Chapter Forty Two - Getting Official

The next morning, when I left my house, Matt was leaning against the driver's door of his car, waiting, and the moment he saw me, he stopped leaning against it and took a doubtful step forward.

With a straight face, I crossed the street and extended his jacket to him. "I forgot to give it back last night. Thanks for this."

"Not a problem." He reached for it unsurely, and before he could say anything else, I turned around to go back across the street.

"We should be leaving for school. It's late," he said.

I threw him a glance over my shoulder and looked down at my watch with a frown. "You are late. You've missed practice today. Why haven't you left already?"

"You never showed up."

Truth was, I'd been secretly watching him through my window. He'd come out of his house an hour ago and had been leaning against his car ever since, switching glances between his watch and my front door.

I really wanted to call him and tell him to leave without me, but I fought the urge, reminding myself that he could have called me too.

"I haven't ridden with you in a week." I raised a brow.

"Yesterday you said you'd wanted to watch the practice."

"Well, now we've both missed it. Besides, I didn't wanna bother you with my pathetic presence. You don't have to drive me around anymore."

"Becks—"

"And we're done training."

"What?" he snapped, taking an angry step forward.

"You heard me. Thanks for everything, but I've got this from here."

I started to cross the street, but he gripped my arm and pulled me back, his eyes blazing. "You're overreacting."

"Maybe I am, so what? It's my loss. I lose the challenge." I tried to yank my arm free, but he didn't loosen his grip, so I glared down at his hand. "Seriously?"

The subtle clenching of his jaw and swallowing depicted his frustration to great lengths; he was beyond pissed. He slowly released my arm and cut me one final glance before getting into his car and driving off.

*****

"I'm so sorry, Becks." Meera sighed. "If I never asked you that stupid question, Sean would never have heard you and snitched like that. I'm sorry to say this but your crush is a little bitch."

"Meera!" Cheryl turned around with a frown, cutting a glance at me.

I let out a chuckle that surprised me as well. "It's fine. I had the same thought but it's okay. It's not a problem anymore."

"What do you mean?" Meera raised a brow.

"Matt's over that and I told him this morning that he doesn't have to teach me music anymore."

"What? Why would you do that?"

I shrugged. "I feel like YouTube will be just fine after all that practice with him. I'm unnecessarily taking up his time. I mean, it's music, not rocket science."

"Something happened, didn't it?" Mack raised a brow in the rear-view mirror.

"No. We're good."

*****

"Good." Meera scoffed as Matt and I crossed each other a second time in the hallway without exchanging a word.

"We're fine, Mee."

She shook her head. "Tell yourself that."

I snatched the textbooks out of her hands and started arranging them in her locker since she'd asked for my help. Even though her healing foot had nothing to do with arranging books, I didn't mind doing it for her lazy ass.

Once I was done and had shut her locker, I found her eyeing me thoughtfully with a spark dancing in her eyes.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing." She blinked. "I just remembered something. See you after class." She was already walking away.

"But...we're in the same class."

"Yeah, I know."

I shook my head and made my way towards the bathroom before heading for class.

When I made it, Meera was sitting in the second last row with Cheryl while I found a seat in the last one. Both of them turned around with a little smile and I eyed them weirdly.

"What?"

"Can we not smile at you?" Cher rolled her eyes and they looked ahead as the teacher entered the room.

My phone buzzed with a text.

Will: Is it true? Are you really done training with Matt?

"Did you guys tell Will? What's the point of this?" I asked my friends with a frown.

"Miss Andrews?"

The classroom went dead silent and I looked up to find the teacher staring down at me, unamused. "You have something you wanna share with us?"

"No, I'm so sorry for interrupting."

"Interrupting? I hadn't started talking yet." She crossed her arms. "You'd know that if you were paying attention."

"Um yes. I'm sorry again. Please go ahead."

"Oh!" She pretended to be overjoyed. "How kind of you! Thank you! Let's begin the class. Why don't you come up here and read your essay?"

"My what?" I blinked.

Okay I know for a fact that a question like 'my what' was not supposed to be funny enough to make the whole class snicker. And yet, here we were. The teacher sent me a silent glare and I internally cursed my classmates.

"You haven't been paying any attention in my classes. I might need to talk to your parents."

Oh, what the hell?

"I-I know about the essay. I just meant...isn't that due this Friday?"

"Yes, it is." She nodded. "But considering that it's a thousand-word essay, you must have started working on it. You can't get it done overnight, now, can you?"

Well, watch my procrastinating ass do just that.

"Go on. I'd like to hear what you've come up with so far."

I cleared my throat. "I'm yet to begin."

Shaking her head with a look that typically said Kids these days, she flipped open the book on her desk and began teaching. I let out a breath of relief and leaned back in my seat.

I must have been paranoid but after the class, she threw me a disappointed glance before leaving.

"I have a feeling she's not going to be very lenient while grading my essay." I sighed as we settled in our usual eating spot in the cafeteria.

"Give her a good essay, then." Cheryl popped a grape in her mouth.

"Becks."

I turned around to find Parker standing there with his food tray.

"Hey, Parker!" I smiled.

"You mind if I sit down?" He lowered the food tray like it was weighing his hands down.

"Oh sorry." I shifted over to make space for him and he settled down.

"I heard you aren't training with Matt anymore."

"Oh, I should've seen this coming." I shook my head to myself. "Who told you? Was it Meera?" I turned to her. "Was it you?"

"I only told Will."

"It's not important who told me," Parker cut in. "What happened?"

"Matt and I got into a fight."

"I don't know what happened but I'll talk to him, okay? Give him another chance. He's going to behave."

It felt wrong to have it all thrown at Matt like that, like it was entirely his fault. Well, majorly it was but I was to be blamed too. I thought for a second, then shrugged. "I don't know, Parker."

Matt doesn't wanna be around me anymore.

"I'm sorry but I don't think I can train with him anymore. I'm just having some...fucking self-respect."

He looked baffled but probably didn't wanna push me or question what I meant so he gave a little nod and got up to leave. "Fine."

"Sorry," I said after him.

"What was that about?" Cheryl questioned. "The self-respect thing?"

"It's just that Matt has made it pretty clear that he doesn't wanna be around me anymore. I'm just respecting that."

They exchanged looks of 'we knew something had happened' but said nothing. I quietly picked at my food after that and thankfully, we didn't discuss it. I could tell they wanted to but maybe they realized I wasn't feeling it.

"So, who wants crackers?" I broke the silence.

"You?" Mack raised a brow.

"Duh. Who else wants crackers?"

"Since you're offering, I'd like a chocolate milk, please," Meera said sheepishly and I nodded, swinging my backpack across my shoulders. "Be right back."

I could bet every time I neared the vending machine, a part of it quivered because it knew I was gonna kick the hell out of it for my snack.

I put some coins in the slot and punched in the numbers. While I waited for my snacks to take the glorious fall, I tapped my nails against the glass and hummed a tune.

But then I saw a reflection in the glass, nearing me and almost jumped in my spot. With a straight face, I grabbed my snacks and spun around, ready to leave.

"I need to talk to you."

I should've left but I guessed at this point, it was pretty much established that walking away from Matt Williams didn't come easy to me.

I crossed my arms and met his gaze.

"I'm sorry about last night," he said.

I bit down on my lip. Seriously? That little apology is enough to move you, Becks? You're pathetic.

"It's fine."

"Is it?" He perked a brow.

I gritted my teeth in annoyance. "Okay. It's not fine. What are you gonna do about it? Get me another ice cream?"

"If you want."

I clicked my tongue. "I was being sarcastic."

"What else can I do?"

"Nothing." I shook my head. "Because you've made it clear that you don't wanna be around me. Nothing you say can change that. I'm just giving you what you want. So let me."

I decided to walk away dismissively, but he wasn't having it as he took a few quick strides and blocked my way, his brows furrowed deeply. "This is not what I want. I didn't mean that."

"Well, too bad because I don't care anymore, Matt!" I snapped.

He was taken aback by my bluntness, and I instantly regretted it.

"Rebekah?"

Our heads snapped to the side. Sean was standing a few feet away, his eyes fixed on us. Next to me, Matt's jaw clenched angrily, and I noticed him balling his fists.

"You should go," I told him, and without making sure he did, I started walking towards Sean. As I got closer, I noticed he had a black eye and a little bruise running under his left cheekbone.

"What happened to you?" I blinked.

He realized I was talking about his face as he ran a hand over the bruise, then cut a glance at Matt. It didn't take me long to put two and two together, and my jaw dropped.

"Who did that?" I demanded like an idiot anyway, feeling Matt's eyes burning holes in my back.

Sean's eyes averted to me. "I'm sorry."

"What?"

"I know you saw me and Ashley last night. That was out of line."

"You have nothing to apologize for. We're not even a thing."

He shook his head. "I realized that I've been giving you these signs, and it was really low of me to invite you to that party and make out with Ashley instead. Let me make it right, Rebekah. I want us to be official. I want you to be my girlfriend."

All breath left my body as I stared at him, dumbfounded. "W-what?"

"Yeah. I really wanna get to know you better. You're an amazing person, and last night, I was being very stupid. Please don't let it ruin what we can have."

I was completely at a loss of words. The only guy I'd ever wanted more than anything was standing in front of me, asking me to be his girlfriend, and all I could think about was the one burning holes in my back.

Why would Matt do that to Sean? Was it because Sean had hurt me last night? Why did Matt even care? I'd be lying if I said I didn't like that he did.

But how could I say no to Sean? This was what I'd wanted for a year. Saying no to that would be the most stupid decision ever. Besides, he was my Mr. Right. My Prince Charming. Anything I felt for Matt was probably just a result of attachment. I'd spent way too much time with him.

And with the training over, I'd forget about him. And then, I'd have feelings for Sean again and regret saying no to him. Then, I'd be back to square one.

"Okay." I nodded half mindedly.

"Okay? As in, yes? Yes, you'll be my girlfriend?" He raised both his brows.

I nodded again.

"After last night, I never thought you'd—wow! You're amazing." With a heartwarming smile, he leaned forward, and I tensed up, but he went for my cheek instead, pressing his lips against it. I managed a smile.

That's when I heard something slam against the lockers behind me, and I jumped in my spot, flipping around, but no one was there, not even Matt. Did he hear any of that before he left? When did he leave?

When I turned back to Sean, he had a small smile playing on his lips as he gazed at me.

"Who did that to you?" I asked about his face again.

His smile faltered a bit, and he cleared his throat before saying, "Let's just say a friend knocked some sense into me."

I nodded.

"I'll see you after school?" he asked.

"Why?"

His lips pulled into a smile like it was suddenly supposed to be normal for him to see me after school. "I was thinking we could go on that date we decided on? Pizza?"

"Um, raincheck. I've got homework."

"Can I at least drive you home?" He pouted.

"Sure. I would love that." I smiled, pointing awkwardly to the cafeteria. "I gotta...go. I'll see you later, okay?"

"Okay."

Hello!!

A double update! Hope I made up for the long wait.

So? What did you guys think about this one?

Did Rebekah's decision make sense? What do you think Matt is feeling? What are YOU guys feeling?

Do let me know in the comments!

Love,

Feisty! ❤️