I'm Bad. You're Worse.

Twenty Four: Impolite

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"Where have you been?" Natalie asks at lunch, giving me a quizzical look. "You've practically disappeared from the face of the earth this past week," she says again. "I-I was-preoccupied." I stutter, taking a small bite of my food. 

"Yeah, well. It feels like I haven't seen you in forever!" Natalie pouts at me. I roll my eyes and take another bite. "It's only been a week, Nat." "Jake's staring at you." Natalie suddenly says, causing the blood to rush to my face and stain my cheeks with a light blush.  

I almost groan into my food. Of course he's staring at me. I'm staying with him now and we're not even dating or anything! Of course it's awkward. 

I wish I could tell Nat everything. But obviously, I can't. Since, one, she'd freak out and tell Kara, who would freak out even more, and two, I barely even know anything about the situation myself. 

I look up to see Jake, two tables over, staring intently in my direction. What the hell? We lock eyes and a smirk makes its way onto his face. I raise an eyebrow and turn back to my food. 

"What was that all about?" Natalie mutters. "He's just weird like that," I try to excuse, looking down at my lap. "Did you sleep with him?!" She exclaims loudly, causing more than a few irritated looks from the tables nearest us. 

"No, I didn't sleep with him!" I hiss, gritting my teeth. I look up towards Jake's direction again.  

Another one of his "admirers" is seated at his table beside him, flirting relentlessly.  

Everyone in this school acts like an animal in heat. I roll my eyes, but continue to watch. 

Suddenly, Jake leans in and whispers something to the girl, making her grin devilishly and pull him in for a kiss. 

They lock lips, tangling their hands in each others' hair. Disgusting. Practically everyone at Rushmore is so desperate that they'd be willing to kiss an elephant's ass if you told them to. Well maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but still. 

You'd think they're starving her at home by the way shes practically trying to devour Jake's face. 

What did I expect? That just because we live together Jake would exercise some restraint? Obviously not. I grit my teeth even harder, and it takes all my self-control not to storm over to their table and pry them apart. 

I continue eating, brutally chomping off a piece of my bacon and gnashing my teeth together in annoyance. 

"Are you...okay?" Natalie asks carefully, eyeing me. "Peachy keen!" I reply, perhaps a little too brightly, because this is followed by, "Peach keen? Who are you and what did you do with Lily?"  

I snort and begin to laugh, nearly choking on my food. "THERE'S Lily." Natalie finally says, leaning back in her chair as she examines me. 

"Do you like Jake?" Natalie asks finally. "Are you kidding me?" I ask in return. "No." Natalie replies, giving me a look. "I hate the guy. Jacob Holter is an absolute pain in the-"  

"And I thought we were friends." A new voice says from behind us, pulling out a chair and settling down beside me.  

I close my eyes in irritation. If Natalie weren't here... "Don't forget, count to a hundred while I hide," Jake says wryly. "We're not playing hide and seek," I snap. "Then open your eyes."  

I open my eyes to the sight of Jake smirking down at me and Natalie across the table, staring at our exchange in disbelief. 

"Jake, Natalie. Natalie, Jake," I sigh out the introduction. "Hi there, Natalie," Jake says in a silky smooth voice, nearly causing me to choke again. "She's taken," I say flatly.  

"No, I'm not!" Natalie answers quickly, leaning her chin in her hands and smiling flirtily at Jake. 

Please tell me this is NOT happening. 

I'm going to hurl. 

All over Jake. 

Will he still have the audacity to flirt with Natalie THEN? 

Jake simply shrugs and leans closer to Natalie with a wink. "Is there any particular reason you're here, or did you just want to continue destroying my life?" I snap, glaring at the two of them. 

"Actually, there is," Jake replies, not taking his eyes off of Natalie. I growl to myself and smack the back of his head harshly. "Ow!" "What do you want?" I hiss. 

"I'm picking you up after school today," he says flatly, rubbing at the back of his head. "No shit, Sherlock. Who else would take me home?" 

I almost blush when I realize that I just used the word 'home' to refer to Jake's house. It's HIS home, besides, not mine. 

Jake grunts in assent and rises from our table. "It's not polite to stare, by the way." I say to his retreating back.  

"Who said I was staring at you, Gorgeous?" He says over his shoulder with another one of his infamous smirks. 

"Well you just called me Gorgeous, so I assume you WERE staring at me," I shoot back. I can almost see him rolling his eyes.  

Natalie slaps my arm and gives me a look. I realize people all across the cafeteria are staring at me and Jake, looking back and forth as if watching a tennis match. 

I raise an eyebrow and return to my food. Suddenly I'm not so hungry. "Well are you going to tell me what's going on, or not?" Natalie asks.  

I sigh and explain everything, leaving out the part about Leo, which is probably the most important part and the only legitimate reason I have for even agreeing to live with Jake. 

Natalie must think I'm some kind of high-end stripper right now or something.  

"Why are you even living with him?" She hisses angrily. "Why do you even care?" I snap in return. "Does Kara know? Lily, it's not safe. You barely know this guy. Two seconds within meeting me and he's off flirting away!" Natalie reasons.  

"Look, I... Have a VERY good reason to be living with Jake, okay? I just can't tell you what it is," I finish, the excuse sounding bad even to me.  

"Why not?" Natalie asks, scowling. "I'll explain when it's all over, okay? I'm sorry, Nat." "But-" "I know you care about me. But you have to trust me, alright? Jake's actually... Okay." I reply, cutting her off. 

Natalie sighs and ruffles up her hair. "Fine. But you owe me answers." I grin. "Thanks, Nat." I reply, getting up to toss my food. 

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Another filler-inner! I'm sorry! :c  

Did you guys get jealous over Jake and Nat or what? Come on, just admit it. You'd rather it be Lily and Jake, no matter how much they fight. :P

Stay tuned for the next chapter! WOOT.

❤ Sofi