DEAD INSIDE

(11)

"Morning." Mel chirped the following morning.

"Somebody's in a good mood." I teased her but her smile was contagious. "Excited to be seeing him in a few hours?" She bobbed her head happily but her face fell.

"Marla phoned me last night..." She said and gone was my good mood.

"I know, I spoke to her too..." I mumbled.

"Please, tell me you were not serious about Scott yesterday..." I hadn't been expecting her to say that so I was silent for a few seconds.

"I actually hate him but whenever Scott gets close to me, I get flashbacks of how we used to be and..." I admitted in a low voice.

"Was he there when Milo hurt you?" She tried to mask her anger but made a poor job of it. "Was he?!" She asked again, louder this time and when I nodded, she hit her steering wheel. "Damn it!"

It wasn't exactly my fault if my body still reacted to the dark brown-haired boy after all those years.

"I don't do it on purpose." I pointed out, my voice still hoarse. "In fact, if I could hate him so much that just standing next to me would make me feel sick to my stomach, I would happily..."

"I know, I know... I'm sorry..." She let out a big breath of air. "It's just that I don't want you to get hurt..."

"I wish there was some shield you could just wear and that would take the pain away... Like a bulletproof jacket but more powerful..." I muttered.

"And trendier..." She joked and I chuckled.

"Yeah... Trendier..." I muttered, relieved when she parked at her usual spot between Marla and Deedee.

Both girls were waiting for us with piping hot drinks in their hands.

I smiled when I saw Marla's outfit. She'd chosen her sexiest and yet school appropriate dress and she'd combined it with knee-length heel boots and her cute leather jacket. Her curls were glossy and bouncy and fell in regular waves around her face.

She was drop dead gorgeous. Marvin would instantly regret his carelessness.

"I can't believe Dylan freaking Milwaukee is coming to our practice tonight!" Deedee said excitedly.

She and Mel both hooked an arm with Marla and the four of us started walking toward the school entrance.

"They're there..." Mel said under her breath as the five White T's appeared in my line of sight. Like us, they were headed inside and if we didn't either slow down or walk more quickly, we were going to reach the doors at the same time.

One look at Marla and I knew she'd seen then too. When she didn't react, I knew she wanted to rub it in, to show Marvin that she couldn't care less about him.

I caught my breath as we got closer and closer until our two groups were finally walking side by side with me being the closest.

"Marla?" Marvin said in a low voice when he saw us and unlike my friends, I threw a glance his way.

I frowned when I saw the flash of hurt cross his eyes.

Our eyes then met and he didn't even try to hide his incomprehension. I grabbed my phone and played with it so he'd get it. His groan was all I needed to hear. I put it back in my pocket and was about to wave my hand at them when a strong hand grabbed it.

"Don't..." Scott hissed in my ear.

"Leave me alone..." I hissed back in spite of how good his hand felt on mine.