Chapter 28

Third-person narrative Jasmine and Mia were talking and laughing on their way to school in Mia’s car. It was raining pretty heavily outside, so they could hardly even hear themselves.

In the middle of their conversation, Mia noticed that her car had started to slow down. She tried to make it move fast like before, but nothing was working.

“What’s wrong?” Jasmine asked, confused.

“I don’t know; it just stopped moving,” Mia answered, fussing around in the car. “There’s something wrong with the engine, maybe, and I can’t even check it because I don’t know anything about fixing a car or anything like that.”

Mia tried her best to make sure that when the car stopped, it stopped at the side of the road. She pulled on the brakes and pulled out her key.

“So, what do we do now?” Jasmine asked.

“What do you think?” Mia questioned teasingly.

“The last one to make it to school’s a chicken,” Jasmine said, laughing as she opened her door and made her way out of the car.

It was raining heavily, but the girls didn’t care as they ran to school in the rain, giggling and pushing each other in an attempt to make it to school first.

By the time they made it to their school gate, they were dripping from the ends of their clothes. They rushed into any random building to stay there for a while so the rain could calm down.

“Look at your face!” Jasmine suddenly laughed, pointing at Mia’s face. “Your makeup’s all smeared,” she teased.

Mia looked for any reflective glass around and looked into it, and indeed, her makeup had smeared, and she g*****d.

Jasmine was grateful that she had chosen to skip putting on makeup that day.

“Why does this have to happen to me?” She complained, wrapping her arms around herself, already feeling cold.

Just then, a woman appeared behind them.

“Is everything okay? You both are soaked,” she said, and the girls turned towards her.

“Oh, we had to run in the rain because my car stopped on our way here.” Mia smiled, although she was wondering who the woman was.

“Oh, okay. I’m the new school janitor, Kathrine. It’s nice to meet you,” the woman said.

Realization dawned on both their faces as they turned fully toward her.

“It’s nice to see you too,” they both said, stretching out their hands to shake her.

“If you don’t mind, I have some towels and some dry clothes in the store over there, so you both can change out of those wet clothes,” she said to the girls.

“Really?” Jasmine’s face lit up.

“Yeah, just follow me,” the woman said, turning back.

The girls happily followed her to the store. There, she gave them towels to dry out their hair while she looked for clothes that would fit them.

“Miss Kathrine?” Jasmine started. “Do you know what happened to the former janitor and why he stopped working here?”

“Oh, I heard he was fired,” she answered without turning away from what she was doing. “I don’t know why, though.”

“Oh, thank you for telling us.”

“You’re welcome,” she replied, finally turning to them and handing them the clothes she found.

“Here, you can leave your clothes on that table over there, and I’ll help you dry them. You can come collect them when you’re done with your classes. If you don’t see me here, I’ll leave them on the table, so you can just take them. I’ll know it’s you,” she said with a smile on her face.

“Wow, thank you, Miss Kathrine. You’ve helped us out today,” they both said.

“It’s nothing; I just wanted to help. I’ll see you later,” she said as she walked out the door, shutting the door carefully behind her.

They both smiled before they started taking off their clothes and changing into dry ones, talking about possible reasons that the former janitor could have been fired.

When they were done, they left their clothes on the table like they were asked to, along with the towels, and left the room. They searched for Kathrine to thank her one last time before they left, but they didn’t find her outside.

“We should leave; we’re already late for class,” Jasmine suggested.

“Yes, maybe she’s busy.” Mia shrugged.

They made it to class, and luckily, the teacher was running late. They were both happy that they didn’t have to explain what had happened to them.

The rest of the day passed by in a flash, and before they knew it, it was the end of school. They both stretched as they g*****d, tired from sitting all day.

“Finally!” Mia sighed. “I can’t wait to jump in my bed.”

“Let’s leave quickly, so we’ll catch your brothers. If we don’t, we will have to walk again or take the bus,” Jasmine said, and that made Mia stand up.

They made their way to where Ethan normally parks his car, in the school’s parking lot.

They had gotten to the parking lot and saw the brothers already in the car, just standing around and talking. They walked towards them, but Jasmine was stopped by a classmate, Jake.

“I’ll go on and tell them, so we’ll wait for you. Hurry up,” Mia said as she left them alone.

Jasmine nodded her head and started her conversation with Jake.

Mia had gotten to where her brothers were and told them that they had to wait for Jasmine.

“Why? Where is she?” Calix asked, frowning.

Mia just pointed to where Jasmine stood, talking to Jake, but what the brothers saw, they didn’t like.

Jasmine was standing there with a bright smile on her face as she listened to whatever it was that Jake was saying. He even held onto her hand, and Jasmine seemed to blush, but she didn’t pull away.

To the brothers, he was getting too close to their mate, and they didn’t like it. They shared a look, and before Mia could even think, they all moved to where Jasmine was standing and stood behind her.

“What is going on here?” Ethan asked, and Jasmine turned back and saw that the brothers were standing behind her.

“Oh, hey guys. This is my classmate, Jake. We’re just talking about a few things,” Jasmine explained, but their ears had gone deaf, as all they could focus on was Jake’s hold on Mia’s hand.

When they couldn’t take it anymore, Zane moved between Jasmine and Jake, pulled their hands apart, and punched Jake.

Jasmine gasped as Ethan and Calix joined them, and they all started beating up Jake. Jasmine screamed as she was confused as to why they were acting the way they were.

She tried to pull them away from Jake, but they weren’t budging. No matter what she said, it wasn’t enough to stop them.

Mia, along with the other people around, had heard the commotion, so they checked to see what was going on, and when Mia realized what her brothers were doing, she ran towards them.

She tried to help Jasmine pull her brothers away, but it seemed they weren’t satisfied with what they were doing, and a crowd had gathered, some just watching and some recording.

When they felt they had gotten enough punches in, they stopped and pulled away from him to walk towards Jasmine, but she brushed them off and rushed towards Jake to check on him.

He had multiple bruises and cuts on his face, and he was groaning and holding onto his stomach.

“What the hell is wrong with the three of you?” Jasmine screamed. “Why do you always have to be like this all the time?”

“What do you mean by being like this? He was flirting with our mate, and we taught him a lesson,” Ethan answered.

“And what right do you have to do that? What do you guys always have to ruin for me?” Jasmine retorted.

“Do you expect us to just sit back and do nothing while he does whatever he likes with you? I’m sorry, but we can’t do that,” Zane answered.

“And when did I ever agree to be your mate?” Jasmine said that suddenly, the brothers turned to face her, shocked. “I only told you that I’d think about giving you all a chance, but you went and did this.”

“But we couldn’t just sit back and do nothing.”

“I don’t care what it was that you couldn’t do. You guys don’t have enough respect for me to let me do things my way and make my own decisions. Do you think you have the right to tell me what to do and who to talk to? You don’t owe me anything for your information. I can decide not to be your mate, and there’s nothing you can do about it, and trust me, you’re heading in that direction,” she screamed in their faces.

The brothers quieted down after she talked about rejecting them.

“You can’t just keep doing things because you feel it’s right. You’re being too possessive, and it’s choking me, really choking me,” she said, turning to Jake, who had stood up from the floor and was being led away by some people, who were probably talking him to the infirmary.

She sighed and turned back to the brothers, staring at them in disappointment. They tried to talk to her, but she just shook her head and walked past them.

She wasn’t in the mood to hear a word from them. She would have to take the bus home.