Bad Love Lingers (Book Three)

Chapter Five

                                                                                            Isabel

            For the first time in a long time, I awoke before my alarm went off. I was ready to face the day, knowing that these defense classes would be the highlight of my day. Learning to defend myself was important. It would allow me to finally stick up for myself when I didn’t have the courage. After today, I would no longer be bound by silence and cowardness. I would be able to stand up to those that wronged me and give them a little taste of their own medicine for once.

           Olivia picked me up on time, and we rushed to the school, ready to get it over with. The day was pretty bleak, with me being yesterday’s news. Today, the news was surrounding the new mysterious guy of the school that everyone was too afraid to talk to. I wouldn’t say that I was too scared to speak to him, but he did make me nervous. Apparently, his name was Callen Reid. He had moved here to California from Georgia after getting expelled from his last school for fighting. Olivia went on to tell me that he is now staying with his Aunt and Uncle as a last resort before they shipped him off to boot camp. Now, there was no telling how much of that was true besides his name. I had finally learned the name of the guy that had crept into my mind a handful of times since first meeting him only three short days ago.

           Chelsea had left me alone for the majority of the day, which was nice because I didn’t have the energy to deal with her anyway. My mind was floating in space while in my classes, thinking of how awesome this defense class would be. I managed to keep a low profile to myself, and before I knew it, the final bell of the day had rung.

           I raced out of my last class, caring less who I was bumping into. Olivia was standing against the wall with her mouth down the throat of that redhead from yesterday. What was his name again? Oh, I don’t think she mentioned his name to me at all. But anyone who had half a brain in this school knew he was from the football team. I believe that his name was Jason, but I could be way off the mark on that one.

           “Umhm,” I cleared my throat when I danced around to Olivia’s side. She opened her eyes and held up her finger for me to give her a minute. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes in frustration. I didn’t want to be late for my first defense class. Part of me thought about taking off without giving Olivia a head’s up, but I would never do that considering all that she was doing for me to keep this a secret from my parents.

           When she got done stuffing her face full of him, she pushed him off her and slapped his ass before intertwining her arm with mine and skipping off. “Sorry about that. Anyway, the plan is for me to come and pick you up after. Call me when you are done,” she said as she walked me to the door of the gymnasium.

           “Okay. Thank you again for doing this.”

           Olivia winked then disappeared out the double doors to the student parking lot, leaving me alone to enter the almost abandoned gymnasium. I thought for a moment that maybe I had the wrong location, but just as I was about to turn around and leave, he walked in, almost colliding into me. His broad shoulders and tall figure had me in a trance. The way his grey eyes danced like a thunderstorm waiting to ripple through the sky had my breath caught in my throat. I swallowed loudly, without intention.

           “What are you doing here?”

           I looked around crazily. There was no way he was speaking to me. Right? As I turned my head back toward him, Callen’s eyes were piercing my own. My heart was racing, my palms sweaty, and my knees shaking fiercely into one another. Why did this guy have this effect on me? No other guy had ever gained my attention before as he did.

           “Are you going to stare at me all day, or are you planning to answer my question? Is it because of yesterday?”

           “Why are you asking me?” I finally got up the courage to ask though I was trembling in fear of his response. “You didn’t seem to care so much when the event was happening to me.” My gosh, my mouth just kept spilling out word after word without a filter at all. It was like another entity had taken over my body in his presence and said everything I wanted to say that I had kept bottled up in my mind, only for me to hear.

           A deep settling smile crept on his face that showed off two perfect dimples on either side of his face that gave him a playful look, a much different look than I was used to. “I helped stop that girl from beating you to a pulp, now didn’t I? You need this class. It will help to give you some strength and maybe help you stand up for yourself.”

           “What do you know about it? I am more than capable of taking care of myself.”

           “Oh, is that right?” Callen inched closer to me until our chest was slightly touching. That slight touch made my body go insane with emotion, burning from the inside out. He leaned his face closer to mine until our lips were dangerously close. “Can you protect yourself from me, then?”

           Somehow, I managed to push him off me, creating a small distance but enough for me to slide inside the gym further away from him. I pulled my phone from my pocket to check the time. Where in the hell was this teacher, and where was the rest of the class? I thought for sure that I had the wrong spot. Great, just great!

           “Where is the teacher?” I finally asked.

           “I am your teacher. You are the only one to sign up. Consider this as my community service. No one else here knows anything about fighting or using their bodies to defend them from things and, well, people. We will just say that I had a class similar to this one at my old school.”

           I stared at him mockingly. There was no way that the principal of this school would allow such a guy to run a class all by himself. Did he take for me a complete i***t? “You know that I am not some gullible little girl that believes every lie that is told to her, right?”

           “Good to know,” he mocked me back. Callen pointed to the large bulletin board posted near the entrance. “Take a look for yourself if you don’t believe me.”

           Without another word, I stormed off toward the board. I scanned my index finger over it until I found a small sign-up sheet for defense classes ran by none other than Callen Reid. It would be an hour-long class, two days a week. I couldn’t believe what I was reading. These teachers were so lazy that they would leave a class of defense in the hands of this guy!

           My body turned around in his direction with a face full of anger. Who was I really angry at? I couldn’t be angry at the guy standing in front of me. I should be angry with myself for even considering this an option. My dad would kill me if he knew that I even thought about taking these classes, let alone taking these classes with no adult supervision around. I could hear him humming in the back of my mind, pointing his finger in shame.

           “Well, I should go. This wasn’t what I thought it would be,” I muttered before grabbing my bag. Olivia had already left, so I would have to call her, but I couldn’t do that until Justin got off the bus. I could always walk if I needed to, but that didn’t sound promising.

           As I got ready to leave, Callen walked over to me, grabbing my arm gently before I could get through the door. “Don’t go. I mean,” he stopped, scratching the back of his head. “I thought this class was going to be torture for me, but with you here, I don’t think it will be so bad.”

           I squinted my eyes at him, wondering what game he was playing with me. “Why are you being so nice to me? Just yesterday, you were stomping all over me like I was gum on the bottom of your shoe. Now, when no one is around, you want to speak to me as if I matter.”

            “You do matter,” I thought I heard him say. “Um, I mean, I’m sorry about yesterday. I know that I was a jerk for no reason. My bad morning shouldn’t have been put on you, and for that, I apologize.”

            Was he seriously apologizing? At first, I thought he might have been playing with me, but the rawness behind his eyes suggested otherwise. It was as if he was staring at me with his wet grey eyes piercing mine, as his face held more emotion than I have seen before. I know that this was only our third encounter with one another, but something was in his eyes—a small glint of sincerity with a pinch of passion and wonder.

            I should have told him what my head was saying, this was a horrible idea, but my heart wouldn’t let me walk away. I was just too curious about him now. “Fine, I will stay. Don’t go and get a big head and think that this has anything to do with you. I need to learn to defend myself, and if that means having to learn it from you, then so be it.”

            Callen smiled more so than I have seen, flashing his pearly white teeth through his wicked smile. “Good. We can start with the basics.”

            “How did you end up doing this anyway?” I asked while pulling my shirt over my head. I had a tank top underneath that would best fit the scenario. After all, I didn’t want to ruin one of my best shirts.

            He stared at me with parted lips as his tongue swiped his lower lip as he watched me with curious eyes. Callen snapped out of it as I bent over to tie my shoelaces. “It’s a long story. Just know that I got into a lot of trouble, moved here, and this is my last chance to prove that I’m not a complete waste of space.”

            For some strange reason, it tugged at my heart to hear him speak so lowly of himself. I mean, I thought that I had self-esteem issues, but this guy had it as bad as I did. In my eyes, he had no reason to feel that way because he was good-looking. Even though his t-shirt, I could see the muscles straining to be let free. His body was tight and fit, and his face was delegate yet rough. Holly High had not seen someone so beautiful in all its years of existence.

            “Your staring,” he stated with another graceful but wicked smile. “If you want me out of my clothes, all you have to do is ask.”

            I scrunched my nose in disgust at his distasteful attitude. Geez, he was one of those guys. They pretend to have low self-esteem but know just how good-looking he is to pull girls toward him. I refused to buy into it. I crossed my arms and rolled my eyes, clearly enough for him to notice. “Don’t flatter yourself, Callen. Let’s go ahead and get this over with. The sooner we are done, the sooner I can get home.” Though I said those words, I didn’t mean it. Being close to him awakened something inside of me that I didn’t know was buried, and now that it has come to the surface, I wanted to poke at it to study it, to figure it out.