Lakeview's Outcast {Wattys2015}

Chapter 38- The Start Of Something New

Things were a lot different now.

I guess that's the easiest way to describe the shift in the air at Lakeview Academy after the whole Homecoming fiasco. Justine who wanted to pass down a legacy while in high school definitely accomplished her mission...just not in the way she wanted to.

She had been charged as an accessory to kidnapping, even though she had hired the men the end goal was to have me lost, not kidnapped. So the police reduced the charges and to be completely honest I am glad. Because when it counted she was there for me, paying the ransom. And in the ens I think she realised her mistake and that's what counts right?

I mean the whole point of the Revolution was to give Justine a taste of her own medicine, for to realize how it felt to be isolated and picked on. Maybe we didn't get that particular point across as efficiently as we could have but I am done.

Watching Justine crumble like that... It made me really think things through. What we had done, using her own tactics against her...it might have felt good in the moment but in hindsight I had stooped to her level. And I feel slightly disgusted at myself for that.

"Hey, you ok?" Ashton's elbow nudges me slightly and I turn my head towards him giving him a small smile. We were at his house with Damien, Lana, Leo, Joey, Madeline and Juliette starting our Christmas holidays with a bang. We were watching Fast and Furious all of us scattered around the living room. Ashton and I were currently leaning against the couch, while sitting in a tangle of blankets on the floor.

"I'm fine will you stop fretting.." I lean my head against his shoulder and he shuffles so that his arm is wrapped around my shoulders.

That was another thing that changed. Ashton and I had gotten a lot closer, ever since my kidnapping he had paid extra attention to me. That didn't mean his snarky remarks had died down ( but then again neither had my sarcasm) or that I enjoyed his over cautious approach around me at times. The shift in our relationship turning from a fake one to something real wasn't spoken out loud. It didn't really need to be. 

There were a lot of things that went unsaid between us and I knew at some point we will have to deal with that but right now I was okay with just being together. 

"I'll stop fretting when you start being real with me, you don't have to keep putting up the calm mask now" his breath tickles my ear and I sigh, looking up at him through my eyelashes.

"Yes, dear" topped off with a saccharine smile my words had Ashton rolling his eyes in slight exasperation.

I laugh lightly and we continue watching the movie, the sound of Lana and Damien bickering can be heard in the background. I turn my head to see them cuddling and fighting over a bowl of popcorn.

All was good there was no drama on the horizon and after the school year that I've had so far what can be any better than that?

******

Christmas brought along a swarm of relatives and a lot of food. While my kidnapping had been kept on the down-low in the newspapers it was headline news at the dinner table with all my aunts and uncles keeping an extra close-eye on me. 

It was no surprise then that I had escaped the house with the excuse of giving my best friend and boyfriend their Christmas presents. Ethan had decided to drop me off and James had snuck into the car with us not wanting to be left alone with the extended family any longer.

"Where to first? The Knight's or Madeline's house?" Ethan asks as the heater starts whirring.

"Madeline's house"