The Bad Boy's Redemption

Chapter 5: Stuck with you

Jason’s POV

I watched as Lexi walked out of the basement just staring at her body as she ascended the stairs. I only watched in utter disbelief. I just can’t believe that she stood up to me like she did. Whenever someone said something about her middle school she would just let it happen and ignore the comments. But today, she stood up for herself.

I shook my head as Justin walked up to me smacking my back, “Well damn, did she really give you a b*****b?”

I was annoyed so I just pushed my friend off of me, “Shut up!”

Zach came over to us, “Calm down, dude. What happened?”

I shook my head, “Nothing happened, I just need a drink.” 

I started to walk over to the bar area and pour myself a drink when Sam came up from behind me and wrapped her arms around my waist, “Baby, you look tense, can I fix that for you.” 

“No, I just want to be alone.” I quickly downed the drink I poured myself and walked away from her. 

Zach came back up to me, “Dude, what is going on with you?” 

I shrugged, “Nothing, I am just not in the mood to be at the party anymore. I will see you guys later.”

With that I walked up the stairs and left. But I am not planning on heading home. I can easily walk to my house, most of us live on base and my house is about a mile away. However, my house is in the opposite direction I am going. I can see her heading down the street and I start to follow her. The two of us need to talk. 

I still have like 8 inches on her so my strides are way bigger than  hers. As I get closer to her I can hear her singing along to some music she is listening to. 

….I said I'd catch you if you fall

And if they laugh, then f**k 'em all (all)

And then I got you off your knees

Put you right back on your feet

Just so you could take advantage of me

Tell me how's it feel sittin' up there

Feeling so high but too far away to hold me

You know I'm the one who put you up there

Name in the sky

Does it ever get lonely?

Thinking you could live without me

Thinking you could live without me…

I wonder who she thinks of when she listens to that song. Does she think of me? I mean she is the reason I am friends with Zach and Justin and she helped me overcome my shyness. But yet I still threw her away, like she was nothing. I would have yelled out her name to get her to stop walking. But if she was listening to music she probably wouldn’t have heard me. 

***

Lexi’s POV

As I am walking home I could sense someone was following me. When I am listening to music I always keep one earphone out so I could be more aware of what is going on around me. My dad and Phil would kill me if they knew I was walking home alone. The neighborhood is very lit but you never know. Dad has taught me some ways to defend myself. I occasionally carry a knife on me but I don’t have one on me right now. 

I began walking a little faster and singing quieter as I knew this person was nearing. A minute passed and I felt his hand on my shoulder and I immediately grabbed his wrist and ducked down a little. I used my momentum to flip this guy over my shoulder. 

He landed with a thud and groaned, “What the f**k, Lexi.” 

I realized that it was Jason who flipped me and I rolled my eyes, “I would say sorry, but I am not.” 

I began walking away and he yelled to me, “Excuse me, are you going to help me up?” 

I looked over my  shoulder, “No, you are more than capable of getting up yourself.” I walked away from that but I heard him getting up and running towards me. 

He caught up to me, unfortunately, “How did you learn to do that?”

I look at him, “Take one guess.”

“Your father?”

“Duh, now what do you want?”

“I want to talk with you about what just happened.” 

I rolled my eyes, “Well, I don’t. You can go back to the party now.” 

He shook his head, “No, I am not going back there.” 

“Then go home.” 

He throws his arm around my shoulder and I immediately shake it off, “Well, I am at least walking you home, you shouldn’t be walking by yourself.” 

“I showed you that I am more than capable of taking care of myself.” 

He shakes his head, “Didn’t say you weren’t. Just my dad would kill me if I let a girl walk home by herself at night.” 

“Whatever, but no talking.” 

He smiles, “Deal.” I pointed at him warning that he needs to shut up. 

The two of us walked awkwardly to my house in silence. Gosh I hate this kid, why can’t he just leave me alone. I thought I made it clear I don’t want to be his friend or spend time with him. 

We get to my house and I turn to him, “K bye.” And I start walking to my front door.

He says, “Wait, seriously. You are not going to talk to me.” 

I shake my head no, “That is exactly I am going to do. Have fun walking home.” 

“Seriously, you won’t talk to me.” 

“No, I really don’t want to. Now you have 10 seconds to leave.” I take my cell phone out and pull up one of my apps.

Jason, “What do you mean, I have 10 seconds to leave. Can I at least get a goodnight kiss for walking you” 

I smile, “No, and you’ll see.” He starts walking towards me clearly confused and it just makes me smile more. 

And finally the 10 seconds pass and the sprinklers turn on. Jason slightly screams shocked and I just wave goodbye and walk inside leaving him outside to get wet.  

I walk in laughing and lock the door and I find my dad sitting in the kitchen staring at me confused. 

“Lex, why are the sprinklers on?”

I smile, “The lawn looked a little dry.” 

My dad looks out the window, “Isn’t that Dylan’s kid. I thought the two of you weren’t friends” 

“We aren’t. He just decided to walk me home and expected a goodnight kiss for his efforts.” 

My dad smiles at me, “Good for you Lex. Now,  I am going to bed. Night, love you!”

I give him a hug and say, “Love you too, night.” My dad walks to the other side of the house towards his room while I watch the sprinklers turn off since I only had them set for about a minute. I smile to myself seeing a soaking wet Jason through the window and head towards my room. 

On my way I pass our Husky puppy, Jager, who is sleeping on his back with his legs spread in his cage. I said how mom loves Peter more than Phil and me. Well, mom loves the dog more than Peter, myself, Phil and Dad combined. I am not kidding when I say I found her one day wrapping the dog in a swaddle cloth and carrying him around the house like a baby. 

I just laugh to myself at his position and climb the stairs texting Peter letting him know that I am home. As I am getting changed I get a text from an unknown number.

Unknown number: Hey, it’s Blake. I just wanted to make sure you got home safe.

Me: Hi, yeah I just got home. You still at the party?

Blake: Yeah, but kind of boring now that you are gone :)

Me: Sorry, I am kind of the life of the party. ;) But try to have fun without me, I am going to go to bed. 

Blake: Night

I put my phone down and changed out of my clothes. I put on some basketball shorts and threw on a t-shirt. I take out my contacts in the bathroom and head back to my room wearing my glasses. 

As I am entering my room I notice my phone ringing with an unknown number flashing across the screen. I recognize the number as Jason’s since I memorized it back in 6th grade when we were friends, but I don’t have his number saved in my phone. I am surprised he still has my number. I deleted his years ago.

I answered, “Hello, who is this?”

Jason, “You damn well know who this is. Now come outside!”

“Sorry, sir. I don’t know who this is. If you do not state your name I am going to hang up.”

“Ugh! It’s Jason, now come outside.”

I laugh, “Oh, it's you… well I don’t want to talk to you. So bye.”

He yells into the phone, “If you don’t come outside right now. I am going to come bang on your door and wake up your parents.” 

I roll my eyes, “Fine, I will come outside.” I hang up and slide some flip flops on and walk downstairs. 

***

Jason's POV

Lexi comes outside and I am pissed. I can't believe she did that. I glare at her as she walks towards me but my face softens slightly when I see her in her big black glasses. I always thought her glasses looked adorable on her. Seeing her in her glasses reminds me of when we were friends when we were younger. 

But I noticed the annoyed look on her face and shook that thought out of my mind. 

I practically growl, "What the hell was that Lexi?"

She shrugs, "sorry, the sprinklers turned on. I gave you a 10 second warning."

I roll my eyes, clearly not in the mood as I shiver, "Now I am cold, wet, and angry."

"And what would you like me to do about that?"

"Get me dry clothes."

She groans, "whatever, let's go."

I am surprised she caved so quickly. But she looks more like she wants to get this over with, so she doesn't want to sit here arguing with me.

As I follow her to her front door she stops and looks at me, "Keep quiet or you will wake my parents and the dog."

I mumble, "okay" and we walk inside. 

The two of us walk into her bedroom and she says, "stay here, I will be right back." I walk over to her dresser and take my wallet out that is now wet and begin emptying the contents out of it and laying them out to dry. After that I start walking around her room. She was living in the same house before they moved. The layout of her room looks the same as it did back in middle school. SIngle bed pushed up against the wall. White desk and dresser on opposite walls. She has a bunch of her trophies from softball on one of the shelves in her room with books on the other. 

Before I can look at the pictures on her wall, Lexi, comes back into the room. She says, “here, change quickly and I will throw your stuff into the dryer.” 

I look down at the clothes she gave me, “Are these Phil’s? Speaking of Phil where is he?”

She nods, “Yes and out with friends. Now change.” And she turns away from me as she takes a seat on her bed and takes out her phone. 

Well, I assume she doesn’t mind if I change here. I quickly change out of my clothes as put on the sweatpants, t-shirt, and the black zip up hoodie. As I am changing, I notice Lexi open a snapchat and I hear a guy's voice, “Come back to Texas, I miss you!”

She takes a picture of herself and replies to him. I finish changing and say, “I’m done here.” 

She nods, “Okay” and grabs them and walks away without saying another word.

She comes back and I ask, “So who was that guy from your snap?”

She sits down looking bored, “My ex.” 

“The one that cheated on you?” 

She shakes her head, “No, Matt.”

“Why you break up?”

She looks at me like I am stupid, “Because I moved. The two of us are 16, it wouldn’t be fair for either one of us to be stuck in a long distance relationship when we are just juniors in high school.” She then says, “You can leave now. I know where you live and I will drop your stuff off later.” 

I shake my head, “No, I am waiting for my stuff to be dry.” 

“Are you serious?” 

I nod. She groans, “You are unbelievable.” She gets up and crouches under her bed and grabs something from under her bed. 

It is a small wooden box and she opens it and I notice there are pills in there and joints. I ask her confused, “Is that weed?”

She grabs one of the joints and a lighter saying, “No it is oregano. I thought I should make some Italian food while we wait. Of course it is weed you dipshit. If I am stuck with you, I am doing it high.” 

She grabs a hoodie and puts it on and walks out of her room expecting me to follow. I follow after her and we walk outside and she locks the door with a spare key under a plant. She begins walking away towards the park that is close to her house with woods behind it. 

I catch up to her asking, “When did you start smoking weed?” 

She shrugs, “I don’t know, sometime in 8th grade.” 

I can’t believe this. I really don’t know her anymore. I mean I have smoked plenty of times but I wasn’t doing it in 8th grade. 

I ask, “Why did you start?”

“The same reason most people start drugs, to escape.” She meant escape from the bullying. I can’t help but feel guilty for all the pain I caused her. 

As we walk past the park and enter into the woods I grab her arms to stop her, “Alexis, I am really sorry for what I did to you all those years ago.” 

She grabs the joint that is in her pocket and places it into her mouth and lights it. She takes a drag then blows the smoke before saying, “I told you Jace, I am over it. So, now I am going to get high. You can join me if you would like.” 

She walks away from me and walks more into the woods. She finds a few stomps and takes a seat. I grab the joint from her and hit it before I begin to blow out the smoke slightly before sucking it back in to do a Ghost inhale.

I pass it back to her and ask, “Can you do any tricks?”

She smirks, taking the joint and taking drag of it before leaning in and blowing perfect smoke rings into my face. She passed it back saying, “Your turn.”

I smile and take a hit before placing my finger in front of my mouth and begin blowing smoke rings from both sides of my mouth.

She laughs, “I see you need to show me up.” 

I just smile and ask, “So do you want to play 20 questions to pass the time.” I realize that I don’t really know her that much since we stopped being friends. 

She shrugs, “Why not?” And takes another hit before passing it back to me.

I am really curious about those pills in her box, “What are those pills.”

She chuckles, “Seriously no what is your favorite color, just jumping right in.” Well I don’t need to ask that her favorite color is blue unless it has changed in all those years. “They are adderall.” 

“Why do you have them?”

“To help concentrate when I have like 5 papers due at once. I rarely take them though because they give me a massive headache.”

I nod, “Your turn.” 

“What is something on your bucket list?” 

“I want to go skydiving”

She looks at me like I lost it and I ask, “What?”

“Aren’t you afraid of heights.” 

I blush slightly, “Yeah I am, wait you still remember that.” 

She nods, “Yeah, so why do you want to go skydiving.” 

I shrug, “Overcome my fears.” 

She nods and the two of us keep playing asking each other questions. It is just so easy to talk to her and I miss that. I miss the two of us hanging out. To be honest, we are also both high and laughing at everything. 

She is now laying on the ground looking up at the sky laughing at my response to her question of how I would fight a 100 geese. 

I told her I would grab one and use it like a bat and start taking out the other ones with that goose. 

She just died of laughter just imagining it in her head. I lay down next to her looking up at the sky saying, “Hey, it is an effective strategy.”

She shook her head, “I’m not saying it isn't, it is just really funny.”

I turn on my side asking her, “What do you think would have happened if I didn’t say that stuff about you at Daisy’s party all those years ago?” 

She doesn’t look at me and still looks at the sky, “I don’t know. Maybe we would still be friends, maybe not. People change and they grow apart. Frankly, I don’t bother with what ifs. If you do that you might drive yourself crazy.” 

I don’t respond to her and just take another hit before passing it back to her. I mean what am I supposed to say to that. She then asks, “What was your first time like?”

I look over to her kind of surprised. Is she flirting or did she run out of questions to ask. “Um, so as you already figured it out I lost my virginity to Sam. To be honest it was awkward as hell. Sam already lost her virginity to someone and I had no clue what I was doing. She also answered her phone in the middle of it.” Why the hell did I tell her that. 

I look over to her and she is practically wheezing on the ground. I looked at her and rolled my eyes, “Shut up, no one has a good losing their virginity story. What was yours like.”

She sits up, “Honestly, mine wasn’t that bad. We were hanging out, Matt and I were really good friends and it kind of happened. It wasn’t that awkward we both kind of learned together.” 

I rolled my eyes, whatever. I laid back down and asked her the question I have had all night, “Do you think we will ever be friends again?”

She replied nonchalantly, “Probably not.” 

That pissed me off. I thought we were starting to move in the right direction. She seemed like she was opening up to me again and okay being around me. I stood up and started to walk away. 

I could hear her standing up to and following me. “Jace, what are you doing?”

I shake my head and look at her, “I don’t get it, why can’t we be friends again.” 

She rolls her bloodshot eyes at me, “Because, you only want to be friends with me now because I look like this. You had no problem saying s**t about me and refusing to be my friend when I was fat and ugly.” 

I grab her and push her up against a tree, “I’m sorry, Lexi. I am so f*****g sorry what I did to you. I was stupid back then. And I never truly thought you were ugly.” 

She looks up at me annoyed as I hover over her. “Jason, you want to know why I don’t want to be your friend. It has nothing to do with what actually happened. It has to do with the fact that you showed me your true colors. You showed me that you are a follower and will throw someone under the bus to get ahead.” 

My face drops, “I know”

She looks up at me asking, “So why would I want to be friends like that?”

I shrug, “I don’t know.” 

She looks at me, “Actually tell me this, why did you do it? I want the truth, the actual truth.” 

What do I say to her? How do I answer her? 

She looks at me waiting with her mouth slightly open giving me a look like any day now and I grab the joint that is still lit and in her hand. I place it in my mouth and inhale deeply. Before I lean down and give her a shotgun kiss. Maybe I am just trying to avoid that question as much as possible. 

Our lips touch and I blow the smoke into her mouth before really kissing her. She pushes me off of her and starts coughing slightly looking even more annoyed at me. 

She huffs, “I’m done. I will drop your s**t off later.” As she is about to walk out we both hear and see sirens going down the road from numerous cop cars. She groans, “Shit." and looks at me like well this sucks.