Misunderstood: Inspired by the Neighbor from Hell Series (A Neighbor from Hell YA Book 1)

by R. L. Mathewson

  And nothing, Sebastian reminded himself as he pulled his iPad out of his pocket and found himself watching her again.

  “Talk to me,” Jonathan said as he dropped down on the chair next to him.

  “There’s nothing to talk about,” Sebastian said with a slow shake of his head as he stared down at the iPad in his hands.

  “What happened?”

  “I messed up. What else is there to say?”

  “I’ve never seen Mom and Dad like this before,” Jonathan said softly, drawing Sebastian’s attention to find them standing off to the side, away from everyone else. He watched as their father pulled their mother into his arms and kissed her forehead. Even from here, Sebastian could tell that she was struggling not to lose it.

  “It will be better when I’m gone,” Sebastian promised him as he found himself watching Mikey, who hadn’t said a word to anyone in the past hour.

  “You need to make this right for her,” Jonathan bit out angrily as Sebastian watched Mikey.

  He had to let her go.

  “That’s what I’m doing,” Sebastian told him as he forced himself to look away.

  “No, what you’re doing is making this worse. She needs you.”

  “No,” Sebastian said, shaking his head, “she doesn’t.”

  “God, you’re such an ass,” his brother said, shaking his head in disgust as he stood up and walked away, leaving Sebastian sitting there, struggling not to look at Mikey again, knowing just how easily he would break if he did.

  She deserved better than someone that was just going to ruin her life. Without him in the picture, she had a chance to fix everything and he wasn’t about to take that away from her. Her parents were going to fight the expulsion and they’d probably win, especially since he planned on writing a letter taking full responsibility for everything that happened.

  Hopefully that would be enough to keep the private schools interested in her, Sebastian thought only to frown when his iPad alerted him to a message. Surprised that his parents hadn’t taken this away from him last night, he swiped his fingers across the iPad and–

  Felt the air rush out of him when he saw the two emails waiting for him. The first one was from the exam center. Knowing that it wasn’t going to make a difference, Sebastian opened the email and saw his score.

  150 out of 150 possible points.

  Of course, he’d get a perfect score, Sebastian thought numbly as he hit delete and moved on to the next email, noting that it was from the high school. Slowly exhaling, Sebastian opened the email and found himself numbly staring down at the proof that he’d screwed everything up.

  He–

  “What do we have here?” Braxton asked, sounding amused as he snatched the iPad out of Sebastian’s hands only to laugh a few seconds later when he read the email.

  “Give it back,” Sebastian said as he reached over to snatch the iPad out of Braxton’s hands only to have the jerk pull it out of his reach.

  “You got rejected from a public high school?” Braxton asked, laughing as Sebastian slowly became aware that everyone at the party was looking at them. “How do you get kicked out of a school that you’re not even in? That’s pathetic.”

  “I’m not playing with you, Braxton. Give it back to me,” Sebastian said as he moved closer, reaching to grab it again, but Braxton wasn’t done.

  “Dear Mr. Sebastian Bradford, we regret to inform you that we will be unable to allow you to attend next year. You are welcome to enroll in the virtual alternative, please see the link below. We would also like to remind you that you are not eligible for any extracurricular activities or allowed–”

  “Enough,” Mikey said, snatching the iPad out of Braxton’s hands before he could finish, but the damage had already been done.

  His family watched him with pity in their eyes while Braxton’s family looked at him with disgust. Having had more than enough of this party, Sebastian turned around and–

  “Aw, come on, don’t you want to know what you’re not allowed to do?” Braxton called after him in a mocking tone.

  “Go to hell,” Sebastian said, forcing himself to keep going, wondering just how soon his parents could ship him off to military school and get him the hell out of here before he–

  “Give it back!” Mikey snapped right around the time that Braxton said, “Don’t forget your iPad.”

  Before Sebastian could turn around, he watched as his iPad soared past him and landed on the driveway ten feet away with a sickening crack. He watched as his iPad broke in two with the back breaking off and skidding several feet away, leaving the shattered screen behind.

  “What is your problem?” Mikey yelled, drawing his attention back in time to see Braxton shove Mikey out of his way and…

  That was it.

  He was on Braxton less than a second later, pulling back his fist and punching him, knocking him on the ground. Sebastian didn’t wait for Braxton to get up, he followed him down, punching him as soon as his knee hit the ground, barely aware of the blows that Braxton was landing and not giving a damn about anything else other than shutting him up.

  He’d had enough.

  He was sick of everything, sick of screwing up all the time, sick of the way that everyone looked at him, and sick of…sick of…everything!

  “Sebastian, stop!” Mikey said, trying to grab hold of his arm but he pulled it free and hit Braxton again and again until someone grabbed hold of him and dragged him off, but not before Braxton landed a kick, hitting him in the gut and knocking the wind out of him.

  “Sebastian, calm down!” his father yelled as he pulled him back, but he was done.

  Yanking his arms free, Sebastian shoved his father away, ignoring the startled look on his father’s face and stumbled toward the driveway, grabbing his ruined iPad and shoving it in his sweatshirt before he got the hell out of there.

  Chapter 39

  “Mikey!”

  “God, boys are stupid,” Mikey said, shaking her head in disgust as she paused long enough to grab a bottle of water from the cooler before she ran after the boy that was making this a hell of a lot harder than it needed to be.

  Ignoring everyone yelling her name, Mikey ran after Sebastian. She didn’t bother yelling his name as she followed him across the street and wasn’t exactly surprised when he cut through the park. When he headed toward the football fields, she’d decided that they’d played this game long enough and did what she had to do.

  “Ouch!” Mikey said on a pained gasp, trying not to overdo it as she slowed to a walk and grabbed hold of her side with one hand, and with the other, slapped her hand with the water bottle against the side of a tree as she leaned over and waited.

  She didn’t have to wait long before she heard, “Damn it!” That was followed by a resigned sigh as Sebastian walked over to make sure that she was okay and that’s when she made her move…

  “What the hell are you doing?” Sebastian asked as she tried to take him down to the ground so that she could slap some sense into him, but apparently, she hadn’t been able to get enough momentum before she made her move to make it happen.

  “Getting really pissed at you,” Mikey said, deciding to cut her losses and move on, Mikey dropped to the ground and wrapped her arms around his leg and held on tight.

  “Let go,” he said, trying to pull his leg free, but she refused to let him go until she said what she needed to say to him.

  “You’re an idiot,” Mikey said, deciding that was the best place to start.

  “Agreed. Now let go,” Sebastian said as he reached down and carefully tried to dislodge her, but she wasn’t going anywhere.

  “No, we’re going to talk,” she said, dropping the water bottle so that she could tighten her grip.

  “There’s nothing to talk about,” the stubborn boy determined to piss her off said as he gave up trying to pry her arms off his leg and moved on to trying to pull his leg free.

  “No, we have a lot to talk about, starting with where you get off telling my
parents that you’re not going to talk to me again,” Mikey bit out as she was forced to wrap her legs around his and–

  Held on tightly when the move along with his attempts to break free caused him to fall back and hit the ground with an, “Ooomph!” The move forced her to loosen her hold around his leg and before she could grab hold of him again, Sebastian was pulling his leg free and moving to get up, but she couldn’t have that.

  “Mikey, I’m not playing around with you. Get off!” he bit out when was she forced to jump on his back and take him back down to the ground when he started making progress.

  “No!”

  “Yes!”

  “Oh, my god, you’re insane!” Sebastian snapped, trying to drag himself free, but he wasn’t going anywhere.

  “You knew this!” Mikey said as she quickly adjusted herself so that she laying was across his legs to keep him pinned to the ground.

  “Mikey–”

  “You do not get to throw away three years of friendship because we both screwed up! You do not get to turn your back on me when I need you the most! And you sure as hell don’t get to keep acting like everything in the world that goes wrong is your fault! I can take care of myself!” she snapped, still beyond pissed that he’d tried to pull this.

  When she woke up this morning to find him gone, she’d been scared out of her mind that something happened to him. It had taken her parents a half hour to get her to calm down, and once they told her what happened…

  She hadn’t believed them.

  Sebastian was her best friend and he cared about her. She knew that he would never do anything to hurt her. Her parents wanted her to stay home and rest, but she wanted to see for herself. As soon as they came home from the hospital, she marched across the street to find out for herself only nobody was home. When her parents suggested that he was probably at Cole’s birthday party, she’d grabbed a quick shower to wash away the hospital stench, dutifully kissed her brothers when Aunt Sara and Uncle Eric brought them home, and headed for the door, telling herself the entire way to the party that it had been a simple misunderstanding.

  Sebastian would never do that to her.

  As soon as she walked into the backyard and saw the look on Sebastian’s face when he saw her, she’d realized that her parents hadn’t been lying. She’d forced herself to sit there, waiting for him, but he never came and now…

  Now, they were going to settle a few things.

  *-*-*-*

  “Let go!” Sebastian said as he tried to pull his legs free without hurting Mikey, but the stubborn pain in the ass wouldn’t let go.

  “Tell me why you did it!” came the stubborn reply.

  “Because you’re better off,” Sebastian said, damn near sighing with relief when he spotted his brother heading their way.

  “No, I’m not!”

  “Yes, you are!” Sebastian snapped, wondering why she always made things more difficult than they had to be.

  “Give me one good reason why you think I would be better off without you!”

  “Because I made you cry,” Sebastian bit out, feeling his stomach turn at the reminder only to end up rolling his eyes when she said, “I had something in my eye!”

  “God, you really are a pain in my ass,” he sighed as he gave up trying to pull his legs free when his brother finally reached him. “Can you get her off me before she gets hurt?”

  Sighing heavily, Jonathan leaned over to do just that when Mikey’s next words stopped him. “Sebastian was supposed to get the scholarship, not you.”

  Frowning, Jonathan asked, “What are you talking about?”

  “Mikey,” Sebastian bit out in warning, but the little brat refused to listen to him.

  “The scholarship for Radcliffe was supposed to go to Sebastian but the stubborn jerk turned it down so that you could go to school instead,” Mikey rushed to explain and if he hadn’t already decided that their friendship was over, that would have done it.

  “What is she talking about, Sebastian?”

  “Nothing. Just get her off me,” Sebastian said as he tried to pull free only to growl in frustration when Jonathan joined her, pinning him down to the ground.

  “What the hell are you doing? Get off!” Sebastian snapped, turning his head to glare at his brother only to find his brother glaring back at him.

  “What the hell am I doing? What the hell were you thinking giving up that scholarship?” Jonathan demanded, refusing to budge.

  “I was thinking that my brother wanted to go more!”

  “Bullshit! You wanted to go to that school just as badly as I did. So, tell me the real reason you screwed yourself over.”

  “Why don’t you ask Mikey?” Sebastian said, giving up on trying to be careful for Mikey’s sake and tried to pull his legs free, but his brother had his legs pinned down tightly beneath him and refused to budge.

  “Good idea!” Mikey said with false cheer. “Well, it seems that your brother, the jerk, thinks that everything is his fault and truly believes that the only way to make things better is to screw himself over.”

  “Because it was my fault,” Sebastian bit out as he gave up trying to pull his legs free and tried to roll over onto his back so that he could pull them off his legs and finally be done with this conversation.

  “We both screwed up, Sebastian!” Jonathan said, sounding truly angry for the first time in their lives. “We did a lot of stupid things and it caught up to us. I was just as responsible as you were, so why were you the one that had to pay the price?”

  “Just let it go, Jonathan,” Sebastian snapped, groaning in frustration when he realized that he couldn’t turn over onto his back.

  “No, tell me why you let me take the scholarship?”

  “Let it go!” Sebastian snapped as his hands fisted in the grass and he struggled not to lose it.

  “No!”

  “Fine! You want to know the truth? It’s because you wouldn’t have done any of those things if it wasn’t for me,” Sebastian bit out as he closed his eyes and pressed his head against the crisp grass.

  “How do you figure that?” Jonathan asked, sounding curious.

  “Because you’ve been at that school for three years and you’ve never gotten into the kind of trouble that we used to get in. I’m the problem, Jonathan. Me. I ruin everything that I touch,” Sebastian said, wondering why this was so damn difficult to understand.

  There was a heavy sigh and then, “Did it ever occur to you that I learned my lesson? Or that the expulsion was the wakeup call that I needed to stop acting like an idiot? Or that I realized what I was putting our family through?”

  “You don’t think that I know what I’ve done to this family? It’s all I ever think about! I put them through hell, but apparently that wasn’t enough and I had to screw up Mikey’s life too!” Sebastian shouted as he moved to pull his legs free and this time, they didn’t stop him.

  Getting to his feet, Sebastian turned around and faced his brother only to find his parents and half his family standing there, watching him. Ramming his fingers through his hair, Sebastian said, “Everything will be better when I’m shipped off to military school.”

  When nobody said anything, Sebastian moved to leave when Mikey’s next words stopped him. “You think you ruined my life?”

  “I know I did.”

  “I see,” Mikey murmured, looking thoughtful as she reached down and picked up the bottle of water she’d dropped during her earlier attack and–

  “Ow! What the hell is wrong with you?” Sebastian demanded when the crazed teenage girl tackled him to the ground.

  “You! That’s what’s wrong!” Mikey snapped as she quickly straddled his stomach and–

  “Are you crazy?” he demanded only to sputter when she opened the bottle and dumped it on his face.

  “Yes!” she snapped as he reached up to stop her, but apparently the crazed girl wasn’t done yet and started beating him with that empty bottle.

  “I am sick and tired of your crap, Se
bastian Bradford! You are the most stubborn, annoying boy that I have ever met! You did not ruin my life, you jerk! So, stop acting like it! The only thing that you’re doing is pissing me off!”

  “Ow! Stop that!”

  “No!”

  “You are not going to military school! You are not going to drop out of high school and get your GED and waste your life when we both know that you were meant for something better! And you are not going to try to ditch me again just because you like to make yourself miserable! And you are not leaving me! Do you hear me?” Mikey shouted long after his father and Uncle Lucifer managed to pull her off him.

  “That’s not your decision,” Sebastian said as he pulled himself up only to realize that they’d already let Mikey go and–

  “What the hell is wrong with you?” he demanded as she took him back down to the ground and picked up where she left off.

  “Everything!”

  Chapter 40

  “I’m not going to attack him again,” Mikey promised as she struggled to get free, but something, probably the way that she glared at Sebastian, gave her away.

  “Liar,” Sebastian bit out coldly from the other side of the kitchen where he continued to struggle against his restraints, but there was no use.

  They’d used the good knots to tie them to the chairs, which meant that Mikey wouldn’t be able to finish what she’d started until they let her go. But that was fine, more than fine with her because she could wait until they let her go and once they did…

  She was going to slap some sense into the stubborn jerk.

  “I think we need to talk,” Uncle Trevor said with a heavy sigh as he leaned back against the kitchen counter and crossed his arms over his chest while Mikey narrowed her eyes on Sebastian.

  “Fine, but she doesn’t need to be here for this,” Sebastian said, further pissing her off.

  “He’s right. Let me go and I’ll leave,” Mikey said, smiling pleasantly as she waited for someone to release her.

  “That probably won’t end well,” Jonathan said around a large bite of birthday cake.