DAKOTA LAHOTE - e.c

5. confrontation

she opened the notebook, flipping the pages quickly to find any proof he was here watching her. she skipped the biology and algebra notes to find a quick sketch of a girl sitting in a couch chair. she soon realized it was her. she shuddered, completely creeped out. the next page consisted of his first name and my last name and vice versa. what a dork.

the entire car ride to school was silent. paul knew something was wrong, but he didn't say anything. she was fine with that. it gave her time to think about the whole situation.

it made her feel weird, the thought of him watching her, even drawing her. she wondered how long he had been doing this. she was even scared for a slight second, but then it turned to rage. the audacity of him.

she wanted to confront him on her own. no paul, no embry, no quil, just her. she waited for what felt like all day for biology class. she asked the teacher if she could move, and he said it was okay, so she moved as far away as possible.

her back was towards kai, so she didn't see his reaction when she wasn't sitting there, nor did he make a loud reaction. the entire period, she was nervous. her leg was bouncing, her fingernails were getting chewed, and she was toying with her pencil the entire forty-five minutes. when it was over, she waited a few long seconds, fidgeting with the keychains on her backpack. she peered behind her to her old desk, and kai wasn't there. she got her stuff and hurried out the door, only to find kai waiting behind.

he looked around, waiting for all the people to go to lunch. dakota can't read his face at all, which scares her even more.

he chuckles eerily. "why did you move away from me? we're supposed to be partners." he whispers the last word in a creepy way.

all of a sudden, she gained a sense of realization. she had no reason to be nervous, kai was harmless. she pulled her backpack zipper open and grabbed his notebook.

"why did you come to my house?" she glares. "and don't give me a bullshit answer kai, i know you were there."

he snatches the notebook and looks around once again to check out the empty hallway, since everyone is at lunch. "you know, i was gonna knock on your door. drop off something. but your idiot brother scared me off."

she didn't buy it. "i said don't give me a bullshit answer. i saw the sketch of me in there, you creep."

he stares at her for a while in silence before punching a locker, making dakota cringe. "you know, we could've been something, dakota."

"what the hell are you talking about?" she scoffed.

"i like you, dakota. you know, ever since i laid my eyes on you, i knew we would become something." he babbled. "your little boyfriend almost ruined it though."

this caught her attention. "boyfriend?"

"the one with long hair. thick eyebrows. annoying voice. always wearing jackets."

"embry's not my boyfriend."

"that's not what he said the other day. he told me to leave you alone because you two were an item." he laughs. "like you'd ever be with someone like him."

"embry's a nice guy. way better than you." she goes back on track. "how'd you even get my address?"

"does it even matter?"

she rolls her eyes, realizing this isn't going anywhere. "yes, it does. you're a creep. don't ever talk to me again."

she turns away, starting to head to the cafeteria, but he grabs her arm with strength she was not aware of. he pulls her towards him, grabbing both her arms so she can't walk away.

"let go of me!" she shouts, trying to break away from him.

"don't fight it, dakota! we can still be something!" he says with a smile, making dakota nauseous.

she suddenly becomes conscious of her legs and uses her knee to kick him in the crotch. he yells a shout of pain and immediately holds his crotch, complaining and cursing.

dakota rushes away from him and heads to the cafeteria in a hurry. she almost runs right into her brother as she turns the corner to the door.

"woah, are you good?" he asks, sounding concerned for once in his life. "what happened?"

"nothing." she says quickly, looking back to see if kai followed her.

"what'd he do to you?" paul glares behind her, as if kai would show up any minute.

"why are you here?" she says, ignoring his question and how he knew kai did something.

"you weren't at lunch yet, so i went to check on you." he says. "are you hurt?"

"no, i'm fine. let's just go back to lunch." she recommends, not wanting him to start something.

as much as she wanted kai to suffer the consequences, she didn't want him to hurt her. he knew where she lived, who she was friends with.

"yeah, uh, i'll catch up to you." paul coughs, heading for kai's direction.

"don't do anything paul. please." she warns. "you're gonna get in a lot of trouble."

"just go to lunch dakota." he says before storming off.

she thinks about running after him, but decides against it. she doesn't want to get pulled into a fight. as cool as it would be beating up someone with her brother, she'd probably be expelled, considering her last school fight record.

she rushes into the cafeteria and goes straight to jared's table.

jared and kim were sitting right next to each other, feeding grapes in the others mouth. dakota reached the opposite side of the table, out of breath from everything.

"jared!" dakota interrupted. "you gotta help paul!"

jared pulls away from kims grasp and stands up. "why, what's wrong?!"

the bell rings, signaling the five minute bell to get to the next period. dakota ignores it. "he's gonna beat someone up!"

jared packs up his lunch in a hurry, bags of food flying everywhere. kim stops him and pushes him in the direction of the lunch room, telling him to hurry. he runs off, trying to navigate through the crowd of people trying to head to their next period.

dakota goes after him, pushing through everyone without apologizing. she starts to worry, but the only thing distracting her was the fact that she needed to help paul.

she starts to slow down once she finds a large crowd of people surrounding something about twenty feet in front of her. she sees jared separating the crowd to get to the inside. dakota does the same.

she looks in horror as paul is getting dragged away from the scene by jared, who's screaming at him to stop. as the two go away, dakota stares at the blood covering paul's hands in a fist position. his face is red, practically blowing steam out of his ears. his hair was messy and his shirt sported a big hole in the sleeve. he had blood trailing out his nose, dripping onto his blue shirt.

dakota's eyes peered to the ground, where she gasps once she sees kai's body lying on the floor, blood covering every part of his face, neck, and chest. his nose was positioned in the wrong spot. his entire face was red, only from getting beaten. his face also had gashes all across it, pouring blood out of the wounds.

it was sickening. and the worst part was, dakota didn't feel one ounce of sympathy for him.