by Lilly Purdon
“What'd you just call me?” he gasped.
“You heard me.”
He grabbed both my hands and pushed me down on the couch before crawling on top of me. His legs rested on either sides of my hips and my hands were pinned above my head. “Say it again. Say it to my face,” he said in my ear, sending shivers up my spine.
“I-I don't have to." I tried to sound confident but failed.
He chuckled in my ear, “I can stay here like this all night.”
I swallowed. Ah shit, what the hell was I supposed to do? A firefly landed in his blonde hair. “There's a firefly on your hair,” I told him.
He gave me a flat look. “I'm not stupid.”
“I'm not lying.” I struggled to get out from under him, but I couldn't. A part inside of me didn't want to get out of the position, while the other part wanted to be straddling him instead, “get off.”
“Push me off.”
I tried, but failed. “Get. Off. Of. Me. Right. Now.” I growled, attempting to be serious. Instead, I learned a laugh from him.
“You're so cute when you try to look angry.”Even in situations like this he managed to make me blush. “Just say what you said to my face and I'll think about letting go.”
“This isn't fair,” I pouted.
“Life isn't fair sweetheart,” he smiled sweetly down at me.
I glared up at him. “Just let me go.”
“Nah.”
I stared at the firefly crawling onto his forehead. “The firefly is on your forehead now.”
“You can’t lie to me,” he smirked.
“I'm serious, there's a firefly on your forehead.” I said, still staring at the insect.
“You know, you're actually a pretty convincing liar,” he chuckled.
“I'm not fucking lying,” I groaned.
“Princesses aren't supposed to swear you know?”
I watched the firefly crawl from his forehead onto his nose.
“It's on your nose.”
He scoffed at me. “You really think I'm that-” he shut up when he saw the firefly on his nose. His emerald green eyes widened at the bug. “Holy shit! Get it off!”
“How am I supposed to get it off you with my hands pinned to my head?” I asked annoyed.
“I don't know! I don't want to touch it!”
“You're afraid of fireflies yet you brought me here?”
“Well they've never landed on me before!” he sounded so funny when he was panicked.
“I don’t want to hurt it! I'm not scared of fireflies, I just...” he trailed off while looking at the poor firefly on his nose in fear. He squirmed on top of me while shaking it.
“Get it off!” He squirmed on top of me. It almost felt like he was grinding against me. I personally didn’t mind it.
“How?”
“Just blow it!”
“Blow it?”
“Yeah, do it quickly!” he said panting from his little fit.
“I don't know...” I trailed off with a smirk on my face. So the big scary bad boy was scared of fireflies landing on him. I took note of that for later.
“Please!” he said, he looked like a frightened little girl. I had to hold back my laughter.
“Fine, you owe me,” I said before blowing the firefly off his nose. It flew away.
He sighed in relief, “thank god.”
“What the hell is going on?!” a voice screamed from Axel’s pocket.
Both our eyes widened at the voice.
What the hell?
“Shit!” Axel cursed while pulling his phone out of his pocket. “I must've accidently pressed a button when that thing was on me…” he trailed off with an apologetic look on his face.
I shook my head at him while biting my lip. He put the phone up to his ear. “Butt dial.”
“Who is it?” I mouthed.
He either mouthed back Justin or Dustin, I couldn't tell. “No,” he said to the twin on the phone.
“What'd he say?” I mouthed to him, but Axel was looking in another direction.
“None of your business,” he said to the person on the other end of the call.
I stayed quiet.
“No.”
Moments passed of only the other party speaking.
“It's not what it sounded like-”
What sounded like?
“She’s fucking fine!”
Axel was pissed off.
“Cut the crap, Dustin.” Axel snapped.
Jeez, what did Dustin say?
“Don't tell me what to do, I do what I want.”
Axel was getting angrier by the second.
“I don’t owe you a fucking explanation.”
If I were Dustin I would've shut up and listened to what Axel had to say.
“If you don’t fuck off and leave us to our business, I swear I’ll go over there right now and kick your ass.”
“Axel, what's going on?” I asked.
“See? She's perfectly fine.”
“I'm fine, what's going on?”
“No! How many times do I have to fucking tell you?! The answer is fucking no! Nothing happened! Even if something did, I don't have to fucking explain everything to you! You're not her fucking dad,” he yelled into the phone.
What the hell did Dustin say to piss him off like that?
Axel ran a hand through his hair. “Find someone else to care about,” his voice was stone cold.
I heard Dustin apologize on the other end, but Axel hung up on him shortly after without saying another word.
“What was that about?” I asked, hesitating whether or not to touch him arm.
He turned to me with slightly messy hair. “Do you really want to know?”
I nodded eagerly. Of course I would want to know what they were talking about. I was standing here for a while listening to their weird conversation over the phone.
“Dustin thought you were blowing me.”
“But I was blowing you. I was blowing the firefly off of you-”
“Uh… by blowing I mean… giving me a blowjob,” he told me honestly. “It’s none of his business anyway, but he just heard me tell you to blow it and he assumed… because he thinks of me that lowly.”
“D-Dustin seriously t-t-thought that?” I stuttered out. My cheeks felt hotter than a pavement on a summer’s day.
He nodded, “he thinks I’m the kind of person who’d force myself on someone.”
I started laughing for some reason. “You couldn’t force myself on me, even if you wanted to.”
He looked at me like I had grown a second head, “I wouldn’t in the first place.”
I just kept laughing, “because I’d let you take me,” I tapped his foot with mine.
He just smiled oddly, “Rosaline, are you drunk already?”
I couldn't reply because I was laughing so hard. Why was it so funny? I had no idea, I just kept laughing. I laughed so hard I snorted.
Axel started laughing, “Did you just snort?”
My laughing no longer sounded normal, it sounded like I was having an asthma attack. By the time I stopped laughing there were tears running down my face. “Maybe,” I giggled. I ended up snorting again.
Axel laughed.
He actually laughed.
It was the most genuine I had seen him laugh. It wasn’t one of those snickers, smirks, or chuckles… it was a full laugh. I
“I'm impressed my princess knows how to snort,” he laughed while throwing himself on the couch with me.
My princess...
At that moment I forgot about all my worries. I forgot about everything, I forgot my cheating step mother, I forgot about Jaxon and Layla, I forgot about the whole world.
The only thing I was concentrating on was Axel laughing on the couch right beside me. We both laughed until we couldn't breathe. Though we eventually stopped, we still grinned at each other like idiots.
He wrapped his arms around me before pulling me into his chest. I rested my head against his chest and list
ened to his heartbeats while staring up at the fireflies around us. He inhaled deeply before closing his eyes to rest.
I looked up at the clear sky, and how the stars seemed to shine just for us.
I had felt so lonely before. Like no one was truly there for me, I couldn’t trust anyone with my heart. But with him, I felt like I could be myself. He was slowly setting me free. It was odd how he kept putting a bit of distance between us sometimes, almost to stop me from relying on him too much.
But right now, in his arms, I felt so free.
My heart was chained to him, but I felt so free to do what I wanted.
“I love you,” I said in barely a whisper.
I had no idea if he heard me or not, but when I glanced at him through the corner of my eye he was already asleep with the cutest smile on his face.
Even if he didn’t hear it, I felt like I got it off my chest.
~*~
Chapter 36 NO TEARS
---Jaxon's P.O.V---
My hands shook in front of me as I stood in front of an apartment building. Though the door was normal, I felt as if it was ten times my size. I felt so small and skinny. Well not everyone could build muscles as big as Axel or Matt. Just thinking of Axel made bile rise in my throat. He was the reason for all of this, if not for him maybe I would've gotten the chance to tell Rosie everything myself.
I lifted up my shaking finger slowly and pressed on a button which I thought was the doorbell. “Star’s Residence how may I help you?” I guess it wasn’t a doorbell...
“Uh, I’m here to see Layla.”
“May I ask who this is?” the woman asked.
“Jaxon.”
“Oh Mr. Smith! What a pleasant surprise! We'll let you right in."
“Thank you,” I said pressing the button again shutting off the intercom. I had never been so nervous in my whole life. Even performing a Shakespeare play in front of college scholarship recruits wasn't as nerve-racking as this.
The door flew open revealing an old lady dressed, I assumed it must’ve been her housekeeper.
“This way Mr. Smith.” she ushered me up a flight of carpeted red stairs. “Layla has told us so much about you,” she gave me a kind smile. “I hope you don't mind of course, she tells me everything. I've never seen her this way before- well actually I have with four different other guys- but it doesn’t matter she absolutely adores you! She can't go a sentence without mentioning your name!” the old made giggled like a school girl.
I gulped nervously.
Surely she had no clue at all why I was there for.
“All her hatred for that girl has turned her to bitter over the years,” the maid shook her head sadly, “but her becoming captain of the cheer team and accomplishing a lot in school has helped her! You have too!”
My palms started to get sweaty as we walked up some more flight of stairs. What floor was her apartment on anyway? “I'm so glad you showed interest in her. It’s good you have different interests! At first she was afraid that you'd reject her. Poor girl, she's had a rough life.”
We walked through a hall filled with family portraits of the Star family. We stopped once we reached a white door. The maid knocked on the door softly. “Yes?” a voice replied from inside.
“Mr. Smith is here to see you.”
The door flew open almost immediately. Layla was wearing a pair of black shorts with a pink tank top. Her chocolate brown hair was wet and looked as soft as Egyptian silk. Though she looked different without makeup, she still looked presentable.
When she saw me checking her out she smirked confidently and leaned against the doorframe. “I'll leave you two to your business,” the maid bowed before scurrying off. That maid acted more like a slave than anything...
“Couldn't wait to see me?” she asked in a playful tone.
I wanted to smile at her like I always did when I saw her, but this time I kept my face neutral. “I need to talk to you,” I said in a serious voice.
She frowned at me before pushing herself off the doorframe, “come in.”
I stepped into her bedroom and looked around. The walls were light purple and covered with pictures of her at different ages with different people. I noticed most of the pictures were of her and Matt hugging and smiling.
He was the school's football quarterback. Why didn't she want him? Why did she want a guy who everyone thought was gay? Why would she want a guy who was in the drama club and loved being over dramatic about everything? The biggest question in my head was 'why would she be interested in a loser like me’?
I knew how much she hated Rose and how horrible she made my best friend's life, but I couldn't help but care for Layla. Under that cold mask she wore when she was around Rose, there was a beautiful young spirit beneath.
Sure she might've been annoying sometimes, but I knew inside she was a fairly good person. She wasn't the nicest at times, but she also wasn't the worst. I glanced at more of the photos on the wall. There were pictures of her and her dad, but none of her with her mom.
“Why aren't there any pictures of you and your mom?” the question slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it.
“Deadbeat,” Layla shrugged like it was nothing. My eyebrows furrowed. Why did she hate Rose so much? The two had that in common.
“Why do you hate Rose?”
“I've told you a million times,” she rolled her eyes at me. “She deserves to be hated.”
“You've never told me the exact reason.”
“I don't have to tell you.” She crossed her arms across her chest.
“Why? Why do you refuse to tell me every time I ask you?”
“Because I don't have to,” she shot back before throwing her head back and groaning. “We always get into an argument when we talk about her, so let's stop.”
“No, I'm not letting it slip this time. Why do you hate her so much?”
“You came here to talk about her, didn't you?”
“No, actually I came here for another reason.”
“Really?” she scoffed in disbelief, “what is it then?" she cocked an eyebrow at me. “Enlighten me.”
“It's over.”
She was shocked, “what?!” Her eyebrows furrowed and her chocolate brown eyes were clear with confusion.
“Us, we're over.” I forced out.
I felt a painful tear in my chest, but I didn't back down. It was either Rose or her. I had to fix things with my childhood best friend. She had been there for me the entire time and I never really appreciated it that much until what we had was gone. I hurt her, I betrayed her… and I needed to make it up to her.
