JUST WHEN I'M WITH YOU, BABY

CHAPTER THIRTY SIX

I warned you to stay away from my daughter.” Dad says immediately he hears Kieran’s voice, the documentary he was watching momentarily forgotten. The smile on his face is immediately replaced with a scowl.

Great now the good mood i was hoping he'd be in is gone.

Thanks Kieran.

“I’m sorry sir. I didn’t mean to intrude but she has something she needs to say.”

“The desert company sent you a reply mail accepting to create a merger....I rejected the offer and deleted it.” I say and there’s dead silence.

“Why?” Mom asks.

“Because she’s jealous you went with my idea and they liked it too. They wanted to you to make a date for a meeting.” Kieran says and I bow my head in shame, my cheeks red with embarassment.

Save me face my foot.

“Is this true?” Dad asks, and the disappointment lacing his voice is too much for me to bear.

A tear drops down my face and I wipe it away harshly.

“It’s okay. We can just delete the mail and send them the right one.” Mom says.

“I deleted thread and blocked them. The email is gone.”

“Jesus Christ. What is wrong with you? We didn’t bring you up like this, Aaliyah.” Dad starts

“Greg, let’s call the castles first and try to sort out this mess.” Mom cuts in

“Kieran, you guys can give us space. Don't let her go anywhere. We'd call you soon.” He says pining me with a look that says he knew i'd be driving out as soon as i was excused.

I always run from my problems.

Great, now Kieran is my prison guard.

Kieran agrees and puts my hand on the small of my back as we go upstairs. His hands are cold and feel like hand cuffs shackling me to a prison guard.

When we reach dad’s study, he shoves me inside and locks the door.

“Hey, what are you doing?” I ask as I try to grab the door handle and stop him from keeping me here.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” He asks

“What I’m I forgetting?” I bite back

“You came into the house for a reason."

“Yes, I did.” I say slowly, pretending to have forgotten that I just threw out his pendrive.

“So where is the drive?’

“It wasn’t in the jacket. Are you sure you left it there?”

He gives me a funny look that I can’t comprehend.

“Are you sure you’re not lying?” He asks.

I almost let my paranoia win and believe he knew that I threw it out my window a few minutes ago, but i don't.

“Why are you asking me this? Are you saying I stole your drive?” I ask givng him an offended look.

“I wouldn’t put anything past you.” He says with a smile.

It’s his cruel smile.

“You’re really turning for the worst, you know?” He approaches me as i take astep back unsure.

“I don’t care. Stop acting like you have my best interest in mind when you clearly don’t. Our kiss meant nothing. I still like Andrew and my feelings for you won’t ever change. You asked me whose Kiss I liked better right? News flash, it was Andrew’s so stop spreading the fact that we kissed. I don’t want him to be hurt because of my stupid mistake. It’s just embarrassing for you, you know.” I blurt, trying hard to convince myself with this words.

He stalks towards me but I still keep talking.

“I know you threw the pen drive out.”

“So? What are you going to do about it?” I refuse to keep moving back and showing him i was afraid.

“Are you going on full bitch mode only today, or this Jezebel just comes out on Fridays?”

“Not on Fridays, just when I’m with you, baby.” I say.

I hate myself in the moment.

Whenever someone slapped me in the face, I had to slap them twice in the face. Hurt them twice as much.

I’ve not yet been slapped technically but yeah, you get the metaphor.

I had it coming.

“I guess you’re not sorry to me then." He scoffs, turning away from me.

"But what of our parents’ work that you ruined?” He looks back at me.

“You are the reason why all this is happening.” I say to him.

“You shouldn’t have messed with me and let her sit in my chair.”

“You’re doing this because Tatum sat in your chair? You really are one fucked up bitch.” Kieeran says and I pretend he calling me 'fucked up' and a 'bitch' didn’t sting.

I was such a vile person to him already. I might as well continue

“Yes, and guess how far I’d be willing to go if someone tried to lie to me and play me for a fool.

I answer him and walk out, leaving Kieran in the study.

We’ve not spoken since then. He completely ignores me and It seems he and Tatum are no longer a thing either.

Maybe they were together for just for one day.

Just like he and I

I push the thoughts away as I head over to cheer practice.

Yeah, that’s right. I was back on the team.

About two weeks after the issue with Kieran, Coach Torrie had called the team together and I received an apology letter from them

Later on Chloe filled me in or what happened.

She says Coach Torrie asked anyone who didn’t want me as captain to quit and shed’s gladly let them. She said she’d open club admission right now so they would be replaced like they were never here. They were dead silent. No one volunteered.

So she asked everyone who signed the sheet to get me dismissed to write an apology letter and get me back on the team or else they’d be kicked out.

Chloe wanted to me to make them suffer but I’d missed practice so much so I spared them.

I honestly had been impatient to get back.

Andrew was still refusing to talk to me because of the deal he had with Kieran.

So once again, I was wholly single and lonely.

I’d gone from a love triangle and kissing two guys in one day to being a single pringle.

I was back online too. The PR team had fixed things and my followers were back to loving and supporting me.

I was starting to go back to who I used to be.

The queen b of school and an iconic influencer and social media face.

Kieran was ignoring me. He didn’t look my way, he didn’t sneer or scowl or smile when I saw him.

He just wore his poker face as he walked by me, not bothering to look back at me.

It kind of hurt but it was the best option for both of us.

A few days ago, Our parents had announced that they had been able to reach the dessert business and had scheduled a meeting with them so they might not come back anytime soon. I'd been grounded and the relationship between dad and i had strained. He didn't trust me anymore and he treats Kieran more like a son than he treats me. It actually hurt me but i deserved it.

I get down from Chloe’s car and we head inside the mall. I had to be quick and pick Kieran up after school too.

I’d gotten my car back, basically everything was going back to normal except my relationship with Andrew and Kieran And dad.