Kiss Gone Wrong

24- Rewind.

MATT'S POV

MONDAY AT THE END OF SCHOOL

I waved goodbye to the gang and walked out of the gym. As promised, Bailey and Logan would be coming over to my place to join Gemma and I for the project work. Bailey was waiting just outside school with her entire gang. Though the marks had faded, I still felt the sharp pain those paintballs had given me every time I saw her friends.

There was Terry with his girlfriend Ash, whom I had known for a while. She was extremely friendly. Terry and I spoke sometimes, when we were travelling for sports together. I knew that he was a nice guy. There was Max, whom I held a grudge against ever since the prank. Of course, I held a grudge against Logan too, but that had to be put aside since we were going to be working together.

Ellie; I had never spoken to her, but I had heard that she was a brainiac. She was supposedly very good at academics and rather competitive. Amber was there too. She had recently agreed to go on a date with Jonah. He was ecstatic when she said yes. I had to endure a lot of "where should I take her?" questions, but I put up with it because Jonah was head-over-heels crazy about her. Gemma was a nice person. She put up with my grumpiness and sarcasm with the patience of a saint. I had become quite friendly with her.

Bailey. Last night, there had been a small moment with Bailey where I felt like something had changed between us. For a moment, it felt like we hadn't started out on the wrong foot, we weren't being forced to spend time together by authorities and I surely wasn't trying to hide the weird butterflies her touch sent through my body. But the moment had ended, so had my more-than-friendly thoughts. I couldn't afford to start hoping that Bailey would like me enough to even consider being more than friends.

Bailey had noticed me awkwardly standing on the side. She nudged Gemma and waved goodbye to the rest of her friends. "Hi." I said as Gemma, Bailey and Logan come towards me. "Hi." Bailey smiled, while Logan nodded curtly. Gemma gave me a hug to greet me and I noticed Logan's face turn as black as thunder. I quickly pulled away from Gemma, but that didn't stop Logan from giving me a dark stare.

I led them to my car and drove home. Thankfully, Jade had gone out shopping, so I was free to raid the kitchen. "You guys want anything? I'm getting myself some soda." I said. "I'll have some too." Bailey said, while Gemma shook her head no. "I want some too. I'll help." Logan said. He followed me to the kitchen. As I brought out the glasses for our drinks I said, "You know, soda doesn't need two people to be served." When no one replied, I turned around and saw Logan staring at me again. "What's up with you?" I asked in confusion.

"How long have you and Gemma been speaking?" Logan asked in his weird accent. "A few weeks." I replied with the soda bottle still in my hand. "You shouldn't spend so much time with her." He said in a threatening tone. I got annoyed at that. "Yeah, well, in case you hadn't noticed, we're project partners. We can't help but spend a lot of time together." I said sarcastically. Logan seemed to get anxious. I thought about it; he seemed to be protective about Gemma, but more so than anyone else. Then it dawned on me.

I raised my hands in surrender. "Look man. I'm not trying to hit on Gemma's. She's all yours. I'm trying to build a camaraderie with Bailey. She's the one I have issues with." I said and Logan flinched. "What's taking so long?" Bailey called out. She entered the kitchen and Logan seemed to break out of a reverie. "I'll be outside." He said and walked out of the kitchen. Bailey looked after him in confusion. "What happened?" She asked me.

"Does Logan have a crush on Gemma?" I asked. "Maybe." Bailey answered slowly. "Yeah, I just called him out on that." I shrugged and Bailey gave me a small smile.She turned to leave, but I stopped her. "I need help with the glasses." I said stupidly. "'Kay." She said and took two glasses in her hand. We headed back to the living room where Gemma and Logan were poring over his laptop.

"What are you guys doing?" Bailey asked. We sat down and began to work on our projects. Bailey and Logan had the topic of "Diet and Memory". In my opinion, that had more of Chemistry than Biology, but they seemed happy with it. As Gemma pored over books and the Internet for information, I frequently checked on Bailey as I drew a diagram of the endocrine system. She was making notes from the internet, and every once in a while had to push her hair away from her face. It was distracting to me.

"I didn't agree to this group thing so that you could check out my best friend, you know?" Gemma muttered and immediately went back to work. I felt embarrassed that she had caught me, but then again, she and Jonah had been training me to be a nice guy for the past few weeks. Gemma nudged me and said? "I can ask Logan to take me home early if you want to spend time with her." I shook my head. "Are you crazy? No way!" I said. "C'mon. We'll know how far you've come since Jonah and I have begun to fine - tune your etiquette." Gemma said. Her face said that there was no arguing with her.

Over the course of the next thirty minutes, Gemma and I were done with our research and Bailey and Logan were tired. So we decided to take a break. At that moment, Jade came home. "Hi everyone!" She called out from the hallway. "Hi!" The others chorused. Bailey got up to hug Jade. I didn't know that they had become close enough to do that. Apparently last night had worked miracles for all of us. "You guys are done with your work?" Jade asked, looking at me. "Yup." I said. "Actually it's time for us to leave." Gemma said apologetically.

"Yeah, she's right. Ellie is tutoring me for chemistry." Logan said as he got to his feet. "I guess I'll head out too then." Bailey said. "No! Lee, you don't need to leave. Nate and Lynn are coming here for some time, you can leave with them." Jade said. I might have imagined it, but Bailey looked relieved. "Okay. I'll wait for them here then." She said. "Yeah, don't go." I said and shrugged when Jade gave me a weird look. 

"Well, you make yourself comfortable Lee. I'll go get changed." Jade said. There was an awkward silence as Bailey and I stared around the room. Finally, unable to stand the awkwardness I asked, "Want a tour of the house?" Bailey took her time before nodding yes. I could only pray that my room was not a mess.

A/N: Hello everyone! I'm sorry that this chapter is late. I hope you enjoyed reading this one! Who's POV would you like to see in the next chapter? Bailey, Matt, Jade, Lynn or Nate? Let me know!
Lots of love-D :)
P.S Thank you so much for 150k reads on FFTN!!!! Like whaaaaaa? *mind blown*