chapter five ; the ride

wren, sam and i ended up going to the friday basketball game after school. i wasn't really feeling it since I'm not really into sports and I only tried to understand the mechanics and how they work because of jake. when he was still here and he plays, I was always the one who screams louder than everyone else, wearing his extra jersey. But now that he's gone, I don't think I can sit through a game without zoning out.

rob harrison, one of jake's teammates, announced at school this morning that there will be a victory party at his place tonight at 8, because he's 'sure as hell' that they are going to win.

a triumphant roar erupted and I jumped in surprise when sam and wren stood up abruptly, screaming their heads off along with everyone else. I zoned out for more than 10 times for the past hour and I don't even know what's happening inside the court.

"fuck yeah! dempsey for the win!" sam screams beside me, wiggling her blue and white balloons with one hand. wren giggles and screams right after, "go dempsey!"

i frown. "I didn't know you two like zach."

sam and wren sits down and turned to me. wren shrugs, "I don't like like dempsey in that kind of way, I mean, he's hot."

"smoking hot. damn it, you're such a lucky biatch. you get to see him in weekends because of your brother." sam snorts, finishing my sausage with one bite.

"hey, my sausage!" I whine, looking helplessly at her "well, yeah, okay, let's say, he's an okay-kind-of-guy. he's tall, and a jock and popular, he bats an eyelash and girls fall to his lap, he's kind of hot, yes but.. I don't know, he's not my type, I guess?"

sam and wren gasps and stares at me with wide eyes, they share a glance and then Wren hits me on the back of my head. "zach dempsey? an okay-kind-of-guy? he's okay? and what did you fucking say? kind of hot and not your type?"

sammy joins in, "oh honey, zach dempsey is precious. he's fucking hot and everyone's fucking type in a guy. he has asshole friends but he's sweet. kat said he is, and totally unpredictable! like, the sweet kind of unpredictable."

I shake my head and rolled my eyes, gazing straight ahead and staring at zach who drinks intensely on his bottled water. his hair is slightly damp with sweat and some of it clings to his forehead and he tries to shake it off. sam and wren follow my line of sight and immediately transformes into a love-sick puppy.

I say, "i don't know. for pete's sake, he's one my brother's bestfriend. i was warned by jake for my whole life to never look at his friends in that way. He doesn't want me hooking up with his friends."

wren perked up and she beamed at me, "i could always persuade your brother to do what i want."

sam and wren high-fives and wiggles their eyebrows at me.

I groan and flip them off. "whatever. i'll buy myself a drink, i'll be right back."

people make way for me as I walk down the aisle, earning greetings and compliments about how my hair looked good today or how my outfit looks good and trendy and where did I buy my joggers. i hear my name being called and I turn to my left and narrowed my eyes at the sea of crowd.

"gabriella!"

i see clay waving and I smile, wobbling on my heels slightly as I walk towards him. i pat his head when I reach him, "hey clay doh, what's up?"

clay waves my hand away playfully with a smile and gestures to the girl beside him. "oh, I wanted to introduce you to my friend, hannah." I look at hannah and was astounded by how beautiful she is. her brown hair was long and wavy, big crystallized eyes staring back at me and the bright, beautiful smile adorning her lips.

"hannah baker meet gabriella emerson." clay says, a grin spreading on his lips as his eyes held contact with hannah's. i squint my eyes at him suspiciously but decided to let it go, I'll bug him later on about it.

I smile down at hannah and offered my hand for her to shake, "hey, hannah. nice to meet you. i've heard about you, y'know."

hannah shakes my hand gently and jokes, "good things I hope?"

I laugh and nodded, looking over at the food stand. "as much as I love getting to know you, hannah, and chit-chatting with you, clay, i am in need of lemonade drink. so I guess I'll see you at the victory party at rob's?"

clay looks like he's about to decline but I cut him off, "jeff wants you to! we want you to and jeff will kill you if you don't show. show hannah around, introduce her to everyone."

"it's not like jeff can actually kill me, the guy adores me!" clay says smugly. "and the one who should be introducing her to everyone would be you, little miss popular."

I chuckle and started making my way back to the aisle. I call out, "whatever. i'll see you later, okay?"

clay shouts after me, "but—"

"no ifs, no buts, jensen!"

i made it down the bleachers without falling on my face with success in a matter of 2 minutes. I pant slightly and turn to my left, when I hear the voice of an asshole calling out, "wow, look at that ass! hey, emerson! looking good as ever today."

i glare at bryce and give him the finger, continuing to walk by them when I feel a hand slap against my ass. i stop abruptly, feeling my anger boil fiercely inside me that I could literally see red.

i turn back to bryce who leaned back in his seat smugly, a smirk on his lips. my anger flared even more and I find myself pulling back my hand and punching him with all my strength. his head bent backward sharply that I hear the crack of bone, he topples back to monty, who I just noticed was sitting behind him.

oohs broke out from the people who saw and bryce's stupid goons looked at me with fear, "damn girl, where the fuck is your chill?" my blood was still boiling and I feel my heel-clad foot kicking his groin.

he wheezed in pain, letting go of his nose and cupping his jewels with a pained expression. i realize a red substance gushing out his nose freely and i feel satisfaction, i grip his hair and bring his face close to my face, "you don't get to fucking touch me or any girl without their permission, do you fucking understand? the next time you do, I will fucking cut your dick off!"

a pair of muscular arms wrapped around my waist and dragged me away from bryce and I slap it off. "get off of me, montgomery."

he does and I walk towards the food stand straight away, brushing myself off. he follows me and gives me a 'what-the-fuck?' look. "what happened back there?! you went all amazona on bryce, jesus!"

i scoff, turning to him with disbelief. "he slapped my ass! he doesn't get to do that when I don't want him to! he rudely called out to me and was a pig. you were there and you didn't do a damn thing."

he opens his mouth and closes it, obviously speechless. "you know what? fuck off, montgomery. i can't believe you let him talk and touch me like that!"

i walk away angrily from him long before he could respond, going towards the food stand where courtney refills the lemonade. i fish out for a dollar from my pocket and deadpanned, "lemonade please. medium-sized."

courtney glances at me and she smiles, "hey, gabriella! you look beautiful."

"thanks." I say shortly with a scowl.

she probably notices my bad temper and decided to stay quiet. she hands me my lemonade and calls out to me, "see you at the party!"

when I get back to wren and sam, they shower me with questions and praise.

"damn, you broke bryce walker nose! serves him right, he fucking touched your ass." sam gushes, watching bryce walk out of the court.

wren's phone dinged and she reads it, turned to me with confusion.

"monty just told me to talk to you. what happened?"

"we're in a fight. leave that asshole on read."

⇢ ⇢ ⇢

the basketball game ended at 7 and after the whole thing with bryce, I texted jake about what happened and he facetimed with me, demanding to know what happened. he got so angry that he would beat bryce's face up with a baseball bat over and over until it's black and blue, but mom wouldn't give him his car keys.

monty have been texting me repeatedly, giving me his puppy dog eyes from the other end of the court.

i stand impatiently beside sam and drank my third lemonade happily in silence, sulking because I may not have a ride home and to the party. wren went home 15 minutes ago to change her clothes and wait for the party to begin. jeff's with his buddies at rob's already, texting me martin dragged him along. sam's waiting for her sister so they could go home and change outfits too. monty's obviously off the list and since I have so many friends in liberty high, I'm too shy to get them to drive me home and to the party.

sam's sister, cara, shows up beside me and pats me in the head. "hey, elle. saw you kick ass awhile ago, proud of you, kid!"

i shrug her off, a small smile playing on my lips. "i did good, didn't I?"

cara laughs and smacks sam at the back of her head, "hey, loser! let's go."

"can you please, please, please just drop me off at home? maybe I could get my dad or whoever to drive me to the party? that's it. Just please."

cara raises an eyebrow. "you could get monty to do that for you. he does everything you say."

"she hates him right now so monty's off the list." sam remarks, smirking.

cara looks at aam then to me before holding my hand and dragging me to the basketball players who's packing up their things, done taking their showers. she calls out, "hey monty! give your girl a ride."

"i am not his girl and I am not riding with monty and that's final." i snap.

"i'm just hitching a ride with bryce." justin explains. "sorry, gabriella."

coleman butts in, "emerson should've told me sooner, before my car was packed."

"yeah. you're jake's sister, you're one of our friends now, emerson. you should've told me right before this jackasses decided to make me as their drivers."

bryce who looked awful with two bloodied tampons stuck deep in his nose interfered, "you could always ride with me or y'know, you could ride me."

i was about to lunge at him when monty shoves him hard, "fuck you man. stop talking to her like that."

"what? i'm being nice." bryce says with a smirk.

among the low chit-chats, a voice interrupted.

"i could take you."

all of our heads snapped at the voice's direction and my eyebrows raised in surprise.

sam nudged me with her elbow harshly, whispering. "what the fuck, you lucky bitch!?"

zach smiles at me, "i've been to your house for hundreds of time now. i won't mind giving you a ride."

cara turns to me. "looks like you have dempsey as your knight in shining armour now, kiddo." she walks up to zach and gives him a dangerous look, "if i find out you hurt her in every way, i will crush your balls, dempsey."

zach smiles, looking a bit nervous. "never in a million years, williams."

sam stifles a squeal and i shove her, shooting her an annoyed look.

bryce rolls his eyes, "whatever. let's go, people. it's 7:27 already."

everyone scatters to get their things and some of them walks out of the court to go to their cars. I shoot zach a grateful smile, "thank you.. so much for doing this. you have no idea how thankful I am."

zach shrugs, carrying his duffel bag and gesturing for me to follow. i just realized how freakishly tall he is that the top of my head only reaches his adam's apple.

and I'm wearing heels ...

we approach his beautiful, shiny, grey audi parked at the front. his plate number still says, "IMZEE1" just like I remembered. it's not the first time i rode his car. justin always tags him along when he comes over and jake makes me go with them sometimes when we're all alone.

zach flaunts, "she looks beautiful, doesn't she? got her cleaned up yesterday."

"your love for your car never fails to amaze me, dempsey." I tease.

when we arrive at our house, the lights were off except for the porch and the living room where the lamp is turned on but that doesn't mean someone's home. we always leave it open every night. we get out of the car and I see a paper taped at the door.

Gabriella, your uncles and I are going to work overnight. We'll be home at 8 in the morning. Dinner's at the fridge if you're hungry. Lock the doors okay? Call us if something happens. Love, Dad.

i sigh and rip the paper from the door, taking the keys from the plant's pot and opening the door. i look at zach to see him frowning, "your dad and uncles leaves you all by yourself at night?"

"yeah. has been ever since mom took jake." I say shortly, forcing a smile. "thank you for the ride, zach. drive home safe, okay? i'll see you later."

"wait, wait." he chuckles, looking at me incredulously. "you didn't think I was gonna leave you all by yourself, right? you're gonna be alone and you won't have a ride to the party. so I'm staying."

"oh yeah? well then, how are you going to change for the party, dumbass?" I fire back playfully.

zach gestures his hands to his body, "i look good in whatever I wear." he pushes past me and I shake my head at him. "go take a shower, gabriella. i'll be waiting for you at the living room."