Chapter 18

Wes and I were sitting in the courtyard talking about my nightmares. "Are you better?" Wes asked me.  

"Yeah, I just..."  

"Nothing is ever going to happen to you. I promise." He put his arm around my waist. Then Rachel walked over and said, "Hey Wes. Jaden," she said Jaden in a disgusted way. "Hey everybody," she started, "I want to tell you guys something you'd be glad to hear, especially you Jaden." She faced me. Everybody turned their attention to Rachel. "This has something to do with you, Wes," she whispered. I looked up at Wes. "What are you talking about?" he said. She turned around, turning her back on us. "Everybody, you all know Wes, right? Of course you do!" she said sarcastically, "but I bet you don't that Wes is a player." I heard "ooo" and "Oh" in between the crowd. "He's a player. When he gets tired of a girl he gets rid of her and finds another girl, like trash. If he doesn't need it he throws it away and gets a new one." She said. She turned around to see my reaction.  

"Jaden- I didn't-I can explain." Wes stuttered.  

"What's to explain?" Rachel butted in, "You used her."  

I was about to slap him on the face, but instead I walked away. He grabbed my arm tightly, "Let go of me!" I exclaimed.  

"Wait, Jaden. I can explain."  

"What? That I'm just another girl you date and then just get rid. I thought you were different, but you're just like everybody else." I tried pulling my arm, but I couldn't. "I am different you know that. She's lying. She's trying to break us apart!"  

Then I realized it was true. She's just trying to break us apart. I managed to pull my arm from Wes's grip and stood there for a couple of seconds. I looked at my surroundings. There were a lot of people waiting for my response. I walked towards Rachel. She had on her evil face feeling as if she accomplished something. I slapped her on the face. I didn't wait for her reaction so I walked to class.  

The rest of my day passed by like a blur. At home I kept getting messages from Wes and calls from him. I didn't answer anything that reminded me of him. He even called the house phone number.  

"Jaden, it's for you." My mom said.  

"I don't want to answer if it's Wes. Tell him I don't want to talk to him." I said. Then my mom didn't tell me anything else.  

At night I had the same nightmare, but this time when I sat up with sweat Wes wasn't there. I thought, did I hurt his feelings? I didn't want him far from me. I went back to sleep with the thought in my head.

The next day Wes came to my house. I was doing my homework upstairs when the doorbell rang. My mom answered it. "Jaden, it's for you!" she screamed. I walked downstairs and saw Wes with a bouquet of flowers. I smiled. "I guess I'll leave you two alone." My mom said walking to the garage.  

"These are for you." He said softly. I grabbed them and smelled them.  

"Thanks."  

"I'm sorry." We both said at the same time.  

"I'm sorry for not trusting you. I should have known that Rachel was planning that." Tears started to run down my cheek. 

"I'm sorry for not being with you when you needed me. I'm sorry for not being there to comfort you." More tears ran down my cheek. He came closer and hugged me. "I'll never leave you." He whispered. I hugged as hard as I could. I didn't want to let go. He moved his hand onto my cheeks and cleaned my tears with his thumbs. He leaned in and kissed me. I felt secure again.  

He rubbed my cheeks softly and I placed my hand on top of his. "Hey, let's go finish your homework." He said grabbing me by the waist.  

"How'd you know?"  

"Lucky guess." He shrugged his shoulders. He made me laugh. We went upstairs together. He grabbed my homework, "Science." He said.  

"It's..."  

"Easy. All you need to do is name the different elements. They're some that are in the same group. Here I'll help you." He told me most of the names, but then told me to figure out the last few. "That was easy." He said. I put my homework away and lied down on my bed. Wes followed me and lied down on my right side. He put his hand over my shoulder. "I like your room." He said.  

"Thanks and you just noticed?" he just laughed.  

"You're funny." He said. I couldn't help but laugh, too.  

"Stop it." I said. I moved closer to Wes's chest.  

"You look pretty when you laugh." I smiled. "You should rest more. You've been having those nightmares a lot lately." I didn't say anything. "Has she texted you lately?" "No." I said softly.  

Silence.  

"Do you want to see TV?" he asked. All I heard was his voice, but my eyes were closed. "Jaden?" I heard him say. I must have fallen asleep. I didn't feel him move. I woke up and saw Wes awake.  

"Were you watching me sleep?" I asked.  

"At first I was falling asleep, too, but I woke up. Did you have any nightmares?"  

I nodded my head, "What time is it?"  

"Seven."  

"I slept for 3 hours?" he nodded his head. "And you didn't leave?"  

"I liked watching you sleep like a baby." He smiled. I smiled back.