Chapter 55 : "You need to kiss already."

Chapter 55 : "You need to kiss already."

Songs of the chapter:

Everything has changed - Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift

Love me like you do - Ellie Goulding

Never be the same - Camila Cabello

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"Damn girl, why can't you ever snap a good picture?" Rose whined after she checked out the pictures Laurel took of her about five minutes ago.

Laurel gasped in annoyance, "Maybe you should just accept the fact that the real problem is your face."

"You should do these more often Laurel, just fucking snap." I told Laurel as Rose gasped at what she said.

"It's not my fault you can't get the right angle!" Rose replied and Laurel ignored her.

"So what did you wanna talk about?" Laurel asked me, staring at me as Rose went back to checking out her pictures.

"I just want your opinions, honest opinions, okay?" I started out and Rose nodded at me, urging me to continue.

"I've been thinking lately, there's something going on in my mind." I said.

"What is?" Laurel asked and I sighed.

"I think I'm in love with Aaron."

All the endless nights of staying up, overthinking my feelings towards Aaron, all the fears of being in love with him, seemed to be a little bit lifted off my chest once I admitted this out loud.

Laurel raised her brows and Rose just smiled in silence.

"Well, I mean, it's kinda obvious." Laurel shrugged casually and Rose nodded.

"How, how is it obvious, because I'm not even sure myself," I said and then continued, "I don't wanna just throw the word around just because he's my crush."

"Ellie, we all know it's more than just a crush between you two okay?" Rose said before explaining, "Have you seen the way you both look at each other, or the way you literally forget about all of us around you and just sit laughing as though you're both in your own world? It looks like love to me."

I was smiling the whole time Rose was talking as I thought about Aaron. It's so true, whenever I'm around him, I forget about everyone and everything else, it's just that simple.

"It feels like that too, I feel like I'm ready to give him everything," I replied giddily, "It's crazy because I feel like I haven't been in love before, I never felt this way with Colton, y'know? I just thought I did."

Laurel just grinned at me, "You two are perfect for each other."

"You need to kiss already." Rose whined and I sighed.

"I wish." I muttered, remembering all the times we had almost kissed and regretting not going through with it when I had the chance.

"Why don't you come forward with your feelings then?" Laurel huffed and I widened my eyes at the thought of that in itself.

"Are you kidding?" I exclaimed, and began rambling instantly, "The thought of that scares me, I don't know if I'm ready, I don't know how he feels, why would he want something real with me anyways?"

"You still don't realize that he loves you?" Rose asked in disbelief.

"Loves me?" I replied in question, "I don't know, I feel like he treats me as a best friend, I can't imagine him loving me!"

"All the times he flirted with you, and made excuses just to see you, and called you, and nearly kissed you.." Rose said before continuing as she shook her head, "you think that's all best friend things?"

I stayed silent as I took a moment to think about it. I've definitely had times when I genuinely felt as though he actually likes me, but I instantly snapped out of that thought because I didn't wanna give myself expectations and other than that, something about believing your crush likes you back is just hard.

"Listen, maybe he does," I said, not helping but to grin as I spoke about that, "but what if it doesn't work out at the end? I don't know if I can risk losing him."

"You'll never know unless you try though, didn't you mention the other day that a lesson you've learned from Aaron overtime is to live in the moment and do crazy things?" Laurel said, her words slowly convincing me.

"You're right." I replied curtly.

"We'll see what happens, at least you know now how you feel, yeah?" Rose said and I nodded, feeling tingly on the inside about the thought of Aaron.

"The way he just sang along to 'Perfect' I just, I'm in love, yes I am." I praised Aaron and Laurel groaned.

"You spoke about this like fifteen times!" Rose replied and Laurel nodded in agreement.

They're referring to me going over the Ed Sheeran concert over and over again. Aaron was so lost during 'Perfect' and just sang it with his entire heart, and normally I stare at artists in concerts but this one time, Aaron had caught my entire attention. I love him. I do. If I could just heal every part of him and make up for everything he lost, I would. I'm ready to do it all for him. And I know I've never felt love like this before.

Before Aaron, I thought I had experienced real strong love. It wasn't that I didn't really love my ex, but I didn't know what it was like to have someone's eyes captivate you completely. I never knew what it was like to be utterly consumed by one's touch. I didn't know what it was like to slowly fall in love with someone you never thought you'd think of in any serious way.

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I trailed away from my locker, purposely walking slowly, in hopes to not get to class.

I don't feel like having anything right now, dammit.

The thought of biology is enough to make me nauseous.

I didn't think that in that very random moment, I will have one of the worst days of my school life.

Most of the students were already in their classes, I was late as usual and walking alone in the hallway. Which I hate, and try to avoid but it is what it is.

As if on cue, after thinking that, a group of four kids stumbled in front of me, standing right in front of me and blocking my way.

I walked two steps to the right in order to go past them but they were fast, and walked two steps with me.

"Umm, excuse me?" I said, staring at the boy in front of me.

"We just wanna talk." A girl, who I think is called Maria, said and I furrowed my eyebrows.

"I need to get to class." Was my only reply as I tried avoiding them.

I don't think they mean any good. I don't know what's going on.

"Too soon, honey, give us a minute." Another boy walked towards me, forcing me to unintentionally take a step back.

I didn't say anything, I only realized that two girls and two boys cornered me in the middle of an empty hallway.

You're strong Ellie, roast them come on! Pull through with your tumblr comebacks.

"We want to talk about Brad, you know Brad, right?" One of the girls, on the far right, told me, laughing afterwards.

A chill ran through my spine, and I couldn't help but gasp slightly. They know?

"Don't you think lying is for kids, Ellie?" The other girl spoke, stressing on my name to intimidate me, as she walked a little closer towards me.

I didn't respond. All I did was look around for anyone. Is everyone in class already?

The boy in front of me walked so close to me, that I had to step back, and realized my back has hit the lockers.

"You just went crying to your boyfriend, making up a story about how Brad sexually assaulted you, do you think that's okay, Ellie?" The guy said, and I felt my anxiety riling up as I glared into the guys's eyes.

"You don't know shit." I replied.

"We all know the truth, Ellie, it's about time you come forward with it," The other boy said, "right girls?" he continued and the girls nodded.

I swallowed really hard, hating myself for being actually afraid of some kids my age.

I can't help it though, I can stand up for myself, yes, but not in a situation like this. I'm alone with four people clearly trying to send me over the edge, and on top of that, they're bringing up the worst thing that has ever happened to me and accusing me of lying about it. How do they even know about that?

I didn't know what to do, so I just made an attempt to walk away, but I barely made two steps past, when one of the boys pulled me back harshly by my left shoulder.

I gasped, my eyes widening, and desperately looked around for anyone.

What do they want from me?

"Everyone knows you wanted Brad, there's no need to lie for attention." The guy who pulled me back said, grinning at me as he spoke.

I felt sick, these people I never knew of really had the tendency to say this crap about me.

I hated myself for staying silent, I hated myself for trying to run away, and I hated myself for whispering "Leave me alone." and giving them the satisfaction of knowing, they got a reaction out of me.

"Kind of can't do that." One of the boys chuckled, holding my upper arm, I don't know what the purpose of that was.

"Get your fucking hands off her." I heard the pleasing sound of Ethan, and I felt an amount of relief I'd never felt before.

All four of them immediately took a step back away from me, and I was finally able to breath in.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Aaron screamed, lunching forward with Ethan and Joey.

"What do you think you're doing, huh?" Aaron said pulling the guy who lastly held my arm, by his shirt.

"It's none of your business." The guy replied feebly, and Aaron instantly punched him in the face.

The girls who were being pieces of shit just took a step back, not saying anything. After all, the guys couldn't just hit them.

But now that I had my backup literally punching the two boys, I felt the need to bash them. Or bash their heads into the lockers but that's kind of difficult.

"I swear to god, if one of you ever thinks about coming near me or anyone again, I will fucking hurt you." I told them and they chuckled.

"What could you do, you're just a liar." One of the girls responded and I began losing my temper.

"I will surprise you, don't try me." I replied in a grin, the guys literally still throwing punches in the background but we were all alone in the hallway, and I don't even know how they found me, I'll ask them later.

"You lie about being sexually assaulted for attention, what's an attention whore like you gonna do?" The other girl said and I had enough.

One moment I was glaring at these two and the other, I was deadass punching one of them.

I hit the girl on her nose, not knowing if my hit would make any impact because let's face it, I don't workout nor have I ever hit anyone.

I just know that if I ever get into a physical fight, I would lose because I have zero strength.

The girl screamed and her friend gasped, glaring at me.

I genuinely thought she was going to come for me, but before we knew it, a teacher, along with the principal and a couple of curious students came towards us, screaming at us to stop.

All of us stopped what we were doing, and I finally turned my head around to the guys, and I saw all of them breathing heavily, having just stopped beating the shit out of each other.

I hated what I saw next. Aaron was practically fuming, and had so much blood dripping down his mouth. Joey and Ethan thankfully seemed to be okay.

I ignored everything and everyone around me and quickly went towards Aaron.

"You're injured." I muttered, and Aaron turned to look at me.

"Are you okay?" He asked and I nodded for the sake of him and this situation.

Was I okay? No. Ofcourse not. How could I be? People in school knew about my sexual assault story, even before my best friends and my own parents knew. Not only that, but they don't even believe my story, the real one.

"Everyone of you, my office, now!" The principal screamed at us all, hitting us with the principal's cliche statement.

I was beginning to shake. Everything that happened has happened too fast, fast enough that I couldn't process anything.

I was getting to class, how did that end up with me being called a liar, Aaron's blood dripping down his chin, and a girl bruising because of me?

We walked slowly to the office, the boys asking me if I'm okay, and the assholes walking behind us with the girl clutching her nose, and the two boys grunting in agony.

As we walked towards the office, I happened to glance to my left, as though I needed something else to send me over the edge.

Brad was standing, watching us. With a grin on his face.

I excused myself and hurried to the restroom before the teacher allowed me to. I was going to have a panick attack.

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A/N

I always take long to update so here's a long dramatic chapter.

30K!! I love you guys omg, y'all make my life better. Thank you for giving me chance to purse my dream, i hope you love this book as much as i do. ~Sania