Page 23 of Torn Mate
Ada
As soon asI saw Lexi walk through the school doors, I grabbed her arm. I did my we-need-to-talk eyes, which probably looked more like I was crazy freaking out. Because I was… freaking out. I didn’t get much sleep last night, I just kept replaying everything in my head, from the dinner to the almost kiss. I almost kissed Noah and my mind was running wild. I should have… I wanted to. So why didn’t I? I was hoping she would be able to help me.
“So, did Noah have a good birthday dinner?” she whispered close to me, but it seemed like everyone could hear her.Shit. I could see Ranger coming up behind her and I didn’t want him to know. He seemed to spend a lot of time with Noah and he would tell him. I slapped her shoulder playfully, telling her to shut it so he didn’t hear her, but her smile made it hard to be mad at her.
“That good?” Now she was teasing me. I rolled my eyes at her. She was really opening up more with me and being more playful, which I was loving. But I didn’t want to talk with everyone listening to us, especially Noah.
And speak of the wolf… I felt my cheeks heat at the sight of Noah standing with the other Kiba boys. They were looking at us. Luca wasreallylooking at me. Did Noah tell them about last night? His beaming smile at me said yes.Oh god.
I only kissed his cheek. But ugh… I wanted to do so much more and thought about it all night, even dreamed about what could have been. Obviously, in my dream I was an amazing kisser and there were fireworks, like actual ones going off, and I wasn’t at my house. I was on the top of a cliff looking over the water. But I knew it would have been amazing without all that. So why didn’t I kiss him?
Before I could drag Lexi away, Ranger grabbed her around her waist and lifted her in the air. He laughed as she told him to put her down, and she was smiling as he placed her back on her feet not too far from me. He went over to talk with the other guys… Noah was still watching me. He moved his head as if to say, “Come over.”
I just stood there, not sure if I should go over or… Lexi made the decision to come back to me. She took my hand and pulled me through the crowd of student—she was fast—until we ended up in a restroom.
We stopped near the sinks. The warning bell rang, signaling that we would be late to class. I hadn’t even been to my locker yet.
“We can’t be late for class,” I told her. I had never been late before, and I had skipped a whole day yesterday and a few classes during the week.
“Because we won’t pass?” Lexi quizzed. Huh? But Galen… Ah, I got it now. I smiled. She was doing lots of jokes lately. It was nice. Lexi hugged me and I was starting to love these hugs every day.
The door to the restroom slammed against the tiles and we turned to see three figures approach us.
“Oh, gross. It’s contaminated in here. Don’t want to get any stripper or nerd germs.”
Olivia and her stupid friends. What were they doing in here, was this a coincidence or did they follow us? They really had it out for Lexi. They had been out for me my whole life, so this wasn’t a new thing of hers. But this was a bit much, a little too crazy, even for Olivia. And stripper? What the hell was she talking about?
It was like Olivia had flipped a switch in Lexi because she walked over to her in such a cool and calm way, and then gave Olivia a little body slam. Olivia was looking at herself in the mirror when her eyes glared at Lexi.
“Hey, back off. Don’t touch me, stripper whore,” she spat out at my bestie. My mouth dropped open. What a bitch. But before I could say anything, Lexi grabbed Olivia’s ponytail and yanked it down her back causing her head to whip back and look to the ceiling. She fell to the floor in a gentle and dramatic way. Like, it was an overly dramatic fall, and I thought she took drama?
Lexi wasn’t that hard when she pulled. I had had worse done to me by Olivia and I didn’t do anything melodramatic as that. Olivia was cussing up a storm and calling to her friends to attack Lexi.
Olivia’s friends, Maddison and Ashlyn, stepped towards Lexi, poised to fight her. But Lexi just tilted her head and looked them up and down like a total badass. Holy shit, my bestie the badass.
“What, you both gonna take me?” she taunted them. Oh shit, this was… I didn’t know what I was watching or what to do. I had to back up Lexi, but how? I was scared. Two against two is fair, I had to help. Lexi was standing up to them, the girls who bullied me my whole life.
“Look, I don’t know why you bother to be nasty. Like seriously, you obviously like the Kiba boys. You were at their parties. You know I’m with Maverick and Ranger. Yeah… you know. They aren’t going to leave me for you so you might as well accept that.”
Olivia had gotten up, thanks to the help of her friends who didn’t want to fight Lexi obviously. They had backed up now and given us some space. It was just an argument between Olivia and Lexi. I had a feeling Olivia didn’t like that Lexi came here and just pushed her out of the picture. Not that she was in a picture with Ranger so there was no pushing involved.
Olivia’s face was twisted and angry. She spat at Lexi, like, actually spat at her. I was disgusted.
“They were mine. I had them first, and they’ll come back to me. I know they will. They’re only with you because you’re new. They don’t actually want to be with you. They just see a stripper who can perform.”
My chest was rising and falling fast. I didn’t know if Lexi was a stripper before she came here. That was her personal and private business. She hadn’t told me and it wasn’t something she needed to. So, to have Olivia saying that shit was really affecting her, which affected me. She had brought a whole new level into this. I wanted to hit her so bad. I put my hands on my hips, if they were by my sides I would hit her. I couldn’t let them bully Lexi. I had to stop this.
“Stop being such a bitch, Olivia. We all know they wouldn’t leave Lexi. You can keep trying, like you have all week, but they’re with Lexi. They want her. I’m sorry if that’s hard to understand, but you need to back off.” My heart was hammering in my chest, and I felt sick. But I did it. I stood up to Olivia.
I looked over to Lexi and she smiled at me. I was so proud of myself. Why had I never done that before? I could have stopped all this bullying years ago. Something hit my face and the pain from that took a few seconds to register, but the shove in my shoulder had me grabbing out to Olivia, trying to stop myself from falling, but she moved back a step. The pain from the slap rang through my ears as I fell backwards, trying to grab out at something else to stop myself from hitting the ground, but it was too late.
There was a sudden pain on the back of my head, like someone had hit it with a car. My teeth even hurt as they rattled in my head. There was some yelling and my eyes took a while to focus again as my ears made awhooshingsound.
My head hurt so much. I hit the tiles hard. I didn’t want to sit up, I was worried I would be sick if I did. I grabbed the back of my head as if it would fall off if I didn’t hold onto it. I made a pained sound. It really fucking hurt.
Lexi looked down at me, her hand on my shoulder as she eyed where I held my hand. I pulled it away and the back of my head throbbed. I going to tell her we did good, that we made a good team fighting against Olivia, but instead I saw two Lexis.
“You need to see the nurse—” I would be okay… It was just a little headache.
