Playing Criminal

34- Awkward...

“I don’t care what Kate says – I am not acting all lovey-dovey with you.” I threatened under my breath as Jack and I walked side by side down the hallway.

“I heard that!” Kate chimed from just ahead.

“Oh brother,” I groaned.

Why did everyone always have to assume Jack and I were a couple?

Like yeah we’d kissed…a few times, but that didn’t mean we were…together.

And no one even saw those kisses...

And I mean, I wouldn’t actually want to be with someone like Jack. He had his moments, but he was still a perverted asshole.

Or was he?

I bit my lip.

Could he be hiding behind an asshole façade the same way I liked to hide behind a veil of innocence?

Regardless, the thought of actually having something tangible with Jack set my heart pounding. It was unheard of, unbelievable…it scared me because I was afraid that I might actually learn to “like like” him if I let him too close.

Besides I knew his type; I wasn’t blind to the behavior of the guys in my gang. I’d seen many a time the way they seduced girls, slept with them, broke their hearts. The problem with them was that they never saw the heartbreak.

I still remember one time when I saw one of Aidan’s recent ex-girlfriends out back after he told her to hit the road.

Black mascara was running in thick lines down her face, her think shoulders quivering from her sobs , were covered in goosebumps due to the chilliness of the late night air.

I tried to reach out to her, but she pushed me away.

“This is how it always goes, doesn’t it?” She cried, deep malice sinking into her voice as she talked to empty air. “You always think you can change someone. Cure the bad boy.” She scoffed. “Yeah right – you can’t change shit. You kill yourself tryin, but in the end, it just turns you into crap, turns your life into crap.”

“I-I’m…”

“No,” She glared at me, “I don’t want your pity. I loved him and I got played. It happens. Don’t feel bad for me, babe, because one day this will be you too. It’s a fucking universal law or something.”

I gnawed on the inside of my cheek. Damn, I hadn’t thought about that moment in awhile.

In so many ways Jack was just like those guys in my gang, a lot like Aidan himself, actually. Attractive. Charismatic. Forward.

I knew Jack could pick up girls with a snap of his fingers.

And he could probably cast them away just as easily with another snap…

“Hello? Earth to Ally?”

“Huh?”

Jack looked down at me, the corners of his eyes creased, “you okay, Princess?”

“Uh, yeah, sorry. I was just…thinking.”

“About what?”

I couldn’t restrain the flow of blood to my cheeks, “Nothing interesting.”

Except for the fact that I’m sure if we ever became a real couple, you’d break my heart….

 “Right,” Jack rolled his eyes as he put his arm around my shoulders. “That’s why you were zoning out like you were coming down from a killer high.”