Page 60 of Finding Fate

“Damn that hurts,” he grumbled, grabbing his shin where Annie’s foot had made contact. “It’s not safe to hang around any of you. You’re all abusive,” he commented, looking around at the group.

“And you’re tactless,” Annie replied. Did he seriously not see how completely inappropriate he was when he spoke?

“Me tactless?! You’re her sister. Shouldn’t you be going after her?”

Annie fumbled. How could she answer that question without being too obvious? “No, Izzy likes to work through things on her own most of the time.If she needed me, she would have asked me to go.”

The truth was, Annie was never sure when it was okay to try and comfort her sister anymore. Tucker swore she was doing better than him, but more often than not, her attempts just set Izzy off all over again. It didn’t seem to bother Jet too much. He just took it all in stride. Sometimes, she wondered how her boyfriend could be so calm about everything.

“Whatever. You know, Tucker, I don’t see why you chose someone so emotional to finally settle on, other than her obvious hotness,” Hector commented after accepting Annie’s explanation.

This time, a hand and two feet made contact with the tactless football player.

“Damn it. That’s it. I’m going,” he retaliated, scowling at the group. He stopped to grab the rest of the pie before he stormed off.

* * *

Isabel splashed cool water on her face from the tap in the restroom, not caring this one was off limits during lunch. She’d take her detention if she got caught if it meant no witnesses. She found her eyes in the mirror, red and puffy, her cheeks hot and flushed from her minutes of senseless weeping.

She hated that someone had noticed her clothes becoming tighter on her. If Hector noticed, then surely others had, too. Apparently, she was going to have to do some clothes shopping if she wanted to keep this pregnancy under wraps much longer.

With a few minutes left of lunch and wanting to let the others know she was okay, she did a quick touch up of her make up and stepped out of the bathroom, heading towards the door closest to the picnic tables. Only moments later, she stopped.

There, right in front of her with his back against the wall, was Wesley. She stared at him in surprise at first and then realized that they were the only two people in this particular hallway. It didn’t feel safe to be there.

She saw that sickeningly familiar smile that had charmed her all those weeks and shuddered. She wanted to leave, but knew by the look on his deceptively handsome face that he would follow her, even if she went back into the ladies’ room.

Knowing she needed to get out into the public eye, Isabel decided it was safest to acknowledge him, and gave him a reluctant smile as she kept on her path towards the door.

“Hey, Izzy, I haven’t seen you around too much lately,” he said in a way that made to seem like nothing unpleasant had ever happened between them.

“Yeah, I’ve been busy.” “Busy trying to forget what you did to me,” she thought bitterly. For once, she was glad someone hadn’t called her Isabel. He would have tainted her name.

He fell in step beside her as she passed. “You look upset. That boyfriend of yours do something to you?”

“What?! He’s the last person who should be talking about upsetting me.”Straight faced, and eyes forward, she replied, “No, Tucker’s great. I couldn’t ask for a better boyfriend.”

“Where is he then? Shouldn’t he be comforting you when you’re upset like this?” Wesley asked. Implications threaded his question, but she wasn’t sure what he was getting at.

“Did you need something, Wesley?” Crap. Even she could hear how annoyed she sounded. She needed to stay controlled around him, at least until they got outside.

He tried to appear nonchalant when he answered. “I was just wondering when you might realize what a loser you’re with and come back to me.”

“Excuse me?”Isabel nearly blurted. She could not have heard that right. “Couple of points, Wesley. First, Tucker is not a loser, and second…do you honestly expect me to go back to you after what you did to me?”

“My patience was a little short that night. I know.”

“A little short?” she asked accusingly.

“Well, anyway…” he said, trying to blow past the sticky part of his topic. He placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her. She stopped instinctively and had to fight to keep her hand from going to her stomach. She was not yet at the doors. Even though they were close now, she didn’t want to take her chances.

He looked down at her, and she felt it best to look back at him at that moment. The charming smile covered the snake’s face once again.

“Izzy, we spent nearly a month together. You know as well as I do it didn’t mean nothing. We had something.”

For once, her stomach turned for something besides pregnancy. “I think you mean you didn’t spend those weeks on me just to get nothing.” “Temper, Isabel…Calling him out is not going to help. You don’t want to set him off,” she told herself as she started towards the doors again. She heard a chuckle from behind her.

“That’s fine. Leave. You’ll eventually come around. I don’t give up that easily.”

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