Happy reading! And thanks to whoever is reading haha I think that's only Roxychick so THANKS ROXY!! love ya! :))
-Kat :))
Part 4
By lunchtime the news of Derek and I had be jumbled up, ripped to shreds, torn at the seams, and set on fire. The latest version I heard of our date was how it ended with Derek and I in a fist fight over the check. I won.
All day I walked through the halls of Hyland High and was given dirty looks from several girls and high fives from the football and baseball team. I'm not even sure which version they heard. One thing is for sure; they didn't hear the actual story. I guess the truth just wasn't satisfying for their liking.
It was the end of school so I walked up to my locker as quickly as possible. I had the luxury of not running into Derek all day. Not including the mere glimpses of when I saw him during lunch with Lila, which happened to secure my suspicions of her being the slut that slept with Derek.
I yanked open my locker and tossed my Pre-Calc book in with a loud thud and grabbed my bag out and slung it over my shoulder.
Before closing my locker, I paused. Just like any good girlfriend would do, I had put up pictures of Derek and I over the course of our relationship. The picture that caught my eye the most was the one in the center.
It was a picture of Derek and I on our first real date, not counting that little dinner that Derek had set up in the gym. The blaring lights of the carnival were scattered above us as we sat together on the bench in front of the Ringtoss stand.I was in my usual attire; faded skinny jeans with a button up shirt and of course, my lucky, beat up converse and Derek was in his black blazer and dark blue jeans. I had a bright blue, swirl of cotton candy in my hand as the other was intertwined with Derek's. My head was rested in the perfect crook of his neck as we both were smiling to the man who had asked to take a picture for us- for a two dollars, of course. I remembered driving back to town and not getting home until about two in the morning. At the time, I thought that date was worth the lecture from my parents, but now, I think it was a waste of time.
I ripped the picture from the locker door, along with the other pictures of Derek. I crumpled them up in my hand and stuck them in my backpack for further dispose of. I hated what those memories did to me. They stared me in the face and forced down the good times that Derek and I shared while dangling the red thong in my face. I wasn't going to put up with that; I just wanted to forget Derek.
"Riley?" I heard a husky voice say from behind.
I turned around and was face to face with Avan's dark eyes, which held a glaze of confusion and worry over them. "What's wrong?"
"Funny, I was just about to ask you the same thing." He told me. Then in a quiet voice, he added, "Why are you crying?"
My hands darted up to my cheeks. I felt the cool touch of the trail of salt water that was left behind. I hadn't noticed the tears streaming down my face. I instantly grew embarrassed that Avan had caught me crying and I had no idea why.
"Riley," he whispered again. "Are you ok?"
I shook my head. "Yeah, I'll be fine. Just some cleaning." I nodded to my locker.
I watched as Avan's eyes flew from mine to my locker. I could tell he spotted the corners of the pictures that were still stuck on the door, when the corner of his mouth tilted upward, revealing his dazzling smile.
"Ah," he said as he reached up and plucked one of the corners from the door. "The get-rid-of-all-his-stuff phase." He then flicked the corner at me, and it got caught in my bangs.
I laughed as I took it out of my bangs and threw it back at him. "Actually, it's the 'erase-all-traces-of-him-from-my-life' phase. Which, I might add, I'm totally failing at."
"And why is that?" He leaned up against the kicker next to me.
"Because I can't walk down the halls without everyone making comments about Derek." I told him. "I just want my life to go back to how it was before Derek."
My life before Derek. No one knew my name before Derek and I started dating. He was the reason people actually knew my name and wanted to be my friend. However, I was perfectly content with being ignored. I actually feel better that way.
"Just give it a few days or so. I'm sure it'll blow over." Avan reassured me.
I smiled. "Thank you, Avan."
He cocked his head. "For what?"
"The advice. The ride. Just being here." I said. Then, out of instinct, I pulled Avan into a tight hug. At first he was hesitant with my sudden touch but then I slowly felt his arms wrap around my waist, pulling me in tighter. It felt good to have his arms around me. It wasnt the usual electric shock that most people claim to feel. This was a warm feeling. A fire.
"It was my pleasure, Riley." Avan whispered.
Before I could respond, Avan was ripped from my grasp and thrown against the locker. I stepped back in shock and watched as Derek stood over Avan by a good two inches. My pulse suddenly quickened at the sight of Derek.
"What the hell are you doing with my girl?" Derek asked taking a step forward. Their faces were inches apart. I knew that if they fought, Avan wouldnt stand a chance. Derek was vicious when it came to fights. I couldn't let Avan get into a fight because of me.
I ran to them and pushed myself between their close bodies, putting my hands on both of their hard, heaving chests. "Stop it, ok."
They both didn't look down on me. In fact, they both just ignored the fact that I was separating them and they just continued with their conversation.
"Your girl?" Avan mocked. "Last time I checked, she broke up with you."
"What the hell are talking about?" Derek said between his teeth. I could feel him tense up between my fingers.
"Shall I say it slower so you can understand?" Avan said in a mock tone. "You two-" he pointed to Derek and I. "Aren't together." he paused. "Anymore."
My eyes darted to Dereks hands, which were pulled into a tight fist that made his knuckles seem to pop out more than usual. Avan must've felt the sudden grow of tension in the air because he then grabbed my arm and slide me behind him. Automatically, Derek took a step forward. Around us, I could see several spectators stopping in their tracks to watch the progressing fight. Just another rumor that they can mess up.
"We didn't break up so you can get your fucking hands off of my girlfriend." Derek growled.
Avan held his position. "I won't let you touch her." Then in a quieter voice he added. "Don't you think you've hurt her enough?" Avan was talking as if he already knew what I had found hidden in the car. Arianna must've told him at lunch.
"If I were you, I wouldn't be worried about her safety." Derek said. "Only yours."
I knew what would be coming next. Derek lifted his fist and Avan gently pushed me away from them. I shut my eyes as he made contact with Avan's jaw. I could hear the students cheering as I heard grunts coming from Derek and Avan. If they didn't stop soon, Avan would get in trouble.
I snapped my eyes open and saw Avan shove Derek hard into the lockers across from me. I couldn't help but admire his strength as he did so.
I quickly ran over to them. "Stop!" I tried grabbing Avan's arm as he lifted it to punch Derek in the face again. But it was no use, it slipped through my fingers and made a loud crack against Derek's cheek. "Avan! Stop!" This time I was successful in grabbing hold of Avan's arm and forbidding him from making another blow to Derek.
Avan's eyes met mine and a sudden wave passed over us. He dropped his arm. I broke our gaze and looked down at Derek. He was slumped against the locker, blood coming from his nose and it dripped onto his shirt. The crowd of students yelled out disappointed comments as they each walked away from the scene.
Then, Avan shocked me. He walked over to Derek and extended his hand out to him. Derek looked at him in shock, but he didn't take his hand. He grunted and pushed by it as he got up and walked over to me.
"Come on, Riley. Let's go." He slung his arm over my shoulder but I quickly shook it off and jumped back.
"No."
He looked at me in surprise. "We need to talk about this. We can fix it."
The pictures in my backpack weighed me down. Everything came back to me. The carnival, our first kiss, the time he first held my hand, the notes he had written me, stuffed animals that he had given me. But then, another thing hit me. Something that proved that it was all meaningless. The red thong that had been in his car for god knows how long.
I slowly shook my head. "No." I whispered.
"What?"
"I said no, Derek. I don't want to fix this because there is nothing to fix. You cheated! You can't take that back and I can't pretend that it didn't happen." I said regaining my voice.
Several people around us heard what I had said and stared at us with wide eyes. The truth will be around school in no time.
Derek stared at me. His jaw clenched and I was suddenly scared. I took another step back and Avan stepped in between us.
"I think you should leave her alone now." Avan said in a low growl.
I closed my eyes expecting another fight to break out, but instead of hearing the loud smack of a fist against bone, I heard the loud thud of metal right next to my ear. I jumped away and opened my eyes just in time to see Derek walking away towards Lila who was waiting at the end of the hall. I watched as he slipped his hand around her waist like nothing had ever happened.
I looked back at Avan. He was standing over me, still shielding me from any harm. Blood was slowly dripping from his busted lip, and i could already see the bruise forming underneath his eye. I winced.
"What's wrong?" Avan asked me.
"I'm sorry. This is my fault." I said to him.
"Hey, it's fine. I didn't have to hit him." He said. "I wanted to. He deserved it."
I couldn't suppress my smile. It's not everyday an incredibly cute guy beats up your ex for you. "Well, thank you. Again."
"No problem." He touched his nose and looked at his now bloody fingers. "Great." he mumbled to himself.
I smiled. "Well, come on." I grabbed his hand. "Let's go get you cleaned up."
༺ღ༻༺ღ༻༺ღ༺ღ༻
I stuck my head out of the girls bathroom and looked around for Avan. I spotted him over by the water fountain, studying the bulletin board.
"Avan." I called out to him. He turned around and faced me. The blood on his face had started to dry. "It's all clear."
I waved him over and pulled him quickly into the girls bathroom. We were lucky that it was the end of the day, or else this place would have been crawling with girls bustling over their make-up. I shut the door and locked it in case anyone wanted to come in. I pulled him over to the nearest sink and grabbed a wad of paper towels from the nearby dispenser. I flipped the faucet on and let the water run slightly on the paper towel.
"Hold still." I went onto the balls of my feet and slide my hand behind his head and gently touched the towel to Avan's upper lip. He flinched and I pulled away quickly. "I'm sorry. I didn't know you were hit there."
"It's fine." He smiled. "I can take it."
I slowly brought the towel to his face and carefully wiped away the dry blood on his face. Normally I would be disgusted at the fact that I'm this close to touching someone else's blood, but for some reason I wasn't. In fact, I was actually more than happy to be the one to clean his face.
To be this close to his chiseled face.
I studied his face after each wipe I made. The way his upper lip curved perfectly into a smile, the arch of his eyebrows, his straight nose, the cute, natural way his thick eyelashes curl up. What really got me was how he could still look so flawless with his face covered in blood.
One thing for sure, Valerie was a lucky girl.
"Okay, you're all clean." I said a couple of minutes later.
Avan turned around and looked at himself in the mirror. "Thank you, Riley."
"My pleasure." I said. "It was the least I can do." I tossed the red paper towel into the trash can and then walked back to Avan, who was now examining his busted lip and black eye.
Avan must've felt me looking at him because he turned around and looked at me. "It was totally worth it, Riley. So no worries, really."
"It looks like it hurt." I whispered.
"It did but I'm pretty sure I got him a few good times so were are even."
I smiled. "That was really cool what you did."
"What? Beating up your ex?" he laughed.
"Well, yeah that too. But I was talking about how you offered to help him after you just fought him." I said, crossed my arms over my chest. "It was really cool."
Avan shrugged. "Well I hate making an ass out of myself, but people like Derek just really," He paused. "Really piss me off."
I smiled. "Yeah I can see how you'd think that."
He laughed.
"What's so funny?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I don't know." He said. "I guess it's just I don't see how a sweet and caring girl like you can be with a guy like him."
"Yeah, I was starting to question my sanity over the past couple of months." I laughed.
As my laughter died down, Avan and I fell into a silence. Not on of the awkward silences that you fall into when you first meet a person, but a comfortable silence where you don't feel the need to fill in the empty air with nonsense that you probably don't even mean. I liked being able to stand in the middle of the girls bathroom and not have a conversation with someone. With him, especially.
"Hey Riley." He finally said. "Uh, do you want to get something to eat?"
My first response was to blurt out my 'yes' and have Avan sweep me off my feet and make me want to forget Derek, but instead, I stayed quiet. I couldn't say yes.
He was Arianna's older brother and how well did I know him? He could be just like Derek. He could hurt me and I don't know how much my heart can take. I couldn't take that risk again.
"Not as a date, of course." He added shyly at my lack of words.
"I'm sorry, Avan. I don't think that's a good idea, considering my situation." I said slowly.
Avan pursed his lips into a thin line. I felt horrible for rejecting him when I really wanted to say yes. "That's cool." He said quickly. "I understand. Well maybe some other time than."
"Yeah, a raincheck. Definitely," I smiled.
This time, it was an awkward silence that we fell into. I shifted uneasily from my heels to the balls of my feet.
"Uh, well, I should probably get going." Avan said, moving toward the door. "Thanks again for helping me."
"Yeah, no problem." I said.
Then, he was gone.
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A/N:
So I think I have this problem. I keep on accidentally voting for my stories! CURSE YOU SMALL BUTTONS ON THE WATTPAD APP!!!!
So I have come to the conclusion that there can be two things wrong:
One: My fingers are too fat and when I try to press the 'comments' button my fat finger accidentally hits the 'vote' button which is almost directly over it. This can be resolved by going to the gym and doing theory reps of Finger-ups and Finger Curls! But my all time favorite has to be the Finger Presses! (I am up to twenty reps with that bad boy! BEAT THAT!)
Two: Evil magical elves live within my iPod and wish to make me look like a lame-o who has to resort to voting for her own stories! The elves are still angry about how I ate all of their cookies.... (I mean come on! GET OVER IT!) There is no resolution for this problem because as of last week, I am now part of the P.A.H.M.E (People Against Harming Magical Elves).
ANYWAAAAAYS! please vote (so I don't have to hahaha) and comment and fan!! Thanks you guys! :))
Haha I just realized how much nonsense I wrote.... Oh well! :)