The secrets we keep

Chapter 28

"Hey there.", Liam opened my bedroom door.
„Hey."
"We're having dinner, dad's home. Get dressed and come downstairs, please."
"I'm not hungry."
"I didn't ask if you were. Go on, get dressed.", he commanded and I groaned.
Our father was barely home. He was either on business trips or at work or wherever else, just barely at home. I didn't mind honestly, my father and I had a pretty bad relationship, even when I was little we didn't get along so well. There's a reason I don't call him „Dad" like my brothers do. He was never my dad, sure he is my father but he was never a dad to me. So I decided for myself that I didn't want to call him that.

„There you are, we were waiting for you.", my father announced as I sat down next to Jackson.
„Sorry, I'm just tired."
„It's alright.", he said and motioned for the maid to serve dinner.

„Jackson told me about Mr. Greedy and I have reached out to him, we will meet up tomorrow morning. He scheduled for all of us to meet tomorrow evening and all of you will be here at seven so we can have dinner.", my father informed us.
We all nodded and turned back to our plates.
"And you'll do well to behave yourself. Especially you Kenna, don't make a scene in front of Mr. Greedy."
I wanted to say something, but I knew that it wouldn't get me anywhere so I just stared at my plate blankly and nodded.
"Very well. You'll excuse me now, I have some work to do.", he stood up and left the room without finishing his dinner.
"Nice way to say he doesn't want to spend time with us.", Tyler grumbled.
I stood up too and went back to my room without saying anything.
If someone asked me i could've never explained what was wrong in that moment but something didn't feel right.

The next morning went pretty smooth, nothing unusual happened. But I still felt like something was off, I told myself I was being paranoid but I just couldn't shake off that weird feeling that something was going to happen.
And the moment I saw Jason that morning I knew I hadn't been paranoid.
"What the hell.", I whispered to myself.
He had a big black eye and a cut on his cheek that looked rather painful.
"Looks like he got what he deserved.", Liam snickered.
"Did you do this?", I locked eyes with Jackson.
"I don't have any reason to, do I? Since you're not seeing him anymore?", he raised a brow.
"Y-yeah. You swear it has nothing to do with you?"
"I solemnly swear", he grinned slightly "If it had been me he wouldn't have come off that easy.", he added.
"Easy?? Are you kidding me? Look at him!"
"If you think that's bad, I propose you stay away from him so you never have to see what real bad looks like.", Jackson warned in a raspy voice.
"Is that a threat?"
"Just a proposal. We wouldn't want anyone getting hurt because of you, would we?"
"Are you serious right now?"
"Do I look like I'm kidding, to you?", he raised his brow.
I shook my head.
"You're unbelievable.", I bumped against his shoulder extra hard and stormed off.

„You sure look angry", Kyle smirked at me „What happened?"
„Nothing.", I mumbled and closed my locker.
„Doesn't look like nothing?"
„Just- Stay away from me Kyle. I don't want you to get hurt."
„Is this about Jackson? I can handle him Kenna, if that's what you're worried about."
„I don't even know who he is anymore, who any of them are. I mean I never really knew to begin with but hey, it can always get worse right?", I scoffed and turned. Why was I even telling him this stuff it was none of his business?
„Hey, wait. What do you mean you don't know who he is? Did something happen?"
„I just don't know what he's capable of and I'm not sure I wanna find out. Especially not if I put other people in danger."
„Kenna, are you like scared of him?", he tilted his head to look me in the eyes.
"I mean, i don't know, kinda. I shouldn't be. He would never hurt me on purpose but I just, I don't know how far he'll go to get what he wants."
"In my experience, when Jackson Blake wants something, he doesn't care what it takes to get it."
I gulped.
"I'm sorry, I didn't want to scare you. Just be careful okay?"
I nodded.
"We should get to class.", I said blankly.
"We should, yeah."
He closed his locker and we both made our way to class.