Crush on Mr. Bad Boy

by Lilly Purdon

  He cupped my cheek, realizing what he did, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant to say Kasay has a violent temper, so it’s easier for her to get in trouble. You on the other hand- they wouldn’t dare to anything to you… just trust me on that.”

  I smacked his hand away, “They would. They hurt Kasay, and they’re going to get you next. And once they cut everyone who cares for me out of my life, they’ll be able to destroy me without even touching me-”

  “You’re over thinking, Rosie.”

  “We’re not like Kasay. Teachers love us-”

  “There are exceptions-”

  “Still,” he nudged my arm. “They trust you, they know you’re a good student, and they know you couldn’t hurt a fly.”

  I didn’t know whether to take that as an insult or a compliment.

  “We all have different weaknesses, Rosie. Kasay’s is violence, and substances which happen to be illegal-”

  “Kasay doesn’t do drugs.”

  He pursed his lips together, “That’s a conversation for another time… As I was saying, we all have our weaknesses. Just don’t let them discover yours.”

  Axel…

  I took in a deep breath and nodded.

  No one was going to take Axel away from me.

  ~*~

  Axel was on my mind through the entire class. What if Layla did find out I was in love with Axel? What if she managed to convince him to hate me too? What if she was able to convince him to hurt me?

  But I would die for just another touch from him…

  I would still yearn for his touch, even if his hands were around my neck…

  Nope, too morbid.

  “OPEN YOUR EYES!” someone on my volleyball team screamed.

  I looked up at the volleyball flying straight towards me and panicked. Right before it could smack my face, I tried to slap it away with my hand. I flinched when it smacked hard into my palm and left a red mark there.

  The other girls on my team groaned in frustration and glared at me. I flinched and looked down. I sucked at sports and everyone knew it. I sighed and walked further away from my team. My P.E teacher, Mrs. Trint, stuck me on their team for no reason.

  “Can’t she at least pretend to try?” A squeaky red head on my team whined.

  Another girl put her hand on her hip. “Yeah! She's not even trying.”

  “She does nothing for our team! She just stands there and does nothing!” someone complained.

  There was a chorus of 'yea's' and 'yup's'. We were playing against Layla's undefeated team.

  “Shut up and play already!” Layla whined from across the court.

  Layla smoothed out her t-shirt and twirled the hair in her ponytail with her finger. My team gloomily got to their spots before Layla grabbed the volleyball. All eyes were on her as she threw it up in the air and smacked it hard with her hand.

  The ball flew over the net and fell in the red head's direction. The red head then smacked the ball with her forearm. It flew across the net again. The blonde from the hallway earlier hit the ball back to our side.

  Another girl from my team passed it back to the other side of the court. With my head down, I stood there staring at the floor. They didn't need me, no one did. I sighed and thought. Why did everyone have to hate me?

  Why couldn't I do anything right for once? Am I not good enough? Am I not pretty enough? Are my boobs a size too small? Is my ass not as big as it should be? Am I too skinny? Too many questions were flooding my head.

  Suddenly, something hard smacked the side of my head, knocking me off balance. I tried to keep my balance, but instead I slipped and my foot hit the wall real hard as I fell to the ground. All I could feel was a throbbing pain on the side of my head and in my ankle.

  I heard some laughs around me before the world started going black. Shit! No! Not another black out! I hate those. Wake up Rosie wake up! But it was too late; darkness welcomed me. At least it got me out of that class.

  ~*~

  “It was an accident!” Layla's annoying voice broke into my peaceful sleep.

  “It was! We saw it happen!” An annoying voice squeaked.

  “I saw it too!” Another high pitched voice agreed.

  “All right then! Thank god she's ok, and it was an accident, or her mom would've pressed charges.” What sounded like Mrs. Trint said.

  That was something my step mom would do. She let people push me around to a certain limit, but if it interfered with her work she would phone up her lawyer. Happened in elementary school once.

  This girl kept pushing me around and thankfully Jaxon was there. He protected me from her but I got a scratch on my face. My step mom phoned up her lawyer and got really pissed because we were having our family photos that week. She went too far at that time. The girl moved to another state and we never heard from her again.

  I tried opening my eyes to see what was up but my eyelids felt too heavy. I heard the door slam closed.

  Something really cold and wet pressed against the side of my head. My eyes shot opened immediately. I felt the throbbing pain in the side of my head and groaned.

  “You'll be okay honey,” an elderly lady who was the school nurse said pressing the icepack to the side of my head.

  She then took another ice pack and put it on my ankle. My ankle throbbed painfully too. It looked all swollen and purple. I flinched at the touch of the ice pack, but once it was on it felt a lot better. I thanked her.

  “You’re very welcome. Thank goodness your ankle's not broken.”

  I nodded numbly. What the hell was going on? What happened? I didn't notice I asked that out loud until the nurse answered my question.

  “I heard that cheerleader smacked the ball and it hit the side of your head. They also told me you tried balancing yourself, but tripped and somehow hit your foot against the wall. I still don’t understand how you managed to do that,” she shook her head.

  I chuckled awkwardly as she walked to her desk. She mumbled something about stupid paperwork and got to it right away. The office door slammed open as Axel walked in looking hot as usual. He was wearing his red cap, a red hoodie, and matching shoes. How fashionable of him…

  His jeans weren't that loose and weren't that tight. His blonde hair fell just above those gorgeous emerald green eyes. There was another guy beside him and an annoyed looking Mrs. Meisty behind them with her arms crossed across her chest.

  Axel adjusted his baseball cap and looked right at me. I gulped as my heart pounded against my chest crazily. This was the very first time he's ever noticed me as Rosaline. My hands started to shake a little as I wiped them against my shirt to get the sweat off.

  All the little hairs on my neck were standing and I felt goose bumps form on every single inch of my body. My eyes were glued to his and I couldn't get them off his gorgeous face. He had such an innocent face; however the things he’s done were far from innocent.

  Axel nudged the guy standing beside him and pointed at me. The guy looked at me. The guy standing beside him was no other than Dustin. He smiled and his left dimple showed. He was cute but nothing compared to Axel.

  "I just want to knock that kid up." Axel said using his thumb to point at me.

  My mouth fell to the floor. What did he just say?! He wanted to... My crush who I've been stalking for a fair amount of time just said something perverted about me. And sadly, I didn't walk straight up to him and slap him.

  Realization seemed to hit him, and he looked slightly shocked too, however he recovered quickly.

  I just stood there with my mouth wide opened not knowing what to say. The nurse looked at him in shock and disapproval.

  “Axel!” She scolded.

  “What?! It's true- I mean I shouldn’t have said it, but it’s true!” He defended himself putting his arms up in the air.

  Mrs. Meisty slapped him upside the head with her Geography textbook. I giggled as he adjusted his cap and gave her a dirty look.

  “Spencer, quit being a pain and
try to act decent for just once.”

  Axel rolled his eyes, “crabby old bitch,” he mumbled.

  “I heard that!”

  He ignored her and walked over to my bed and sat on the edge of the bed I was lying down on. He looked up at the nurse.

  “I need my record,” he said to her.

  “And?” She questioned without looking up at him.

  “Can I have it?”

  “No,” she replied simply.

  “The fuck?!”

  Dustin and Mrs. Meisty shook their heads at the same time.

  “But she said-”

  She cut him off before he finished, “You didn't say the magic word.”

  “Fuck the magic word!”

  She gave him a flat look, “Repeat that to my face.”

  “I’m not fucking five. You all treat me like I’m retarded.”

  She continued to ignore him.

  “This place is a fucking joke.”

  She sighed, then grabbed some paper work from her drawer and handed it to him. He looked at me for a moment then looked back at the nurse.

  “What's wrong with her?”

  “Got hit in the head and sprained her ankle real bad.,” she said shaking her head.

  He looked at me, “you okay?”

  My heart stopped. I was shaking inside.

  I nodded quickly as he got up. I couldn’t read the emotions in his eyes.

  “Take… care.” His hand brushed my leg, I couldn’t tell whether it was intentional or not, “and uh,” He lowered his voice down to a whisper, “sorry for being… fucked up.” With that, he left with Mrs. Meisty.

  I didn’t even know what he meant by that.

  Dustin stood at the doorway with his arms folded across his chest. The nurse looked up at him and smiled sweetly. “I’ve got some stuff to do, you can take over.” With that, she left us two alone.

  “We meet again, Rose.”

  Chapter 13 DUSTIN

  My eyes widened in shock, and I almost choked on my own saliva.

  He knew.

  Dustin knew it was me all along.

  He smiled and walked over to me. He bent down so our faces were at the same level. Our noses were inches apart. My heart pounded against my chest crazily as he inched closer. Not the way it would beat for Axel, but it was beating with anxiety.

  “Have anything to say?” he asked.

  His hot breath tickled my lips as I shook my head. He pulled back and crossed his arms across his chest. He then laughed and shook his head.

  “Actually, I don't know what you’re talking about?” My reply came out as a question. Why couldn’t I lie?

  I knew exactly what he was talking about.

  He caught me.

  Who was I trying to kid? He knew it was me. It was obvious I wasn’t going to be able to convince him otherwise.

  He pinched the bridge of his nose and sat down on the bed making it dip down.

  “I might not have sixth sense, but I know you’re lying.”

  I decided to give in, “H-How?”

  “You forgot this at the dance,” he pulled out something from his pocket and waved it in my face.

  MY PHONE. It was in the same condition as before but it had fingerprints all over it…which meant that someone was trying to figure out the password. I snatched the phone from his hands quickly and tried unlocking it, but it was switched off.

  Weird… I never remembered turning it off when I was at the dance. I pressed the power button to turn it on. There was still battery, which meant it didn’t die. That’s odd…

  Dustin peeked over my shoulder and watched me closely.

  “Did you mess with it?”

  “No… well, I kinda’ tried, but your pattern password is damn hard,” he admitted.

  “There’s this thing called privacy,” I muttered.

  “Well, I didn’t know who it belonged to at first, so I had to at least try! Mrs. Puessy said it was probably yours.”

  I was too nice, “Thanks for keeping it for me.”

  “You are very welcome my dear lady!” He was such a cheerful soul.

  I turned the phone away from him and unlocked it. My mouth dropped to the floor when I saw the number of missed calls on there. Seventy four missed calls from Cleo, from Kasay and of course, from my very best friend Jaxon.

  “You’re popular.”

  “With three people.”

  I tossed my phone aside and crossed my arms over chest. The ice pack was still on my ankle and it was so cold, it was burning my skin. I closed my eyes for a moment wishing the pain could go away.

  “So,” he started, “what’s the whole Cinderella thing you’re trying to pull?”

  My eyes were still closed, I just wanted time to think, “I’m not trying to pull anything.”

  “Then explain.”

  I sighed, “It’s a long story.”

  “I have time.”

  Did he have to be as annoying as Kasay? I opened my eyes to him grinning on my phone.

  “DUSTIN!” I tried snatching the phone from him, but he just leaped away.

  He looked up with an evil sparkle in his eyes. He stood up slowly, pacing around me like a tiger circling its prey. His grin was so playful… After tapping on it a few times, he showed me the screen.

  “I didn’t know you were a stalker!”

  On full display was a photo of Axel in his swimming trunks.

  “GIVE ME BACK MY PHONE!” I tried getting up, but it was so painful I fell to the ground. “FRICK!” I hissed.

  He placed the phone on a shelf far away from me, and helped me back up on the bed, “I didn’t know you had a crush on Axel Storm Spencer! Interesting choice by the way, I wouldn’t have guessed that was your type.”

  “I don’t have a crush on him!” I protested.

  “Looks like it’s more than a crush now,” he grabbed my phone and started scrolling through it again.

  “Please… give me my phone,” I begged, “My life sucks enough!”

  “Why don’t you just go up to him and tell him you’re obsessed with him?” He kept scrolling through my phone, “If anyone was this crazy about me, I’d be damn flattered.”

  “Please-”

  “WOAH! You even have photos of him as a kid!”

  I hid my face with my hands.

  “You stalker!” he teased.

  “I swear I’m not!”

  “Then explain why you have hundreds of photos of him on your phone.”

  I felt my face flare up even more than before. I glared at him as he smiled at me showing his dimple on his left cheek. It was so hard not to smile when he was looking that adorable. It truly wasn’t fair on my behalf.

  “Is that why you pretended to be the Rose at the dance?”

  I stayed quiet.

  “You pretended to be someone else, so he could notice you?” He questioned, serious this time.

  “It's not only that-”

  “I won't tell anyone, I promise.”

  “But-”

  “Come on,” he practically begged me. “You’re not the only one needing to get something off your chest.”

  I didn't know what to say, so I just gave him a questioning look.

  He sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed. He ran a hand through his hair and shook his head. “Look, do you know how it feels to have a secret you can't tell any of your friends about? You know they’d laugh and judge you for it?”

  His genuine ocean blue eyes stared into mine. They looked so peaceful, so calm, so innocent… I got lost in them for a moment, before I nodding my head slowly.

  “We've got the same problem.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Same issues with our love lives.”

  I didn’t believe him, “I don’t think so.”

  “I’m serious-”

  “I highly doubt that.”

  “Then tell me. Tell me what your situation is; tell me how you truly feel.” He pleaded.

  He seemed like a trust
ing person, but I didn't know him that well. I had a few classes with him through the years, but never had a full conversation with him before. I saw him so often I felt like I knew him really well for some reason. Or maybe it was just the way he was.

  He must've felt the same way from the way he was talking to me. He conversed with me the way long lasting friends talked. I smiled at the thought of having him as a friend. I really needed more of them. At least someone besides Jaxon and Kasay wanted to get to know me in my nerdy Rosaline form.

  I felt like I could trust the guy with my life. I blamed it on his eyes; I had a thing for beautiful eyes, and his were just too warm and too trusting.

  “I'll tell you my situation if you tell me yours,” I finally said.

  He snatched my right hand and shook it right away, “deal!”

  ~*~

  “Wow!” He said at the end of my story.

  Yep… I just trusted someone I wasn’t even close to with my entire life…

  I told him the whole situation about Axel and I.

  I spilt feelings I wouldn’t dare tell Jaxon or Kasay.

  Thankfully, no one had bothered us while we were in the nurse's office, so we had privacy. The nurse was busy outdoors arguing with some school secretary about a paycheck.

  Dustin had a sympathetic look on his face. He forced a smile as he reached over and tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear then he looked down. He was staring down onto the floor. It looked like he was lost in his own thoughts.

  “So… how bad is my situation?” I asked.

  I was obviously afraid of the answer, but I was willing to hear it. I needed to know what he thought of me. An outsider’s opinion on the entire situation would give me a clearer picture of how messed up it may have been. Hell- I just wanted to know if Axel had noticed me at all. If he even acknowledged my existence!

  Dustin slowly looked up and gave me a smile, “You call yours bad?! All I hear is assumptions from you. You assume he’s never noticed you, or he’s never acknowledged your presence!”

  “Well I assume because I know the truth! He’s never looked in my direction!”

  “You’ve never considered maybe every time he looks at you, you look away?

  I stopped to register what he just said, “do you know something I don’t know?”