A Kiss To Change It All - Montgomery de la Cruz

Part 30

In that split second, that very brief moment you turned to look behind you and caught Montgomery casually flirting with the blonde, time seemed to be frozen as Jessica and Jeff almost stopped breathing in anticipation of your reaction. But there was none. You turned around, swallowing your tears and smiled at the two before you continued eating your lunch. Your abnormal calmness terrified your best friend, he knew you like the back of his hand and your current state was no good sign. You weren't one to be violent or very expressive when it came to your feelings, but what you had been through and what you were still going through made Jeff could compare you to a bomb, ticking and about to explode any time soon. "Wanna ditch?" He dared to ask as you both walked towards the lockers to get your afternoon class books.

"I have ditched enough classes for an entire lifetime, Jeff." You laughed as you shoved your books in your backpack. "I am fine." Seeing the concerned look on his face and knowing that he wasn't buying your terrible lie, you let a loud and shaky sigh escape your lips before you spoke. "I am not fine. But I can't run away from school forever, Jeff."

What surprised your best friend the most wasn't how you held your head high and made through your whole afternoon classes without losing it on anyone who whispered things behind your back or those looks you were given when Montgomery was just a few feet away from you, holding the blonde cheer close to him. What surprised your best friend was seeing you sitting by the bleachers when he jogged on the baseball field after school, just like you always did ever since he joined the Liberty's baseball team. After his car accident and everything that happened, you were rarely there, he couldn't blame you for wanting to stay away from the jocks as you but he wished you could see how much he improved since he recovered from the accident.

Truth to be told, everyone was surprised to see you there. But unlike the other times, you weren't actively watching them as you kept yourself busy going through your textbooks until a piece of paper fell from one of them. From the shining texture of it, you knew what it was as you bent down to pick it up. It was a picture you took while at the beach with Montgomery back during summer which instantly brought a soft smile to your lips and almost automatically you looked up searching for his gaze on you, but he wasn't looking. You already missed it. You missed catching him looking at you when he was supposed to hit the ball, distracted by your presence, earning whistles from his teammates. You missed him smiling and winking at you before he focused on the game. You looked back at the picture, running your fingers on the glossy paper on which Montgomery was smiling.

"I hate you (Y/N/N)" Your boyfriend groaned as he looked away from you but you were quick and managed to take a picture of him smiling at you while you were both sitting on a surfing board a few feet away from the shore, just chilling and goofing around.

A wide grin spread on your lips before you spoke. "That's not what you were saying last night, papi."

"She pulls the Spanish card on me, uh?"

"She knows you love it."

"Yeah I do but she is still deleting that picture."

"Baaaaabe" You whined, uncrossing and dropping your legs to the sides of the board so he couldn't move it. "You have tons of pictures of me, I barely have a few." That was a fact. Montgomery took countless pictures of you, at that point he probably had hundreds of them stocked in his phone, he found you beautiful no matter what you were doing or wearing, whether your hair was done or in a messy bun over your head. You were his beautiful girlfriend of whom he was proud and didn't hesitate to pull the cheesiest captions on the few pictures you allowed him to upload on his Instagram account.

He leaned forward, capturing your lips in a quick but sweet kiss. "'Cause you, mi vida, are the most beautiful human being my eyes have ever seen." The tone he used made your heart skip beats, how come he still had this effect on you after months and months of constant flirting? 

"Lay it off De la Cruz!"

The sweet and calm voice of coach Patrick made you jump in your place and brought you back to reality. Shaking your head, you shoved the picture back into the textbook and looked up to see why coach Patrick was yelling and the boys whistling. Your eyes landed on Kimberly and Montgomery kissing in the middle of the field, right where everyone, you included, could see. Jeff and Zach were the only one not reacting to the scene before them, they both looked at you only you were already down the bleachers, textbooks in your arms as you didn't bother to put them back in your backpack, walking as fast as you could to reach Jeff's car in the parking lot. You felt humiliated. Everyone saw you there and now everyone would talk even more behind your back about how your ex-boyfriend was kissing another girl right in front of you. "Sweetheart..."

"It's how relationships work, right?" You wiped away the tears that were running down your cheeks as you nervously laughed. "I don't even know why I'm crying. I feel so stupid."

"You're not." Jeff cupped your face and pressed a kiss to your forehead. "He is the stupid one for letting such an amazing girl slip away from him and trust me, pretty girl, he will soon realize that you can't be replaced by a dumb cheerleader." That was how you called Kimberly and it made you chuckle that he said it too now. "Now, I want you to stop crying and give me that beautiful smile of yours." How could you not smile at such an amazing boy who did anything in he could to keep you happy and safe?

By the time Jeff dropped you home and made sure you were fully okay before he left, another surprise was waiting for you inside. You pushed the door open. Two suitcases were sitting by the stairs which make you frown and hope it was none of the dark ideas that were roaming in your head. Before you could move from your spot, you saw your father make his way down the stairs. "Dad!"

"(Y/N/N), sweetie." He engulfed you in a tight hug and kissed the top of your head. "You got me worried about you."

"I'm sorry." You mumbled as you pulled away from him, desperate to have an answer to your question. "What's this?" You looked at the suitcases behind your father and then back at him.

He sighed. "(Y/N)..."

"Don't tell me you're leaving." Hearing not response from him, you stepped back and crossed your arms over your chest. "If you leave, I leave too."

"You are not going anywhere, young lady."

Your mother was standing right behind the two of you. "And who might you be to tell me what I can and can not do?" Before she could speak, you did. "Oh yeah, the one who calls herself a mother but doesn't give a single shit about her daughter's happiness. If dad leaves, I am leaving as well, end of the discussion."

The words that came from your mouth were sharp blades to her, but you didn't care because she certainly didn't when she was destroying your relationship. You pushed past them and went to your room, grabbing the suitcase from under your bed and proceeded to shove your clothes inside. "You don't have to do this."

You didn't turn around and kept going back and forth between the closet and your bed, handfuls of clothes thrown inside the suitcase. "Don't talk to me if you don't want to hear anything that won't please you, mom."

"No (Y/N)... I'll leave. There's no need for the two of you to leave."

She did. She understood that there was no way you were staying under the same roof as her and it was easier for one to move out of the house instead of two. That night, your father ordered food and you had a movie night, putting your mind on something else than the problems that were surrounding you. By the end of the movie, none of you was asleep or wanted to go to bed. You sat in silence for a long moment before your father broke it. "Have you talked to Montgomery yesterday?"

The sight that escaped your lips was slow, as if your brain needed time to process what happened the night before. "I said things I didn't mean and by the time I realized what really happened, it was too late." You toyed with the remaining food in your plate. "I hurt him, and I am dealing with the consequences, dad. Proper teenage life I always wanted to live." You chuckled and made your hurting father laugh a little. You always complained about not being able to live like a teen of your age because of your health issues but now you had the whole broken heart and separated parents package right in your face. "I'll get over it, right? That's what teen my age do, they move on. He already did. I'll do too."