Just thought I squeeze in one chapter before the weekend! I hope you like it- review it up!
ANA POV
It's Wednesday morning and I'm waiting on Ray's front steps for Wesley. I'm constantly thinking back on the events of yesterday. Nit picking what I could have done differently to make it easier, but I don't see any other way I could have handled it. I feel different today as well, not exactly good, not bad, but… liberated is the only word I can think of that would come close to how I feel. I'm grinning hugely at the memory of the bitch trolls face when I unexpectedly broke her nose- forcing her to stumble back into her car.
"Hey, Ana," I look up to see a grinning- black and blue- Wesley, "You high?"
I stand up smiling and brush off the back of my pants, "Not the slightest," I giggle.
"What happened?" he asks curiously as he reaches for my sore hand that is now wrapped tightly in white cloth, and gently examines it- skimming the tips of his fingers over the back lightly.
"Nothing, Wesley," I reassure him, "I fell," I smile sheepishly, and start walking to school. He's quickly beside me.
"Ana," I look up at him. His head is cocked to one side disbelievingly, and his eyebrows are raised. He also has a mocking smile on his lips- clearly defining that he calls my bluff. Ugh, why does he have to know me so well, "You can't fool me- I hope you know that?"
I sigh, "I'm beginning to grasp that." I roll my eyes.
The silence stretches on as we leisurely walk to school, and I can feel him urging me to go on. Finally I break under the pressure, "I can tell you anything, right? And you won't tell anyone else?" I say to him as if he's a small child.
He sighs- exasperated- and rolls his eyes, "Of course, Ann's! You know that," he rolls his eyes and smiles down at me.
I gaze at him in mock deliberation. He takes his hand out of his pocket and sticks out his pinky finger. I giggle and lock mine in with his, and now it's my turn to feel like a small child.
I take a deep breath, "I punched someone in the face after school." I let my statement linger in the air between us. I keep my eyes on the side walk, biting my lip.
It takes a moment for him to respond, "Seriously, Ana, what happened?"
I sigh, "That is what happened, Wesley. I was walking home after school when someone- who's been bugging me since, I guess you could say, before school started- met up with me and started yelling at me for the Christian ordeal. I was already sort of aggravated about everything from earlier that day and I hit her- broke her nose too." I add matter-a-factly. I peek up at him through my lashes.
He looks astonished, with his eyebrows raised, and his lips twitching- trying to hide his amusement, "Wow, Anastasia… I… I didn't know you could be so ferocious." He says jokingly with a grin.
I blush- me neither.
"So, do you think she'll give you anymore crap?"
I smile, "Nah. I think my right hook scared her off pretty badly," I giggle, swinging once through the air.
He chuckles and puts his arm around shoulder. I can't resist his warmth so I lean into him and limply put my arms around his waist, "You are one of my best friends, Wesley. I'm sorry if I led you on yesterday with that kiss," I say softly.
He looks down at me with an eyebrow raised, "'one'?" he smiles- totally dodging my other statement all together.
I look up at him smiling as well, and shrug, "Kate," we say in synchronization. I say it as an explanation; he says it in mock deviance. I laugh at him.
"And you can lead me on with a kiss like that any day, Ana." He says seductively with a laugh.
I giggle, "Okay, good to know, Wes." And we continue to walk to school.
Kate meets us by the doorway, with Elliot firmly by her side, "Hey," she greets me with a hug, "You know Ana- it's getting kind of lonely without you at my house," she pouts dramatically.
I smirk at her as we begin to walk into the building, "Oh, I bet you have just the right amount of company," I smile at Elliot who- in return- grins back.
"Yeah, but I don't make a good Anastasia. When I blush it's not as cute as you," he teases me, grinning like a fool.
And exactly on cue I blush scarlet for the world to see. Elliot then goes about and laughs at me again, "See you later," he says when he's done with his hysteria. He bends down and gives a swift kiss to Kate. He nods at Wesley, winks at me, and walks off through the crowd of kids. Kate's so lucky to be with someone she can trust. Let alone a Grey.
We drop Kate off at her locker, and Wesley and I begin to walk again towards mine and his in comfortable silence. My heart stops when I see someone in the locker next to mine- shit, Christian. In a way the rational me realized that there was a possibility he wasn't going to ditch, but the optimist in me was still catching up.
This walk of death feels like it's taking forever. Christian freezes in his spot- first, glaring at Wesley and then looks warily at me. I can't look at him for long so I tear my gaze away to my knotted fingers. I stop in front of my locker, completely aware of Christian still looking at me. I smile politely at Wesley as he passes. The tension is evident as Wesley walks past Christian; they both glare at each other from the corner of their eyes- they remind me of male dogs doing the 'which is more dominant' stance.
I try to get this awkward proximity over with and dig through my locker, getting out my English notebook and a good read- the Scarlet Letter- just in case I'll need it. With my 'swiftness' the picture of my mother and I carelessly flows out of my locker and onto the forbidden property.
Christian bends down and picks it up for me; he then extends his hand to give it back to me. I don't make eye contact with him as I take it, "Thanks," I breathe, biting down on my lip.
"You're welcome, Anastasia," He says quietly, my name rolling off his tongue. His voice is very horse, as well. Oh, yes- he's not talking anymore, only to me. I shake the thought out of my mind, and set small Polaroid back in my locker- I must remember to tape it there.
I gasp when I close my locker. There's a slight indent of Christian's fist staring back at me from the locker door. I hesitantly lift my hand and gently brush the spot with my fingertips; my mind wanders back to yesterday morning when I left him in the hallway.
I clutch my books to my hip and continue down the hallway, not letting that torturing thought slip through the cracks when I've constructed such a good barrier to keep them out.
I take my seat in English and get out my notebook to set in front of me. I swallow, but don't pay attention to Christian as he strides through the open door- going to his assigned seat.
The lecture on How to Kill a Mocking Bird is riveting coming for Mrs. Cramer- which makes me want to go into publishing even more. You could fall asleep to her soothing voice. She then passes around a test on the key points of the story- which most kids groaned about- I couldn't have been more ecstatic. I finish the test easily within the first ten minutes, and have spare time to read as planned.
The rest of the day is all about dodging him in the most casual ways possible; taking another route in the hallway, getting to my locker either super early, or quite late- depends when he arrives or leaves- and avoiding all forms of eye contact.
"Would you get mad at me if I had you meet someone later today?" Kate asks me hopeful.
I drop my carrot back onto my tray in midair, "I don't know…" I say hesitantly eyeing her.
"Oh, please, please, please!" she pleads with her hands clasped in front of her, "You already promised me you would!" she adds sulkily,
"I guess I did…" I bite my lip, "but when-,"
"Great! His name is Gregory. He's on the swim team, totally ripped, great smile, and a straight A student," she cuts me off, standing up and picking up her purse- leaving me sitting there.
Crap. I should have figured it out when neither Wesley nor Elliot sat by us…
"Katherine!" I scold as she gives the thumbs up to a male student sitting the next table over.
I look quickly over at Wesley who is sitting by a group of male students- for a change. He catches my eye and gives me enthusiastic thumbs up. I blanch at him in disbelief, even he's in on it?
Just then a tall slender boy in a flannel shirt and a beanie hat walks up to my table and sits down opposite of me in Kate's spot. He smiles crookedly- embarrassed a bit himself.
I blush deeply, and put my face in my palms, "I'm so sorry you have to do this," I apologize, "Kate can be so…"
He chuckles, "Pushy?"
"Yes," I take my face out of my hands and look at him with an apologetic expression, "I'm so sorry," I say again.
He laughs again, "It's okay, I wanted to meet you. The girl in the viral video," he smiles, "And you're really hot. Many guys in here would kill to be in my spot right now," he grins.
I blush deeper- if that's even possible, "I don't think that's true, but nice try." I giggle.
"Oh, trust me- it is true," he looks around the lunch room, and then back at me, "If you don't want to start anything that's fine with me- I just got done with a pretty harsh break up myself." He shrugs looking at his fingers, "We can just talk if you want." He smiles sincerely.
"What happened?"
"She was so self-absorbed that she actually used the line 'it's not me- it's you," he shakes his head at the memory.
Jeeze- other people have problems too with relationships too. I frown.
"What about you?"
"You've seen the video," I say quietly, "I was kissing another guy." I look at my fingers.
"So he seen you cheating him?" he asks surprised, "You don't seem like the type who'd-,"
"No," I reassure him quickly, why am I doing making it sound like Christian's the victim? "I've seen him cheating on me…" I trail off, "He just showed up for the after math," I say sadly- thinking back to yesterday.
I pick up a carrot and start nibbling the end again, "How'd you hurt your hand?" he asks curiously.
"I fell," I say quietly, with a small smile.
"Oh," he smiles shyly- he's quite shy too.
"So you're on the swim team?" I ask, and we start a casual conversation.
"Kate!" I whine in the locker room for Gym, "That was so awkward!"
She winks at me in the mirror as she puts her hair up in a high pony tail, "He liked you," she sings like a small child, "Don't deny it!" she laughs.
I blush, "I will admit that he was easy on the eyes-," she grins widely, "But," I add, "I don't like him," I say quietly with a shrug.
She scoffs, "What is this, Ana- first grade? You don't have to like him," she mocks, "You just have to love him enough to get Christian off your mind- which I'm still pretty pissed that you never told me about," she glares at me.
"I'm sorry- it was just slipped my mind, and I only seen him once," I lie, "there was nothing to tell," I shrug.
She eyes me probingly, "Well it must have been one hell of a 'one time' for him to get jealous over a kiss," she hints, "He must have liked you."
"He didn't like me," I snap, but immediately calm my voice, "It was just a onetime thing out of boredom."
"But you liked him," she adds. She then gasps and turns to me with an accusing glare, "Anastasia Rose Steele, you didn't have sex with him, did you?" she growls.
I shake my head, "no," reassuring her.
"Good," she sighs, "You don't want that type of a reputation in this type of school."
I swallow reputation? Christian wouldn't… would he? No, I drop the thought.
"I'm going to go into the Gym now," say quietly.
"Kk, I'll see you there. Don't trip." She mocks. And with that I leave the locker room.
When I step out of the locker room I see Wesley with the same group of kids he was eating lunch with- oh, yes, lunch. I walk fearlessly past the Gym teacher, past a gossiping group of girls- I think I see that Madison girl in, past the jocks who treat Gym like it's the Olympics, and over to Wesley.
I tap his shoulder. He turns around and grins down at me like a small boy, "Hey, Ana. How was the swim meet?" he smirks.
I glare at, "Wonderful," I say sarcastically, "We're thinking about having our wedding in a small village in France," I spit.
He chuckles, "Sorry, Ana," he sounds sincere.
"You're such a little back stabber, Wesley Knight!" I scold him, pushing on his shoulder.
He's trying to suppress his laughter. He holds his hands in front of his face, "Please don't hit me!" He jokes.
I start to laugh along with him- how could you not? "But really, it was the most awkward thing, ever." I groan- now less annoyed with him.
"Yeah, I seen you trying to leave four times before you actually could." He grins down at me. I scowl back. "Hey, you wouldn't kill me in front of my friends would you?" he smiles. He then moves out of the way so I can see the group of people he's with. These look like the type who'd be wearing cardigans if it wasn't for our gym uniforms.
"Hi," I wave sheepishly towards them all, "I'm-,"
"You're Ana," a tall man with red locks cuts in- I think I recognize him from yesterday, getting out of his car.
I bit my bottom lip, "Yep, that's me." I laugh. How did he know…?
"I'm Cooper," he extends his hand to me, and I shake it, "Wesley here hasn't stopped talking about you since you fell straight on you back your first day," He chuckles.
I look up at Wesley, and he embarrassedly grins down at me- good now you know how it feels. I scowl at him in my mind.
Another boy walks up to me, "I'm Charles," he smiles widely, "…And you are one good reason to get the crap beat out of you!" he looks at me up and down. Making me blush more profoundly, and a small giggle escapes.
"Thanks…" I say quietly, grinning at him widely.
Wesley just shakes his head at him, blushing a bit himself. He then introduces me to the rest of the group, Kyle, Moon- a timid, long haired strawberry blonde, with glasses- Joshua, Shaun, Thomas, George, and Beethoven. They all seem very calm and laid back- I like them immediately.
After a hard, sweaty hour of Gym I am ready to go to my next class. Wesley stops me by the doors, "Hey, wanna hang out this week?" he asks suddenly without warning- looking at me hopeful.
To my surprise I answer without thinking about it, "Sure, I'd love to." I smile at him- maybe he's just so easy to say yes to.
He beams, "Cool, we'll talk more about it later, okay?"
"Okay." She smile shyly, "You're friends seem like good people." I change the subject.
"Yeah, they are. They're really easy-going too." He grins widely down at me, "I knew you'd like them." He winks.
"What's not to like," I shrug- still smiling up at him.
"They think the same about you too, Ann's," he says sincerely, "I'll see you soon, and we'll make plans." He looks hopeful. With one last huge grin at me he run walks into the Hallway.
I catch myself smiling like an idiot about the thought of hangout with Wesley this weekend…
Is it a crime to have a fictional character crush on YOUR OWN fictional character?! Because Wesley is SO swoon worthy! Hope you enjoyed this chapter:)