Chapter 75 Stepping Up

Chapter 75 Stepping Up
Inez’s POV

“You think I wouldn’t know that you weren’t with Lola all through the night?” Aunt Jeanette bellowed.

“But the doctor said that I was free to go_”

Another slap landed on my cheek.

Stars swung around my eyes.

I blinked, sniffling away the tears that threatened to spill.

“Don’t you dare say another word! If you only have any idea of what you just did to Lola.”

Another moment breathed by, she turned away- inhaling deeply.

I quickly wiped a falling tear before she would turn again to face me. “Do you know what the doctor said?”

I shook my head, knotting my hands - not willing to utter any word in case my tongue would betray me.

“Lola would lose her memories if she survive this storm..”

There was a pause.

“If she wakes, she may or may not walk due to the fall. But I cannot stand it knowing you were there and didn’t save her just before the fall..” she finished.

First, she blamed me for Lola’s fall.

Next, she blamed me for not saving Lola.

How was I to do so when Lola was the one who had tried to push me off the roof herself?

No matter what everyone had told her about Lola’s fall, Aunt Jeanette wished I had been the one who had fallen instead.

She flicked her hand over her face. When her eyes swept me from head to toe.

“You got a phone?” Her eyes stayed on it like that was all that mattered presently.

“Ah_ my friend got it for me.” I put in.

“I see. Have you spoken to your mother? I think your days in my house are numbered.”

My eyes circled. “My mother? I thought you were_”

I swallowed my words when her sharp gaze shot at me.

“Haven’t I done enough for you, Inez?”

I didn’t know what to say to that. Instead, my eyes lowered.

She was thinking of throwing me out of the house.

Where would I go?

I didn’t know where my mother was presently.

My stomach churned violently.

“I haven’t considered it yet. Let’s pray your mother reaches out to you before I do.”

With that, she walked away, leaving me alone with my thoughts.



Eyes studied my slow movements.

But I didn’t care.

I didn’t care if they still think that I thrust my own cousin from the roof top. But one thing had been laid out which purposely kept other students from bullying me.

It was the Principal’s warning: anyone who dared to touch me would get punished effectively.

The speaker from the hall way crackled as I walked to my locker.

“Em.. This is Darien Woods. I have a public apology to render_ to Inez Myles..”

My hands shook.

What the hell?

Darien Woods was in school?

He hadn’t been in school for how long?

And why was he rendering an apology from the media room?

Eyes swiveled towards me.

My lips pressed into a thin line.

“Inez is a girl who will never hurt a fly. She is that sweet friend who would look out for a friend, overlook their faults and choose to believe the good in people…”

My throat burned.

Why was he doing this?

This would only intensified the wagging of tongues that had only subsided for a while.

My gaze drifted to the diary i had hidden in my locker's secret compartment, after discovering that Lola had rummaged through my room to plant the pregnancy test strip.

I didn’t think I had scrolled through the diary after Adrian had returned to book to me.

I was trying to bury my thoughts else where rather than listening to whatever Darien was saying.

“...There was something I did which particularly led me to give a particular apology. Ethan and I_ Ethan is a student from Sundale high school….”

I slammed my locker in fury.

Its rattling spurned ogled eyes on me.

I started towards the media room.

Was he really going to let the whole school grasp the knowledge that both he and his cousin had tried to take advantage of me.

What position would that place me?

A mocking spectacle to be discussed over and over again?

I pushed the door open when I arrived at the media room.

“What are you doing?” I asked as I walked into the room

Four pairs of eyes turned towards me. One was looking up from the phone she held in her hands while Darien stopped whatever he was saying.

One of the members of the Media walked up to me, she was a girl with short curls. “You shouldn’t be here.” The girl walked up to me.

“I can’t be here but he can be here. How can you allow him to say such nonsense on air?” I bristled.

“The head of Media permitted him to do so.”

My teeth hung to my lower lip, she was blocking me with her body - shielding Darien from plain sight.

“I don’t have any business here. He brought me here.” I said to the girl. I shoved the girl aside, that made Darien jerked out of his seat.

“Inez?” He called in surprise.

“Is this any proper way of rendering an apology?” I asked.

“I didn’t think you would listen to me after what I had done to me.” He blurted.

“Have you even tried walking up to me? You want everyone to know about what you did to me?” My voice cracked.

His gaze softened. “Oh, Inez, you are thinking of me right now.”

“I’m not thinking of you!” I roared.

Darien jerked backwards.

“You and Ethan hurt me so much. Do you think coming over here, on air -to ask for my forgiveness for trying to take advantage of me… would actually make me move past all the things you both did to me?”

“But_” he swallowed his words.
I sniffled.

This was too much for me.

Everyone who had hurt me wanted forgiveness but they simply forgot how badly they’d hurt me in the first place.

Darien reached out to touch me, I yanked his hand away. Then snap the button which indicated that whatever was said in the room was still ‘on air.’

The Blondie didn’t try to stop me again, she just quietly behind me - holding a book before her.

I was tired of everything, tired of the fact that this might as well be another facade Darien was manipulating. That was what he was basically good at.

“If you truly wanted my forgiveness, you would have called, texted- just anything. You haven’t been in school for awhile, you suddenly come to school, hop here and you expect me to believe this was from your heart?”

His lips parted.

“Who pushed you to this?” I wiped a tear that fell.

“No one.” He put in too quickly. Then he shot his hands out, touching me. “I am being sincere, Inez. I missed us, the way we talk, the way you listen to me_and I know I did really hurt you. I just need you to forgive me.”

I pushed his hands away. “Even if I would bring myself to forgive you, we cannot for anything in the world remain friends anymore.”

His eyes grew heavy with tears clouding the corner of his eyes.

“If you won’t tell me who pushed you to it. I’m still going to find out.” I said.

I turned and stormed off the media room.

The hours blurred into oblivion but I still gathered myself after the task of picking dirt and started to the school main field.

I evidently knew that this was where I would get to see him.

He was on the field, throwing ball at a team mate.

Sweat drenched halfway the body-hugged shirt which he wore.

His hair was damped even as he yelled out directions.

Had anyone ever told him how devastatingly handsome he was?

His looks alone could stop a room mid-motion, commanding attention with the effortless magnetism of someone born to be admired.

I took a sharp breath.

That wasn’t why I was here.

Leo was at the other side of the field when my gaze swept the field.

They all paused when I stormed into the field.

Someone whistled behind me.

“Isn’t that the famous Sophomore?”

“What is she doing here?”

I didn’t care.

My heart thumped and raced rapidly.

But I didn’t let that deter me.

Until I stood just inches away from a heaving Captain: Adrian.

His lips quirked up when another whistle sawed through.

“What’s up, Inez?” He asked, throwing the ball in his hands at another teammate.

“Did you ask Darien to make a public apology using the media room?” My gaze bored into him.

The expression on his face gave me the answer I was looking for.

“I didn’t ask you to step in as some sort of _ hero or saviour. You just need to step back and stop doing too much.” My voice quivered, tearing through the field.

“I’m doing too much?” Adrian remained stunned.

“What other reason would make you to do all that? Tell me?”

Adrian scoffed.

Still, I pressed on. “I just need to make myself clear. Stop stepping into my problems. I can handle myself.”

Adrian huffed, ignoring the stares which his team mates shot at him. As I turned to go, he grabbed my hand and hurled me into his body.

Electricity surged from his hand into mine.

Heat engulfed the whole of me.

Still, I held my face high.

“And you couldn’t think of a proper place to say all that?”

“What other way would I make you understand?”

He shut his eyes briefly, then tore them open. “I have never seen a girl who is as stubborn as a storm. Why won’t you accept any help from me?”

“Because it simply would place me into more problems”

“Or you are simply afraid of accepting me?” He said into my face.

I couldn’t breathe.

My heart continued to hammer.

The way his eyes tear at my face-like they were ants sucking sugar from my face.

“You think I would give up on you, Inez…” he paused.

I attempted to speak, yet his voice sliced through the tangent.

“And don’t you dare think that I’m doing all this because I pity you. I have never pitied you. I have only…” He paused again and my eyes skated to his lips.

Fuck.

That was a mistake.

Because his eyes had caught on.

I wanted to be kissed by him, held tightly in the depths of his hands while he told me that he loved me.

Love?

That alone was a heavy word.

Could he sense how jittery I was?

“...cared for you. I had simply cared for you.” His voice softened.

My lips quivered.

It seemed like the rest of the world died.

He leaned in, angling his head.

God!

He was going to kiss me.

“Please, let me go,” I begged as his lips neared mine. “Just let me go.”