Chapter 20 - Luke

I won't bore you with how I spent the rest of my Christmas break, so I'll just fast-forward to when school actually started.

It was Tuesday morning, and I had just received a text from Alexia:

Hey, babe.

I'm sick.

I got a cold, so I can't come to school for a few days.

Can you take notes for me too?

Thanks.

I was partly sad, but I was also kind of relieved. That way we can keep the fact that we're dating hidden for a little more time. I'm not sure why, but I don't really want everyone to know that Alexia and I are together.

Anyways, I decided to bring Alexia some soup after school. That will probably help with the cold.

I walked in the English classroom, and stopped dead in my tracks. Vanessa was sitting in Alexia's spot. Why was she sitting in Alexia's spot?

I looked around to see if I could sit somewhere else, but I was already a little late, and all the other seats were taken. I sighed and walked towards Vanessa. As she saw me coming closer, she smiled.

"Hey, cutie pie. How are you?" she asked.

"Why did you change seats?" I asked, ignoring her question completely.

"It's the new semester. We're allowed to change seats, you know."

"Fine, but that's Alexia's seat," I replied.

"Ugh, that bitch can sit somewhere else," Vanessa scoffed.

I wanted to hit her, badly, but I knew that wasn't the right thing to do.

"Okay, first of all, don't call Alexia a bitch. Or anything else for that matter. Second of all, don't talk to me."

"Oh come on, sweetie," Vanessa said. "I know you want me."

I didn't answer and listened to Mrs. Depree talking. With the corner of my eye, I could see Vanessa smirking, but I ignored it and took notes for Alexia.

Vanessa didn't talk to me for the rest of the hour.

I should get a prize for Best Boyfriend Ever. I mean, who would actually pay attention to a Math lesson, just so Alexia's notes would be perfect?

Me, that's who.

Chemistry was okay. We basically repeated what we did before the holiday, so I didn't even have to take a lot of notes.

Art… was a disaster.

As you know, Vanessa is in my same Art class. And, obviously, she was sitting next to me. As I tried to pay attention and do what our teacher instructed us to do, Vanessa kept scribbling things on pieces of paper and tossing them to me.

Some were just plain annoying, like:

I want you, you want me. Why don't we just make it happen?

But others were pretty disturbing, like:

I know where you live.

Not only that, but she would also doodle some drawings. Most of them were of her… private parts. I won't describe anything, but who does that?

By that time I had started to worry. What was Vanessa planning? She had ignored me for the last couple of months, then, all of a sudden, she takes a new interest in me and starts stalking me and tries to seduce me drawing herself in sexy positions.

Then it hit me.

Is Vanessa just messing with me, or does she really have a crush on me?

I silently promised myself to not tell Alexia about anything. I didn't want to worry her, and I was pretty sure I could handle Vanessa on my own.

After Art I had an hour of French and, luckily, Vanessa wasn't with me. I was already dreading going to lunch. Vanessa will probably make a move on me again, but I tried to forget about it and focus on the lesson.

As soon as lunch break started, I sprinted to the cafeteria and took a table in the corner, hoping that Vanessa couldn't see me.

She did.

Surprisingly though, she didn't come to sit next to me. But she positioned herself in a seat where I could see her perfectly.

From her bag a sandwich, some carrots, and a banana. I wasn't really worried until she started licking the carrots, staring at me seductively.

I looked away, trying to hide my embarrassment. I kept eating my food, but I still felt Vanessa's stare on me. I ate as quickly as I could – I did not want to see what she would do with the banana - then sprinted out of the cafeteria and headed towards my Social Studies class.

I stayed there, expecting Vanessa to show up and torture me some more, but no one showed. Phew.

I had a calm hour, but I realized that I had P.E. later, and Vanessa would be there too.

After Social Studies, I went to the locker room and changed. I then walked into the gym, only to find Vanessa already there, waiting. She was sitting on one end of a bench, so I sat on the other side, as far away from her as I could.

She didn't like it. She scooched closer and placed her hand on my thigh.

"Hey, baby," she said.

"Okay, please stop," I snapped. "I don't want anything to do with you, okay? Just stay out of my life and leave me alone."

She didn't even flinch. "You and I both know that it will happen."

After dropping that bomb, she moved back to the other end of the bench, just as a crowd of people entered the gym.

Mr. Crum walked in and announced that we would be playing… something. He said a name but I couldn't make out the words. Anyways, we had to build some hiding places all around the gym. Then, we had to choose one person that would have two jobs: find everyone (who would be hiding), but at the same time protect a ball that would be placed in the middle of the gymnasium. If someone other than the protector hits the ball, the protector would lose and the game would start again. It's easier than it sounds. Basically we had to hide and, if we had a chance, hit the ball.

We built as many hiding places as we could, then Mr. Crum picked out one of us (luckily not me), and the game began. As the person in the middle counted, everyone went to hide. I honestly hadn't understood the game that well, so I just followed Nick and Will.

We just stood there, in silence, as other classmates were caught.

I then understood the difficulty of the game: the protector couldn't move too far away from the ball, or someone could hit it, but he couldn't just stay there and wait, because he had to find everyone.

I shifted and found a small hole in between the mats so that I could see what was going on. Four classmates had already been caught, and Mike (the protector) was walking slowly towards the other end of the gym. I took my chance: I ran as fast as I could towards the ball, but Mike saw me, sprinted, touched the ball, and screamed my name.

"LUCAS!"

I walked towards the bench where the others were and sat down. I watched the game quietly, trying to spot the perfect place to hide the next match. Suddenly, Will ran towards the ball and Mike didn't see him in time. Will kicked the ball and everyone cheered.

"Good one, dude," I told Will.

"Thanks," he said, "You just have to work on your timing."

The game restarted and this time Nick was the protector. He didn't look happy about it, but he did it anyway.

As he started counting, I ran toward a hiding place. It was perfect: small, well hidden, and it had a small hole in between two mats. A couple of seconds before the beginning, I heard someone running in my direction, then crawl in the hiding place with me.

Yep. You guessed it.

Vanessa.

"Finally, we're alone," she whispered. "Kiss me."

"Are you crazy?" I whispered back.

She didn't seem to hear me and approached me slowly. "C'mon. I know you want this as much as I do."

"No! I don't!" I said quietly.

She reached over and grabbed my shoulder with both her hands, then came even closer, pressing her breasts against my chest.

"No!" I whispered and pushed her off me. She smirked and then practically jumped onto me. I did not expect that, and I wasn't ready for what happened next.

Our lips slammed together and Vanessa immediately tried to stick her tongue in my mouth. I tried to push her away, but she just pressed on more insistently.

And that's when it happened. That's when it was all ruined.

Vanessa probably had pushed me too much, and the mats that were covering us fell down, revealing us. Vanessa couldn't care less: she kept kissing me, even though I pushed her away.

I couldn't believe this was happening. Everyone was looking at us, and Vanessa was just humiliating us more than we already were. She had probably just sabotaged my friendship with Nick and Will. Everyone would look at me differently. And Alexia would… Oh gods, Alexia. What would I tell Alexia?

I was filled with rage. Vanessa, doing what she had just done, probably just ruined my life. And I couldn't keep it in anymore.

My right arm was free, so I did what I should've had done much earlier.

I punched her in the face.

She yelled and rolled to one side. I quickly stood up and just looked down at Vanessa, who was holding the side of her face.

"You asshole!" she yelled.

"What the hell happened?!" Mr. Crum demanded.

Before I could answer, Vanessa spoke, "He tried to rape me! He held me and kissed me against my will… I didn't know what to do… I…"

"WHAT?" I screamed. "You're trying to blame me? You were the one that wanted to hook up with me, you fucking pervert!"

"LUCAS JACKSON!" Mr. Crum boomed. "PRINCIPALS OFFICE, NOW!"

"Are you serious? She's the one who started all of this! You're really not going to punish her?"

"We'll discuss this later. Right now I have to bring Miss Wild to the school nurse. You, go to the principal. NOW!" he screamed.

I stomped off, knowing that my life had turned into hell.