Broken Defender

Chapter Twenty-Six ~ Nothing Out Of The Normal

Parents always find out. How do parents always find out? Aren't some events best left unrecognized by parental units? I felt like this was one of those instances. My mom didn't have to know about Harry and Zayn's little fight at the dance on Friday... nor did she need to. Somehow word had made its way through the grapevine that my boyfriend had attacked, and threatened another classmate. Right... because again, Harry is always the one who is wrong. I'll admit, at first it frustrated me that Harry had acted so brashly, but I probably would have too, had I been a teenaged boy, approached by a dick like Zayn. I'll bet there are tons of people who would have acted that way if they had only had the guts to stand up to Zayn.

My mom didn't like it though... and to her, this only made Harry dangerous. She doesn't like him at all now, and though she is doing her best to hide that, I can tell. All weekend she made little comments – more to herself than to me – about my no good boyfriend. She was actually making him out to seem like a jerk. What happened to her big happy smile the night before the dance? What happened to all of that? Does she not care about how happy he makes me? She probably thinks I have some bad boy attraction or something. I don't... I've never been too into the bad boys actually, especially not guys like Zayn. I'll admit he was pretty cute, and I even had a slight crush on his little brother Dakota a few months back, but that was small, and it was over before I hardly had time to give it much thought.

I walked to school alone today. Harry and I normally met on my sidewalk, but he was nowhere in sight today. That sucked actually, because it was freezing outside, and the weekend's heavy snowfall turned to muddy mush beneath my boots. It was a miserable trudge, and had he been present, it would have been quite nice to have a shoulder to lean on.

On a happy note, I was glad to use my new rain boots. I received them as an early Christmas present from my mom over the weekend. She figured I would need them early, and insisted I open the package even though it was only November.

I pulled the now muddy boots off of my feet, and stuffed them into my locker. I kept my eyes forward as I searched about for a pencil before my first class was to begin, so at first I didn't notice the presence beside me. Once it was brought to my attention, my head turned and I instinctively jumped back as I came face to face with Zayn's little brother, Dakota. He was leaned up against the locker next to mine. His arms crossed over his chest, and his head tilted just a touch.
"Where's your boyfriend?" He asked, jabbing his tongue into his cheek and grinning.

He was pretty cute. I hadn't lied about that. His brown eyes appraised me, hooded over darker eyebrows that furrowed slightly in curiosity. They were quite lovely eyes, but then they weren't quite Harry's, were they?

I pondered his question only for a second, and honestly I was more curious as to why he cared.

"I don't know. I haven't seen him." I admitted to him, closing my locker after finding a pencil, and staring back at the boy.

He chuckled slightly, moving his hands to dig into deep jean pockets as he shrugged off of the locker, and looked me square in the eye.

"Zayn wants to talk to him." He explained, nodding fallen dark hair out of his eyes.

So what is he, the messenger? I couldn't hide a scoff at Dakota. He really would do anything for his jerk brother, wouldn't he? And here I thought they were now enemies.

"What, are you doing his dirty work?" I accused, raising a brow at him.

Dakota resented that comment instantly, taking in a small but frustrated breath and staring at me.

"No." He argued, standing up straighter, and towering over me at his full height.

He got taller... a lot taller. It was almost like looking up at Harry, the way he towered above me.