Hate Me, Love Me(GirlxGirl)

Chapter Twenty-Three: When the Bookworm Leads Herself into Dangerous Grounds

Well...look who's finally updated. 

Anyway, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!

For all your continuous support for my stories even if I lag in updating. I love you all, my padawans.

Now, here's the next chapter of HM, LM. 

Hope you guys enjoy and get ready cuz shit is about to go down >;D

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Hate Me, Love Me:

Chapter Twenty-Three: When the Bookworm Leads Herself into Dangerous Grounds

 "Riley came to see me at the shop."

Ivan's words hung in the air the moment I dropped my backpack onto the couch. I had forgotten about Riley's vow in making things right with Ivan. I never expected him to do it within the next couple of days. My mind was all over the place with insane scenarios of Kat busting into my room or at school demanding of the photo Josh had sent her. I wasn't able to focus on my studies or anything else for that matter because of the fear of Kat's wrath. I had seen her fight – by force – and the aftermath of seeing her match. I didn't know what Kat's capable of and for that, I was afraid.

There were times where I would stop and think: Did it matter if Kat saw a photo of me kissing someone else? She kissed some other person and had no care in the world as to who saw her. I shouldn't care either, right?

But I wasn't that kind of person.

I like Kat.

And I think that was my biggest mistake.

"Would you like to know why?" Ivan continued, leaning crossing his arms over his chest as he patiently waited for my answer. He stood there with a stern expression looking just like our father.

"I guess..." I answered meekly, looking away from his hazel eyes.

Ivan chuckled, humorlessly. "Riley came to beg – literally. He got on his knees and begged for me to let you continue being friends with them. He promised – I laughed at this part when he told me, by the way – that he would not convince you in doing in any rendezvous shit like sneaking out to an adult party where there's alcohol being served to underage kids or any sort of bad influence shit. I should have punched him across the face for taking you to a party that had people who you shouldn't associate with if it weren't for the fact that Kat had dragged him by the ear the day prior to apologize to me for doing so."

My body stiffened at the sound of her name.

Did she know I had gone to the party with Riley and Evelyn? If she did, did she kissed the girl for me to see? Was she that cruel for doing that knowing damn well of my feelings for her? Was she playing me along until I opened my legs?

Tears began to prick and I quickly blinked them away before Ivan noticed. He was too busy cursing out Riley's name that he didn't see the turmoil that I was mentally dealing with.

"I should be pissed off," Riley continued, sighing heavily as he plopped himself onto the couch. "I should ground you for the rest of your senior year. I should, shouldn't I? That sounds more pleasing than letting you be friends with those idiots – "

"No!" I cried out. "Ivan, I finally have friends. I have friends I could be myself with. You don't know how it feels to not connect with people who have more things in common than you. I was a shadow when I was with Shirley and Celeste. They begged me to go to parties knowing that wasn't my scene. They bragged about boys constantly and joked about my books, calling them stupid, not realizing they were hurting my feelings. With Riley and Evelyn...I don't have to feel like I'm no one to them. I'm someone they actually want to be friends with. They want to invite me to places other than parties and getting drunk. They actually want me to be their friend. Please, don't ruin this for me by keeping me away from people who actually want me. I'm tired of being loner who gets good grades and locks herself in her room to read other than go outside. Let me have this, Ivan. Just this once, let me make my decisions for myself."