Crush on Mr. Bad Boy

by Lilly Purdon

  “It's because of that bitch, isn't it?” her chocolate brown eyes held so much anger, I wanted the ground to swallow me up.

  “She's not a bitch! And no, it's not about her.”

  “Liar, it's about her. You want to fix things between you and her.” Her voice was steady, which surprised me. Why wasn’t she yelling or screaming? Was she expecting it?

  “It's not about her,” I lied. “You're a cheerleader, I'm a drama geek, you're popular, I'm not, you've got a pretty face, I don't, you’re the life of the party, I’m a ‘party pooper’… Layla… it was bound to end.”

  She shook her head at me. “That’s probably the worst excuse I have ever heard. I know it's about that bitch, no need to lie.” She was calm, too calm.

  She knew the truth, and the more I lied, the worse it’d get. I admitted, “Fine. You win. I’m breaking up with you because of her.” I felt tears on the corner of my eyes, “You happy?!” I yelled.

  She didn't even flinch at my tone. Instead, she stood there observing me closely, making me feel uncomfortable. “You don’t want to break up with me,” she stated.

  “If I didn’t want to then why the hell am I doing this?”

  “You're doing it because you want the bitch back.”

  I would say she was psychic, but I knew how smart and observant she was. “She’s not a bitch,” I went into defense mode, “But yes, that's one of the main reasons. I'm going to go fix things with her because she doesn't deserve any of this”

  “Yes she does, she deserves all the cruelty in the world,” Layla’s once warm eyes were ice cold.

  “What did she ever do to you?” I stepped closer to her. “No excuses to avoid the question this time. What did she ever do to you?”

  Layla avoided my gaze. “Go ask her.”

  “Damn it Layla! She doesn't know anything! She doesn’t know what she ever did to make you hate her. All she did was introduce herself to you, then from that moment on you hated her guts!”

  “She took something away from me.”

  I was surprised at her answer. It was the first time she had given any detail or hint on why she hated my best friend.

  I tried to dig deeper, “and what exactly did she take away from you? Because from what I’ve seen, she’s never taken anything from you. In fact, you took away the smile she used to have on her face every day.”

  “Nice to know,” she said sounding incredibly bored. “Are you done?” she looked up at me.

  She couldn't have cared less about what I had said. Maybe she wasn't as good as I originally thought she was. I asked for more information, but she just shut me out. Just like she always did. I walked over to her door and opened it. “Do you even have a heart?” I asked. My voice filled with disappointment. I turned around to look at her one last time.

  For a moment an unknown emotion passed through her chocolate brown eyes, but she quickly covered it up. She looked almost sad, “no, she took it away from me the day I turned four.” And with that, she walked over to me and slammed the door in my face.

  ---Rosie’s P.O.V---

  Waking up on Monday morning after Sunday night with Axel was the hardest thing to do. I had to practically pry my eyes open. I had woken up bright at early, 5AM. I got out of my bed and rushed to get out of the house before Cleo woke up.

  When I tiptoed past her room, I noticed that her door was open. I pushed it open and quietly stepped inside. The bed was empty, and the mess I had caused was the way it was when I left it there.

  Huh… so she didn’t come home last night.

  So I took my time in the house.

  I walked downstairs to the kitchen. It was so cold, so empty. I didn’t like how quiet it was, but I was used to it. I got ready for school and made a cup of coffee as I sat down re-reading one of my romance novels.

  One section in particular caught my attention.

  ‘The scariest thing about distance is you don’t know whether they’ll miss you, or forget about you.’

  – Nicholas Sparks

  I sipped my coffee and thought hard. It made me feel scared. It was our last year of high school after all. I went up to my room and flipped through some files. University applications in particular…

  Ivy League had always been my family’s dream- well my father’s and stepmothers. I just went along with it. But what did I truly want inside?

  I opened up my laptop and scrolled through lists of schools. With grades like mine, any school would have to take me. But what about Axel?

  After taking a hot shower and throwing on some ‘Rosaline type’ clothes, I grabbed my backpack and headed out to school. I left my house before the time Jaxon usually showed up. I didn’t want to see him, I needed space to think.

  Walking through the school doors was as awkward as always. I kept a low profile and made my way to the I.S.S. room. This time I completely skipped going to the dumb secretary. She’d just make me snap again. There were a couple of other students there I had seen around school, but Axel was nowhere in sight.

  Since the teacher supervising was sound asleep, I wrote a fake note about me being needed in the library to help organize books and left it on his desk. I fled the room and hid in the library for the rest of the day. I even skipped lunch, fearing I’d run into Layla. I really needed time to think, and I didn’t need any distractions.

  I thought about Axel all day.

  Where was he?

  Why didn’t he come?

  I checked all his social media accounts, but he didn’t post anything.

  I pushed down any negative feelings I had about the situation, and assumed he was tired from the previous night. Axel did skip school quite often.

  I returned home and found Cleo’s car parked in the driveway. Just then, my phone rang. It was my dad. I was so surprised I almost dropped my phone.

  “Dad?!” I picked it up excitedly.

  Unfortunately it was his assistant. “Hi Rosaline, your father said he’ll be going back into town for a dinner with Mr. and Mrs.…” I was rude to hang up before she even finished, but I didn’t want to hear it. I felt like he didn’t care about me.

  ---Axel's P.O.V---

  With my arm around Rose's waist, I took another swing from the bottle of mysterious liquid in my hand. While I was sleeping, Dustin had to call me and wake me up from my peaceful sleep. I couldn’t believe I slept for almost three days straight.

  Dustin had to wake me up and tell me Rosie was in trouble.

  I was beyond glad Rose decided to show up as her true self, not her Cinderella persona. She needed to grow confidence in her true image.

  Rose started talking to a cheerleader not long ago. I was surprised at how that girl was actually friendly to her. She probably didn't know Rose was the one Layla hated so much, or Layla had sent her. The girl was obviously an innocent freshman or sophomore who had no idea about partying. She just came along with her friends, but then her friends ditched her for guys.

  So now she was talking to my Rose.

  Call me a selfish bastard, but I wanted Rose all for myself. I wanted her to pay attention to only me, no one else. Yeah, I was selfish. The girl had a high and squeaky voice that made my eardrums hurt, badly. But as long as she was being nice to Rose, I was ok with her being around.

  “So are you two going out?” the girl asked. The question caught me slightly off guard. “Sorry I shouldn't have asked that,” she quickly apologized. “It's obvious since he has his arm around your waist.”

  My arm around Rose's waist tightened.

  “I'm so sorry if I offended you sir!" she gushed out. Sir? Was this chick high? “Please don't ban me from talking to your girlfriend!” she pleaded.

  I opened my mouth to speak but she cut me off.

  “I really enjoy talking to Rose and I really don't want to lose a new friend I just made.”

  This chick was seriously on something. Rose and I exchanged worried looks.

  “I know I might not be new to this school or anything but I really ne
ed some new friends because all my friends care about are boys and cheer and nothing else. I want a friend who understands and won't ditch me at a party for some guy and a friend who'll stay by my side no matter what.

  I want someone who knows everything about me and who will never lie to me. Please don't kill me after this because I'm too young to die, I'm just 15. I swear I'm not even lying you can go check my birth certificate! I might be a cheerleader but I'm not like the rest I cross my heart. I put it on all my nail polish that I'm not lying!

  I don’t really know you, but I’ve seen you around school and you’re not that ugly in my opinion! You were so cool when you slapped your boyfriend for your best friend. I need that loyalty in my life!” She gushed out quickly.

  I wanted a tornado to sweep her away. The chick was seriously on something strong.

  “I-”

  She interrupted Rose from saying whatever she wanted to say. “I know why Layla hates you so much, but you seem like such a nice person! Not like how she described you at all. Just give me a chance and I swear I'll prove myself worthy to you.”

  Rose narrowed her eyes at the girl. “You said earlier you didn't know why she hated me.” The girl's eyes widened before she gulped and avoided eye contact with Rose. “Layla sent you, didn't she?” Rose was beyond intimidating.

  “I-I-”

  “Just do me a favor and get the fuck away from me,” Rose growled.

  “I'm so sorry! She forced me to-”

  “I don't want to hear excuses,” Rose interrupted the girl.

  “Please hear me out-”

  “No!” Rose yelled, attracting some attention to us. I couldn't care less about the people around us, but it seems the girl did.

  “She said to choose between Matt and you, and Matt is really scary-”

  “Didn't you hear her? Leave her the fuck alone!” I growled at the girl. She was ruining my night with Rose.

  “Wait,” Rose said, pulling away from me. “Why does she hate me?”

  The girl started stuttering.

  “Answer me!” Rose yelled. The girl flinched at her tone.

  “I-I can’t… L-L-Layla…”

  “Layla will what? Take away your precious nail polish?” she laughed coldly.

  “No, she said she would be sure I would never smile again,” the girl said quietly.

  Rose stepped closer to the girl. “Tell me now.”

  “I can’t-”

  “Bullshit!”

  “I swear I can't-”

  “Well, well, well, what do we have here?” I would recognize that annoying voice anywhere. The sarcasm in her tone made me want to throw her out of the house. My head whipped in the direction the voice was from. The music's volume lowered slightly so that we could hear her better.

  There stood the brown haired cheerleader in a whorish cat costume that screamed ‘I WANT ATTENTION!’

  “Talk about the devil's bride,” I mumbled.

  “No comment needed from the lapdog.” She raised her index finger in the air and looked at Rosie.

  Of course being the badass I was, I couldn't keep my mouth shut. “You have no room to talk. You’re banging the ginger drama queen-”

  “Let your girlfriend fight her own fights, sweetie.” She flashed me a sickly sweet smile. I glanced at Rose who gave me a nod telling me to back down. “Let's take this outside, shall we?” Layla raised her eyebrows expectantly at Rose. Rose furrowed her eyebrows at Layla confusingly. “Just to talk,” Layla faked a smile.

  “Sure,” I rolled my eyes, “just to talk.”

  “I was talking to her,” Layla looked at me, “ass.”

  “Fine, let's talk." Rose replied walking ahead of us. I followed her but Layla stopped both of us.

  “Without your lapdog,” Layla pointed straight at me.

  “Call me lapdog one more time bitch-”

  “Fine,” Rose interrupted me before I could finish, “You go ahead, and I’ll catch up.”

  Layla nodded before strutting away. Rose turned to me looking as amazing as always. “Please don't follow me out.”

  “What if she hurts you?”

  “She said she just wanted to talk,” Rose shrugged.

  “You don't seriously believe her though, do you?”

  She bit her lip before looking down. “She said just talk…”

  “One way or another she's going to hurt you. If not physically, then emotionally.” My words were like a slap in the face to her. “I’m not going to sugarcoat anything or keep you in the dark. You need to realize people are out to get you, people will hurt you.”

  “I have to fight my own fights Axel.” Her bright blue eyes met mine. I don't know what it was, but I felt as if my stomach had just turned right into pink glitter.

  “I think my stomach just turned into glitter,” I blurted out.

  She chuckled and looked down at my stomach. “It's called butterflies.”

  I scrunched up my face in disgust. “I don’t get butterflies.”

  She just smiled up at me. Damn, how’d I get so lucky?

  “Do you get butterflies when you're with me?” I dared to ask, and hoped for a ‘yes’.

  “No,” she admitted. My smile turned upside down. She started laughing at me before putting both hands on my shoulders. “I get the whole zoo when I'm with you.” And with that, she pressed her lips against my own.

  ~*~

  Chapter 37 SNAPPING POINT

  ---Layla's P.O.V---

  What the hell was taking her so long?

  I peeked through a window and saw her slobbering Axel’s face in the middle of the dance floor. They pulled away from each other after a few minutes and stared into each other's eyes lovingly.

  I snorted out loud.

  How fucking romantic.

  Why did he ignore me for someone like that?

  I just couldn't wait for the day he dumped her sorry goody-little two-shoes ass.

  What was so perfect about her anyway?

  Her high grades?

  Her blonde hair?

  Her blue eyes?

  How she played the role of someone innocent so well?

  Everyone wanted her and was willing to ditch me for her.

  After a few major heartbreaks, I knew that no one would be there for me in the end. I was just a pretty obstacle along the way, and she was the real prize. I remembered seeing photos of her when I was just a little girl.

  She was the perfect child that every mother wanted.

  The little girl who would always listen to her mommy and daddy, the little girl who could melt hearts in a heartbeat… I grew up being the little girl who got made fun of at school because she liked to dance.

  But that all changed when daddy decided to move us back here. Back to the boring old town where I was born. I had spaced out and not noticed that Rose was a few feet away from me. “I'm here, what do you want to talk about?” Rose asked, sounding as timid as always.

  I put on the mask I always wore and turned around so that I was facing her. “You've got him back.”