by Mansi Negi
"I uhh... I have to..." I fumbled for words, looking for an excuse, anything to keep me from being alone with him again.
"She'll be using her lunch period to help me with my tutoring." Jonas said, sounding irritated.
"I think we can hook you up with another tutor Jonas, Lorna does tutoring, as well." He dismissed him.2
"I've already tried tutoring with Lorna... it's not working out, Lyla will be tutoring me on her lunch." Jonas' words were clipped, he reached down and gave my arm a little tug. I stood not knowing what to say and let Jonas wrap an arm around my shoulder and guide me out. Once we were in the hall, I looked up at him.
"Thank you, I don't know what I would have done if you weren't there."
His eyes stayed fixed in place and he acted like he hadn't heard what I'd just said.
"Jonas." I nudged him and his eyes bounced to me then back to whatever had caught his attention.
I followed his gaze to Chad, who was standing at my locker, glaring at us as we walked closer. I noticed Jonas' jaw clench and his fists ball at his sides.
"Stop, let me go..." I said, turning to face him. Jonas going over with me would just make things worse.
"What the fuck Ly!?" Chad yelled down the hall as he started our way. Jonas stepped forward and I grabbed his arm, pulling him back.
"I've got this." I whispered up to him and began to hurry toward Chad trying to keep some distance between he and Jonas.
"Isn't this fucking cute." He motioned back toward Jonas.
"I thought you said it was fucking over and here he is walking you out of class with his arm around you." I looked at him, not really knowing what to say.
"You're wrong about Jonas, Chad. I'm not seeing him." I said, looking more seriously at him.
"Yes Lyla, you are and now you're lying to me about it. It's like this, either you call and tell your parents now, or I leave and don't come back. It's not fair... he lives with you, I can't compete with that from another state." He handed me his phone.
"Call Lyla. Call your mom." He said, raising his voice a little.
"Chad, I'm not calling her... there is nothing going on." I said in a small voice and handed him his phone back.
"What? I've been through hell all night and you are just going to act like this is fine?!" He started yelling, and I heard Jonas moving toward us. Fuck! This should be fun.
"Why are you wearing a turtleneck?" Chad inclined his head toward me, reaching out and grabbing the neck of my turtleneck before I could stop him and pulling it down.
"What the fuck?!" His face turned beet red. His body turned toward Jonas in time to to steady himself before Jonas knocked into him, pushing him away from me. He stumbled backward but kept his footing enough to not fall down.
"Don't you fucking touch her!" Jonas seethed at him, standing protectively in front of me.
"I told YOU not to fucking touch her again! What the hell? Did you choke her?! Why is her neck completely bruised like that?!" He screamed, the veins in his neck popping out in anger, before zeroing in on his black eye.
"You give that to him?" He asked in my direction. I nodded, not knowing what else to do.
"You shouldn't have to fight to protect yourself from this monster Lyla." Chad looked at me now like I was a victim in all of this and moved to get in between Jonas and I.
Jonas grabbed him and pushed him back again.
"Those aren't choke marks." Jonas smiled wickedly toward Chad, letting what he was saying sink in.
"I would never do something to her that she didn't like." He barked, and Chad swung a fist that only met with air.
Mr. Schultz had appeared all of a sudden and pulled Jonas from the path of destruction. Chad stumbled forward almost falling on me.
"Enough boys, to the principal’s office. Lyla go sit in my room." He barked orders. Jonas swung around, his chest heaved in anger.
"Delilah, don't move!" Jonas ordered as he pushed me back against the wall.
"She's not going any fucking where with you." He breathed just inches from Mr. Schultz's face. Chad turned on the teacher too, narrowing his brows.3
"You're the teacher?" He asked wide eyed. Mr. Schultz had been our student teacher and assistant coach back when Chad was a student at St. Ed's.
"Chad...out!" The teacher barked, pointing toward the door, looking a little panicked. Chad turned toward me.
"Lyla..." he reached out and grabbed my hand. Jonas' hand grabbed my arm firmly holding me there. "Lyla...baby, come on..." Chad pleaded one last time, a tear streamed down his face.2
"I'm not going Chad." I said, making no move to leave, in fact stepping toward Jonas and leaning against him.
Chad closed his eyes and breathed one last deep breath before nearly running out the door, pushing it open so hard I thought it would fly off of the hinges.
Mr. Schultz glanced to me and Jonas once more before turning and walking into his classroom. I think he was afraid to say anything else after Jonas had defended me from him that way.
I glanced at the small group of students who had gathered around to see the show, Tyler was the only familiar face, thank god. I met his eyes and he smiled at me, raising both of his brows like he couldn't believe that I had just caused all that drama.
"Do you think he's going to tell my parents?" I whispered to Jonas as we walked out. He squeezed my arm.
"We can just deny it." He said looking down at me.
"Oh yes, like we can do that when my neck looks like this." I said rolling my eyes, hating the fact that he had complicated this so much more.
"We'll figure it out Lyla. We don't even know if he's going to tell them yet. Don't worry about stuff that hasn't even happened yet." He held his passenger door for me, forcing Tyler to sit in the back this time.
"Here." I said as I scooted myself into the middle so he could squeeze in up front. Jonas took advantage of the close proximity to slide his hand up my skirt and trace circles on my inner thighs.
Tyler looked down and watched Jonas' hand for a moment, I could see him in my peripheral, so I slid my book bag into my lap to cover myself.2
As we neared home a cold chill shot down my back. Chad's car was sitting in the drive. Shit. There was my answer as to whether he would tell my parents.
"I can't go... I can't do this right now." I said, a tear making its way down my face.
There was no escaping what was going to happen, but, I could delay it a little longer, I didn't know what my parents knowing would mean for me and Jonas.
"Drop me off before you go." Tyler said, looking at Jonas, knowing he was going to do whatever he could to make me happy.
"Please..." He corrected and looked pleadingly at his brother, a sad expression on his face. Jonas pulled into the neighbour’s driveway and dropped Tyler off.
I didn't see Chad in the car. He had to be inside telling my parents everything. I watched my house fade in the rear view mirror.
If I would have just broken up with Chad in the first place, I wouldn't be in this situation right now.
"Where are we going to go?" I asked. Looking at Jonas expectantly. He was unbuttoning his vest.
"Wherever you want Love." He looked at me comfortingly. "But let's get these fucking turtlenecks off before we die!" He nudged me trying to lighten the mood. I'd honestly forgotten how hot I was in it.
Jonas' car didn't have air conditioning and I was literally covered in sweat, but that wasn't the most uncomfortable feeling I had at the moment.
I peeled the turtleneck off and sat there in my bra. Jonas pulled up to a stop sign.
"Holy shit Lyla." His eyes stared at me.
"What? You've seen me in a bathing suit, this isn't that much different." I said back, bringing my hands up to cover myself.
"No, your neck... I hadn't seen it today. Holy shit, you do look like someone choked you. I'm so sorry Lyla... it doesn't hurt does it?" He looked terrified.
"Uhh, no it's fine." I said. It didn't hurt, it was just hickeys, but a ton of them. "Now
do you see why I punched you last night?" I laughed.
"Yes, you can hit me in the other eye too if you want." He said, handing my turtleneck back to me. "You should probably keep that on."6
Plan
"Let me take you somewhere." Jonas looked at me from under his eyelashes as I lowered the turtleneck back over my head and leaned my back against him.
I rested my feet on the side of the door and let them hang out of the window to cool myself a bit.
Jonas brought his hand down and intertwined his fingers with mine.
"I just got you Lyla, I can't lose you the same day..." He sounded worried.
I closed my eyes and nuzzled my head into his side as if to let him know that I didn't want that either.
We drove for a long time. I hadn't realized how far we'd gone, until we passed St. Thomas University.
I recognized it as a 45 minute drive, because it had been mine and my parents top pick when I was visiting colleges before Chad had moved to Indiana.
"Why are we in Miami Gardens Jonas?" I asked.
"I want to take you somewhere... It's a surprise." He smiled at me, looking a little unsure.
"What’s with you always taking me to surprise locations?" I laughed a little.1
"Why are you always asking so many damn questions Lyla?" He smiled back and rolled his eyes at me.
We drove another 15 minutes toward Fort Lauderdale before he pulled off down an alley in a sketchy part of the outskirts of the city. In the stone parking lot, excluding several homeless men smoking cigarettes and eyeing us hatefully, was an old abandoned brick building with graffiti covering the side.
"This is it." Said Jonas.
"This is what Jonas? Looks like absolute hell." I raised a brow at him as he opened his car door.
"I'm not getting out." I swallowed back a lump in my throat, terrified to get out of the vehicle in this area of town, especially with people already looking at me the way the men standing on the opposite side of the parking lot were.
"Where is your innovation Delilah?" Jonas smiled at me as he stood, holding my door open.
"Do you really think I'd ever let anything happen to you Princess?" He winked at me, reaching for my hand and helping me down from the truck.
He tucked me under his arm, pulling me tight against him and walked toward the front of the building.
Two large square openings that should have had garage doors allowed us access to the inside, where we were careful to walk around a rectangular pit in the floor.
A garage door hanging from a broken track off the back of the building indicated that this used to be a drive through garage at one point, before the back lot was full of trees and shrubs the way that it was.
"What do you think?" Jonas grabbed my hands and spun me in front of him to look at my face.
"Think about what? If you're picking a place to hide bodies then it's great." I joked, hoping he wasn't seriously entertaining the idea of using this place for any real purpose, all of the windows were busted out, not to mention the trash that was strewn everywhere inside. I'm shocked it wasn't condemned.
"Ha. Delilah. You're so cute." He said sarcastically and narrowed his brows.
"What do you think of this as an auto repair garage for me?" He looked at me more thoughtfully now.
He couldn't be serious, it would cost a fortune to get this place up and running. I may not have known all there was to know about Jonas, but I did know he didn't have that kind of money laying around.1
"Umm...Jonas... that would cost a lot of money..." I tried to say as gently as possible as not to hurt his feelings.
"You don't have that kind of money..." I looked at him expecting him to look crushed, but instead he smirked at me and grabbed my hand pulling me toward a small staircase on the inside of the garage.
"Come on, you haven't even seen the best part yet." He let his smile spread across his face. Grabbing a small key, connected to his key ring, he fumbled momentarily with a padlock on the door at the top of the stairs before lifting it off and turning toward me.
"Close your eyes." He said, grabbing my arm and guiding me ahead. He placed a hand over my eyes and led me from behind while his other hand held my arm guiding me a short distance.
He brought his head to my shoulder and grazed his lips against my ear, "open your eyes now baby."
His arms wrapped around my stomach swaying me gently in motion with him as I looked around the huge open space. The ceilings in here had to be 20 ft high at the lowest part and near 40 ft at the peak.
Huge gridded windows on every wall let light flood the expansive space from all angles, providing an airy feel to the red brick walls.
A single chair sat by a window and a small leather bound book lay on it.
"Wow, Jonas... this is..." I didn't have words as to how beautiful it was, or could potentially be if it were cleaned up.
"Here, let me show you." He dragged me over to the chair and grabbed the leather bound book from it. Opening the book he flipped through some pages looking for a specific page before holding it out to me and pointing to it.
"This is my plan." He smiled brightly at me. He'd drawn a kitchen with an island and a living room with a couch, he kept the space open, including the bedroom, but I liked it that way. Modern lights hung from the ceiling in the sketch, giving it an urban appeal that made it somehow feel much more upscale.
"Jonas this is beautiful, but how will you afford all of this?" I asked sympathetically, rubbing a hand through his hair and down the side of his face as he smiled down at me.
"That's the great part Lyla, I already own this place. Della left it to me.
It was her late husbands auto-body shop and she used this space as storage when we were kids."
He seemed elated and I hated to crush his spirit, but it would take a lot of money to bring it back to functional.1
"Jonas think of how much this will cost." I said, hoping to not crush his dreams, but maybe be a voice of reason and logic in a child's dream world.
"I've already got a lot saved Lyla. I've been saving everything from the shop for three years, except for what I spent on my truck and gas and stuff.
I've got almost thirty five thousand dollars." He smiled at me. "I know that won't do all of it, but it should make it livable while I work and save more to slowly do the rest. It's been a dream of mine since I was a lad, and I'm going to make good on it, as soon as we graduate." He leaned down and kissed my cheek.
"Why no college?" I asked, wishing he would take that route instead.
"Really Lyla? I tell you this is my dream..."
"You're right, I'm sorry!" I interrupted. "It's perfect."
I should have been happy for him, for the man that I love, no matter what decision he chose to make. I internally scolded myself for trying to push my priorities on Jonas.
He was following his dreams and I loved that... or I should have loved that. I for sure loved his idea for the apartment though.
"I brought you here because... I want... if you want to I mean, I'd like for you to maybe stay here with me." He looked at my face, cupping my chin in his hand, he let his eyes follow every emotion mine conveyed, which must have been panic at first, because he back tracked.
"Sometimes." He said, planting a kiss on my forehead, then my nose, then letting his lips envelop mine, he swept me into a kiss that nearly buckled my knees. "Or all the time..." he smiled brightly at me, letting his lips trace the skin from one side of my jaw to my chin then to the other, while staring intently at me for an answer.
"I don't know Jonas. I just don't know if I can." I said and watched his face drop. "Not because I don't want to though." I recovered quickly.
"The college will probably make me live on campus the first year." I said, rubbing my hands up his chest and to his shoulders, making him turn his face back toward me.
"That's fine. If you go to St. Thomas, you can still stay here, and have a dorm, or we can stay between the two. I really want this Lyla, and I want i
t with you."
He brought his hands to the side of my face and pulled me close to his. "Say yes, Delilah..." he whispered at my lips and I smiled.
"Fine..." I said rolling my eyes, ignoring the butterflies of excitement and apprehension that erupted through my lower belly.1
"Fine, like, fine you'll move in here with me?" He let his eyes go big and picked me up swinging me around, in a bear hug.
"Yes, Jonas..." I let myself hear the words... "I'll move in here with you... but not until it's finished, and I'm not staying here with you until we are done with high school." I said laughing. He had picked me up and carried me to the lone chair in the room, where he sat, bringing me down on top of his lap.
"You won't regret it Delilah! I promise! It's going to be perfect, and if your mum makes me leave today I'll come here and start, so that we can be together as soon as school is out!" He sounded practically manic with excitement, which made me excited too.
Burying his hands in my hair our lips collided and our bodies smashed together, it was breath and fingers and moaning, moans that echoed through the vast empty space of the apartment and made goose flesh rise over my skin in anticipation.
Jonas' lust filled, rasp filled moaning of my name, was my complete undoing.
"You ok there ma'am?" A voice sounded from the door neither of us had realized was now open. I let out a little scream of shock before jumping from Jonas' lap and smoothing my skirt back into place.
"Umm yes, a little surprised." I said softly, staring wide eyed at the old man who was thinner than me with a messy beard and a straggly comb over that hung just below his earlobes. I wondered how long he had stood there watching us.
As he turned to leave. I could see his ears were still visible through the greasy clumps of tangled hair that started at his roots.
"We should go." Jonas looked to me and then out the window at the setting sun. He snickered a little at how uncomfortable I was after the homeless man had busted us.
The poor man must have been thinking Jonas was trying to hurt me in some way, because of the noise level, not to mention the location. "We should have given him a show Delilah." He smirked at me, before leaning in and kissing me. He grabbed my hand and led me back to the car.