Chapter 14: First Date, Lasting Trouble.
1467 Words
Sam's P.O.V.
As soon as we were in the car, the silence was suffocating. I stared straight ahead, my arms crossed, and my jaw clenched so tight it hurt. The night air was cool, but I felt like I was burning from the inside out. Fury bubbled under my skin, my thoughts spinning too fast to make sense of any of them.
Jax gripped the steering wheel, his knuckles white, his jaw just as tight as mine. He hadn’t said a word since we left Kyle’s party, and honestly, I preferred it that way. If he thought dragging me out of there like I was some misbehaving kid was going to earn him a medal, he was sorely mistaken.
“Do you even realize how humiliating that was?” I finally snapped, my voice cutting through the tension like a whip.
He didn’t answer right away, just kept his eyes on the road, his expression unreadable. That only made me angrier.
“You had no right, Jax. No right,” I said, my voice rising. “You storm into the party like some overprotective big brother—” I spat the word like it was poison, “—and then drag me out like I’m incapable of making my own choices.”
“I was looking out for you,” he said finally, his tone low but firm.
I let out a sharp laugh, bitter and full of disbelief. “Looking out for me? Is that what you call whatever that was? Because it felt a hell of a lot like you marking your territory.”
That got a reaction. His hands tightened on the wheel, and for a split second, I thought he was going to slam on the brakes.
“It’s not like that,” he said, his voice hard.
“Then what is it like, Jax? Because from where I’m standing, all I see is you playing the jealous caveman.”
He didn’t answer, and the silence that followed was louder than any shouting match.
I turned to look out the window, blinking back the sting of tears I refused to let fall. I was furious, disappointed, and confused—all at once. But most of all, I was angry at myself.
Because despite everything, despite how wrong it was, a part of me still wanted him.
Jax’s silence only fueled my anger. I turned to face him, no longer willing to let him hide behind the wheel.
“Say something!” I demanded. “You don’t get to ruin my night and then act like you’ve done me some kind of favor. Explain yourself, Jax. Why did you come to that party?”
“I already told you,” he said through gritted teeth. “I was looking out for you.”
“Looking out for me?” I repeated, my voice dripping with incredulity. “You mean controlling me. I didn’t need saving, Jax. I was fine. Kyle was fine. Everything was fine until you showed up!”
“Fine?” he snapped, his voice finally breaking the calm facade. “You call flirting with Kyle fine? Letting him hang all over you like—”
“Like what?” I interrupted, my voice rising to match his. “Like someone who has the right to enjoy herself? You don’t own me, Jax. You don’t get to decide who I talk to or who I—”
“Because it drives me insane!” he shouted, cutting me off.
The words hung in the air, thick and heavy. My breath caught, my anger momentarily stunned into silence.
“What?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.
He exhaled sharply, gripping the wheel like it was the only thing keeping him tethered. “Seeing you with him. Seeing you smile at him like that. It made me crazy, Sam.”
I blinked, the weight of his confession sinking in.
“You’re jealous,” I said, more to myself than to him.
His knuckles turned white, his jaw tightening again. “Yeah,” he admitted, his voice low and raw. “I’m jealous. I’ve been jealous since the second I saw him put his arm around you. Hell, maybe since you agreed to go to that party in the first place.”
The car was quiet again, but this time, the silence wasn’t empty. It was charged, buzzing with everything he had just admitted and everything I couldn’t say.
I swallowed hard, my throat dry. “Jax…”
But I didn’t know what to say. How could I?
The air in the car felt heavy, like a storm waiting to break. I stared at him, his confession still ringing in my ears. He was jealous—of Kyle, of the party, of everything. And it wasn’t just anger. It was deeper, rawer.
“Jax,” I started, my voice softer now.
“What?” he muttered, still gripping the wheel like it was a lifeline. His knuckles were white, his jaw tight, and his eyes focused on the road ahead as if he couldn’t bear to look at me.
“Stop the car,” I said suddenly.
His head whipped toward me, confusion clouding his face. “What?”
“Just pull over,” I repeated, more firmly this time.
He frowned but complied, steering the car to the side of the road. The engine hummed quietly as we sat in the stillness, headlights cutting through the darkness.
“What’s this about?” he asked, his voice tinged with suspicion.
Instead of answering, I unbuckled my seatbelt, leaned over, and kissed him.
He froze for a moment, clearly caught off guard, before his lips softened against mine. The kiss was slow, unhurried, yet it held all the unspoken words between us. When I finally pulled back, his eyes were wide, his breathing uneven.
“Kyle is just a guy, Jax,” I said, my voice steady. “Someone to hang out with, to avoid more rumors at school. That’s all. He’s not you. He’ll never be you.”
The tension in his shoulders eased, though he still looked wary. “You’re saying that now, but back there—”
“Back there, I was just trying to live a normal teenage life for five minutes,” I cut in gently. “No drama, no scandal, no… us.”
His brow furrowed. “So, what are we, then?”
I smiled faintly and laced my fingers with his. “Complicated. But I’m okay with complicated if you are.”
A ghost of a smile tugged at his lips. “So… what now?”
“Now,” I said, releasing his hand and leaning back in my seat, “we have our own private party. But first, we’re getting you some coffee before you stumble into the house and blow everything up.”
He chuckled, the sound low and warm. “Coffee sounds good. You don’t want to keep my dad entertained with more awkward questions?”
I rolled my eyes. “I’ll pass. Come on, let’s go.”
He pulled back onto the road, and we ended up at a late-night coffee shop. The fluorescent lights cast a soft glow over the booth where we sat, sipping hot drinks that did little to ease the tension but everything to ground us in the moment.
“You know,” he said, breaking the silence as he stirred his coffee, “this feels weirdly like a date.”
I arched an eyebrow. “A date where one of us is still mad and the other just drank half a pot of coffee to sober up?”
He grinned. “Yeah. Perfect first date material.”
I laughed softly, shaking my head. “Well, if this is our first date, I’d say it’s not half bad.”
We sat there for a moment, the weight of the evening slowly lifting as we found ourselves settling into an unexpected rhythm.
“We’re never really going to be over, are we?” I asked, the question slipping out before I could stop it.
He looked at me, his expression unreadable for a beat before he chuckled. “Not in a million years.”
I smiled, the knot in my chest loosening just a little. Maybe we didn’t have all the answers. Maybe we never would. But for now, we had this—a quiet moment between chaos, where nothing else mattered but us.
As the night wound down, my phone buzzed.
Ava: We need to talk. Both of you. Tomorrow at school.
My stomach twisted. Jax noticed. “What is it?”
I hesitated, then met his gaze. “Ava. She wants to talk to us—together.”
His expression darkened. Peace never lasted long for us.
- Writer
