Page 61 of Defiant
I went through the days as normally as I could, though I was quieter than usual at the dinners I shared with my mom. She didn’t seem to notice though, too busy jabbering on and on about whatever topic she wanted. Mom was in a good mood lately; her car would be fixed by the end of the week, which meant life could return to some degree of normalcy.
Me? Yeah, I tried to get back into the groove after what happened. I told no one else, besides Vaughn and Dante. When I was with Bobbi, we simply practiced the songs—I was getting better. I might actually not mess it all up by the time the concert rolled around. Bobbi and I were also going out dress shopping this weekend.
Call me silly, but I actually looked forward to it. I wanted…no, I needed to take a step back from everything and just live. Focus on doing something relatively normal instead of ruminating in my head how I could make Brittany’s life miserable—and how I could get back at that douchebag and his friends for nearly raping me.
Shit. I told myself I wasn’t going to think about that, not right now.
Ryan and his friends steered clear of me the rest of the week, I think because they didn’t know whether or not I’d try to tell on them. I could, and I probably should, but I knew nothing would come of it if I did. No, getting back at them for what they did would require some patience, time, and me keeping our encounter to myself.
Soon. Soon they’d get theirs.
Dante and Vaughn seemed to be getting along better than they did that first day, which was a relief. Maybe they’d bonded over what happened to me. Whatever. It was nice not to have to play the mediator during lunch.
When school let out, I’d told my mom I was going over Bobbi’s house to practice choir, and she’d been so thrilled about it. It didn’t even cross her mind that I might be lying, that I might not be telling her the whole truth. I didn’t want to break her good mood.
I was lying, of course. I wasn’t going over Bobbi’s house. The topic had crossed our paths of conversation this week, but from what it sounded like, Bobbi didn’t want me to come over. Her mom had left her dad, and I think she was embarrassed or something. I could understand where she was coming from; most everyone in Midpark seemed to come from unbroken families.
They might be unbroken, but that didn’t mean they were whole. Brittany, Ryan, the rest of them; they were proof enough that just because you came from a good family didn’t mean shit. You could still be a terrible person.
When school let out, I headed to the back of the lot, near Dante’s bike. My destination was the car parked beside it, but as I walked closer, I found that Dante was actually leaning on the driver’s door, talking to the driver.
To Jacob.
Dante was talking to Jacob.
Did Jacob know Dante knew who he was, or was Dante just being weird?
And don’t get me wrong, Dante was weird. I’d realized this after spending so much time with him this past week during school. He seemed to genuinely care about me, for whatever reason, even if he had tried to kidnap me the first time we’d met.
He was going to flip shit when I got in Jacob’s car, wasn’t he? He was the jealous sort, to put it lightly.
Took a while to get Jacob to agree to pick me up at the school, too. He didn’t like stepping foot on any school grounds, not after what happened three years ago. And after what happened the last time he and I had been alone together…
If Dante made a huge deal about this, he’d probably not want to repeat this, which was the last thing I wanted.
This whole week, I’d actually missed Jacob. Of course, what happened the last time we were together was rife in my brain, but that wasn’t the only reason why I missed him. I just…he wasn’t a Midpark High student. He wasn’t involved in any of the drama. I could trust him, and I couldn’t say that about most people.
Vaughn and Dante? I’d learned my lesson when it came to trusting rich boys, and Dante was a wildcard. You never really knew what that one was thinking about.
I didn’t walk to the passenger’s side door; I headed right to Dante and Jacob. The driver’s window was rolled down, Dante leaning on it, practically inside the car. He looked completely at ease, while Jacob just looked pissed off, like Dante was bugging the shit out of him.
That I could believe.
“What’s this?” I asked, both guys turning their stares to me.
“I was just asking what this old man was doing here,” Dante said, flicking a thumb at Jacob, who scowled. “He doesn’t look old enough to be a father, so is he a brother? A cousin? Or an older boyfriend picking up his high school squeeze?”
Oh, my God. Who the hell talked like that? Where did Dante come from? I seriously wanted to know.
“Surely he’s not picking you up,” Dante added, appraising me as if I was the most beautiful girl who had ever walked in front of him, checking me out from head to toe. Normally something like that would cause all these warm, fluttery feelings to erupt inside me, but I was not feeling it lately. Not after what happened with Ryan and his friends.
I hadn’t spoken to Archer all week after. I didn’t want to. He actually tried to talk to me during homeroom and first period, but I made it a point to ignore him. Anything he’d say would only upset me further, and I couldn’t deal with it right now. I was barely holding myself together.
Dante knew Jacob had picked me up from that party, but he didn’t know the extent of our relationship—and right now, I wasn’t in the mood to explain it to him. All I did was say, “He is, actually. Do you have a problem with that?”
He turned, leaning only one arm on the car as he gave me his full attention. “Come on, Jaz. Look at him. He’s too old for you. Me? I’m perfect for you. A few years older, but not much. Not like this dinosaur.”
“I’m not that fucking old,” Jacob growled out, shooting an icy stare Dante’s way.
