The Bad Boy (20 page)

He was finally
doing what I said. He was listening to me. But why did it feel
wrong now that he said it? My emotions were mixed but I pushed the
feeling away. I got rid of Conner, Anna wasn't going to be a
problem anymore unless she wanted to get in serious trouble, and
now Jared wasn't around to make things more confusing for
me.

This was good for
me. I knew it would have its benefits in the future. I resumed to
my class feeling like everything was looking up for me.

Too bad I
couldn't predict the future.

Chocolate…
Vanilla… Strawberry… Blueberry…? Eyck. I moved more to the left
looking through more of the flavors and grinned when I found my
favorite.

Choco mint
chip.

I opened the
freezer door and goose bumps rose on my arms from the coldness. I
picked up the biggest size tub and closed the door.

Now, I know what
you are thinking. She’s going to sit in misery and stuff her face
with ice-cream but that wasn’t what I was doing. Plus, I had no
reason for doing that either. Since the fight at school today and
Jared finally telling me off, I was more at ease with
myself.

The reason I was
buying ice-cream though was because Hailey was coming over and for
some stupid reason she told me to buy ice-cream. When I asked why,
her answer was simple. “Because I’m on my period and need period
food.”

So here I stood
walking down the freezer section getting my favorite flavor,
payback to Hailey for making me get it instead of her just going to
the store on her way to my house. Turning, I started walking out of
the isle and towards the cash registers.

I wasn’t looking
where I was going because I was searching my pockets for my money
and smacked right into someone.

The ice-cream
fell to the floor but thank God stayed shut and rolled away from my
feet to the person’s standing in front of me. “Sorry, I didn’t see
you—“

Austin stopped
talking when I stood up with the ice-cream in my hands. I gave him
a small smile feeling a little awkward. The last time I talked to
him, he was beaten and bruised and warned me not to say
anything.

He looked better
now; his face flawless and a tiny smile lifted the corner of his
lips. “Hey Emilie.” He said a little hesitant.

“
Hi.
How have you been?” The tub was dripping with water from the change
of temperature and it was making my hands slippery against the
sides.

“
Better since the last time you saw me.” He joked looking as
uncomfortable as I did. I laughed softly hoping to make this easier
on both of us. We both know he was hiding some secret so knowing
that it made it weird to have a normal conversation.
 

“
Yeah…
I hope whatever had happened doesn’t reoccur.” I said truthfully.
An emotion flashed through his eyes but he quickly looked down so I
didn’t quit catch what he was thinking.

“
I’m
with you on that but you never know what’s going to happen.” He
shrugged stuffing his hands in his pockets. “Going home to cry and
eat a tub of ice-cream?” He nodded his head at the now probably
melted ice-cream.

“
Oh.”
I looked down and then back at him with a smile thankful the
subject was a little happier even if he just made fun of me.
“Actually, my crazy friend called me last minute and told me to
pick it up for no reason.” I don’t think he would like to know the
real reason.

“
Ah,
makes sense.” He smirked and I had to hold back from widening my
eyes because he looked too much like Jared when he did that. I
never saw him smirk or joke like this before because the last three
times I met him he was upset or looked scared.

I rolled my eyes
and said, “You are too much like your brother.” Wanting to mentally
slap myself for bringing up Jared, I looked at Austin to see he
rolled his eyes also.

“
I may
be—“ Clearing his throat he instead said, “I am nothing like him.
For like a day now he has been locking himself in his room
sulking.”

My eyebrows went
up at that statement and I felt a pang of guilt. Did I cause him to
do that? I couldn’t have. He was Jared McKingsley. Bad ass, doesn’t
care about anyone but himself, and I know for a fact a girl doesn’t
have an effect on him. My thoughts then took a different path and I
realized that most of what I just thought wasn’t true.

He cares for his
family and his friends. He was always goofy and nice to me. But I
couldn’t back him up on the girl thing. He was always into one
night stands and even with me, he wanted sex. Nothing else. I bit
my lip and realized Austin was still standing there.

“
Oh,
uh, well he’s Jared, he cries whenever he doesn’t get his way.” I
laughed playing it off like it was nothing.

Austin smirked at
me again. “I take it something happened with you two? You don’t
come around anymore and Jared is sulking…”

“
Nothing happened and Jared wouldn’t sulk over me Austin.”
Hailey’s ice-cream was probably soup by now.

“
I
don’t know Emilie, he seemed pretty happy when he was around you
for that while. Maybe it was because he liked your body or maybe he
liked something else…” His words trailed off and I looked at him
quizzically. Was he trying to tell me something? Obviously, but I
couldn’t exactly figure out with all the vague words.

“
Look
Austin—“ I sighed but he cut in.

“
I got
to head out. My mom needs some things and if I’m not home soon,
I’ll be the one in my room.” He walked around me and patted my
shoulder twice. “Bye Emilie.”

“
Bye.”
I turned my neck to see him walking down an isle and I don’t know
if he even heard me since I pretty much whispered it.

The tub slipped
from my hands and my fingers caught onto the lid pulling it right
off as the ice-cream splattered all over the floor and
me.

“
Shit!”

I pulled into my
driveway and barely made it out of my car before Hailey trampled me
screaming, “Ice-cream! Ice-cream!” I handed her the bag and watched
in amusement as she pulled it out and her face fell. “Why do I have
your favorite ice-cream in my hands right now.”

“
You’re lucky I didn’t pick up the old ice-cream from the floor
and give that to you.” I walked past her, taking my keys out of my
pocket and un-locking the front door.

“
What?” Her face turned disgusted.

“
Don’t
worry, you got your ice-cream. You should be happy.” I said a
little to rudely.

“
What
crawled up your butt and laid eggs?” I gave her a look of disgust.
“What now?” She asked sighing and grabbing a spoon.

“
First, the saying is ‘what crawled up your butt and died.” She
waved me off with the spoon and started digging into the ice-cream.
“Second, nothing is wrong with me, I’m just tired. If you forgot, I
was in a fight today.”

That wasn’t the
real reason. I couldn’t get out what Austin had said at the store.
Was he implying that Jared actually liked me and was sulking
because of me? But that couldn’t be it! I couldn’t wrap my head
around Jared only being with one girl or even
liking
a
girl.

“
Gross! Are you sure you didn’t pick this off the floor. You
have horrible taste in ice-cream!” I turned to Hailey to see her
glaring at the ice-cream like it harmed her.

“
You
are really a weird person Hails.” I laughed and took the ice-cream
putting it in the freezer. She threw her spoon at me and I quickly
dodged it, letting it land in the sink. Hailey threw her hands up
and screamed “GOAL”.

Doing a tiny
victory dance she jumped onto my island and smiled at me. “I have
something to talk to you about actually. That’s why I came
over.”

“
Oh?”
I asked taking a seat next to her and crossing my legs. “What is
it?”

“
Well
you know how my last ‘relationship’ if you can call it that was
horrible because I was only being used for sex?” I nodded, a little
scared in where this conversation was going. Was Matt pressuring
Hailey for sex?

“
Don’
tell me Matt is…” Hailey quickly shook her head and I sighed in
relief. Good. Hailey doesn’t deserve that, well no one
does.

“
I
haven’t told you the entire story of how Matt and I met.” She
looked sheepish and I cocked an eyebrow at her.

“
Should I be scared?” I joked with a serious face.

“
I’ll
start from the beginning, you are going to have to know the whole
story to help me anyway.” She looked away from me biting her lip.
  

“
Okay.”

She finally
started talking and I listened as best as I could. “About two weeks
before you started talking to Jared, Matt and I were at the same
party from another town. You were sick, so you couldn’t come. I was
a little tipsy and so was he. Forgetting, that we never talked in
school, we got to talking and then we danced, and before I knew
what was happening, we were up in one of the rooms.”

“
Hails…” I put my hand on her arm.

“
I
just wanted fun, you know.” She didn’t seem upset, just lost
probably thinking about the memories. “I didn’t care that we were
from different cliques and all that shit. I liked talking to him,
and when I asked why he stopped, you know from going any further
with me. You know what he said?”

I shook my head,
a little scared and confused. If they were together what could
possibly have gone wrong?

“
He
said, this isn’t the right time and I’m not that guy.” She looked
at me with a happy smile and tears in her eyes. “Instead of having
sex that night we laid in that room until about four in the morning
talking more and more. We ended up falling asleep holding each
other and when I woke up, he was still there.”

“
Hailey, I’m confused. What are you trying to tell me? You
started off the conversation with a bad past relationship and
now….”

She went on
though, ignoring my question. “He got me breakfast and took me
home. That night he messaged me on Facebook and got my number. We
have been talking since that night and I have never felt anything
for anyone like I do for him.”

My eyes went soft
at her words and then I knew what was coming next.

“
I
think I love him Em but I’m scared because it’s been like a month
and a half. What if he thinks I’m weird and breaks up with me.” She
looked at me with tear filled eyes and I pulled her into a hug.
Hailey crying was scaring me lately. She’s been doing it too much
and she’s such a strong girl.

“
He
would be crazy not to feel the same way about you!” I soothed her
and she pulled back looking at me with fear.

“
I’ve
never loved someone before, what if I actually don’t love him, I
just think I do?”

My thoughts
drifted to Conner. I thought I loved him but I was wrong in the end
because I couldn’t stand the sight of him after the break-up and if
I really loved him I would have tried to work it out with him but I
didn’t. How could I give advice on love to my friend when I knew
nothing about it?

Looking her
straight in the eye I said the only thing I could think of, “Think
of the worst thing Matt could do to you or anyone and ask yourself
if you would fight through that obstacle to stay with him?” If I
truly, loved someone, I would fight until the end to stay with
them.

Tears rolled down
her cheeks and she smiled up at me. “I know I would because he’s
not embarrassed of me or doesn’t judge me. And I know that no
matter what he does, I would be by his side.”

“
See!
And love has risks Hailey. If you don’t take this one, you will
never know what could happen.” I smiled hopping off the counter. I
grabbed a tissue box and handed it her.

She wiped her
eyes with a scowl. “God, I’m becoming an emotional bitch. I need to
stop getting my period.” I laughed at her and she joined in
throwing the tissue away when she was done.

“
So?
When are you going to tell him?” I leaned my hip against the
counter.

“
He’s
taking me out tomorrow. I’m thinking then?” She asked me like I
knew the answer.

“
Whenever it feels right.” Was the best answer I could come up
with.

“
Fine
but will you be waiting just in case he breaks up with me and I
need a ride home?” I slapped her arm and laughed.

“
He’s
not going to be breaking up with you!”

“
I’m
hoping.” She jumped off the counter and pulled me into a hug.
“Thanks!”

I hugged her
back. My phone started vibrating in my pocket and I pulled it out
my heart stopping at the name. Jared’s name flashed across the
screen indicating I had a text from him.

I pulled up the
text and Hailey looked from over my shoulder. We read it
together.

‘
Staying away from each other means not talking to family
members either. You really suck at staying true to your
words.’

I wasn’t sure if
he was joking or being serious. And so what if I talked to Austin?
I wasn’t going to be rude and ignore him. He didn’t do anything to
me!