Taken (editing)

Chapter 4

"I'm glad, you know I do care about you right?" He says, catching my attention.

"Yeah Liam, I know"

"And we've been friends for what" he pauses to chuckle, "more than 10 years?"

"Yes, unfortunately I've had to handle someone like you from such a young age" I say, earning a playful glare. "I'm bout to go to the cafeteria though, I have to meet up with a couple of guys from my biology class, care to join?" I ask as I stop in the hallway that lead to the cafeteria, facing him.

"Not really, I'll be in the library Jess, I have some forms I need to fill and stuff, plus I'm not a biology nerd like you" He teases, referring to my interest in that subject. "But you have fun"

"Alright" I elbow him playfully, "See you later"

"And jess?"

"Yeah?" I turn back, after I had walked a few steps away from him.

"About that" he starts, "I've known you for more than 10 years right?"

"Yeah what about it?" I ask, confused.

"Come talk to me when you decide to stop lying" and with a tight smile, he walks away, leaving me frozen and completely surprised.

He knows.

They all know.

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I make my way into the cafeteria, trying not to stress on the fact that Liam just saw through my lies, and he was already pissed. Just as I was debating on whether I should tell him the truth or not, I heard Niall and Louis call my name from a nearby table and I make my way over to them.

"Hey guys" I say as I sit across from them.

"Hey" they chorus, "which class did you have?"

"Physics" I groan, earning another collective groan from them, confirming the fact that they were in the same boat as me with reference to physics. "Welcome to the physics hate club" I say, a lopsided grin on my face.

"Why did that subject evem have to exist?" Louis sighed, exasperated, earning a playful smile from Niall who silently agreed. I change the topic, immediately asking them if they had talked to Julia.

"That girl is the least concerned, I'm telling you" Niall begins. "It's like we have a bigger chance of actually getting Harry to help us rather than talking to her"

I sighed, I had kind of forgotten Harry was in our group too, and the constant reminders weren't helping either, for I knew the entire world would have to turn upside down if Harry, out of all people, was willing to work with us for the project.

"Well if she isn't willing to co operate, we could tell the teacher about it" I say, quickly dismissing the matter. I had the matter of Liam pissed over me to worry about at the moment, and I wanted that thing with Julia to be the least of my worries right now.

"Yeah, so its basically just the three of us who are actually interested in getting a decent grade?" Niall questions as Louis looks at him.

"Harry's out of the question anyway" I say, waving my hand in the air, in mock dismay.

"We could try, you know, talking to him" Louis suggests and I scoff, followed by Niall. "Hey" he defends himself. "I've heard he's a pretty nice guy despite what he's known for"

"Pretty nice" I mock him. "Yeah sure"

"The only thing I've seen that guy doing is either bully others or kissing another girl in the hallway" Niall remarks.

"That doesn't define him" Louis speaks and me and Niall narrow our eyes at him.

"What's with you and defending him?"

"I'm just saying that even though he has that kind of image, he is actually a pretty nice guy"

"Bullies aren't nice guys" I speak up, feeling the emotions bottled inside me, slowly surfacing. "They're the kind of guys who don't bloody care or give a flying fuck about anyone, or about the fact that other people have feelings or that their actions have consequences. They just hurt and hurt and hurt others until they reach their breaking point and they rejoice on that very fact. And these people, these fucking people are called the 'popular' ones" I pause, catching my breath. "and you say they are nice"

Louis stares at me, his mouth slightly agape while Niall looks simply shocked. I didn't know how these emotions surfaced, the emotions I was supposed to hide, to pretend as if they didn't exist.

"I-" I begin, trying to cover up the fact that I just ranted, not to mention, to the point where I literally ran out of breath.

"you're right" Niall agreed, cutting me off.

We all stayed silent for a few moments, in silent agreement. The tension in the air was broken soon by Niall's bubbly character and his irrelevant, unnecessary questions about the assignments.

"How many assignments do you think he'll give us?" He asks out of nowhere and I shrug, waiting for another unanswerable question to roll off his tongue. "Guys, we do need help. The three of us aren't gonna make it"

"Yeah" Louis agreed "Plus he's giving the assignments tomorrow, we better hope Julia shows up"

"Or socializes for once" Niall says and I chuckle, agreeing.

"Well, they better show up" I say, standing up, as they do too. "The last thing I'd want is to fail because I was put in a group with two suckers who refused to give a shit"

"I'm failing physics already" Niall admits, earning an amused smile from me and a "me too" from Louis as we walk out the cafeteria.