Chapter Sixteen - A Striking Act

After three days of resting at home and having Mrs. Brooke at my beck and call despite me telling her I was feeling fine, I was back at school.

My fever was gone but my foot still hurt whenever I put too much pressure on it. But it was healing. I'd tried jumping on my bed the evening before to test the pain and it had started to hurt a little only after the fourth jump.

So, I was definitely good to go back to school. Unfortunately.

"Can't...breathe..." I wheezed, coming to an abrupt stop and lifting my hand over my face to shield it from the sun. I squinted my eyes at the PE teacher a few feet ahead, standing with her hands resting over her hips, watching me.

"Come on, Andrews," she hollered. "You're slower than your usual self today. Come on!"

"Wow, thanks," I sneered under my breath, counted till five in my head and started dragging myself forward. By the time I finished the lap before seven other students, I was totally spent.

The coach nodded at me. "Keep that up and I might change your grade back to A. Also, stop skipping PE."

"Okay." I nodded, lifting a bottle of water to my lips. I only skipped it twice.

"Also, could you run to coach Sanders' office and hand these in?" She shut a file full of papers and handed it to me. Before I could respond, she was already walking away.

"Run to the coach's office," I repeated, still breathing heavily. "Of course, she wants me to run out of breath and die."

"There are worse ways to die." Cheryl patted my shoulder.

Meera snatched the file out of my hands. "I'll take it. Can you be a little more careful with your foot? I told you to skip PE and here you are racing like a horse."

"Jeez, Meera. You're worse than Mrs. Brooke. And that's considering the fact that she barely let me step out of bed in the past three days. She brought me stuff even before I could ask for it like a freaking telepath. It's just a little wound. It's not like I fractured my foot."

"Are you kidding me? The cut's big and looks very deep. I'm surprised you didn't have to get stitches."

"I knew I shouldn't have sent you its picture." My eyes narrowed.

"You what?" Cheryl spat.

"She asked me for it."

"Why would you need a picture of a wound, weirdo?" Cheryl smacked her shoulder, frowning.

"I don't know, curiosity?" she muttered sheepishly. "But you know what? I'll show you how bad it is, Cher. I bet you'll cringe too every time you see her putting pressure on it."

She started pulling her phone out but Cheryl held up a hand. "No, thank you. No offense, Becks. I'd rather keep my breakfast down."

"I understand." I nodded. "But it's better than it looks, trust me. Or I wouldn't be at school, let alone running in PE."

"Fine. But I'll take this to the coach." Meera flashed the file at me.

"Thank you." I blew her an air kiss and she caught it, pretended to crush it and spill on the ground with a sarcastic smile before walking away.

I chuckled.

The coach's whistle blew again. "Alright, everyone! Who's ready for another lap?"

I sighed.

"Just sit this one out." Cheryl pointed towards the benches.

"I'm good, really. It's like I have super healing."

She raised a brow. "Whatever you say. But if you fall and hurt yourself, you're answering to Meera."

"She really scares me sometimes."

"Me, too."

Scoffing, we started running together but Cheryl was much faster in that lap and got way ahead of me. Every time someone ran past me, I swore to beat them until they got so far ahead, I decided I would do it in the next class when my foot was a little better.

While fighting for my breath, my eyes fell on the sidelines and it all felt like a déjà vu when I spotted a certain bully walking up to me.

"God, no." I groaned and picked up pace but with a busted foot, it wasn't like I could run like the wind. It started to hurt like hell this time and instead of slowing down, I came to a complete stop and doubled over, breathing heavily.

"You shouldn't be putting all that strain on your foot."

His voice slowly got closer and one of my brows perked up. He wasn't sounding like his usual mighty self for a change.

"Oh, I shouldn't, doctor?" I asked sarcastically over my shoulder and stood upright, preparing to get away from him.

It took me a moment to regather my strength while I felt him walk up closer.

"Listen—"

"No," I cut him off abruptly.

There was a pause.

"What?"

I spun on my heels, letting him see the seriousness in my eyes as I announced, "No, I'm not going to any more places with you. So don't waste your time here."

A quick comprehension flashed in his eyes. He folded his arms over his chest and opened his mouth to say something but shut it, clearing his throat instead.

Wait, was he hesitating? About what?

I realized I didn't care.

"Catch you later." I waved at him, then added with a straight face, "not."

I turned on my heels too fast and gasped, holding back a yelp. The last thing I wanted was to appear weak in front of him. So, I brushed the pain aside and started jogging lightly, realizing that I didn't have super healing after all.

I sealed my lips shut to stifle a screech of pain at least until I was a few feet away from him.

"Will you just hear me out for a second?" His voice sounded closer with each word and my brows pulled together in confusion. Was he following me? I threw a look over my shoulder and yes, he was following me.

"No," I stated, a little taken aback as I slowly picked up speed to get away from him. "I don't care if you're going to offer me Disneyland next. I'm not going anywhere with you, okay?"

"That's not why I'm here."

"I don't care, Matt. Whatever it is you want, I don't care. Just leave me al—"

It felt like being hit by a giant wrecking ball when something crashed against my shoulder with a shitload of force, throwing me to the ground. I heard a grunt and saw someone losing balance ahead and landing on the ground a few feet away from me. Thankfully, they hadn't taken a very bad fall. It looked harmless.

"Shit," I groaned when I felt a shooting pain in my knee. It was scratched and bleeding. Great! It was the same leg I'd hurt three nights ago.

In a desperate attempt to ease the pain, I mindlessly started fanning the area with my hands and blowing on it. Like it ever works. But what happened next took me by surprise and I forgot all about my pain.

My enemy kneeled down right next to me, hands quickly reaching for my leg. "Let me see." He carefully straightened it and I flinched from the pain I'd forgotten about. He stopped instantly, his eyes lifting to my face. Then he set his jaw, annoyed.

"Can you watch where you're going?" he snapped and I opened my mouth to defend myself until I realized he wasn't talking to me. His anger was directed at the person who'd bumped into me. I blinked up at him. Was he feeling right in the head?

His eyes were fixed straight ahead and I followed them to look at who'd ran into me. She slowly lifted herself up and turned around. I wanted to tell Matt not to scream at her, that she was hurt too, until I saw who it was and her fake pout.

"Matt." Rebecca looked like she was going to cry, or at least she was trying to.

"Oh, for fuck's sake," I heard my enemy say under his breath.

"It hurts," she whimpered, her lower lip quivering. Even through my pain, I wanted to laugh at how fake it was and how hard she was trying to pull a few tears.

"Yeah, no shit. You literally crashed into someone and fell. Have you lost your fucking sight?"

As much as my knee was hurting, I couldn't help but be amused when Rebecca threw him a betrayed look. It was all fake. I knew she'd collided with me on purpose. Her landing on the ground was clearly cushioned by her arm. Her fall was just as fake as her.

Shaking my head, I placed my palms flat on the ground to get up but the slightest bend of my knee gave me hell so I fell back with a grunt.

"Hey! Easy." Matt put a hand below my knee as if to hold me to the ground.

"I don't need your wound expertise here," I said but didn't smack his hand away like I normally would. "I just need to get to the nurse's office. So, if you don't mind."

I motioned for him to step away from me so I could get up.

"Ow, Matt!" Rebecca's loud groans caught our attention as she grabbed her left arm in her hand. "Look, it hurts. Help me."

"Just the arm?" he asked her and I scoffed at him. What kind of question was that?

"Yes, baby. It hurts so—"

"I'm sure you'll have no problem walking yourself then."

With that, he lifted me up in his arms and I gasped, my hands involuntarily lifting to his chest as if it was muscle memory. I was going to scream at him to put me down until I saw Rebecca's face. Her eyes were wide and this time, it looked like she was going to cry real tears as she watched Matt carry me across the field and towards the building.

Once we were out of her sight, I let out a long breath and stared up at his jaw.

"You're carrying me."

"It's not the first time," he said with a straight face, keeping his eyes ahead and not paying any attention to the people around us who were watching curiously. "Is it?"

And my mind went back to three nights ago when I thought it was all a dream. Obviously, I'd realized it wasn't the next morning and I had felt...unsettled. And now hearing it from him just made it even more deranging and confusing. Why would he do all that for me?

"At school, yes, it is."

He remained quiet.

"Okay, Matt. You've made your point to Rebecca. You can put me down now," I muttered, looking around. There wasn't one single person that we passed who didn't drop everything to gape at us.

He stared down at me, a little v forming between his brows. "What?"

"Well, you're obviously not doing this for me. And yes, if you wanted to get this point across her that she isn't your first priority or something, I don't appreciate you using me for it, okay? So, you can put me down now."

His face gave nothing away. I had absolutely no idea what he was thinking as he put his back against a door and pushed it open with his shoulders. I realized we were in the nurse's office when he put me down on a bed.

I sighed. Great! Now he'd helped me again and I still didn't know his ulterior motives. Because obviously, he wasn't just doing it for my sake.

"You again?" The nurse made a face at him and I raised a brow. How many times had he come down here? I wondered if it was for himself or he was used to carrying people to the nurse's office.

"Yeah." He nodded and pointed to my knee. "Will you look at this now?"

Her eyes averted to me and she quickly grabbed some cotton and the same disinfecting liquid I despised. "What happened?"

"I tripped."

She lightly patted the cotton at the scratch to clean the blood and then soaked a cotton ball in the liquid I believed was a gift from Satan to humanity.

"Wait wait!" I held up my palms. "Just a minute. Do we really need to use that?"

"Yes." She started to reach my wound again but I put my hands above it.

"Wait. Just wait," I pleaded.

"Let me know if you need me to hold her hands," my enemy offered and I snapped my eyes to his.

"No. It won't be necessary," she sneered at him before giving me a reassuring smile. "Right?"

Sighing, I brought my hands to my sides while looking between them curiously. She looked at least thirty so I could easily rule out a fling. Or could I? I didn't think very highly of him after all.

I blinked. Why the hell was that my first thought when it could be anything? I was too lost to notice when she started cleaning my wound until I felt the burn and yelped in surprise. It really stung.

"It's okay, it's okay." She lightly patted at it. "It's all good. I'm just gonna put on a band-aid and we're done, okay? It's just a little scratch."

I nodded and watched as she finally put a band-aid on it and went to the corner to wash her hands. I exhaled out loud and leaned against the wall.

"You're still here." I sighed, watching Matt out of the corner of my eye. "Shouldn't you be getting to class?"

He nodded. "I just..."

I raised a brow. What could he possibly want to say to me that he was so hesitant about?

"Look..." he started. "That night, the glass. It's not like I wanted..." He ran a hand through his hair and I watched as a luscious brown strand fell back on his forehead stubbornly. His dark brown eyes looked straight into mine and he inhaled before finally saying, "I'm sorry I couldn't pull it out sooner."

I blinked. Did he just say sorry to me? Who was he and what had he done to my enemy?

I stared down at my feet, speechless. I had no idea what to say to him. 'It's okay?' 'Nah! It happens to the best of us. Don't sweat it?'

"I bet that's what you say to a lot of girls," was what I came up with awkwardly.

But once I realized I'd actually spoken that thought out loud, a smile formed on my lips. He, on the other hand, watched me incredulously as if making sure that's what I had really responded with. Then he rolled his eyes but the humour in them didn't go unnoticed by me.

"Becks!" The office door was swung open by Meera and Cheryl, who had looks of worry plastered on their faces until they saw Matt. And their worry turned into relief into playfulness in the blink of an eye as they looked between us.

"I'm gonna go," Matt said and started to leave just as Meera threw him a big smile. I don't know if he smiled back but he nodded at her before walking out.

"Well, well, well." Meera smirked once he was gone.

I rolled my eyes and fell against the wall once again. "Please don't."

*****

When I made it to class, a certain group was eyeing me like they wanted to kill me. Wait, correction: the minions were eyeing me with disgust for the sake of their queen B, who was eyeing me like she wanted to kill me.

I rolled my eyes and settled in the second row, Meera on one side of me and Cheryl on the other.

I turned to them one by one, amused. "Thanks for the extra protection, guys."

"You're already vulnerable. We'd hate to see that bitch do more damage." Cheryl scowled towards her.

"She's all bark, no bite," I scoffed.

"She literally pushed you on purpose not more than an hour ago." She deadpanned.

"Right. And I still can't take her seriously." I looked at her and she was still glaring at me like she was plotting some diabolical scheme in her head to take me down.

Maybe I provoked her through some mind connection because she started to walk up to me smugly and I straightened up in my seat.

"How's the knee?" she asked scornfully.

"Good. How's the arm?"

"Good." She narrowed her eyes. "Let's not beat around the bush. What's going on?"

"Excuse me?"

"With you and Matt."

"I don't know what you mean."

"Don't give me that crap," she said in a dangerously low voice and I couldn't, for the life of me, be scared of her. Sometimes I felt bad about it. She put in so much effort to appear scary and I would just sit there thinking I was being challenged by a harmless rabbit. Wait, was that how Matt felt whenever we fought? I blinked. Why was I thinking about him?

"I'm surprised you even need to ask. I thought he was your boyfriend, the way you're always staking your claim so readily," I mocked, crossing my arms complacently.

Her right eye twitched. "It's complicated. But I need to know. Are you and him dating?"

I could've easily scoffed and said of course not. Are you crazy? but I chose to take a dramatic five second pause and say, "it's none of your business, Rebecca."

She swallowed audibly, face turning red with jealousy. "Why did he help you this morning?"

"Because that's what a decent human being does? I mean, not like I think of him as one, but maybe he isn't as immoral as it seemed before." I shrugged.

She inhaled and tucked her hair behind her ear as if to buy some time to stay in denial. "So, you two aren't really dating, are you?"

What is that I feel in my chest? Ah yes, satisfaction. Pride.

"I'll leave that to your imagination," I whispered and pointed behind her to let her know that the teacher had just entered the class.

She looked back, shot me a glare and quickly went to her seat.

"Do you have a death wish?" Meera spat.

"What? She pushed me on purpose and I can't even mess with her a little?" I chuckled.

"You know what? Damn right, you can." Cheryl patted my back. "Besides, we're not letting her hurt you again. If she has her minions, you have your besties."

I smiled at her gratefully. "Thanks, Cher."

Thankfully, Rebecca didn't bother me after that. I could tell she really, really wanted to but she'd just taken a blow and was trying to regroup. She had it really bad for Matt, didn't she?

Either way, it was none of my business.

"An orange juice, please," I said with a smile and waited patiently for it to arrive. I tapped my fingers on the countertop and hummed a tune lowly, smiling again at the person who brought me my juice box. "Thanks."

I turned around to peacefully walk back to the table where my friends were having lunch, but somebody was standing right in front of me, glaring at me.

I jumped in surprise, placing a hand over my now racing heart.

"You." Matt narrowed his eyes in a somewhat hostile manner. What was wrong with him now?

"Yes. Me. The one who goes to the same school as you." I blinked, then started to step sideways but he shifted to block my way and fiercely demand my attention. "Unfortunately," I added.

"What did you do?" he asked in a deliberately low voice.

"What? I have no clue what you're talking about."

"Oh, then let me elaborate, girlfriend," he spat venomously through gritted teeth and I don't know why my stomach did a flip. I must've eaten something weird. "What the hell did you say to Rebecca?"

That's when realization dawned on me. So, he was mad at me for that conversation with Rebecca probably because it had upset her. She did mean something to him, didn't she?

Well, too bad.

"Oh." I smacked my lips. "You mean that."

His eyes narrowed.

"I didn't tell her anything." I shrugged. "Although, I may have implied something."

"What?"

"She asked if we were together. I just didn't give her a proper yes or no."

"And why would you do that?"

"Just to get back at her for what she did this morning," I said, a little ticked off but I realized he was more annoyed than I was and that made me continue with a smirk, "but I didn't realize I was messing things between you and your girlfriend. Oops."

He took a furious step towards me, eyes telling me he saw red. "I've told you she's not my girlfriend. She's a crazy, obsessive person who can't leave me the fuck alone."

"Well, isn't that awesome? I mean, you love being the centre of attention, don't you? You're the centre of her world, Williams. I don't see the problem."

"You—" he started angrily.

"Everyone! Hey!"

Our heads turned to Chris right in the middle of the room, climbing on a table to have everyone's attention. He raised his hands and waved, making sure all eyes were on him. "I've got an announcement to make."

"We're not done," Matt muttered to me while crossing his arms and shifting next to me to look up at Chris.

"Tonight. Party at my place. Spread the word. Everyone's invited."

The entire lunchroom jolted with excitement and cheered for Chris who ate up all that praise while nodding and grinning at everyone. He scanned the room, threw finger guns at Matt and when he saw me, his eyes lit up.

The last time I'd seen him, he was struggling to keep the towel around his waist intact when I'd barged inside the boys' changing room looking for Matt.

"Especially our daring, hot new singer Becks." He pointed a finger at me and I was really glad for all the loud noise because not many people heard him but those that did, turned their heads to me, especially guys, a few cheering and a few checking me out brazenly.

I suddenly had a flashback from when everyone thought Matt and I were dating. Oh, the horrors!

I waved back, smiling awkwardly. Damn you, Chris!

"As I was saying..." Matt stepped in front of me, blocking my view. He had a deep scowl on his face and for a change, I felt like it wasn't for me. "Five times."

"What?" I blinked.

"Five times, Rebecca's asked me if I'm with you; five times, she's made me say out loud I'm not and five times, I've told her it's none of her fucking business. This is all on you, Andrews."

"Oh my God!" My hand lifted to my mouth in disbelief and I burst out laughing. Just the thought of his face when Rebecca must've been making him say those things, his annoyance and how he must've been trying to get her off his back made me laugh even louder.

He crossed his arms and tilted his head slightly, waiting for me to be done. "It's not funny."

"It is, it really is."

When I did not stop laughing, he snatched my juice box, opened it and chugged a mouthful. That made me shut up and glare at him.

"Who's laughing now?" He sneered.

"Me." I started to chuckle again before it turned into another full-fledged laugh and this time, he didn't look as pissed as he did the first time. He rolled his eyes and looked away. "I'd feel sorry for someone else but you, Williams, you deserve it. You both deserve each other."

He exhaled, eyes dead set on me.

I caught a familiar face in the crowd and stood up on my tiptoes to look over his shoulder.

"Oh, what were the odds? There's Rebecca."

His head snapped around and I heard a little groan come out of him.

"Maybe I should call her over here. Hey, Reb—" In an instant, his hand clamped over my mouth and my eyes widened in surprise at the sight of my enemy towering over me with a look of warning.

"Don't you dare."

"Mmfu."

"Shut up."

I bit his palm and he hissed out before pulling it back, cursing something incoherent under his breath. I studied him for a moment, then smirked.

"Come on, Matt. If you really wanted to get her off your back, you would've told her what I implied earlier was true," I said and a pensive look crossed his face as his brows furrowed. "Why can't you just admit you like her?"

His lips twisted into a grimace as if he were disgusted at the mere thought.

I looked over his shoulder at Rebecca. She seemed to be looking around for him and the moment she spotted him, a big smile lit up her face but when she realized he was standing with me, it vanished.

Boy, was she obsessed with him.

"Here she comes. Good luck," I said to him and started to slip away but he didn't let me. He put his arms on the counter on either side of me, trapping me against it.

I shot him an annoyed stare until I saw the look in his eyes. His brown eyes were watching me intently and I suddenly felt...weird. Was it good weird or bad weird, I didn't know.

"When you put it like that," he muttered and his voice was a mere whisper. A husky reminder of the one single thing I'd admitted to like about him during his gig. "Remember you owe me for driving you home from the club?"

I nodded, swallowing. "What do you want?"

He took a step closer and I don't think he'd ever been that close to me without the intention of fighting me. My chest heaved up to catch a breath and I watched his every movement, every flicker of his eyes, especially when they fell down to my lips.

Why are you not pushing him away, Becks?

Because I owe him, I told myself.

"I think you know," he muttered.

I sucked in a breath and forgot to exhale when his hand curled around my wrist, his grip firm and soft at the same time. His fingers started brushing up my forearm and I had a flashback from the night when he was feeling my forehead for fever.

Why was his touch so...invigorating?

I felt at power, an untamed power that demanded action. What that action was, I didn't know.

I swallowed, biting down on my lip, which made his deep brown eyes drift down to them. Something about it made a shiver run down my spine.

"Matt?" Rebecca's voice sounded almost shattered. With his eyes trailing across my face, he pulled away as leisurely as he could. Maybe he was trying to show Rebecca that he wasn't startled or affected by her. He turned around and casually leaned against the counter next to me.

"What's going on?" she asked as she looked between us and she didn't look like someone who wanted to put up a fight anymore. She just looked sad. I almost felt bad for her, almost, but then I remembered what she'd done to me in the morning.

So, I hooked my arm with my enemy's and smiled at her innocently. If he'd recoiled with disgust at my action, he'd been very subtle because I hadn't been able to tell it.

"What do you think?" Matt asked her.

"I thought you two... didn't..." She trailed off and then, scowled at me. Just at me. Not at her precious Matt. She threw daggers at me, so intense that if looks could burn, I'd be ash. "Fine. You win today."

With that, she turned around to stomp off.

I rolled my eyes and let go of his arm almost immediately because as far as metaphors go, yes it was burning me. But with some emotion other than disgust. I was going to ponder over it later.

"Never make me do that again," I snapped, taking one step away from him because we were standing too close to my liking.

"Don't flatter yourself. It wasn't the best part of my day, either."

I snapped my eyes to him, and he snapped his to mine and we just stared. Stare down number four. Or was it five? Either way, I exhaled and took another step back.

And just like that, I turned around and walked away. We never believed in greetings or goodbyes anyway.

"Did I dream that or did you really just kiss Matt?" Meera blinked at me, a little shaken as I settled in my seat. "Who are you?"

"Please," I scoffed. "Listen to yourself, Mee. It was Matt. I would rather make out with a cactus."

"So, what the hell was that?"

"We were pretending to want to make out. Does that make sense?"

Mack choked on his chocolate milk. "How long have we been sitting here? What have we missed?"

I chuckled. "I owed him after he gave me a ride home from his gig. He just needed that to brush Rebecca off."

"Why would you agree to hold up your end of the bargain when he never held up his? Remember the music training?"

I blinked. How could I forget that?

"Um...because he..." I struggled to come up with a response and my friends just exchanged looks. "...because he really took care of me the night I got sick at the carnival and I wanted to pay him back for that. Yes! That's it! That's why I did it."

"Did you just remember that reason, Becks?" Cherly smirked.

"O-of course not." I chuckled. "I was thinking about it the whole time. It's why I agreed. Obviously."

"Obviously." She nodded as the three of them now exchanged smirks.

"What?" I demanded.

"Nothing. Nothing at all." Meera shrugged, barely hiding her amusement.

I opened my mouth to argue but was cut off.

"Hey, man!" We all looked up at the person nearing our table to high five Mack. It was Chad. "See you at the party tonight?"

"You bet." Mack nodded.

"All of you?" he asked that while looking at me.

"Yep," Mack answered again.

Chad pushed his golden locks out of his face and sent me a little smile, saying, "Just thought you should know, we're rooting for you to win this challenge, Becks."

I smiled. "We?"

"The football team and most of the other students."

I blushed. Sean was a part of the football team. And just like that, I was worried about the challenge again. As much as I hated admitting it, Matt was my best shot at winning it. I had to push him further for the training.

"Thanks. I'll try to live up to the expectations."

"See you at the party."

"See you."

Meera wiggled her brows at me when he walked away. "Are you ever gonna acknowledge his obvious crush on you? The guy seems nice."

"My plate's too full right now. And what do you expect me to do? Go and tell him I'm not interested? He hasn't even given me any obvious signs, Mee. For all I know, I'll just end up hurting his ego and he'll deny having any feelings."

"Point." She leaned back in her seat and said after a pause, "So... the whole football team wants you to win, Becks. That's huge."

"Well, not the whole football team, I bet," I said in context to a certain annoying and stuck-up musician.

"Touché." She chuckled.

Hey guys!

Are you ready for Chris's party? What do you think is gonna happen next?

Don't forget to leave your thoughts in comments.

Vote, comment and share!