The Gang Leader And His Library Girl

Chapter 4: Sorry

Jessica's POV: 

It's already been a week since I left Ashton at the library. I feel really guilty now, though. I don't know why I left, but I just got really scared when he screamed at me. I just wanted to get out of there and fast, but the next day, I knew that it was a stupid thing of me to do. I shouldn't have kept pushing him to tell me why he was looking for old buildings. But, I was too embarrassed to go back there; so I didn't. That's right, I've gone a week without going to the library. It's been pure hell. I don't have anywhere else to go, so I have no choice but to go back home. And, well, spending more time in the same house with my parents and Abby has made my self harm habits increase. Like, more than usual when they're here. Not being able to escape into the room has definitely taken its toll on me.

Kayla stops walking, and I face her. "Let's not go back to your house or mine."

I furrow my eyebrows together and tilt my head to the side. "Where would we go then?"

She crosses her arms, getting a firm look on her face. "We're going to the library." My eyes widen and I start to shake my head, but she holds her hand up. "I know that you're really embarrassed of what you did, but you need to face him. And you can't stand here and tell me that you want to wear that many bracelets on your wrists right now." Her eyes flicker to my wrist, sadness filling her eyes. "You're wearing more than you usually do."

I pull both of my wrists behind my back so she can't see them. "I know." I take a deep breath and close my eyes. "Fine, I'll go. But I bet that Ashton's not even there."

Kayla smiles a little bit, then grabs my hand as we both start running towards the library. It's Saturday today, to my relief, so I don't have to worry about getting anywhere in a hurry. But I guess Kayla has a different plan. I laugh with her while we reach the door. I look through the glass door, then jump back and hide behind the tall bush. Kayla looks at me like I'm crazy. "What's up with you?"

"He's in there!"

At first, she's confused, but then her eyes light up and she tries looking through the glass. "Where? I wanna see him."

I sigh and run my hand over my face. Of course she's only excited to see who Ashton is. I peek around the corner of the small bush and see that his back is turned to us. "He's right there." I point to him with a shaky hand.

Kayla groans and grabs my hand. "I can't tell if he's hot from this angle. Let's go say hi to him."

She starts pulling me inside, but I yank my hand away from her. "No. I don't want him to see me."

"Why not?"

I swallow and look down at my hands. Well, Kayla, that's a good question. She clears her throat, impatiently waiting for an answer. I sigh and look up to her. "You're the only person that hasn't bullied me my whole life, Kayla. And now, there's another person that doesn't. That's Ashton. But he hasn't once seen what I look like, and I'm afraid that if he does, he'll be just like everybody else. I want to keep this little fairy tale of just having one guy that thought I wasn't a weirdo or anything else that people call me." I stop talking because my throat is starting to tighten a little bit, meaning I might start to cry.

Kayla sighs and pulls me into a hug. "As much as I want to tell you that I don't think he'll do that, I know you won't listen to me. And everyone else can go s**t their pants, but for now, let's just sneak into the room. Maybe you could at least try talking to him?"

I wrap my arms around her too and silently nod my head. "Okay, I'll try." I take in a deep breath and pull back from our hug before gesturing to her to walk in first. She spins around and starts walking inside, then waves her hand to tell me that he isn't looking. I quickly walk behind her, crouching down because she is shorter than me, so that he won't see me. It looks like he's talking to some girls, but he looks almost sad and disappointed. I shake my head and keep walking behind Kayla until we get to the closet where I crawl into the tunnel first. Kayla follows me, then pushes me because I'm apparently taking too long.

I hold my breath and push the painting away from the wall, landing on my feet on the couch again. I jump off the couch right before Kayla stumbles ungracefully onto the couch. We both start laughing when she flops onto the ground. "Wow, you're just like a ninja, Kayla." I tease her, making my way to my chair. She laughs again while swinging the painting back into place.

"You never know, maybe I am."

I roll my eyes with my back to her. "Yeah, and I'm a pretty unicorn." A book is thrown at the back of my head, obviously thrown by Kayla, but since I didn't know it was coming, I ended up hitting my forehead on the bookshelf. "Ow!" I put my hand to my forehead with my eyes shut.

Kayla gasps and runs up right beside me. "Oh my god. I didn't mean for you to hit your head. I'm so so sorry."

I shake my head with my eyes still closed. "It's fine, my head is just a little sore from Abby."

I finally open my eyes to look at her and she's staring at me. "What? What did she do?"

I sigh and pick up the thrown book. "I was practicing my clarinet in my room, and I finally got my new song down, but I guess Abby heard. I was all happy, but she said it sounded like crap, and when I tried to defend myself... Well, there was a desk involved." I look at the book, then decide to read it. Ignoring my pain, I walk towards my chair again.

"Who's Abby?"

I drop the book and quickly turn around. Kayla is staring wide eyed at the bookshelf where the very familiar voice came from. Ashton. "Ashton?" I walk to the shelf and look through the hole. Sure enough, there he stands.

Ashton smirks and puts his hands in his pocket. "Yup. I see you came back."

I look down, not wanting to look at him when I tell him this, even if he can't see me. "About that, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to run away or anything, but I don't know."

"Yeah, I guess I was kind of mad, but I guess I should have told you that I have a short temper."

"You forgive me?"

He laughs. "Of course, only if you don't mind my anger issues."

I look up at him and smile. "Deal." Kayla nudges me in the side. I laugh and look back out at Ashton. "My friend Kayla is here, and she wants to meet you."

I move out of the way so she can finally get a full view of what Ashton looks like. Her jaw drops and she looks at me. She mouths, "He's soooo sexy."

I giggle and shrug my shoulders. Ashton says, "Hey, Kayla. Do I get to the honour of seeing your beautiful face?"

Her cheeks flare up and she smiles. And for some reason, it kind of bothers me. I push the thought aside. "Hmm, I'll think about it. Nice to meet you, by the way, Ashton." She pauses and glances at me before looking back at him. "And thank you."

"For what?"

Kayla smiles and steps away from the book shelf. "Just a thanks. I'm sure you'll understand later."

"Okay?"

Kayla laughs and grabs a book, laying on her back on the couch to read it. I let out a breath I didn't know I've been holding and walked back over to the book shelf. "You don't have to tell me the reason you're interested in this side of town. It's none of my business anyways."

He smiles and nods his head. "Thanks. I don't think I should let you in just yet." He hesitates, then looks both ways before stepping closer to the book shelf. "You're one hard girl to find, Library Girl."

"What?"

He smirks. "What? Didn't believe that I wouldn't keep my promise of finding you? I tried sending out some people to look for you at school or even wandering around town looking for you. Not one person turned up with anything."

My eyes widen. "You had people looking for me at school?"

"Well, yeah. I knew you went to that school, and there wasn't much information to go off from. I had to do something."

"But they didn't find anything, right? Not even a possible lead?"

He laughs and shakes his head. "Nope. Not one. Surprising, too. I thought you would've been easy to find. You seem like a girl with lots of friends."

He laughs again, but I just look down. "I guess I'm not like I sound."

He takes his usual seat on the floor, both of his hands in his pockets. "Now, start talking."

I smile. "Well, most of the abandoned buildings are-"

"No no no. Not that. I want you to tell me what's going on with this Abby girl."

Shit.