Wanted (3 page)

Somehow
in the last sixty
seconds it hi
t me.
I was not meant to be happy
or find love
. Just like m
y mother told me when I was younger
.

I will never be wanted.

Not by anyone, let alone
by
one of the most popular boys in the senior class. What a fool I had been.
Argh
,
I
just needed my brother to ge
t here. He would take me away from this disaster, just like he always has
.

Once Ari
made sure I was
okay
she
high
tailed
it out
of the bathroom
before the bell rang
to let Mrs. Johnson know I was not feeling well.
She was
planning on telling our science teacher
I was having terrible cramps
and was in the girl’s bathroom.

She was right in a way…I was in terrible pain but
it had nothing to do with cramps. I
t was my heart breaking
and nothing more.
Mrs. Johnson would not care. It was the last day for seniors anyway and all we were doin
g was playing stupid ass games.

I
had
sent Jefferson a text message
right when I walked into the bathroom and locked myself behind the stall,
asking if he could come and pick me up early.
Ari
had seen me running from the auditorium and came after me.
I had managed
to avoid Ryan by hiding out on
the other e
nd of the school for the last few minutes.
I was silently hoping he just left school once he could not find me.
It was now
between classes and I was just praying my phone would chirp with ‘I’m here
honey
’
and I could just get
the hell out of dodge
and into the safety of Jefferson’s truck. If I can manage that and
not see Ryan, I should be
okay
.

“Ell
s
….please le
t me talk to you
.”

FUCK a duck
….yep…
it was true……..
my life will
never
go like I wish for it to.
Holy hell!

“Go away
R..
Ryan”. Oh hells bells keep it
together
Ellie
,
keep it toget
her. DO N
OT cry in front of him!

“Please Ell
s
, I made a terrible mistake. Jessica was saying all this shit about
how she heard you telling Ari
you
had no plans of getting closer to me
and how you were going to break up with me before summer
…and…well shit
!
Ell
ie
I just was not thinking straight honey
. I’
ve been trying to
be
patient with you
Ellie
but for fucks sake all we ever do is kiss
and well…I just
br
oke
.
A guy has needs and well um….
She just br
ok
e me
Ellie
with her bull
shit and I had a small moment of weakness.
I promise you it will never happen again.
I promise. I. W
ill. NEVER b
etray
y
ou again
Ellie
. I promise you honey.
Let’s just forget about this
okay
? Move on, we can move on right
Ellie
?
”

Oh my god, I think I just threw up in my mouth.
A guy has needs? Is he insane!
He had a
SMALL moment of weakness
? Y
ou ha
ve got to be fucking kidding me!
Did he really just say that?

I got the courage from somewhere
deep inside
and turned to face him.

“You have got to be kidding me right? THAT is your reason for fucking Jessi
ca?
Because I was
hoping you were going to at least make it worth my while Ryan.”
I managed to
spit that all
out even with
the
tears
I was holding back
and
the
anger
that was growing
.

“
M
ake what worth your
while?
Ellie
I will do anything!”
Ry
an pleaded.

At that moment I summoned all the
deep down
empowering woman bullshit Ari
’s mother is always
preaching to
us. “Girls, you are stronger than you know…. If you don’t like being treated like a doormat then get the fuck off the floor…. oh and my all time favorite…
’
If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun
’
. That one was a q
uote by Katharine Hepburn. Ari
’
s mother adored
Katha
rine Hepburn
and I swear she has made us watch every
one of her movies
.

Yep! O
nce I had all that empowering shit boiled up
in my small 5’5 118
pound
body,
I balled my fist
up and hit that mother fucker
as h
ard as I could in the face.
Okay
, I am
not
going to lie and say it did not hurt. I
t hu
rt like a son of a bitch and I’
m pretty sure I
let out a scream of shear
pain once I made contact
with his jaw
but….to see Ryan’s head snap back and everyone stop and stare.
Jesus it was
worth it!

Even if I
did think
I just br
ok
e my hand.
SHIT!

“For making that worth my while you asshole
, SHIT
!”
I yelled at Ryan.
For just one second I felt so good, until I felt my hand start to
throb harder
.

Ohhh
shit……

“
Ellie
what the hell is going on
?!” It was Jefferson. I was pulled out
of
the
daze I was in as I stood there and lo
ok
ed at my ever increasing swollen
hand.

“I got your text honey
, WHAT
is going on?”

Jefferson lo
ok
ed at me then down to my hand and then over to Ryan
who was
now
nursing his jaw
and it must have all clicked
in
that moment. Jefferson had Ryan pinned up against the lockers
in
two seconds flat.

“What the fuck did you do to my sister you
asshole?
I will KILL you if you
have
hurt her!” Jeff
erson hissed between his teeth.

I walked over and
tried to grab
Jefferson off Ryan
before he hurt him
or worse, got in trouble for beating the shit out of a high school student.
I forgot about my hand and
I lurched back i
n pain
and let out a small g
asp
when I grabbed at his
shirt
.
J
ust then I felt
warm strong
hands on my shou
lders and my whole body
st
arted to tingle
and feel warm inside
.

What the hell
?!?
What was going on?

“Stand back here
Ellie
so you don’t get hurt sweetheart.” I lo
ok
ed up and was lo
ok
ing i
nto the most beautiful blue
eyes I had
ever
seen. I had never seen a
guy as good l
o
ok
ing as the
guy
who was standing in front of me
. He must have been
at least 6’2 230
pounds. I kno
w this because Jefferson was
6’ 1 and
220
pounds.

My eyes traveled up and down his body quickly.
Holy shit this guy was built
!
I always thought my brother Jefferson was the most
handsome man I’
d ever seen. Jefferson
had light
brown hair and
emerald green eyes
. He worked
out every day
for as long as I could remember. He said it was his way to release his stress. We could not go anywhere ever without every girl tripping over herself to get his attention. The thing
I love
mos
t
about my brother is that he is
clueless to all of it.
Just take my brother to the lake and ha
ve him take off his shirt and B
AM…girls everywhere.
He had
a beautiful body and had part of his chest and upper arms covere
d in ink.
He had
a Texas flag tattoo on his
upper
left arm and
a tribal tattoo on his right
chest and
shoulder that went down a little ways onto his back. He and
few friends
went last summer and got tribal tattoos.

But this guy
sta
nding in front of me was breath
taking…….I could not tear my eyes away from him…..

I heard a small laugh
escape from his beautiful mouth
and noticed he was
still holding onto my shoulders.
I snapped out of yet
another
daze.

He smiled down a
t me and at that moment everything sounded muffled. I barely
hear
d
Jefferson yelling at Ryan, or
Mr. Watson screaming and asking Jefferson why he was on campus an
d to
let Ryan go.
I only saw the most magnificent smile lo
oking
down at me. 
My whole body felt wea
k and I had to really think about breathing.
I managed to lo
ok
around him to see what was going
on with Jefferson.

He gave my shoulders a small squeeze and a
moment later he turned and grabb
ed Jefferson off of Ryan.

“Jeff,
take it
easy man. Calm the hell down
dude;
he’s not worth going to jail for
!”
He
sai
d in a soft and calm voice.

Yep,
I had never heard a voice so sweet in my life.
Can your body physically melt from a voice? What the hell was going on with me?

“I’m going to kill that fucker if he hurt her in anyway Gunner,
I.Will.Kill.Him
!”
Jefferson sh
outed as he lo
ok
ed at Ryan.

So,
this was
Gunner
huh
? M
y brothers best
friend
from college.
Jefferson talked about G
unner all the time but I had
yet
to
meet him.
I had seen him plenty
of times on the football field
though.
They played football together for UT
and
were both majoring in Architectural
Engineering
.

Gunner
let out a laugh that moved through my whole body
like a warm blanket.
What
was happening to me
???
I just stood there staring, I could not move.
What
was it about this guy
that had my insides just melting
? I mean I just saw my boyfriend screwing
someone else
and I was NEVER…let me repeat
myself
…I was NEVER going to fall in love again
. All men were pure scum. Evil bastards
that
just
wanted
to get one thing from you.
SEX.
Let them know you are a virgin a
nd I guess they will invest months
of their lives to
say that they to
ok
that away from you.