The Hard Crush 1 (Feelings For You)

THIRTY-FIVE

Jerry's caramel brown hair was shiny as it gleamed in the lights of the study, and he was pacing rapidly. He was angry, furious with both of them. But most especially, he was disappointed in her. The fact that she'd allow Hilary's plan to even take precedence made him want to give her a good scolding. He knew they never liked each other, but to reach the point of fighting in the school was just absurd. Childish and stupid! It was barely two weeks since she came, how could she let Hilary push her into humiliating herself like that? Oh, how he'd wanted her to be different, to be the mature one since there really was nothing like that in Hilary's agenda.

A similar incident had occured with some girls in the past whom he'd tried getting close with. Hilary had always had a hand in turning everyone against them, getting them suspended and in the end somehow, for some reason, they stopped talking to him all of a sudden. It was after a while he'd discovered that Hilary had done all that as a result of her jealousy. She never liked to see any girl getting intimate with him. And now Winifred was her next target.

Even though he was mad at Winifred for getting into a fight with Hilary, he knew for sure that the rumors were all lies. He could beat his chest and swear that it was all part of Hilary's schemes. There was no way Winifred had started the fight.

"If you're going to scold me, you might as well get on with it already," Hilary told him.

"Be quiet, I'm trying to think."

"About what?"

"About how stupid you can get."

"That was rude," she said, sounding hurt.

He stopped pacing and approached her. He sat next to her on the couch, keeping enough space between them. She fiddled with the lace of her dress, looking anywhere but in his direction.

They were in the study. This was where his father had spent most of his time working. He felt bad that he was about to hold an interrogatory session there, especially with someone like Hilary. Lying, scheming Hilary. She was going to leave the whole place tainted now.

"What really happened between you and Winifred?" He asked her, going straight to the point.

She didn't answer. She didn't look at him. She was sulking over his previous comment.

Jerry rolled his eyes, thankfully she didn't see that. "Okay, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. You're not stupid."

Yeah, but you really are stupid.

"Hey, I said I'm sorry," he said when she didn't respond. He leaned forward, resting his elbow on his knees whilst tilting his head sideways to look at her. A small smile played around the corner of his lips.

Fake!

Hilary looked at him, flushing slightly but she looked away again, biting her lips.

What the - was she playing hard to get? The audacity.

He just needed to get the information he needed from her. He needed clarification even though he swore his thoughts were right about who started the fight.

"I attacked her," Hilary suddenly blurt out.

Whoa, that was easy.

"Then why did you tell principal Benjamin that she hit you first?"

She hesitate. "Because I want her gone."

Jerry frowned. Was she for real? "What do you mean you want her gone?"

She looked at him, her eyes filled with tears. "Do you know the things she said to me? Do you know how hard it is for me to sit down and listen to my dad say those horrible things to me and then you expect me to do nothing when Winifred runs her mouth like that?"