of listening to the sound of the heater I realized something. "I don't have a jacket," I said when we were more than half way to school.
Jacob looked at me. "How could you forget to bring one, it's raining?" he said in a 'duh' kind of voice.
I glared. "I would have one right now if it weren't for you," I bit back.
"Why is it my fault?"
Pointing at him, I said, "You ripped it from my hands when I was putting it on then held me against my will."
He thought about it for a minute then pulled over to the side of the road. He reached in the back seat and pulled out his leather jacket, and that's when I noticed he wasn't wearing that one like he usually did. Instead he was wearing a gray jacket with wool on the inside. It looked thin, but since Jacob had turned on the heater he'd rolled up the sleeves from too much warmth.
He tossed it at me almost hitting me in the face before I caught it. "Use that one," he said then started driving again.
''Why aren't you wearing this one?" I voiced my thoughts. "And this is way too big for me."
"It's either that or nothing at all, and my grandma bought this for me on my eighteenth birthday but I haven't worn it, my mom made me promise to wear it today," he said as I slipped his heavy jacket over me. I would borrow one from Alyssa because I knew she keeps one in her locker just in case but I was still sort of upset with her.
"Can't we just trade then switch them back at the end of the day? It feels like I'm going to fall and I'm just sitting down." I spread my arms to my side like it would prove my point.
Jacob sighed. "We'll trade when we get to school," he finalized.
"Thank you." I nodded.
We pulled in to school and drove around for a while looking for a space. Fortunately there was one with very little people, the only thing was the cars next to the spot were close so it would be pretty hard to park between them. Jacob pulled up and stopped like it was nothing, though he did have some trouble opening the door and getting out without scratching the car on his side. After I had shimmied my way through, I slammed the door and swung my backpack over my shoulder then made my way to the front of the car as Jacob had barely gotten out of his predicament that I had seconds ago. We had made our way to a roof that was peaking out as a cover and we exchanged our jackets. This one was less heavy and more comfortable.
"Let's go," Jacob said suddenly, grabbing my arm after looking behind us. I was about to glance over my shoulder to what he was looking over to worriedly, but he had again rushed me saying a "hurry" and pulling my arm when he had quickened his pace with me still trying to see what he was worried about.
We sped-walked all the way to the front doors of the school then Jacob slowed down to a normal walk when he looked over his shoulder that were visibly tense had relaxed. He let go of my wrist.
"What was that all about?" I asked with a smile that showed my amusement at his actions. I watched as his eyes searched over my head for something in particular before he looked down at me and forced a smile on his face.
He scratched the back of his neck. "Kate had seen me when she was talking to her friend then started walking towards us," he said coolly, although his actions weren't so much. "Come on, I'll walk you to your locker," he said to change the subject.
I let it slip and walked side-by-side with him to my locker. "Don't you need to go to your locker for your first class?" I asked. I didn't want to be the reason someone's late. Yesterday when Alyssa had come over to comfort me in the restroom, I knew she didn't care because her first period English teacher shouldn't really be a teacher. She takes attendance, puts a page number of their text book on the white board, then either goes to the back of the room on the computer and phone or down to the teachers lounge with the school security. I knew for a fact Alyssa would be more than happy to leave that class, she would rather be learning something that could help her in life more than doing nothing, during school hours. She told her mom and her mom made a complaint about said teacher, so the principal had to interview some students from the same class to make sure this claim was true. Unfortunately, no one in Alyssa's class felt the same way she did, they had a blast being able to be on their phones and do whatever they want so they had lied and said she was a great teacher.
"It's alright, I heard the substitute we had for Mrs. Daniels is covering for Mr. Torres," he said bringing back the topic I had been thinking of.
We came to a stop in front of my locker. "Are you happy about that, though? Not having a teacher that cares, I mean?" I asked as I opened my locker and got my book out.
"Well, at first it's cool but then it just gets boring because I don't have the guys in first period so I have no one to talk to and I can't text or call them because they're in class, learning," he reasoned. "And if that's how it's going to be, I would rather be late walking you to class than be on time and be bored out of my mind." He flashed a smile. "Plus the guy fell asleep and didn't even take attendance so I doubt he would notice my absence."
Then I remembered. "Hey, now that I went to the party, you have to let me tutor you." Then I said when I took in the expression on his face, "A deal's a deal and you pinky promised, if you break it I'll break your pinky!" I exclaimed and he chuckled. When we were in fifth grade we made pinky promises for everything and took them very seriously, then in the eighth grade I was on the internet and came across this article that there were reports of broken pinkies because the person had broken the promise they made on the unlucky finger. I had ended up reading the whole article and we made this inside joke about breaking each others pinkies if we broke a promise.
"Fine, fine," he gave up.
We continued walking after I closed my locker when I saw Alyssa making her way down the hall. Thankfully she didn't see me because she was talking with Layla. I tried to walk with Jacob unnoticed, but, with my luck, Layla had caught my gaze then her eyes flicked over to Alyssa and smiled at whatever she had said. My guess was that Alyssa had found out I discovered about Aiden and Violet and she had tried to call me, but my phone had died. When I unplugged it after losing hope of falling back into dreamland, I saw I had five texts, ten missed calls, and eight voice mails. I didn't check who they were from, if they were from Aiden I wouldn't even think of opening them, if Violet sent them I'd have a little hesitance about deleting them but nonetheless still would. I didn't take one second to question myself if they were all from Alyssa, my best friend, I had a short list of contacts and only talk to those three people out of the handful on my phone.
After thinking this, I felt a little pang of guilt. She was my best friend and with that role she has a reason to want to know what happened or how I was feeling.
'And you also have a reason to be upset with her for not telling you,' my stubborn thoughts had retorted.
'I just need some space.' I concluded to myself.
Smiling in Layla's direction to show my gratitude of not telling Alyssa that I had been right across the hall from her wasn't so easy as I thought it would be. She was looking at me with pity reaching out to me from her eyes. I hated when people pitied me. It was the same look I got when some people found out my mom left.
Alyssa must've told her what happened.
". . . So I'm sorry," Jacob had finished what he was saying. I felt bad, he was apologizing for whatever and I wasn't even paying him any attention.
I gave him a look, pouting my lips. "I'm sorry, my mind was elsewhere." I smiled sheepishly, Jacob frowned at me and sighed dramatically.
"Oh, my God. I said . . . " He looked kind of nervous as he scratched the back of his neck. "Why weren't you listening? I finally got the nerve to tell you but you weren't listening, now I have no confidence to tell you," he complained. "Okay," He readied himself. "I lied," he said so quietly I almost didn't catch it, but I did.
I frowned with eyebrows furrowing in confusion. "What did you lie about?"
"When we got out of the car, it wasn't Kate who was walking toward us," he paused as if asking himself if he should really tell me what he had lied about, "it was Aiden . . . and Violet," he finished. "I just knew if I told you it was them you would have either stopped running or turned around to hit him to the ground. It didn't feel right keeping it from you so I had to tell you. I'm sorry," he said sincerely.
I was at a loss for words, thinking of Violet and Aiden together made me angry. I know I shouldn't because he cheated with her after all but there will always be this twinge of jealousy whenever I would see them together, talking, laughing, holding hands. Doing the stuff we did.
I cleared my throat, "Don't worry about it." I smiled, reassuring him what he did wasn't bad, because it wasn't. He had lied to protect my feelings, or to stop me from getting into trouble because I probably would have hit him with more force than needed. And after all, he did tell me the truth after it happened.
"Um . . . after school, wait for me by your locker and I'll pick you up so we can study." He changed the subject as we neared Ms. Daniel's classroom.
I nodded and we said our goodbyes.
***
It was lunch time and, like yesterday, Ethan, Adam, Max, Jesse, and Jacob had sat with me at lunch to keep me company. Max had brought Alyssa along which made things a little awkward but I had most of my conversations with Adam and Jacob while Max, Alyssa, and Jesse talked about other stuff, although Jesse barely took part in their discussions.
"What did she do after that?" I asked trying to keep my laughter to a minimum or else I would explode and every pair of eyes would be on me.
Adam smiled at the memory. "She looked up, blushed, then opened the door and walked away like nothing happened." He crackled.
Adam had noticed my lack of cheeriness and smiles right when we had sat down to eat our candy we bought at the vending machine. He'd asked Jacob about it with a look, but Jacob had turned away acting like he hadn't seen anything because, I guess, he was uncomfortable sharing my life problems without my consent. So Adam took matters into his own hands and proceeded to tell me and Jacob a story taking place at the supermarket's parking lot.
Apparently, his parents had wanted to go grocery shopping after they picked him up from my house―he doesn't have his own car, his parents say they'll get him one when he turns eighteen, which he is turning next week. When they had parked in front of the market he didn't want to come with them so he stood in the backseat on his phone with the windows down letting in some air. After about half an hour of waiting he saw a figure walk past the car then heard someone putting things in the trunk. He had shifted from his position of laying down and buckled himself. The door swung open and a girl sat down in the passenger seat, but his mom wasn't a brunette. Adam looked in the rear view mirror and saw it was a girl from school, in our year. She was trying to push her keys into the ignition for five minutes (not noticing Adam) but to no avail. It was then that Adam had finally decided to help the poor girl out―"you should probably try that truck over there"―and that the girl swung her elbow back almost effectively hitting him in the nose. After she realized it was Adam Micheals, she apologized profusely and then did what Adam said she did: left.
"You are so mean," I declared but couldn't hold back the chuckle that escaped my lips. I knew the girl, her name is Kayla and she was really shy so I wasn't surprised when Adam told us the way she reacted. She also took self defense when she was nine so that would explain the reflex of the elbow thing that possibly could've broken Adam's nose.
Adam stuck out his tongue at me. "She was pretty cute, though," he said as an after thought.
"Want one?" Jacob offered me one of his candies. I held out my hand as I glanced at his candy package. Warheads, it said they were extremely sour, I like sour candies so without a seconds thought I popped the thing on my tongue. I waited a few seconds before the taste exploded in my mouth.
I instantly regretted accepting the candy from Jacob. My face contorted in pain, it felt like my tongue was bleeding. Taste buds tingling, I smacked Jacob's arm as he laughed at my expression. "Ot's nut punnny!" My sentence came out incoherent because the back of my gums felt like they were on fire it was not even funny.
Jacob was laughing hysterically and Adam looked at us like we were the craziest people in the world because he had missed when Jacob asked me if I wanted candy, all while I was whimpering as I held my chin like I had just been punched.
Finally, after what had seemed like forever but it was most likely a couple seconds, the burning sensation in my mouth died down and the remains melted on my tongue. "Jerk!" I yelled and punched his bicep, which only made him laugh harder because―come on, let's face it, it was like throwing a stick at a wall.
I learned my lesson. Never take candy from anyone, even if they're not strangers.
He held his arms up in mock surrender. "Sorry, sorry." He grabbed my fists to stop me from giving him non-existent bruises. I glared at him for a while before asking, "Is my tongue bleeding?" and stuck out my tongue so Adam and Jacob could see it. But Adam was texting someone on his phone. Jacob stared at it for a bit. "I think it is." He winced and grabbed my chin to get a closer look.
"Hey guys, what's happening?" a familiar voice said from across the table. The voice sent shivers through me, and the worst part was I didn't know whether they were the good or bad kind.
Jacob stiffened, still holding my chin with my tongue hanging out like a dog. I turned my head and closed my mouth to see Aiden trying not to make it obvious that what he had seen me and Jacob doing didn't effect him any bit. But you could tell it indeed bothered him by the way he kept glancing at Jacob with dark eyes and I felt the table vibrating, which led my mind to think he was bouncing his leg up and down, his knee hitting the bottom of the lunch table. I knew Aiden well enough, even though it hurts now, to know he only does that when his patience has reached it's peak, or he was restraining himself from pouncing.
This was the second time he caught me and Jacob in a position that would leave people wondering if there was something going on between us, the first time being yesterday when Jacob tugged at the collar of my shirt to inspect the bruise.
After taking the look in Aiden's eyes he finally got the hint and let his hand drop from my face to his lap then adjusted himself so he was facing Aiden directly. He cleared his throat. "What are you doing here, Aiden?"
"What do you mean? I'm sitting where I always sit," he said with no emotion in his voice and none in his eyes.
I unconsciously scooted closer to the edge of the bench, wanting to be as far away from Aiden as possible. Instead of my heart speeding up, like I thought it would, it felt like it was slowing down. Not pumping enough blood through my veins, I felt like I was going to pass out. Call me dramatic, I won't care, it's the truth.
Jacob discreetly glanced at me, asking if I was alright with his eyes. I smiled a broken smile for a fraction of a second before going back to my expressionless face I had on before. "Can't you sit somewhere else?" he asked with the most polite voice Jacob could muster up.
Aiden shrugged. "Nowhere else to sit." Again, there was no emotion behind his voice. It was actually pretty creepy, especially with the bouncing of his leg. It looked like he was a drug addict going through withdraws, he couldn't stay still, no expression or emotion laced through his voice, and he was looking Jacob in the eye but wasn't at the same time―like he wasn't fully there.
"What about Violet? There's a couple of empty spots next to her and her friends," Jacob was quick to reply, pointing over in the direction where Violet was laughing with her friends.
Something in Aiden seemed to snap. His jaw clenched and he gripped the edge of the table until his knuckles turned white as a ghost. He hopped up and stepped back before turning around, pushing the door with such strength it knocked against the wall, and stalking into the hallway.
Jacob turned to me with concern taking every inch of his face. He knew I wasn't okay, so he didn't bother asking how I was doing and I appreciated that so much he has no idea.
Adam was looking at the seat Aiden had previously been seated on, at Jacob, me, then over at Violet's table. He did the action over and over again until everything seemed to click. He opened his mouth, but then shut it closed like he thought better of it.
I chanced a glance at Alyssa, Ethan, Max, and Jesse.
Alyssa was looking at me but then flitted her gaze somewhere else so I didn't get to see the face she was giving me. Max looked dumbfounded, he must've put the pieces together like Adam had, no one expected Aiden to ever betray anyone like he did me. Jesse, even though we never had one conversation for the time knowing each other and he was the one I least expected to show any emotion towards me, had distress written all over his face.
It was Jacob who got my attention.
"You could have my water bottle." He pushed an unopened bottle of water into my arms. "For your cut," he said when he saw the confused look on my face.
I smiled because he was trying to take my mind off of what just played before me, even though I could feel our friends eyes on me and Jacob, and took the plastic bottle. As I unscrewed the cap I heard all conversation pick up from where they left off and I was grateful.
***
As I waited for Jacob by my locker like he told me to and tried not to get hit by others who were passing by in a rush, I couldn't help but run my tongue under my two top teeth. There was a slight sting and I knew that Jacob hadn't been lying when he said I was bleeding.
My phone was grasped in my hand I looked at it and thought back to this morning when I had seen Alyssa and felt guilty because all those text and voice mails could've been from her.
Unlocking my phone I dialed my phone's number and waited a bit. I was able to hear the faint mechanical woman's voice say 'please enter your password, then press pound.' After I typed my password in, my screen showed me a list of who my voice mails were from.
My lips released a breath as I felt my stomach drop, there was only one text from Aiden, the rest of them and the voice mails were from Alyssa, as I suspected.
I decided to listen to them later, I don't think I could take it right now and I wouldn't be able to hear if I opened them with all the loud and obnoxious students running and pushing past each other because it was Tuesday and we get let out early.
Suddenly, I was yanked around the closest corner where no one was running to get out of school, and pushed up against the wall. My first instinct was to scream for help but the person pressed their hand on my mouth, preventing any sound.
I looked up and found intense hazel eyes staring right back into my green ones.
Aiden slowly removed his hand in case I made another move to cry for help he would be quick to cover my mouth again. He cleared his throat. "Can I talk to you?" he asked.
I knew it was a question but I also knew if I said no and walked away he would pull me right back, so there was no point in trying to get out of this.
He took my silence as an okay to go on with whatever he wanted to say. "Yesterday night Violet called me. We talked for a while then at the end of our call she ended things with me, I was up all night realizing that I want you. I love you, I made the biggest mistake of my life cheating on you, and I definitely can't stand to see you with Jacob," he said in a hurry. He still thought me and Jacob had a thing for each other?
I crossed my arms over my chest. "Did you really think you could just say that and I would just forgive you?" I stood taller, which honestly wasn't even that tall. "So Violet breaks things off with you and then you come back to me? I'm not going to be a sloppy second, Aiden. And what do you mean me and Jacob? I already told you we are just friends."
A frown appeared on his face. "Don't try to deny it," he hissed. "I saw the picture, it's completely obvious you two are together."
I was confused now. "What are you talking about? What picture?"
"The one of you two asleep and cuddling together. At lunch when I was going to get food, I was passing by your table and Max was showing Alyssa a picture Adam sent to him of you guys."
Oh, that picture.
"That doesn't mean anything. Friends comfort each other when the other finds out their boyfriend or girlfriend's been cheating on them, don't they? And what if we were together, it wouldn't matter to you, you'd be having too much fun with Violet to care―sorry, before she dumped you, that is." I pushed myself away from the wall that I was pushed on and walked away.
Thankfully, when I had returned to my locker Jacob still hadn't arrived to pick me up but was just entering the hall.
"Hey, sorry I took forever. Ms. Vega kept me in for a little because I stepped on one of her books, it wasn't my fault it was on the floor." He laughed at the memory. "You ready?"
"Yeah, let's go," I started walking to the exit doors leading to the car park.
Jacob pulled his hood up. "Careful, it's raining." He nodded to the window on the door.
Pulling my―or Jacob's because this was his sweater―hood up, I opened the door and me and Jacob ran not wanting to get to wet to where Jacob parked his car this morning. Once we were in the safety of his car, we started driving to my house . . . or his house, I don't know.
"Are we going to my house or your house?" I wonder aloud.
Jacob looked briefly at me before turning back to the road. "Neither," he smirked.
"What? We're supposed to study, Jacob. You're giving me permission to break your pinky!" I shouted, he knew I was kidding but he still looked warily over at me then at his pinky finger.
"Don't worry, we're still going to study but I'm hungry, so we're going to where you work," he said.
I shook my head. "No, I have to bring my books with me. And I don't want to go to my job, they're going to refuse the money I'm going to try to give to them," I said remembering last time we went their and I had to jump over the counter to put the money in the cash register.
He pointed over his shoulder to the back seat, not taking his eyes off the road. "I have my book in the back, and fine then we'll go to another diner," he said then turned, changing directions.
***
I jumped out the car as I took in the diner Jacob had brought me to. It was pretty small but it was homey. "Frisco's," I whispered, reading the sign in big, bold letters. We entered and saw we were the only ones here, Jacob pulled me over to one of the booths and sat his backpack next to him.
A man walked over to our table with a smile, two cups and two menus in his hand. "Hello, my name is Joe and I'll be your waiter today, here are your menus and cups," he said with that friendly smile still on his face. "When you're ready to order, just wave me over."
Joe walked away. "We'll eat first then you can tutor me."
I agreed and sat down to look at the menu. When both of us decided what we were going to order, which was just a cheeseburger and fries, Jacob waved over to Joe, signaling we were ready to order.
Then we were eating while Jacob was telling me about stories I had missed over the time we weren't talking. His story-telling ranged from good times with his friends to his family trips and to memorable times at parties to what he has done when he was bored.
"What about you? What have I missed?" he asked when he had no stories to tell.
Taking a sip of my drink, I shrugged as nothing really came to mind. "Nothing really. I don't really have an exciting life."
"Fine then, what things have you done since we started talking again?" he asked.
I thought about it. "Well, I've been to my first party, gone on a motorcycle, tasted a little bit of alcohol, I wore makeup, a dress," I frowned at the memory, "I missed a whole class because of you." I glared playfully at him. Now, that I think of it, I've done a lot of things after I began speaking to him again.
Jacob smiled. "Can I see the video you took that night of the party when we were playing that game?"
I laughed because I had forgotten I recorded that. I pulled my phone out and scrolled through my gallery, watching as pictures and videos zoomed passed the screen since that night, then clicked on the video. Giving it to Jacob, he pressed play once it was in his grasp.
I watched his face when it was amused but then quickly turned to one of embarrassment as his face turned to the color of a strawberry. He watched the rest of the video as the crimson color spread to his ears and neck. Shaking his head, he handed me back my phone and the color slowly dissolved from his face.
"Can I see mine?" I asked, but he was already searching through his iPod as the bell above the entrance door rang, signaling someone had walked into the diner and judging by the chatter that had sparked up in the room, it was a group. Jacob handed his device to me and I watched as I paused, looking at the drink in front of me then at Jacob who, at the time, was recording. I sighed then quickly took a gulp of the bottle he'd given me, my face screwed up in distaste and I shoved the bottle back into Jacob's hands. I smiled at Jacob and returned his iPod back to him, not wanting to see the next video, that is if Jacob hadn't deleted it already.
Me and Jacob talked about pointless things from then on, we talked so much we were barely halfway done with our burgers an hour and a half after we stepped into this place. And we still needed the fries.
I was laughing at something Jacob had said when I felt eyes on the two of us. I looked around the almost empty diner, the only other occupied booth was one with the bench wrapping around the table that held about seven or eight guys on the other side of the room.
When I saw no one looking in this particular direction, I turned back to Jacob who then began telling me how fun one of his family camping trips to Arizona was. The way he described the river that was in front of the camp sight made me want to teleport myself over to that exact river, even though it was the beginning of summer―but a weird one because it's raining here―and over at Arizona it was no doubt high temperatures. 'The water cooled everyone down,' Jacob said, proving the water was worth it with the blazing sun over your head.
Smiling at the memory Jacob was about to say something else, glancing at his books before saying anything else, but, again, I felt like someone was staring right through my head.
Quickly, I looked over at the table across the diner. Familiar enchanting emerald eyes were caught in the act this time. The person quickly looked down at their lap, hoping I hadn't caught him staring at Jacob and I, and gave their pitch black hair to me.
"Jacob," I whispered, turning back to face him as he gave me a look of concern from seeing the look on my face.
"Yeah?" He sipped from his straw when his voice came out raspy, not taking his eyes off me. "What is it?" He grew more worried when I didn't respond to his first question.
"Remember when we went to that party, and played that game?" I didn't give him a chance to answer, of course he remembered, we showed the videos from the party not long ago. "So you remember Jon―David?" I corrected myself. I gulped when out of the corner of my eye I could see him glaring intently at us because he thought I wasn't looking anymore.
He nodded, curiously looking at me now.
"Don't make it obvious you're gonna look, but he's in the corner diagonal to us with some friends."
Jacob cursed under his breath then he looked at his cup and then back to me. He got up and walked over to the drinking fountain that wasn't too far from us and began to refill his cup. As he turned back around to came back to our table he had a clear view of David. He sat back down across from me and acted like he hadn't seen anything, smiling believably.
"Laugh," he demanded and I could hear the vibration of his knee hitting the table as he shook his leg up and down. The movement alone had brought me back to this afternoon at lunch and Aiden had been doing the same thing when he was being interrogated by Jacob. Was that a sign of nervousness? Anger? Maybe both? I did what I was told and with a smile responded with a "calm down".
Jacob released a deep sigh, and ceased his actions. "Let's go when we finish. We'll study at my house." And then we ate with the constant reminder that someone's eyes were on us, watching our every move.
When we were finished we grabbed our stuff and headed to the counter to pay for our meal. When we turned around David and his big group of friends―I had recognized a few of them from the party but they didn't seem to know who I was, and they didn't seem to notice us except for, well, David―were doing the same. As we walked David didn't even try to hide the fact that he was staring at us like he was before.
Me and Jacob walked hurriedly to his car and when he saw I was getting into the passenger seat he reached over the center console to keep me from sitting down. "Get in the back seat." Then he closed my door and leaned back over his seat. When he was sure I was buckled he started the car and began reversing out of the parking lot, not turning his lights on, just as David and his friends came out. They started loading into the expensive looking car as David kept his green eyes on us. Then, just as I suspected, when everyone was in the car except for David, he got in the drivers seat and turned on the car.
We were on the street now, stopped at a red light and I thought we were safe but when Jacob pressed on the gas pedal and my body jerked forward I knew that I couldn't be more wrong. I looked over my shoulder and saw the familiar expensive looking car from before being driven by a familiar looking guy tailing behind us. Beside David were his friends yelling at him, probably wondering why he was speeding so much.
Looking in front of me I asked Jacob, "Why do I have to be back here?"
"This guy has it out for me and if he makes me crash the safest place for you to be is in the back," Jacob clarified as he made a sharp right turn. I had to grab onto the center console to keep myself from falling sideways. I tightened my seatbelt.
"What if he purposely crashes into us, and it's from behind? Won't I get more of the hit?" I asked and glanced back over to the speeding car behind us.
Jacob shook his head, looking in the rear view mirror to see how close David was to us. "That car is way too valuable to get crashed purposefully," he said with confidence.
Jacob swerved into a gas station then exited through the other way hoping to lose them. Luckily, as David was chasing us he'd abruptly stopped before he could crash into the car that was backing out. The driver honked at his reckless driving as David drove around the car.
'It was only one punch'. He's trying to make us crash and we could possibly get seriously injured, because of one punch.
There were a couple cars separating us from the enraged David, so Jacob kept driving straight for about five minutes using the inbetween cars to his advantage then suddenly turned a corner and drove further into the street before finding an ally way and whirled the car into it as David came driving at a slower pace.
Jacob, instead of driving onto the other side of the block, parked the car to the side. "Put your head down." But as impatient as he was at the time, he didn't wait for me to actually do it myself, but instead planted his palm flat on my head and pushed it down. I slouched in my seat as I heard the sound of an engine behind us then the noise slowly getting lower and lower until it disappeared into the night.
Jacob sighed in relief before taking in his surroundings. Then groaned and he threw his head back, making his Adams apple more prominent as it bobbed.
After a couple of seconds of silence he turned to me and asked, "Do you know where we are? We're out of gas," he then said.
Looking out the window, I saw that we were in the outskirts of town and we were in between two run down buildings. There were gas stations and a couple of markets and there were cars but only a few. I'd never left town so I wouldn't know how to get back.
"No, but shouldn't you know? You go camping every summer." That's when the panic started to kick in. If Jacob didn't know where we were and neither did I, how were we supposed to get back home?
He gave me a guilty smile. "Well, when we leave to go on the camping trip it's like two o'clock in the morning because we want to get there early. So when we get in the car, mostly everyone's asleep except the driver," he explained. "Try calling someone on your phone."
I got my phone from my pocket and pressed the unlock button. Only to be met with the same black screen. I tried about three more times before concluding what I had feared.
I sighed. "It's dead."
Jacob raised his eyebrows and sat straighter. "What do you mean it's dead? I thought you made sure it was charged before you go to sleep."
I nodded. "I do, but I woke up like at three and to help my boredom I decided to play games and listen to music, which drains my battery fast, then we were texting for two hours . . . " I trailed off.
"Why didn't you do all that stuff while plugging it in? Or it could have been charging while you were getting ready. A phone is to call people for entertainment or emergencies," he stressed.
"It entertained me!" I argued. "Why don't we just use your phone?" I said in a 'duh' voice.
Jacob sighed. "It's at my house. I thought I would charge my phone while I was getting ready because it could have come in use when I needed it." He glared.
I hung my mouth open. "Well you should have thought to bring it with you to school if it might be useful. A phone is for entertainment or emergencies," I quoted him, "not to be left at your house."
He was getting mad at the fact that I hadn't thought to charge it when he hadn't thought to actually bring it?
Jacob sighed. "I'm sorry, I'm just mad that it's getting late and we have no idea where we are," he apologized.
I smiled at him. "Let's go look for a public phone or see if one of the stores could help us out," I said as I got out of the car.
***
"What are we going to do now?" I groaned. There were no public phones when me and Jacob walked around so when we asked the markets if they had a phone we could use most of them said no one barely ever comes around here so they took out the phones or never installed one in, and the only gas station here was closed so we couldn't buy any gas. We'd asked if they had a cell phone but they either didn't trust two teenage strangers or didn't have one.
The worst of it all? It looked like the rain was coming back and we had no idea what time it was.
"Do you remember the way back to the diner?" I asked as we walked back to Jacob's car. If Jacob knew the way back to the diner we could walk there and keep walking from there because we knew how to get from there to our houses.
He shook his head with a sigh, "Nope," and jammed his hands in his pockets.
We walked for another five minutes before we saw lights coming from behind us and heard a honk followed by a long whistle.
Me and Jacob turned around and were blinded as the headlights of a pick-up truck came closer to us. The truck was parked beside us and the bright lights flashed off as the drivers side door was slammed shut. The driver came around the truck with a chuckle.
"What are you guys doing here?" They asked before Ethan came out of the shadows.
"I could ask you the same thing," Jacob said as Jesse hopped out of the passenger door.
"Me and Jesse were at my house, when my grandpa called me asking me to pick him up from work because my grandma's out of town with their truck."
"Your grandpa works here?" I asked as I looked around.
"Yeah that gas station over there." Ethan pointed out a gas station with the lights out and a man waiting outside the store.
Ethan turned to us. "Back to my question, why're you guys here."
Jacob ended up telling them the story from the party being the beginning and to the ending of how we were going around asking to barrow a phone as we walked to the gas station Ethan told us his grandpa owns.
"I could give you a gallon of gas, I'm pretty sure my grandpa would lend you some," Ethan offered as we were nearing the man who was waiting in front of his store. "Grandpa," Ethan called over. A man came jogging the rest of the distance over to us with minimal graying hair and a little bit of wrinkles on him, but other than that he didn't look all that old. "These are my friends."
He gave us a smile, introducing himself and shaking our hands as we introduced ourselves as well.
Jacob had started to explain our situation, "Sir, me and my friend," he gestured to me, "were coming from this diner and we sort of got lost on our way to our houses, then Ethan had seen us walking and he offered to help, and I was wondering since you own a gas station―"
Ethan's grandfather had cut Jacob off though. "Don't worry, I could lend you some gas. And call me Louie." He smiled.
"Thank you." Jacob smiled, the nervous look disappearing.
***
We were all currently driving back to Jacob's car in Ethan's truck. Me and Jesse in the back, which was very uncomfortable considering that fact that we have never spoken a word to each other―now that I think of it I've never heard him talk―and the look he gave me at the lunch table. Louie was driving with Ethan in the middle and Jacob on the other, who had my phone charging on his lap with the car charger Ethan lent me.
"Here we are," Louie said and the truck came to a stop with a small squeak. Jacob handed me my phone that said it was about seventy percent charged before him, Louie and Ethan got out of the car to fill the tank. I unlocked it and saw I had a new message. Sliding down my notification bar I found it was from Aiden.
I sighed and slid it across the screen so I wouldn't be tempted to read it. After I locked my phone, I put my head in my hands, willing myself not to cry. I had to stop crying over Aiden.
I felt a hesitant hand on my back as it rubbed up and down, awkwardly trying to comfort me. Looking up, Jesse was smiling weakly at me, his deep blue eyes filled with the same emotion at the lunch table.
After a minute, "I know what it feels like," he finally settled on.
I removed my hands from my face and turned to him. "You do?"
"Yeah." He nodded. "I had this girlfriend, her name was April, and I thought she was someone I could tell everything to, I loved her. We were together since the second semester of freshman year. I thought everything was fine in our relationship, we barely fought and when we did we'd make up not even half an hour later, we knew what each other wanted for birthdays and Christmas. Our families had gotten close over the time we were together." I could tell he really loved her by the way he described their relationship, with a smile on his face and a happy gleam in his eyes.
"But then one time I went to the movie theaters with Adam, Ethan, and Jacob. After the movie ended we were walking back to our exit and I saw her," his smile faded, "with my neighbor coming out of another theater room walking closer to each other than I had liked.
"The next day I was at her house, her parents went off to pick up her little sister from a friends house and they trusted we wouldn't do anything so it was just us. I confronted her about her and my neighbor but she denied everything. She said she was going to the movies by herself and while looking for a seat bumped into him so they decided to watch the movie together. When I had asked her why didn't she just ask me to come with her to see that movie she said she didn't want to ruin my plans with my friends. I was a little suspicious at first, why would you see a movie alone, sure you could but you mostly go with friends or family. It was a romantic movie, I knew for a fact Eric, that's his name, hated those movies, so why would he see that movie by himself?
"She told me how much she loved me and that she'd never do anything to hurt me, and I believed her. God, I believed her." He shook his head. "I'm so dumb. It was Junior year when she barely had time to be with me. It's a project for English, was her excuse. But Adam had the same class as her for English. There was a project." He nodded. "Two weeks later, she used the same excuse for a whole month and when I told Adam about it, he said the project was due two weeks ago. That night I saw her walking out of Eric's house.
"After school, I told her about what I saw and what Adam told me about the project already being due. She kept making up stories but they didn't add up so, finally, she confessed. She started seeing him about a month after our relationship began." He was the one that buried his head in his hands and he inhaled deeply. "It took her almost two years to tell me the truth. Two dammed long and untruthful years." He ended his story.
My heart reached out to him. Only a month of their relationship was true, their one year anniversery had been a lie. How could someone lie for that long? Not only that but he had to confront her twice before he finally got answers.
As he was busy trying to keep his emotions under control I decided it was my turn to comfort him.
I wrapped my arms around his torso from his right side. He seemed a little shocked at first but eventually turned to me and leaned his head on my shoulder as he wrapped one arm around my waist while the other hand was gripping the seat in front of him. He let go of it after a minute and layed it flat against my lower back.
The passenger side door swung open and Jacob was smiling, until he saw me and Jesse. Jacob smiled again but even a blind man would be able to tell it was fake. Jesse pushed himself away from me and looked anywhere but at Jacob.
"The car's ready," was all he said before he closed his door and walked off to his car.
I smiled at Jesse who smiled back and waved before jumping out of the car and saying bye to Ethan and thanking Louie. I walked to the car where Jacob was already sat and waiting impatiently. Right when I was buckled Jacob started the car and left the ally without a word.
"What's wrong?" I asked when I found the courage to break the silence.
"Nothing."
"Really?"
"Really."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"I don't believe you." At this point I was trying anything to lighten the mood or just get his mind off of whatever he was annoyed with, even if that meant get him annoyed with something else.
Jacob sighed and clenched his hands around the steering wheel but didn't answer.
"Are you mad at me?" I asked.
"No."
"Are you mad?"
"No. Are you?"
"No."
"Good."
"Why won't you tell me what's wrong?" I begged.
"Why were you hugging Jesse?" he asked instead of answering my question.
I furrowed my eyebrows. "Why? Are you jealous?" I didn't give a second thought about the last thing I said. It was almost automatic, to tease him and make him a little less annoyed or it's a usual thing I would say in these types of conversations―I don't know.
"Why were you and Jesse hugging?" But by the way he asked this, yes, yes he was jealous.
But, why?
"I got a text from Aiden and I got sad, Jesse saw who the text was from and he told me about April. At the end of his story he was close to tears so I hugged him," I summed everything up shortly.
I saw Jacob visibly relax and his white knuckles soon had color in them. "We can go to my house if you still want to study, if not I can just drop you off at your house. Or we can study at your house."
My father has been spending less and less time at the house now that I think about it, but the thought of him being there, drunk, made me shake my head. "Let's go to your house, I want to see your mom anyways."
Jacob nodded. "Alright but I think my dad will also be home," he said. I smiled, Jacob's dad was so fun and he was like a second father to me at the time me and Jacob were best friends. You'd think he would an uptight kind of person because he was a lawyer but he wasn't, although I could tell Jacob had always felt inferior to Bryan when it came to their dad.
After a while we were parked in Jacob's driveway in front of his house. Jacob grabbed his bag from between us where he had left it when we ran inside the car to get away from David. We got out of the car and walked over to his front door which Jacob layed his hand on to open it on his own but before he could it swung open and almost pulled Jacob with it.
"Mikayla!" Mrs. Burke squealed and hugged me. To say she was happy was an understatment considering we just saw each other on Saturday and today was Tuesday, but I hugged back either way.
"Ahem," someone cleared their throat. Mrs. Burke turned to her son who was fixing his hair from his almost-fall. "Mom, Mikayla's here because she agreed to help me in some classes. Is it alright if we go upstairs?" He pointed to the stairs leading to his bed room. It was then that I took notice of the loud music from a phone connected to some speakers. I recognized the music to be Jacob's younger brother's, it was Bring Me The Horizon, we had always shared the same taste in music.
She nodded. "Yes that's fine," she turned to me, "but please, you have to stay for dinner," she pleaded with an award winning smile.
I glanced over her shoulder to see if Jacob was okay with that, but no one was there. Turning my gaze back to her, I smiled and nodded. "Yes."
"Okay, I'm going to the store to get the stuff for dinner," she said and walked out the front door.
I looked around the room in hopes of finding Jacob when I heard chatter in the kitchen. My adventure to find Jacob was short lived when I found him eating candy with his brothers, Dylan and Bryan. They must've heard my footsteps because they all turned their heads to me.
Bryan was the first to run toward me and the next thing I knew I was a foot off the ground with Bryan spinning me around. I laughed and begged him to put me down when I started to feel a little dizzy. He let my feet hit the tiled floor and once I was on my own I almost fell over but Bryan caught me in time with his hand gasping my shoulder.
"What are you doing here, shorty?" he teased. Before I had the time to answer though, Dylan came over and wrapped me in a hug. He was already way passed my height, which was not a good thing considering he was still in eighth grade and I was seventeen-going-on-eighteen.
Bryan was Jacob's older brother, just turned twenty-two I think, he went to school with us all of freshman year while he was a senior. Last I had heard he went to college on both an acedemic and football scholarship. I haven't seen him after he left for college.
Dylan was a thirteen-soon-to-be-forteen year old boy, I see him almost everyday coming out of school when I walked home but we never talked as we walked by.
"Mind answering my question?" Bryan reminded me of his earlier question.
"I'm here to help Jacob," I said shortly. "What are you doing here?"
"My summer break starts early," he grinned.
I turned my head in Jacob's direction as he sat on the counter eating his candy and water in his hand.
"Oh yeah," Jacob said and put his glass of water down on the counter then grabbed his backpack from the floor. He nodded his head to the stairs. "Let's go."
As we were heading up stairs I could hear the snickers coming from the mouths of Bryan and Dylan. The stairs going up was facing the entrance of the kitchen so I peaked over the railing and noticed how the two boys were covering their mouths to try and supress their laughter and looking at us. When they noticed I was looking at them their eyes went wide before removing their hands from their mouth and started a conversation as though they hadn't been caught laughing.
I shook my head and continued to Jacob's room where he was already sat down comfortably on his bed and pulling out textbooks of the classes he needed help in.
His eyes flitted over to me when he heard me walk in. "What subject do you wanna start with?" I asked as I stood by the door and crossed my arms.
He patted the spot next to him signalling for me to come over. "I was thinking maybe Math, Ms. Daniels' class is the one I need more help with." He paused. "Plus she can be intimidating when she wants to be."
I laughed. "Awe, is Jacob, the bad boy, scared of a teacher?" I teased. Ms. Daniels was tiny, she was about my height at twenty-eight, she had a very tiny frame and she was very boney. I hadn't expeirenced Ms. Daniels' supposed intimidating side, then again I hadn't experienced any of my teachers scary side―well, with the exception of Mr. Martin because I didn't really care when he yelled at me, anything ticks that man off.
***
We were done with our tutoring when I was confident Jacob understood the concept better than he did before. Now we are laying on his bed staring at the ceiling above us with our backs on the matress and our legs hanging off the egde of the bed.
Jacob inhaled before he broke the silence, "Do you trust me?" His arms that were under his head were now supporting his weight as he rolled over and he lay on his stomach.
I was taken back with his sudden question. It took me a while to understand what he was talking about.
I nodded with no hesitation. "Yeah, but I kind of forgot about that." I felt guilty, I trust him and yet I can't find myself to tell him about my home life.
"When?"
I thought about it for a while. "I think it was when we went to the party," I answered. I turned to look at Jacob and saw him beaming at me with half of his face hiding behind his arms as he used them as a pillow. I smiled back at him.
"Dinner's ready," Mrs. Burke called out from downstairs.
Me and Jacob got off the bed and walked into the hall where we could see his mom setting up the table. Walking down the stairs, my foot slipped off one of the steps I was walking down. I tried to grab the rail to save myself from probable serious injury but when I was walking down the stairs, it was next to the wall and no rail was set up there.
I was surprised when one arm swung around my waist to pull me back and a hand placed itself on my rib to help steady myself. Jacob turned me around with a smirk on his face. "If you're this clumsy I wonder what would happen if you were in heels." He chuckled and then unhooked his arm from around me and grabbed my hand.
I was confused for a second when he moved it over to the rail but then caught on. I chuckled while probably sporting a blush on my cheeks from embaressment and walked down the rest of the stairs carefully.
Everyone was already seated at the table except for me and Jacob. Big bowls of mashed potatoes and gravy, chicken legs, and maccoroni was layed at the center of the table. My eyes widen as Jacob mirrored my actions, I felt like I was eating at Boston Market. I took the seat in front of me and Jacob sat next to me.
"You really went all out, Mom," Bryan said staring at the food.
Someone walked in throught the front door and we all listened to the footsteps as they got louder and louder until they entered the dining room. Jacob's dad appeared at the enterance with a smile, and it widened when he saw the food displayed like a picture in a magazine. "Wow," was all he said before he went to put his stuff down on the couch of the living room.
When he came back he sat down on the chair, he greeted me and we all began to eat and divulge into conversation around the table.
About fourty minutes after everyone started eating, I was done with my food when Mrs. Burke turned to me with a smile. "So Mikayla, have you heard from your mother?" she asked after she drinking some of her lemonade.
I froze and I felt all the color drain from my face. It was like everyone's eyes were on me, although Bryan and Dylan were arguing over who got the last chicken leg and Jacob was looking at his mother with a mixture of disbelief and anger. I couldn't blame her for asking, though, her and my mom were close over the time me and Jacob were bestfriends.
My silence must've made Jacob do what he'd done next. I felt a hand wrap around mine from under the table. I looked up at Jacob but he wasn't paying any attention to anything, just staring at his food like there wasn't anything better to do. Then I looked down at our clasped hands as Jacob gave it a squeeze, it must've been for reasurrence or comfort, I don't know. But whatever it was, it gave me the strength to answer her question.
"No, actually. It's just me and my father." I cleared my throat.
Mrs. Burke frowned but then smiled and decided to change the subject.
Though, the new subject she brought up didn't help at lifting my spirits at all.
"Jacob told me you have a boyfriend. Tell me about him." The corners of her eyes crinckled as she smiled at me. By now, Bryan and Dylan were listening in on the conversation after they agreed to share the leg of the chicken.
Jacob started rubbing circles on the outside of my hand trying to tell me it was okay.
I opened my mouth and was about to say the first thing that popped into my head which happened to be something about monkeys and facebook―yeah, I don't do well under pressure―but was cut off when my phone rang in the pocket of Jacob's sweater that I still needed to return. I smiled and excused myself from the table.
I walked down the hall and into the living room then looked down at the phone in my hand. It was an unknown number, I dragged the green icon across the screen and put it to my ear. "Hello?"
"Hello?" they mimicked in an over the top girly voice. I could tell that they were male.
"Who is this?" I asked even though I already had an idea of who it was.
"Who are you?" My thougths were confirmed when they didn't try to make an immpression of my voice and they answered in the usual deep, slurred voice. He was making drunken calls.
I put the unoccupied hand in the crease of my elbow where the joints met and it bent because the hand was holding the phone to my ear. "You called me first." I had a bad feeling if he knew who he was talking to he'd wouldn't be how he was acting right now.
"And you answered."
I sighed. "What do you want?" I asked.
"I just want―"
"Mikayla?" I turned around and saw Jacob leaning up against the wall my back was faced to.
"Mikayla? Why are you talking to me?" he asked like I'd been the one who instagated the phone call.
I dropped the phone from my ear and by my side, knowing he was going to begin yelling at me.
"Jacob," I acknowledged. "What are you doing here?"
"I just wanted to see if you were okay, sorry about my mom by the way." He started to walk towards me.
I shook my head and smiled. "It's fine, she didn't know."
"Answer me!" we heard a voice shout from my phone.
Both of our gazes snapped to the direction of my phone simultaneously. Jacob raised his eyebrows when he turned back to me and took a step closer. I tightened my grip on my phone, already having a feeling of what he was planning.
Jacob's eyes flickered over to the phone in my hand then back at me. "Who's that?" he asked.
"No one important," I hid the phone behind my back and took one step away.
We heard shouts but we couldn't make out what my father was saying, or at least I couldn't because based off of the way Jacob's eyes widened and frowned with a not-so-happy expression on his face, he had heard what he said.
Jacob stepped foward then I took one step back. We repeated this for some time before my back hit the wall and there was no way for me to escape. Jacob grazed his hand over my waist and reached behind my back. I moved the phone from one hand to the other, but Jacob had somehow managed to sneak his other arm aound the other side of my waist without me noticing. Once he had the phone in his grasp he jerked away knowing I was going to try to get my phone back and ran to the stairs to his room. I followed, of course and thankfully blocked his way up the stairs.
He put the electronic against his ear and started running around the room to get away from me when I started chasing him. I saw him cringe at the choice of volume the person yelling chose, he didn't know it was my father, yet.
An idea came to me and I leaped onto his back. Instantly Jacob had his hand at the back of my knee to keep me from falling. All I had to do was reach over his shoulder and retreive my phone then he wouldn't know anything about my father's problem with drinking, when I thought about my plan in my head it looked much easier because he was one hand short. Jacob proved wrong of my plan when he straightened his back and I started slipping off of it. With his hand still at the back of my knee, he made sure my feet were safely on the ground and that I won't fall. But even if he had thought that I given up already, he thought wrong.
I ran to his side and tried to steal the phone from his hand but Jacob was too tall for me. I jumped up and down in hopes of being able to get my phone back and have Jacob think my father wasn't someone who spent money on alcohol.
My hand had brushed agaisnt the side of my phone giving me a little hope that I would be able to reach but it was shattered when Jacob spun me around so my back was facing his side, pushed my arms down, and wrapped an arm around my useless arms and waist to keep me from trying anything more.
I wiggled to get out of his grip as he smiled knowing I wouldn't be able to set myself free, he was too strong. Jacob said something into the phone and then his face fell and I could hear curse words being thrown out through the phone. I stopped my efforts when Jacob tightened his grip around my waist and I knew he now knew it was my father who was on the other line yelling the profanities.
Jacob slowly pulled the phone from his ear and pressed the red botton and ended the call. He turned to me and handed me my phone then started to exit the room without a word, but he stopped himself before he could walk into the hall. He spun around to face me. "Was that your father?" he asked to confirm his suspicions.
I inhaled then exhaled. "Yes."
He turned back to the entryway and summoned me to follow him, he wanted an explanation.
We walked into the dining room together where the table was empty and we heard the faucet running, it was probably Mrs. Burke washing the dishes. Mr. Burke, Bryan, and Dylan were walking to the living room where we were previously at.
I sat down on one of the dining chairs with my head hung so I wouldn't have to make eye contact with him. I felt his presence in front of me as he sat down next to me. "What's wrong with your father?" Surprisingly, his voice came out gentle instead of the hostile tone I was expecting.
"There's nothing wrong with him," I tried to deny, shaking my head.
He narrowed his eyes. "Don't lie to me, he was using your name in . . . not-so-good sentences," he argued as he bent down on his knees to get me to look at him.
I looked up at him and took a deep breath. "H―He has a . . . dependancy. On alcohol," I hesitated. "It all started four months after my mom left," 'then two months after he started abusing me,' I thought but didn't say it out loud. "It got worse over the months, he lost his second job because he showed up to a night shift drunk, that's why I got the job at the diner. He didn't mean those things he said on the phone about me, he just gets drunk to the point where he either gets funny or angry. This time he got angry. That's why I'm always careful to bring anyone into my house, because I wouldn't know if he's drunk or not, and if he is he could start yelling," I finished. What scared me was I was lying so easily and I didn't even have to reach for the bracelet that still wasn't there.
"Has he ever gotten out of hand when he's his angry drunk?" he asked with all seriousness.
I knew if I tried to avoid the question he would only grow more suspicious. "What do you mean?"
Jacob bit his lip. "Has he ever hit you?"
I shook my head. "No!" I lied through my teeth. "He only yells things, but I know they're not true."
"Does he remember anything he said in the morning?"
"No, and if he does he doesn't act like he did." I shrugged.
He was about to say something but there was a knock on the door, interupting whatever he was about to say. The door opened reveiling a Byran. "Guys, we're going to watch a movie downstairs if you want to come to watch it with us," he said before taking a step back from the doorway, about to walk away.
"Wait," Jacob called out before Bryan could get any farther. "What movie is it?"
"'The Sitter' and then '21 Jump Street'." Then he walked away.
"Come on I love Jonah Hill's movies," I said then follow Bryan. Mostly walking away from the conversation.
~Jacob's p.o.v.~
My eyes drifted to her neck as she laughed at something in the movie. You could see the very top of the bruise, it peeked out of the neck part of the sweater I let her borrow. It wasn't very noticeable and you'd have to look really close to see it. I averted my gaze to the movie when she turned to me when my name was called out. Wait―what?
I looked behind me to see Bryan looking at me expectantly.
"What?"
He rolled his eyes and pointed over his shoulder. "Help me with the popcorn and soda in the kitchen." He didn't even bother asking. If I said no my father would demand me to. My father was more close with Bryan when I was a disappointment to him. Bryan had followed all of my parents rules and got good grades and so many other things that I didn't do, and what he didn't do I did and the only thing we did do the same, was go to parties. He was just the complete opposite of me, but it wasn't always like that, I used to bring home good grades, followed the rules and everything my parents wanted. My dad would always defend Bryan whenever we got into an argument, then my mom would defend me, it was why I felt closer to her than I did my dad. Even though I felt jealous of Bryan because I felt my dad loved him more, I didn't like him any less. Bryan was always there for me, and one time even argued with dad because he started yelling at me for coming home from a party at one-oh-five. My curfew was one.
Quickly looking at my dad, I could already see him looking ready for something with his back stiff and ready to get up. "Yeah," I agreed and got up from the couch.
When we were in the kitchen, I walked over to the cabinet where the popcorn was kept. I moved things around before I found the blue box and opened it. Throwing the package into the microwave I set the time and pressed start when Bryan said, "I didn't know you guys were still friends." He didn't have to say who for me to know he was talking about Mikayla.
"Actually, we stopped talking for a while but we started again a little while ago," I informed as he got out the Sprite and Coke and I handed him some cups.
He frowned. "Why did you stop talking?" he asked as he took a sip from his cup.
I didn't answer. I don't like to talk about the reason why I just stopped talking to her suddenly.
He took my silence as a hint that I didn't want to talk about it. So instead he said, "I saw you staring at her." He said it with a goofy grin on his face. "Do you like her?" he asked teasingly.
I turned to the microwave when I heard the popping stop, my back was facing him―thankfully―so he wouln't see the reddening of my face.
When me and Mikayla were best friends, I had a tiny crush on her. It was one of the main reasons why I started acting like I never knew her, believe it or not. I wanted to stay friends with her more than anything but some of the people I hung around with weren't the best kind to talk with. I'll be honest, I used to try weed with them from time to time when I was at parties with them. If we stayed friends and I asked Mikayla out, my biggest fear would be that she was to get pressured then end up like me and throwing all her hard work down the drain.
The worst part was I stopped talking to her around the time she still wasn't over her mom leaving.
I knew I had to get over Mikayla so that's when I agreed when Kate asked me out, I kinda of liked her and she was nice when she wanted to be. It helped and my feelings for Mikayla slowly faded, but there was always a little thing that made my heart thump when I saw her.
I started to notice that Kate was only kind to others when I was around and she wouldn't have a problem when a guy flirted with her, so I had to give her a reason to want a break-up also. I started talking to more and more girls and I knew it got on her nerves when she saw me talking to one. She brought up that maybe a breakup would be a good idea and I agreed.
The day I met Max he told me he met a girl and I started teasing him about him hurting her because we made that bet in second period, but then I saw that the girl was Mikayla and I started thinking what would have happened if Max and I hadn't made that bet and he planned on playing her like the other girls at New York. I played it out in my head and the end had me hitting him and that's when I knew that not all of my feelings faded.
Then I found out she was my tutor and we started spending more and more time together, I found myself regaining those feelings back but I knew I couldn't because of Aiden. But then yesterday she called me and she sounded like she was crying I was barely able to understand her. It sounded like she was in so much pain. I was scared that she was going to try something, the next thing I knew I was in her driveway and running into her house. Then she told me about Aiden and Violet. I wasn't going to rush Mikayla into anything, she just found out yesterday about Aiden and her friend and I wasn't even sure if I was going to be anything with Mikayla because, like I said before, I didn't want her to turn out like me.
"Uhh . . . try still like her?" The clank of the bottom of Bryan's cup hitting the counter echoed around the room as I closed the door of the microwave slowly.
"What?
I turned around and scratched the back of my neck. "I used to like her, then I stopped when we didn't talk and now I'm starting to like her again." I shrugged like it was nothing.
"Doesn't she have a boyfriend?" He leaned on the counter as I put in another package of popcorn.
"Not anymore." I drank the rest of my Coke before moving to refill my cup.
Bryan raised his eyebrows, "Are you going to . . ." he trailed off, not seeming to be comfortable talking about my life.
I shook my head. "They just broke up yesterday and I don't think I should." I heard the last pop then took out the bag carefully.
Bryan opened his mouth to say something but before he could another voice came instead, "Boys, are you almost done?" It was my mom. Now that I think of it, we've been talking in the kitchen for about ten minutes.
"We're coming!" Bryan called back. "So I guess you liked holding her hand at dinner then?" He smirked as I choked on my drink. "I saw you, I dropped my knife and I went under the table to get it and saw you holding her hand."
"I was just comforting her."
He started pouring the soda in the cups for everyone hurriedly. "What soda does Mikayla want?" he asked.
"Sprite," I answered instantly.
Bryan smirked and continued pouring the drinks.
***
A little more than halfway of '21 Jump Street' Mikayla fell asleep with her head rested on my shoulder. I couldn't blame her, we had a long day.
Actually, everyone was half asleep, including me. I reached into my pocket for my phone to check the time, careful not to wake Mikayla. She shifted a little but nothing more.
1:45 A.M.
I sighed, knowing that we had school tomorrow. I didn't want to wake up Mikayla to get comfortable so I leaned my head back and let it hang off the couch slightly before closing my eyes.
***
"Jacob, wake up." I felt someone hit my cheek lightly. I groaned then reluctantly opened my eyes, I was still in the living room but the TV was turned off and everybody left the room except me―I looked next to me―and Mikayla, but somehow my arm ended up on her headrest so she had gotten closer to me.
"What time is it?" I asked and winced at the pain in my neck, bad idea to lean my head back to go to sleep.
"It's almost three in the morning, but that's not it. I was wondering if Mikayla would stay over because it raining hard and it's just bad weather to drive in, plus it's late. But I tried calling her dad but he wouldn't answer the phone." He's probably passed out, I thought. He sounded really blacked out drunk when he was yelling through Mikayla's cellphone. "Is it okay if she stays the night in your room? I thought it'd be best because you could go to school together," she said and I heard a chuckle from behind me. I looked to see it was Bryan with a devilish smile on his face, biting his lip to keep from laughing any louder and waking up Mikayla.
I turned back to my mom and nodded. "Yeah, I'll sleep here then," I said meaning the couch.
She shook her head. "You can't, remember when we sold Bryan's bed when he went to college? He's going to be sleeping here," she said. "And the other couch is too small for you." Bryan walked over with a smirk on his face and then I knew he had somehow planned this all out in his head when I was asleep and explained this all to my mom.
"Then I'll just lay some blankets on the floor." I said and looked at Bryan out of the corner of my eye. The smirk on Bryan faltered a bit before it grew back to it's original place.
My mom pointed to the general direction of the garage. "I'm washing them." She gave me a smile.
'Then I'll just sleep without any blankets,' I thought to myself. I knew what Bryan was planning and what my mom was implying, but sleeping in the same bed as Mikayla made me nervous beyond belief. When I found her leaning on me when I woke up had my heart beating hard against my rib cage. If I woke up next to her, I'd probably fall off the bed.
"Will you take her upstairs?" Mom patted my shoulder before I could say anything else, then walked out of the room, probably to her's.
I sighed as Bryan chuckled at me. After adjusting my arm so it slid down to the middle of Mikayla's back, I turned my body so it faced her then put my other arm under her knees so I was carrying her bridal style up the stairs to my room. Once in my room, I was careful to lay her down on my bed then fixed her head when I saw it was slightly hanging off the edge of the bed.
I looked around the room for an extra sheet my mom decided not to wash, but came up with nothing. Taking a pillow from my bed that Mikayla wasn't using, I threw it on the floor and walked over to my closet and slipped on a sweatshirt before walking back over the spot I put the pillow on and lying down on it.
***
I woke from the cold and the sounds of little patters from the rain. Looking around me I noticed I wasn't on my bed. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion but shook it off when needed to go to the bathroom.
I walked over to my bathroom inside my room. When I was finished, I was still half asleep as I walked into my room. I picked up the pillow I was using and put it down on my bed, then I threw myself at the bed.
-
a/n:
•thanks for reading, bubs.
•*breaks into whitney houston voice* and iiiiiii-iiiii will always loooove yoooooo-ooouuu
•vote if you liked the chapter, comment if you like
•sorry, I'm a on a bit of a sugar rush