Two Weeks to Fall in Love

24. Two Weeks to Start the Fight

A good kick to the groin. That's exactly what the doctor ordered for Jacob Miller, and I was more than eager to hand out his medicine.

Anger replaced all of the fear and discomfort I was feeling. How dare he? What gave him the right to corner me like some weak prey he thought he could pounce on. That he seemed to think he was entitled to because once upon a time I had actually liked this boy, or at least the person he used to be. Red, hot, boiling anger.

I clutched his shirt tightly in my fists to get some balance for my kick.

Jake must have misinterpreted that movement, suddenly giving a victorious grin and leaning forwards as if he was about to kiss me.

Ew. In your dreams, you perv.

With all the strength I could muster in the lack of space I had pressed against the cabinet, I pulled my leg back and slammed my knee straight into his crotch.

A shrill wail left his lips as he bent and I used that chance to push him until his ass ended up on the ground, hands pressing against his groin.

Wasting no time, I circled him and them turned so that I was facing him as I backed away.

"What the fuck, you bitch," he wheezed out, his voice still angry but slightly overshadowed by the pain.

I made a clicking sound with my tongue and shook my head. "You weren't listening. No, means no, Jake, you douche canoe."

He glared up at me before slowly getting up. I moved back further, eyeing the boxes of equipment. If he tried something again, I was going to smash a glass beaker over his head.

After he was up, he just stood in place, his chest moving up and down rapidly.

"I don't like you. I might have liked you once, a long time ago, and after this that's definitely going to become one of my high school regrets," I said again, and felt grateful at how calm and cold my voice sounded even though I felt my body vibrating with all the adrenaline.

Jake blinked a few times, as if he was actually processing the words coming out of her mouth for the first time in the past several minutes. Then he ran a hand down his face and let out a dry laugh.

"What you'll end up regreting is dating Noah. You have no idea who he really is. Honestly, Sky, what do you even know about him, huh?" He asked, tilting his head to the side. "Sure, he has the girls at this school fooled with his nice, mysterious guy routine. But I know the truth. I know his secrets. I know how rotten that family of his has always been."

My chest tightened, a little seed of doubt sprouting in my mind. The way he said that, it was clear there were stuff he knew. The kind of things that I might have jumped at the opportunity to learn more about up until recently. But, not now, not anymore, and definitely not after what he'd just done.

"That's rich coming from you. First you assault a girl and then you call someone else rotten," I said and snorted. "You might not have a lot going for you Jake, but you're definitely not running out of audacity."

"I never said I was perfect." Jake almost growled like a stray animal, and he sure matched that look with the way his face was red and his eyes wild. "But pretty boy isn't perfect either. He's an actor, a liar, someone that tricks and uses others, destroys them when he'd done, and watches the wreckage as it sinks. He's the worst kind of asshole."

A chill ran down my spine at how eerily familiar those words sounded. The sort of self-assured conviction stirred by some unknown, and probably baseless, belief that Noah was a bad guy.

It was exactly the kind of thing I'd been thinking when I decided to ask him out. Hearing it come out of Jake's mouth, when he looked so much over the edge, made me painfully aware of just how bad my behavior had been. How villanous.