Chapter 13 | Arguments, detention and more jealousy

Isabella:

"Thank you for that wonderful presentation!" Mr Carter smiles as the rest of the class begin to clap and Lucas and I take a seat back down at our desks.

As the next pair stand up to present Lucas nudges me with the elbow. "Thanks for completing the project," he tells me and I keep my gaze to the front of the class.

I nod curtly in reply and from my peripheral vision I can still see Lucas staring at the side of my head.

"I'm sorry you had to do it by yourself," he apologises, his tone laced with guilt.

"It's fine," I respond, my tone clipped.

After the whole situation that went down in Millie's I hadn't spoken to Lucas at all. He had only messaged me a couple days after claiming that he was busy and that Ivy had 'banned' him from hanging out with me and I had a strong feeling it had something to do with our lovely conversation at the fair a handful of days ago, so I was left doing the entire assignment all alone. It had taken me double the time to do so and I had only, in fact, finished it yesterday evening, giving me just enough time to forward Lucas the bits that he would need when we would be presenting to the class.

It was safe to say I was kind of irked. I thought it was immature of Ivy to ban Lucas from doing a measly school project with me but I seemed to be even more mad at Lucas for not even trying to do his part of the assignment. I mean, he could've done a lot by himself without us meeting up but no, he left it all to me to do.

Now that I think about it, recently all I ever seemed to be was be annoyed at Lucas.

"I promise I'll make it up to you," he eggs on and I roll my eyes.

"It's FINE," I say a little louder than I had meant to and the entire class turn to face me.

Mr Carter frowns. "Isabella is there something you want to share with the class?"

"No," I mutter, burning red and sliding down in my seat. "Sorry."

He nods curtly and turns back to the pair presenting and gestures for them to continue.

As the presentions continue, Lucas tries to constantly gain my attention but I proceed to ignore him, not caring what he has to say.

Poke. "Isabella."

Poke. "Isabella stop airing me."

Poke. "C'mon Isabella please stop ignoring me."

Poke. "Belly please."

At the use of my old nickname I remain even more silent and instead scoot my chair right to the edge of the desk so I'm more further away from Lucas and his frankly very aggravating poking.

But for some odd reason Lucas still doesn't take the hint and continues to bug me to gain his attention.

Poke. "Isabella."

"Isabella." More poking.

I grind my teeth together to try and stop myself from lashing out in the middle of class but alas after the 60th million time someone pokes your arm is it really a surprise that I crack.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT?" I snap at Lucas, yanking my arm upwards and he jumps back in shock at my abrupt motion.

The entire class falls eerily silent and I feel all eyes on me and before Lucas can even answer my question Mr Carter's voice booms at me from the front and I shut my eyes and wince.

"Ms Quintero, please step outside," he says sternly and I don't even protest. Aggressively tucking my chair under the desk, I leave the class straight away.

I sigh a breath of relief as I step out into the empty hallway, relieved that I've finally gotten away from Lucas's bloody annoying-ness even if it has probably cost me a detention.

But unfortunately, that doesn't last for long as only a moment later none other than the bastard himself steps out into the hallway.

I throw my hands up into the air exasperatedly and groan loudly. "Why God why?"

"Mr Carter sent me out too." He puts his palms up in surrender as I begin to pace the hallway.

There is silence for a while, the only sounds being the echo of my angry footsteps stomping across the linoleum floor.

Well that is until Lucas begins to speak again.

"Isabella, er, why are you so mad?"

I stop marching abruptly and spin back around to face him, my eyes narrowing immediately. "Why do you think?"

"I apologised though!" He exclaims exasperatedly and I roll my eyes.

"Your sorry means nothing!"

Lucas crosses his arms across his chest and his eyebrows draw together. "Well what else am I supposed to do?"

"I don't know," I scoff, running a hand through my hair frustratedly. "Maybe actually try to reason with your psycho girlfriend. You could've tried to find away to help me with the project...there was other ways to help, you didn't have to leave it all to me!" At his silence I continue rambling.

"You know I gave up my entire weekend and spent these past 4 days trying to do that bloody project! I was supposed to hang out with Mia and Grace but I had to cancel because I was too busy putting together that bloody presentation. You know I had to put bloody animations and transitions in between each slide because you bloody fussed over them at the start so it looked odd if I didn't bloody add them in the other slides, so that took up even more time!" I begin marching up and down the corridor again, fuming. "I'm sleep deprived, annoyed and bloody exhausted and it's all because of you!"

He watches me pace up and down the hallway in silence for a moment before deciding to speak up again.

"Are you jealous?"

I spin around so fast, my hair whips me in the face. "What?" I seethe as he walks towards me.

Is he actually serious?

He just listened to me ranting and jealousy is what he picks up from this? I can't believe the bastard.

He leans down, humour flaring in his eyes. "I said are you fucking jealous?"

I step closer to him, closing the distance between us and jab a finger to his chest. "Jealous of what exactly?"

"Jealous of me and Ivy."

"Why would I be jealous of your toxic ass relationship?"

"I don't know," he shrugs, his eyes narrowing. "But you seem awfully invested in my relationship for a person that's not jealous."

"First of all where the hell are you getting this from and second of all what do you mean by-" I lift my fingers up and make air quotation marks. "awfully invested in your relationship."

"I mean," he begins in a matter of fact sort of way. "For some reason you absolutely hate my relationship with her."

I furrow my eyebrows. "Er that's not true and a lot of people hate your relationship so if I did, which I don't, I wouldn't be the only one who didn't like you guys together."

He nods his head. "Yeah but you seem to dislike us the most."

"What?" I scrunch up my face in confusion. "I barely even talk to you guys."

"Yeah but I've still caught onto things."

"Like what exactly?"

He gives me a pointed look. "You always grimace when you see us together."

"That's because your PDA is sickening to watch."

He ignore me and continues speaking. "You don't like Ivy."

"That's because she's fucking rude!"

"I always see you staring at us when we're kissing."

I don't have a reply to that so I just deny. "No I don't!"

"Don't lie! I saw you watching us from your bedroom the other day!"

Um he saw that? "That's because you don't know how to close your curtains!"

"You're always seem to be annoyed at me whenever I'm with her."

"I'm not annoyed at you whenever you're with Ivy, I'm annoyed at you because YOU ARE BLOODY ANNOYING."

Throughout our arguing match we seem to have gotten even closer and our chests are now bumping against each other (well more like my chest is bumping against his stomach) and his face is only mere inches away from my face.

I scoff. "I can't believe you're so full of yourself that you actually think I have nothing better to do than spend my time being jealous of you two!"

"I'm just stating the facts," he smirks and I want to slap that bloody look off of his bloody face.

"It's not facts when it's not true."

We stand like this my eyes narrowed at him, irritation flaring in my iris whilst Lucas stares back at me with that fucking smirk playing on his lips and amusement lacing his features. I shake my head slowly after a while however. "You've changed."

"You're so different now," I continue. "You're violent and act like a dick and you're so much more piss taking than I remember."

He snaps his head up like I've slapped him and his smirk drops. "Of course I've changed Isabella. We're not 10 years old anymore!" When I don't say anything, he continues. "You left me and didn't contact me for six fucking years of course you're going to think I'm different." I hear remnants of hurt lacing his voice.

I narrow my eyes, crossing my arms across my chest. "I didn't have a choice leaving Lucas, I was ten....and it's not like you tried to contact me either!"

He shakes his head suddenly looking solemn. "You know you were my best friend," he breathes, running a hand through his hair exasperatedly and I take a step back. "And you just left."

"I was not your best friend!"

"Yes you were!"

"No I wasn't!"

He nods his head slowly. "You we're my best friend but I wasn't yours."

I furrow my eyebrows and look up at him, a number of emotions are drawn across his features. Hurt included.

"Mia and Grace were yours," he sighs, looking down at his shoes. "Even though Aidan and Dylan are like brothers to me, they're closer friends. They always have been. Probably always will be." He pauses and lifts his head to meet my gaze. "I always saw you as my best friend."

"You're lying."

"What? Why would I lie about that?"

At my lack of reply Lucas throws me a look. "Think about it Bella. I was always at you house when we were kids, I would always pair up with you when we would play games, even when we were all hanging out together I used to stick with you, because you were my best friend."

I shake my head. "That doesn't make sense, how was I your best friend when you used to-"

"Right," the door swings open and into the hallway walks in a very irked Mr Carter, cutting me off from finishing my sentence.

"You two," he glares and nags a finger at the both of us menacingly. "Get back into class. If I so much hear another peep from the two of you, you will both be in deep trouble!"

"Yes sir," Lucas and I reply simultaneously.

"Also I've changed your seating plan. The both of you don't sit together anymore. Isabella I've moved you to the back."

"Fine by me," I shrug and I see Lucas rolling his eyes from my peripheral vision.

"Also you two have detention after school at 4pm sharp in room 416."

"But Sir-" Lucas tries to argue but Mr Carter glowers at him and Lucas immediately shuts up, his mouth pulled into a frown.

"Do you want me to turn that into a week of detentions Mr Miller?"

Lucas huffs still frowning. "No."

"Good." He looks back and forth between the both of us, pressing his lips into a thin line. "Now go back into class in absolute silence please."

"You're going to miss sitting next to me," Lucas whispers in my ear as we follow Mr Carter back into class.

"Lucas! What did I say about talking!"

***

Lucas:

"No."

I furrow my eyebrows. "Babe what do you mean by no."

Ivy crosses her arms across her chest and glares at me. "You heard me, I don't trust you." She taps her feet on the tile floor of the lunchroom and gazes around the canteen aimlessly as I give her an incredulous look.

"What?" A pang of hurt jolts through me. "Babe when have I ever given you a reason not to trust me?"

"You haven't but still." She shrugs her shoulders nonchalantly, looking down at her nails in a bored manner. "Why are you so adamant on this anyways? Why are you so desperate to hang out with other girls?"

"Ivy I'm not that bothered about hanging out with them, it's just just think it's a little...extreme that you won't even let me do school projects with other girls. That's all."

She gazes back up at me and stares at me in silence for a bit, pondering.

"Fine," she says after a beat. "Maybe I was being a little harsh."

I grin. "You think?" I tease, swinging an arm around her before smacking a kiss on her cheek.

She ignores my teasing and looks up at me, worry drawn across her features and begins to bite her thumb nervously. "Lucas...you won't cheat on me will you?"

My face immediately softens and I squeeze her shoulder comfortingly. "Never," I reassure her. "I wouldn't do that to you babe."

Ivy bites her lip and looks at me skeptically, not looking quite reassured. "It's not like you'd go for her...right?"

My eyebrows furrow quizzically. "Who are you on about?"

She sighs. "Never mind."

I don't get a chance to prod on what she was talking about as a hard slap on my back distracts me. "Ouch!" I yelp as both Dylan and Aidan come into view.

"We've been looking everywhere for you," Dylan grins at me. "You just missed it, there was a fight between Juan and Logan outside."

I raise my eyebrows. "Juan and Logan? As is Logan the really quiet dude in our maths class?"

"Yeah, Juan got fucked up, he definitely has a broken nose." Aidan tsks. "Didn't know Logan had it in him."

"Damn what were they fighting over?"

Aidan shrugs. "Apparently Juan was saying shit about Logan's parents and Logan flipped, I feel bad for him, Juan is a prick."

"A hot prick at that." Dylan sighs wistfully and I snort.

"Bro he's homophobic and racist as hell."

"The hot ones always are." He exhales defeatedly just as I wiggle my eyebrows suggestively at him.

"I'm not."

Dylan scrunches up his nose and punches my arm. "You're the only exception," he replies, as I rub the place on my arm Dylan hit. It's probably bruising by the second; Dylan's punches are strong. "But you're literally my brother so no incest-y shit for me."

"Plus he has a girlfriend," Ivy adds clearing her throat and glaring at my friend.

Aidan raises his eyebrows. "It was literally a joke."

"It wasn't funny though."

"Sweetheart, I think your thong is too up your ass, why are you taking this so seriously?" Dylan snorts, crossing his arms across his chest.

Ivy rolls her eyes. "Do you and Mia share cusses or something? Cos I swear she pulled that line on me the other day when she was harassing me."

"Great minds just think alike babe." Dylan winks at her before coughing and mumbling under his breath. "And we might have written a list together."

"Fucking weirdos," Ivy mutters. She turns to me. "I'm gonna go find Luna I think that bitch got lost or something she was supposed to meet me here 20 minuets ago."

"Alright babe." I kiss her on the forehead. "I have detention so I don't think I'll see you at the end of the day."

"Why am I even surprised?" She rolls her eyes again and waves at me. I watch her retreating figure as the bustling crowd practically paves a way for my girlfriend as she weaves her way through the lunch hall and out of the doors.

"Bro what do you have detention for this time?" Aidan grumbles and I turn my head to look at him.

I sigh. "I was annoying Isabella and she got mad and shouted at me in the middle of class. Oh and then we may have had a screaming match when we got sent outside." I pause, tapping my chin thoughtfully as I recollect the events that went down last period. "You know, I don't think she likes me very much."

Both Dylan and Aidan share a look as I tell them this.

"What?" I quiz them confused. "Why are you two looking at each other like that?"

"Nothing." Dylan merely turns back to me and smirks. "And I agree, by the sound of it, you kind of piss her off a lot."

Aidan nods his head in agreement just as I shrug my shoulders. "I don't know why though. I thought we were close when we were kids but ever since she's been back she just seems to be annoyed whenever she's around me or just gives me the cold shoulder."

I eye the guys, my eyebrows drawn together. "Do you think I did something?"

"Hm," Aidan scratches his chin before sending Dylan another one of those looks they were sharing before. "I'm not sure but I think you should find out."

"Yeah," Dylan agrees. "Like hang out with her more, maybe she'll warm up to you or even tell you if you did anything wrong."

"Okay," I nod. "Anything else."

Aidan presses his lips together to suppress a smile. "Nope just...be at her side every waking second you can. That'll help her warm up to you...maybe even cause her to like you again."

Dylan snorts but quickly covers his laugh up with a cough. I eye him weirdly just as the bell rings signalling the end of lunch.

"Alright I've gotta get to English, I'll see you guys tomorrow."

"Have fun in detention!" Aidan calls out as I begin to walk away and I raise my eyebrows at him.

"Will do!"

***

Isabella:

Detention was dragging to say the least. It had only been 10 minuets but it felt like 10 years had passed.

I huff and sit back against my seat, drumming my fingers along the desk. I scan my eyes across the class. The detention teacher, whose name I've yet to learn, is marking papers in the front and there are about 5 or so other people in the room. A couple of people I recognise from a handful of my classes are in here too. Lucas is sitting on the other side of the classroom and we lock eye contact. He sends me a cheeky smile, dimples popping out and all and I roll my eyes in reply, showing him the middle finger.

He chuckles before mouthing something to me. It's un readable so I give him a confused look and he pulls out his phone and gestures to it.

I quickly realise what he's trying to get me to do and I look back at the front. The teacher seems to be preoccupied so I slyly take out my phone from the pocket of my jeans and turn it on. I double check to see if it's silent before opening up mine and Lucas' messages.

Unsaved Number

Lucas: I talked to
Ivy at lunch and she
has unbanned me from
hanging out with you  :)

Me: Um I don't care
if she's 'unbanned' you
anymore, the assignment
is over now.

Lucas: Wow so you
don't want to hang out
with me :( Thanks for hurting
my feelings Bella.

Me: You're welcome besite x

Lucas: Aw you called me bestie.

Me: Shutup

Lucas: Thats it. Because
you're being rude I'll let
you walk home.

Me: I don't need to walk
home, my mom is picking me up.

Lucas: No she's not, she just
asked me if I could drop you off.

Me: What?

That's the moment when I get a notification from my mom saying she has to stay late at work so won't be able to pick me up and that she's asked Lucas if he can take me home instead.

I groan a loud and that gains the attention of several other students in the class and the swivel their heads to glance back at me. Lucas included.

Lucas: You don't seem
that happy to be getting
a ride home from me.

Me: You think?

Lucas: That's the final strike,
you're