Chapter 34: Chapter 32

It’s been exactly four days.

Exactly four days since my fight with Ethan and mom. And both of them were doing an excellent job at ignoring me. Honestly, I was getting tired of giving mom the silent treatment but luckily, she wasn’t around much.

Work was keeping her busy. Either that or she was just staying at her office in order to ignore me.

Speaking of ignoring, Ethan had turned invisible. The last time I saw him- well, his back, was when he had ran into me. He wasn’t around during break or lessons. We have had Chemistry and English once each and he wasn’t there to attend any of them.

Just as Erica had promised, she hadn’t spoken to him. She agreed on letting me talk to him myself later. Abby, on the other hand, keeps throwing tantrums regularly about how Ethan is a beeping idiot. I didn’t know Abby had such an aggressive side. Michael managed to get her to promise to not talk to Ethan either because I was the one who was supposed to do that.

I’ve come to a conclusion that I’m not going to find out what happened that night; I’m going to drop it since I’m alive. Today, I’m going to hunt Ethan down and make him listen to me. He has to listen to me. I’m going to explain exactly what happened and apologize for not understanding him. Okay, maybe not the apologizing part. I sighed as I mentally tried to prepare a speech that I was going to tell Ethan.

Mom came down the stairs and walked towards the door, leaving it open. I grabbed my bag and followed her to the car after shutting the door and locking it behind me. Okay, that’s it. I’m not going to stay quiet anymore. We need to talk I need to know what her thoughts are on about moving to Australia.

Speaking of which, I still haven’t told anyone about it. I just can’t.

Sitting in the car, I said, “We need to talk.”

“Happy realization, sweetie,” she replied sarcastically.

I narrowed my eyes.

No. Focus. Don’t lose your temper again.

“Thank you,” I muttered. “Mom, I really don’t want to move. I feel like I’m really fitting in well here. I don’t want to restart again.”

She exhaled. “Of course you don’t. I know that. Especially, since you have a boyfriend.”

My eyes widened as my eyebrows knit together. “I’m sorry, did you say boyfriend?”

She nodded with a sly smirk. “You’re a pretty bad liar.”

“Just when I thought I was getting better at it,” I mumbled, earning laughter from mom. “How did you find out?”

“I found out after that little ‘cockroach’ sneaked into your room. Tell him that I don’t want him doing that again, by the way,” she warned with a serious look.

I blushed lightly and gave her a nod.

“I understand, Ash,” she said with a sigh. “But if I reject a promotion, they’re going to assume I can’t handle it. Rejecting a promotion will result in them never wanting to trust with me such a position again because they’re going to think that I’m not capable of it. Besides, don’t you see how it would be for us to move?”

“I really don’t, mom,” I snapped.

“If you do not want to co-operate with me then I’m just going to do what I think is right for you and me,” she stated.

It felt as if the slight laughter that had managed to bubble out of her had drowned in the blink of an eye.

Mom slowed down and just as I was about to get down, she said, “We’re moving to Australia, Ashley whether you like it or not.”

I pretended to ignore her even though it was obvious that I heard her and walked out of the car, slamming the door shut with more force than necessary. I walked past the classes angrily. As I saw the laughing figures of Abby, Michael and Erica, I decided that I wasn’t going to tell them. Not yet.

Suddenly, I felt someone grab my arm and pull me into a dark classroom. I shrieked as my eyes widened with fear, but my shriek was muffled under someone’s palm. Specifically, it was a boy’s hand. Without thinking, I lifted my knee up with force and it connected exactly between the boy’s legs. The hand was immediately taken off my mouth and I heard a grunt followed by a loud groan.

When the face moved into the faint light coming in through the tinted windows, my eyes widened and my hands flew to cover my mouth.

It was Jared.

“Jared! I’m so sorry! I-I didn’t know it was you!” I exclaimed.

He was crouching as he held up one finger. “J-just give m-me a mi-minute, please.”

I nodded and did the only thing that would’ve been normal. I started laughing. My position matched his crouched one as I held my stomach and laughed. I bit the insides of my mouth to stop myself from laughing when Jared shot me a glare.

When both of us relaxed, I asked, “Why did you pull me into this classroom?”

“To talk to you,” he replied simply.

“So, you thought pulling me into a random classroom would be the best option?” I inquired with a hint of sarcasm.

“After what happened,” he said, motioning his hands around his lower body. “No.”

I giggled. “You could’ve just asked me to meet you here instead of grabbing me and covering my mouth like a psychotic kidnapper.”

“I’ll keep that in mind next time, thank you,” he responded with a flat face.

“When did you come back?” I asked, changing the topic to suppress my laughter.

“Last night,” he said impatiently.

“Is this about the text?” I asked.

“Yes,” he replied, buying time to probably decide how to phrase his thoughts.

“What did you want to talk about? I prodded.

He looked up to meet my eyes and said, “I know what happened to you that night with Austin.”

A/N- Let the "I hate you so much for the cliffhanger!" messages rise!

Yes, I know this chapter is short but when I was writing, I felt that this was where I wanted to stop, so I did. :P

Don't worry, the next chapter is going to be good. Everything will be revealed. :D

Even though, everything is going to be revealed, I want to see what you guys think, so please feel free to leave your assumptions about 'the night' below! :D