Chapter 18 DRAMATIC
---Jaxon's P.O.V---
“Axel got in a fight with Ricky!” Trent screamed as he ran across the stage. The kid was an obnoxious messenger owl.
A chorus of questions were asked. He didn’t answer any of them; instead he searched the crowd and stopped when his eyes met mine. He rushed over to me, obviously excited about the drama happening. He was interrupting our rehearsal.
“Dude, did you hear-?”
I interrupted the annoying guy, “the biggest asshole in school gets in another fight- woohoo- such shocking news! What do you want from me?”
“Dude,” he gave me a shove, “quit being a dickhead, I’m tryna’ help you here-”
I shoved him back.
“What the hell?!” he growled, “I’m only tryna’ fucking help because Rosaline’s involved.”
At the mention of her name, my whole body tensed up. I took no time to register anything. Rosie was in trouble, and the only thing I had to do at that moment was, help her.
“Where is she?!” I asked.
I didn't notice I was yelling until some of the cast members came up to me and tried calming me down. Trent backed away from me before answering.
~*~
“Calm down and-”
I cut Justin off, “what the hell happened to Rosie?!”
“Chill! She's okay-”
“Cut the crap twin!” I growled.
Just then, the other twin rushed into the office sweating and panting crazily. He was clearly worried for my best friend; I could tell he felt the same way I did. God! I shouldn't have told Rosie about Kasay so soon and let her freak out like that.
If I didn't tell her in the nurse's office, she wouldn't have started freaking out and swearing at the principal like that. This meant she wouldn’t have gotten the DR and got caught up in this situation…
If anything happened to her, it would be my fault. I couldn't let her get hurt. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if anything bad happened to her. I ran my hand through my hair which was currently styled with gel; fashion always mattered.
“Does anyone here know what the fuck happened to Rosie?!”
One of the twins shook his head frantically. “You don't know?”
I shook my head and buried my face into my palms. I had no idea what happened to her, but it was all my fucking fault! Her ankle was still bandaged, which worried me more. We were all gathered in the principal's office.
There were four of us here, the twins, Trent, and myself. The nicer twin was trying to calm me down as I shook with anger. The other twin was sitting in a chair playing with his hands nervously while Trent was texting on his phone.
He was probably spreading gossip about the fight. That was something Trent would definitely do. I tried getting to know the guys once, but it didn’t work out. We were too different. I preferred expressing myself on the stage, and they preferred chasing a ball around outside.
I preferred being with Rosie anyway.
Rosie.
I could never quite figure her out.
I loved her dearly, but she always seemed a bit distracted.
I had tried talking to her about how I felt towards her before, but she still stayed completely oblivious. I was far too afraid to bluntly state that I liked her; I didn’t want to lose her. I couldn’t bear the thought of rejection or destroying our friendship.
She was my everything.
Over the years I had showed her how much I cared, but still, she stayed clueless. She never realized the little ginger who built sandcastles with her during recess was head over heels for her. Even after ditching everyone for her, she was still too innocent to get it.
The chase was fun, I admit… but it grew tiring.
Asking her to prom, taking her on dates, being there for her whenever she needed someone… just to get friendzoned.
Hints, clues, compliments, kind words, yet her eyes still gazed into the distance searching for someone else.
I got tired of waiting.
Since she went out with Ricky, bitterness grew inside of me. She gave that dickhead a chance, but not me?
That’s when my liking for Layla grew stronger.
Layla was the prettiest and most popular girl in our school- heck in our entire town ever since she moved here. I had no chance. Girls always went for the dickheads.
Layla went straight for Axel, but he kept his eyes elsewhere.
I never understood why Axel paid no interest in such a perfect girl. Instead, he lingered a bit little too long around my best friend. She never noticed of course, but they would conveniently end up in the same rooms or same hallways regularly.
Axel was the biggest asshole on Earth. There was no question it. He was a player who many girls have claimed to have slept with, he beat up other people just because he felt like it, and he hosted the biggest parties of the year which encouraged underage drinking and drugs.
He hated me and I hated him.
I tapped my foot impatiently waiting for someone to inform us on what had happened to my Rosaline. Dustin was wiping sweat of his forehead repeatedly. I was starting to question whether or not he was interested in Rosie.
Thinking about someone else being with Rosie made my stomach churn, but thinking of someone else being with Layla made me clench my fists. I was supposed to be over Rosie, but here I was thinking about her.
She was my best friend after all.
Dustin still looked very concerned about her, too concerned.
I forced myself to calm down; it wasn't his fault if he liked her. Any guy close enough to her falls for her eventually. You could say she was Cinderella.
She was shy, cute, smart, kind and caring. She was beyond calm, and stood for things she shouldn’t have. When she was younger, she had severe anger issues. I had promised not to tell anyone about this, and I had kept the promise so far.
I didn't plan on telling anyone about it, but I had to at least warn Layla. Because, if Layla kept pushing Rosie’s temper, she was going to snap… and it wasn’t going to be pretty.
The principal came into his office grumpily, swearing to himself. He completely ignored us as he behind his desk and pulled out a sheet of paper. He kept talking to himself as he scribbled on the piece of paper.
All of us standing in his room just stared at him, waiting for him to realize he wasn’t alone. It was completely silent in there, except for the breathing and Trent's tapping on his phone. I swear to god I heard Dustin's heartbeat increase rapidly.
“Where’s Rosaline?” Dustin and I asked at the same time.
We both looked at each other before turning back to the principal. The principal looked up from the paper he was scribbling down on and clicked his pen.
“How is she?” I asked.
“She’s fine,” he replied simply.
“Where is she?” Dustin asked eagerly. I stopped myself from glaring at him.
I needed to see her as soon as possible and apologize for getting her into this mess. My inner self told me to stop blaming myself, but I blocked it out. I needed to listen to myself, not my weird inner voice.
“In the nurse's office,” he looked at me suspiciously and narrowed his eyes at me, “why?”
“I’m her best friend.”
“And?”
“And I need to check on her and see if she's alright or not,” I don’t know why I even bothered explaining myself.
Dustin stood next to me rubbing his hands against his jeans.
Just then, Axel walked into the office with drops of dried blood on his white shirt. My eyes widened, that couldn't have been hers… could it? I felt my heartbeat increase.
Describing my own heartbeat… yes, I was overly dramatic sometimes.
Axel took his time to walk over to the principal's desk and took a seat on the principal's desk. Justin was staring at him in fear, while Trent stared at him admiringly.
I had to admit, the hardest person to read was Axel. One moment, he gives you a friendly handshake, and the next moment, he knocks both your front teeth out. He was a dick and no one liked him, well all the girls certainly found him attractive.
He was lucky and was born with features that girls seemed to love. He was shorter than some of us, but he was well built. You could tell he worked out- God! I sounded beyond feminine. I swear I wasn’t checking him out.
“So are we allowed to visit her sir?” Dustin asked politely.
The principal nodded and waved his hand dismissively, telling us to scram. We rushed out and started walking down the hall. I didn't notice we were actually running until Mrs. Meisty yelled at us and told us to slow down or she would write us all up.
Justin and Trent were just tagging along, probably to see and gossip of what condition she was in. Every step I took closer to the nurse's office, the harder my blood pumped through my veins. I wondered if she would get mad at me and kick me out.
I wondered if she would hate me because I technically got her caught up in this situation. I mentally punched myself; boy, I was stupid stupid. Rosie was a very forgiving person. She would never do that to me.
She needed me and loved me, and I knew it.
Maybe that was why I didn't like the idea of her having a boyfriend. Maybe it was because I didn't want her to depend on someone else that wasn't me. Maybe I liked how I was her only male friend.
Maybe, I was glad Kasay got expelled.
Because that meant I had Rosie all to myself.
~*~
---Rosie's P.O.V---
The first day of middle school…
It felt so real, just like yesterday. Jaxon and I were walking side by side. He walked me to my locker which was at the end of the hall, right by one of the smaller exits. Once I reached it, he left to go search for his own locker.
Down the call, someone caught my eye.
A boy, merely inches taller than me, standing as his locker gloomily. He was so sad; a cute frown was plastered on his face. He kept trying to open his locker, but it wouldn’t open. He was starting to get aggravated. I wanted to go up to him and help him, but I was far too afraid. I kept my distance and looked at him from behind my locker door.
Then, Matt came.
He was at least 6 foot; puberty had hit him fast. The guy walked straight up to Axel and shoved him straight in his locker. Axel fell to the ground. His lip started bleeding. I witnessed the entire thing.
The blonde boy wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and stared at it. Blood was smeared all over his hand. From a distance, his face hardened. His jaw clenched. You didn’t have to be close to see how his features changed in an instant.
It was like he was switching personas. I could tell how dangerous he really was when he got up from the floor and took a swing at Matt’s face. Matt fell straight to the ground, and Axel took the opportunity to climb on top of him and beat the hell out of his face. Though I had never liked violence, my eyes stayed glued to the scene.
Axel stood up for himself. He refused to be pushed around.
I admired him from afar.
He dared to do things I would never dare to do to the people who had hurt me; physically and mentally. He was fearless, and drop dead gorgeous.
After seeing him beat someone merciless, I should’ve been repulsed… but that turned me on.
My head was throbbing painfully and my ankle was aching. My eyelids felt heavy; overall I just felt unpleasant.
“She's not awake yet,” the nurse said. I heard some groaning in the background.
“Please! I need to see if she's okay or not!” Jaxon's voice rang through my ears.
I heard some shuffling around and the door shutting.
“Please,” it must’ve been Dustin, “I can promise we won't wake her up.”
I heard her sigh, “fine, but if you wake her up, I'll make sure to kick all of your little buts out.”
I heard some chuckling before footsteps approaching. Then I heard someone's voice I definitely didn't recognize.
“Dude, she looks dead.”
Then I felt a poke on my cheek. I flinched at the warm finger.
“Dude!” Dustin hissed.
“Touch her again and you'll die,” Jaxon growled.
“It's alive!” The unknown voice exclaimed in a dramatic tone.
I lifted my heavy eyelids up slowly looking at the sight before me. I was staring up at a white ceiling, before four heads blocked my view. Their faces looked blurry to me at first, but then my eyes adjusted.
Jaxon's flaming red hair stuck out first, making me notice him immediately. The next thing that came into focus was a pair of ocean blue eyes. I didn't even have to think about whom those eyes belonged to, they were definitely Dustin's.
But then, another pair of ocean blue eyes came into focus. Wait, two pairs of ocean blue eyes. Who could the other one be? I blinked twice as my eyesight adjusted again, and I saw everything clearly. Jaxon, Justin, Dustin and surprisingly, Trent were all looking down at me.
Trent was one of the last people I expected to be present. I mean- he was the 'gossip king' of the school, but I would never expect him to care enough to check up on me. Dustin and Justin were both looking worriedly at me.
Since they both had a look of slight concern on their faces, I truly couldn’t tell which one was which. They were identical, from their eyes, to their noses, from their cheeks, to their lips... how did their parents tell them apart?
I slowly got up so that I was sitting on the bed. They all moved back and gave me some space as they stared at me.
Jaxon pulled me into a bone crushing hug.
He cupped my cheek and he kissed my forehead. I felt awkward because so many people were present.
“I'm so sorry,” he mumbled as his thumb rubbed my cheek.
I just stared at him, utterly confused. For what? He sighed, pulling away from me. Everyone else was just watching us closely.
“I'm sorry for getting you into this situation.” He mumbled quietly, but just loud enough to hear.
“You didn't get me into this situation, I got myself into this.” I said studying his facial features as he ran his hand through his hair. I still didn’t understand what he meant..
“No you didn't, I did. I shouldn't have told you about Kasay getting expelled-”
I interrupted him, “don’t apologize, you didn’t do anything! Never apologize for telling someone the truth.”
“But-”
“No buts. If you keep blaming yourself, I’ll kick you out.”
He looked so guilty. He brushed some of his red hair out of his eyes so he could look at me.
He looked up meeting my eyes as a small sad smile appeared on his lips. He brushed his flaming red hair out of his eyes. His hazel eyes held nothing but guilt. I avoided him and turned to the twins.
“You two look cuter when you smile,” I said as an excuse.
Sure enough, one of them smiled. His left dimple told me exactly who he was.
“Dustin,” I greeted, “nice of you to drop by.”
Everyone besides us two were shocked.
“What the hell?” Justin asked, “what kind of witchcraft are you using?!”
“Observation,” I replied.
“Heard you were in the middle of a fight,” Trent started. There it was, the line which should be the shovel he could use to dig out the drama. He got up on my bed and started jumping on it like a kid.
I raised my eyebrows at him.
“So what happened to you?” He wasn’t bothered by the fact he was bouncing on my bed at all.
I thought of an answer, but I couldn’t. The last thing I remembered was Axel complimenting my smile… My face heat up immediately. I fainted because of a single compliment. I felt beyond embarrassed about it, so I avoided telling them about it.
“I can’t exactly remember…”
Jaxon was clearly pissed about my answer. He stormed out of the room. The twins started talking amongst themselves, and Trent being the childish person he was, was still bouncing up and down on the bed.
“What’s up with Jaxon?” I asked the hyper boy.
Trent shrugged like it was nothing serious, “he’s just going to fight Axel.”
I almost stopped breathing, “WHAT?!”
He nodded, “on his way right now!”