Achieving Unbroken
Chapter Eight

—
"And I told you that I need you, Baby can't you see
I'm alone, oh oh"
Infinity | AJR

—

Lilla

[Monday, May 15th, 2018 - 7:45 AM]

"Charlie!" I scream down the hall, in an attempt to get the wrestler's attention. His head turns up, eyes scanning the busy crowd of people getting themselves to class, when his gaze lands on me. Anger flares in his eyes, and he pushes himself off of the lockers he was leaning on to go and walk in the opposite direction of me.

Lame attempt to get away from me, in my opinion. He should know by now that I'm persistent.

"Felds, slow the eff down, Christ. You can hear me. If your sister saw—"

"Don't you dare talk about my sister like you know her," he snaps, whipping around to face me.

"Then stop lashing out over her." Charlie, fuming, turns on his heel and begins to walk away from me again. I keep following him.

"I'm not letting you leave so easily. I need to talk to you."

He stops in his tracks, not facing me, but I can tell he's considering the offer.

"If this is about Oakland, I don't wanna discuss this."

"You won't discuss it." He slowly turns, looking at me with confusion. I walk toward him, getting so close that he has to step back, and I keep going until his back hits the lockers. "You're going to listen," I state, poking my index finger into his chest. "You aren't going to go near Jason again. You aren't going to go bitching at him and poking the bear for some kind of fight in a lame attempt to defend Clarity when you're just making a fool of yourself. You aren't going to talk to him, talk about him or his brother, or look at him if you pass him in the hall. And if you do any of these things, trust me, I will know about it."

All he does is smirk, and look down at me, like I'm a teddy bear holding a toy knife to his throat.

"You think you're so tough, it's cute. Those are empty threats. I'm not afraid of you, Harris."

"If you aren't now, you will be, trust me. You saw what happened at the fight. Kinley trusted my word over what your friends said because he knows you're just a group of assholes. I can make the promise that you will be at a school in another district if you mess with Jason, me or give anyone shit ever again. Go ahead, think my bark is worse than my bite—but don't do something that I can make you regret."

I see a sliver of panic flash across his face. Determining that my work is done, I back up, and gesture down the hall.

"What are you waiting for? Mr. Larson is waiting for you. Wouldn't wanna be late, would you?"

"Crazy bitch," he mumbles under his breath, and I can't tell if I'm meant to hear it but I do.

Yes, I am. And I'll be damned if he tries to bully anybody else.

—

Lilla

[Tuesday, May 16th, 2018 - 11:20 PM]

"Girl—you didn't."

"I did. Fuck, I did!" Zoe shoves a spoonful of macaroni and cheese into her mouth, with an amused smile on her face. Small bits of cheese escape her lips, and she wipes her mouth with a napkin.

"I don't know why you're so worried. I mean, I don't know the kid, thank God, but he needed you to kick his ass a little. I'm proud, personally."

I chew on my salad while she says this, and swallow right before I speak again.

"Sometimes I seriously wish you went to Bringham and not West Cove. I'm around gallons of testosterone on the daily and I'm just about drowning in it. Can we do Panera Tuesdays every week? No one else has first lunch with me on Tuesdays and I normally go eat in the theatre."

"Hell yeah. Not like I have other plans," she laughs.

"Here's to our social lives," I joke, raising my glass of lemonade to collide with her glass of Diet Coke. We laugh, eating more of our food, when she speaks up.

"So... Hows your little social experiment?"

"He's not a social experiment." Zoe gives me a pointed look, but I just roll my eyes and continue. "I'm just trying... To help him out. We have mutual friends, friends that he lost after the party last year. You know that helping people is my specialty."

"Well, of course it is. You've been a helper since I met you. But isn't a fake dating scheme going a little overboard?"

"Yes. It's going completely overboard but Jason almost drowned last year. It's gonna take something drastic to get him back to shore."

Zoe sighs, avoiding my eyes, and eating more of her mac n' cheese.

"What happened last year?"

"What do you mean?"

"You and Max keep telling me that something happened last year with Jason. But Max doesn't know, and you won't tell him. Will you tell me?"

My first thought is why not? She's been one of my best friends for the last three years. She deserves to know.

But then... The people who I thought were my friends picked a fight, insulted me and betrayed me. This isn't my story to tell.

"Can it wait? It's Jason's experience, not mine. If he is okay with you knowing, I'll tell you. But I think that I should help him file through his thoughts before he goes publicly acknowledging it." Zoe nods, and tells me that she totally understands.

"We gotta get back soon, but I just want to say to be careful. My brother actually likes you. And if you're going to be more focused on Jason, risking starting to like him—"

"Whoa, I don't like Jason."

"But who says you couldn't start?" I blink, and look down at my lap. "That's all I'm saying." She picks up her bag and wiggles out of the booth. "Come on, back to hell we go."

—

"Lilla!" I hear when I get back to school and start walking to my fifth period. I turn and see Jason's red hair, and smile to myself before I even comprehend the action.

What Zoe said couldn't be true, could it?

"Jason, hey." His jogging slows to a stop as he comes right in front of me, mere inches away. I look him up and down, taking in how close he is to me; his light grey hoodie, white shirt, Converse. The small strings of hair falling in his face because his head is tilted down to look at me.

Why is he so close?

I mentally shake it off. I'm just being overly-aware because Zoe just had to put ideas in my head. Ideas I hadn't even considered... Until now. Damn her.

"I know we have to get to class, but I wanted to ask if we could hang out tomorrow. Like... I don't know, homework after school? Also... I don't know... Planning out how we're going to sort through—" He, no joke, laughs. "My trauma, I guess?" He whispers.

I blink. I'm such an idiot.

"Yeah," I clear my throat. "Yeah, totally! My place?" He nods.

"Sounds good."

"Great. I'll just take you to school and drive you home after so we don't have to mess with two cars."

"Cool." He hesitates before walking away. "Do you, uh, still remember where my dad's house is?"

I feel myself freeze up. I didn't know he remembered that I had ever been to his dad's house.

"Yeah, I do." My eyes shift around the hall awkwardly, trying to find a way to calmly wrap up this conversation. "Be ready by like, 6:50." His face twists.

"School starts at 7:30."

"I'm aware. But I like to get to school early and it takes 10 minutes to get from my house to yours, then another 10 to get to school. I don't take risks on being late," I smirk. He smiles.

"6:50. God, the things you get me to do, Harris."

With that, he spins around and walks away, hands in this pockets.

"God, the things you get me to do, Harris."

Okay. It's fine. I just might be totally, completely screwed.