THE SPAWNS

Not With You

Chapter XXVIII—Jayden

© DarknessAndLight

"Hey, wait up!" I yelled after Dakota, running to catch up with her.

Catch up, not ketchup.

Ha ha.

Alright, I was a little tipsy. Oops.

And this wasn't funny. I wasn't supposed to be amused. This was serious. I had my friend's honour to defend and scowling and running yes, I was supposed to be running, I wasn't running anymore... woah okay yeah, red-headed she-devil was walking faaaaaaast.

Ha ha.

Wait. Not funny.

"Dakota! Wait. Dakota, wait up!" I called out and tried to run again.

When I finally caught up with her, I couldn't see my friends anymore.

"Would you slow down? This isn't a marathon and we need to talk," I told Dakota who was clearly trying to snob me.

"And why exactly do we need to talk?" she asked, completely emotionlessly.

"Because of what happened back there. Because of what you did."

"What did I do exactly? I just stated facts." Still all business.

I scoffed. "Seriously? You're playing the dumb card here? I'm the one everyone calls the unobservant one, darling. You ain't stealing that card from me."

"What?" She shrugged and kept walking fast. Where the hell was she even supposed to be going? "It's true. I don't see what all the fuss is about."

"Oh you know exactly why. How long had you been waiting to tell her that stuff?" I asked. She had been way too satisfy with herself when she had said those things about Maika's mom. "Did you just come up with it one night staring at your ceiling, going over every conversations you ever had with her? You thought how can I hurt her with the least words?"

Dakota snorted. "Please. I'm not obsessed with her. You are. All of you are. You're like fly sticking to shit around her. You and Cole and even your two twin friends, you're all pathetic!"

At that moment, even if I was still tipsy and often not that big on social cues, I could totally see it. Totes. "Are you..." I narrowed my eyes a bit, "are you jealous of Maika?" I asked Dakota.

She kind of scoffed and snorted at the same time. It was riiiidiculous. "Why would I be jealous of that reject?"

I made a face. "Because let's be honest here. Everybody loves her. Not everybody loves you."

"Nobody loves me, that's what you mean to say."

"Not with that attitude," I answered, "Jesus, did you just hear what you told Mai? How do you suppose you would have reacted if the roles were switched? It's a bloody miracle that she didn't karate chop your head off. She could probably pull it off you know."

"That!" She stopped walking and pointed at me. "That right there. Oh Miss-So-Perfect can do anything sooo perfect we all wanna bang her," she said, in a mocking voice.

"Wow." I nodded a little looking at her incredulously. I had totally nailed it. "Okay, so she gets all the male attention and suddenly you need to go on a let's-shit-all-over-Maika mission? That's pathetic you know."

She started to walk again. I followed her. "I don't need your fucking insults," she hissed.

"No, I think you kinda do," I grabbed her arm to make her look at me, "I think you need to hear this."

Dakota pulled her arm out of my hand. "You think I need to hear AGAIN that someone doesn't like me? That I'm rude and not likeable. I know it. I fucking know it." She ran her hand through her hair. "What's the point trying to be anything else? Nobody wants me around. You think I don't know how unwelcomed I was at Cole's house. I know it. I could feel it before I even crossed the door."

I felt bad, because it was kind of true. But I also didn't feel that bad because she really wasn't helping her case. "Look, you won't win any brownies point if you act like a bitch when people expect you to act like a bitch," I pointed out.

"It's a whole lot easier though. And who cares, she's a big girl. She can handle it."

Even tipsy I could totally see it. The girl was way more screwed up than I had realized. Poor her. "But you're not just hurtful with Maika, you're hurtful with almost everyone. You even hurt Belly."

"Seriously, why the hell do you keep calling her Belly? Why does that girl have like, seven nicknames?" suddenly exclaimed.

I felt the need to explain. "Oh, sorry, yeah, I call her Belly because when my mother was pregnant with her she kept telling me she was in her belly, and so after she gave birth to her and my mother didn't have her belly anymore I kind of freaked out and asked "WHERE'S THE BELLY" and mom laughed and then they showed me Lilibeth and it sort of just stuck. She's my little belly. And don't you distract me! I was being observant and astute and all."

"Oh yeah, when you're telling me I'm hurtful," Dakota snorted.

"Well, it's kind of true," I told her, shrugging a little, like I was going all sorry-not-sorry.

"Whatever," she just replied. Very thought-out response.

"You can't argue with that. You're hurtful with most people." I narrowed my eyes a bit, realizing something. "For some reason, not with me though."

"Not with you," she repeated softly.

At this point, we had stopped walking and we were standing face to face on the sidewalk under the clear night sky. "Why's that?"

She took a step forward. "Why do you think?"

I blinked a couple of time. "Because of my stellar personality?"

She smiled a little. "Suuuure."

I still hadn't had my answer though. So I asked again. "Why do you feel that need to hurt everyone around you?"

"Why should they have it easy?"

"Not me though?"

"Not you..."

And just like that, she grabbed the back of my head and started to kiss me.

I kissed her back and I really wanted it to work out. I don't why I needed so desperately for this kiss to be something it really wasn't. Kissing her was like when Leia kissed Luke. You didn't know why at the moment, but you just knew it was wrong.

I was kissing her but it wasn't there. That spark, that little something. Something was missing.

Maybe I really was gay. Maybe I really needed to go kiss Cole.

I grabbed her shoulder and broke our kiss. "Wait, huh, wait."

Dakota huffed, running her hand through her hair. "Are you kidding me?"

I gave her a pathetic smile. "Sorry."

"You've been ogling at me since I arrive at Cole house. And now you don't want to make out?" she asked, incredulous.

"Hey, I'm not some kind of piece of meat you can kiss whenever you want. I have feelings you know," I told her, trying to be dramatic and funny. Trying to not make this moment even more awkward than it was.

"I have no idea if you're joking or you're serious right now."

"Your problems won't magically go away by kissing me," I pointed. A valid point. "I don't have that kind of power."

"The distraction is welcomed though," she told me and leaned in for another kiss."

I kept her at arms' distance. "No, uh-uh, this isn't going to happen."

"You just figured that out? Didn't you follow me to make out with me?"

I frowned. Good question. "I don't really know why I followed you. I was trying to do the right thing I think. I didn't want you to be alone..." I trailed. Even if she was a bitch, I kind of felt bad for her. For the lonely girl with no friends. "Look, you seriously need to change your attitude. And you need to apologize to Maika."

"Whatever."

"And we should probably go back to the hotel."

She perked out a little at that comment. "And here I thought all my chances were dead."

I groaned. "I'm not sleeping with you."

"Clearly, you're never sleeping with anybody."

That wasn't exactly true though. I slept with my friends all the time. My friends who were probably very annoyed with me right now.

Why had I done this? I blamed the booze.

Dakota and I walked back to the hotel. It was awkward. I had no idea how I would manage the rest of the road trip with her. Kissing her had felt wrong, had felt weird. It hadn't been what I thought it would be. There were no explosions or overwhelming feelings. There wasn't anything special when I kissed her. It was just a kiss.

And, I realized, I wanted something more.

Dakota went to her room and I headed for mine.

When I walked through the door I was greeted with one of Clyde's farts. Gross. Maika was sleeping in Cole and mine's bed. After kissing Dakota, it felt kind of wrong to just go and lie beside Maika. I didn't know why, it wasn't like had cheated on her or something. One day I would have a girlfriend, or boyfriend apparently, and it would still be okay to just lie down beside my best friend. But tonight it just felt wrong. I wasn't about to go sleep beside Cole though. If I did, I was sure Maika would be even more pissed than she would already be tomorrow. Like I had something to hide.

Which I did, but she didn't need to know that.

And why was I overthinking this?

I stripped down to me boxer-briefs, just let myself fall on the bed beside Maika and fell asleep almost immediately.

The next morning when I woke up everyone was out except Mai, who was braiding her hair, sitting on one of the chair around the tiny round table in the corner of the room. I rubbed my tired eyes and tried a gentle, "Maika?"

"Don't talk to me," she answered, clearly mad.

Damn.

"Seriously?"

"Oh yeah, dead freaking serious."

I sat up more straight in the bed. "I'm sorry okay, I'm sorry I wasn't a good friend. Sometimes trying to be a good person turns me into a bad friend."

"How can I be clearer Eaton? Shut the fuck up. You just want to bump uglies with Dako-bitch? You want to munch on red head pie? Fine with me. Go dip your dick in a bitch. I might not be here when she breaks your heart and you need your friends again."

Woaaaaah. I had anticipated mad. I hadn't anticipated that mad. "What are you talking about? I didn't fuck her."

"But you kissed her."

Oh oh... "I..."

I could have told her exactly what happened. I didn't. I felt petty. I didn't want her to know that sure I had kissed Dakota, but that was as far as it would ever go between us. The experiment had failed.

I was going to die alone.

But I didn't want to tell her that.

For some reason, a deep dark part of me kind of wanted her to be pissed off, wanted her to be angry. I had no idea where that desire came from or what it meant but it was there.

"Yeah, that's what I thought. I wish you and your deviant girlfriend all the worst in the world," Maika told me, got up and walked out of the room.

Well, wasn't this a pleasant way to wake up?

_____________________________

A/N: Hey guys! :D

Told you you wouldn't need to wait as long! ;P I hope you enjoyed this chapter and understood why Jayden did what he did. Next chapter is Cole's POV and it's going to be fuuuuuuun. I should put it up soon. It's already half way written. :D

Next thing I upload should be Virgin and the Whore though. Hopefully, I'll upload again this weekend. 

So, that is all. :D

Until next time! <3