Collateral Love | Tao

Chapter 11

"CJ, wake up," Sehun shook me awake gentler than he usually would.

"What time is it?" When I looked outside it was still dark. I pushed my hair out of my mouth and away from my face.

"Three-ish."

"Why are you here?" I squinted my eyes and reached for my glasses.

"Come with us. We're going out for tonight."

"Us? Who's us?

"Me, Jaebum, Youngjae, Victoria, and Luhan"

I sat up and stretched, "As long as it isn't a date or anything."

"Nope, we're just going to hit mailboxes with baseball bats and what not."

"Sounds good, I'm in. Just let me put on some pants and a jacket," I got out of bed.

"Are you going to put in your contacts?"

"No, I'm not trying to impress anyone," I threw my hair in a ponytail and climbed out of the window with Sehun. I didn't know Victoria. (I still didn't really know Luhan, to be honest.)

"I didn't know your family owned Cutie Cupcakes," Jaebum said, somehow I ended up sitting in between him and Youngjae in the car.

"I told you my aunt owned Cutie Cupcakes," Youngjae rolled his eyes, Jaebum glared at him for ruining his attempt at flirting with me.

"Sehun, why didn't you invite Yugyeom or Jungkook?"

"Third years only," Luhan answered for him. I thought it was a little mean that we were leaving them out.

"You don't have to sound so rude, Luhan," Victoria said from the very back.

"I only brought you because you're my cousin."

"I'm a third year too!" She rolled her eyes and cursed at Luhan in Chinese.

"Yeah, but nobody wants you here."

"I want you here, Victoria," I smiled.

"At least CJ is nice to me," She hugged me around my shoulder's which was kind of weird to me considering we had just met.

"There's some mailboxes coming up," Sehun said.

Jaebum rolled down his window, "I've never done this."

"Let me demonstrate," I took the bat from his hands and climbed over him, taking a swing at a couple of mailboxes before handing the bat over to him.

It was more exciting to watch him hit the mailboxes, because he was a lot stronger and able to do more damage than I was. Once we messed up all of the mailboxes on the block we decided to get ice cream, but my tiredness was starting to kick in. My phone buzzed causing me to wake back up.

"Who's texting you at four in the morning, CJ?" Victoria laughed.

I shrugged and powered my phone off.

"Now what should we do?" Sehun asked.

"Go home. I'm tired."

"You're no fun, CJ," Luhan smirked. I decided over the last hour that I didn't really like Luhan. I felt like he wasn't very nice, and could maybe be a bad influence on Sehun, "We should play truth or dare."

"I, um, don't want to," I said quietly. I didn't want them to make me do anything with Jaebum, or confess to anything.

"Are you scared? Are you scared we'll make you confess to being with Mr. Huang?"

"I'm not with Mr. Huang."

"Luhan, stop being a jerk to everyone," Victoria attempted to defend me. Luhan didn't care.

"Are you sure. I hear you go to after school classes just to blow him."

"Stop it," I felt tears welling up in my eyes. Why wasn't Sehun defending me? Why wasn't he saying anything?

"So, is he big?"

"Luhan, stop it!" Youngjae shouted as tears started spilling out of my eyes.

"I really don't believe you aren't with him. I want proof. Kiss Jaebum."

"Sehun, take me home, please."

"Kiss him. Or I'll tell everyone you fucked Mr. Huang."

"Luhan, she doesn't have to prove anything," Jaebum furrowed his eyebrows.

I kissed Jaebum quickly, "There. I'm not with Mr. Huang."

"Do it again, do it better."

"Luhan," Sehun said in a somewhat scolding voice.

"Fine, I'll take it. But I've got my eye on you."

I wondered what Sehun saw in Luhan, and why Youngjae and Jaebum were friends with him. Youngjae let me cry into his shoulder until I finally got home. Even then, I cried until I had to get back up for school. When I walked out of the front door, Sehun was there waiting for me. He didn't say anything to me until we were halfway to school, "Sorry."

"Why didn't you do anything?" I started crying again, "You just let him bully me. I was so uncomfortable."

"I didn't know what to say. I didn't want him to get mad at me."

"Sehun, I'm your little sister. How could you just let him do that to me?!"

"I love him, CJ. I didn't want to make him mad."

"Yeah, and I love Tao. Don't you think me kissing Jaebum would make him mad?"

"Maybe you should just let it go. Its never going to work out anyways."

I ran away from him, I couldn't deal with talking to him anymore. He was just making me cry. Once I got to school I stopped crying until I saw Jaebum. I cried even more when I saw Tao.

"CJ! CJ!" Victoria chased me down the hallway, "Are you okay?"

"No."

She pulled me into a hug. I decided she probably didn't have any friends, considering how touchy she was, "Do you want to ditch class with me?"

"I would, but I'm failing Chinese and we're starting a new project today."

"I can help you with it if you want."

"Thanks," I smiled a small smile.

"I'll give you my number," She took out a sticky note, wrote her number on it, then handed it back to me. I was a little scared of getting close to her because she was Luhan's cousin.

I had stopped crying when I got to class, but my eyes were still puffy behind my glasses. My hair was thrown up carelessly, still, and I hadn't bothered to put on any makeup. Tao looked shocked upon seeing me. I sat in my desk and yawned, regretting even thinking about going out last night. I felt guilty for kissing Jaebum, but I didn't know what else to do in that situation. I felt tears begin to well in my eyes again. The boy sitting to the left of me handed me a tissue, I silently thanked him with a nod and read his name tag, "Do Kyungsoo".