The truth... is out there

Harri's POV

I giggle silently as he walks around the front of the car towards the driver side door. He has a spring in his step that I hadn't noticed before. It's probably more of a saunter than a bop but nevertheless it suits him. It's confident. Probably what you would best describe as swag.

"What's so funny?" he asks slinking into the seat.

I pull my scarf up over my mouth to stifle my smirk and shake my head, "nothing."

He gives me a cynical look as he rubs his hands together blowing on his fingers to warm them up. He turns the dials on the dash making Ruby's heating vents whirr to life. "Come on you can tell me, My Queen."

"You don't have to keep calling me that," I say pulling my scarf back down around my neck as the warm air hits my cheeks.

He turns towards me, "what should I call you? My Boo, Bub? I know! How about Babe?"

"Ewww no! Only people in fanfictions call each other Babe," I protest.

The sound of his laughter fills the car as he throws his head back. Taking advantage of his exposed neck I reach for his scarf, "take this off. I can't hear you properly. You're all muffled."

His hands shoot up instantly to cover mine as I forcibly pull the fabric down below his chin. We playfully jostle as I untie the scarf from his neck revealing his full face for the first time. No makeup, no broken phone screen. Just him. And I can't help but stare. He watches me closely with an almost wild intent. For a second I sense a look panic in his eyes, but once he blinks, it is gone.

I lean in for a kiss, "I don't know why you are so worried about me seeing your face, you're beautiful,"I gush.

"Beautiful," he scoffs placing his hand under my chin stopping our lips from connecting.

"Yes, beautiful."

He tilts my head up so our eyes are level and lets out a surprisingly big sigh. His warm coffee and mint tainted breath creates a puff of white fog against the coldness of the air. "Is that the only thing you have to say...Babe?" he asks almost tentatively.

I roll my eyes at him. "Hmm. Let me think. Um yep, I think it is...Babe!" I mock making sure to enunciate the word, Babe.

He gives me a one-sided smile showing off one grand canyon sized dimple. If I wasn't smitten before I am now. He then does the one thing I've wanted him to do since I got in the car and finally kisses me.

Our lips crash together messily as we get lost in each other. That is until there is an ominous knock on the window. "Harri, you'll need to go somewhere else if you're going to do that."

"Ergh, seriously?" I groan under my breath as I pull away from SJ to see Mr Grayson's face peering through the glass. I reluctantly wind down the manual window.

"We were just leaving," SJ offers from across the seat before I can speak. I close my mouth deciding to leave the talking to him. I know whatever I am about to say is probably not going to be good.

Mr Grayson gives me and the car the once over ignoring the massive eye roll I have just given. "Okay, you just can't do that on school property."

"Noted," SJ replies politely.

I wind the window back cutting off any further word from the teacher who seems more concerned with checking out the car than our antics.

"Every time. What is his deal? Kill joy," I mumble.

SJ just smiles knowingly but ultimately ignores my question. "Where to?" he asks putting the car in drive.

I point in the direction of Betty's Cafe, "go this way. I know a place."

"As you wish... " he smirks. "Babe!" His dimple once again getting a workout.

He looks so cute that while I am able to ignore the comment I can't help but smile.

We take our seats in the very back of the café. SJ makes a point to pull his hoodie up and sits on the side of the table that faces the wall away from the stares that greeted us, or more so him, as we walked in.

Sitting across from him I reach my arm over the table placing my hand reassuringly on his, "why are you so paranoid about people seeing your face?"

He looks towards the wall his expression not giving away any emotion, "you really have no idea, do you?"

I cross my brows confused by his words," SJ what is it?"

He visibly relaxes, patting the bench next to him indicating for me to sit alongside him. "It's nothing, my Queen."

I make my way over as he wraps his arm around me pulling me closer. The warmth I feel is instant. I snuggle into his shoulder and look up at him with a smile. The waitress comes over to take our order just as SJ pulls my beanie off revealing my horrible exposed roots. I run my hand through my half black half blonde strands trying to pat down what I am sure is also some pretty terrible beanie hair.

When I look up again I see the waitresses smile go from polite to beaming as her eyes make contact with SJ's. As she does this she flick's her hair over her shoulder, giggles and pulls her apron and top, down lower. I may not have much experience with boys but I know what flirting looks like when I see it. After all I have seen Jazz do it hundreds of times.

I feel a mixture of anger and resentment build in the pit of my stomach. I start to feel physically sick every time the girl, who name tag says Brianna, giggles. I'm guessing this is what jealousy feels like. I tense my arms in an attempt to stop myself from jumping up from the table and doing something that would resemble a scene from a David Attenborough documentary. Think a lion tackling a gazelle if that gazelle was named Brianna.

SJ must feel my mood change as he grips me tighter and places a kiss on top of my head mid-order making sure that Brianna is watching. I see her eyes flicker just a little before regains her composure and again flicks her hair over her shoulder.

I know it's stupid. It is so out of character for me but it takes all of my energy not to scream at her, "see that, Brianna! He's with me." But I don't. Instead I just snuggle back into his arms and let him finish making the order.

A few moments later it is all over and she finally walks away shaking her hips as she goes. My blood pressure returns to normal almost instantly. I'll admit I am a little taken aback by my own reaction and tell myself that it was a once off and that it won't happen again. I half expect SJ to say something about it but instead he gives me a reassuring kiss and asks me about school.

Brianna checks on our table what seems like every two or three minutes. Each time, including when our food arrives, I watch as SJ makes an effort to avoid making eye contact with her. Each time she becomes more and more visibly disappointed by his reaction, or more so, lack of reaction to her antics.

Meanwhile I sip my milkshake. I try, not so well, to hide my delight. By the time we pay our bill it seems that Brianna has all but given up as she slides the invoice across the table without so much as a smile telling us too, "sign here."

"Can I take you somewhere? I wanna tell you something," SJ asks as we make our way back to the car.

There he goes again giving me that ominous, 'wanna talk,' line, I think as I tuck my hands into my pockets to distract me from entering full blown panic mode. Approaching the car I all but have to kickbox my way through another group of guys who are standing around admiring 'Ruby'.

I am beginning to not like this thing. Or maybe I'm just being jealous again.

"Where do you want to go? I'll have to be home by ten," I reply nervously as we make our way down the road.

Before he can answer my phone starts ringing. I don't even need to look at it to know it's Jazz. Afterall besides SJ she is the only one who ever calls me. I let the call go to voicemail but she rings back almost immediately.

"Just answer it," SJ suggests placing his hand gently on my thigh. I reject the call for the second time.

"She probably just wants to talk about Jax or Jackson. That girl is so extra. It's all I've heard about. Truth be told I'm enjoying the break from it all."

He gives my thigh a gentle squeeze. "Could be something serious though."

I sigh knowing that he is right. "Okay. I'll answer the next one."

Jazz, with impeccable timing, calls for the third time. Listening to SJ's advice, I answer.

"OMG HARRI!" she screams as I pull the phone away from my ear. I see the look of sheer terror on SJ's face and guess that is able to hear her from his seat. He is just lucky I didn't put her on loudspeaker I think with a smirk.

"Jazz. I am with SJ. Is everything okay?"

"Harri, I don't care if you're with SJ. We need to get to Betty's Café, NOW!"

I hold my phone at arm's length, hoping to save myself from impending hearing loss. "Why? We were literally just there."

"And you didn't see him?" she screams. I look to SJ who looks equally confused.

"Who?"

"SENNA! Senna Jager! Some girl just tweeted that he was at Betty's Café with some girl with really bad regrowth."

I am about to tell Jazz that I would have no idea if he was there or not because firstly I didn't care and secondly I was busy but before the words leave my mouth I feel the car suddenly jerk to the left. I look at SJ again and see that all the colour has drained from his face. "You okay," I mouth as he corrects the car. He nods but doesn't but speak.

Reverting my attention to Jazz I keep an eye on SJ. "Jazz I didn't see him, but I wasn't really looking for him."

SJ lets out a long breath loosening his grip on the wheel.

Jazz's voice again penetrates the car. "Well, you need to open your eyes women! Apparently he and this girl were getting pretty cosy. The fandom is going nuts trying to track her down."

"Ergh the poor thing," I groan recalling the stories that Jazz told me about how ruthless the Gate Thirty Four fans could be.

"Well if you're not gonna go, I'm just gonna have go on my own. Bye." And with that I hear the click of the phone and she is gone.

I let out a laugh. "Can you believe that? The poor guy. The poor girl."

SJ exhales deeply, his voice deep and croaky, "would it really be that bad?"

"Of course it would SJ. Could you imagine? The poor things can't even have a coffee without someone tweeting about it," I ramble.

He pulls his beanie even lower over his ears without taking his eyes off the road. "But surely if they like each other that should be enough, right?"

"Yeah maybe," I concede reluctantly.

I see the whites of SJ's knuckles as he runs his hand around the steering wheel. "SJ, what's wrong?"

"I'll tell you in a minute. I've just got to refuel," he mutters as we pull into the fuel service station.

Hoping out of the car he stands in the door. "Harri, whatever I am about to say please keep an open mind about," he whispers as he closes the door.

SJ's behaviour has me nervous. What is he on about? To distract myself I pull down the passenger seat sun visor and use the mirror to tidy my hair. All I can see is my regrowth. That bloody regrowth.

Out of the corner of my eye I see SJ walking back to the car. His hands buried deep in the pockets of his jeans and his beanie pulled low, hiding his mess of curls. I am so lost in him that when I hear the phone ring it startles me to the point that I actually jump.

It is an unfamiliar ringtone. I begin to search for the source spotting SJ's phone sitting face up in the centre console. I pick it up to gesture to SJ through the window that is ringing before catch sight of the name on the display. Jax.

Not Jackson. Jax.

That's strange I think before it hits me. Jax. Not Jackson. Jax.

I drop the phone on to the driver's seat and recoil in shock as SJ opens the door. I look at him and back to the phone. Then back to him. Confusion, hurt and anger etched on my face just as they are on my heart.

I watch SJ's eyes follow the path mine have just taken. Guessing by the look on his face he knows what I am thinking.

The girl with the regrowth.

The stares at the cafe.

The reluctance to show his face.

The reason he never told me about himself.

HOLY MOTHER OF SHIITAKE MUSHROOMS!

"Babe, please I can explain..." he pleads as I unbuckle my belt.

"DON'T CALL ME BABE, SJ!" I snap. "OR SHOULD I SAY SENNA?'

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Author's Note:

Hello everyone.

I am so sorry it has been two weeks between chapters. Firstly I have been busy with work and then I got some pretty bad news that shook me up a little bit so I've been all over the place and I really wanted to do this chapter justice. I hope you like it!

I Promise it will be the first and last time. Next chapter up next Friday!

So Harri knows..... AHHHHHH

Did you expect her reaction? Would you be mad/hurt? Or would you just go with it?

Did you like the chapter? Is it what you expected? (happy to take criticism)

Anyway, next week is the fallout! Are you ready?

Peace, love and unicorns!

Trudz