Chapter 31: He Messed With The Wrong Goat

I wake up to the sound of soft breathing and the smell of Alex's cologne. How does he smell so good? I'm laying directly on top of him and his strong arms are wrapped around my waist. My head is resting on his chest and my arm is right next to it. There's a blanket around us and we're lying on the couch.

I lie on top of him for a few more seconds before trying to push myself off him without waking him up. Its doesn't work. His arms wrap tighter around my waist and he pushes my hair out of my face, looking down at me.

"Did you sleep well?" he whispers, tucking the wisp of hair behind my ear. I nod into his chest. He holds me even tighter and I put my face in the nape of his neck.

"We didn't finish Star Wars," I mumble. He chuckles.

"We can do that another day," he says. We lie there for a couple of minutes before I hear footsteps around the corner. I press my self closer to him, not wanting any of his family members to see me.

"Alex, I think I left my-" the high-pitched, girly voice says and I stiffen when I hear it. Alex wraps his arms around me tighter. "What are you doing!"

"Calm down, Amanda," he says.

"Calm down? Calm down! How could I possibly calm down?" she yells.

"We didn't do anything," he says.

"I'm the only girl you should be hanging around with! I'm your girlfriend! You need to tell both that cow and Natalie Bennett to stay away from you! I'm your girlfriend!" she squeals. Alex's hands wrap even tighter around my waist.

"This cow is actually my younger cousin, Amanda," he says smoothly.

"Wha-what?" she stutters.

"My cousin, Amanda. So, what did you leave here, exactly?" he asks. Amanda mutters something and stomps off. I scramble off him and stand up, tugging on the bottom of my jumper.

"Alex!"

"What? What else was I supposed to do?" he shrugs. "Tell her you were Felecia?"

I contemplate this before grabbing my phone off the table. "You're leaving?" he asks.

"I think I should go before she comes back down," I nod in the direction of where Amanda stood. He nods and hops up off the couch. "Are you guys doing something today?"

"No, why would we-" he stops. "Oh right. No, we're not hanging out."

I laugh. He seemed to forget he has a girlfriend. "I'll see you later, babe."

"Bye, dude," he says. I wave to him and walk out of the room.

Felecia is making her breakfast in the kitchen. I walk over to the counter and lean against it. "Hi Felecia."

She looks up at me from where she's pouring her milk into her cereal. "Hi Nat," she grins wickedly.

"What's with the intense look?" I ask her.

"Are you and Alex finally dating?" she asks, sitting down beside me with her bowl.

"No!" I say. She cocks her head the side and raises her eyebrows. "We're just friends."

"Friends that sleep together on the couch. Right," she says. I blush.

"Friends can do that! We were having a movie marathon," I tell her.

She just raises her eyebrows again and takes eats her cereal and milk off her spoon. "I can't wait till you're my sister-in-law," she says. I raise my eyebrows at her and shake my head.

"See ya," I say and hop off my chair.

"Bye Nat!" she calls after me. "Have you kissed Alex goodbye yet?!"

I roll my eyes as I open the door and walk outside. I texted my mum last night to let her know where I was, so I hopefully won't get into too much trouble for staying out all night.

I walk the short distance from their front door to ours, and step inside. Mum walks around the corner with a washing basket on her hip.

"Where were you last night, missy?" she asks.

"I texted you! I was next door!" I say. Surely if she was that worried she would have called me, and I have no missed calls.

"With which person?" she raises her eyebrows evilly.

"Alex," I mumble.

"I knew it!" she says, sounding a lot like Bubbles. I roll my eyes.

"Mum, we're just friends," I say.

"I bet you didn't sleep on a mattress that he set up," she wiggles her eyebrows. I blush, and she laughs. I run up the stairs and into my room.

I haven't seen Noah at all this week, and I haven't approached him, either. Today I'm going to. I take out my phone and call Bubbles.

"Hello?" she answers on the third ring.

"Do you wanna come over?"

***

"He is such a poophole."

"I know," I say.

"I'm calling the squad," she says and takes out her phone.

"What? Why?" I jump off my bed.

"Because, if you're going to break up with him, you need to look like a sexy beast," she says and opens the call app on her apple iphone. "He obviously needs to know what he did is not ok, and that he messed with the wrong goat."

"Goat?" I ask her. She holds up a finger as she raises her phone to her ear. I walk into my bathroom and brush my teeth. When I come out of the bathroom she clicks her finger to the end call button and twirls around to face me.

"Kate can't come but the other too are. You don't have to tell them if you don't want to," she says kindly. "And I just said goat because goats are feisty. One once tried to eat my shirt when I went to this fete at my old school. That was one high goat."

I laugh at her and plop back down on my bed. She sits down, crossed legged next to me. We talk for a few minutes about how Trump's ruining America before she points one of her arms out my window, onto my balcony.

"Ooo! Look who it is," she says, pointing at Alex. I look over at the glass doors and roll my eyes, falling back down onto my pillows. Bubbles pokes my cheeks in an attempt to make me smile. "Look! He hasn't got a shirt on!"

I look over at Alex's bedroom and see that he doesn't have a shirt on and that his six pack is on full display. He runs a hand through his messy hair after throwing his shirt aside. He takes his towel off the end of his bed. He seems to notice Bubbles and I staring at him and turns around. He winks at me before stepping into his bathroom and closing the door. I grin at him before he closed it and I see his blue eyes sparkle when he returns the smile. I turn back to Bubbles and try and wipe the grin off my face. She laughs at me and gestures back out the window. "Something like that should be on display at the British Museum."

I roll my eyes at her and say, "You're delusional."

There's a knock on my door and Meghan steps inside. She only lives a few minutes away, but still, she got here in record time.

"That was quick," Bubbles voices my thoughts. Meghan shrugs.

"I was in the area," she says, taking off her jacket and placing it on a chair. I nod, and she sits down next to us on the bed. "So, you're finally breaking up with him?"

"Yup," I say. At the same moment, the door bursts open and Chloe walks – more like sprints – inside.

"You're finally breaking up with him!" she repeats Chloe's words, yelling. I nod, and she lets out a little squeal of delight. "He's a douche. Alex is yo man!"

I roll my eyes and Bubbles clears her throat. "Ladies, we have a mission. Natalie has decided to break up with Noah Jonathon Ross-"

"You know his middle name?" Meghan asks her and she shrugs but ignores the question.

"-and she needs to look like a beast when she does it. We're going to be like Cinna from the hunger games and Carrie and Taylor from Barbie: a fairy secret."

No one questions the fact that she still remembers the names of Barbie characters. Bubbles jumps up and grabs my hairbrush from off the desk. She paces in front of us like an army general, taping the hairbrush against her hand once a second.

"We need something hot," she tells us. "But something sort of... still Nat. We also need something tight, but not too tight to make her feel uncomfortable. We need something casual, but bad A-S-S," she says. "Lets begin."

The other girls stand up and follow Bubbles into the closet. I stare after them. Meghan and Chloe didn't even laugh at Bubbles' performance. They are taking this far too seriously. I try hard not to laugh at the memory of Bubbles walking around like she was leading an army. I hear them arguing from the closet about what I'm going to wear.

I don't get why this is such a big deal. Why the hell do I have to dress to impress someone I'm breaking up with. Why can't I put in some fake teeth, put on a beanie and smear some blood on my face and walk up to Noah like, "Yo, its not working, flip off."

I open my phone and check through my Instagram. There are a couple more Instagram messages from Amanda that I ignore. There's one new message from Alex I open it up and laugh when I see the 'at me bro, you come,' Yoda meme. I send him some weird gif and turn off my phone.

Meghan, Chloe and Bubbles step out of my closet with their arms full of clothes and shoes. "We have three outfits!" Bubbles says over her clothes. "One from each of us."

"Ok," I say awkwardly as they each lay an outfit down on the bed. "Choose whichever one you like," Chloe says. I look over at the clothes. Bubbles has chosen a short black skirt and silver heels with a cropped halter neck marron top. Chloe's option consists of a tiny, tiny red dress and a denim jacket. I look over at Meghan's outfit. She's chosen a pair of ripped jeans and a thin-wool halter-neck singlet type of top. There's a pink jacket with gold zips lying next to the outfit along with a pair of black boots.

"Sorry, guys, but I'm going to have to go with Meghan's," I tell them. Bubbles and Chloe pout but return to the closet to put their chosen clothes and shoes away. Meghan hands the clothes to me. I walk over to the bathroom and put on the clothes. The boots annoy me the most, because of the heels, but I can deal with it.

I walk back out of the bathroom once I've got the clothes on and Bubbles nods her head. "Yes, I like it," she says in some kind of weird accent. "I know exactly the kind of make up and hair we need to do."

I groan as they lead me over to the desk and sit me down in front of the mirror resting on the small table. Bubbles goes to get the box of my makeup from out of the cupboard. She walks back over and starts doing my make up.

***

It doesn't take very long at all, in the space of just ten minutes, Bubbles has finished both my hair and make-up and it looks alright. My eyes have dark eyeliner around them and some brown/beige kind of eyeshadow thing going on. My cheeks have a heap of what Bubbles calls 'contour' on them, and my cheekbones stick out.

My hair is slightly wavy, my normal kind of hair style. Bubbles just brushed out the knots and picked up two strands of hair and ties them behind my head. She pinches the front of the strands and pulls out two locks of hair that frame my face.

"I'm done!" Bubbles says to Meghan and Chloe. They both walk over and smile at me.

"You look great, Nat!" Meghan says. Chloe nods along with her.

"Thanks guys," I walk over and grab my purse from my bedside table and stuff in my keys and phone, checking how much money I have in it.

"Well, I better get going, Mum wants me home for lunch," Meghan says.

"Me too," says Chloe.

"Me three," Bubbles agrees.

"Thank you so much guys," I say and walk over to hug them. Meghan and Chloe leave but Bubbles stays behind for a little bit, taking something out of her small back-pack. It's a bottle full of gold sparkly stuff. She sprays some into my hair and puts it back into her bag. She sees my questioning look.

"It makes you smell like coconuts," she says.

"Why do I need to smell like coconuts to break up with someone?" I ask. She shrugs and hugs me.

"Go and kill that guy. Slay, babe," she says, and I laugh.

"Thanks, Bubbles," I say, and she shrugs as if to say, 'no problem.'

She smiles at me before walking out. I walk back to my bed and lie down, careful not to mess up my hair. I pick up my phone, opening my messages with Noah and placing my hands over the keyboard. What the hell am I supposed to write? I can't really say 'hey, wanna meet at a café?' that'd make him think it's a date. Before I can make my mind up about what I'm going to say, Bubbles runs back around the corner and tells me, "You say: 'we need to talk' when you're breaking up with someone."

And with that, she runs back down the stairs and I hear the door closing a minute later. I look down at my phone and text Noah.

Hey, can we meet up? I need to talk to you.

His reply comes about a second after I read 'delivered' on my phone.

Of course, I'll pick you up in five.

I look down at his reply. Five minutes? That fast? I shrug and return my phone to its place in my purse.

I walk around my room for a couple of minutes, tossing my purse up and down in my hand. I turn around when I feel someone watching me.

Alex is inside his room, a towel around his waist, his hair wet, a shirt in one hand. His mouth forms an almost perfect, 'o' and his shirt falls out of his hand soon after I turn to look at him. Why have I never noticed how great he looks in just a towel? Oh, that's right, I've never seen him in adjust a towel before.

I turn away quickly before he can notice my staring. I bend down to zip up my boots and stay there for a few minutes, hoping Alex isn't still in his room. I shut my eyes tightly when I hear taps on my large French doors. I open my eyes back up and stand up, turning around and looking over at him.

Luckily, he's got a shirt and some pants on, his leather jacket in one hand, a fistful of small pebbles in the other. I see the pot plant next to where he stands on the balcony and my eyes travel to the pebbles inside and the ones that have landed just outside my doors. I open the door just as he throws another one.

"Alex!" I say when it hits me on the arm.

"Sorry," he says. I glare at him and walk over to the railing, leaning over it so that we're face to face. We look at each other for a few seconds before he coughs and breaks eye-contact. "Where are you going?"

"Oh, I – um, I'm going to see Noah," I reply, stuttering. He looks back at me, his eyes hard.

"On a date?" he asks, his eyes travelling from my feet to my eyes. I look down at my boots.

"Not really," I say.

"Not really?" he asks, cocking his head to the side.

"I- I'm actually – uhm – " I'm cut off by the beeping of a horn outside my house. God, Noah, do you have to be so loud? I look back into Alex's blue eyes, his searching mine, trying to figure out what I was going to say. "I better go."

"Oh," he says and breaks eye contact. "See you later."

"Bye, Alex," I say and slide quickly back into my room, walking out the door, down the stairs and out of the house. I slide into Noah's car and buckle my seat belt.

"You look... Wow," he says, his eyes looking at me up and down. I squirm uncomfortably, I don't like the way his hard, brown eyes are surveying me like I'm a prized cow at a farm fete. He finally stops looking at me and turns the car on. "So, where are we going?'

"Uhm, maybe just to a café or something?" I say. He shrugs, nodding his head.

"Let's go then."

***

We arrive at a small restaurant right next to the ice-cream shop Alex and I were at yesterday. Noah sips his coffee and texts on his phone. I drink my milkshake and study him.

I remember the first time we spoke, in the library, when I thought he was some kind of a sweet nerd that was stalking me. I thought of how he was looking over at his friends during the retreat day, maybe hoping they'd see him with me, getting one step closer to winning his stupid bet. I thought of when he kissed me for the first time, when I was nowhere near ready and kind of, deep down, starting to question whether or not I wanted to be in a relationship with a jock. I wonder how good he is at acting, the first few times I saw him, he definitely convinced me that he was just some geek. I suppose he did rush our relationship, asking me to be his girlfriend before I had gotten to know him at all. I should've known he just wanted to use me. There isn't anyone in the world that wants me for me, except my friends.

"Nat?" Noah asks me. I immediately snap out of my blatant staring and sit up straight. He chuckles before saying, "So, what did you want to talk about?"

"Oh, yeah," I say, swirling my milkshake around the cup. I decide to just put it out there opening. He doesn't think I deserve respect, so I won't give him any. "I think we should break up. Its not really working, I never really liked you, you're a douche. You should really be dating someone just like you; arrogant, rude, disrespectful and shallow. Bye Noah, have a lovely day."

And with that, I take my straw out of the cup and pour the rest of my milkshake on top of his head.

I grab my purse, not looking back once. I hear him yell out curses after me as I walk out the door.

I smell the sweet smell of the ocean as I walk along the beach to the train station a hundred meters away, knowing he might chase after me with his car on the streets.

I reach the train station and catch the train to the station nearest to my house. As I hop off, I think about what I just did. I know I should feel completely horrible about myself, but I can't help feeling like a boss. I hope my strawberry milkshake never comes out of his hair, he might actually smell good for once.

When I get home, I sit down in the living room and watch Netflix for an hour or two. Mum, Dad and the twins are at a soccer match, so I have the house to myself, my mum informed me with a note on the fridge.

I finish my seventh episode of Brooklyn nine-nine and feel a ding from my phone. I take it out of my purse and walk up the stairs. Bubbles has sent me a post on Instagram. Curiously, I click on it. A video starts playing and I turn up my volume, just as I reach my room and close the door.

"-You're a douche. You should really be dating someone just like you; arrogant, rude, disrespectful and shallow. Bye Noah, have a lovely day."

I hear my own voice and look closer at the screen. Someone's just started taping, probably because they heard some juicy stuff. I look at my face, then at Noah's - his is flabbergasted and surprised, mine is almost calm, with a hint of disgust on my features.

I stand up and take my straw out of my cup and pour the entire milkshake onto Noah's head. His mouth opens in surprise and I slam my glass down, quickly spinning on my high-heel and walking away briskly. I hadn't even noticed I was wearing heels. I give myself a mental pat on the back for not falling over while I walked out of the cafe.

The newly-pink and slimy Noah yells out curses and sends a few nasty comments after me before the video stops. I look up at the person's profile and click on it. In there bio it has their school - Lakewater high, and their grade - Junior. The caption of the video reads:

Look at this! What a way to end a relationship! 😂😂😂

I chuck my phone on my bed after pressing the off switch. I take off my boots and jacket and tie my hair into a really messy bun. I take off my make up and lie down on my bed. I turn my head to the side after staring up at the ceiling.

Alex is in his room, playing on his phone. I get up off my bed and walk over to my doors and unlocking them. Alex doesn't look up from his phone and I don't have any pebbles to throw. I stand on the stool next to the railing and clamber up onto the metal. I look over at Alex's side and close my eyes, taking a deep breath and launching myself into the air and over the railing.

With my eyes still shut tight, I prepare myself to land - or die. Instead, I fall straight into someone's arms. I open my eyes and look into Alex's. His blue orbs are twinkling in the twilight and he's grinning foolishly as he pushes a stray lock of hair out of my face.

"You broke up with Noah," he says. I smile up at him.

"Yeah," I say. His smile widens as he looks down at me. "You can put my down now."

"Oh, right," he says and lowers me to the ground. I raise an eyebrow at him. "So, why'd you break up with him?"

"It just wasn't working," I say. Its not a complete lie.

"I'll see you at school tomorrow, then, dude," he says.

"G'night babe," I say. He helps me onto the railing and I jump over to my side, smiling at him before walking inside and closing my curtains, heading downstairs to have dinner.

***

The next day at school passes uneventfully. I saw Noah in the corridor once, when he glared at me before I quickly turned the corner to avoid him. My friends made a big show of expressing their pride.

Bubbles and I are walking through the halls after the final bell of the day rings when we see people crowding around a set of lockers. People are trying to peek through the crowd to see the scene before them. There is a lot of yelling coming from boys, but one voice is grunting with effort, and I recognize who it is without seeing them immediately.

"Alex!" I run forward and quickly push my way through the crowd. I see Alex lying on top of someone, punching their face, so that I can't recognize who it is. Some jocks are cheering loudly, wooping for their friend to get back up. I look between them and realise, with a jolt, that Noah is underneath Alex.

Alex's eyes are hard and his knuckles are bleeding freely. Noah is trying to push Alex off him, but he won't budge. If someone doesn't stop this soon, Noah could get seriously injured.

"Alex!" I yell at him. He doesn't stop punching Noah. He just hits him harder. I hear a crack and blood starts pouring down from Noah's nose. "Alex! Stop it! Alex! Please!"

People are starting to look my way, as I stand there, crying and pleading for Alex to stop. When he just punches Noah harder, I run forwards. "Alex!"

Alex punches Noah in the eye and grabs him by the shirt, yelling into his face, "You f***ing p**ck, don't you ever touch her again. You hear me? DON'T LAY A HAND ON HER AGAIN!"

Noah grunts and Alex slams him back onto the floor, continuing to beat him. "Alex! Alex! Stop it, stop it NOW! Alex!"

My pleading is useless. Alex is so, so close to knocking Noah out. I crouch down beside Alex and put a hand on the back of his neck. "Alex," I whisper. His head snaps up and he looks up at me, dropping his hands from Noah. His eyes are so, so dark they're almost black. I push his hair back from his face and his eyes meet mine. His breathing is heavy, until it eventually evens out.

Leo and Callum rush into the middle of the circle and stare at the scene around them. Alex's eyes don't leave mine. "I'm sorry," he whispers to me before burying his head in my neck, his arms wrapping themselves around my waist. I push my fingers into his hair and play with their his soft curls.

Noah isn't moving, his friends are crowded around him, not knowing what to do. I hear the crowd yelling around us. Someone is screaming for a teacher and more people are blocking the hallway.

I hear the echo of heels in the corridor and everything goes silent. The headmistress pushes her way into the center and looks at the scene around her. Her eyes fall on Noah and they widen. Her gaze then travels to Alex and I and I quickly push his off me, my hands immediately missing the touch of his soft hair.

"Mr Collins," the headmistress says sternly. "If you would please follow me. And Ms Bennett, you may come along for... moral support."

And that, my friends, is how Alex ended up sitting in a prison cell, with me facing him on the other side.

______________________________________________________

Dramatic, much? I think so.

What has been your favourite chapter so far?

Did you like my random gif? Anyway, comment and vote! Merry Christmas everyone!