Secret Red

Chapter 48

Chapter 48

"That's enough, J! Stop it! Jason!" Shane tried to pull Jason away from the battered Tristan on the ground. Jason still launched at him throwing punches after punches even when his opponent was already immobile laying on the ground.

"Snap out of it, J!" Rob pushed him away from the battered boy, waking him from the trance he was in. He sat catching his breath along with Rob, Corey and Shane who were exhausted from the fight they were in, with a few of the basketball boys who also sat at the side of the field catching their breath, except for Tristan who was groaning on the ground. The few basketball boys pulled Tristan from the ground and walked away from them.

"Hey man, I didn't know he did that to her, man. How's she doing?" Cole sincerely asked Rob making Jason scoffed in reflex causing him to turned towards Jason.

"Where the hell were you, idiot? Do I have to save your damsel all the time because you're incapable of doing it yourself?" Cole snapped.

"Not my problem anymore. It's yours." He revolted.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Stop pretending that you didn't made out with her."

"Wish I did. She's pretty cute. Unfortunately, haven't got the chance yet." He shrugged lightly.

"Don't have to pretend anymore. I couldn't care less."

"As I said, why would I pretend. You pushed her away yourself. Makes it so much easier for me."

"Easier? Trying to get her pity by explaining what happened to Sera? Come on, don't act all righteous, now." He snorted.

"I never tell her what you actually did. Wherever she heard it from, wasn't from me. You know that I would never malign her, unlike you!" He spat.

"Glad you've each other, oh wait, you don't." He said with heated sarcasm, leaving them. He needed to look for someone immediately, learning his new found revelation. Why would she lie about them kissing? About everything? Liam was Leah's brother? He was not her boyfriend? What did she do to Leah, exactly? Come to think of it, Cole would never tell her about what I did, he loved Sera too much to spit anything out. It doesn't make any sense. What is she hiding?

The next few days, Alison was walking with Layla and Zoe when they saw a battered Tristan at the end of the gym hall. His face was colored with blue and purple bruises which seemed to swell as well.

"Oh my gosh, what happened to him? He looked like he's been crashed by a truck! If I didn't know better, I actually feel a little sorry for him." Zoe exclaimed.

"Yeah, they all got into a huge fight two days ago." Layla said making the two girls turn their attention towards her.

"What? Who? Why?" Zoe exclaimed expecting her to understand her simplifications.

"Shane, Rob, Corey and Jason. From what Shane told me, they were walking to the field when they saw Rob was already arguing with Tristan. He was talking about you, I guess... I don't know. Shane, Corey and Jason asked what's going on and things escalated from the heated argument between Rob and Tristan, the next thing happened was that they were throwing punches. Some of the basketball boys joined in defending Tristan while Shane, Corey and Jason tried to defend Rob as well. It was awful, really..."

"And it's because of... me? Oh God." Alison sighed.

"No, no! It wasn't because of you. What Tristan did was out of line, it's not okay, Alison. It was Tristan who threw the first punch at Rob, anyway. They can't simply sit back and watch Rob getting beaten up like that." Layla explained.

"But if they didn't know about it then it wouldn't even happen-"

"He was literally bragging and talking bad about you, Alison. Gossip spread like wildfire here." Layla affirmed.

"But that's not-"

"It's not, I'm not saying that what they did was right, but at least we do not just stand there and do nothing when we know our friend was being bad-mouth or harassed." She added.

"I'm sorry. It's my fault, actually. I caused all these things in the first place." Zoe finally spoke.

"I think, it's enough of blaming whose fault and stuff. It doesn't matter. Everything that happened, happened. So be it. It's done." Layla assured trying to make both her friends better. It had been her trait to be the matured, caring person of the group and Alison was grateful to have known such an amazing friend like her.

"You know what. Let's catch a movie this weekend. Just us and the boys." Zoe suggested.

"Yeah I think that's a great idea. I'll check what movie are they playing right now. I just hope the movie about the haunted mansion and adopted kids is out now. What was the title-" Layla took out her phone tapping randomly on the phone screen.

"You guys go ahead. I think I'll just pass." Alison said hesitantly.

"No! You're coming and I'll be picking you up. I doubt Jason will be going anyway so, you have no excuse." Layla insisted.

"We'll see then." She said. Alison was walking to her car when Cole caught up with her at the parking lot.

"Hey, Red. Can I talk to you?" He walked beside her but she decided to keep walking towards her car.

"There's nothing to talk about." She simply shrugged and continued walking.

"Come on. Just a few minutes." He said sincerely.

"What?" She sighed and turned facing him as he did the same.

"Remind me, when did we make out because I don't seem to have any recollection of that." He cut to the point which came as a surprise to her, her cheeks burning hot.

"What?" She croaked hesitantly.

"What exactly did you tell Jason? About us? There was never an us, Red. Unless you wanted to." He inquired adding his cheekiness.

"Alright, first of all, no to your offer. Second, um... what did he tell you exactly?"

"Does it even matter? Did you just say that to break up with him or something?"

"Okay, I'm sorry for using you. I just... I didn't mean to make things worse between the two of you which I think I just did and I'm sorry." She explained full of guilt.

"Well that still didn't explain anything. Why would you do that?" He insisted.

"I... don't have to explain anything to you and I got to go. Sorry." She was about to leave when he held her arm preventing her from leaving.

"You did use me as your excuse to break up with him. I think my innocence is on the line, here. The least you can do is at least tell me why." He reasoned but she just kept quiet feeling even more guilty than before.

"You were just head over heels for him a while ago and then you just made a 180 degree flip, you wanted to break up with him. I hated that guy and I couldn't even hurt him the way you did. Alright. You're hiding something, I get it. And I'm sorry about what happened at the party the other day, at least Tristan got a beating for that. See you around, Red." He responded full of cryptic messages and suspicions which made her very nervous.

What if he told Jason? What if he found out? I just have to face it.