A Kiss To Change It All (Part 31) - Montgomery de la Cruz
Pairing: Montgomery de la Cruz x Reader; Jeff Atkins x Reader
Warning: None.
Word count: 1.9K
Monday
Slowly and reluctantly, you uncover your face. Blinked, closed your eyes and blinked again a few times until you adjusted to the sunlight that was blinding you because you were too tired to close the curtains the night before. You had a long discussion with your father and despite him telling you that Montgomery was probably acting out of anger, your mind was already made and it was no way for you to continue lamenting yourself over someone who moved on quickly. No more tears. No more guilt. Just your old self back in the game. You promised you would show every single student in Liberty that no jock could break you, even if it was the big bad Montgomery de la Cruz. You were determined to start this new week on a positive note. Admiring yourself one last time in the mirror, you headed downstairs to find your best friend and father chatting in the kitchen while waiting for you.
“Good morning you two!” You chanted as you walked inside the room, kissing your father’s cheek before taking a seat on your best friend’s lap. Nothing unusual but considering what happened over the past weeks, your good mood and behavior were strange. “What?” You questioned when you felt their looks on you. None of them dared to tell you they found your behavior awkward, they just smiled at you and continued chatting while you were eating. “Zach and I kissed the other day.” You dropped after a minute of driving.
“Is it this supposed to be surprising?”
“Yeah?”
“Okay…”
“At least fake being surprised, Atkins.” You laughed and he did too. “I ran away right after that. I feel guilty because he tried calling and texting and I didn’t respond.”
“It’s Zach we’re talking about, sweetheart. He won’t be mad at you if you just explain what happened.”
And of course, he wasn’t. The great Zach Dempsey couldn’t even think of getting mad at you. When you got to your locker, you saw him chatting with Marcus a few feet away and you decided that it was now or never to get that talk so quickly, you shoved your textbooks in your backpack and walked as fast as you could as he was walking away. “Zach!” You called and made him instantly stop. “Can we talk… in private?” You looked at Marcus with an uneasy smile. The basketball player just nodded and followed you to an empty classroom. Once you closed the door, the same heavy tension that was in his car the day he drove you to Jeff’s settled in the room making the air suddenly hot and impossible to breathe. “I owe an explanation and an apology for my shitty behavior, Zach.” You managed to get out of your mouth after what felt like forever.
“You had a rough week, it’s alright. I understand.”
A smile crept on your lips and you shook your head before you took a seat next to him, looking at the freshly cleaned blackboard. “Why do you have to be so nice?”
“Why not?”
Looking at him, you grinned and hit his shoulder playfully. “It’s rude to answer a question with another one, Dempsey!”
“Ouch! I’m a sensitive guy, (Y/L/N), careful.” He shot back at you in the same tone before he shook his head smiling at you. “So what’s the explanation you owe me?”
Clearing your throat, you started your tale of adventures from you being on the Honor Board and ditching school, the fight with Montgomery, then you wanting to text him but ending up finding how your mother sabotaged your relationship. “And the rest, you’ve seen it yourself.” He nodded, feeling sad for you after the scene he and the other jocks witnessed at Bryce’s. “I’m sorry for running away like that.”
“I should be the one apologizing but…” He paused searching for words. “We were searching for comfort, I guess, and…”
“It’s the only way two broken-hearted teenagers found.”
“You good at finishing my sentences (Y/L/N).” He laughed.
“Saved your ass more than once, Dempsey. Be thankful I am able to read your mind.”
Zach shifted on the chair so he was facing you now. You didn’t look at him, kept your eyes for a moment on the board before you did. He was smiling. His angelic smile lit up all his face and you wondered how such a sweet guy like him was friends with people like Bryce Walker. “What?”
“It’s good to see you happy again.”
With a smile, you nodded. “About the time I started smiling again, uh?” As you both exited the classroom and took opposite directions towards your first period, you heard no one talking about you or whispering countless stories as you walked past them. It felt good not to be the center of attention, to get back to being just a student among many others. Carried by your thoughts, you didn’t pay attention to where you were going and bumped into someone who instantly got a hold of your arms catching you before you hit the floor. You looked up and almost choked when you saw Montgomery. Taking a step back and freeing your arms from his hold, you mumbled an apology and quickly walked away, leaving him standing there without a chance to say a word. You didn’t want to hear anything coming from him.
Thursday
The past days went smoothly. You allowed yourself to go out with Zach the night before, a friendly night out, just talking and getting to know each other since you didn’t really get to talk while working on your bio projects. The whispers and weird looks stopped giving you the peace you were desperately looking for. Or so you thought as you were headed to watch your best friend practice before the big game of the next day.
“How could he even go official with a girl like her? Boooriiiing.” One of the cheers said out loud as you walked past them to get to the bleachers, making the rest of the group laugh as they eyed you.
Another added in a louder voice. “He probably fucked her this summer and didn’t like it.”
You heard them. They meant it, they wanted you to hear them and when you sprinted towards the nearest bathrooms, the cheerleaders started giggling and babbling even more. You tried to swallow back the tears that were threatening to start falling again. You almost made it through two days without crying. A record for the past weeks. Locking yourself in an empty stall, you let them fall silently on your cheeks, muffled sobs escaping your lips as you wanted to avoid anyone hearing you. But someone did. Someone followed you when the cheerleaders talked about you, worried about you. They couldn’t help but listen through the thin door to your cries. You eventually got out after a few minutes, eyes puffy and red, sniffling and they got out at the same time. Kimberly. Great, you couldn’t ask for anyone else to see you like this. She stood next to you, watching you wash and dry your face all the way long. “I am sorry, (Y/N).” She finally said when you looked for a second. Something in her voice made you feel that she was genuine to you. You gave her a slight nod and a small smile before you turned around ready to head out when she spoke again. “He still thinks about you a lot, do you know that?” She paused when she saw you stop walking. You didn’t turn around, your heart taking a fast race inside your chest. “He…” She let out a nervous chuckle. “He calls me your name all the time.”
You dared to look at her and tried as hard as you could to keep a straight face even though her words brought a sweet feeling to your cold heart. “I am sorry for…”
Kimberly took a step towards you, a smile on her lips. A pained smile. “I am not blaming you, (Y/N).”
“I don’t understand then. Why are you telling me all of this?”
“Because you two aren’t over each other.” A statement from her. The blonde told you a fact you were pushing away from your mind.
You shook your head. “You don’t know an…”
“Maybe I know nothing.” She cut you off. “I know nothing of what happened between you and how things ended, yeah. But trust me, (Y/N), I see enough things every day since he got with me to tell you that he still thinks about you a lot.” Kimberly went on telling you that he didn’t change your name on his phone and kept your picture on his lock screen, he got mad at her when she pointed it out. She often caught him looking at you when you were too busy to notice him doing so. He smiled when you did, got worried when he didn’t see you around Jeff, and went crazy asking Justin or Scott to go ask your best friend if you were alright. That was when it hit you. Justin had a lot going on and to deal with but he texted you this morning when you were at the hospital for some blood tests, asking where you were and if everything was fine. Not that Justin didn’t care about you but he certainly wouldn’t freak out if he didn’t see you at school. But this morning you had French and your seat was empty when Montgomery entered the room, causing him to panic almost immediately as he just saw Jeff by the lockers earlier and you weren’t with him. He practically harassed Justin to text you and if the basketball player wanted to get some peace, he didn’t have much choice than to do what Monty asked him to. “Even this…” She smiled down at the leather bracelet hanging low on your wrist before she grabbed your hand to look at it closely. “He doesn’t want to take it off.” The boys kept telling him that it would be better if he took it off but he snapped one day as they were changing in the locker room and almost got into a fight with one of the jocks.
Pulling your hand away, you sighed. You couldn’t break down in front of her after what she said. “He is with you now. Your boyfriend, not mine anymore.”
Kimberly laughed. “I don’t think that this purely sexual thing that is going between Monty and I is the definition of a relationship.”
“I don’t care about what you do together. I just don’t understand what your point is.” Of course, you cared, you were dying to know what attracted him to her and now you had your answer. It didn’t surprise you at all. But you hated thinking that he was having sex with another girl and you couldn’t fight the feeling squeezing your heart almost until you couldn’t breathe.
She smiled. “My point is that you two are destroying one another by staying apart. Whether you like the idea or not, (Y/N), you two are still madly in love with each other but your pride or whatever this is is not helping either of you. Do you think Zach would bring you happiness like Monty did?” You were speechless. She was surprisingly smart and showed you a face you didn’t know about her. “I’ll give you the answer. He would make you happy because Zach is a good guy but you wouldn’t be as happier as if you were with Monty.”
“You do realize what you’re saying, right?” She nodded. “Don’t you like him?”
“I do. But you love him, there’s the difference..”
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