Babysitting the Bad Boy

Chapter 23

I showed up to school the next day in a much better mood than I had in the days prior. I was in such a better mood, that everyone seemed to take notice.

"Why are you so happy? I don't get it you looked like you wanted to murder someone yesterday and now you're a ray of fucking sunshine." Cole pointed out to me.

I just smiled and shrugged as he pulled out the video camera, and my happiness turned into annoyance, "Will you put that thing away? I'm sick of you filming every second of every day." I exclaimed, slamming my locker shut.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know you were okay with failing out history project. Last I checked you're little miss 'Straight-A Student'." He said sarcastically.

I gave him a look, "You have at least ten hours of footage already. I'm sure you can make do with what you have." I said.

He rolled his eyes and put the camera down, but did not put it away.

As we walked down the hall Cole spoke up again, "Seriously though, you seem to be in a much better mood. Is there a reason behind it?" He asked me.

"Lucas and I held a civil conversation and made up. So I'm in a significantly better mood than when we weren't speaking." I said.

Instead of the smirk I was expecting, his face went really serious, "Really?" He sounded somber, almost.

I gave him a curious look, "What's that supposed to mean?" I asked as we walked into english and sat down at our desks.

"It just means that you two are always on a spectrum. You two are either at one extreme or the other. And it's getting difficult to figure out where you two stand from day to day." He said.

I just gave him a confused look that encouraged him to continue, "Either you two are not speaking to each other, or you're so close you're practically a couple. It's getting hard to follow. And I'm sorry if this makes me sound like a dick, but I don't think you two should keep making up if it just means you're going to start fighting again." He said.

I was quiet as I thought about his words. He was right, Lucas and I were toxic for each other. But was that because of the two of us or just the shitty cards we'd consistently been dealt for so long?

Cole spoke up one final time before class started, "We're just all scared that while he's with Katie, she'll end up separating you two so much you'll be too far apart to come back together when that relationship finally ends." Cole said.

I thought about his words for the rest of the day. I didn't know what he meant by Katie separating us. There had never seemed to be any serious issues between Katie or I.

At lunch, Lucas sat down next to me. Mistake number one, "Hey princess." He said, stealing a french fry off my tray and popping it into his mouth.

"Hey. What are you doing here?" I asked.

He shrugged, "Sitting with my friends." He said.

I rolled my eyes but said nothing, just looked at my tray, "What's up with you?" he asked me lowly, taking note of my response.

"Nothing," I said with a shake of my head, "It's just...how does Katie feel about this?" I asked, looking at him.

His face turned serious, "She'll be fine." He said.

"I don't want to be the cause of a fight between you two. If this is something she's uncomfortable with, or doesn't want you doing unless she's with you, I think you should respect that." I said.

Lucas was quiet for a second before speaking once more, "Yeah...yeah I guess you're right. It's only fair," he said. A split second later he spoke again, "Oh yeah, we're having a party for my mom, kind of an early birthday, slash, cancer surviving party. It's at the house this weekend. She really wants you there, so do I. Will you go?" He asked.