Chapter 42
The next few days consisted of me ignoring Alec Bennett's presence when he sat with our group outside.
To this day, I don't understand why he doesn't take the hint and get a new group of friends.
Thankfully, when nightfall came, I could sleep peacefully in the room that Daniella had told me to call my own.
Of course, when you're living in the Valentine residence, there is no such thing as peace.
"Wake up fat ass," Jason grunted as he threw himself on top of me, landing on my stomach.
My eyes flew open as a startled gasp left me. "I..."
I struggled to form any words with him pressing hard against my stomach.
Jason rolled on top of me until his eyes met mine. "Love you?"
My jaw clenched just as I pressed my hands on his stomach. In seconds, he flew across the room, landing on the carpet with a thud.
Quickly, I grabbed the bottle of water from my night stand before drowning most of it. I ignored the distaste in my mouth, and cursed at my stupidity for drinking water before brushing my teeth.
"No," I clenched my jaw. "What I was gonna say was that I'm gonna give you until the count of five to get your fat ass off of me."
Jason smirked before standing up on his own two feet. "You love me," he stated as a matter of fact before walking in the direction of the front door.
"I really don't," I shouted back, but when I heard his laugh echo down the hall, I couldn't help but smile.
Once I got out of bed, I quickly closed the door — something Jason was incapable of doing, apparently — before heading to the connected bathroom.
After a little more than ten minutes had passed, I was dressed in some light wash jeans and a light mint tee shirt.
Too colorful for my taste, but I needed to do laundry.
As I was jogging down the stairs, I scrolled through my messages on my phone, seeing texts from the group chat with Lauren and Anna, and a private message from Alyssa.
Nothing from Lucas. Which wasn't surprising anymore.
When I reached the bottom floor, I grinned happily, remembering how it was Friday. Before I could relish in said happiness, Jason came and burst my bubble.
"Why are you smiling like the guys from Truth or Dare?" Jason asked as he was eating by the kitchen table, and I threw him a glare.
"For your information, I'm just happy it's Friday," I replied as I opened up the fridge, examining what's inside.
Jason's laugh made me clench my jaw, already mentally preparing myself to hear his retort of some kind.
As it's well aware of by now, you can get very annoyed by your best friend when you're living in their house for more than a month.
"It's Thursday, dumb ass," he said, and I groaned as I slammed the fridge shut, immediately not having any energy to eat food.
"That's cool," I grumbled as I grabbed my school bag from the corner of the kitchen.
Jason laughed once more, but I was too emotionally drained to choke him.
After we threw on our running shoes, we headed to his car in silence, and I sighed in content from not having to hear him mock me.
"Don't be so sad, Em," Jason said softly as we drove down our street.
I puffed out my cheeks before releasing the air I had stuck in my mouth. "I just hate false hope," I sighed.
Jason rolled his eyes. "You're way to dramatic."
"Dramatic is my specialty," I shrugged, and although he refused to smile, I saw his lip tip up ever so slightly.
After a few more minutes had passed, we were parked outside of our school, and I groaned internally as we walked to the front doors.
"Why do I even bother going here anymore?" I grumbled to myself, but when Jason laughed, I figured he heard me.
"Because you need to graduate, Em. And then you need to go to university, and then get a job, and make a family..." he began to ramble, but I was quick to cover my ears.
"Shush! Too young," I hissed, and he rolled his eyes.
"You're turning 17 in a month. It's time to start thinking about what's gonna happen after high school," he said, and it was my turn to roll my eyes.
"And you're way too young to be thinking about the future," I said. His birthday was in the beginning of February, so he was already 17.
Lucas' birthday was a day before Valentine's Day, so they had a pretty close age difference.
The warning bell rang suddenly, and I smiled inside, thankful that he wouldn't have to retort to defend his point.
But when I saw a familiar pair of brown eyes in front of me, I turned the other way.
"Yo, Jase!" Alec shouted, and behind me I heard them slap their hands together.
Before I could move away from them, Jason grabbed my upper arm, and I sighed before turning around to face them both with a fake smile plastered on my lips.
"I gotta head to class, Jase. I'll see you at lunch," I said, and just as he nodded, Alec decided to add his input.
"I'll come," he said quickly before correcting himself. "I mean, we have first period together, don't we?"
My eyes met his slowly as I painfully nodded in agreement. "I guess we do," I said between my clenched teeth.
"Listen," he whispered next to me once we separated from Jason. "Can we just talk for a minute?"
A dry laugh left me. "That's all you need to prove your defence? Okay dickwad, go ahead."
Before another sound left him, I jogged up the stairs at an impressible speed considering it's me we're talking about. But before I could enjoy the distance between us, he began to jog right next to me.
Second floor. One more floor to go until I'm surrounded by people.
This is the one of those rare moments where I wish people would talk to me.
"Can you just slow down," he hissed, and I was ready to laugh, but when I saw Lucas by the top of the stairs, eyeing the both of us curiously, I stopped.
I couldn't even kneel down to catch my breath once I reached the top floor because Lucas was staring at me so intensely I couldn't help but hold my breath.
Suddenly his gaze reached over my shoulder, and his eyes narrowed into a glare before lacing his fingers with mine.
I was too shocked to reply before he tugged me into our classroom.
"Who is he to you, Emma?" Lucas hissed under his breath once we were sitting at our seat.
I moved my hand out of his hold before putting both of my hands between the middle of my thighs.
"No one," I replied, but I could tell he wasn't satisfied with the answer.
Without giving me enough time to think of an excuse to make him to stay, he got up from his seat and moved to the second row to sit with one of his friends.
Well, that's mature.
♡
"I'm so hungry I could eat a whole..."
"A whole, what?" I laughed as Alyssa and I began to walk inside of the cafeteria to buy some food.
The smell of pasta caught my attention, and apparently it did for Alyssa too. "A whole bowl of pasta!"
"Oh, how serious. A whole bowl of pasta," I responded sarcastically, and she narrowed her eyes on me before asking the lunch lady by the other side of the glass to pack her a small bowl of pasta.
When I was next, I asked if I could have some of the same pasta as well, and within in a minute, we were standing on a separate line to buy our food.
Just as we exited the cafeteria, I spotted the girl from our dance class who was always glued to her rubix cube leaning against the wall next to the attendance office, and I bit my lip before walking up to her.
Alyssa followed in confusion, and the girl's eyes shifted up when she saw me standing two feet or so away from her.
"Hi," I smiled. "I'm Emma. You're in my dance class, right?"
She slowly moved the rubix cube away from her gaze before looking at me with her dark brown eyes. "Yeah," she said slowly. "I'm Kimberly, but you could just call me Kim."
Kimberly began to eye my features before looking at Alyssa. A silent question hung over them, and Alyssa cleared her throat before sticking her hand between them.
"I'm Alyssa," she smiled, and Kim laughed at the hand sticking out before tangling her fingers with Alyssa's.
"Kim," someone shouted once they both dropped their hands, and the three of us watched as Trevor rushed over to stand next to Kim.
Suddenly my eyes widened as I connected the dots with a large grin. "Kimberly? As in Kimberly Jones? Jeez, I haven't seen you in eight years," I laughed, and her eyes widened too.
"Emma Sul?" She began to say with confusion, and I smiled at the memory of what she called my last name instead.
"You look like a completely different person," she continued with a laugh before wrapping her arms around me in a hug.
Once we parted, I briefly explained to Alyssa who the Jones siblings were to me before we rushed outside to meet the rest of the group, who were already surrounded by the large, shaded tree.
As we were nearing the tree, I saw that almost every spot around everyone was full, but there was an empty spot on the right side of Lucas.
My lips threatened to lift up into a smile before returning to it's natural blank state.
I guess he's not mad at me anymore.
"Hey guys," I greeted everyone as I moved to the spot next to Lucas, and they all greeted me with different version's of hello before my butt reached the green grass.
But of course, when I sat down, I saw Alec sitting across from Jason, and I internally groaned before pressing the fork on the macaroni.
Kim was awkwardly sitting next to Alyssa, and I bit my lip before looking at everyone on the other side of me. "Guys, this is Kim. You remember her from out second grade class with Trevor?" I asked Lucas, Jason, Lauren and Anna.
They all nodded, but only the girls greeted her with a smile. "Yeah! Welcome to our..." Anna eyed the ten of us before looking back to Kim with cunfusion written on her soft face.
"We need a squad name," Anna said suddenly, and Lauren choked on air. "There's is too much of us," she explained further on and every shook their head in disagreement.
"We're... good, Annie," I said, and she shrugged before paying attention to her meal.
Once I started eating my pasta, I occasionally looked to Lucas, but his attention was on his phone in front of him.
Sighing, I looked down to my lap before continuing to eat.
♡
My last two periods rolled by painfully slow, but what kept me through it was the idea of going home afterwards.
But luck just happened to love me that Thursday afternoon because right as I was putting my binder in my locker, I got a text from Jason.
Jason: Hey Em, could you find a ride home today? Trevor and I are gonna try out for soccer now! Wish us luck.
Great. So great.
If that seemed to be the bad news, I texted Lauren and asked if she could take me home, but she said she already had left because she had to get some milk for her mom at the grocery store.
Walking it is then.
Thankfully, from what it looked like from the window, it was shining with a hint of light grey clouds in the sky.
I quickly closed my locker before heading to the first floor.
Without stopping my steps, I opened the front pocket of my bag before pulling out my headphones and plugging it into my phone before closing the pocket.
"Baby when they look up at the sky, we'll be shooting stars just passing by. You'll be coming home with me tonight. We'll be burning up like neon lights," I began to sing under my breath as I was walking next to the forest on my left.
I possibly had ten minutes of walking coming between me and Jason's house when suddenly, a handful of motorcycle driver's began zooming down the street.
My eyes widened in surprise, and I hoped that they would be smart and be alert of their surroundings if they're going that speed.
Suddenly, one motorcycle began to slowly reverse until it was parked next to me.
I sucked in a large intake of breath before increasing my speed, but instead of staying at the same spot like I thought, it slowly drove next to me.
When the person knew I wasn't planning on stopping anytime soon, they drove a little ahead of me before parking the bike.
"Shit," I grumbled under my breath and I turned to walk the other way, but I stopped when I heard a familiar voice.
"Wait," they shouted behind me, and out of curiosity, I looked over my shoulder to see Alec removing his helmet off of his head.
"What the fuck, Alec? I thought you were a serial killer," I hissed, but he only chuckled as he rested his helmet on the leather seat.
As Alec began to slowly take steps towards me, I scoffed at his eagerness to talk to me. Before I had a moment to think, I turned to the direction of the forest before following the path laid out in front of me.
The ground was still soft from the rain that fell yesterday, but I didn't care. I just wanted there to be distance between us.
I hardly walked a few feet before his fingers wrapped itself around my wrist, tugging me gently so there was hardly any space between us.
I turned back to him with a hard glare. "Let. Me. Go."
Alec sighed but let me go nonetheless. I turned my body so I was facing him before crossing my arms over my chest.
His jaw clenched as he began to run his fingers through his messy head of brown hair. "Can I just apologize without you running away from me?" He asked as if as though he was stressed.
I saw the same entrance I came from behind him, and I sighed. So close, but so far.
"Maybe you shouldn't have cheated on me," I replied back with a snarl, but instead of saying anything, he chose to stay silent.
So, I continued.
"Why, huh Alec? It wasn't good enough the first time?" I asked rhetorically, and he hung his head low. "I gave you that part of myself and you just went right behind my back," I whispered, re-living what I had to go through after that.
Alec still didn't say anything, so I scoffed before circling around him.
However, before I could exit the pathway, Alec grabbed my wrist once more before turning me around so that not only was I facing him, but my back was to the exit.
"I can explain why," he whispered as he let go of my wrist.
My eyebrows raised up as a scoff of disbelief left me. "Really?"
His jaw clenched briefly as he looked off to the woods before looking back to me. "I felt like you didn't trust me," he began. "After the first time, you were so scarred that you wouldn't even let me touch you."
My gaze shifted to the ground, remembering how sickening his touch felt after we had sex.
"I invited you to Dallas' party, but you didn't want to. And Julia was throwing herself at me," he sighed. "It didn't mean anything at all, Emma."
Alec's gaze roamed around my face once I looked back up. His expression softened. "I loved you. You were never supposed to find out about my one fuck up ."
My eyebrows raised as I shoved him on his chest, causing him to stumble back a few steps.
"I had to find out from Alyssa, you jack ass!" I yelled, a little too loud, might I add.
But at that moment, I didn't give a shit.
"And you didn't even tell her, you told one of your fucking friends on your phone, laughing about how good Julia rode you," I hissed.
Alec had nothing to say but stand awkwardly in front of me.
Not being able to stand here anymore, I was ready to turn around, but Alec must have noticed my single step back before cupping the back of my head.
Before I understood what he was doing, he tilted his head slightly before smashing his lips to my own.
It took me three seconds to react.
First, my breath was sucked in by surprise.
Second, my eyes widened.
Third, I shoved him off of my body so hard he fell on his ass in front of me.
"Don't do that again, Alec," I snarled before turning on my heels so I was once again, facing the entrance.
However, instead of seeing nothing but a side walk and a street, I saw a familiar car parked next to the entrance.
But it wasn't the car who stopped me from breathing.
It was the person in front of it, staring right at me with icy blue eyes that caused me to freeze at my spot.
Lucas' narrowed eyes slowly moved onto Alec, who was most likely still on the ground considering that Lucas shifted his gaze lower rather than higher.
He said nothing. He only stared.
I internally groaned.
Well, that's just great.
♡
So I decided on doing something new.
If I posted He's No Good once a week, it would finish by the middle of December, but I want to start my new teen fiction novel after it finishes so I decided to post two chapters a week!
I hope you lovelies are happy! I planned out all of the chapters, and so far, there's forty-five chapters, and an epilogue coming your way.
Another thing, if you've read Only You and you want to continue the series, Becca's book is now up! Chapter's will be posted on the fourth of December, so if you would like, keep it on your private story!
If you haven't read Only You, it's okay! It could be read as a stand alone!
Well, thank you lovelies for reading! Please vote and comment! Any feedback is good feedback.
Love you xx