Bad Girl In Disguise (SAMPLE) I ✔

C O N Q U E R

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A/N

Hey, guys! A quick note before I start the chapter, three stars like this *** means flashback. Or memory. If you haven't figured that out already, I'm telling you now.

Okay, proceed.

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Sometimes, you just care for someone. Sometimes, you care a lot and want the person to be okay. And sometimes, you're lucky enough to care for a good person that appreciates you and cares about you too.

Me? I was unlucky enough to care for James.

***

2 years ago...

"Hey, James?"

"Yes, Jesse?"

"I'M GOING ON A DATE WITH HUNTER!! MY DREAMS ARE FINALLY COMING TRUE!!"

I squealed excitedly like the 16-year-old girl I am. I jumped around excitedly as I played the event in my mind over and over again. Hunter is a senior boy that I had a crush on ever since he helped me when I got teased. And he actually asked me out!

I didn't notice that James immediately tenses. His head snaps towards me and I find myself staring into his intense green eyes. The emotions inside them are mixed and blurring together, but I know James like the back of my hand.

Shock, sadness, anger, regret...

"Congrats, Jess," James says with a nonchalant shrug. But I know that there's something more going on here. His mask slips back on and his eyes turn cold and hard. His stare looks blank and void of any of the previous emotions.

James is wearing his mask.

James never wears his mask when near me. He wears this at school and in public. He wears it so people don't question his broken home and crumbling family. Of his father's mistresses or his mother's 'side adventures'. He wears his mask like an armor.

But he always opens up to me. Why shouldn't he? I grew up with him since middle school. I know who he is and all his problems. But I never judge him for it. And in return, he is a good and honest friend.

"What's wrong, James?" I ask softly. He shrugs and looks out the window, his eyes searching for something that no one else knows. He looks at the blue sky just outside my living room. I stare at him, trying to figure him out. 

"I need to go, Jess. See you at school?" He smiles at me, but even I could see that the smile doesn't quite reach his eyes. He gets up from the couch we had been sitting on and exits the house without another word.

I look at his retreating figure, confused and quite speechless. Little did I know, it was just a day before the James I know and love turns to the cold and annoying jerk, boyfriend to none other than Lily.

***

I never said I regretted caring for James. No, we had a lot of fun. Middle school is a living hell, second only to high school. But James was nice to me. And James had been my only friend.

Note the past tense.

James has never been the same since then. He still hung out with me, laughed at my jokes and ate all my food. But he was distant. His mean girlfriend didn't help things either. Lily didn't exactly hate me back then. But she was constantly jealous and overprotective of James.