Her Past, His Innocence

9. How should I confront him?

Song of the chapter- We don't talk anymore by Charlie Puth and Selena Gomez

Joel's POV

That lame excuse of a husband and father.

I make my way to them and I do not hesitate to punch Richard Reed on the nose. I'm very satisfied when I hear a loud crack. Amanda shrieks when she registers what happened while my dad let out a loud groan of pain.

My mum, Jace and Jasmine rush out of the kitchen but that doesn't stop me from punching him in the gut. I feel a large pair of hands grab me and pull me from the man lying on the floor in pain.

I look behind me and see Jace holding me back with eyes telling me to take control of my emotions.

I look at Amanda, whose eyes are widened, displaying shock and fear. I storm off to my room trying to avoid any form of human interaction.

~ Amanda's POV ~

What just happened??

I feel uncomfortable here. Like, everything just happened so fast. My friend's dad touched me inappropriately and then, his son beats the hell out of him.

"I have to go now. Bye." I wave at Jasmine who's face is looking embarrassed.

"Bye."

I walk to the door and don't look back. I feel sorry for them (except Mr Reed. He's an ass). They are not a picture-perfect family as everyone sees. It's as if everything is fake.

I don't think I'll be visiting them for a while.

~•~•~•~•

Just as I thought things couldn't get any worse...

Joel is avoiding me.

Great.

Note the sarcasm

But it doesn't affect me because my life was alright before he came along.

And as for the project?

We have to present it next week but we can't because we aren't on talking terms. We'll cross that bridge when we get there.

I'm heading to Aliya's house and I see Julian, Aliya's big brother and wave to him. I approach him with a big smile on my face.

"Hey, a big bit," I say

"Hey, a little bit." He says while ruffling my kinky hair and I pout.

"Stop that. Do you know how long it took me to style this?" I slap his hand away from my hair.

"I don't know but I'm sure it took a very long time because it isn't looking like a bird's nest."

"Go away." I start walking faster as he jogs to meet up with me.

We get to his house and I walk up to Aliya's room. She's sitting down on her bed, with an ice cream tub and watching Netflix on her laptop.

"Hello, friend."

"Hello, friend. What brings you to my big mess of a room?"

" To be honest, I don't know. But what's up with you?"

Her eyes light up and she grins "Do you remember Jax, my partner?"

"Yeah. One of the biggest players in school and the same boy that has screwed almost all the girls in school, of course, I remember him."

She gives me a look. "I just pretend that I didn't hear that. Anyway, he asked me out." She squeals.

"Isn't it too early?"

"Nothing is too early when it comes to love."

"Don't fall for him. It'll all end in tears."

"Awh come on, you were encouraging me to go for him."

"That was before we found out that he was a dick and that was during somophore year. Get over the crush or whatever."

"After eight months it's termed, love."

"Disgusting."

She rolls her eyes. " Now let's forget about Jax. How's Joel?"

" He's just there."

"What do you mean by ' he's just there'?"

"He's avoiding me."

"But I thought everything is going well with you and him. What happened?"

I told her everything that happened at Joel's house and she reacted sometimes with a nod or 'mhm'.

"....and that's what happened."

"I see. But I don't understand why he's avoiding you."

"I have no idea why. So what do you think I should do?"

She placed her index finger on her chin as she looks at her window in thought.

"I think you should confront him," she says simply.

" Like that's the easiest thing in the world."

"Just drag him to an empty classroom or the janitors closet and confront him."

"I'll try."

"I'm hungry" I whined after some minutes of silence.

"Just so you know, my ice cream is for me alone."

I sigh and then go to the kitchen. I look into the refrigerator and see a tub of chocolate flavoured ice cream. I take it upstairs and start to devour it.

Just then, Julian barges into the room and jumps on our legs which are under the covers.

We push him and he lands on the floor. We laugh as he frowns like a little child.

"Stop making that face. It makes you look old." I tease him.

" That's a lie. I look young."

"That's a big fat lie."

"I said I do not look old."

I raise my hands in surrender."Whatever makes you sleep at night."

"It's late. I'll be going now."

" Bye. Make sure you confront him."

"Hopefully, I will."

And with that I left Aliya's house thinking:

How on earth I'm I going to confront him.