Living With The Bad Boy [COMPLETE][VERSION ONE]

Chapter 23

I can't move. I can't breathe. All I can do is sit there, staring as the flame licks up the paper, the orange light edging closer and closer to me. Heat pricks my skin and every passing second makes me panic even more- but I can't get away. I couldn't even move if I tried.

"Chrissa! What is wrong with you?" I hear Jase hiss, and the momentary distraction breaks me out of my daze just enough to hear how badly my heart is pounding in my chest, the way my breathing is shallow and ragged, my vision constricting in and out like it's tunneled.

I need to get out of here.

Not even bothering to move the paper, I jump up and sprint outside the door.

"You don't actually care about her, do you Jase? Going soft?" I hear Chrissa ask, the smirk audible in her voice even from outside.

Everyone's gawking at me, but for once I don't care. It's better than what happened last week, better than being engulfed in those flames as they burn a mile high, obliterating everything in their path. It's better than-

It's better than-

It's-

The world spins around me, the floor moving beneath my feet, and I practically drop to my knees, legs no longer able to hold me up.

And now I'm having a panic attack in the middle of the science wing. Great. Absolutely awesome.

And I know it's stupid and illogical and that a tiny flame isn't going to kill me and I can just tell myself to calm down, tell myself to start breathing again, but the part of my brain screaming that doesn't come anywhere close to the other part of my brain, the one screaming at me that this is the end of the world, like a dramatized movie clip, playing the same thing over and over and over again on a loop.

"Red!" I look up to see Jase standing over me, his blue eyes wide and stormy. "Are you okay?"

"Go." I'm surprised the words come out at all, even though they're a shaky, low growl. "This is all your fault."

Jase offers me a hand up and I ignore it, lifting myself up on my own. "I thought I told you to go."

"Sienna, I'm sorry." His face is oh-so-sincere, but I really, really, really can't do this right now. "Good. You should be. Now go away."

"You're shaking." He steps closer to me and I glare daggers at him, pressing my back up against the wall. "Please-" my voice breaks slightly on the last word, going high and squeaky. "Just stop pretending you're sorry when you're literally dating the girl who just lit my chemistry lab on fire."

Jase seems taken aback by that, his mouth falling into an 'O' shape. I know I have him trapped, but the hard set of his jaw and the determination in his eyes telling me that he's trying to figure out something to say.

"You know what?" he finally says, and his voice is calm, like the ocean on a good day, all turquoise and glittering. "Hate me if you want. That's fine. I probably deserve it. Just please, Red, if being my friend means anything to you at all- listen to me. Go to the nurse, or go cry under the stairwell if you really want. You don't have to make yourself come back to class."
"Stop telling me what to do!" I say, my voice more high-pitched and childlike than I intended, but this problem isn't exactly on my priority list at the moment

"I'm not telling you what to do. I'm just strongly suggesting that you stop being a total idiot," he says sharply, then turns around and walks back to class.

Leaving me to wonder...

Why did he care so much in the first place?

I spend the rest of chemistry in the nurse's office, pretending to sleep on the vinyl cot as the nurse sits on the other side of the room, typing on her computer and talking to freshmen who sprained their elbows in gym class. No one notices me as tears run down my face, and for that, at least, I'm thankful. My head throbs and my lungs feel like they're full of lead, and my pride has been seriously depreciated, but at least I get to cry in peace.