The Bad Boy (28 page)

Sending me a fake
grin, he asked. “Happy?”

“
Very,
thank you.”

I walked out of
my bedroom with Jared following. Downstairs, I grabbed my bag and
pulled Jared through the front door locking it behind us. His car
was parked in the driveway and I started making my way over to it
when Jared grabbed hold of my elbow.

“
What?” I asked looking back at him confused.

He nodded his
head in the direction of the road. “Do you know that
girl?”

With knitted
eyebrows I looked at the road to see a girl about our age standing
there smiling at us. She looked about five-four with brown hair.
All she was doing was smiling at us. Then it hit me. She was one of
my neighbors. I think her name was Brianna.

“
That’s one of my neighbors. She’s a sweet girl from the couple
of times I talked to her. Actually, the last time I talked to her
was freshman year when I still took the bus.”

“
Care
to explain why she is just staring at us smiling? It’s creepy not
nice.” Jared said making a weird face at her. I slapped his chest
glaring.

“
She
might be able to hear you!” I scolded. Returning my attention back
to Brianna, I saw her waving at us now. Like jumping off the
ground, fan-girl crazy waving. The grin was still on her face. I
waved back a little perplexed and then she squealed and ran over to
Jared and I.

When she was
right in front of us she screamed. “O-M-G! Are you guys together
now?” Her green eyes were as round as saucers and I felt my own
eyes go wide.

“
Uh…”
Her hands were clasped together under her chin like she was begging
for something. Her eyes never leaving mine and all I could do was
gape at her.

Thank God Jared
was next to me.

“
Yup,
banged her last night too.”

Scratch that. I
wish Jared was miles away from me right now.

Her face turned
into a moment of ‘awe’ and all I could think was why would she be
in awe of that? “That didn’t happen!” I groaned. “He came to pick
me up for school.”

“
So
you guys aren’t together?” Her face fell a little.

This conversation
was getting weird fast. But I couldn’t deny her the truth. “We are
but there is no banging going on. That I can promise you.” I sent a
death glare to Jared.

“
YAY!”
I covered my ears in pain as Brianna cheered way to loudly. “I have
been on your guys team since you guys got paired in English
class.”

Jared looked at
her like she was crazy and took a step back.

Again I was
speechless. What do you say to that?

“
Okay
then.” I finally murmured.

Brianna gave me a
giant smile and grabbed me into a hug. “I believe you when you say
Conner hurt you. Anna is just a bitch who can’t take
rejection.”

With that said,
she yanks herself away from me and quickly hugs Jared. Running away
she starts skipping and saying, “Team Jarillie!”

Jared and I just
stood there watching until we couldn’t see her anymore.

“
What
the hell?” Jared turned to me with narrowed eyes. “Are we in like
some freakin romance book where couple teams are being picked and
shit?”

I stifled a
laugh. “You read romance books?”

He smirked at me
and grabbed my hips pulling me into him. “Only the erotic ones. Sex
scenes are my favorite. Especially, when it comes to doing them
myself.”

I gave him a
sweet smile and patted his cheek. “Well you better keep reading
those books because you won’t be making any of those scenes for a
while buddy.”

I pulled away
from him and rounded his car to the passenger side.

“
One
day I will have you Emilie. Now that you are mine.” I looked over
the car roof at him to see him smirking.

“
You
still want to have sex with a corpse? I thought you were passed
that.” I winked and jumped into the car.

“
And I
thought you were passed rejecting me. You already admitting to
liking me. There’s no going back now.” He started the car and
pulled out of my driveway.

“
Surprisingly, I’m okay with that.” I smirked at
him.

He sent me a
dirty smile. “I knew you would give into me Emilie. I’m just that
amazing.”

I rolled my
eyes. “Okay, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.”

“
I
can’t get it out of my head.” I muttered mostly to myself but of
course Jared heard me.

He shot me a
quick before going back to looking at the road. “What?”

I leaned my head
against the seats headrest sighing. “Nothing.” I didn’t want Jared
worrying about me. He had enough on his plate as it was.

“
Emilie, just tell me. You know I’m going to keep asking you
until you tell me.” He smirked sending me sideway
glance.

Unfortunately, I
knew he was telling the truth. But I didn’t want to sound like a
whiney girl and dump all my boring problems on Jared. I think I
caused him enough torture as it was.

“
I’m
fine, just tired I guess.” I lied looking out my car door window at
the passing scenery.

Suddenly, Jared
twisted the steering wheel and the car screeched to a halt on the
side of the ride. Dirt flew into the air, clouding around the car
in a misty brown rain. I was clutching onto the door handle with
wide eyes.

Jared grabbed my
face between his hands and made me look him straight in the eyes.
“Emilie, whatever is on your mind is bothering you. I don’t care if
it is the stupidest thing in the world or has no meaning to me; I
want you to be able to talk to me. Got it?”

I numbly nodded
my head.

He looked
relieved and dropped his hands but was still staring at me. “Are
you going to tell me?”

“
I
don’t know why everyone is blaming me for Conner being sent away.”
I blurted out without thinking.

Jared’s eyebrows
raised a little and I swallowed back the lump in my throat. I
couldn’t get it out of my head since the fight with Anna the other
day. How didn’t people hear what happened at the fair? I know
nobody around my age was really there because they always showed up
later but there were witnesses. It just doesn’t make sense how
people can do that.

He sat back in
his seat, facing forward again. Did my question really silence him?
I didn’t think it was that big of a shocker.

“
It
was Anna, Emilie.” He finally spoke still not looking at me. “She
blabbed some bullshit story about how you guys were back together
and then how you really were the one who cheated on
him.”

My mouth fell
open at that news. “But he beat me up in front of everyone!” I
defended throwing my hand in the air.

He sighed his
hands gripping the steering wheel so tightly, his knuckles turned
white. “She told them it was an accident and he was meaning to kick
me.”

“
And
they believed that bull?” I cried feeling my heart hammer against
my chest in aggravation.

He looked at me
finally with regret in his eyes. “I mean we did hangout a lot… and
that girl I was with at the party agreed with Anna telling everyone
she saw you guys in a room together.”

I bit my lip
feeling so many emotions swirl through me. How could this all be so
messed up? Anna had me, she finally had me. She thought of her
stupid plan so well and actually got me trapped in it.

What could I do
to prove to everyone that it was fake?

It only proved it
to be true more because Jared and I were now together. I was alone
in a room with Conner the night of that party and for all we know,
Conner could have ‘accidently’ kicked me even though I know it
wasn’t an accident.

I shook my head
in disbelief. “I don’t know what I did to that girl but for her to
stoop this low is pathetic.” I said angrily.

“
Hey.”
Jared grabbed my chin and pulled my face towards his. “Don’t let it
get to you. One day she will get her karma. I promise, okay?” The
look in his eyes, told me he was being sincere.

“
Okay.” I whispered in defeat. Did I really have another
choice?

Before I could
react, Jared kissed me. It was the first time he kissed me since
outside my house. Ironically, the day I got into a fight with Anna
and the day I told him to leave me alone for good.

I love that he
doesn’t listen to me.

We both pulled
away breathless and he smirked at me. “I’ve wanted to do that for a
while now.”

I laughed and sat
back in my seat. “Nothings stopped you before…” I teased looking at
him from the corner of my eye.

“
Yeah
well some things stopped me this time.” He had a joking smile on
his face but we both knew he was telling the truth. I still hadn’t
found out what he has been hiding from me. Which reminded
me…

“
Jared?” I turned my head to look at him but already found he
was looking at me.

“
What?”

“
Is
that what you and Anna were fighting about in the hallway the other
day?” It seemed like the only solution. They were both angry and it
would explain how Jared knew what Anna did.

His eyes drifted
away from mine and locked onto something outside of the car.
Silence seemed to go on forever and I took that as a bad thing. He
shouldn’t be taking so long to answer. If I was right, he should
have agreed right away but he wasn’t.

“
Pretty much.” He concluded starching the back of his neck,
sneaking a peek at me.

He was lying.
Even a blind man could see it. But instead of starting a fight or
selling him out, I nodded my head and smiled as convincing as I
could. “Okay. Can we go to school now? I’m pretty sure we are late
now.”

He only nodded
his head and started driving again.

I faced the
window, so he wouldn’t see me frowning. It hurt to know he was
lying to me. I just knew he was because he was always so confident
with himself and to not look in my eyes, he had to be hiding
something.

It bothered me
more because after what we went through with Austin and Conner, I
thought he would have the respect to tell me the truth.

People say the
truth hurts but lying hurts more in the end.

By the time he
pulled his car into the parking lot, first period had already
started. I didn’t mind because we were only about ten minutes
late.

Walking into the
school, Jared grabbed my hand and laced our fingers together. We
grabbed late passes and headed towards my class. “Isn’t your class
on the other side of the school?” I quirked an eyebrow at
him.

He smirked at me.
“What? I can’t walk you to class?”

To say I was
surprised was an understatement. When did Jared McKingsley become
so sweet? Ah, it was probably one of his many secrets that he is
keeping from me. “You can, I just didn’t think that was something
you would do.”

He scoffed and
dropped my hand, instead wrapping his arm around my waist. “Emilie,
the rumors you heard about me, are really hurting my
pride.”

“
Then
why don’t you straighten them out for me and tell me exactly what
it is you are hiding?” I said stopping us both from walking any
further. “Can you explain why you hated me so much? Or why you and
Anna were talking in the hall the other day? I mean how am I
supposed to
know
you when you won’t tell me anything about
you?” I was breathing hard by the end of my rant.

Jared’s eyes were
wide and his mouth slightly agape. He stood there just staring at
me as I glared at him. Remember, how I said I didn’t want to start
a fight with him? Well that went out of the
window. 

Jared composed
himself and ran a hand through his hair. He stared at the floor for
a while frowning. Guilt started to creep into me as I watched him.
I should’ve just kept my mouth shut.

“
I’m
sorry…” I grabbed onto his hand and gave it a squeeze.

He locked eyes
with me and shook his head. “You’re right though. But I can’t just
drop all my secrets on you randomly Emilie. You need to understand
that. We only just got together and after what you made me go
through, I can’t just trust you right off the bat.”

My heart leaped
at his words. How long exactly did Jared like me? If he just said
what I made him go through, then he had to know for a while like he
liked me.

I wanted to slap
myself. Here I was jumping down his throat to spill all his secrets
after what I put him through. If it was the other way around, I
would be just like Jared was. I wouldn’t trust him straight away
either.

I nodded. “I get
that. But you can trust me, I promise.” I said moving closer to him
and wrapping my arms around his waist. “But take all the time you
need.”

He smirked at me
and slid his hands down my back onto my butt. I gasped but he
quickly shushed me. “You will know my secrets soon. But right now,
I just want to kiss you…”