"The end of the year talent show is the best part of the year," Mr. Benson was telling us, and I could tell that only a few kids in the class really cared. I wasn't one of them. "Except for prom and graduation, of course. Some people even said that it was better than the senior fair."

Anything could have been better than the senior fair. Not only had I been dunked in the dunk tank unfairly, I had been kissed by Hunter. So I was sure whatever talent show he was talking about would be better.

"Sounds like a snore fest," Alex whispered from beside me, and I had to bite my lip to stop myself from laughing out loud. It did sound like a snore fest, but I was sure it would be better than that stupid senior fair. Even if Jesse wasn't going to be there...

When one of the office aides walked inside the classroom, I didn't even think anything of it. They came in all the time to give the teacher notes from the office, so it wasn't like it was out of the ordinary. But it was definitely out of the ordinary when I heard Mr. Benson call out, "Jordan Emery, you're needed in the main office right away."

That definitely wasn't something that I was used to hearing. I hadn't ever been called out of class, not once. What was it for now? Jesse and I hadn't pranked each other in the longest time... Not since we started going out. And since Jesse wasn't here anymore, it couldn't have been about him... right?

I glanced at Alex before getting up from my seat and walking out of the room. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion, but it wasn't like he was going to jump up and stop me for any reason.

All my life, I hadn't ever been called up to the principal's office unless it had something to do with Jesse. But now, even though it wasn't a principal and just camp counselor Matthew, that's still where I was.

As I waited in his office, I couldn't help but fill irritated. Why was I in there for? I hadn't done anything wrong, had I? I didn't think I did...

"Good morning, Jordan," Matthew greeted me happily as he walked into the room. I was kind of expecting him to be angry, since I thought I was in trouble, but it was Matthew. Happy, bright, excitable Matthew that seemed never to be angry. "How have things been?"

"Good," I answered, even though it was pretty much a lie. "I've been... good."

"That's great," he continued on smiling, completely oblivious to the fact that I definitely was lying to him. "I have some great news! Great news indeed!"

I didn't really think anything he could have said would have made me feel better. The next day I was going to be flying all the way back to California for my brother's wedding, which meant I'd be seeing Hunter as well. And I definitely wasn't looking forward to that...

Before I could ask Matthew what the good news was, he blurted it out excitedly. "You're valedictorian!"

I blinked at him, not very surprised by this at all. I knew this was coming. I knew it had been coming ever since I entered high school.

I knew that he was expecting me to act excited, but I didn't really care very much at all. I had seen it coming from a mile away. I was actually starting to wonder when they would call me in and tell me that I was valedictorian, and I couldn't really believe that I hadn't thought of that when I was sitting in the office by myself.

"Oh..." I blinked once again, trying my best to act like I was surprised. I never had been a good actress. "Really?"

The smile on Matthew's face faded for a moment as he said, "Well... the original valedictorian was Jesse, but..."

I blinked at him once again, but this time I was now shocked. I didn't know what I was more surprised over, the fact that Jesse was smarter than me or the fact that he was supposed to be valedictorian. I hadn't ever seen his grades before, and I had always just assumed that his grades weren't the greatest...

I stared down at my feet, not knowing if I was supposed to say anything to him. Did he want a moment of silence or something? I was definitely willing to give it, but...

"You're going to need to write a speech," Matthew informed me after a few moments of silence, and I couldn't help but notice that he wasn't as bouncy as he usually was now. "You'll go up on stage at the podium and give your speech right before I call names."

I nodded, only half listening now. I knew everything that had to do with being valedictorian, since I had been studying it ever since I had entered high school. I wasn't worried about that part at all, but I was worried about the fact that it was supposed to be Jesse sitting where I was right then, not me.

"Okay," I nodded when I saw that Matthew had finally stopped talking. "It sounds like... fun?"

Matthew grinned largely. "That's great to hear!"

He only went through a few more things until he finally let me go, and all I could do was trudge all the way back to second period.

I wasn't supposed to be valedictorian. I had thought about it when I was younger, and I always told myself that I would be angry if I somehow didn't get valedictorian. But that definitely wasn't why I was upset right then. I would have happily given Jesse the spot as valedictorian if that meant he'd just come back...

When I opened the door, every single head in the classroom turned toward me. I held back the urge to roll my eyes at all of them as I walked back and sat in my seat. Don't you just hate it when you walked inside a room and everyone looked at you? I do.

"Did someone finally get in trouble?" Alex teased with a grin as he leaned closer to me. "Don't tell me Miss Perfect finally got a detention."

"... I'm valedictorian," I answered unenthusiastically, not even looking toward him as I tried to continue writing the notes that Mr. Benson was writing down on the board.

Alex's eyes went wide in surprise. "Really? You're valedictorian?"

I nodded.

"Why aren't you excited?" Alex now asked as he looked at me as if I was insane, but I didn't really blame him for looking at me that way.

"Because it was supposed to be Jesse."

The look on his face was wiped away and replaced with a frown. I knew he was thinking the exact same thing I was, and I didn't blame him for not saying anything more.

"Hey... Alex?" I whispered, still not looking at him as I stared down at the paper on my desk. "I need to ask you something important."

Alex's eyebrows furrowed at me. "Alright," he nodded.

"Can you go to my brother's wedding with me tomorrow?" I almost begged, now finally turning to look at him. I was surprised that Mr. Benson hadn't even realized that we were talking, but it wasn't like I was complaining. "I was going to bring Jesse, but... you know."

"Why do you need me to come with you?" Alex questioned, his eyebrows still furrowed in confusion. "I understand Jesse and everything, but me?"

"Well... someone's going to be there," I muttered, turning back toward my paper again.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Alex's eyes go wide. "Hunter?"

All I did was nod.

"Of course I'll go with you," Alex nodded, grabbing onto his pencil and turning toward his notes again, too. "Hunter's not going anywhere near you anymore."

I was glad that I had Alex with me. If it wasn't for him, I would have felt even more alone. Though I couldn't tell him about the fact that Jesse was really alive, it was still good enough.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"You have to walk down the aisle with him?"

"Yep."

"That's crazy!" Alex cried out, and I had to hit him to stop him from going on into a rant. We were already getting stares from people who looked like they thought that we were insane, and I didn't want any more attention drawn to us. "Your brother has no idea about how Hunter really is?"

"No," I shook my head, crossing my arms over my stomach and looking down at the ground. I shook my head at my brother's stupidity. "He has absolutely no idea who his best friend really is. He still thinks he's just this fun loveable guy that he's known since we were kids..."

"Stupid," he grumbled under his breath, but I ignored him as more of my family members continued to greet me. I knew that I had moved across the country any everything, but they were all acting as if I had died and came back to life...

I hadn't seen my brother or Rachel yet, and I was glad to say that I hadn't seen Hunter either. If I was lucky, he would have skipped it. But I knew that with Hunter, I definitely wasn't lucky...

"Jordan, you've grown so much!" my aunt Melody greeted as she suddenly appeared beside us and crushed me against her chest. "The last time I saw you, you were in diapers!"

I knew that that wasn't true. The last time she had seen me, I was a junior in high school. My aunt was just a woman that loved to exaggerate...

"Is this your boyfriend?" she asked me as she motioned to Alex when she finally let me go. I made a face without even meaning to, causing Alex to smirk at me in amusement.

"No, no, no," I assured quickly, shaking my head so quickly that I thought I might have gotten whiplash. "He's not my boyfriend. Nope, not even in the slightest. He's my friend, that's all."

"Well, that's good, because that cutie over there's been checking you out all day," she winked over my head, motioning behind me. "I haven't seen him before, so I'm sure he's not family..."

When she walked away, I spun on my heel to see who she was talking about. Looking over Alex's shoulder, my eyes widened as they locked with two different colored ones.

"A--Alex," I gulped, turning away from Hunter and back toward my best friend as quickly as I possibly could have. "Let's go search for my brother, okay? Okay."

I grabbed onto his arm, tugging him in the opposite direction of the psychopath that was leaning against the wall across the room from us.

"Was that woman talking about who I think she was talking about?" Alex asked me as we continued on walking away from that horrible psycho. "You dragged me away before I could see..."

"Yeah," I sighed, my grip on him tightening. "It was him."

"I can't believe your brother is really making you walk down the aisle with him," Alex groaned, shaking his head at the whole idea. "Who knows what he'd do on the way down?"

"I don't want to think about it," I grumbled, letting go of him now and wrapping my arms around my stomach. "It's bad enough that I have to wrap my arms around him. I don't want to think of what else he would do to me..."

"This sucks."

"Yeah, well a lot of things have been sucking."

Alex said silent after that, and we continued on the search for my brother. I knew I wouldn't be seeing Rachel until the wedding started, but she wasn't the one that had practically matched me up with a murderer. Maybe if I pretended to be sick...

No, I couldn't do that. I couldn't ruin my brother's wedding. Because if I pretended to be sick, he would have just spent his entire wedding worrying about me, and I definitely didn't want that to happen.

"Jordan!" a new voice now cried suddenly, catching me so off guard that I almost jumped back into Alex. I let myself breathe when I saw that it was only Austin, but I then frowned when I saw who was smirking as they stood behind him.

"Hi," I greeted, and I hoped that my brother wouldn't notice how nervous I sounded. "You look really great, Austin."

He looked really handsome in his tuxedo, and I had to admit that Hunter did as well. As crazy as he was, I couldn't deny that Hunter was good looking.

"So do you, Jordan!" Austin smiled, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. "I haven't seen you in a dress since your eighth grade graduation!"

I let out a quiet groan, not wanting to be reminded of my eighth grade graduation. My mother had talked me into wearing high heels, and when I was walking toward downstage I tripped and fell completely off the stage. The first couple weeks of summer I had a broken ankle and a sprained wrist.

"Yeah, well..." was all I could say, staring down at the heels that I was wearing. They weren't nearly as tall as the one I had worn at graduation.

"Who's this?" Austin asked, blinking at the blonde who stood beside me. "He was the guy in your hospital room when I first came to visit you, right?"

I nodded. "Yeah... His name's Alex."

"Where's your boyfriend?" Austin asked, removing his arm from around my shoulders and crossing them over his chest. "Did you break up like I thought you would?"

Hunter smirked from behind my brother's shoulder, and I wanted to hit him so hard that my hand actually started to hurt. I knew that he knew what had happened to Jesse because of the news, and that stupid smirk of his was his silent way of rubbing it in.

"No," I snapped, my arms crossing over my chest as well as my eyes narrowed at my brother. "He died."

Austin's eyes widened at me, and his arms dropped to his side. "What?" he gaped, obviously not expecting this from me. "That kid died? Are you serious?"

I nodded, my eyebrows still pinched. "Yes, I'm serious."

Austin frowned at me, and I could tell that he was guilty for everything he had said about or to Jesse. Even though he wasn't really dead, Austin should have felt guilty anyway. Just because Jesse wasn't like Dallas or Hunter wasn't his fault... My brother just needed to accept who I fell in love with because it was my choice, not his.

"Austin, we're starting in only a few minutes," my mother quickly said as she passed by. She only glanced at me for a moment and called out, "Hi, Jordan!" before continuing her way around the church.

"Hah, you know Mom," Austin chuckled, pulling at his tuxedo a little. "Always worrying and freaking out. Everything has to be in perfect order for her. I guess I'll get going then, so she won't freak out even more..."

 I smiled at my brother, waving at him as he started away. I hated that he didn't see the urgency in my eyes, the look telling him to not leave me with this psycho. Even if Alex was there with me, Hunter could act like his normal self with only him around...

Before Hunter could say anything to me, Alex slipped in front of me and in between us. "I'd advise you to leave her alone."

Hunter smiled archly. "Are you her bodyguard now? What, can she never be left alone?"

"With you around she can't," Alex glared, his eyebrows furrowing at him. "Jesse's dead, Hunter. Do what you said you'd do and leave Jordan alone."

Hunter only continued to smirk at the blonde that stood in between us, and all I could do was cower behind Alex's back. What was I supposed to do?

"This is my brother's wedding," I snapped, pushing Alex out of the way so I could now be face-to-face with Hunter. "He was, and maybe even still is, your best friend. So how about you don't ruin it by harassing Alex and me? Can't you just be decent for one day?"

Hunter grinned at me, but he wasn't able to respond to what I had said because we were finally interrupted.

"Jordan, Hunter," my mother quickly said when she suddenly appeared once again. She seemed to not even notice how tense it was between the three of us right then. "You're going to be walking down the aisle in about thirty seconds."

I glanced over at Alex and gave him a look that asked for help, but I knew there was nothing he could have done to save me, especially with my mom right there. So I was stuck walking arm-in-arm with Hunter, and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.

When his arm snaked around mine, I almost jumped. My mom was so out of it that she didn't even notice how completely freaked out I was. She was now ushering Alex over to a seat, and she was out of sight before I even knew it as she sat up front.

"Come on, Jordy," Hunter grinned, almost causing me to jump once again. "It's your brother's wedding. You should look happy."

"I would be if I wasn't attached to a psychopath."

He placed his free hand over his heart, a mocking hurt look on his face. "Ouch, Jordy. Words can hurt."

"I hope they do."

Before I knew it, I was practically being tugged forward. I quickly kept up with Hunter's pace so that we were both walking down the aisle at the same time, and I had to do my best to not look completely miserable.

When we were finally able to separate, I felt myself breathe again. Hunter stood behind my brother and I stood across from them, waiting for Rachel to walk down the aisle. But instead of watching the door to see her entrance, all I could do was try my best not to glare at Hunter as he stared at me.

When Rachel walked up next to my brother, I finally got to see what she looked like in her wedding dress. I couldn't help but smile when I saw how beautiful she looked, but she always looked beautiful so it wasn't that big of a surprise.

My happiness quickly subsided when I noticed that Hunter was still staring at me. He didn't look at Austin or Rachel, not even once. His gaze did not even falter from me. He just continued to stare and stare and I didn't look away from him. I stared right back.

"You may now kiss the bride."

When I heard this, I almost jumped in surprised. Had I seriously zoned out for the entire wedding? I didn't even hear their vows or anything! I had been so preoccupied with Hunter and his creepiness that I had pretty much missed my brother's wedding! And I was standing right there the entire time!

During the wedding reception, all I wanted to do was crawl into one of the chairs and not have any attention on me. But Alex forced me to dance, and then Austin wanted to dance with me as well. Hunter had disappeared, and I hoped that he had some kind of gang duties that he had to attend to.

When Rachel threw the bouquet, Alex forced me to go up to try and catch it. I wanted to tell him that I was technically not single--but then again, maybe I was--but I knew that that wasn't a good idea since Jesse was supposed to be dead.

I stood there looking bored as the rest of the women around me looked excited. Did they really believe in these kinds of things? I highly doubted that the person who caught the bouquet would be the next to marry, but that was just something that I believed in.

When Rachel finally threw it, I just stood there as the rest of the women scrambled for it. I rolled my eyes right towards me, and I held out my hands and let it fall into them uncaringly, as if it was meant to be.

Women gave me death glares, but I didn't really care very much. Since I didn't recognize any of them, I was sure that they were all either friends or family of Rachel, since I couldn't think of a family member of mine that wasn't married. Except for my cousins, but I didn't think that they even came up to catch the stupid thing...

"Ooh, Jordan!" my brother laughed from the front of the room. "Someone's going to tie the knot soon!"

 I made a face at him, but that only caused him to laugh even harder. It wasn't like I was a kid or anything, so why was it even that funny? I was eighteen and I could have gotten married if I wanted to. I even told Jesse that I would have run away with him and married him if he wanted...

I turned on my heel and back toward the table Alex was sitting at, trying my best not to think about Jesse. When I finally got to the table I threw the bouquet at him and muttered, "I'm going to the bathroom."

Walking away as quickly as I could, I wasn't able to make it to the bathroom. I got a few feet away from Alex, far away so that he couldn't see me, when a door opened and someone grabbed me and dragged me inside.

Normally I would have screamed, but I actually wasn't afraid. After everything Hunter had put me through, I didn't think I could be afraid of anything anymore.

The person who had grabbed me suddenly turned on the light, and I looked around to see that I was in a broom closet. I looked up to see who had snatched me, and I wasn't very surprised to see the two different colored eyes staring down at me.

"It's a shame, what happened to Jesse," Hunter sighed as he grinned at me. "I never would have thought Jesse Jacobsen could have died no accident."

At least he believed the fake story. I couldn't really believe that someone as smart as Hunter actually fell for it.

"Aren't you supposed to be leaving me alone?" I asked him flatly, my arms crossed over my chest as I stared at him. "Didn't you say you'd leave me alone once Jesse was dead? You're a man of your word, aren't you?"

"We're both supposed to be here, Jordan," he continued to smile at me. "So I can't leave you alone just yet."

I scowled at him, wanting to yell and scream but I knew that I couldn't. Hunter Drax was the reason Jesse wasn't with me anymore, and he was the reason everything else in my life was messed up. And now I was definitely sick and tired of it.

"Aw, little Jordy's upset," he teased, taking a step closer to me. This caused me to take a step back, right into the wall. That definitely wasn't good... "Are you sad that your boyfriend's dead and can no longer protect you from the big bad guy?"

I bit my lip to stop myself from yelling at him. I didn't want to draw any attention from the people outside, so I knew I had to keep quiet. No matter how much I wanted to scream and shout at him...

"I'm not afraid," I said, finally finding my voice again. "I'm not afraid of you anymore, Hunter. The only thing you want from me is fear. You may want my love, but you've never gotten that from me, so it isn't the same. You've wanted me to be scared of you, and I was, but now I'm not. The most painful thing in the world is losing Jesse, and now that it's happened I'm not afraid of anything. Even if you were to kill me right now, right in this very broom closet with all my family right outside, I wouldn't be afraid. I would even accept it. Because I am not scared of you anymore."

Anger flashed through Hunter's eyes; the same kind of anger that was in them the night he had killed Alexandria. My heart told me to be afraid, but I just didn't feel it. I wasn't scared of what Hunter could do to me now, and I felt so much better admitting that.

I knew that if he didn't have any self-control, I would have been dead by the time I finished that monologue, but even I knew Hunter wasn't stupid enough to do that with all the people in the room right next to us.

"You're one brave little girl," Hunter laughed without humor, looking as if he would have loved to punch me. Or kill me, probably... "You're brave for sticking up to me like that. I don't think anyone's had the guts to talk to me that way before, especially not a girl."

"I'm eighteen," I reminded him flatly, as if he had somehow forgotten. "I'm not a little girl."

Hunter's fingers grazed my cheek, causing me to shiver. I didn't want him touching me...

"You are definitely not a little girl."

I didn't really understand what he meant by this, since he had just called me a little girl and all, but I quickly realized what he meant when he leaned forward. He pressed his lips to mine and pressed me tightly to his body, and there was nothing I could do to stop him.

"You said you would leave me alone," I practically whimpered when he finally pulled away from me. "I thought you were a man of your word. Aren't you going to leave me alone?"

"I will," Hunter assured, now trailing kissing up and down my neck and shoulder, which caused me to shiver once again. "But not yet. If this is my last time seeing you ever again, I want to make it memorable."

My eyes widened as I continued to look over his shoulder. What did he mean by that? How would he make it memorable? I didn't think that I wanted to know...

"I have a gun in my jacket pocket," he whispered in my ear, causing me to go stiff as a board. "Do exactly what I say and I won't use it."

I nodded, biting my lip to stop myself from making any sounds. It wasn't just my family out there, it was Rachel's as well. All of them were innocent people except for Alex, and I wasn't going to let anyone get hurt because of me again. I had already hurt enough people.

When I heard the zipper on the back of my dress unzip, I feared the worst. Hunter's lips never left my skin as he slowly pushed my dress off of my shoulders. I knew what he was doing, and I knew what he wanted. There wasn't anything I could do to stop him.

"Come on, Jordy," he whispered in my ear once again. "Kiss me unless you want innocent people to die."

I jumped up, wrapping my arms around his neck and brushing my lips to his. If this was what he wanted, this was what he was getting. I wasn't letting him hurt anyone anymore, especially not because of me. Even if that meant doing something that I would regret...

I hadn't even done it with Jesse before. Was my first time going to have to be with my grandmother's murderer? How could I have gotten myself in this mess?

When the door opened, I couldn't be more relieved. But then again, someone had just caught me making out with Hunter in a broom closet with my dress half off. If this was a family member of mine then I knew that this was not going to be pretty...

"Hah, I knew it!" my brother exclaimed with a laugh, grinning way too much than he should have as he stood in the doorway. If I didn't know any better, I would have said that he was kind of drunk. "I knew you two had a thing for each other! And you just caught the bouquet, Jordan! Maybe you two will get married!"

The sparkle in Hunter's eyes told me that he would have married me if I would agree to it, but there was no way I was going to let that happen. All I could do was make a face of disgust.

The most surprising part of it all was that Austin wasn't pissed off at all. It wasn't like he was overprotective or anything, but he was like my dad and just judgmental of the guys I hung out with. But he was totally and completely fine with the fact that I was making out with someone at his wedding!

I guessed that it was because it was his best friend that I was kissing, not Jesse or Alex or some other guy that he didn't approve of, but that didn't make it any less embarrassing! All I could do was stare at the ground and wish that I was somewhere else as my cheeks burned a bright red.

I couldn't wait to get out of there. Though I was grateful for my brother for saving me from whatever Hunter wanted me to do, he still thought that we were together or something now. I didn't want him to think that that there was ever a chance of Hunter and me getting married, because I knew that that would just get his hopes up, and he would be crushed when he learned that I actually couldn't stand Hunter.

And I just couldn't hurt anyone else.

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IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:

Some of you might know that I'm actually planning on publishing this story after it's finished. Whenever I do publish this, the title won't be Girls vs. Boys, because it really doesn't have anything to do with the story anymore. So when I get it published, the new title will be:

There's a Thin Line Between Love and Hate.

Please COMMENT, VOTE, and FAN! <3