Songs for the Chapter:

Anything at all by our King, Michael Jackson.

{M A U R A}

It was definitely my last resort, but it had to be done.

Jax's whispered advice the night before has given me a glimmer of hope- he told me not to talk to Green Eyes, which meant he cared about who I associated with. That must've meant he cared about me, or at least had the capacity to.

I fought with my own consciene as I watched him from across the quad, all glittering hair and superiority. I waited until I could catch his eye- when I did, I went strutting all the way across the quad to where Jon and the Teenage Dreams were.

Jon was nowhere to be found, so I used my second best resource.

I looked over to make sure Jax was still watching. "Joshie? Could you come here a minute?"

Josh was seated on the steps, but he got up as fast as lightning as all his friends hooted and hollered, patting his back with approval as he came near.

"What's up, sweetheart?" He tried his hardest to look cool, making sure his poodle hair was acceptable enough to be seen.

Jax was still looking.

"Um... I just needed to ask you a question. A... personal one," I said softly, swaying softly and looking up at him through my lashes.

He looked like he might faint. "Oh yeah? Shoot."

I grabbed onto his collar and pulled his face close to mine. "If I kissed you, would you fall in love with me?"

His friends couldn't contain themselves. He touched my waist and laughed throatily.

"I don't know. Why don't we find out?"

I shrugged. I hadn't planned on actually kissing him, but why not?

"What the hell is going on here?"

Jon was standing before us with his arms crossed, wearing a horrified expression. He looked at Josh accusingly and stepped toward me.

"Are you trying to take advantage of her?"

"Run along, Bon Jovi. I'm in the middle of somethin'."

I groaned with frustration. I no longer had Jax's attention-- when I looked over, he and Vick were enjoying each other's faces for lunch.

"Jon!" I spat out of anger. "You ruined it! I was trying to do something!"

"Yeah," Josh agreed and touched my shoulder. "Call me? I'll come over and we can pick up where we left off."

I swatted his hand away. "I wasn't talking about you!"

Jon's intelligence was annoying to me. He looked in Jax's direction and then back to me, having already put the pieces together in his mind.

"God, Freckles! You can't manipulate people to get what you want! It's not healthy, and it's not fair. You'll earn yourself a bad rep if you keep on like you are."

"Wait, what?" Josh said, never leaving my side.

"You don't know what you're talking about," I huffed, knowing that Jon was right.

Jon took me by the shoulders and looked down sternly, almost like a father with his daughter.

"Listen to me, Freckles. You're too good to be lowering yourself to his level, alright? In my opinion you're too good to think about him in the first place, but... the key to catching him is being genuine. Show him you're just as beautiful inside as you are externally. Okay?"

I looked up into those navy blue eyes of his, and said nothing. I was too stubborn to admit that he was the wisest teenager I'd ever met.

"Dude," Josh said, shaking his head with a frown. "You're weird."

Jon scoffed at him. "I know what I'm talking about."

I pushed past him with annoyance and stalked toward the school.

"Come on, where you going girl?" Josh called after me. Jon said nothing.

{...}

I knew he wouldn't want me there, but I returned nonetheless. For some reason I felt that the air between Jax and I wasn't clear, and that it wouldn't be until I exhausted every idea I could come up with to get nearer to him.

I stood in the back of the alley this time, but I didn't need to see the fight. I knew exactly what was happening based on the cheers and jeers of the crowd, and every so often Jax would jump so high that I could see his hair flying in the wind.

And then, all of a sudden that wind changed.

I'd decided that I'd let Jax know I was there only in the very end, and then quickly leave before he had the chance to reprimand me.

But, as soon as they crashed the scene, my plans were all but finished.

It happened all at once- I heard a male voice yell something unintelligable, and the crowd began to disperse in every direction. I could barely find a corner to hide behind in time to remain unseen.

All was still except for the sound of feet against the pavement. I peeked around the corner again out of curiosity and witnessed Jax's gang running up beside him, seemingly from out of nowhere.

Who were they facing? It was what looked like a rival gang, standing behind one tall, menacing man. Jax stood as tall as he could and his entire gang stared them down menacingly, like they were outsiders in a small town.

My eyes kept drifting to the leader of the rival gang- his form was familiar.

"Jax, my boy. Glad to see you've finally come down from the city and back to where you belong... comfortably underneath my boot."

I clapped a hand over my mouth to keep from gasping. I took one more look, and I was certain.

Green Eyes stood poised, wearing dark clothes and a sultry smile. I noticed that there were no females with him- no wonder he seemed so desperate for some action.

I crouched and kept my breathing quiet, determined to see what might unfold.

"Under your boot," Jax said, almost as if he were repeating the punch line of a humorless joke. "That's amusing, given the fact that you've been in this game for all of five minutes. You belong to that world anyway, why would you shame it?"

Green Eyes scoffed. "You're funny, Jax. I do belong to that world, which means your little 'rendevous' with the rich is through. You're gonna back the hell off, and leave my territory alone."

Jax chuckled a little and looked at Vick. Her face was stone, pained almost.

"How you doing, baby girl?" Green Eyes said to her mockingly. "You missing me?"

"It was one time, asshole!" Vick spat seconds later.

"You're going to leave," Green Eyes continued, staring Jax and Vick down. "You're gonna leave what's mine to me. Unless you want me to... take it by force."

"Please," Jax said, unravelling his boxing wraps slowly. "You underestimate me. Do you really think you could do anything? I'm undefeated."

Green Eyes was the one laughing now. "Oh, I'm not a boxer."

Jax's eyes narrowed. "We aren't leaving. The territory is ours for the taking."

Green eyes turned his head just slightly, and for a moment I thought me might be looking at me.

"I guess you're choosing retaliation," Green Eyes sighed with mock disappointment. "Oh well. I promised my mom I wouldn't get any more blood on my clothes, but what the hell."

I smiled, knowing that Green Eyes would het his ass handed to him and be forced to eat his cocky words.

Unfortunately, I was wrong.

At first I thought Jax might be holding his own- until I realized that Green Eyes plays dirty. Dirtier than the lowest of street fighters, he grabbed on to Jax and threw him onto the ground, did things so horrid I couldn't bear to watch.

I felt the bile rising in the back of my throat. I got to my feet and hurried away, far too squeamish to bear the rest of the fight.

But who the hell was Green Eyes? And who's circle did he belong to?

{...}

Jax wasn't at school the next day, and a cold pit in my stomach told me that something horrible had happened.

I went to Macy during lunch in an attempt to find information. She shushed me quickly at the sound of his name and dragged me by the hand off into a remote corner of the courtyard. She looked quickly back and forth over her shoulders before she spoke.

"You can't just talk about the gang out loud like that! You don't want the wrong people hearing the wrong things."

I rolled my eyes in annoyance. "You're so street smart, Macy. What city do you live in again? Last time I checked it wasn't Compton."

She scoffed. "What do you want?"

"I wanna know how Jax is doing. I know something happened, with him and this other gang."

Macy peered at me skeptically. "How do you know that?"

"They trashed his house."

We both turned, startled by the sudden noise. Jon was standing there with his hands in his pockets, kicking at stones with an unlit cigarette on his lip.

"Your friend Josh was talking about it. The rival gang kicked his ass, trashed his house, and they're nowhere near through."

"Smoking in your teens will permanently stunt your lungs. You're a singer, aren't you?" Macy frowned. She liked to be the one with the information.

"I love me a good cancer stick," Jon said sarcastically. "Warms me up."

"Oh god," I said quietly and rubbed my temples.

"It's time to do something genuine."

I looked at Jon. For the first time, I saw something more than a ditzy Jersey Boy.

{A/N}

I know this chapter was short! Sorry, it's most just been lead-up to the climax with Michael. Anyway, hope you're enjoying!

Vote and comment :)