by Lannah Smith
"Skull, that is not the way you play volleyball!" I admonished.
John kept laughing like the idiot he was.
"Make him stop, Steele," I hissed at him.
But he continued to laugh, continued to ignore me and my temper got the best of me.
There was another ball on the sand and I picked it up.
Then I put all my anger into it and smashed it right into his stupid face.
Skull was rolling on the sand, laughing like the moron he was.
John stared at him glumly from the sun lounge as he put an ice bag to his cheek.
Shit, but it hurt. Terry got him real good.
"If you don't shut up I'll beat you up again, you asshole," he growled at Skull when he wouldn't quit laughing.
"Sure you will," Skull replied with a smirk from the sand. "I mean, you didn't even manage to land a punch on me when I was ogling your hot Asian girlfriend."
"Ex-girlfriend," Rohan corrected. The brat was still sitting under the umbrella and still playing. He never liked the beach. "Said Asian girl is his ex-girlfriend."
Terrific. They were both ganging up on him.
John glowered at the both of them. "I've been letting this slide but how long have you fuckers known?"
Skull was up from the sand in a flash. "I'm thirsty," he said as he hurried to the house.
Gritting his teeth, John stared after him. Then his gaze slid to Terry, who was sitting by the edge of the water with Hannah, drinking fruit shakes together. Leon and Sophia was nowhere to be seen, probably making out somewhere. And from the corner of his eye, he saw Rohan sneakily trying to crawl away from him.
"Sit down, kid," John curtly ordered. With a sigh, Rohan returned to his place under the umbrella. "How long have you guys known?"
"I don't know how Skull knew," Rohan grumbled. "But I found you out when you left your phone once and I thought it would be funny to autocorrect some words into... unsavory words."
This fucking brat.
"And?" he prompted.
"I saw you've been sending texts to a girl named Yukiko. It made me full-on cringe, by the way," Rohan said with a disgusted expression. "And I was curious so I hacked into the school database to find out who this Yukiko was."
"You shouldn't have touched my stuff," he said darkly.
Rohan lifted a brow. "What's done is done. I couldn't believe it at first, you know, that you were bagging that boring privileged girl. What's even harder to believe was that a girl like her would give you the time of the day."
John smirked. "You underestimate me."
"Yeah, yeah, you're a manwhore," Rohan grumbled. "But are you serious about her though? You probably are seeing how you are so hung up about her. She dumped you?"
John's smile disappeared. "Hey, fuck you."
Rohan rolled his eyes and got to his feet. "Right. I'm going inside to sleep."
"Wait."
Rohan looked down at him. John slowly rose, clenching his jaw as he stared at him.
"Did you talk to Terry the same way you did to Sophia?"
Rohan's expression turned carefully blank and he made no reply because this was the truth.
John's body went tight. "You did?" he growled.
"I did. But..." Rohan sent him a glare. "You know her."
He frowned at his ambiguous answer.
Then it was clear as day.
"She bitched at you, didn't she?" he asked with a chuckle.
Rohan rolled his eyes. "Why do you think I told you that you deserved each other?"
"I didn't understand," he retorted. "But why say that? I thought you hated relationships."
"That didn't look like you were in a relationship."
Asshole.
"And besides, you're a sucker for pain," Rohan went on. "I actually wished she'd knock you off your pedestal because you are such a jerk."
Really, this kid was such an asshole.
John stared at him.
Then a smile slowly made its way across his face as a plan began to surface in his mind.
"You'll help me," he declared.
He didn't have to add the words or else. Rohan simply didn't have a choice. And from the exasperated expression on the kid's face, he was well aware of that.
Rohan groaned. "I knew I shouldn't have said anything."
"What the hell?" I grumbled as I stared at the open hood of my car.
White billowing smoke was coming out of the hood and we were about to go home.
"I guess we'll just have to use my car," Leon said tonelessly.
I glanced at him, suspicious.
"Yes, we should," Rohan responded in the same monotone. "I'll ride with you."
"Want to ride with me, Hannah?" Skull asked her with a glint in his eyes.
"I'm riding with Leon!" Hannah immediately blurted out and rushed to the backseat of Leon's car. She'd gone back to being scared of him after the whole volleyball thing.
I tried to catch John's eye but it seemed like he was staring at something over my head and couldn't quite look at me directly.
Breathing heavily, I said, "I guess I'll ride with Leon..."
I trailed off when I saw Skull push Rohan aside as the kid was getting into the backseat, shoving the massive teddy bear Skull gave Sophia as a birthday gift next to Hannah.
"What the fuck, Skull?" Rohan spat.
"Mr. Cuddles will ride with you," Skull announced.
"No fucking way!"
"I can take him with me in the front seat," Sophia offered.
"No," Leon said, opening the door for her. "He stays in the backseat. I won't be able to drive with that huge crap blocking my view."
With a growl, Rohan resignedly slid into the backseat and slammed the car door closed.
"Uh, full offense, but I don't like what this is implying," I hissed at Leon.
Sophia gave me a worried look. Then she eyed Skull, who was trying to look as innocent as possible, and at John, who was still smugly staring off at the distance.
"You'll take her home, right?" she asked Skull.
No way.
"I can get an Uber—" I started but got interrupted again.
"Of course we will," Skull answered, bobbing his head up and down.
"Then that settles that," Leon said. "Get in, Sophia."
"But—"
"Your father wants you home early, remember?"
Leon didn't allow Sophia to argue with him. She gently pushed her into the passenger seat and with a defeated sigh, Sophia gave me an apologetic look as Leon closed the door for her. Without looking back, Leon got in and drove the car away. Hannah kept looking back and I was too stunned to give her more than a wave. When the car disappeared out the property gates, I unfroze myself and looked at Skull.
"Fix my car," I snapped at him.
As if expecting that I'd say that, he instantly nodded and made his way to John's truck.
"Um, what are you doing?" I asked when he retrieved tow ropes and attached them to the front of my car. "Skull, what are you doing?"
A man appeared, probably the caretaker of the resort, and he got into John's truck while Skull got into mine. I tried getting in my car but Skull had locked the door.
"Get out, Skull," I snapped as I rounded the hood.
Skull rolled down the window an inch and yelled as the caretaker started John's truck. "We're taking this to the automotive. Stay in the house for the meantime."
"No. You can't be thinking of leaving me here with him," I yelled as I banged on my window.
He grinned through the window as he rolled it up. "Just remember that you have only yourself to blame for this, Terry."
"What is that supposed to mean?" I chased after the moving car but it had begun gaining speed. "Skull! Christopher! Come back here this instant!"
I got my answer almost immediately when I turned to yell John's head off. See? I was right. The jerk had been planning something and to think I'd finally lightened up, thinking nothing would happen. I should have stayed vigilant. Da
mn it. I should have jumped onto the truck bed or bitched at Rohan to get out of the backseat.
But as soon as I turned, John grabbed my wrist and dragged me to the beach house.
"Let go," I yelled.
He didn't let go until we were inside. So this was his plan. To isolate me, to make me lose my composure, to ambush me into talking to him. And was I really to blame for this? Hadn't I already made myself clear?
I took a step back as soon as John released me, leaned in, my eyes narrowed, and lost my ever loving mind.
"How dare you!" I shrieked.
He shrugged at me, unperturbed by my anger. "You wouldn't talk to me. I had no choice."
"You're a massive jerk. And you even made your friends go along with this."
"There was some blackmailing involved. They had no choice. And before you go ape-shit at me because they obviously now know about us," he rushed to say, "Skull, well, I don't know how he did but Rohan found out on his own."
"This isn't right, Steele." I took two steps away then pivoted and started pacing. "You're keeping me here against my will. How many times do I have to tell you that we're over and done?" I didn't wait for him to answer, I leaned in again and shouted in his face. "Why couldn't you just leave me alone?"
"You keep telling me that but do you want me to really leave you alone?" he countered. "Your attitude tells me one thing but your eyes tell me another. They're begging me to stay. They're begging me not to leave you again."
I shook my head and I did it breathing hard.
Damn it. I couldn't cry. Not in front of him.
"That's what you want to think," I replied quietly. "You're interpreting things in a way that's favorable to you."
"Is it?" he snapped back immediately. "Because no matter how much we pull away from one another, we always seem to drift back together."
"What?" I laughed without humor. "Are you saying that it's destiny telling us we're meant to be?"
"I like to believe that it's true. Because if not, then I have to praise myself for coming this far."
I stared into his angry eyes in disbelief. "Are you saying I'm a bitch?
His brow arched. "Aren't you?"
"Well, you're an asshole!"
"Then we're meant to be."
"God!" I shouted, throwing my hands up in the air. "God, this is crazy."
Silence.
I looked at him but he wasn't looking at me. He was looking at my hands. My heart thundered slowly and I curled my fingers.
He couldn't have seen them. I'd been so careful. I didn't even let him hold my hands when were still together. I'd even played volleyball with my hands fisted, never letting my palms in display.
"T-tell me," I stammered, trying to get his mind off my hands. It worked before, it'll work again. "Tell me then what I should do?"
His eyes slowly peeled off my hands and with them, his attention. "Let me take care of you," he said after awhile.
I snorted derisively. "Steele-"
"I know you don't want to get back with me again. And I respect that," he started beseechingly. He started getting into my space and I started retreating. "You already know that I'm not giving up on you anyway but I'm willing to give you all the time you need until you figure out if that's what you really want. As long as you don't push me away. As long as you let me stay by your side."
My body went completely still at his words and my eyes watered. His hands moved to my head, palms at the base of my neck, fingers in my hair. His face dipped an inch away from mine and I inhaled sharply at the love and determination shining in his eyes.
"I'm taking care of you. I'm taking care of your problem. You can stay engaged to Ethan fucking Cameron until then because I know he's not going to touch you anyway and if he did I'd murder him. We can continue hiding our... whatever it is that we have now, friendship or whatever because I wouldn't put it past Haru to take you back to Japan if he finds about us. And even though I can take that crap if he pulled that one on me, I don't want you to suffer so I'll just bite my tongue and concede for the meantime."
"Why?" I whispered, my voice cracking, the tears clogging my throat.
"Why what?" he asked gently.
I fell silent, trying to fight back the tears but I knew I wasn't going to win and I didn't.
John held my gaze.
And when a tear escaped from my eye, his gaze followed it.
"Why do you want to do that much for me?" I said, finally finding my voice.
John's gaze returned to me. "How many times do I have to tell you to finally get it through your head? It's because I love you, Terry. I love you so damn much."
And just like that it felt like he had just broken the shackles that my life was chained in.
My face dissolved into tears. With one hand still at my head, his other arm shifted around my back immediately and he held me close and tight. I shove my face in his neck, my hands clenched on the garment of his shirt and sobbed.
"You... you make me want to have dreams," I stammered softly.
He bent his head and whispered in my ear, his arms going tighter. "You can make them. I'll help you make them come true."
"You make me want to run away from home."
"I'll gladly keep you if you'll let me."
"But I don't want to run away." I lifted my head back to look at him. "I don't want to be without a family. And I don't want to live in fear all my life because of them."
"Then I'll help you face them." His arms gave me a squeeze. "I'll be your strength. And if it can't be me I'll help you find it."
"Why is it that you have everything figured out?" I demanded, poking him on the chest.
"I have too much time to think about us since we broke up," he answered with a small smile, his voice vibrating with emotion. "And it all leads the decision to fight for you. To fight for your happiness."
"I've already given up on my happiness a long time ago."
"Then fight for it, Terry," he urged. "Fight and struggle against the path your parents and your brother are forcing you to take. You're not alone, don't you see? You have me. You have Hannah. Sophia. You have so many people who cared for you."
I shook my head and his hands came to cup my jaw. I focused on him again.
"And you have time. We're still in high school so you can't fulfill your marriage duty until 6 or 7 years. You have time to change your brother's mind. We have time to change his mind about us."
"I'm afraid," I whispered shakily, new tears stinging my eyes and nose.
"I know."
"All I know growing up is obeying my family."
"I know, Terry." His thumbs moved to stroke my cheekbones and at the wetness trailing down my eyes. "I know."
"And we just keep on hurting each other. This relationship is destroying us."
"We can improve together. Heal together. So please stop crying and just trust me."
"And you said I never cry." I punched his shoulder and he winced. "I cry all the time."
Pain and guilt shadowed his face and his hands dropped from my face, landing on the sides of my waist. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that."
I punched his shoulder again. "I cried over you. Ask Skull. He'll tell you."
His hands on my waist tensed at my words yet I was too deep in my rant to notice it. "Why does Skull know—?"
"I keep trying to make myself stop thinking about you. But I couldn't and I keep blaming myself for being so weak when it comes to you."
"Wait, wait, let's go back to Skull first—"
"You're a bully," I kept at him. "You're really a bully and I don't know why I... I don't know why I love you."
His mouth closed and his eyes glittered at my admission.
Then he was smiling, smiling so wide it completely shut me up because the beauty of it was simply exhilaratingly.
"Really?" he asked me.
I stared at him for a moment.
Then I said, "It's true. Because if not, then I have to praise myself for coming this far."
He was laughing when he kissed me.