Crush on Mr. Bad Boy

by Lilly Purdon

  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 ser
ious, “he’s just going to fight Axel.”

  I almost stopped breathing, “WHAT?!”

  He nodded, “on his way right now!”

  ~*~

  Chapter 19 SUSPICIOUS

  My blood ran cold, and my breath caught in my lungs. I felt all the blood drain from my face. Jaxon fighting Axel?! I knew they already had a problem before all this, but Jaxon was about to make the biggest mistake in his life.

  What was wrong with him?!

  Axel was going to kill him, LITERALLY! I had to stop them. I crawled off the bed carefully and slid both of my feet on the floor. My ankle was still aching, but I bit into my cheeks and suppressed the pain.

  I had to save Jaxon before he got the living shit beat out of him. Trent grabbed my forearm quickly, stopping me from getting up.

  “Woah woah woah, what's the rush?”

  “I have to go stop him!”

  “Why?”

  Why did I have to explain? “Why do you think?!” I tried peeling his hand off of my forearm, but he refused to let go. “Let me go!” I growled, but he refused. I never like playing the sympathy card, but I had to, “Ow! Please let go, it hurts!”

  Trent let go of my arm immediately. I pushed him onto the bed as hard as I could, and ran out of the office. It hurt like hell, but I kept going. Dustin rushed to my side, “how do you even know where they are?”

  I held onto his arm for support and speed walked instead of run, because my ankle just couldn’t take it, “B-Hall, Axel’s locker.”

  I could hear Trent yell from a distance.

  “We need to go faster!” I complained.

  He stopped, and lowered himself, “get on my back.”

  I was caught by surprise, “really?”

  “Quickly!”

  I hopped onto his back and hooked my arms around his neck. I secured my legs around his waist as he held onto my legs and stood up. I almost fell off.

  Dustin wasted no time; he started going as fast as he could carrying me on his back. The wind whipped around my head, making my hair fly all over the place. I had to tuck my head behind his neck to stop hair from getting in my eyes.

  As we entered B-Hall, I heard people chanting 'fight' over and over again.

  There were people formed in a big circle blocking our view from seeing what was in the center. My hands started to get sweaty as we neared the crowd. I felt a drop of sweat roll down my back, and Dustin's body heat radiating onto mine wasn't helping either.

  I patted Dustin's back telling him to stop. He put me down gently allowing me to rush over to the crowd. I pushed people out of the way trying to get through.

  “Look, I don’t want to hurt you.” Axel said.

  “FUCK YOU!” Jaxon yelled.

  After a minute of apologizing to people who I pushed and shoved, I ended up in the circle. People probably thought I was a crazy nerd just sticking my nose in other people's business.

  I was shocked to see there were four people in the circle. Axel was being attacked by Jaxon and his two friends. My mouth fell open in horror, there was blood splattered all over the floor.

  A random girl nudged me, “it was four against one, but Axel already took one down.” Why was she so excited about Axel getting attacked?!

  Jaxon’s flaming red hair was wet from sweat and his face was smeared in blood. The smell made my stomach churn. Jaxon had a large bruise forming on his jawline and a black eye forming while Axel had a small cut on his lip.

  One of Jaxon’s friends lunged for Axel, but Axel grabbed him and twisted his arm until there was a crack. The guy cried out in pain. Just then, Jaxon and the other guy knocked Axel down while he was distracted. Jaxon positioned himself on top of Axel as I screamed for them to stop. The other guy grabbed the broken-armed one and helped him out of the circle.

  As Jaxon was about to throw a punch at Axel's face, Axel somehow knocked Jaxon off of him and switched places. Axel was now positioned on top of Jaxon preparing to throw another punch at Jaxon. The guy came back into the circle and yanked Axel’s hair, catching him off guard. Axel fell backwards, banging his head against the tiles of the floor.

  “STOP!” I screamed, but the chants were too loud.

  Jaxon got on top of him and started throwing punches at him. As Jaxon was about to hit Axel again, Axel grabbed his fist in mid air before it could hit him. He squeezed it and twisted it making Jaxon groaned in pain.

  I kept screaming for them to stop, but they completely ignored me and kept fighting. I couldn’t stand seeing the two guys I loved most hurting each other. I tried pulling Jaxon off of Axel, but he wouldn’t budge.

  Axel’s emerald eyes met mine.

  That’s when the tables turned.

  Axel spun him around and got on top of Jaxon. With one hand on Jax’s throat, he knocked the other guy out with the other hand. He beat Jaxon over and over again, even when Jaxon was knocked out cold. Jaxon’s face was bloodied, almost lifeless.

  The bad boy’s eyes were cold and held no emotion. A cruel smirk tugged at his lips as I backed away from him. The person in front of me was not the Axel I had met the other night. This Axel in front of me was cold blooded with no conscience.

  His face scared me. I didn't want to go anywhere near him. He threw punch after punch at Jaxon's face, until Jaxon was knocked out cold. I don't know what got into me, but a burst of confident flooded me. I had to stop him from killing my best friend.

  I yanked Axel’s arm, but he didn’t even flinch. It stayed in its position as he continued to beat the life out of Jaxon. My fingers felt hot against his skin, I was touching him. But I was too freaked out to enjoy it. I kept yanking on him, but he didn’t even turn to look at me. I screamed until my voice ran out.

  I couldn’t stand it anymore, I couldn’t stand seeing my childhood best friend unconscious and covered in blood. I jumped onto Jaxon and sheltered his body with mine. I half expected to get hit, but I didn’t. I looked back up at Axel.

  His hard eyes met mine.

  Everyone had stopped cheering, it was almost completely silent.

  He placed a hand on my waist, and tried gently moving me out of the way, but I refused to budge.

  “NO!” I screamed at him.

  But he still tried to move me.

  I did the unthinkable.

  I brought my hand up and slapped him across the face.

  Some people in the crowd gasped.

  Axel glared down at me for a solid moment. He was… hurt? Disappointed?

  Realization struck me like a bullet in the chest.

  I had slapped the guy I had admired from afar since day one.

  I wanted to apologize and beg him for forgiveness. He had defended himself after all… but he should’ve stopped when Jaxon was out, yet he still continued. He was outnumbered, but brutally beat them.

  I felt like I had ruined my entire life.

  I could’ve called the teacher to pull them apart- well they probably wouldn’t be capable of doing so, but they’d at least call security. Instead, I had to get myself involved and ruin my chances with Axel by hitting him.

  But if I didn’t hit him, who would’ve stopped him from killing Jaxon?

  Jaxon was lying there in a small pool of blood on the floor, his chest moving up and down slowly. Axel's eyes drifted to Jaxon's body before he looked down refusing to meet mine. The crowd around us stayed completely silent.

  Axel looked up again, but this time his emerald green eyes were filled with anger and misery. He got up off the ground and glared at me.

  “Thanks for enlightening my fucking day,” he spat out sarcastically before walking away. The crowd parted for him as he left.

  I felt my heart break into a million pieces. What did I just do?

  ~*~

  “Are you sure you're alright?” the nurse asked for the thousandth time.

  I sighed and smiled at her sweetly. She was such a kind woman, but she was a little too worrying sometimes.

  “I really am, thank you for checking.” I repl
ied politely.

  She nodded and gave me a small smile before walking back over to her desk. I watched Jaxon in awe. He was utterly adorable. His features looked so calm when he was asleep.His flaming red hair was dried off and his face was wiped clean.

  All the blood from earlier was completely gone. He had a black eye and a bruise on his jawline. His pale lips were formed in a straight line.

  I might’ve sounded creepy describing how adorable my best friend looked when he was knocked out cold, but if you were in my situation, you would too.

  My eyes drifted over to his chest before I mentally slapped myself. Day dreaming about my best friend was a no-no! I sighed as I started thinking about Axel again.

  Axel.

  The only name that could make my heart flutter and give me butterflies.

  The only name that could make my face heat up. There was no one who could make my heart beat faster than him.

  Axel Storm Spencer.

  The guy who beat up my ex boyfriend and my best friend in the same week. I don't know whether I should be the one apologizing to him, or he should be the one apologizing to me.

  My life was so messed up. I was supposed to be in I.S.S, but ended up in the nurse's office because I fainted when I received a compliment. Then my best friend got in a fight with the guy I was head over heels for. At the end of the day, I ended up in the nurse's office again, watching over my best friend who was knocked out cold by my crush.

  I buried my face into my palms and tried to calm myself. Could life get any worse?!

  I couldn’t stop thinking about Axel.

  I desperately wanted to talk to him.

  Suddenly, the nurse's office door flew open revealing none other than Layla. Oh shit, karma proved me wrong.

  Life could get worse.

  Layla rushed into the office and started talking to the nurse. The nurse nodded in our direction, before Layla rushed over to us. I looked up at her expecting her to say something rude to me, but surprisingly, she didn't.

  She put her palm on Jaxon's forehead before behind down and pressing her ear against his chest.