First Love, Worst Love

Chapter 30 - Rebuilding

AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Heyyyy everyone - LOVED reading your reactions of last week's chapter! Thank you as always for your lovely comments and feedback!

I am planning one more chapter after this one, followed by an Epilogue. I'm still writing now and hoping that I don't mess everything up at the very end haha! But hopefully you'll enjoy how things turn out :)

Let me know what you think this week, much love and hugs to you all!
Becky x x x

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Chapter 30

Rebuilding

When I first met Jaxon Stark, I saw someone cool, mysterious and endlessly interesting. I thought that he was the most fascinating creature I had ever laid eyes on. Someone with creativity pouring out of him. Someone with depth. Someone who could shake up my sad little life and make me just as cool and interesting as him.

But the Jaxon Stark before me now, the one currently sobbing and holding his bleeding nose, is not the same one that I met in The Fishtank. This snivelling wreck of a little boy is nothing like the man I thought I knew.

This Jaxon isn't cool. Or mysterious. He's just a spoilt baby from a well-off family who gets everything handed to him on a plate. And as for depth? There is nothing there. Nothing. His entire personality is based on stolen tattoo designs that he'd never be able to create himself if his life depended on it.

And he's lazy. So lazy that he relies on lies to make himself interesting rather than hard work. So lazy that he couldn't even be bothered to tell the lies right. Now they've crumbled down around him and there's nowhere left for him to hide. All he can do is cry.

The sound of broken hiccupping echoes around the room. These aren't the tears of someone who is sorry. They're the tears of a cowardly bully who finally got a taste of his own medicine. And they show me who he really is. The Jaxon Stark who was there all along, the one I was just far too blind to see.

Chunk crouches down, snatching the phone out of his hand. "Is this the only copy of the photo?"

I'm taken aback by his forcefulness. He's angry, but not out of control. He's physically hurt Jaxon, but only to defend me. He's doing what he needs to do to fix this, just like he promised he would.

Why have I never seen him properly before? He was just a friendly face in the greengrocer, a shoulder to cry on when I needed him. But I never SAW him. I never knew how any of this was making him feel.

I've been blind in more ways than one. And I can't believe it's taken me all this time to realise it.

"You HIT me," Jaxon eventually splutters out, still clutching his nose like it's about to fall off. Blood trickles faintly between his fingers. Chunk must have got him really hard. "You're meant to be my friend! That HURT!"

"I SAID, IS THAT THE ONLY PHOTO?" Chunk bellows, grabbing Jaxon by the scruff of the neck. "YES OR NO?"

"Yes, it's the only photo," Jaxon whimpers, trembling under Chunk's grip. There are even more tears streaking down his face.

"What about your laptop?" I interject, glaring down at the floor where Jaxon is curled in a heap. It feels good to be bigger than him for a change. "You sent it on Facebook, so it must be on there too!"

"I did it from my phone," Jaxon answers, wiping his face with his hand, smearing blood and tears together. "I swear there's none on the computer."

"What's your Facebook password?" Chunk demands. "I'm logging in and deleting your account."