* * *
"You look familiar. Do I know you?" He asked as he held on to my hand.
'Shit.'
'He knows!'
'Just give it up Avery!'
"No." I responded quickly before retrieving my hand away from our handshake. My heart was beating at a thousand miles because I wasn't ready to tell him. I didn't want to tell him here. Even though Noah knew where I was, I still wanted to keep this a secret. I didn't want people treating me differently because I raced. I wanted to be comfortable in my surrounds when I told this secret to Drew.
Thankfully, my response seemed to have satisfied his curious mind because he didn't question it further. I wanted to let out a relieved sigh but I didn't want to attract anymore unwanted attention. He looked into my eyes for a few more seconds before redirecting and standing in front of Lucas, starting a conversation with him. I tried so hard to not eavesdrop but, could you blame me? They were openly talking right next to me. I continued to focus on the guys getting ready for the race, acting like I couldn't care less about their conversation.
"How's your sister, dude?"
"Stay away from her, Lucas." Drew playfully said before they both chuckled.
"Relax. We all know she's spoken for mate."
"Yeah, let's not go there. Lucas, any word on Jax's dad?"
"Didn't he tell you?"
"We don't really talk about that. We always talk about his other dilemma."
"Ahh. Enough said. Yeah man, they got a lead."
"No shit!? What's the lead?"
"Some prick named Noah."
My head immediately turned to the two next to me, my eyes widened in shock at this new revelation. They were both so focused on their conversation, they didn't even notice me practically gaping at them.
'Noah?'
'Surely they don't mean the same Noah?'
'Can't be.'
'Can it?'
My heart skipped a beat as I turned my head back to focus on Isaac and Jaxon who were chatting amongst each other at the starting line. I could feel my breath beginning to quicken, the panic attack slowly settling in. I tried to convince myself that I heard wrong, I wish I could rewind the conversation and pay closer attention to make sure I heard right. I closed my eyes as I tried to control my breathing and refocus on their conversation. I wasn't planning on having a panic attack right in front of these guys.
"How did they find him?"
"They scored his fingerprints from another crime he attempted to commit."
"What other crime?" Drew asked as his voice began to sound unsettled.
"Wouldn't have a clue mate." Lucas responded.
"Do we know this piece of shit?" Drew said through gritted teeth.
Lucas let out a sadist laugh, "I fucking wish."
'Noah! You fucking idiot!'
'That explains so much now. It also confirms one more thing.'
'Isaac knew and lied to me.'
'What a hypocrite! He always expects me to be honest and here he was, lying to me!'
I opened my eyes that were now filled with anger as I stared at Isaac and Jaxon, clenching my jaw repeatedly to avoid an outburst occurring in front of everyone. Isaac looked in my direction before smiling and waving, the smile dropped from his face when he saw my face and the fact that I didn't respond to him. He whispered something to Jaxon who in return turned to look at me. Isaac began to jog his way over but I got up and power walked to the restroom, I didn't want to draw any attention to myself by running.
"Avery." He whispered hastily. I looked around the area in panic and was glad to see no one in sight. Everyone was too busy hanging around the starting line. Then again, I should have known Isaac wasn't stupid enough to say my name if there were bystanders around.
"What?!" I growled back as I kept walking.
"Don't go anywhere alone!" He whispered in a panic.
"You knew!" I yelled back without stopping, ignoring his comment.
"Knew what?!"
I stopped before turning abruptly to face him, "You knew it was Noah who had the accident with Jaxon's dad!" I whispered back.
"I didn't! I only put two and two together a few weeks ago when Jaxon-" He stopped mid sentence and swallowed the lump in his throat.
"When Jaxon what? When he told you?" I tried to ask calmly. I didn't want anyone paying attention to us so I knew I had to lower my voice, no matter how angry I was.
"Why didn't you tell me about the accident!" I watched as Isaac just shook his head before shrugging.
"I assumed Noah told you!"
I chuckled lightly at his response, "Yeah because we both know how open and honest Noah was."
There was a second of silence between us as I debated what to say next. I shook my head in annoyance.
"This is not fair Isaac! You always push me to be honest and here you are lying and keeping secrets from me!" I said as I crossed my arms across my chest.
"Yes- But- It wasn't my secret to tell, Boobear." He whispered.
I let out a frustrated sigh. As annoyed as I was, he was right. It wasn't his secret to tell, it was Jaxon's and he should have told me. I now knew this was the real reason he broke up with me. It had nothing to do with commitment issues. He should have had the balls to man up and be honest about why he "couldn't do this anymore."
Before I knew it, my anger redirected to the man who was now putting his helmet on. I looked between Isaac and Jaxon, before going back to the bench to sit back down on it next to an oblivious Lucas and Drew. I wasn't about to ruin his race for him, I could respect the need to be in the correct frame of mind when you are racing.
I was simply going to wait until after his race before I lost my mind at him.
* * *
Ten minutes later, here I was watching Jaxon get off his bike, all smiles as he high fived Lucas, Drew and Isaac. Despite my anger, it was kind of adorable seeing this little group of theirs, frankly speaking though there was nothing "adorable" about them. They were all relatively tall, I'd say between the heights of 6'1 and 6'3. They towered over a majority of the girls that stood around, admiring them in lust.
I shook my head in an attempt to refocus and not think about something irrelevant like how tall these guys were. I watched on as Jaxon whispered something to the boys, I was curious about what was said because Drew started to frantically look around. That was until Jaxon grabbed his shoulder and said something else.
It was then a moment of silence until Isaac moved closer to Jaxon. My eyes creased slightly as I watched Isaac whisper in Jaxon's ears. I knew what he was telling him because Jaxon's eyes widened slightly before looking right at me.
'Bingo.'
I waited patiently, refusing to move from my seat. Instead moving up to sit on top of the picnic bench attached to the seat, before crossing my right leg over my left. I watched as Jaxon handed his things to Lucas and Drew who both then walked off wheeling the bike with them. Once they were out of sight he then made his way towards me.
Apparently when Jaxon opened up to Isaac about the situation between him, Noah and I, Isaac wasn't exactly open about what had happened that night. After finally explaining the situation to me, I completely understood where Isaac was coming from. Noah practically forced the situation on him and in all fairness to Isaac, he tried to do the right thing. May have been too late when he showed up but he called the ambulance before leaving the scene. He didn't go into too much detail about what happened after that. He also made me promise that I wouldn't tell this secret to Jaxon, as if he had to ask. He knew I would always have his back regardless of how angry I got sometimes.
"Hi."
I let out a sigh as I looked straight into his eyes.
"Hi" I responded cool and calm.
"Who told you?" He asked as he casually placed both hands in his back pockets.
"It definitely wasn't you."
He let out a sigh as he looked around, "I wanted to tell you okay. But I couldn't bring the subject up."
"Sounds like a cop out."
"It's not okay. How about you see it from my perspective for once." He snapped back.
I tilted my head slightly at him in shock, "Your perspective? How about I explain my perspective. The fact that one minute you proclaimed your love and then the next second, telling me you can't do this anymore. That's what I call a cop out!" I forced the words out through gritted teeth.
"You blame me for what happened to your dad!" I added.
"No I don't!" He yelled before shaking his head in shock.
"Yes, you do!" I yelled out as I grabbed my belongings, I was ready to leave this place.
"Open your eyes for fucks sake!" He forced the words out while clenching his jaw.
"Open my eyes to what?! I'm wide fucking awake Jaxon. How about you stop talking in riddles!"
I yelled back as I got off my seat out of frustration and walked past him just as he called out, "You are always running!"
"No I'm not! I asked you to talk about it in the hallway. YOU let go, YOU decided you didn't want to talk! You are the biggest hypocrite, you got shitty with me because of my secrets yet here you are doing the exact same thing! You know what, I'm done with this conversation!" I yelled out in anger before storming off. I didn't bother looking back and we both knew he wasn't going to shout out my name and risk my identity. I hadn't realised how loud I had raised my voice at him, thanking the stars that no one was around us. Everyone pretty much deserted the place the moment the last race was over. Probably to go get ready for the party that was on tonight.
I stormed towards Isaac's car until Isaac came to view, sitting on the front bonnet of the car with his legs outstretched in front of him. At the sound of my feet no doubt stomping on the pavement, he looked up towards my direction.
"Dare I ask?"
"No!!" I yelled out as I climbed into his car before slamming the door shut out of frustration.
"Just remember that everything happens for a reason. Look at what happened between us and we are still friends."
"Isaac, bringing up what happened last year is not exactly appropriate for my situation right now."
"True. Sorry BooBear."
The car was silent for a few awkward seconds before I let out a frustrated sigh, "Sorry, I didn't mean to sound like I didn't care."
He grabbed my hand before turning it over to kiss my inner palm, my eyes moved down to study his lips as they kissed my palm. I swallowed the lump in my throat before I smiled at him as I retracted my hand from his hold.
I let out a sigh as I turned to face the window trying to distract my thoughts because my mind was racing with a billion things.
* * *
A/N: Sorry I'm delayed guys! I've just been a little busy. If you enjoyed it, hit that vote button for me.
Next Chapter: The whole gang is off to a party. What could go wrong?