Wounded

Chapter 15

"Wow, I can't believe this! This is comedy gold!" Dylan laughed. I felt like I was about to have a heart attack. This was the one thing I never wanted to happen, and of course it happened.

"Dylan, please!" I begged, trying to give him the message of not saying anything.

"Dylan, please!" He mocked back. "Don't count on it, Jai. By the end of today your life is going to be over."

-

Dylan told everyone. As I went through my classes, I could hear the countless whispers of things that I could only imagine. Things that I honestly didn't want to hear. Then, if people weren't whispering, they were staring and that didn't feel to good either.

Then Luke found me during lunch break.

"Jai..." Luke breathed my name as he sat down next to me in the library. I loved to hide in the library, because no one ever came here during lunch break. "Please tell me it's not true!"

"Ok, its not true." I told him, refusing to meet his eyes. I saw Luke clench his fists through the corner of my eye. You could tell he didn't believe me. I couldn't bare to actually say it to his face though.

"Thank God!" Luke sighed in relief, surprising me. I figured he would call me out on my lie, not completely accept it without a second thought. Luke always knew when I was lying, so it wasn't likely that he actually believed my obvious lie.

I guess it takes something as big as this to show you how expendable you really are. Luke doesn't care. He just accepted what I said, and that hurt more than any bruise I could get.

"What if I was?" I said without thinking.

"What? You aren't though, so don't even worry about it." Luke faked a laugh.

"What if I was, though. Would you even care?"

"Jai, why are you talking like this of course I would care. It's not a problem right now, so we shouldn't even be having this conversation."

"Well in that case, tell Mum I'm spending the night at James' house." I ordered. I was hurt. Luke chose not to see the truth and honestly I felt unwanted now. Without waiting for A response, I ran out of the room and down the hallway towards the back door. If I wasn't wanted, I wouldn't stay.

"Jai?" I turned to see Beau staring at me. "Come here, right now!"

"What do you want, Beau!" I couldn't help but snap. Everything was becoming too much and I didn't know how much more I could take, if any at all. Before I could stop myself, I started to cry. This was something I promised myself never to do in front of Beau, but I couldn't stop myself. Everything was just happening too fast and I was so sick of fighting it. I just needed to let go once and for all.

"Jai, it's okay." Beau' s voice was gentle as he tried to calm me down. I let myself be wrapped in a warm hug that I didn't know I was craving. As I buried my face in my older brother's chest, I couldn't help but wonder when the last time anyone had hugged me like this was. I've always just been there. Always in the background away from anyone's worry, but the time had come where I couldn't cope much longer.

"It's not okay, Beau. It's not." I whispered.

"Jai," Beau hesitated, "what's going on with you? There's rumor going on that your doing drugs and I don't even know how to feel about that."

"What?" The rumor was that I was doing drugs? Now I was confused. Dylan hadn't told anyone and I didn't know why. He hated me and I hated him, but he chose to instead ruin my life with something slightly better than the truth. Why?

"You. Doing drugs in the bathroom this morning. Everyone is talking about it and a few people actually told me I needed to tighten your leash." Beau reiterated.

"Beau, I'm not doing drugs. I promise you that I would never do something as stupid as that." I promised. Beau let out a sigh of relief and patted me on the head, much to my annoyance.

I could barely focus on that, though. Dylan could have ruined my life, but he didn't. I should be relieved, but all I felt was worry and anxiety. Dylan had to be plotting something. He knew my biggest secret, but chose to keep it to himself. There has to be a reason, and honestly I didn't want to find out.

-

"I thought you were staying at James' house...." Luke said slowly as he walked inside the house to find me laying on the couch. Oh yeah. There was that lie.

"Changed my mind." I monotoned, still stressed out from earlier. Luke looked upset at my words, and I felt a stab of pain in return. Did he suddenly not want me around anymore?

"Oh..."

"Wow, at least try to hide your disappointment." I scoffed. I couldn't believe it. He was acting like he really didn't want me to come home. "I'll be in our room."

"Jai, wait!" I turned to Luke expectantly, but no words came out of his mouth. He just opens and closed his mouth a few times wordlessly, and it was then that my suspicions were confirmed. Luke really didn't care. I was alone and I had no one.