by Alessa James
I nodded and let her in before locking the door behind us. We went over and sat on the couch and I kind of unloaded — everything about Mike being completely out of his mind, the stuff I saw on the news about his dad, and Jayden finding me at the last second. By the time I was done, I was shaking.
“I always knew Mike Jensen was a jerk, but I didn’t realize he was totally unhinged!” Stace said, shaking her head. “What are you going to do?”
I blew out a breath.
“I don’t know.”
“But Jayden, like, saved you! How cool is that?”
I shrugged.
“It was really weird, Stace. Jayden kept saying stuff about how this is all his fault — and then I saw the thing on TV with Mike’s dad. I think Jayden thinks that Mike’s using me to get back at him for something.”
“Why would he use you?” Stace asked, confounded.
I shrugged guiltily. I totally didn’t blame her for sounding confused since I had kind of left out the part about my latest make-out session in Jayden’s car. By the time Mom got home, I was calmer, and Stace and I were making some homemade mac and cheese — plus more brownies, which were becoming a compulsion of mine. This time, I totally planned to bring them to school for Jayden, since he had saved me again. And I really didn’t care if anyone thought it was weird at this point.
Even if he wasn’t my boyfriend, he was my hero.
Chapter 11: Sucker Punch
When I got to school the next morning, I had the brownies in a plastic container in my backpack. I had put a sticky note on them the night before with 5#6 so Jayden would know they were from me — not Mike Jensen trying to poison him.
I got to Government before he did and left the container on his desk. Then I waited. And waited. By the time the late bell rang, I was freakishly nervous. I hadn’t heard from him since he had dropped me off yesterday. At the end of class, I snatched the container off his desk before Jimmy Patterson could get his grubby hands on Jayden’s brownies.
Finally, during nutrition, I was desperate enough to send Jayden a bunch of texts right in a row. I just needed to know he was okay. Right before third period was over, my phone buzzed. I grabbed it and looked down at the text. It was from Jayden. He said he would see me at lunch. The 5#6 at the end of his text made my heart beat a little faster. I couldn’t wait to see him at lunch.
We had never really acknowledged each other’s existence at school in front of other people, and at the party, it had looked like Jayden just bailed me out from having to go anywhere with Mike. I was sure no one thought that Jayden Stone had really, really wanted to kiss me. Now, though, a part of me was starting to feel hopeful that he really did like me.
After the lunch bell, I went and found Stace and Kelly before walking to the quad. I hadn’t seen Mike Jensen since yesterday, but I wasn’t going to take any chances. It didn’t really seem like anyone else had heard about Mike’s dad, or maybe they were just too scared to talk about it and risk Mike’s wrath.
I took off my sweater as we sat out on the grass. Out of the corner of my eye, I kept looking for Jayden, but both he and Mike were missing from their usual spot by the stage. Vicki and Emma and some of the other girls they hung out with didn’t look too upset, but I was started to get worried again. I turned and started talking to Stace, but my mind was a million miles away.
What if Jayden didn’t show up? What if something had happened to him?
Kyle came over and wrapped his arms around Stace’s waist, and Brandon and Kelly were attached at the lips already. Watching them, I had a bad feeling that this was how I was going to spend the rest of high school — watching my friends make out with their boyfriends. I turned and looked toward the front of school and tried to eat some of my lunch.
A few minutes later, I saw Jayden walk onto the edge of the quad. He had changed clothes since yesterday, but he looked kind of disheveled, like he hadn’t slept at all. He was looking around, and I started to get up, ready to race over to him when Vicki Westfield jumped off the stairs and ran over to him. Embarrassed that I had even thought he was looking for me, I sank back down feeling dejected and miserable.
Vicki flung her arms around his neck, and I was kind of shocked to see him pull back and keep looking around. When he waved at me, my heart slammed in my chest and I stopped breathing. I started to stand up a little unsteadily as he jogged toward me. I couldn’t believe this was happening. It was like a dream. Then my eyes focused on something — someone — coming up fast behind him from the far end of the quad.
I screamed.
“Jayden! Behind you!”
Mike had crept onto the quad and was now headed straight for Jayden at full speed. Everyone stopped and stared at Jayden as Mike charged him, tackling him to the ground. Screaming again, I jumped up and ran toward them, watching as Mike’s fist came down on Jayden. Without thinking, I threw myself onto Mike’s back, wrapping my arm around his neck and pulling at him. He shook me off like I was a fly, and I landed with a thud on the concrete at the edge of the lunch area. But it gave Jayden enough time to get to his feet and slug Mike right in the jaw.
Mr. Fitzpatrick and another teacher were there in another second, and Jayden backed up with his arms raised. The vice principal and two teachers grabbed Mike, who was already up and lunging at Jayden.
“You’re a dead man, Stone! You — and your little girlfriend. Dead,” Mike spat as they dragged him off.
As I was trying to get to Jayden, Stace and Kelly ran up, putting their arms around me, and Mr. Kaplan appeared, asking if I was okay. Before I could reach Jayden, another teacher started walking him toward the offices.
“Molly! Wait for me after school at my car!” he called back.
I nodded fervently, hoping that Jayden wouldn’t get into trouble. After all, everyone on the quad had seen Mike jump him. When the bell rang, Stace and Kelly walked with me to class. I promised to explain everything to them, but I wasn’t even sure that I completely understood what was going on.
After school, as I walked with Stace and Kelly to the parking lot, I gave them the short version of what had happened since Stace already knew most of it from the day before. As they left to meet up with Kyle and Brandon, I promised that I would be okay until Jayden got there.
Then I saw Vicki and Emma hanging out on the hood of his car, their eyes cutting into me as I passed by. I went over to perch on the railing at the end of the lot. Dropping my backpack on the ground, I pulled out my book and started reading. At least this time I knew that Mike wasn’t going to come sneak up on me.
When Jayden came jogging into the parking lot, I kept my head down, pretending like I hadn’t seen him — afraid I would attract Vicki and Emma’s attention. A second later, he came and swept me off the railing, and I squeaked in surprise. Then I looked at him and started crying. His eye was all red and bloodshot from Mike landing a punch.
“Molly? What are you crying for?” he laughed.
“Your eye!” I bawled.
His hand accidently brushed the scrape I had covered up with my sweater, and I winced. Suddenly Jayden stopped laughing and set me down. He looked down and I tried to hide the damage from falling onto the sidewalk when Mike had launched me.
“Molly! Why didn’t you go to the nurse?”
“It’s no big deal,” I mumbled.
“I’m going to kill Mike if I ever see him again,” Jayden growled.
He took my hand and led me over to his car. Vicki and Emma hopped off the hood and gave me another dirty look before taking off, and I watched as Jayden opened the trunk and set out a first aid kit.
“What do you have that for?” I asked.
“Baseball.”
“Oh, right.”
He took out some alcohol wipes and a big bandage. Taking one of the wipes, I ripped one open and dabbed it on the scrape. When I hissed in pain, Jayden started muttering about killing Mike again. As soon as I put the bandage on, Jayden opened the car door and held my hand while I got in.
/> “Do you mind coming somewhere with me before I take you home?” he asked as he got in on the driver’s side.
“Jayden! You’ve got to put ice on your eye!”
“It can wait. I really want you meet someone first.”
I nodded hesitantly as he drove out of the parking lot and took the freeway. This time he took an exit toward the city center, and we pulled into the parking structure for Mercy Medical. I didn’t say anything. I just followed him into the hospital to the front desk where he signed us in for visitor badges.
We took the elevator up to the one of the patient floors, and when we got off, I looked up and saw a sign that said Recovery Unit. We walked down the hall, and then Jayden stopped in front of a room like he knew exactly what he was looking for.
“Molly, you mind waiting out here for a second?”
“Um, okay.”
He ducked into the room, and I stood there, feeling a little silly until he came out and grabbed my hand, pulling me into the room. There was a man propped up in the bed, and I could see the family resemblance immediately. The man was handsome, with bright blue eyes, steel-colored hair that had probably been brown once, and a strong jaw. Jayden’s dad. He sat up and offered his hand.
“Molly, it’s so good to meet you,” he said, smiling. “Jayden’s told me a lot about you.”
I stopped myself from blurting, “He has?!”
“It’s good to meet you, too, Mr. Stone.”
“Call me Jim.”
We spent a few minutes talking to Jayden’s dad before the nurse came in and shooed us out of the room. As soon as we got outside, I looked at Jayden and realized that this was the reason he had taken off yesterday.
“Why is he in here?” I asked quietly.
“Heart attack.”
I cringed.
“He’s gonna be okay, though, right?”
Jayden nodded, and I relaxed a little.
“The doctor said it wasn’t too bad. He should get out in a few days … but I wanted you to meet him.”
“Why?” I asked as we got back on the elevator.
He grasped my face between his hands and bent down, letting his lips brush mine over and over, so lightly that I thought I was going to die. My breath was coming in quick little gasps, and I gripped the front of his shirt and moaned — right as the elevator doors opened.
Jayden pulled back, but only after a doctor in a white coat got on with us and shook his head. I blushed and tried to slow my breathing, but I knew I was blushing bright pink. At the ground floor, Jayden took my hand as we walked outside. Instead of going back to the parking structure, he steered us through downtown until we reached the waterfront. I was looking out at the water when he turned to me, his blue eyes serious.
“Molly, why do you think I keep kissing you?”
My lips parted, and I just kind of stared at him. It didn’t seem possible that he was kissing me because he liked me the way I liked him. And, to be totally accurate, it was more like I was totally in love with him. My pulse started pounding in my ears, and it made me feel like crying when I thought about how in love with Jayden I was. It was stupid. Silly. Crazy.
“I don’t know!”
“You’re a smart girl, Molly. You really don’t know?”
My eyes stung.
“Okay! Maybe because you feel bad that you only asked me to the dance because of that stupid bet with Mike!”
“Is that really what you think? That’s why you think I keep kissing you? You didn’t stop to think that maybe I really, really wanted to kiss you?”
I looked up at him speechlessly.
“I asked you to the dance because Mike said he was going to ask you,” Jayden said, exasperated.
“Well, that’s great,” I mumbled, looking at the ground.
Jayden grabbed my shoulders, and I raised my eyes.
“He found this on my phone.”
When he held out his phone, I reached out tentatively. Looking down, I shook my head at a picture of my poem from Mrs. Sharp’s freshman English class. Then I stared up at Jayden.
“Mrs. Sharp read it to our class, and I went up afterward to get a copy of it,” Jayden said.
“Why?” I squeaked.
“Because it was sweet. Like you, Molly.”
“But how’d you know it was about you?”
He raised an eyebrow and gave me that wry smile that made my heart melt.
“Molly, everybody knew.”
My cheeks were flaming hot, and I just about died.
“Was it that obvious?”
“Mike knew. And when he saw it on my phone, he flipped out. Started telling everyone on the team that he was gonna bring you to the dance and hook up with you. So I asked you first.”
“And the bet?” I asked quietly.
“Mike was trying to get back at me. If I had told him no way and had just blown him off, then he totally would have gone after you. It was better if you hated me than to watch Mike go after you, which he did anyway.”
Jayden cracked his knuckles.
“So you took the bet to keep Mike away from me?” I asked, still confused.
I wasn’t sure how to feel about this. It was good that Jayden wanted to protect me, but it wasn’t good that he only wanted to protect me. Jayden shook his head.
“No. I took the bet because I wanted to be the first to do this.”
Before I could say anything, he bent down and kissed me again, and by the time he pulled away, I was gripping his jacket.
“But we’re so different,” I argued. “I mean, you’re popular, and I’m —”
Jayden’s lips came down on mine again, and he kissed me again until I was dizzy and gasping for breath.
“Are you going to keep arguing? Because I can keep doing this …”
That made me laugh.
“Okay, I might keep arguing, then.”
He grinned.
“Molly, Mike was the reason I never asked you out before. Anything I’ve ever had, Mike’s wanted to destroy. I wasn’t going to ask out sweet little Molly Adams and have him try to hurt you. That’s what I was trying to avoid.”
“You were going to ask me out?” I asked in a small voice.
Jayden nodded, and my stomach swirled with excitement. We turned started walking back toward the parking structure, and when we reached my house, I invited Jayden in, only partly because I wanted to be sure he iced his eye. We were on the couch, frozen peas forgotten on the coffee table, when Mom got home from work.
“Molly!” she squeaked indignantly as I jumped off the couch.
“Mom, this is — this is Jayden.”
Jayden stood up, looking way less embarrassed than I was feeling. He held out his hand to my mom.
“I’m Molly’s boyfriend, Mrs. Adams,” he smiled.
I nearly fainted when he said that. Mom reached out and took his hand, still eyeballing me.
“It’s nice to meet you, Jayden. And call me Cheryl. Are you staying for dinner?”
“Thank you. But I should get home and clean up. I was at the hospital overnight with my dad.”
My mom raised an eyebrow, and I gave her a look like I’d tell her everything later, which I was totally going to have to do now. As soon as my mom went upstairs to change, I walked Jayden out to his car.
“Wait!” I gasped. “I forgot something!”
I ran into the house and grabbed my backpack, taking out the plastic container with the brownies. When I came back outside with them, Jayden looked down at the container and smiled crookedly.
“You baked me brownies?”
I nodded, embarrassed.
“Sweet little Molly,” he whispered, touching my cheek. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Okay.”
I smiled as I watched him get into his car. Then I ran back up the stairs and into the house. Jayden Stone had called himself my boyfriend! When Mom came back down to the living room, I told her about the whole thing — minus certain pieces of information that would send
her through the roof. She kept talking about going in to talk to the principal to make sure Mike Jensen wasn’t coming back to school, but I told her they would probably suspend him.
Later, before I went to bed, I got a text from Jayden. All it said was 5#6. I smiled, but deep down I was afraid of what would happen when we got back to school. I was afraid of what would happen if Jayden told his friends that he was dating me. I was afraid of what would happen if Mike Jensen came back to school. And I was afraid that Jayden would change his mind about me.
Basically, I was afraid of reality.
Epilogue: Happily Ever After
So I was a total coward. I completely avoided my locker the next morning. And even when I got a bunch of texts from Jayden, I ignored them. Then I made sure to get to Government right before the bell, sliding into my seat without looking for Jayden. At the end of class, I bolted for the door and hid in the girls’ bathroom, not answering any texts from Stace or Kelly, either.
Finally, at the beginning of lunch, after hearing that Mike Jensen had been suspended from school and would have to finish the year at continuation school, I slinked over to my locker and nearly died when I saw a note taped to the locker.
Shaking and sweating, I walked up and grabbed the note.
Turn around.
That’s all it said. I flinched, and my heart started beating a mile a minute as I turned around slowly, like somebody was going to hit me over the head with something. I blinked when I saw Jayden standing there with a dozen pink roses and a black box that looked really familiar. My face paled as I stared down at it. It was the box that Mike had left in my locker — the one I had been too afraid to look inside of.
“Molly, Mike took it out of my locker. Then he left it in your locker … and you thought it was from him.”
I blinked.
“That box was from you? Mike stole it?”
Jayden nodded as he opened it. Inside was a silver ring with a shiny pink stone in the shape of a heart at the center.
“You were going to give this to me?” I asked incredulously.
“Better late than never,” he said, slipping it on my finger.