Divided (Sequel to Banned)

• Chapter 6 •

[Jax]

"No!"

I jumped out of bed, slipping on the floor and landing hard on the hardwood floor. As I stand to regain my posture, I rub my side, flinching at the impact. That's definitely going to bruise up.

"Hey, Ollie, who do you think-" I stop myself before finishing the question, taking note of the loud snoring on the bed next to mine. With a sigh, I walked up to my best friend and poked him in the arm, only gaining a groan from him before he turned his back towards me. "Ollie, come on, wake up." I pushed him but had no reaction. I look around trying to find something to wake him up with. I smile mischievously at his sleeping form and take a deep breath. "ALL HANDS ON DECK!!!"

"AYE, AYE, CAPTAIN!" He falls face-first off the bed before groaning. "Ouch... good morning, Jax." He sits up, rubbing his eyes as he lets out a yawn.

I laugh, before remembering what I had wanted to ask. "Morning, Ollie. I'm assuming you didn't hear the loud yelling in one of the rooms?"

He quickly stood up, worry evident on his face. "Kayla?" I simply shrug my shoulders and that's enough to have him running to the girls' room.

I follow after him, finding the door open to reveal the girls gathered around a bed. I take notice of the people standing and can't find Gilly. "What happened?"

The girls and Ollie part to show Gilly holding a hand to her forehead. I walk towards her and place a hand on her shoulder, only to have her shrug it off.

"I'm fine, don't worry about it."

I know Gilly and I know what she's like when she's angry, but she's never talked to me like that before. It's as if she was shielding herself from me. As I open my mouth to ask what had happened, she got out of bed and left the room without another word.

Maxine was the first to speak. "Okay... what happened?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We all headed downstairs for breakfast after Gilly freaked out. I still don't know what happened. I really want to help her but it looks like she wants nothing to do with me, as if I had broken her trust. Granted, I have done that before but we had made a promise to each other that we wouldn't keep any secrets and be able to communicate at all times. It seemed to have worked well up until this morning.

All I have to go off of is that she woke up screaming, so I'm guessing it was a nightmare. She must have been pretty shaken up by it to have ignored me.

I comb a hand through my messy blond hair and let out a sigh. Why can't she just tell me what she saw? It's hard enough not knowing what's on her mind most of the time but this? It is a lot harder to see her act this way... like she's keeping a secret. No, Jackson, you can't think like that. She'll tell you when she's ready. Yeah. But what if she doesn't? Wait, what if there's someo-

"Move, Porter,"

Her sharp tone interrupts my thoughts and I notice I've been blocking the doorway to the kitchen. I turn to her and grin, "someone woke up on the wrong side of the cauldron."

She raises an eyebrow before pushing past me. "How amusing, Jackson" my grin falters and the smirk on her face lets me know she noticed.

"You know, we've been through so much, so why do you still insist on calling me that if I've explained that I don't like it?" I cross my arms and lean on the doorway. She shrugs and sits on a chair.

"Why should I stop merely because we've been endangered by the same person before?"

I scoff, amused. "Come on, Jocelyn, you don't have to pretend you hate me after all these years. I bet it's just the bed hair talking."

She glares at me and I can't help feeling someone else focused on me(and not in a good way). "I don't have bed hair."

"Sure you don't." I look around the room and see that everyone was minding their own business, enjoying their breakfast. All except... Gilly. She has a fork on her right hand, her knuckles turning white from her tight grip and her face remained expressionless, but her eyes burned with anger.

I swallow hard and make my way to the chair next to hers. I don't know why I'm so nervous. It's not like I did anything bad. Not that I know of anyways. Her eyes never leave me, and as much as I like looking at her chocolate brown eyes, it feels like she's ready to attack me with that fork. Why are forks that sharp? How do people allow them to be made like that?! This is a hazard!

"Hey, Thief" something shifted in her gaze but it left as fast as it came. Her jaw tenses but her posture relaxes, my eyes never leaving hers.

"Don't call me that, prince"

Her response caught me by surprise, much like earlier in the girl's room. By this time we had caught the attention of everyone else by the table.

"You never minded before," it's barely above a whisper but I know she heard me. I scan her face in search of some twisted joke hidden beneath her features only to come up empty.

"And I never thought you'd betray me. Guess we're both confused, Jackson"

Footsteps are heard coming into the kitchen but I can barely hear them as I feel my chest tighten. My eyes sting with tears wanting to form but I clear my throat and look down at the table, suddenly finding the carved border extremely interesting. "I don't know what you're talking about, but I would never betray you. I thought you'd know that, though now I see I was wrong." My jaw tightened and my voice sounded forced.

"Hey guys, what's going on?" Dylan looks around the room for an answer but it's so quiet that you can almost hear pressure pressing down on you and laying heavily on your back. He nods and claps his hands together. "Not in a talking mood... got it." He mumbles.

"What were you guys talking about? Don't mind us being here, we'll just grab something to eat. It'll be as if we weren't even here," Isabelle offers a soft, yet forced, laugh.

I can see Ollie looking back and forth between me and Gilly and the newcomers. "Well, I have been wondering why Jax still calls Gilly "thief" and I think I got it."

"Ooh! Why?!" Asks Maxine while happily clapping her hands together.

Gilly's expression softens as she glances at her friends. "It's obvious," he pauses and closes his eyes with a proud smile on his face.

"Do tell, the suspense is killing us" Jocelyn rolls her eyes before taking a sip of her Earl Gray tea? No idea where she got that from.

Ollie opens one eye, making sure we're all still looking at him before continuing. "It's because she stole his heart, obviously,"

"Uhhh..."