Running Free (unedited)

Chapter 28

๑Chapter 28๑

Raven’s P.O.V.

            It’s been about three weeks since- dare I say it- me and Jayden kissed, and I don’t mean a little accidental peck like the first time, full lips on lips, and tongue on tongue kiss. Thankfully, I think, nothing like that has happened again, but I can’t seem to stop thinking about it, and to make matters worse Jayden hasn’t left my side for one minute. I mean I got used to the idea of the guys being around me but he’s taking it to the next level by always hanging around me, he’s even using his sister as a way for me to go over to his house. And when we’re not at his place, we’re out and about at malls and parks. I wouldn’t consider them dates, but since I lost that bet at the fair he made me go on another official date. Nothing big really, we just went to the movies, but when he tried to put his arm behind me I pulled his fingers back warning him not to touch me. We did occasionally brush against each other and each time I felt a small shock just like when we had kissed.

            When we weren’t hanging out, he ended up tagging along with the jobs Clark gave me. I protested every time but he always followed me and helped out. I am thankful that he did go sometimes since there we’re a few close calls that would have left me seriously injured if he wasn’t there. Aiden also helped out when it came to the jobs. Somehow he was able to hack my phone and every time I received a call or message from Clark, Aiden was always able to grab the information. He would scout the location of the job, gathering maps and schematics of the nearby buildings so that if something went wrong we would always have an escape route. Though he didn’t participate in the actual job, his help came in handy.

            Things with Blondie and Luke have also settled. Instead of me having to avoid Caroline, she’s the one who is avoiding me. I guess she thinks if I think she’s looking at me funny I’ll spread that picture around school, and she’s right to think that way. It’s amazing she’s finally smart enough to avoid someone who doesn’t want to be annoyed by her. Luke isn’t really avoiding me, he’s still hanging out with me and the guys, but all of his sexual and stupid comments have stopped. But he’s still a big flirt, one or two comments do tend to slip out, but I can’t expect any better from him, that’s just who he is. While he’s become tolerable, I don’t see us becoming friends in the near future.

            My situation at home, well it could be worse, that’s for sure. Since I’ve been doing pretty good with training new recruits and successfully completing jobs, I haven’t been beaten all too much. That doesn’t mean that I haven’t been beaten at all, because occasionally I did mess up on a few jobs, and Clark was plenty drunk in the past few weeks, but considering how often I used to be beaten before, this is a record. Though my life is still pretty miserable, the guys have been doing a pretty good job of keeping me happy. Adam has also been a big help, though we have also been spending quite a lot of time together, he’s also been spending time with my mom too. It’s nice seeing my mom interact with other people since she’s practically a prisoner here. I don’t think I’ve seen her this happy since my dad died, she wasn’t even this happy when she thought she married another man that she loved.

            All the while all of this is going on, there’s always this part of my brain that is thinking of Jayden. It’s gotten so bad that the threat of Clark can’t even get me out of forgetting about everything around me and just thinking about him and me, us. All while Clark is informing me about my next job- something about out of town- I can’t stop thinking about him. Oh gosh I’ve become obsessed! Wait, did he just say out of town?!

            “I need you to attend a meeting as my representative. Although I’m not too fawn of you, you do know quite a lot about my work and, I hate to say it, you’re one of the best I have. So, since your spring break is coming up, you’ll be leaving as soon as school lets out. The meeting is on Monday, so that will give you enough times to read over what you need to know. I need you to convince the client to buy my new product, so I’m counting on you to make sure this deal goes off without a hitch. And if it doesn’t…well you know what happens when you do something stupid, so you don’t need to be warned. That’s all, now leave.” Clark says and hands me over a binder with the information about the meeting.