It's That 'I Hate You' Kind of Love

Chapter Thirty One

**When you see ITIHYKOL that stand for It's That I Hate You Kind of Love**

"What happened to your arm?" Bailey repeated quietly, sitting up in her seat beside me.

Jay froze, and for a moment, time seemed to come at a stand still. We were all holding our breath, eyes transfixed on the red scars barely hidden by the cotton of his shirt.

What surprised me most was the way Zach and Carson seemed unsurprised to see the scratches, and glanced away.

"It's nothing," Jay snapped, slapping a hand over the marks quickly.

Bailey stood. "That's not nothing," She said, an odd look in her eye. "How did you get those scars?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Bailey ignored him, instead speaking softly . "What happened to you?"

Jay bared his teeth and took a step foreword. "It's none of your business."

"It's-"

"None of your business!" He snarled angrily. Jay's eyes flashed black.

Bailey lost the look of concern and glared right into his darkened eyes. "Fine. Sorry for caring."

"And why do you care?" He snapped challengingly as she took a step forward. "Why do you care-"

"I don't know," Bailey snapped back. "Maybe because it's a human thing to do."

There was a beat of silence, just enough for the tension to rise until it felt suffocating.

"Guys..." Zach started half-heartedly.

"Is that an insult?" Jay snarled, clenching his fists and taking another step closer to Bailey. "Are you saying that I don't care about people?"

"You're the one who said it, not me." Bailey responded cooly.

Another beat of silence. Skin prickling. A growl.

"I'm done arguing with you," Jay hissed. "You're just a human."

"And you're just scared aren't you?" Bailey spat, looking him up and down briefly as if she could see right through him. Her eyes finally landed on his. "You do care about people, even people you barely know, and deep, deep down even humans. You're not supposed to care, but you do and that's terrifying."

"What about you!" He thundered. "You're not supposed to care either! You're not supposed to care about people you don't know and people who are a different species-"

Bailey took an angry breath before answering. "You're right, but sometimes that's not as important as how you feel."

"I'm done talking to you." Jay seethed.

"Fine."

"Fine!"

"Fine!" Bailey whirled around, briefly making eye contact with me before she stormed out of the house, slamming the door loudly behind her. Zach and Carson winced, rubbing their sore ear drums.

Jay let out a rumbling growl before he was stomping up the stairs, the crashing sounds of objects echoing as soon as his bedroom door slammed shut.

This time, all three of us winced.

We were silent, the tension of it all still hanging over the room. That is until, slowly, Zach raised his hand as if we were in a classroom.

"Bailey is Jay's mate, isn't she?"