𝐇𝐔𝐍𝐆 𝐔𝐏 | 𝐉𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐲

20. Mistakes

Jack

Fuck life. Fuck everything. What's the fucking point anymore. You know what? I'm not even mad. No, I'm not mad... I'm just normal again. A kick in the balls is all it took to send me back to reality.

To be honest, I'm glad I'm back. I don't know what's been going through my head the past couple days but it wasn't normal. I didn't like it at all, everything I used to find so easy became so... hard.

Life's better when it's easy not to care what you do or who you hurt. Being on top is all I care about, and who gets hurt on my way up there isn't my business to worry about.

"Uh... Jack?" Corbyn asked timidly from the backseat of my car. I snapped out of my thoughts and was brought back to reality. "Are we gonna go in? You parked the car like two minutes ago-" Jonah asked cautiously as if scared I would snap at him.

"Yeah, yeah..." I mumbled, swinging open my car door. The three of us piled out of the car, locking it and walking up to school. "Thanks for the ride" Corbyn offered politely. I gave him a tight smile, nodding.

By the time I reached my locker Eben was already leaning against it waiting for me. I said a quick goodbye to Jonah and Corbyn who were heading in a different direction and joined Eben by my locker.

"Holy shit what happened to you?" Eben blurted out with an amused expression on his face. "Fuck, what now Eben?" I snapped back. He raised his eyebrows. "Bro you look like you're about to punch anyone who breathes too loudly. Actually, you look... exactly like yourself."

"Fuck you" I mumbled, yanking my locker open. "There's the Jack I know" Eben hummed. "But seriously, what happened? Did you get a girl pregnant or something?" Eben asked curiously.

I rolled my eyes in frustration. "Not everything's about girls.." I informed him as if he needed reminding. "Oh... so it's about basketball?" He asked, seemingly genuinely convinced that was the only other thing that it could be.

Of course... girls and basketball. Jack Avery's whole brand. "Listen, I'm just in a bad fucking mood as I always am. I know yesterday I was being all happy and weird, but I was just being stupid, ok? I don't know what was running through my head..."

I trailed off, thinking for a moment before speaking up again. "But I'm back. The Jack you know - big old jerk to everyone, as you see me" I sighed, disinterested.

I slammed my locker shut, walking off. As expected Eben followed along with me. "Listen man, you know I'm just joking around with you. You're not that big of a jerk, you're one of my best friends" he reconciled, trying to make me feel better.

"Shut up Eben, I don't care" I instructed sharply. Eben shrugged, shutting up just as he was told. I was looking down at the ground, not paying much attention to where I was going. Well, that was until I heard a voice so annoyingly familiar that it was painful to my ears.

"Not Zach fucking Herron" I begged silently. I sighed, my eyes immediately falling on him when I looked up. Something must have told him he was being looked at as his eyes turned to meet mine.

For a second it looked like he was going to try and walk up to me, or try to do something, but by the hateful look on my face it seemed he second guessed himself. I scoffed, continuing to walk.

My original plan was to just walk past him and ignore his whole existence, but something about the stupid anger in my body overtook me and I found myself unable to stop from doing what happened next.

I clenched my jaw, shoving the books in his hands on to the floor. "Get the fuck out of my way, BITCH!" I yelled at him. He looked up at me with wide eyes, filled with confusion and fear. He shouldn't be surprised... he's a gay little bitch who thinks he can mess with me.

"I said get out my fucking way" I growled, taking a step closer to him. He immediately moved off to the side, a look of anxiety taking over his features. I continued walking, ignoring the alarmed stares of people burning in to me.

Even Eben had a pale look on his face. "Dang..." he whispered to me. "Maybe I take what I said earlier back, you can be a lil bit of a jerk..." he joked lightly, although he still seemed a little on edge about what he'd just seen.

I shrugged, changing the conversation. I didn't want to talk about Zach with Eben, they're supposed to be two separate worlds. "Do you know what my first period is? Corbyn forgot to tell me" I asked. Eben reciprocated my shrug.

"You still rely on Corbyn's help to remember your classes?" Eben asked. "Hey, it's a large schedule" I argued. Truth was I was just too lazy to remember it and there was no point when I had a guy like Corbyn around.

"Let's just skip" Eben suggested casually.

"Aight, I'm down..."