The Middle | ✔️

Chapter 81

Jamie

I'm standing by the punch bowl, chatting to Aubrey and John. They look so cute together tonight, in their Romeo and Juliet costumes. John can barely take his eyes off of Aubrey, they're so sweet. I'm not jealous of her at all...

"Where's Kim, anyway?" I ask Aubrey, "I haven't seen the zombie cheerleader yet."

"She was talking to Nikki and some other friends from class." Aubrey says, looking over her shoulder towards the dance floor. I'm not looking around myself, because I have no idea if Noah is here already or not, and I don't wanna chance seeing him.

"She's over there." John says, and I watch as he points towards the dancefloor. He looks kinda concerned though. Weird...

"Ohmigod." Aubrey says to herself before rushing towards the dancefloor. Okay, something's wrong. Get a grip, Jame. Just turn around and look.

I turn around to see what's going on, and straight away my eyes land on Kim sitting at a table with Nikki, crying her eyes out. I make my way towards her immediately, right behind Aubrey.

"Kim, what's wrong?" Aubrey says softly, pulling up a chair beside her and wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

"Zach!" Kim says through her tears. She looks up at Aubrey, and I see that her make-up and fake blood has totally smeared around her eyes. She actually looks fine though, it assists the zombie look.

"What did he do?" Aubrey asks gently, but her words send Kim into a fresh wave of tears.

"He was standing over there with Noah." Nikki supplies, inclining her head towards the far side of the ballroom. Aubrey turns her head around to look in the direction Nikki is indicating. I don't. "They were talking to a couple of other New Yorkers, Zach said some pretty horrible things about Kim."

"What did he say?" I ask.

"He pretty much told some guy to try and hook up with me. He actually said be my guest! That fucking dick!"

"That bastard!" Aubrey is shaking her head in disbelief. So is Nikki. "I'm gonna go get you a drink, stay right here."

"I'll get it, you stay." Nikki offers, before getting up and heading towards the punch bowl.

You know what, I think it's time I told Kim about the sharing game. Not right now of course, not when she's so upset. But, I'm telling her. Zach can't treat her this way. I gave him the benefit of the doubt, and he's just proved that he is every bit the asshole I had hoped he wasn't. Him and Noah both. Suddenly, I feel very angry.

"Hey, are you okay?"

I snap myself out of my building rage, and turn to see that some dude dressed up like Zoro has approached us. He's asking Kim if she's okay. That's nice, I guess. He must have seen her crying. He's kinda butting in here though.

"Leave me alone!" Kim snaps at him, and I realise this must be the guy Zach was talking to.

I frown at him instinctively as he rolls his eyes at Kim and looks up at me, presumably noticing me for the first time. His eyes widen when they land on mine, and I totally glare at him as he proceeds to look me up and down, practically undressing me with his eyes. What the hell?!

"I don't know who you are, but you need to leave us alone." I say to him evenly.
He grins at me as he continues looking me up and down, before finally tearing his eyes away from me and looking back over at Kim. What is this guy's problem?! Can't he see that she's crying!? She does not need to be hit on right now!

"Listen, what Zach said back there?" He says to Kim. "He's a dick. You could do a lot better than him, believe me."

"I'm not talking to you about this!" Kim yells up at him from where she's sitting. "Just go away!"