Jake insisted on walking me home even though I told him I can take care of myself. So now we are walking in awkward silence. I tugged at the sleeves of the hoodie he put on me and kept walking knowing his stare was burning into me. "What is it, Jake?" He sighed "What did I do wrong?" I looked down towards my feet, I felt pretty bad now that we had a pretty nice time and all I'm doing is confusing him with my actions. All I wanted to happen was for him to realize the things his friends were saying about me. Now it just seems like he's more confused. I sighed "Tonnie said she would try to make it easier for you to notice, I'm sorry all I'm doing is confusing you." He shook his head, smirking "This reason better be a good one or I'm gonna be pretty pissed that you're messing with my feelings like this."
His comment made me blush furiously and I let my hair fall to cover my face from him seeing it. He was walking to the left of me so I looked to my right trying to ignore the feeling I was getting. We turned into my driveway and I looked up seeing the sheriff's squad car parked and the living room lights were on. "Shit." I took off running towards my house quickly running inside to see my parents talking to the man with very worried and scared expressions. They all looked up at me and my mom ran to me, engulfing me in a hug "Scarlett where the hell did you run off for 3 hours?" Jake poked his head inside wondering if everything was okay and my mom looked extremely shocked. "But I thought-" I cut her off "It's nothing. We just had a school project to work on, when I went on my walk we bumped into each other and decided to start the project. I'm sorry I lost track of time but I promise I'm okay." My dad stood next to my mom and looked at Jake with a little aggression "As long as that's all you guys were doing." I nodded furiously. I haven't ever seen them this mad. The sheriff smiled at Jake "Now don't you worry Jake is a very good man. He was thinking about joining the force once he was done with school." Jake bumped shoulders with him as if to say 'shush'. I knew he said something about joining the forces when he was a kid because he idolized his grandfather and all he did for this town. I didn't realize he was still committed.
My dad gave me a stern look and I turned to Jake "Thank you for walking me home, I'm okay now goodnight." he nodded sadly noticing my distant reply. "Goodnight Scar." He nodded to my parents and he walked out the door with the sheriff.
After they were gone my mom looked at me expectantly. I sighed "I know I said I wanted nothing to do with him but I can't control what the teacher says." With that, I ran up to my room looking out the window to see Jake standing at the end of the driveway looking straight into my window. I smiled at him which he returned and waved. I went into my bathroom and quickly brushed my teeth and hair. I looked at my dyed black hair with a little disgust. I'm getting sick of black hair, maybe I'll try something new soon. I braided it to the side and changed into something comfortable and headed to bed with Athena in her small kennel next to my bed. What feelings was he talking about?
I woke up the next morning to my alarm and hit snooze. I sat in bed for a while noticing the very still silence throughout the house. My parents aren't home anymore. I sighed heavily and did my normal morning routine then headed off to get Jamie.
We drove in silence to the school, I'm guessing she had a lot on her mind so I left her alone, letting her tell me when she was ready.
When we walked into the gym I saw the teacher had set up badminton for today's activity. I absolutely love this activity so much. Jamie and I put our bags against the wall and even though we had about 15 minutes before class started I grabbed two rackets and handed one to Jamie as well as making sure I had a decent birdie before dragging her to the last net at the other end of the gym. She clearly didn't want to be doing any kind of activity this early in the morning. The gym teacher glanced towards us smiling and started walking to the entrance of the gym to greet everyone that walked in. I started passing it over the net trying to wake her up a bit but we only got a small volley going before she gave up and groaned. I smiled sadly, at least she was trying. I let her take a break and started lightly bouncing the birdie on my racket.
"You wanna play?" I jumped hitting the birdie a little harder than I intended and spun around to see Jake and a couple of his friends. I looked up to see where the birdie was and it was about to land straight on my head. I accepted my fate and was going to let it hit me but Jake took a big step towards me and caught it right above my head. He gave me a cocky smirk. "well?" I huffed "fine but just you and me." His smirk turned into a small smile as he walked over to the other side of the net. Our gym teacher smiled walking over to watch how this was going to go down.
We still had about 5 minutes until class officially started so we had time for a quick game. I took the birdie from Jake and got into position as a crowd formed around us a little bit and even the gym teacher stopped and watched. I had a feeling he wasn't starting class until we were done. Our gym teacher is a hilarious guy so I didn't really mind if he did wait. Speaking of the hilarious teacher he chuckled at Jake's composed face "I'd watch yourself O'Donnell she's really good at this sport." He smirked back at the teacher "But I'm the more athletic one." I narrowed my eyes at him quickly pitching the birdie with great form. We had a great volley going on for a while until it got a little violent. Jake smacked it aggressively and I had made it seem like I was going to smack it back with the same aggression until I lightly punted it and he nearly dived for it but it was too late and it hit the ground. Now I know what you're thinking, a badminton game is supposed to last about 45 minutes. I was only going for a short game and the teacher busted out laughing. I smiled towards him as he pointed to me "I taught you that one." I laughed at the surprised expression I was getting from Jake but it eventually turned into a proud smile.
The rest of the morning wasn't very eventful until I got to the lunchroom. Sam, Jamie, and I sat down at our usual table and started chatting away. Jamie was telling Sam about how I kicked Jake's ass at Badminton this morning. I was a little lost in thought looking at my phone as I read over tomorrow's paper and saw a few mistakes I would have to fix when I got home. I realized more people started sitting at our table. Jake sat down next to me and I glared at him. Tonnie sat on the other side of me and a couple of guys sat next to Jamie and Sam. My voice was full of venom "What are you guys doing?" Jake chuckled looking over towards me "What we can't sit here? Am I breaking a law?" I growled lowly ignoring him, I was gonna get up to get some air soon anyway. "Hey Scar?" I looked up giving full attention to Sam "Yeah what's up?" She smirked 'oh no' "Who's sweatshirt is that?" Jamie gives me the same questioning glance and I roll my eyes getting up from the table "I need some air." I take the hoodie off and throw it over Jake's head walking it. I hear him chuckle behind me looking my way. I started aggressively running my hand through my hair trying to get away as fast as possible, hiding in the nurse's office with the bed against the wall. I curled myself up trying to calm my heart.
Jake O'Donnell
I stood up telling her friends I was gonna go find her and apologize. Sam stopped me "You didn't do anything Jake shes just going to go get some air, she doesn't like being in the lunchroom because of the number of people." I nodded "But I still embarrassed her." She nodded giving up on stopping me and I headed straight to the nurse's office knowing she was there. When I walked in there were two doors one side was meant for boys and one for girls but after a while she just allowed anyone to go anywhere. She pointed to the right side and whispered "back corner." I nodded and walked to the back where Scarlett was. I walked into her small area and closed the curtain behind me sitting next to her quietly. I held the hoodie she threw over my earlier out to her waiting for her to take it. I saw she was hesitant "It's just you and me Scar." she took it, put it on, and hugged it to her body.
Scarlett Rose
It feels safe, Jake came closer to me putting his hand on my cheek and I felt a weird warmth arise in my stomach. He leaned in until our foreheads were pressed together "You're driving me crazy." I chuckled nervously waiting for his next move, "It goes both ways."
No, he didn't kiss me but I could tell he thought about it. We got up and he walked me to my next class where I saw Daisy Mae as we walked by. She was clearly pissed that Jake was walking me because I saw her manicured claws dig into her palms and she glared at me. Great now the popular bitch is pissed at me. So much for laying low this year. Once we got to my class he gave me a reassuring smile and walked off when I walked into my class. Tonnie was extremely shocked and just stared at me. I sat down and nudged her so she would snap out of it. "Holy shit he walked you to class." I rolled my eyes ignoring her questions as I focused on the notes the teacher was explaining.
At the end of the day, I waited by my truck enjoying the sun a bit. "Hey, bitch!" I instantly snapped my eyes open to a pissed off Daisy Mae. I backed away from her not wanting to cause any problems. "Why the hell is an ugly bitch like you hanging out with Jake O'Donnell?" As she was talking I noticed Jake, Sam, and some guy I don't know walking up behind her and her goons. Sam rushed forward towards me knowing what the bullies were doing. Jake spoke up "The hell did you just call her?" My eyes widened, how did he hear what she said? Daisy quickly spun around pushing her fake tits out and instantly started flirting with him. I rolled my eyes and tried to get away into my truck. "Oh Jakey hi, could I come over today? I need help with my chemistry homework." Jake growled lowly at her getting very close, she instantly deflated seeing how mad he was. "Don't ever talk to Scarlett or talk about her like that again, understand?" She nodded and quickly ran off with her goons following close behind. Jake looked up at me to see if I was okay but her words were already deep in my head and I smiled at him but the smile didn't quite reach my eyes and he knew that. "Thank you Jake I'll see you guys later." I quickly got in my truck and drove off asking Sam if she could take Jamie home to which she nodded instantly.
I can't breathe, her words sunk into my head deep and I needed to get home quickly.