Bad Things

Chapter 12

Twelve
☢☢☢

The first thing I saw, through the narrow slits of my eyes, when I woke up the next morning was my broken phone lying next to my pillow. I grabbed it and turned it on. It worked but when I ran my thumb over the screen, nothing moved. I put it down again and closed my eyes, clutching the pillow tighter, and burying my face into it. The door clicked and Vanessa strode in.

"Hey!"

"Hey," I groaned back.

"You had a blast last night."

"I guess. I can barely open my eyes."

"Wake up and drink something. I got you coffee though."

"Thanks. How's Carli?"

"She just woke up."

Inhaling a long breath, I sighed and turned over on my back.

"Get up. You need some air. I gotta go to class now. See you later."

"Yup. Bye."

Lying on my bed after she'd left, my thoughts started drifting towards Jay again. So, I got up, took a shower, and ran to class. The day went by as normal as any normal day could be. Drew took me out for lunch just as he'd said. We had a great time playing with strangers' dogs in a park nearby campus.

When I walked back to my dorm in the evening, I found Jay by the doorsteps, in his car, waiting for me. He came out once he saw me. I headed straight for the door.

"Lola." He came around his Vette and grabbed my arm, steering me around to face him. "We need to talk."

"I have nothing to say to you."

"Look. The things I said the other day, it wasn't meant for you to hear."

"Sure, it wasn't."

"I didn't mean any of it."

"Right. You talk shit of me and I heard it. But of course, that wasn't meant for me to hear because that would definitely make me feel like shit! Sure you didn't even mean it but you and your friends seem to have a good time laughing over it like I'm nothing but one of your slut! I understand."

He wrapped his fingers around my wrist and led me to the side of the block where people wouldn't see us.

"Lola. . ."

"Don't even say my name!" I snapped and heard a quiver in my voice out of anger. The fact that he said he'd fucked a lot of Lolas rang in my ear and it made me feel like a slut. More so when he calls me. Tears pooled into my eyes. I took a deep breath and looked away, blinking the back. The last thing I would do was to cry in front of the jerk and show him that he hurt me.

He pulled back, pursed his lips, took a moment, and then proceeded to speak again. "I'm sorry. I really am. I never meant to hurt you."

"I'm not hurt. You don't hurt me at all. What are we? What am I to you? What are you to me? We've only met a couple of times. It doesn't mean anything. I'm only pissed off for now but you or whatever you say won't mean a thing to me before you know it." I felt my lungs fill up, the air choking me and I fought to keep every emotion buried inside as I met his gaze dead in his blue eyes.

God.

He nodded. "I shouldn't have said those. It's wrong. I'm sorry but I did it because I had to."

I scoffed and turned to leave, fed up with the bullshit.

"No. Hear me out! Please." He stopped me, clutching my shoulders with his hands. "There were many people there, Lola. A lot of them weren't my friends. I can't talk like I care about you in front of them. I have connections with Ricardo and I don't wanna put you at risk 'cause when things get ugly, they'll come for the people that we care about. I don't wanna do that to you. But I swear if your friend hadn't come at me that way in front of people, our conversation would have been different."