Rebellion Project

by Sara Schoen

  I rolled my eyes at his words, but couldn’t hide the amused smirk on my lips. That segue was sneaky, yet clever as well. I hadn’t even had time to prepare to explain myself before he brought it up. It snuck up on me like a thief in the night. “Yeah, but I’m different and so is he, huh?”

  “Sure you guys are.”

  I waited for a second, expecting him to burst into a sudden fit of anger and yell at me for my poor decisions, but the yelling never came. There was just silence. Silence that I was forced to break. “So, you don’t care that Kayden and I are…” I fished for a word to explain us, “…together?”

  He furrowed his dark eyebrows. “Hell yeah, I care. Any father would care if his daughter was dating a guy who acts like he did as a teenager. I know exactly what Kayden’s thinking about because I was there once myself.”

  I furrowed my eyebrows, sure that we looked similar with our matching expressions. “And what’s that?”

  My dad smirked, but luckily didn’t delve further into the topic. I wasn’t ready for The Talk with my dad. “Well, as I was saying, of course I care that you two are together. I understand that his mother is fine with it, especially since our relationship is over, but I’m a bit uncomfortable with the idea of the two of you being involved.”

  I gagged slightly, seeing where this conversation had the possibility of going.

  “So, if you two can stick to some rules about the dating and can continue to stay out of trouble like you have been, then I’m fine with you two seeing each other.” He sighed deeply. “From what his mother tells me, while you are misbehaving, Kayden has actually been behaving better. Their relationship healed up quite nicely, they are more of a family, and he stays home and not out with his other friends as much. I am glad to know you had that effect on him.”

  I smiled to myself as I looked back at Kayden and motioned for him to join me at the door. He lifted his eyebrows in shock and then joined me with an awkward smile. My father nodded at him before he continued.

  “I would like to remind you that you may think I forgot about your mother when she died, but I didn’t. I loved her and I still do. I always will, no matter my mistake because that’s what it was…a mistake.” He shifted his eyes downward, as if he was afraid to look Kayden in the eye after saying it. “I would have traded places with her in a heartbeat if it meant that she would be here with you now. I would have done anything for her and I’d do anything for the both of you, even if you can’t see that.”

  I knotted my hands together, focusing on them as I mumbled, “But you cheated on her while she was still alive. Why would you do that if you loved her as much as you say you did?”

  “It was a mistake. There are weak moments in our lives, we can’t find out when they will be or what they are about, but they will happen. You have to hope you won’t make a mistake, but that’s what life is about. You live and learn,” he said with a knowing smile before he took a calming breath. “So will you please come back home, Lauren? I understand that we have a lot more to work out, but I don’t want you to feel like you can’t come home. I’m not mad anymore, I came to terms with it.”

  “How so?”

  “I finally looked over what your mother left me in her will,” he said with a sad sigh. “She left me a letter telling me why she did it, why she was giving everything to you. It made me feel sorry for how I was treating you and how little I thought of her by thinking she was doing it to spite me. While we had cleared the air before I still had a little resentment, and that’s just me being honest.”

  “What did it say?”

  “She was leaving you everything so that you could explore the new life she had given you. It wasn’t because she no longer trusted me, it was because she wanted to give you everything you needed to try out this new life and style for yourself without my influence. She did this for you, and she did it for us. She saw that I was leading you down the wrong path. She noticed how you reacted to the sight of blood and lacerations, and knew you didn’t want to be a doctor. She gave you what I couldn’t, an opportunity to be something different than what the expectations were. She even left money for your college and says it can go to wherever you want to go, whether in state, out of state, or abroad. Pick it and it’s yours, just please come home and let’s work this out.”

  I looked at Kayden, who offered me a gentle smile as comfort. “I will,” I promised. Honestly, for the first time, I was thrilled to go home, and felt that everything was going my way. Although, I should have known, with a new lifestyle came new problems and not everything would be fixed quite so easily.

  Chapter 28

  Bathroom Gossip

  “It’s gorgeous,” Parker shrieked with excitement as she turned the small gold bracelet in her fingers Kayden had given me. I still couldn’t believe that it had happened only a few weeks ago and since then, despite a few attempts by Alexis and Jamie to ruin it, it had been blissful ever since. I guess they were still upset that he had chosen not to go out with his friends and instead spend the weekend with me. Ever since his friends had started taking little digs at him, saying he had a girlfriend, he wouldn’t spend time with them now, and when Kayden complained they pointed out that would he do the same to them. It was scary how similar boys could be to girls sometimes. “How do we know he just didn’t steal it?” she teased, breaking me from my thoughts.

  “I honestly try not to think about that,” I stated with a head shake. I had been praying that he didn’t steal it, but knowing him it was possible. I chose to ignore it rather than ruin the moment he gave it to me though. “If I think about it too much it will start to bother me, and I like it too much to return it,” I said with a smile as I slammed my locker shut. I took a few tentative steps to see if Parker would follow me on the way to our class, or if she was going to skip today. She had been avoiding her history class since she saved Kayden and me from Principal Davis’ wrath. Alexis had figured out who ratted them out, and was making Parker’s time in class awful.

  Kayden had tried to step in, but Parker refused. She said that she did what I would have done, and that meant she did the right thing. It had come to her attention over the last few months that doing the right thing was more important than skating by in high school with a social ranking. For a moment, I caught myself wishing she wasn’t my friend. That way she could get what she wanted and not worry about my actions affecting her even though I knew she wouldn’t trade me for the world. She was happy to see the change, and was pleased that Alexis and Jamie had gotten in trouble by being suspended for a few days.

  “Fine, but if someone asks where you got it, then I’m ducking out of that conversation just in case it belonged to someone else at one point,” she said with laughter in her voice.

  I was about to respond when we walked into the girls’ bathroom and almost collided with two people standing in front of the full length mirror at the entrance. I took an instinctive step back when I saw it was Alexis and Jamie. Suddenly I didn’t have to go to the bathroom anymore. They didn’t say anything for a while, just stared us down as if we were beneath them and a complete waste of their time. I glanced at the round wall clock behind them to see that we were about to be late to class, and no matter how much you changed me, I wasn’t going to be late to class for these two. I still had to get an education.

  “Can I help you with something or are you just going to stand there like idiots?” I asked rather rudely, shocking myself at my own words, but I wanted to enter the bathroom, not cause a pile up outside.

  Alexis and Jamie looked at each other for a moment, lifting their perfectly sculpted eyebrows at each other as if to say ‘can you believe she just spoke to us like that?’ before they rolled their eyes. I’m sure they had a hard time processing it since normally everyone just side stepped out of their way and told them whatever they wanted to hear, but not me, and most certainly not ever again would I let them walk all over me.

  “Look, we only have one thing to say to you so we’ll get to the point,” Ale
xis said with an eye roll. We didn’t want to talk to her either, but since we couldn’t walk through them we had no choice but to stick around. Since they would just follow us to get out whatever they had to say, I’d rather it get done sooner rather than later. We didn’t really have a choice but to eventually hear what they had to say, so might as well make it sooner rather than later.

  “That would be great, I have to get to class,” I said, pulling out my phone to show them the time. They didn’t appreciate my sense of humor, and didn’t bother to respond.

  “We’re sorry we tried to get you suspended. That was a little low. We just wanted you and Kayden to break up,” Jamie explained with a flip of her brown hair. Something about that gesture made me angry. It was something so small that I should have over looked it, but I couldn’t. For some reason, with the connection of her words and the gesture, I just wanted to punch her in the face.

  “Not that my relationship is any of your business, but why are you so intent on trying to ruin it? Can’t you just accept that he wanted to be with me and not at one of your stupid parties? I’m his girlfriend, and he didn’t like how you treated me there, so he didn’t want to hang out again. Get over it and let us be,” I stated forcefully. I pushed past them both, taking Parker’s wrist and dragging her behind me as I walked past them.

  “You can walk away all you want, but that won’t change you, Lauren. Kayden likes you for what you’ve become, and once he figures out you’re still the same goodie-goodie you always were, he’ll dump you and go back to teasing you like he always did,” Jamie stated, hoping I’d stop to confront her since her tone still sounded like she wanted to fight. Too bad I wasn’t going to give it to her. I had won this fight, and I wasn’t going to belittle myself by stooping to their low levels. Although, they weren’t letting me leave without another jib to provoke me into a fight. Luckily Parker stood up to them before they could.

  “Let me tell you something. I don’t know why you think you’re so entitled, but Kayden picked her. I don’t know if you guys had an on again off again relationship, or if you’re just obsessed. I also just don’t care. What I do know is she has him, and I will make sure that you do nothing to hurt her or their relationship. Whatever you attempt to do to them, or either of them separately, I will release ten-fold on you. Do you hear me?”

  “Whatever,” Alexis said with an over-exaggerated eye roll. “Kayden’s dumping her either way once he’s completed the bet. We just thought we would give her the chance to end it before he humiliates her in front of the entire school. So much for our charity case,” she said as they both turned on their heels with a humph and a hair flip as they left us in their dust.

  “What did you say?” I questioned, stopping them at the threshold of the girls’ bathroom.

  Alexis once again looked bored when she turned to me. “Mac told us that he gave Kayden the challenge that he couldn’t convince you to date him and then have sex with him so he could take your virginity. It was all a bet, I’m not sure exactly what he gets out of it, but I know there’s a pot of money involved worth well over two hundred dollars by now and whoever predicted the correct amount of time gets the money. I think Kayden just found the entertainment factor what he needed it to be. So maybe you should release payback to him by ‘ten-fold,’” Alexis said, repeating Parker’s words.

  “You’re lying,” I choked out. Anger was flowing through me, coursing through my veins. They just couldn’t believe he had picked me after getting to know me. They wanted to believe there was another reason, something that made sense to them other than the fact he chose me over them. They couldn’t handle it, and now they wanted an excuse. “You’re such liars. You dug really low for that one. Are you scraping the bottom of the barrel for that?”

  Alexis shrugged. “Jamie said you wouldn’t believe us. Like I said, we wanted to tell you so you could have a chance to break his heart before he breaks yours. Bye.”

  I turned to Parker, wondering what she thought, but she clearly didn’t believe them. “I’m so over them,” Parker stated. “I say you keep dating him. He may not be high on my list, but if it takes their egos down a notch then it’s worth it. They need to learn that they can’t have everything they want—that includes the guys too.”

  “But what if they weren’t lying?” I asked curiously.

  “You can’t believe them, Lauren. If those two girls actually set their minds to it then you could end up in some big trouble and that would mean goodbye academic scholarship to whatever school you choose. They are natural born liars. They don’t care about what’s true, they only want to manipulate others for their benefit. Don’t give in to them.”

  “I agree, they need to realize that it’s not all about them,” I said, letting my new personality take over. I refused to be walked on by those two girls, but at the same time I had a feeling they weren’t lying. “The only way I’m going to know for sure is if I ask Kayden. I know he’ll tell me the truth and if I get a little ridicule from it, then I’ll take it over never asking.”

  Parker sighed. “I can’t stop you, and if it makes you feel better, that’s fine. Just don’t expect him to take it well if they were just trying to manipulate you. When he tells you that he’s honestly head over heels for you, then we need to make sure they realize Kayden chose you over them, and there’s nothing they can do about it,” Parker stated with a wink. I let out a laugh to let her know that I heard and agreed with her, but at the same time I began to wonder. Had he really chosen me, or was he that same guy I knew before and just be using me to win a challenge?

  I knew guys took challenges as a way to prove themselves. I knew if they didn’t, then they were looked down on. It was a pride thing, at least that’s how it went with Parker’s brother before he went to college. He had explained it to us when Kayden first started to pick fights and tease us. Some people just can’t change in life, and you have to accept that, but deep down I hoped Kayden had changed.

  I hoped that he hadn’t used me to win a bet, and to just add another check mark to his list of girls. He was now a big part of my life. In fact, he was just as important as Parker. I didn’t want him to treat me the same way he did before. I would just have to make sure that if he did revert to his old self, I needed to make sure I could stand up for myself. It was time to find out what kind of man Kayden would be now, and after this was all over. I just had to figure out how to get him to tell me the truth and to see if he’d stick around after our agreement was over, or if I’d ruined it now.

  Chapter 29

  Doubting Kayden

  I waited until the start of lunch to talk to Kayden about Jamie and Alexis’ confession. The waiting was eating me alive. I had to sit through two classes and force myself to pay attention to the teachers who were attempting to educate me on the Mean Value Theorem and another trying to teach us the lessons of the Battle of Midway. Needless to say, I didn’t learn either of those, and I’d have to take the time to teach myself before there was a test. It was just impossible to focus on them when I was trying to figure out what to say to Kayden.

  There were so many ways this could go, and frankly, I didn’t like any of them. Most of them ended up with him breaking up with me or pushing me aside because I didn’t trust him. Either way he became furious with me, but I needed to know. If he became irate from my questions, that would be understandable and I could accept it. I just hoped it was because I was wrong, and Alexis and Jamie had tried to get under my skin, but if I wasn’t…I wasn’t sure how I’d handle that.

  I approached Kayden before he made it into the lunch room, he was surrounded by a few friends who he quickly banished when he saw me coming. Once again I felt as if there was something in that group he didn’t want to be apart of. Was it the bet? Could it be something else? Maybe he just wanted to spend time with me, and didn’t want his friends breathing down his neck anymore. I was hopeful of anything that didn’t break my heart, but the more I thought about it I could only see that he had lied to me from the
start.

  He had no reason to feel sorry for what he did, he was never sorry. He could feel remorse, maybe, but even that was a stretch when it came to me. He had used his mistake to take advantage of me so he could win at a matter of pride. He may have fallen for me, as Parker claimed to have overheard on our double date, but he had started this with a lie. I could see it clearly now. I had been so hopeful, so out of other options that I had walked right into it. How could I be so stupid?

  “Hey Lauren,” Kayden said, wrapping his arms around me for a hug, though when he pulled away and saw the anger on my features, his expression became worried. “What’s wrong? You look like you got bad news.”

  “Kayden, will you tell me the truth?” I asked, as I tried to read his facial expressions.

  He knew something was wrong. He immediately looked down at the ground in shame. He refused to look at me—he knew something. I placed my fingers under his chin and forced him to look at me. His expression was torn, half of him seemed to be debating and the other half looked like he was about to be sick. Something wasn’t right. “Kayden, tell me what you’re thinking about. You’re scaring me,” I admitted honestly.

  “You’re breaking up with me,” he whispered. He looked down at the ground, seeming to be ashamed or distraught. I was sure I heard him wrong, because as far as I knew nothing like that had come out of my mouth.

  “What are you talking about?” I asked curiously. “Where did that come from?”

  “They told me you were going to do this, that you’d figure it out. I hoped you wouldn’t until I could explain it to you. I thought I could do this, but I can’t,” he said as he lightly pushed off of me and moved away. I followed his motions, bewildered at what he was talking about. I hoped he was talking about something other than lying to me, but what else could there be that he was hiding from me? I almost cried at the thought of what else he could be lying about.