April 8th, 2010

“This really sucks,” Chelsea muttered to me as we sat in the park next to the two happy couples that were pretty much radiating their happiness off to us. “I feel like we’re some type of crazy third wheel.”

“Agreed,” I sighed, quiet enough so the people we were with wouldn’t hear us. “I don’t even know what they asked us to join them.”

“Because, girls,” Aimee started, suddenly leaning in toward us and nearly making me jump because I didn’t think she was listening in to our conversation, “we’re Lexi and AJ’s friends, so we’re here to support them.”

“On a date,” Chelsea groaned, and I was sure I matched her unhappiness. “The only reason you’re okay with it, Aimee, is because you wouldn’t know what an awkward situation is even if it sat on your lap.”

“Jordan, you and Jesse should sit on my lap.”

“Hey!”

Chelsea and Aimee both laughed, but I only made a face at the two of them. I wasn’t that awkward with Jesse, was I? I didn’t think so… Awkward would be one of the last things that I would think we were.

“I’m going to go get a hotdog,” I grumbled, wanting nothing more than to be far away from all the lovey-dovey crap. “Do you want anything?”

“A water bottle please,” Aimee answered, and Chelsea shook her head for a response.

I let out a sigh as I pushed myself up off the ground and made my way toward the hotdog stand only a couple yards away from us. I didn’t even bother asking Lexi or AJ what they wanted because I didn’t want to interrupt them with their boyfriends.

As I waited in line, I couldn’t help but feel just a little bit jealous of Lexi and AJ. They had great guys that liked them a lot, and I didn’t. Both Aimee and Chelsea didn’t seemed bothered by this at all, and I pretended not to be, but I honestly was. They had what I wanted with Dallas all those years before…

“Fancy meeting you here, Emery!” a familiar voice suddenly said from behind me, and I groaned before turning toward Jesse Jacobsen in distaste. I had suddenly lost my appetite.

My jaw nearly hit the ground when I saw him. “You… you look horrible!”

He shrugged, a smirk on his face as usual. “Why, thank you.”

His face was bruised, but the bruises looked like they weren’t fresh, which meant he had gotten them either the day before or even before that…

“Did you get into another fight?” I demanded, and if he had said yes, I would have hit him. Well, maybe not, since he was hurt and all…

“Mugged, actually,” he answered, and it made me feel kind of bad for him. “It happened last night when I was walking home from… a friend’s house.”

“Shouldn’t you be able to drive?” I wondered out loud, my eyebrows furrowing at him once I really thought about it. “Aren’t you seventeen?”

“Aw, did you remember my birthday, Emery?”

“The… the only reason I remembered is because I’ve known you for so long!”

He smirked at me before reaching over and ruffling my hair. I smacked his hand away from me, kind of hoping that it was bruised as well so it would hurt a little. I really hated it when he touched me.

“Whatever you say, Emery,” was all he said, and this surprised me because I was expecting him to tease me even more.

“Do you have some sort of tracking device on me or something?” I asked now, wanting nothing more than to change the subject to something else. “How else would you be able to find me pretty much wherever I go?”

“It’s a small town, Emery,” he shrugged, much like he had before. “The only two places to hang out here are the mall and the park. And where are we right now? The park. Just be happy I’m not showing up in your room at night like creepy Edward Cullen. I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t appreciate me watching you sleep.”

“Changing the subject,” I rambled now, thinking that this conversation had gotten too creepy for my liking. “I still can’t believe you got beat up again. It’s barely even been two months since you got in a fight with those five guys.”

“This town can be really dangerous,” he shrugged, and for some reason I felt like there was a double meaning behind it. “You should be careful about who you hang around with.”

I made a face at him. “I’ll make sure to keep that in mind.”

“So how was the glue?” he asked me with a grin, and my face suddenly flamed when I remembered what he was talking about. “I see that you were finally able to unstick yourself from the table.”

I was lucky that the manager of the ice cream parlor had the stuff that Jesse and I had used to make the glue not sticky anymore. If he didn’t, I didn’t know how long I would have been stuck to that table.

“You’re lucky you’re all bruised,” I snapped at him, turning around and paying for a water bottle for Aimee. “If you weren’t, I would have punched you or something right now.”

“I’ll make sure to keep that in mind,” he mimicked, and I was starting to think that he actually wanted me to punch him or something. “But maybe you should get back to your friends, Emery. I have to go meet up with some of my friends anyway.”

“I’m not stopping you,” I informed him flatly, my grip on the water bottle tightening. “But you’re stopping me.”

He took a step out of my way and gestured toward my friends. “Be my guest.”

I rolled my eyes at him before walking right by him and back toward my friends. Though I knew that this wasn’t going to be the last time I saw him, I was happy that Jesse didn’t play any prank on me this time. But I was sure that it was only because he was obviously in a lot of pain…

And this bothered me a little. He was obviously in so much pain, and yet he was still out and about like nothing was wrong. I hadn’t ever seen another person that I knew beat up like he was… Especially not twice. Was there something that Jesse wasn’t telling me or was I just blowing everything out of proportion?

“Thanks,” Aimee smiled at me when I handed her the water bottle. “What took you so long?”

“Long line,” I lied, not wanting her or Chelsea to tease me about Jesse. “There were just… a lot of people in the line.”

“You sure you didn’t see anyone?” Chelsea asked, a teasing tone in her voice. “I was almost starting to think that you ran into Jesse or something.”

“Of course not!” I forced out a laugh, a little bothered when I thought of his bruises. “Of course not…”

J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J

Jesse’s P.O.V.

Sometimes I really needed to learn when to keep my mouth shut.

I mean, seriously. One of these days, my ego and big mouth were going to get me killed by either Jordan or some guy from another gang. Or even, in this case, a guy from Hunter’s gang. You know, the gang that I’m actually in.

“You really are a stupid kid,” Hunter told me as he dragged me up the stairs to his apartment, the one he shared with his mother. “You just can’t keep your mouth shut, can you?”

I didn’t even try to speak because my face hurt too much. He already knew the answer to the question he was asking, so there was no point in even answering anyway.

“Hunter,” his mother gasped when she saw him nearly dragging me inside the apartment. “What happened?”

“He got in a fight with another member because he wouldn’t shut up and stop making fun of him,” Hunter sighed as he plopped me down onto his couch. It took me a second to remember that Hunter’s mother knew all about the gang, since her husband had been the one to start it. “There’s no way he can go home like this, so I thought I’d just bring him here for the night.”

“Shouldn’t he go to the hospital?” his mother now asked in concern. “His wounds look so bad.”

Hunter shook his head. “You’re a nurse. I thought you’d be able to help him. If he goes to the hospital, his mom will find out and we don’t want that to happen.”

“But she’ll find out eventually since her son will be covered in bruises…”

“We’ll make up some kind of story when that time comes,” Hunter merely waved away. “I just hope his mom would believe that he got mugged again.”

“She’ll probably never let him out of her sight ever again,” Hunter’s mother now sighed, and I could only hope that that wasn’t true. “I know I definitely wouldn’t if I knew you couldn’t take care of yourself, Hunter.”

He rolled his eyes. “Jesse can take care of himself. He’s just a dumbass with a fat mouth.”

And I agreed with him. I couldn’t keep my mouth shut when I was around Jordan, and I couldn’t keep my mouth shut when it came to other gang members. One of these days I was either going to get killed by a scorned girl or an angry gangster…

Hunter’s mother ended up caring for me nearly the entire night, and it made me feel a lot better. I was just glad that I didn’t feel like I was going to die anymore…

His mother was probably the nicest woman I had ever met on the planet, which surprised me greatly. I was expecting her to be… I don’t know, rough like Hunter. But I guess he only got that from his father…

The next day, I was able to walk, but it still hurt like hell. I was going to have to tough it out for a little while so when I eventually went home, my mom wouldn’t take me to the hospital. I wanted her to only think that I had a couple of bruises…

“You sure you don’t want me to drop you off at your house?” Hunter asked, his eyebrows furrowing at me as I shuffled out of his car in front of the park. “You look horrible, man.”

In all honesty, I didn’t want him knowing where I lived. If I ever got on his bad side, he’d use that as an advantage and possibly hurt me or my family. I wasn’t about to let that happen. Especially since Erica was still dating him and she was still trying to hook up with me…

“Nah, I’m fine here,” I assured, even though I didn’t know if that was the truth or not. “Some of my friends wanted to meet up with me here.”

“You should probably go rest, Jess,” Hunter advised, looking up and down at me when he saw how much it hurt just to walk. “But I have to say that that’s what you get when you mess with Ricky. You should have been smart enough to know that he’d beat you up.”

“You know me,” I tried to laugh, but I found that it was too difficult to. “I’m a pain in the ass.”

Hunter smirked. “You sure are.”

We said our goodbyes before he finally drove off, and I turned toward the park and practically limped all the way to it. My friends from Cambridge actually did want to hang out, and I was sure that they weren’t going to be surprised by bruises all over my face. They didn’t know about the gang, but they knew that I couldn’t keep my mouth shut…

Before I could meet up with my friends, I saw the one person that I actually didn’t want to see the most. Any other time would have been great, but not when I was all cut up and bruised for the second time.

But this didn’t stop me from approaching her, because I honestly didn’t even have control of my body whenever I was around her. It was like I physically needed to be closer to her or something, as strange as that sounded.

“Fancy meeting you here, Emery!” I called out, trying to sound as obnoxious as possible, and she turned toward me in distaste, much like I was expecting.

Her jaw pretty hit the ground when I saw me, and it almost made me laugh. “You… you look horrible!”

I merely shrugged, forcing out a smirk even though it hurt like hell. “Why, thank you.”

She was wearing a dress that I thought was too small for her, but it was nowhere near as small as the dress she had been wearing the day I saved her from that drunk pervert had been. In all honesty, I liked when she wore dresses that were too small for her. It brought out her… uh, never mind.

“Did you get into another fight?” she asked me now, and I was thinking about lying to her and saying no. But how else was I supposed to explain all my injuries? It wasn’t like I could tell her I had been in a car accident or anything… I would have been in the hospital if that was the case.

“Mugged, actually,” he lied, figuring that this was the best excuse I could think of. “It happened last night when I was walking home from… a friend’s house.”

I didn’t like lying to her, but I knew that it was for the best. She couldn’t ever know about the gang. I just wouldn’t let her.

“Shouldn’t you be able to drive?” I questioned, her eyebrows furrowing at me like they always did. “Aren’t you seventeen?”

“Aw, did you remember my birthday, Emery?” I couldn’t help but tease cheekily.

Her face turned bright red. “The… the only reason I remembered is because I’ve known you for so long!”

I smirked at her and mused up her hair. She only smacked my hand away from her, and I was glad that my hand wasn’t bruised like the rest of my body, because I knew it would have hurt if it was.

“Whatever you say, Emery,” I shrugged, not even answering her question and pretty much dropping the subject all together.

“Do you have some sort of tracking device on me or something?” I demanded now, and I couldn’t help but think that it was a really amusing question. “How else would you be able to find me pretty much wherever I go?”

“It’s a small town, Emery,” I simply shrugged, since it was kind of the truth. It wasn’t like I was stalking her… much. “The only two places to hang out here are the mall and the park. And where are we right now? The park. Just be happy I’m not showing up in your room at night like creepy Edward Cullen. I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t appreciate me watching you sleep.”

“Changing the subject,” she babbled on now, and it wasn’t like I was about to complain about that. “I still can’t believe you got beat up again. It’s barely even been two months since you got in a fight with those five guys.”

“This town can be really dangerous,” he almost sighed, trying my best not to be completely obvious about it. “You should be careful about who you hang around with.”

She scowled at me like she always did. “I’ll make sure to keep that in mind.”

“So how was the glue?” he asked before she could turn away from me, since I wanted to keep on talking to her even longer. Something seemed to trigger in her mind, as if she had forgotten or something “I see that you were finally able to unstick yourself from the table.”

“You’re lucky you’re all bruised,” I nearly growled, turning around and grabbing a water bottle from the stand beside us before paying for it. “If you weren’t, I would have punched you or something right now.”

“I’ll make sure to keep that in mind,” I made sure to parrot, and I could tell how much she really wanted to hit me. “But maybe you should get back to your friends, Emery. I have to go meet up with some of my friends anyway.”

“I’m not stopping you,” she informed me flatly, and I wanted to hit myself for saying something that would make her walk away from me. Our banter just got to my head sometimes… “But you’re stopping me.”

I finally took a step away from her and gestured toward her friends that I just noticed, and I would have bowed if it didn’t hurt so much. “Be my guest.”

She huffed at me before walking right by, and I wanted to grab her and tell her not to go. If I didn’t get killed from something to do with the gang, she was going to kill me without even trying to. It was ridiculous what kind of hold she had on me when she didn’t even want me anywhere near her.

Damn that girl sometimes. She was going to be the reason I died, I just knew it. I didn’t know how, but she was going to be involved somehow. She was either going to do it herself or just be the reason…

I guess it was kind of my fault though. If I hadn’t been a complete asshole when we had first met, none of this would have happened. I could have even be her friend. But I also had to keep the gang a secret from her, so… I guess it was a good thing that we weren’t friends and she hated me. It kept her safe.

And that was all I wanted for her.

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Happy birthday to me! ;)

Oh, my gosh… Hunter was introduced today a year ago in chapter fifteen of There’s a Thin Line Between Love and Hate. So not only is it my birthday, but it kind of is Hunter’s, too. <3 Even though his real birthday is on February 12th…

I decided to update all of my stories today because I’ve been completely erratic and random with my updates… And I did the same thing last year with updating all of my stories for some reason, so I decided to do it again. :)

Please COMMENT, VOTE, and FAN! :D