Write on me

Chapter 22| Luckily, I am not spellbound by him...

I sat in my first period classroom alone as I had gotten to school earlier than I usually did and didn’t feel like awkwardly standing alone.

Melissa had a dentist appointment so she would arrive later while I had chosen to walk and arrived a half hour early.

It was probably the earliest I had ever gotten to school unless there was some mandatory meeting before school.

I had some notes to catch up on so I didn’t mind arriving much earlier than usual but I couldn’t wait for the bell to ring so that school could get underway.

I wasn’t seated in my usual seat because my History class was located near the locker rooms and bathrooms which had students walking by constantly.

I didn’t want to draw the attention of anyone so I had chosen to sit in the seat that was hidden behind the door, to anyone else it would seem like no one were here.

I liked being hidden but since Dane had been by my side that had been hard to do. Even though he tried his best to be hidden as well, his dark look just made it hard to blend in and the fact that he was quite tall as well.

It had been two days since he had shown up hurt, I wasn’t surprised that he had ditched yesterday but I had still texted him to make sure he was alive. I had received a ‘thumbs up ?’ in return which was better than nothing because we never ever texted.

I was proud of myself for having been able to fix up his wound even though I had been quite anxious to do it.

I heard Adam’s voice followed by one of his friends and assumed they had probably come from the boy’s bathroom. I wasn’t all too interested in his conversation until I heard my name mentioned from his mouth.

“You know, I have been fine with Meredith’s third wheeling for most of our relationship but we grew out of that. Just when I thought I didn’t have to deal with being bailed on, I have to share Melissa with her all over again!” He groaned and I dropped my pen that I had been taking notes with.

I had assumed we had gotten past the jealousy stage months ago but it seemed that wasn’t the case.

“She’s so desperate for attention. You would think she would get enough from that outcast” One of his friends laughed out and I waited for Adam to stick up for me even though he was slightly annoyed, but he didn’t.

“Apparently not. She needs to guilt Melissa into spending time with her” He almost whined and while I knew his words weren’t true because Melissa and I had fun, it still hurt.

Not only had he said things to my sister, but he was doing it with his friends too.

I knew we had a slight dislike for each other, but I had always felt that it was in a sibling way, not that he truly thought I was in the way of their relationship.

“Melissa just needs to cut ties with her honestly.” I heard Brad and felt the lump in my throat and I wasn’t sure why I felt so affected by their stupid words.

I had dealt with worse comments by other people, but it hurt more knowing her boyfriend didn’t like the idea of her spending time with me.

I wondered what else he had said about me because it didn’t seem like the first time they had discussed me.

“It’s family so it’s not that easy…” I heard his voice fade and knew they had moved further down the hallway but felt my cheeks heat up as their words consumed me.

I guess I should have been happy that the bathrooms were so close as I waited for their voices to disappear completely before I left the class.

“What’s wrong?” Emily questioned as I rushed into the bathroom while I froze as I hadn’t expected to see her.

“Uhm, nothing…” I mumbled which was a stupid thing to say when the tears had already made their way down my cheeks.

“It doesn’t seem like nothing. Did Dane say something to you?” She narrowed her eyes as she moved towards me with a concerned look on her face.

I immediately shook my head as I roughly wiped the tears that had fallen and was thankful I didn’t wear make-up or I would have had to be concerned about fixing that.

“Then what’s wrong?” Her voice was soft as she reached above the basin for some tissues and handed them to me.

Even though I would have preferred to have rushed into an empty bathroom, I was happy she had been in here instead of me just wallowing all by myself or bumping into someone else.

She always seemed to be a witness to my downfall lately but never made me feel weird about it, is this what real friendship between girls was like?

I thought about making up some lie but something told me that she would be able to see right through it.

“Adam and I haven’t been getting along lately. It’s not like anything happened between us but Dane mentioned to me awhile back that he was talking about me. I thought it was over but I overheard him complaining about me to his friends. But when I am with him and Mel, he just acts like he is perfect.” I croaked.

“Complaining about what?” She frowned and handed me another tissue.

“It’s honestly so stupid, I shouldn’t have gotten so upset. But complaining that I take up her time, that he has to share her with me and that the only reason she hangs out with me is because she feels guilty. I know it's not true, but it still hurts because I didn’t know he disliked me so much” I mumbled while I was thankful the tears had stopped falling even though my eyes would probably be bloodshot for awhile.

I could see the annoyance fill her eyes and it wasn’t at me, “Urgh! He is such an ass! She is your sister and not only your sister but your freaking twin, so he just has to deal with that fact. Look, I don’t know Melissa that well, but I do know that she makes it clear how much she loves and cares for you so just shut him out”

I nodded because I feared anything else I said would make her angry towards him. I had appreciated her going off on Lilly for me a couple days ago, but I didn’t want trouble with Adam.

“Come on, wash your face. We still have a whole day to get through!” She smiled, and I did just that and allowed all the hurt I felt to flow down the drain with any essence of my tears.

She moved towards the door and opened it for me and I was about to thank her but saw Dane in front of me as he blocked the doorway.

My eyes widened as Emily bumped into me due to me being frozen in place for the second time in the last five minutes, “Dane, what are you…”

“Why do you look like you were crying?” He immediately questioned when I wasn’t even sure how he had known I would be in the bathroom.

“How did you...” I began but he cut me off again.

“I was waiting for you at your locker when I saw you run out of class to the bathroom” He answered my question I hadn’t been able to finish before he narrowed his eyes as I hadn’t answered his.

“It’s nothing, Dane.” I shook my head as I pushed past him, but he followed me into the classroom where I would be getting History class in about ten minutes.

“If it were nothing…” I heard him, but he was cut off by another voice.

“She heard her sister’s boyfriend and his friends trash talking her” Emily spilled from behind us while I hadn’t realized that she had followed.

“Dane, it’s not a big dea…” I saw his jaw clenching as he left the classroom.

I immediately followed as I knew nothing good would come from the dark look in his eyes.

“Why did you tell him?” I glanced at Emily, who was beside me.

“You weren’t going to” She shrugged.

“Maybe because I…”

“What the hell did you say about her?” I heard Dane’s voice echo down the hallway and quickly followed his voice to the lockers.

Adam was standing with Brad and his other friends while Dane stood in front of them as the rest of the students that filled the hallway simply stared at the action happening before them.

“What are you talking about, man?” Adam snapped while I couldn’t see Dane’s face because his back was turned to us.

“Don’t even try to deny it when I warned you before to stop talking s**t about her.”

I frowned as the way Dane spoke sounded like the one time he had mentioned to me that he had heard Adam saying something about me, hadn’t been the only time.

I felt several eyes on me as Dane mentioned a girl who had to be me since I was the only one he associated with.

“I told you. I am not scared of you.” Adam shrugged with an annoyed look.

I was certain his confidence stemmed from having his friends at his side because as far as I knew Adam had never fought at all. He was basically the perfect poster boy who happened to be popular because of his athletic ability and having stolen my sister’s heart.

“You know what the difference is between now and all the other times I let you get away with a warning? She heard you and I don’t like that.”

It was weird, it wasn’t like Dane was shouting but he was heard clearly. Maybe it was just the silence that had fallen upon everyone else.

“Did you really go tell on me?” Adam questioned me and for the first time I was acknowledged to be standing there by them.

I felt everyone’s eyes on me and felt any words I thought of saying become jumbled so I remained quiet and luckily for me, Dane spoke.

“Look at me, not her.”

“What are you going to do? You’re all bark no bite, outcast!” One of his friends butt in.

I cautiously moved forward so that I was about two feet away from Dane and finally found my voice again, “Dane, please just leave it. It’s not worth it.”

Dane glanced over his shoulder at me and seemed to consider it until Adam decided to open his mouth and taunt him.

“I wondered who the puppet in this little relationship was” Adam smirked at him before his eyes landed on me again. “How would Melissa feel about you sticking your bulldog on me?”

“Probably the same way she would feel about you talking s**t about her sister!” I heard Emily, who made me flinch as I hadn’t realized she was close behind me.

I was a bit annoyed at her for telling Dane but I couldn’t blame her because she had been the one consoling me.

“I am going to give you three one more chance to just walk away because the only one that could probably back up his words is this guy, who happens to be very outnumbered.” He scoffed while I saw Dane tense and I wanted to try one more time to get him to drop it but I knew Adam’s pride had already been threatened by him challenging him so he wouldn’t be backing down.

“Meredith, I know that he is showing you some much needed attention but you can’t be serio..”

Dane punched him before he could finish whatever he had planned to say to me and it felt like everything moved in slow motion after that as Adam quickly returned it with his own fist to Dane’s face.

The loud, bloodthirsty cheers of the rest of the students surrounding them caused me to snap out of the slow motion show I had been witnessing.

Two of the football players pulled Dane off Adam, who he had managed to pin to the ground, and tossed him at my feet.

I saw the rage in Dane’s eyes that briefly came into my view before he got to his feet and even though he was certainly outnumbered I could tell he didn’t care at all.

However, before he could be reckless we heard a loud voice above the rowdy crowd that belonged to the gym teacher who stood beside Mr. Adderson.

“F**k!” I heard Dane beside me before he kicked against one of the lockers and pushed past his uncle.

To everyone else it suited his badboy character perfectly but to me, that actually knew they were related, I was still trying to figure out where the hatred between the two stemmed from.

●●●

I left my class and quickly moved to the class where I knew Dane would be for last period and waited close by. He immediately spotted me as he exited and made his way towards me. I had feared he might have been mad at me for getting him into the mess that had caught his uncle’s attention.

His eye had darkened while his lip seemed to be slightly swollen as well but Adam somehow didn’t look as bad.

“If you are here to bite my head off, can we save it for after detention?”

I smiled slightly as I stared up at him, “No. I just wanted to check on you, I couldn’t find you during break.”

“I left school but had to come back for last period so I could show up for detention” He shrugged as he had to keep up appearances I guess.

“You’re not mad at me?”

“Why would I be mad at you?” He frowned.

“Because I got you into this mess” I wavered as I spoke softly.

“Meredith, I told you I would protect you and to me that includes you not being disrespected by someone that’s basically family to you. Your sister might be off limits but he is not.”

“Yet you held back when you hit him” I searched his eyes because I wasn’t certain but it just didn’t make sense to me that Adam threw a harder punch than he did.

“And how did you know that, Miss Blake?” He smirked.

“I have faith in you and your destructive abilities” I smiled.

“You surprise me more, each day” He wiggled his eyebrows and leaned closer but caught himself as we stood in a hallway with students briefly glancing at us as they walked past us.

I knew he wanted to kiss me and I knew that I probably would have let him with the excuse that he deserved it because he had defended me but that wouldn’t have been it.

“You should probably get to detention”

“I think you should know that I don’t mind being late for detention” He glanced past me and I did the same to see where he was looking at but as I faced him again I was met with his lips on mine.

He groaned and quickly moved back while I couldn’t help but scrunch my face up due to his pained expression until I remembered his lip.

“I'm so sorry”

“My fault” He sighed before he took a step back. “I will leave you to go home. Tell your sister that next time I won't hold back on him.”

He winked with his good eye before he walked off.

I cringed as I didn’t want to deal with my sister but luckily I had work so one could hope she would be asleep by the time I got home from the restaurant with our dad.

I was about to head for the exit when I remembered that I needed to go to the principal’s office.

Dane was too distracting…

“Miss Blake, thank you for joining me this afternoon.” Mr Adderson smiled politely while I cringed internally due to him calling me what Dane liked to.

It was my surname though.

I entered his office as he had summoned me in my last period class. He gestured for me to sit down in the seat that was in front of his large desk before he sat down himself.

“Am I in trouble?” I frowned as I hadn’t received detention like Dane and Adam but me being called in had to have something to do with the incident.

I had never been summoned before unless it was academic related.

He shook his head, “Not at all. I would just like to discuss a few things, that’s all”

I took a seat and dropped my backpack at my feet and stared at him while I played with my fingers in my lap nervously as I wasn’t sure what to expect. It was obvious that Dane hadn’t known about him calling me in and had I remembered while getting lost in his grey eyes maybe he would have been able to give me advice.

Then again, he would have probably stomped in alongside me and I didn’t want to add to the tension between the two when it was probably at an all time high after this morning.

He took a deep breath as he seemed to choose his words carefully while all I wanted was for him to say something. “I know you were in my home and are probably aware of me being related to Dane but maybe not the extent of it. I am his uncle from his mother’s side and after she passed, he came to stay with us.”

My eyes widened as I had wondered where his parents were but never thought that…

“Dane’s mother is…”

He nodded, “Yes. I assumed he wouldn’t have shared that information with you.”

I cleared my throat to cut him off before he could share any more information with me, “With all due respect, Mr. Adderson, I would rather not hear more. I am sure Dane will tell me in his own time”

He sat back and eyed me, “With my nephew you can never be sure, but as you wish. I hope you won’t mind being open with me with regards to your relationship...”

“We are strictly friends” I stated because that is what was emphasized constantly over the last week.

“I think you might understand that I am confused by that friendship because on paper you two are very much opposite.”

I frowned as Dane had basically told me that his uncle had been pleased that we were friends, so much so that he had cut his suspension short.

I wasn’t sure what to say but I knew that I wasn’t going to allow him to insult Dane behind his back to me, especially knowing all the times Dane had defended me in my absence.

“We sort of stumbled upon a friendship if I am being honest, Sir. I am sure that even though he is quite rugged, he is smart, so I don’t think we are that opposite. We can speak to one another and I understand him. I may not know everything about him, but I have only known him for a few months and I am not the best with people. We have been slowly getting to know each other in this friendship so anything I don’t know, I am confident I will know when need be.” I explained as best I could while feeling like I was being subtly interrogated.

He nodded. “I just wanted to make you aware of things before you continue this friendship, Meredith. I am certain that he can be quite charming but he can be just as lethal.”

Lethal?

“If he were lethal, why would he be allowed to attend school here?”

“I have an obligation to him, but it doesn’t mean that I am comfortable with seeing one of my star pupils fall under his spell.” He leaned forward onto his desk and I realized that maybe they were only family by blood and nothing more.

“Luckily, I am not spellbound by him.”

Maybe I was a tiny bit.

“I see him for what he is, everyone needs a friend and while I always thought my sister was silly for saying that. Since I have met him I have realized how true that is. He may not seem like the ideal friend to most, but I am grateful for his friendship because he is a great guy, Mr Adderson.” I smiled as politely as I could because he was an authoritative figure but I was still annoyed knowing he had only called me in to question me about his nephew.

“Well, I can see there is no deterring you from him. I can only hope that you have a greater effect on him than he has on you”