Crush on Mr. Bad Boy

by Lilly Purdon

  I thought about going back and begging for him, even after I dumped him, but thankfully Jaxon talked some sense into me. Jaxon was always there for me. Through my ups and downs.

  He was kind of like the brother I never had. But I was attracted to him. He was undeniably cute and adorable, but I had a thing for bad boys… specifically Axel.

  But he did have a reason for being bad. He just wanted his mom to leave the step dad, and wanted to go live with his dad, that's all. Back to California. I frowned at the thought. He couldn't go back…

  He was mine, yet he wasn’t.

  I shook my head to clear my thoughts. No he couldn't move back. His mom was keeping him here and there was no way he was going back. A pair of fingers snapped in front of my face, pulling me out of my thoughts.

  I shook my head and looked up. Ricky was looking down at me with a guilty expression on his face. He gave me a sad smile and gave me a questioning look. I cocked an eyebrow at him.

  “So, what do you think?” he asked hesitantly.

  “Think about what?”

  “What I just said,” he replied in a 'duh' tone.

  “Uh, I-I-”

  “You weren’t listening…”

  Why was I so afraid of admitting that? “You knew,” I laughed nervously. Why couldn’t I just tell him up front I didn’t give a damn about what he had to say?

  “Rosaline… I know you like I know the back of my hand.”

  I backed away and shook my head, “you assume you do, but you don’t. You don’t know a damn thing about me.”

  “Your favorite color is blue, your best friend is Jaxon-”

  “Anyone could guess that, Ricky. That’s not going to get you in my pants- nothing will.”

  “Let me finish what I have to say,” he snapped. “You hate your stepmom, your real mom left when you were small, you’re rich as hell because your dad works all the time, and you’re becoming a rebel because of how strict your stepmom is.”

  Did my ex boyfriend just try to summarize who I was in one short paragraph?

  “You only have two friends, you like reading cringey romance novels, you’re too afraid to talk to guys, and you’re closed as fuck- it’s quite annoying actually.”

  “You’ve only scratched the surface.”

  Before Ricky could say another word, Axel appeared out of nowhere. He was wearing a pair of dark jeans and a white tee which clung tightly onto his perfectly sculpted body.

  He gave me a small smile and sat down in his usual seat. His eyes looked at me with… sympathy? Did he feel sorry for me? How much did he actually hear? Comparing both our lives, I'm not sure whose life was sadder. I looked back at Ricky.

  His grayish-bluish eyes were pleading into mine. Why did he want another chance all of a sudden? I fell for them many times, and I promised myself never again. I forced myself to brushed off the fact that he knew and remembered a few facts about me and smirked cruelly at him.

  “And I know a thing or two about you too. You don't care about anyone. You’re observant, you pretend you care, but you don’t. You don’t care about anything unless it benefits you in some way. You use girls for sex, and you use guys for popularity and to hook you up. You’re a pathetic excuse for a guy. You’re a fuckboy.”

  His mouth was in an 'O' shape, and his eyes flashed with nothing but anger and hatred. He narrowed his eyes at me and moved closer to me, but someone stopped him.

  “Get any closer to the girl and you won't be able to fuck another chick for the rest of your life.”

  The voice gave me butterflies and made my heart pound against my chest crazily. I turned around to look at Axel. His intensely green eyes were narrowed at Ricky and his body was in a striking position. He was ready to bounce right off his seat and beat the living shit out of Ricky.

  “What are you going to do? Knee me in the balls like she did?” He laughed.

  Axel kept his eyes narrowed at Ricky and smirked.

  “I thought you didn't have any.”

  Ricky's jaw dropped to the floor. A small giggle escaped my lips before I contained it. Axel’s lip perked up a bit, before returning to its serious position. Ricky kept his glare on Axel.

  He then shut his mouth and balled up his fists to his sides. Axel lounged in his seat and folded his arms behind his head. He swung his feet onto the desk then sighed while looking up at Ricky.

  “Thinking of a comeback pretty boy? I can just hear the gears grinding up inside your little head of yours.”

  Ricky eyes held nothing but hatred now. His face was red as a tomato and his fists were balled up on his sides.

  “Say another word and you’re going down, pussy.” He hissed through his teeth.

  Axel yawned lazily and stretched a little.

  “How long did it take you to come up with that? A day? Two days? A week-”

  Ricky cut him off, “shut the fuck up! I don't want to have a problem with you; I'm just here to talk to the nerd.”

  “You pick on her; you have a problem with me. Leave her alone,” his tone was so threatening.

  Ricky glared at Axel, “What the fuck is your problem? Why is she so important to you?”

  “She isn't,” Axel replied simply.

  My heart shattered. My stomach twisted painfully. No, I couldn’t cry in front of them.

  “Then why are you helping her?” Ricky asked raising an eyebrow.

  Axel got onto his feet, “because I feel like it.”

  “You’re just trying to get some.”

  “I’m not like you. I don’t fuck anyone.”

  Ricky laughed, “pussy!”

  “Quit reminding us, we get it. You have one.”

  Ricky looked like he was about to attack Axel. Even though Ricky was a bit taller than Axel, Axel was more toned, far more experienced, and overall just stronger. I glanced at Justin from the corner of my eye.

  Justin was sitting on a desk watching them both amusingly. I backed away from both of them slowly. A low growl escaped Ricky's mouth as he lunged for Axel. Axel slipped out of his seat and missed Ricky's lunge.

  Ricky fell into the desks and groaned in pain. Axel shook his head chuckling at how pathetic Ricky was. A low chuckle escaped Justin's lips, before Ricky shot Justin a glare to shut him up.

  “Come at me, big boy,” Axel’s tone was menacing.

  Ricky's face turned redder than it was at first from anger, as he lunged for Axel the second time. Axel just simply stepped out of the way and let Ricky hit the floor in full force. Ricky winced again as Axel chuckled at his stupidity.

  A small giggle escaped my mouth as Axel turned around and smiled proudly. He slung an arm around my shoulder and gestured his hand towards all the desks that were knocked down by Ricky. My breath got caught in my lungs.

  “And that is why you don’t fuck with me if you don’t have brain cells,” Axel laughed.

  His arm around my shoulder made my heart pound against my chest crazily. The thought of his arm slung around my shoulder made my cheeks heat up furiously. Suddenly, someone crashed into Axel from behind.

  Axel lost balance and pulled me down with him. In most of the cheesy romance novels I’ve read, the girl’s supposed to land on top of the guy or the guy lands on top of the boy and they stare at each other. But of course, my life was no love story.

  Instead of landing on top of Axel, or Axel landing on top of me, Ricky landed right on top of me. His muscular chest was right in my face. I tried to move but I couldn't, he was too heavy. My still bandaged foot wasn’t helping either.

  The pressure of Ricky on top of my ankle, made me wince. The amount of pain it made me feel almost made me scream. Axel pulled Ricky off me in a swift move. Axel had a bloody lip making him look completely badass. His hair was messed up and his shirt was stained with drops of blood from his mouth. Axel positioned himself on top of Ricky as Ricky struggled to get loose.

  Axel wasted no time as he griped Ricky's shirt collar and threw his first punch at Ricky’s face. A loud crack was hear
d, and Ricky's nose started bleeding almost immediately. Axel kept throwing punches at Ricky until Ricky was knocked out cold. I screamed for him to stop but he wouldn't.

  Justin was in a corner watching in horror as Axel beat the living shit out of Ricky. I screamed for him to stop over and over again but he just wouldn't. I forced myself up even though my ankle was still aching painfully. I rushed over to Axel and started pulling him away from Ricky, but Axel wouldn't budge.

  His emerald green eyes no longer were hypnotizing. His green eyes were hard showing no emotion as a cruel smirk was on his lips as he kept throwing punches at Ricky. I brought both my hands to his face and cupped his cheeks.

  His grass green eyes softened as he met my eyes. He let go of Ricky's shirt collar and got up slowly. His cruel smirk was gone, but replaced with a frown. He looked down at my foot.

  “You alright?” He asked, seemingly worried.

  I let go of his face, nodded and gave him a small smile.

  “You sure?”

  I nodded frantically, “I'm sure.” I reassured him.

  Justin watched both of us. His ocean blue eyes were filled with horror.

  Axel turned to Justin and pointed at him. “And you, my friend will say nothing about this or else,” Axel threatened. Justin nodded frantically.

  Justin looked so scared, he looked like he was about to crap his pants. Axel wiped the blood on his fists off on his jeans. His white shirt already had drops of blood on it; it would be pretty hard to wash off.

  Focus, Rosie.

  Life isn’t always about washing clothes. I mentally slapped myself as Axel smiled at me. I sighed and ran my hand through my tangled blonde hair. I felt Axel's stare and blushed under it.

  My heart still wouldn't calm down. I was happy of him accepting me as the nerdy Rosaline. I wonder if he really meant something by all this. A frown fell upon my face when I remember he said I wasn't important to him.

  But it couldn’t have been entirely true, right? Since he did help me in this situation... Axel frowned and poked my cheek. I slapped his hand away before he chuckled and shook his head.

  “You're cute when you smile.”

  And that, ladies and gentlemen, made my heart stop.

  ~*~

  Chapter 18 DRAMATIC

  ---Jaxon's P.O.V---

  “Axel got in a fight with Ricky!” Trent screamed as he ran across the stage. The kid was an obnoxious messenger owl.

  A chorus of questions were asked. He didn’t answer any of them; instead he searched the crowd and stopped when his eyes met mine. He rushed over to me, obviously excited about the drama happening. He was interrupting our rehearsal.

  “Dude, did you hear-?”

  I interrupted the annoying guy, “the biggest asshole in school gets in another fight- woohoo- such shocking news! What do you want from me?”

  “Dude,” he gave me a shove, “quit being a dickhead, I’m tryna’ help you here-”

  I shoved him back.

  “What the hell?!” he growled, “I’m only tryna’ fucking help because Rosaline’s involved.”

  At the mention of her name, my whole body tensed up. I took no time to register anything. Rosie was in trouble, and the only thing I had to do at that moment was, help her.

  “Where is she?!” I asked.

  I didn't notice I was yelling until some of the cast members came up to me and tried calming me down. Trent backed away from me before answering.

  ~*~

  “Calm down and-”

  I cut Justin off, “what the hell happened to Rosie?!”

  “Chill! She's okay-”

  “Cut the crap twin!” I growled.

  Just then, the other twin rushed into the office sweating and panting crazily. He was clearly worried for my best friend; I could tell he felt the same way I did. God! I shouldn't have told Rosie about Kasay so soon and let her freak out like that.

  If I didn't tell her in the nurse's office, she wouldn't have started freaking out and swearing at the principal like that. This meant she wouldn’t have gotten the DR and got caught up in this situation…

  If anything happened to her, it would be my fault. I couldn't let her get hurt. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if anything bad happened to her. I ran my hand through my hair which was currently styled with gel; fashion always mattered.

  “Does anyone here know what the fuck happened to Rosie?!”

  One of the twins shook his head frantically. “You don't know?”

  I shook my head and buried my face into my palms. I had no idea what happened to her, but it was all my fucking fault! Her ankle was still bandaged, which worried me more. We were all gathered in the principal's office.

  There were four of us here, the twins, Trent, and myself. The nicer twin was trying to calm me down as I shook with anger. The other twin was sitting in a chair playing with his hands nervously while Trent was texting on his phone.

  He was probably spreading gossip about the fight. That was something Trent would definitely do. I tried getting to know the guys once, but it didn’t work out. We were too different. I preferred expressing myself on the stage, and they preferred chasing a ball around outside.

  I preferred being with Rosie anyway.

  Rosie.

  I could never quite figure her out.

  I loved her dearly, but she always seemed a bit distracted.

  I had tried talking to her about how I felt towards her before, but she still stayed completely oblivious. I was far too afraid to bluntly state that I liked her; I didn’t want to lose her. I couldn’t bear the thought of rejection or destroying our friendship.

  She was my everything.

  Over the years I had showed her how much I cared, but still, she stayed clueless. She never realized the little ginger who built sandcastles with her during recess was head over heels for her. Even after ditching everyone for her, she was still too innocent to get it.

  The chase was fun, I admit… but it grew tiring.

  Asking her to prom, taking her on dates, being there for her whenever she needed someone… just to get friendzoned.

  Hints, clues, compliments, kind words, yet her eyes still gazed into the distance searching for someone else.

  I got tired of waiting.

  Since she went out with Ricky, bitterness grew inside of me. She gave that dickhead a chance, but not me?

  That’s when my liking for Layla grew stronger.

  Layla was the prettiest and most popular girl in our school- heck in our entire town ever since she moved here. I had no chance. Girls always went for the dickheads.

  Layla went straight for Axel, but he kept his eyes elsewhere.

  I never understood why Axel paid no interest in such a perfect girl. Instead, he lingered a bit little too long around my best friend. She never noticed of course, but they would conveniently end up in the same rooms or same hallways regularly.

  Axel was the biggest asshole on Earth. There was no question it. He was a player who many girls have claimed to have slept with, he beat up other people just because he felt like it, and he hosted the biggest parties of the year which encouraged underage drinking and drugs.

  He hated me and I hated him.

  I tapped my foot impatiently waiting for someone to inform us on what had happened to my Rosaline. Dustin was wiping sweat of his forehead repeatedly. I was starting to question whether or not he was interested in Rosie.

  Thinking about someone else being with Rosie made my stomach churn, but thinking of someone else being with Layla made me clench my fists. I was supposed to be over Rosie, but here I was thinking about her.

  She was my best friend after all.

  Dustin still looked very concerned about her, too concerned.

  I forced myself to calm down; it wasn't his fault if he liked her. Any guy close enough to her falls for her eventually. You could say she was Cinderella.

  She was shy, cute, smart, kind and caring. She was beyond calm, and stood for things she shouldn’t have.
When she was younger, she had severe anger issues. I had promised not to tell anyone about this, and I had kept the promise so far.

  I didn't plan on telling anyone about it, but I had to at least warn Layla. Because, if Layla kept pushing Rosie’s temper, she was going to snap… and it wasn’t going to be pretty.

  The principal came into his office grumpily, swearing to himself. He completely ignored us as he behind his desk and pulled out a sheet of paper. He kept talking to himself as he scribbled on the piece of paper.

  All of us standing in his room just stared at him, waiting for him to realize he wasn’t alone. It was completely silent in there, except for the breathing and Trent's tapping on his phone. I swear to god I heard Dustin's heartbeat increase rapidly.

  “Where’s Rosaline?” Dustin and I asked at the same time.

  We both looked at each other before turning back to the principal. The principal looked up from the paper he was scribbling down on and clicked his pen.

  “How is she?” I asked.

  “She’s fine,” he replied simply.

  “Where is she?” Dustin asked eagerly. I stopped myself from glaring at him.

  I needed to see her as soon as possible and apologize for getting her into this mess. My inner self told me to stop blaming myself, but I blocked it out. I needed to listen to myself, not my weird inner voice.

  “In the nurse's office,” he looked at me suspiciously and narrowed his eyes at me, “why?”

  “I’m her best friend.”

  “And?”

  “And I need to check on her and see if she's alright or not,” I don’t know why I even bothered explaining myself.

  Dustin stood next to me rubbing his hands against his jeans.

  Just then, Axel walked into the office with drops of dried blood on his white shirt. My eyes widened, that couldn't have been hers… could it? I felt my heartbeat increase.

  Describing my own heartbeat… yes, I was overly dramatic sometimes.

  Axel took his time to walk over to the principal's desk and took a seat on the principal's desk. Justin was staring at him in fear, while Trent stared at him admiringly.

  I had to admit, the hardest person to read was Axel. One moment, he gives you a friendly handshake, and the next moment, he knocks both your front teeth out. He was a dick and no one liked him, well all the girls certainly found him attractive.