Summer Rain

[14] King of Anything

Dedicated to Lauren and Sarah, my RL friends, who I go to for any advice on this story. Luff you

Picture of Jared on the side --->

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(Unedited)

All my life, I've tried,

To make everybody happy,

While I just hurt, and hide,

Waitin' for someone to tell me,

 It's my turn, to decide.

~King of Anything- Sara Bareilles

     "Can we talk about-"

     "No."

     "Are you sure you saw-"

     "Yes."

     "Are you sure it w-"

     "Yes. And if it wasn't, it was his clone. Either way I'm terrified." I was almost hyperventilating now. Way too many people from the past are showing up. After everything, I figured I wouldn't see Jared again. He had been sent to live with a relative and, well, we hadn't really had any reason to keep in contact.

     "You know, if you had just pressed charges, he would be rotting in a jail cell right now."

     I shot him a flat look. "Kaden."

     Okay, so I hadn't pressed charges and sent Jared to jail. There had been a lawsuit, but it had been Jared against his mother. It hadn't been easy convincing Kaden's parents to help me, then convincing Jared to actually do it, but in the end, it had worked. Jared's mother had gotten a two year sentence in prison and was forbidden to contact Jared unless he did so first.

     Maybe it had been a stupid decision, but I had felt sorry for him. Nobody, not even Jared, deserved someone like his mother in their life. But just because I hadn't pressed charges, it didn't mean I was close to him anymore. I didn't regret it, but you know, I wasn't ready to hold hands and dance around a bonfire singing friendship songs.

     And I guess it was also, just a little bit, because of Avril. Jared and his mother had reminded me of her, and how she had ran away because of her parents and how they treated her.

     "Here," Kaden said, snapping me out of my reminiscing. He handed me a cup of tea and took a seat beside me.

     "Thanks," I replied, taking a careful sip.

     "You know, he could just be on a trip or something. It is New York," he said after a couple moments of silence.

     "And I just so happened to see him?"

     "Yeah."

     I thought about it for a moment. "Yeah, ‘just happened’s don't really work for me." When he just stared at me with a confused expression, I decided to elaborate. "Last time, Bells just so happened to get a flyer for an audition emailed to her, it was Kallie and Brett's movie."

     He shot me a flat look. "That's because Kallie e-mailed her the flyer."

     "Exactly! ‘Just happened’s are actually people scheming behind the scenes," I told him.

     Before he could answer, his phone buzzed on the table. He picked it up and checked the screen. "Sorry, I gotta take this." Just as he said that, a knock sounded at the door as well. "Can you get that? It's probably Clark, or something," he told me before disappearing into one of the rooms.

     I nodded even though he couldn't see me and walked to the door. I opened it.

...Then immediately slammed it shut.