You Can Be My Bad Boy: Cursed

Ch. 42 - Dinner and Party

~Evening~

I was walking to class when a hand grabbed my arm. Before I could fight back I was pulled into a nearby bathroom. I was about to fight back when the hand let me go. I whipped around only to come face to face with none other than Francine Weatherton. She glared at me and locked the door.

I smiled at her when she turned towards me again, "Good day, Francine. And to what do I owe this pleasure?"

She marched towards me with a snarl like the wild animal she is.

I promise I'm usually not this mean.

She poked my shoulder and pushed me towards the wall, "What is going on between you and my Jason?"

I cocked my head, "Jason? Oh, you mean JJ. I didn't know he belonged to you, Francine."

She flicked her hair, "All his close friends call him Jason and of course he's mine."

I shook my head innocently, "No, I think Sam, Raph, and Leo call him Jace. That's all I've ever heard them call him. Also, you can't own people."

"He's my boyfriend so I do own him."

"He is? Well then, I think it's the only proper thing to do to tell you that he's cheating on you. He slept with some girl two days ago."

"One, how would you know? Two, it's an open relationship."

I shrugged, "Okay. Then you won't care about what my relationship with him is."

I walked past her to the door when she said something that stopped me, "He said that you're his girlfriend."

"What?"

"He yelled at some guy saying that he had done something to his girlfriend. You were the only girl in the room," she said bitterly.

Why . . .

Why would he say that?

I guess I said that out loud because Francine spat, "Well, clearly he thinks that you two are dating."

I shook my head slowly, "No . . . he doesn't. That still doesn't explain . . ."

There could only be one explanation. He had to. He had to get this guy away from me. I remembered getting into a bed that night and falling asleep. The next thing I remembered after that was waking up in JJ's car. Maybe . . . maybe he was trying to scare Alec away. That made sense. I hadn't seen Alec since so he was probably avoiding me. Why else would he avoid me if it wasn't because he was scared of JJ? That made sense. Everything was fine.

"Are you dating or not?" she growled.

I smiled at Francine, "I don't see how any of this is your business, Francine."

With that, I left the bathroom.

~~~~

I hated how JJ could be a little weird and it would distract me from classes for the rest of the day. Thankfully, I was decent at studying and could catch up. I was in a daze as I walked into the lunch room. Jess and Mari were there and I knew that they knew that something was bothering me. I felt bad, but I couldn't tell them what happened without telling them about everything else I was hiding. I said I wouldn't do this. I said that I'd tell them everything, but this wasn't important. I could ignore all this and it'll go away. Once it's all over with then I'll tell them. Obviously. But, just . . . not right now.

We sat in silence for a bit until Josh came over to the table with . . . Matt?

Josh sat down next to me and Matt followed sheepishly. We all looked at him surprised. We hadn't seen him since he had sex with Jess and acted like it hadn't happened. Me and Mari bristled when we saw him. We'd kick his ass as any good friend would do. Jess bit her lip and put a hands on our knees. We glanced at her, each other, then looked back at Matt.

Josh sighed when he saw our reaction, "Matt and I talked and he had something that he wanted to say."

Matt coughed and glanced at Jess before looking back at the table, "Um, for my whole life I had, uh, liked . . . this girl that I knew. I think it wasn't really about her, but about . . . I don't know, the fact that we were close? I was just convinced that I loved her. So . . . when she . . . broke up with me over the summer I . . . lost it? I don't really know, but with all the, the feelings and that I . . . did . . . what I did. Afterwards, when we were all avoiding each other I had some time to think and . . . I'm sorry. I - I used you and . . . I'm sorry."

I clenched my fist. Did he really think a sorry would cut it? Did he think that by tricking my brother and giving us this shit we would forget what he did and move on? Of course not! I opened my mouth to tell him this when Jess reached her arm out and rested her hand on my knee.

She was looking down at her lap, "I get it. It's fine."

Me and Mari looked at her like she was crazy because she was crazy.

She looked at us, "What? It's not like he'll do it again, right?"

We all looked at Matt as he turned red as a tomato.

Josh laughed, "See? Back to the sweet and awkward Matt we all know and love."

Mari and I shared a look. We didn't trust this. We didn't trust Matt. Right now we didn't trust Jess and Josh. But it . . . seemed fine. We decided to be careful and keep an eye on Matt. We didn't want to be too hasty and ruin everything. This was going to be interesting.

"Uh, so homecoming is tomorrow," Matt said, trying to change the subject.

I jumped up from my seat, "It is?"

With everything that had happened I had completely forgotten about homecoming. I ran out of the cafeteria to buy a ticket. I talked to Jess and Mari and invited them over to get ready. I shot JJ a text telling him that I was going to homecoming tomorrow with Jess and Mari. He tried to yell at me about safety and planning. He even called me.

"You're just going to a huge school event out of nowhere with no warning where you'll be exposed to anyone and expect me to be okay with it?" he yelled through the phone as I finished lunch.

"Who's that?" I heard Matt ask.

"Her boyfriend," Jess said casually, "You've missed a lot."

I glared at her as I responded to JJ, "You were fine with the show yesterday."

"Well, that wasn't at school! It was in a cafe run by friends of mine," he spit back.

"I see no reason for you to be reacting so strongly," I said patiently, "Calm down and call me back, okay?"

"No," he shouted before quieting his voice, "I just want you to be safe, Bambi. After -"

He was about to bring up what happened with Alec at the party, but stopped himself, thinking that I didn't remember.

"After everything we've been through I get worried," he saved himself.

I smiled, "I know. But don't worry. I'll be with my friends the whole time and I'll never step out of the gym alone, okay? I can be safe. I will be safe."

He sounded torn as he answered, "Can you?"

I kind of wanted to hug him right now which was wrong, "Even if I can't I've got a lot of friends here."

He sighed, "Okay. You can go."

I grinned, "Thank you, JJ."

"Wait, before you hang up," Josh called, "Tell your man that Dad wants you home for dinner. He's bringing his date home and he wants us all to meet her."

I smiled, "Oh, and JJ, I have to go to dinner with my dad tonight."

"I'm coming, too," he said.

My jaw dropped, "What?"

"Too small an area; too little protection. I'm coming," he stated.

I'd won the homecoming battle so I guess it was only fair, "Fine."

I hung up and looked at Josh.

"What's with the long face?" he asked cheerily.

He won't be smiling for long.

"JJ's coming to dinner tonight."