The beauty of chapters: I thought he was the one

Chapter 12

The ride was quiet, Michael paid attention to the road and Lily and I gazed outside with soft music playing from the stereo. We made a quick stop to get Lily ice-cream and it wasn't long before we stopped to the side of the road in front of a wide, green field. Blossoming flowers drifted silently in the wind, dropping on the shoulders of people seeking shelter under long branches, a few feet away siting on a wooden bench were his friends.

My eyes immediately dropped down from the gaze of the brunette, looking for anything to look at but her piercing, judging eyes. Jackson lifted his head from gazing up at the blue sky at the sound of Lily squealing out his name and running straight into his opened arms. He picked her up, her ice-cream almost falling over in the process.

"Guys you remember Dubraska." Michael said before sitting down on the bench opposite to them.

"How can we forget?" Larissa leaned forward on her knees, her long brown hair grazed the thick material of her jeans. "She's the spiting image of Layla. You're what they call the living meaning of a rebound."

"Don't you need to be romantic with someone for them to be a rebound?" Sarah asked, all of them were now staring at me, putting me at the centre of attention that I didn't want.

Larissa's eyes didn't leave me once. She found pleasure, amusement in making me uncomfortable, like I was cockroach under her feet that she wanted to torture before squashing it. "You're not?"

"You wish it was you, didn't you?" Jackson asked and Larissa's entire face blushed red. The hard exterior she had on cracked to reveal awkwardness that even with the sharp glare she shot at Jackson, annoyance of being teased was not what hovered over it, it was discomfort. She was now the one in the spot light and her reaction made me question how much truth could be in that statement.

"Why is she here anyway?" The annoyance was turned towards Michael who couldn't care less about what she had to say. The foot of his stretched out leg twisted from side to side as he stared down at it. "You broke the rules for Layla," she continued "why are you doing it for her?"

"We're in college Larissa," he said "There's no point in following the rules anymore. It's not like it ever made sense to begin with."

She looked over from Sarah to Jackson for an objection that never came. They agreed with him, all she could do was shake her head in disbelief then cross her hands over her chest, sulking. I, on the other hand was curious about the rules she was referring to. Neither of them looked like they were about to give an explanation so the only option was to ask Michael once we were in private, but the chances of him not telling me to mind my own business were slim.

"Well since we're being friendly," Sarah said with a gentle smile "you should come to the hang out tonight. A couple of our friends are coming over, you should join."

"Uh..." I glanced over at Michael for help on what to say, he gave me nothing. "I – I don't do... like hang outs." I tried to explain to their watching eyes. "My mum is strict about my freedom; I'm not allowed to go out at night."

"You were at the party though." Larissa stated, the amused expression of earlier was now molded into a hard expression. She was no longer playing with my emotion, she wanted to call me out on every little thing as if she knew anything about me at all. "And the one before that. Michael beat up a guy in your honour."

That got me quiet. I immediately looked over to Michael and he glanced back, the gears in his brain working to remember that night, to remember the face before the one he punched through over and over again. A weight pushed down on my chest, thinking of that night never felt welcoming.

"Wait, the drunk guy?" Jackson asked. "I thought it was because of Layla."

"No." She answered. "He was groping Dubraska and the hero that Michael is, he had to intervene." She then turned her focus on him and that despicable smirk came back. "Funny how you were still dating Layla at that time. Was that how you guys met and you transferred over? Or was there already something brewing? We all know you're not the loyal type."