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T O B E T R U S T E D
( chapter three )
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* . °•★| The following week held another development in the mystery of what had come over Sam Uley and Jared Cameron. That development being the addition of Paul Lahote to their 'cult'. The whispers spread like wildfire about the school, Paul Lahote, the once popular athlete and 'girl magnet', had disappeared for the first week back to school (and perhaps been off the map for even longer than that), before returning more toned and muscular, at least a foot taller, with cropped hair and a tattoo. Just like Jared. Just like Sam.
Suddenly Jared and Paul (who, despite being in the same grade, had never really spoken) were stuck together by the hip, they'd walk around together looking broody and intimidating, they'd sit together at lunch, normally talking in hushed voices, and then they'd leave together at the end of the day, disappearing to places unknown. Jess said that Jared was barely ever home anymore, sometimes not returning for days at a time. The boys both skipped school regularly and in the occasions they did show up, they were always late. People had started seeing them and Sam running around town, mainly staying near the forest and always dressed in just a pair of jean shorts, no top on even though it was below freezing and starved of sunshine where they lived.
"So Jared finally becomes friends with Paul, even though i've been begging him to for years so he can introduce me, but it's when he refuses to acknowledge my existence." Jess huffed as her and Lyla sat at their lunch table. "Just my luck."
"Well, it's their loss. If they want to be brooding druggies, let them, I want nothing to do with it." Lyla snapped.
"Woah, easy tiger, someone woke up on the wrong side of bed this morning." Jess commented.
It was true, Lyla was extremely moody: she woke up late due to staying up half the night wondering about Jared and the other two members of his brooding gang; she couldn't fix her car, something that her and Jared would always do together whenever the thing broke down - which was often; and her uncle hadn't bothered to clean any of his dirty dishes in about a week, leaving her a sink-full to do when she got home.
"Sorry, i'm just a bit stressed, I guess." Lyla sighed, but sent Jess a small smile.
"Tell me about it." Jess chuckled, life at home had been stressful for her too, her brother barely coming home from one night to the next and the tension gradually rising the more her parents pretended nothing was wrong. "My parents are driving me up the wall."
"Can't relate." Lyla joked. Jess was used to the girl's slightly morbid humour, though it made others uncomfortable and struggle to respond.
"Um, save the sob story, i've got my own now: 'brother goes awol'." Jess responded, perhaps seeming a bit insensitive but knowing Lyla well enough to be sure she wouldn't find it offensive, in fact, she'd find it funny.
"I know, I know." Lyla replied with a teasing grin.
As the conversation died down, Lyla's eyes drifted back to the table that Jared and Paul had claimed as their own, it was a new habit she wished she hadn't developed. She watched as they talked in hushed tones, mainly Jared talking to an especially angry looking Paul - the boy's well known anger issues seeming to be worse since he'd returned, though Jared dragged him away from any situations the old him would have picked a fight over before things got too heated. Lyla knew she should stop looking, not being able to stand the sight of Jared; everything about him had always been so familiar, but not anymore.
"I'm just gonna go to the toilet quickly." Lyla told Jess, getting up from their table and walking out of the cafeteria, ignoring the greetings from people as she passed - she really wasn't in the mood.
She walked through the abandoned halls, ducking into the bathroom for a bit of peace and quiet to dull her oncoming headache. She stayed in there for a few minutes before deciding it was time to get back to Jess, she walked out of the bathroom, only to smack into a hulking great body, almost sending her flying to the floor.
"Watch where you're going." A voice growled.
She looked at the guy she'd bumped into as he walked away, barely pausing when he'd hit her. It was Paul Lahote, and walking next to him, not even sparing the girl a glance was Jared.
Anger spread through her. "Are you serious?" She laughed, though she found nothing about the situation funny.
Lyla was never one to allow someone to walk all over her or mess her about, she believed if you had something to say, just say it, that way you can get it off your chest.
The boys kept walking, ignoring her presence, and only making her angrier.
"Hey! I'm talking to you." She snapped at them and finally Jared stopped, his shoulders tense as he kept himself facing the doors, refusing to look back at her.
"Jared." Paul said in a warning tone.
"What the hell, Jared?" Lyla snapped. "What, you're seriously not even going to talk to me ever again? No explanation, nothing?"
He didn't answer, nor did he turn around to look at her. But he didn't keep walking either. Lyla guessed that was progress.
"What about Jess? She's your sister and you won't even look at her. She says you barely even go home anymore, your parents are worried about you... Hell, at this point, even I'm worried about you." Lyla kept going, taking several steps forward so they weren't talking from separate ends of the corridor.
He wanted to look at her, so badly, just to know, when their eyes met, if she was the one. But Paul was there giving him a stern glare, after all it was Jared who asked him to make sure he'd never go anywhere near the girls again - it wasn't safe.
"I'm sorry." He ground out, knowing how stubborn and fierce Lyla was and that she wouldn't let him get away without giving her some sort of response.
"That's it? That's all I get?" She laughed incredulously. "However many years of friendship and you end it with 'i'm sorry'?"
He couldn't help it, he turned to face her, he knew seeing her face would only make it harder, but he also hoped that he'd see what he wanted to, something that would mean he didn't have to keep this secret from her.
But when he looked into her eyes, his heart almost broke. Because nothing happened. She was the same beautiful, amazing girl he'd always known, but there was no world altering moment caused just by looking at her. Then the sadness was over taken by anger, anger at the spirits for not seeing that she was the perfect girl for him, anger at himself for being too weak to stay away from her, and anger at her for being so damn stubborn and leading to him looking at her, but not getting the answer he wanted from it.
Paul put his hand on Jared's shoulder, already prepared to drag the guy away from the oblivious girl.
"Wait." Lyla called as Paul started steering Jared out of the school, confused by the series of emotions that passed over Jared's face and concerned by the way he shook.
Paul whirled around to face her, prepared to snap at her to get out of there while still trying to force Jared out the door, but the moment his eyes met hers, he forgot the harsh words dancing on the edge of his tongue and his body stiffened. He was overwhelmed with the pull he felt towards this girl, despite never having spoken to her; every nerve in his body seemed to be itching for her touch. Images of holding her, laughing with her, fighting with her and loving her spun across his head fast enough to make him dizzy. It was a weird sensation at first, as if he were floating away, before she pulled him back to the ground with nothing but a look, as if she were his gravity.
A growl pulled him back to the present, and panic flooded through him when he realised that it came from Jared, who was shaking more than ever after what he'd just witnessed. Paul wasted no time, immediately dragging Jared away from Lyla, his single priority being to keep her safe.
It all happened so fast and before Lyla knew it, they were gone. She barely processed the fact that she didn't get the answers she'd been hoping for in that confrontation, her thoughts instead lingering on Paul Lahote, someone she'd never given much consideration to before. But after the most intense yet least uncomfortable eye contact she'd ever experienced, her mind seemed to be on autopilot with questions about him refusing to fade. Lyla shook herself, angry that she got distracted and didn't go after them to find out their secrets herself. The loud ring of the school bell startled her from where she stood frozen in the middle of the corridor, and she rushed to her locker, trying to compose herself and look normal.
"Hey, where'd you go, it's been ages?" Jess's voice cut through her once again distracting thoughts as she went to her own locker, two doors down from Lyla's.
"Oh, um, sorry, I was, uh..." Lyla stumbled over her words - something the quick witted girl rarely did, her being notorious for her sharp tongue.
"Are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost." Jess laughed, giving the girl an odd look.
"Um, close." Lyla chuckled, earning a questioning look from Jess as the girl collected her books from her locker and handed Lyla the bag she'd left in the cafeteria. "I spoke to Jared." Lyla eventually blurted.
"Wait, what?" Jess halted her actions and whirled around to face her friend. "What did he say?"
"Not a lot. Like I said, I spoke to him." Lyla clarified.
"Okay, well what did you say?" Jess prodded.
"Just called him out on ditching us without explanation, told him we were all worried about him." Lyla told her as they began to walk to class.
"And? He said nothing?"
"Well, he said 'i'm sorry', like that makes any difference." Lyla scoffed slightly, taking her seat next to Jess in English.
"Then what?" Jess asked eagerly.
"Then..." Lyla trailed off thinking back to how Jared turned and looked at her, how he searched her eyes for something that clearly wasn't there, and how crushed he looked when he couldn't find it. Then she thought about how Paul had tried to drag Jared away when he started shaking and the way Paul had looked at her. "Then nothing, they left."
Lyla knew she shouldn't have lied, she hated it, but she didn't know what the truth even was. She couldn't tell Jess about the way Jared looked at her, or the way Paul looked at her; it was oddly indescribable, and besides Jared was Jess' brother and Paul was the guy she liked. Not to mention that the whole situation was bizarre and would sound like she was overthinking and exaggerating.
Jess looked disappointed at the lack of progress being made with her brother, but she didn't bring it up again, instead the pair sat through their English lesson in silence. Lyla was lost in thought, first she thought about the way Jared looked at her, she'd never seen that expression on him before, never seen him look so intense - and the way he shook, it was anger that much was clear, but he'd never been an angry person, his goofy nature didn't allow for a temper; but that was something more than just plain rage, she could practically feel it rolling off of him in waves. Then her thoughts were once again captured by Paul. A guy she'd never spoken to or even crossed paths with, in fact, she probably wouldn't even know of him if it weren't for Jess's school girl crush on him. But something about him in that moment had caught her attention, so much so that she'd almost forgotten why she'd been standing in that hallway with the boy in the first place, and so much so that her thoughts were left foggy for the rest of the day, constantly circling back to him. She didn't understand it, in fact she hated it, never had she been the type of girl to get hooked on a guy, that was always Jess, Lyla hated the thought of being the kind of girl who's world revolved around a boy, in fact she'd never given a second thought to boys, so the fact that Paul Lahote of all people had caught her attention shocked her to the core.
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"You okay?" Brian asked as they sat at the table that night for dinner.
They always say in silence, and tonight was certainly no different, but even a man as emotionally oblivious as Brian could tell that something was playing on his niece's mind. He'd spent their whole time at the table wondering whether or not he should say something, he didn't necessarily want to - he wasn't comfortable with the whole concept of emotional teenage girl issues, something he'd avoided with Lyla so far - but he figured it was his job to at least ask.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Lyla mumbled.
"You sure? You've barely eaten." Brian pushed nervously.
"Yep." She insisted.
(Oh thank God. Was all Brian could think. He didn't have to perform any parental duties today.)
Lyla instead kept it to herself, she doubted her uncle would appreciate hearing about her issues, and she was sure he'd tense up at just the mention of a boy's name, let alone the two that were plaguing her now. She still couldn't get that day's incident out of her head, and honestly? It was really starting to get on her nerves.
"You know what? No, I'm not fine." Lyla snapped suddenly. "My car broke down. Again. You said months ago you would get me a new radiator hose weeks ago. And don't even think about leaving your dishes for me to wash up, again!" Lyla ranted.
She knew that taking her irritation out on her uncle wasn't fair, and the shocked look on his face only made her feel even guiltier.
"Go. Go do you homework or something." Was all the man said.
And being the stubborn girl she was, Lyla didn't apologise, only got up and left the room with a dramatic scrapping back of her chair and huff.
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