Bad Girl Life

Chapter 19

*Klaus POV*

I knew what I was doing, it hurted me deeply. My mum and father want her to come to dinner again, with a family friend. I know how last time went, it wasn’t well. Imagine this one, the family friend is Emma’s parents. When Emma found out, she started to act clingy with me. She caught me off guard and kissed me. I guess I have just been putting stress and guilt on to Aria. Seeing her with Ezra and some kid named Gray, it made my blood boil. I wanted to rip Ezra apart but I knew I deserved it. I saw them tossing grapes into each other's mouth, Aria looked like she was happy for a moment. Ezra always gets the chance to be alone with her. Even when Aria asked ‘if we're together’, I couldn’t help and walked away. I didn’t want to answer that, of course I want to be with her but my ego is in the way. 

I had enough, I stood up and grabbed Aria away from the table. “My parents want you to come over for dinner again”, I said coming off as rough. “When”, she says exhausted. “Tonight, it’s actually a business dinner, and this is their last one for a while.”, I tried to look into her eyes but I couldn’t. “Okay, i’ll meet you there”, she said , still not looking at me. “I’m sorry”, I said, I meant it. “Okay”, she says and walks away. 

*hours later*

I was waiting on the doorsteps for Aria. I heard the door open, “Klaus, there already sitting. Don’t be late”, Emma says before going back inside. I have a gut feeling that this dinner isn’t going to end well. I wouldn’t have told Aria about this dinner if my parents were going to stay longer. 

“Okay, let’s get this over with”, she says, bringing me out of my thoughts. “Yeah, let's go”, I say, opening the door. We walked toward the dining room, “Ah there he is'', Emma’s father said. I saw Emma and she was shocked. I said my greetings to her parents, when they looked at Aria they were shocked. “Oh my Aria, you’ve grown so much. I didn’t know you and Klaus are friends'', Emma’s mother said. I was just as shocked as they were, I didn’t even know they knew each other. Aria just smiled and sat down. Everyone followed after her. 

Aria stayed quiet the whole time unless she was talked to. I tried to hold her hand under the table but she just moved hers away. Did I lose her? “So, let’s talk about the future Emma and Klaus”, Dean said, Emma’s father. “What future?”, I asked raising an eyebrow. “Yours and my daughters future, of course. Little Emmy here told me about your guy’s talk earlier today”, he finished saying. “I told father about how, we planned on having a future. If we stayed together and get married, imagine how much the company’s going to grow. To big company’s merge into one.”, Emma says. When she meant we she meant her. She was just talking and I was just dealing with the guilt I was feeling. “Don’t worry daddy, he’s just shocked I told you”, she smiled, but gave me the dagger look after. I took a look at Aria and I knew she was hurting. My mum gave me her disappointed look and my father’s, I just knew I was in for a talking. “Aria, don’t you think that Klaus and I would make the perfect family?”, Emma asked, looking as chirpy as ever. Note the sarcasm. Aria just stayed quiet. “Aria?”, this time it was Dean. “I’m sorry, yeah. You guys would make a great family. Honestly I think it’s way better, especially financially”, Aria said, placing everything on her plate, as she is getting ready to leave. I got up but my mother told me to sit down and she went after Aria. I was debating on leaving this table and go after Aria. I looked at my father and his eyes told me everything. I got up and went toward the door. “Aria, wait please”, I begged. My mum just left me at the door to get back to the dinner. “For how long? I came here for a dinner with your parents, not a dinner were my boyfriend talks about his future with another girl.”, she says, seeing a tear come out of her eye. “I know, I’m sorry. My parents wanted you to come because this is the last dinner for a while, and my mother really likes you, so does my father.”, I say walking to her. I grabbed her hand and this time she didn’t pull away. “Are we even together right now”, she says, wiping her tears. “i- i love you, you know”, I say, as she breathes heavily. “i really do want to be with you, but Emma she kissed me”, i say as she pulls her hand away. “she caught me off guard and I didn’t stop her. but then- then when I realized she wasn’t you I pulled away.”, I finished saying. 

“I think we should take a break”, she says staring at the tree. “no”, I stated. “I guess for now, we can take a break. Whenever you are ready to be with me again, let me know.”, she walked off. I felt my heart just break, like someone just ripped it right out and threw it. The funny thing is, tomorrow is Christmas. I had Aria’s gift. 

I went back inside and it already looked like The Owens were leaving. “Klaus, you take care of my daughter alright. This is going to be big”, Dean said as he patted my shoulder. “Bye Klaus'', Emma's mother, Carol said. “Bye babe”, Emma said before kissing me. When she kissed me it still felt wrong, if I pulled away it can harm the deal. After that they left. 

“Klaus Wood, What the hell were you thinking?”, my mum said, not so nicely. “Mum I- I messed up”, I admitted. “Yeah, son you did. I thought you were serious about Aria?”, my father said. “Yeah, I am. Then Emma came on to me and then I acted out and now I just messed up”, I say, taking a seat. “The deal with the Owens, why did you get involved with Emma?”, my father said, becoming irritated. “She came onto me and used it against me. She kissed me and I was with Aria. I didn’t want to hurt her, father”, I say. “Did you know how bad you hurted her, especially with all the things she has been through? You think it was easy for her to let you in.”, my mum raised her voice. “I know”, I tugged at my hair. “I’m sorry son, but I really thought you loved her. I know that we men mess up sometimes and we learn from it. I have to say, this one you should fix.”, my father said before walking away. 

“Mum, what am I supposed to do?”, I asked. “Son, fix it. Just give it time and don’t give up, please. Your father and I are leaving for tomorrow morning. I love you Klaus, no matter what.”, she kissed my head and walked away. After debating I went outside and took out my phone and called Aria. 

“Aria?”, I say. 

“Yeah?”, she sniffled. I could tell she cried, everytime she would there would be these sniffles when she would talk. It’s adorable, not the crying of course.

“I’m sorry, can I come over. I want to talk”, I say scratching the back of my head.

“Sure, bye”, she ended the call. 

I knocked on the door and after a couple of knocks, she opened it. “My room”, she says. I waited in her room till she came back with two cups of water. “What did you want to talk about?”, she had this raspy voice. Again, another thing that happens when she cries. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t speak about the future with her. She just kept going on and on about it and I was just thinking of you. I wasn’t paying attention to her. I asked you to come because I didn’t want you to be with Ezra or that guy Gray. I barely could even handle the baby talk and I- I just can’t lose you. I also knew it wasn’t going to end very well either.”, I finished saying looking at her. “What about your behavior toward me, the walking away.”, she pauses. “And it was like you were ignoring me, and the stunt you pulled with Emma. What was that? I mean you were the only one who knew, Did you tell her? She mentioned Jade and Nick. I just couldn’t understand what was happening with us.”, she says angrily. “I- I know I f****d up. I f*****g know” I started to tug at my hair. “I was just mad and angry with the dinner, and what I had to do. I also couldn’t deal with you fighting again, even after the promise. I just couldn’t handle Connor and Jade, and us. When Emma kissed me, she used it against me. So I told her without thinking because everything was going well but then the dinner and I just didn’t want to drop that on you. I know it would’ve hurted.” I continued, I went and kneeled on my knees in front of her as she sat on the bed with her head in her hands. “How did the kiss go?”, she asked fiddling with her fingers. I sighed. “It was when I was with Connor at this party because he liked to deal with things different. He got a bit tipsy and so did I, but he made out with Ava. I was just sitting down, keeping an eye out on him but I was still drinking. Then Emma came and sat next to me. She was talking about the dinner and how it would be great to be a couple and I told her no. But she wasn’t having it so she sat on my lap and messed with the button on my pants. We didn’t have s*x but I took her hands away and she kissed me. I stopped her and I- I started thinking of you but she kissed me again and later whispered to tell her what happened with your father or she showed the video to the school of her kissing me.”, I finished saying, putting my arms around her. It was silent for a moment.

“But you told her, why were you protecting her?”, she says sitting on the ground. “Because she said so or the video will go out.”, I sat flat. “Since you kicked my leg and I couldn’t protect her, she decided to pull the stunt with her father at dinner and I think the one at lunch as well”. I added. We heard footsteps and revealed Nick. “Hey Aria, Sup Klaus. For tomorrow that’s held at Jades. Do we bring all presents?, Nick asked as his arms were on the sides of the door frame with him leaning in. “Yeah, that’s the plan.”, she smiled. “Oh okay and also Jade is here. We’re putting some stuff of mine and then we start with yours.”, he says. I was confused but then I looked in the corner and saw some stuff packed in duffle bags. “Alright, make sure the place is clean before we leave and your room”, she says and Nick nodded. 

“You’re leaving?”, I asked. Is she moving with her dad? “Yeah, at Jades for a while”, she says. “Oh”, I stood up. “I still want to be with you, you know. Just let me know how I can fix this.”, I say grabbing her hand. As she came closer, I was gaining hope that maybe she would still want me. “Tomorrow is Christmas, it will be held at Jades. Connor is coming too. I want to be with you too but the stuff you said. I will need time to heal. I kinda want things to go to plan for tomorrow.”, she says slowly. “We can be a couple again but in front of Nick we act like nothing happened and back to before. As for the others, the same for tomorrow. Jade and Connor is trying the same as well for Nick too.”, she says. “Hey Aria, I'm going to wait in Jade's car. Oh and she said she’ll be on the couch.”, Nick said before leaving. “I’ll take your bags to the car”, I said as I walked over to the bags. 

After I closed the trunk, Jade went in the driver's seat. “I’ll call you, when I’m in bed”, she says and goes to the passenger seat. I got in my car and left. 

“I’m not in the mood”, I walked past Axel. He had one of those looks and I didn’t want to hear it. “Dude why did you act like that toward Emma. I thought you were with Aria?”, he says following me. I walked into my room and slammed the door, but he blocked it from shutting. “Answer”, he demanded. I really don’t like it when he’s like this because he won’t leave me alone without an answer. I definitely know when I f****d up because Axel doesn’t get angry much, only when someone messes with his family or something similar. “The dinner and the kiss with Emma, and yes when I was with Aria”, I sighed. “Was Aria a side for you?”, he asked. “NO! She wasn’t”, I shouted and met eye to eye with Axel. “Emma kissed me, I was drunk and she was using it against me but I didn’t stop until I told her about Aria and her father.”, I finished breathing heavily. Axel was about to speak but the door opened and revealed Connor with Ava. “What are you guys arguing about?”, Conner asked. “f***s sake, you too?”, Axel sighs. We waited for Connor to say something but he whispered in Ava’s ear. After a minute she left. 

“What about Jade, Connor?”, Axel asked. “She dumped me, so i’m hooking up with Ava'', he says closing the door. “Connor, you were happy with Jade but then something went downhill. Same thing for you Klaus. It was like you were really serious about her.”, Axel says. “I know but I don’t know, I just felt like I wasn’t good enough.”, Connor expressed himself. “Connor you're my brother, you are more than good enough. If anyone said you weren’t good enough they can kick rocks. You know this Connor.”, Axel said before he patted Connors shoulders. “Klaus why?”, Axel asked me. “I don’t know”, I sighed tugging at my hair. “I know this isn’t for me to say but you protected Emma even for the words she says about your girlfriend”, he says but continues “Aria is one the strongest people I have ever met. I know you like to fix things and I know it may be tiring to deal with her problems as if it was yours. But one thing that I know is that you don’t take care of yourself, as you should. You put your all into one thing without thinking about the downfalls.”, he finally finishes. “I f*****g KNOW, BUT I JUST f**k UP AGAIN AND AGAIN.”, I shouted toward Axel. “Calm down Klaus'', he says eyeing me. I did just that, I tried to calm down. 

“Emma always finds ways to use things against Aria and I try to protect her but I just do it the wrong way because in the end Aria gets hurt.”, I broke the silence. It felt good to finally admit it. I mean, I really don’t think about the downfalls, especially when they come to Aria. “Have you thought about talking to her about it?”, Axel asked. “Yes but she has too many things to deal with and I didn’t want to add more”, I said. “Maybe just try to communicate with her.”, he says but sighs. “Listen you guys are my brothers, I just hate when you guys have something good, that makes you happy and then something bad happens. I know how it feels that sometimes ‘were not good enough’, because I feel that way too. But when I do feel that way, I just talk to Mia about it and she’s there for me. One of the things I learned is that communication is like the key, as well some factors.”, Axel added on. Sometimes he’s just too wise, but another reason why is that he helped me from a dark path, when I first came down to the states. 

“I still want to be with Jade but I doubt she would want to be together”, Conner confessed. “What about tomorrow?”, I asked. I knew they were going to pretend for Nick. “That’s only pretending for Nick, Jade just wants it to feel like we're all together but it's really not going to feel like that.”, Conner says. “I just want you guys to know, I’m still going to be here for you even if it doesn’t work out?”, Axel says then left. “How did we f**k up so many times with them?”, Conner asked. “I don’t know, I just keep making impulsive decisions'', I confessed. “Do you really want to be with Aria, Klaus?”, he asked. “Of Course but I just feel like I don’t deserve her. I mess up a lot especially when it’s with Emma. You?”, I say roughing up my hair. “I really do but honestly I think I’m insecure because of the things that went down with Hannah but I just keep thinking Jade would do what she did, but she isn’t like her. I’m just confused”, he says getting up. “What if we just need time?”, I said. I thought about it for sometime but kept pushing it away. “That’s probably it, but I just don’t want anyone else with her during the time”, he said. “Yeah, I know what you mean”, I said, taking out my phone. I saw Aria calling and I answered. “I’ll see you tomorrow at Jades'', Conner says on his way out.