Chapter 17 – Yep, this is definitely not going to be easy…

Justin’s POV

As I park my car in its usual spot in the school car park, I take a deep breath, knowing that today isn’t going to be easy. I’m actually surprised that school is even open today. I mean, the entire town was attacked by wolves yesterday, shouldn’t there be some unspoken rule that we should be allowed today off?

Climbing out of the car, I immediately notice Rachel making her way towards me with a few of her friends, and I mentally prepare myself for what I’m about to do.

I decided last night that it was time to break things off with her… for more reasons than one. She’s becoming a lot clingier than I can handle, and I’m starting to get sick of it. She’s constantly wanting to meet up with me, and when we’re not together she’ll be constantly calling and texting me. At first, I’ll admit, I thought it was kind of cute, but now it’s just plain down annoying. I mean, come on, I’m the future Alpha, I’m not always going to be free to hang out with my girlfriend and watch a movie. Why the hell can’t she just understand that?

And then there’s Lucy. No matter how hard I try, I just can’t seem to get that girl out of my head. I know I said that I could never see myself with her, that she’s not fit to be a Luna but… I’m rapidly beginning to realise just how wrong I was. From the moment she stepped into my house that first night, she’s shown nothing but good leadership qualities. She’s not afraid to take charge or speak up when she feels the need to. Sure, she can be a little uncertain at times but, I can’t really blame her for that. After all, she is the only Omega in a room full of high-ranking wolves, so of course she’s going to find that a little intimidating, but not once has she let it stand in her way. And she’s strong too. Maybe not physically but, mentally, she’s one of the strongest people I know. Not to mention the fact that her wolf is absolutely amazing… and stunning. She may be small but, damn, she sure has speed. It looked to be hardly any effort at all for her to keep up with me yesterday and, I’m not going to lie, it was impressive. Hell, even Dean struggles to keep up with me sometimes. She’s… she’s kind of perfect actually.

“Hey, babe,” Rachel says, leaning in for a quick kiss before moving to stand beside me.

“Hey… Rach,” I reply awkwardly. “Um, can we talk?”

“Sure…” she agrees, seemingly already picking up on the fact that something’s wrong. She takes my hand whilst turning to her three friends who I think are called Emma, Janie and Stacy. Huh, looks like she made up with Stacy Beckett then. “I’ll catch you girls later, okay?” she says, before we start making our way into the school.

Once inside, I lead her into one of the empty classroom’s and shut the door behind us, letting go of her hand as I do so. I honestly have no idea how this is going to go down…

“What’s going on, babe?” she asks as I turn to look at her, running a hand through my hair.

“Look, Rachel… I don’t think this is going to work…” I say slowly, deciding to just say it as it is. She immediately seems to know what I’m talking about, and I watch as her face falls at the realisation that she’s being broken up with.

“Why not?” she asks, but continues on before I can reply. “It’s Melissa isn’t it? God, she’s such a bitch…”

“What? No!” I quickly assure her. Where the hell did she get that idea? I’ve been shooting Melissa down for months now, and she knows that.

“Then what is it?” she asks, crossing her arms across her chest. That’s when I see the tears starting to fill her eyes and, god, it makes me feel like a complete dick. Despite her being a bit overbearing at times, Rachel really is alright. In fact, she’s probably one of the nicest girls I’ve ever gone out with, and she really doesn’t deserve this.

“It’s just…” I start, trying to think of the best way to word it. “Things have been pretty hectic lately, you know that. A lot of things have happened over the past few weeks, and I need time to think. And there… there might be someone else,” I admit.

“What? Who?” she asks (more like demands) as the first tear falls. And that one tear, right there, tells me that I’m doing the right thing. It’s not fair to string her along like this, she deserves to be happy and she won’t find it with me. I know what I want, I know who I want, and it’s not Rachel.

“I… can’t tell you,” I say, knowing that if I tell her then Lucy will literally rip my head off. She’s got enough to worry about without this being added to the drama.

We both stand there in silence for a few seconds, with her looking completely unsure about what to do next. I was half expecting her to hit me or scream at me or… something. But she doesn’t. She just stands there, staring at me as if she can’t actually believe this is happening. Eventually, I decide to just leave it at that.

“I’m sorry, Rachel,” I sigh, before exiting the room and leaving her alone.

***

As I sit in my first class of the day, Biology, I’m hardly even paying attention to Mr Baldwin as he drones on and on about photosynthesis. I’m too busy watching Lucy, who’s sat one seat to the right on the row in front of me, as she jots down a few notes.

Rumours of mine and Rachel’s breakup are starting to spread like wildfire, and I’m dying to know if Lucy’s heard about it yet. Don’t worry, I’m not stupid enough to believe that she’s just going to fall at my feet like every other girl does. I saw her face last night before she left and I know where I stand; she doesn’t trust me, but I plan on doing my best to change that. I want to prove to her that I’m not going to hurt her again, but I know that it’s not going to be easy. It’s not the same as when we were younger, where she’d be upset and I’d know just the right thing to say to cheer her up, it’s been seven years since then, and I don’t know Lucy like I used to. And that is one hundred percent my own fault. I’m an ass.

“Hey, man,” Jack says from beside me suddenly, moving my attention off of Lucy as I turn my head to look at him. “Is it true about you and Rachel?”

I shrug. “Yeah.”

“What happened?” he then asks.

“I decided to end things,” I reply. “I need to focus on this rogue problem.” Okay, so that’s not a complete lie…

“Shame,” he says. “She was pretty cool.”

I shrug again. “Yeah, well, the Pack has to come first with me, you know that.” Again, not a lie.

“You sure you’ve not just got your eye on someone else?” Dean asks, joining in the conversation as well.

“…Maybe,” I reply.

“Who?” Jack asks. “Please tell me it’s not Melissa, because if it is then-”

“It’s not Melissa!” I instantly assure, rolling my eyes. “God, why does everyone think it’s her?”

“Oh, well, good,” he replies. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, the girl is smoking hot, but she’s annoying as hell.”

“Trust me, I know.”

“So then who is it?”

“I’m not saying,” I reply, glancing over at Lucy once more. That’s when I remember that my dad told me earlier to let her know what time we’re meeting up tonight.

Ripping out a clean page from the back of my exercise book as quietly as I can, trying not to gain the teachers attention, I quickly scrunch it up ready to throw. It ends up hitting Lucy on the back of the head, and I watch as her back instantly stiffens before she turns around to look at me. She doesn’t look happy, not that I can blame her; Baldwin has had it out for her for as long as I can remember, and he’ll most definitely give her another detention if he catches her talking to me again.

I do the same as I did last time, writing down, ‘We’re going tonight. Everyone’s meeting at mine at six,’ before showing it to her. Watching as she reads it, I notice the slight grimace she gives before nodding, and I can tell she’s not exactly happy about heading into the forbidden land. Not that I’m overly ecstatic about it either, but we both know it has to be done.

“Miss Jacobs!” I hear Mr Baldwin call out loudly, and I watch as she literally winces before slowly turning back around.

“Yes, sir?” she asks.

“This is the second time I have caught you talking in my class and-”

“Actually, sir,” I butt in, trying not to grit my teeth at the condescending tone he’s using on her. “It was my fault, I was distracting Lucy.”

Silence, that’s what follows. The entire class turns to look at me in shock, but I was already expecting that. Never has anyone stood up for Lucy in school (well, apart from Amy and Jessica obviously), so they definitely weren’t expecting the most popular guy in school to. Even Lucy’s looking at me like I’ve lost my mind, but I simply shrug.

“Right… well… just make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Baldwin replies, obviously having no idea what to do in this situation as he puts absolutely no authority into his words whatsoever.

We both know that he has no power over me. I’m his future Alpha, and Pack respect is much higher up on his priority list than the school rules. It’s one of the reasons why he picks on Lucy so much, he doesn’t care about all the misbehaving students in his class… he just cares about targeting the Omega.

Slowly, the class starts getting back on track, and people begin to turn back around to the front. Apart from my two friends sat next to me, of course, who just continue to sit there and stare at me like they’ve never seen me before. I ignore them both, though, and just go back to staring at Lucy, vaguely aware that I probably look like a bit of a stalker right now, as I count down the minutes until the bell goes.

When the bell does eventually does decide to grace us with its shrill ring, I pack up and head to my next lesson, a plan already starting to form in my head.

***

As soon as break rolls around, I don’t hesitate to put my plan into action, grabbing Amy’s arm to prevent her from leaving as everyone else files out.

She looks over at me in surprise, and I watch as her surprise turns into confusion.

“Um… what the hell are you doing?” she asks, sounding slightly annoyed, but I was already expecting her attitude. I’m pretty sure she knows about the predestined mate’s thing, which means she’ll know about the rejection, which means she’ll hate me even more now than she used to, and so will Jessica.

“I need to talk to you and your sister,” I reply simply, and watch as she rolls her eyes.

“I’m just going to go ahead and guess that this has something to do with Lucy, and I’m not comfortable talking about my friend behind her back, and especially not to you, so…” she makes as if to move towards the door so I quickly reach for her bag before she can grab it.

“Are you serious, right now?” she asks, her annoyance growing by the second.

“Deadly,” I reply. “You’re not leaving this room until you get your sister in here as well.”

“Fine,” she sighs, pulling out her phone, but I don’t miss the slight smirk that’s playing around her lips. “Hey, Jess,” she says into the phone when her sister assumingly picks up. “Look, I’m being held against my will in my geography classroom, so if you could please come and save me, that would be a great help.” I roll my eyes as she pauses for a few seconds, listening to whatever Jess is saying. “No, no,” she says quickly, briefly glancing over at me. “Don’t tell Luce, just get your butt over here. Okay, bye.” Then, she hangs up.

“She on her way?” I ask.

“Yep,” she replies, popping the ‘P’ in a way that weirdly reminds me of Lucy.

Not five minutes later, the door to the classroom is opening as Jess walks in, looking confused as hell.

“What’s going on?” she asks slowly, coming to stand over with her sister.

“He’s holding me hostage,” Amy replies, pointing at me before frowning at me. “Can I have my bag back now?” Silently, I hand it over, and then they both look at me expectantly.

“What do you want?” Jess then asks. “And make it quick, because we have a certain friend probably wondering where the hell we are right now, and I’m pretty sure you don’t want her knowing about this little meeting.”

I sigh. “I need your help,” I admit, looking at both of them in turn and watching as their expressions change from expectant to understanding.

“You want Lucy back,” Jess states, not even making it a question.

“Is it that obvious?” I ask.

“If today’s Biology lesson was any indication then, yes,” she replies.

I sigh again. “So… will you help me?” I then ask, knowing that this is probably one of the only chances I’ll get. If they tell me to get lost then I have no hope in hell.

They both turn to look at each other briefly, before turning back to look at me in this creepy synchronisation that helps to puts me even more on edge.

“You don’t deserve her,” Jess says, her tone so serious and final that my hope of them actually helping me begins to crumble away. “But she deserves to be happy,” she continues on after a slight pause, surprising me. “And, call me crazy, but I think that you might actually make her happy… so we’ll do what we can.”

I start to thank them, relief flooding through me, but Amy cuts me off.

“But you’d better not hurt her again.”

“I won’t,” I promise, my voice completely serious, and they both silently study me for a while before Jess sighs.

“What can we do?” she asks.

“Tell me about her,” I reply instantly. “What’s changed?”

“Well, she’s pretty much the same down to earth Lucy she’s always been,” Jess informs. “Except she’s a lot less confident.”

“A lot less tolerant,” Amy adds in, giving me a pointed look.

“And a lot less trusting,” Jess finishes.

I nod at that before sighing. “She hates me, doesn’t she?” I guess, already knowing the answer.

“No,” Jess replies, taking me by surprise again. “I’m pretty sure she doesn’t hate you.”

“We hate you,” Amy says, but I choose to ignore the comment, not being able to really blame them.

“She doesn’t trust you, though,” Jess continues on. “That’s for damn sure. You hurt her, a lot, and more than once too.” I wince at that. “Betrayal like yours hurts, and the pain takes time to heal, but that’s all it really needs: Time. You need to be patient, and do what you can to show her that you’re not going to turn back into a complete asshole.” Again, I wince at that. “But I’m sure she’ll eventually come around.”

“Basically,” Amy pipes back up, putting a lot of fake cheer into her voice. “You need to become the king of grovelling.”

“Exactly,” Jess agrees. “Apart from that, I really don’t know what else to tell you. This is kind of something you need to figure out on your own, Justin. But we’ll do what we can on our end, and try and put in a good word for you when we can.” She shrugs.

I nod at that, thinking it through before deciding that it’s probably the best I’m going to get from them. “Okay, thanks,” I reply, genuinely meaning it.

“Okay,” Jess says, shrugging again. “Well we’d better get going before Lucy comes looking for us, so I guess we’ll see you around.”

“Sure.”

“Just remember,” Amy says on the way to the door before looking back at me. “Time and grovelling… a lot of grovelling.” And, with that, they both exit the room and leave me alone with my thoughts.

Yep, this is definitely not going to be easy…

(Hey guys! Hope you like the chapter and i'm sorry if there are any mistakes, i haven't proofread the chapter. You see, i am determined to get this updated today and i have literally TEN MINUTES before midnight, i am battling the clock people!!! I've just literally finished writing it, haha. So, yeah, thanks for reading and go ahead and leave a Vote/Comment if you think it's worth it :) Next update will probably be late tomorrow or on Sunday and it'll be a Lucy POV :) Um... yeah, would love to hear your thoughts about this chapter and i hope you enjoy your FRIDAY UPDATE :P (sorry about the speedy A/N) until next time, byee!)