Love On The Beach

Chapter 9

Aria

I will protect you.
I will always be here for you
Always.
Always..
Always…
That word sticks in my mind as I wake up the next morning. Yesterday, Kai picked me up from school. He was very worried and very mad. I get home, and my mom and sister freak out as well. My mom helps me with my face, mainly treating my eye. I’m pretty sure I have a black eye by now.
I walk into the bathroom right as I get out of bed.
Yep.
I have a black eye.
To be honest… kinda cool…
But, man… It hurts!
I walk downstairs to the kitchen and make myself some eggs for breakfast. After a few minutes, Kai walks out, looking like a zombie.
“You doing okay?” I laugh.
He rubs his eyes. “Oh yea…” He sounds tired. “How are-WOAH!”
“What? Oh. My black eye?”
“Oh yea. That's a good one, too. But it looks sick on you.”
I laugh. “Really???”
“Oh yea. Wish you didn’t have one in the first place, but still. Looks awesome!” Kai takes some of my eggs from the pan and sits down next to me and eats.
“You ready for school today?”
“Yea. One of the teachers said Jade would get suspended for a while,” I tell him.
“Good. She deserves it after hurting my lil’ sis. If I was there, I would’ve fought her back. No mercy.”
“Wow, okay then.” I continue eating.
I finish eating and walk upstairs to finish getting ready.
I brush my teeth and curl my hair for today. I walk into my room and put on this cute light blue blouse with daisy’s all over it. Then I put on some of my favorite flared jeans. I put on some gold jewelry and grab my book and backpack. I head downstairs.
“Want me to drive you there?” Kai says in the kitchen before I walk out the door.
“I’ll just walk. I can grab my scooter.” I grab my purple scooter at the door and hold it up to show him.
“Alright… be careful, alright?” He says in a caring voice.
I smile at him. “I will. I promise.” I walk over to him and give him a kiss on the cheek. He gives me a hug before I walk away and walk out the door.
I put in my airpods and turn on one of my favorite playlists as I set up my scooter and start riding down the sidewalk.
A Benson Boone song turns on as I stride along the sidewalk and sing along with it:
"It's a death wish, love
Take my heart, I'll let you spill my blood
Cut me down again
I love you, and I'll love you to death, "
“Oh, you love me to death, huh? That’s adorable!” I hear a voice behind me. I nearly jump out of my skin.
“What the heck?” I say as I turn around to see who it is.
“Hey, beautiful,” Zayn says on his skateboard with a huge smile on his face. But it turns into a frown as he looks at my eye.
“Oh… Aria…” He gets off his skateboard and walks over to me as he puts his hand on my cheek, rubbing it softly with his thumb…
Woah…
I think I like this…
NO!
STOP!
NO!
NO!
NO!
“I’m… I’m fine, really. It’s just a bruise,” I tell him, putting my hand on top of his and hold it in mine.
“A bruise…? Aria… that’s a full-on black eye right there… I’m sure it's more than a bruise.” he tells me softly.
I smiled at him. “I will be okay. I promise.”
He smiles back. “Okay… I trust you. Wanna ride to school together?”
“Yes!!!” I hop on my scooter again. “Race ya.” I speed off, laughing.
After 30 seconds or so, he catches up to me. He gets in front of me and just slowly goes down a hill that we have to go down to head to the school.
He looks so handsome…
Him on that skateboard…
Just him overall…
I just relax on my scooter as I ride down the hill with him, the wind against my face, making my hair flow with it.
I barely catch a glimpse of Zayn watching me with awe in his expression.
“Yes?” I ask him.
“Nothing,” he says as he quickly looks away, his face turning red.
I give a small chuckle as we arrive at the front of the school.
“Thank gosh Jade got suspended,” Zayn tells me.
“I know, right?” I tell him.
“Hopefully she won’t mess with you again,” he says.
“I wouldn’t get your hopes up if I were you,” a voice says behind us.
Oh… my!
GOSH!!!
Zayn curses under his breath as we turn around and see Jade, standing behind us with a huge grin on her face.
“Nice black eye, there,” she snickers. “I wonder how that happened.”
“You better shut it, Jade,” Zayn snaps.
“Why the heck are you still here?” I say.
“Well, my daddy convinced the principal to let me stay,” she says.
“Daddy’s girl, huh?” I tell her.
Her eyes widen. “You better shut your mouth, Chase. Or you will regret it.” She clenches her fists.
I hold my ground. I cross my arms. “Do it. I dare you. So ‘Daddy’ can save your skin again.”
“Why, you-” She stops when she sees Zayn staring at her.
I turn around and see him giving her this death glare and crosses his arms too. “Try it, Jade. Do it.”
She frowns. “This isn’t over, Chase. You too, Ethan.” She starts to walk off and says “Make sure you always look over your shoulder, Chase. Your boyfriend won’t always be there for you.” She runs off into the school.
My face turns red with embarrassment, hate, and anger. “UGH CAN THIS WEEK GET ANY WORSE?!” I yell.
Zayn puts an arm on my shoulder. “Don’t jinx yourself. Don’t worry about her. I’ll be there for you.”
I look up at him and smile at him.
“For now, let’s worry about going to class,” he tells me.
“But… Jade is in my first class…”
“I’ll walk you there. And you also have Cass with you.”
“Thank you.”
“Of course.” He wraps his arm around my shoulder and grins.
I don’t stop him, because…
I really like it…
We both walk to my class, just talking about our lives and getting to know each other better. We arrive at my first hour, and Cassandra is nowhere in sight. I see Jade outside the door, talking to her friends. She sees me and gives me a dirty look when she sees I’m still with Zayn.
“Can you stay here until we go inside or until Cassandra gets here…?” I ask Zayn.
“Of course I will.” He hugs me, which feels very nice.
“ARIA IM HEREEEE!!!” Cassandra yells, running down the hall.
“Speak of the devil,” I say.
Cassandra comes up and hugs me. I hug her back. She notices my black eye.
“I’m okay,” I assure her. She smiles
“I’m so glad Jade got suspended,” she says.
“Turn around,” Zayn says.
Cass turns around and groans. “Of course. And let me guess: her Daddy got her out of trouble again.”
“Yup,” Zayn says.
“Ugh, that’s so stupid,” she says.
“Yea, it is…” I say.
“I should probably go. The bell is gonna ring soon,” Zayn says.
I slightly nod my head.
I don’t want him to go…
He gives me another hug and waves goodbye as he runs to class
Sigh…
I hear Cassandra giggle.
I look in her direction. “What?”
“That’s adorable.”
“What is?”
“How you act around him,” she laughs. “You looked so sad when he walked away, and when he hugged you, you looked like you were about to faint!”
My face burns. “No I did not!”
She laughs again. “Yea, you did!! You’re turning red right now!”
I cover my face and groan.
She starts laughing more. “I mean, I am not judging you. He is an amazing and good-looking person. I can see why you may have a crush on him.”
I just smile. I don’t know what to say about that.
Ms. Madden walks out of her classroom and lets us go inside. As I walk past her, she gives me a sad smile. She pats me on the shoulder, and I walk in and take my seat in the back with Cass. I pull out my book and start reading it.
“Alright, class! Today, we start our lesson on…” Ms. Madden says, but I don’t really listen since I’m reading.
“You doing okay?” Cassandra asks.
“Mm hm. Reading helps me calm down, not really thinking about anything except what I’m reading.”
“I do the same thing.” She smiles again. She has one of those, like, model smiles that is just so amazing. She goes back to paying attention to the lesson, which I should probably do too.
Ms. Madden starts talking about what book we will be reading this quarter, which is Hamlet. I’ve never read or watched it in any way before, so it’ll be interesting.
Throughout the hour, I catch Jade glancing at me, glaring at me. I just roll my eyes at her and ignore her. She won’t bother me. Not here, at least.
What feels like an eternity later, the bell rings, and we walk out of class. I stay with Cassandra as I walk to my locker to grab the things I need for Algebra 2. Luckily, Jade isn’t in that class, and I have Aaron in that class.
“Where is she?” Cassandra says beside me as I walk to class.
“Who?”
“Jade! Since English, she disappeared. I don’t like that. She’s not even around her friend group or her boyfriend.” She cringes at the word ‘boyfriend.’ “Ugh I hate them.”
“I know you do. But I’ll be here for you,” I tell her. “But yea… I do wonder where she is… and I don't like it either…”
“Let’s hurry to class then.”
We rush to class, laughing as we run down the halls.
We arrive, and I see Aaron outside the class waiting for me. He sees Cassandra first and smiles widely. He runs up to hug her, then hugs me. He looks at my face, and his expression turned from happy to concerned and worried.
“Oh my gosh… Are you okay…?” he says, worried.
I nod my head and hug him again. “I’ll be fine. Besides, it looks cool!”
He smiles a little. “Battle Scars!”
I laugh. “Exactly!”
Cassandra says goodbye and rushes to her class as Aaron and I walk into our class with Mr. Easton, again, sitting at his desk typing on his computer. Me and Aaron sit together in the back of the classroom as we pull out our math book and start doing bellwork.
The rest of the class period is just Mr. Easton telling us about what we will be doing this semester and what goals we plan to accomplish this year in math.
Once class is over, I walk with Aaron back to my locker and grab my history book. I see Zayn nowhere, so I start walking to history class on my own.
Right before I get there, I see Jade by the bathrooms, which is right next to Mr. Caddel’s classroom. I try to run past her, but she catches me in the corner of her eye and runs after me.
“Coward,” she snarls, catching up to me and grabs my shoulder. “Aw, and your boyfriend ain’t here to protect you this time. Just me. And you.”
I pull away from her grasp and shove her away from me hard as I see Zayn run up to me, wondering if I was okay. I told him I was.
Jade starts being dramatic. “Ah! Teacher! She shoved me and hurt my arm! Ah! Mr. Caddel!”
“Jade, shut the heck up already,” Zayn says, standing by my side.
Mr. Caddel walks out of the classroom. He sighs “Jade, stop being dramatic and walk to class. I saw what happened. Keep this up, and you will be suspended for sure. Maybe expelled.”
Jade goes silent and runs off. Not saying a word.
Mr. Caddel smiles at me. “Good job for defending yourself. Without starting a fight, of course.” I smile back and walk into the classroom with Zayn still by my side, which I really love.
“Great job, Aria. You did good,” Zayn smiles as we sit down in our seats.
I smile back at him.