The bad boy knows how to love.

Fight or Flight

"I've never met anyone like you before Daisy"

The words echoed in my head over and over, until I was questioning whether they were ever spoken in the first place.

I also questioned all the possible meanings behind them.
How could he say something like that? He doesn't even know me. And I don't know him either.

Realizing how hypocritical my words must sound, I internally roll my eyes and sighed. I myself am completely guilty of being infatuated by him despite not knowing him very well. How contradictory of me.

At the same time, I thought to myself, who wouldn't be? There is something about his presence that makes it way too easy to be drawn to him. And I don't think I can possibly be the only one who thinks so.

Of course I know that he's a criminal, a gang leader, and that the list of warning signs concerning him is endless. But how come I feel like none of those things define who he really is at all? He watches Shrek for god's sake. If that's not a sign of sanity and good morals then I don't know what is.

I wanted to ask what it was about me that he hasn't seen in anyone else he's met before, because I, myself, was lost for ideas. But I didn't ask. A part of me was scared to hear the answer and the longer I had thought about it, the more I was convinced he wouldn't even have one. Or the answer he would give would just be a fabrication, constructed in an attempt to get me to sleep with him.

Logically, there must be a reason for his reputation in this town, and I'm not talking about his 'criminal' reputation. I'm talking about his 'heartbreaker' reputation. Anna didn't fail to mention earlier, that the reason she was so surprised he's paying attention to me is because he usually only spends one night with a girl and then never looks at her again. It's pretty easy to fill the gap in and assume he just hangs around saying sweet things to a girl until he gets what he wants. And that's exactly what he's doing with me.

After he spoke those words, I quickly pulled away from him facing the other way and told him it's getting late so he should probably head home.

He seemed kind of disappointed by my reaction but this disappointment was not directed at me as much as it was directed at himself. He disguised it very quickly, giving me a smile, presumably fake and leaving my room, turning back one last time in the doorway and muttering a 'I'll see you soon'.

Once again, it seemed more directed at himself than at me, but I tried not to overthink it. Instead, I muttered a 'goodnight' and listened to him walk out of the house.

It took me a very long while to finally fall asleep, after making two crucial mistakes today.
1. I napped for too long which means I was not tired enough to fall asleep.
And 2. I let a bad boy completely invade my thoughts keeping me up even later than necessary.

But once asleep, I dreamed of Jack and I at Gatsby's party. Drinking, dancing, laughing. Only the Jack in my dreams was not a heartbreaker, nor was he a criminal. Yet somehow I managed to fool myself into believing that 'dream Jack' was 'real life Jack' and i regularly fantasised about this alternative reality. It was all I really needed to put me in a good mood.

*********

To my disappointment this good mood did not last. However I was not completely to blame for its disappearance.

Ashley (second name still unknown) was mostly the one to blame for my sudden mood plummeting. Which is quite funny considering, I had not really known who she even was until Monday morning came around and I was back at school.

Anna and I followed our usual routine, walking to school together and going to our lockers to pick up our books for the day before making our way to class. The hallway was filled with students getting ready for classes and catching up with their friends. Everything was okay up until the point I overheard a collection of squeals coming from a group of girls standing behind Anna and me.