“He’s looking at me!” I squealed softly
“Only because he can hear you” Theo nudged lovingly “Don’t look now Addie, but he’s walking our way, like Jasper is coming to talk to you” I jumped up, hitting my head on the locker above me right as he started talking.
“Hey Addie, what’s up?” he said, the words came out like butter “What are you doing for lunch? Because I was thinking that umm maybe we could go get some? The guys and I are all going and I was thinking maybe you could come with us too, but if you don’t want to that totally cool too.”
His eyes are so blue I thought, and his teeth were so straight, you would have thought he had braces but he never had to have them, and his lips are so supple looking. Wait he stopped talking- what did he say- s*** Addie you just screwed this all up. Crap what do I say? Maybe I should just smile, yeah I’ll do that.
“She would love to!” Theo responded for me- remind me to thank him.     
“Yes! That sounds great!” I say, hoping that I didn’t just get signed up for something that I would regret.
“Great I’ll meet you in the commons” Jasper said as he shuffled off. God his booty work is good I thought as I slowly slide down my locker.
“What the hell was that?” Theo ridiculed
“I was looking at his eyes, his teeth, and his mouth, then I kind of lost track of what he was saying! Oh my God did you see his butt?”
“Addison Clare how do you expect to talk to him in the car ride at lunch if you can go thirty seconds without getting lost in… him?” Theo had a point but there was no way I would admit it “And yes, I did see his butt, and it is like whoa!” he smirked
“What did I say yes to by the way? I kind of lost track of what he was saying after he smiled.”
“God, Addie you need help, you’re going to lunch with him, now get off the floor and let’s get to class before we’re both late and have to miss lunch.” Smiling and stretching his hand down Theo lifted my love struck body off the ground and closing my locker, looking at Theo and realized that I just got a date with the hottest guy in our class, and I screamed.
“I’ve been waiting for that” Theo smirked, we meet up with Theo’s boyfriend, Nate, on our way to first period and talked about Jasper the whole way.
It was half way through first period when Harper, one of my best friends, moved next to me and started telling me how her boyfriend Blaine, who is best friends with Jasper, said that he had been trying to ask me to lunch for the past week but was too nervous. The rest of class flew by and so did the next two periods, I was dreaming of his eyes, and how I could stare into them all day, when Elizabeth, Jaspers ex-girlfriend and town princess walked over to “talk”.
“Addison,” in a blood curdling way, she cooed “Everyone is talking about you and Jasper! It’s so exciting he likes you! Your dad is going to love meeting him, how are you going to do that? I mean I guess you could take him to Rutgers to meet him, but I think Jaspers afraid of prison so you might not want to. Tata, I have to go, I told Ms. Johnston I was going to the bathroom” She slithered away, knowing that the only thing to make me regret ever saying yes was bringing up my dad.
“Don’t do it, please, Jason please, don’t do it in front of her” she was screaming this for what seemed like hours until she couldn’t anymore, my dad had beaten her, thrown her limp body across the room before raping her.
For the first sixteen years of my life my dad had done this to my mom when he got angry, but this time it was worse, because this time after he was done he came after me. He ripped my necklace off and hit me again and again before he stopped, he said he would do it every night until I learned that good girls do what their parents tell them. He walked out of the room then, and I ran to my mother. When she finally woke up she saw my face, she cleaned off the blood from my cheek, and we ran. First we went to the police station, then to the hospital, then to grandma’s house. After that we spent weeks going back and forth to the police station and the court house before my dad was finally put away for what he did. It was splashed all over the paper though, “Jason Keeler- The Almost a Killer”, and that’s what he was, our whole town gathered around in support for my mom and I but nothing ever felt the same because we weren’t just members of the town anymore, we were victims of it.
Walking to the front of the class I asked for permission to go to the bathroom and as I walked out I signaled for Theo to come with me. He has been through everything with me and thinking back to that day made me question if I should go or not, if Jasper liked me or not, and if he was doing this out of sympathy or not.
“Does he really like me?” I cried
“Addie love, who couldn’t? You are strong, beautiful, graceful, caring, and funny—he would be a fool to think anything less.”
“But my dad” I whimper out
“Addie, you lived through him, he tried to make you and your mom smaller but look at where you are and look at where he is, you are the strong one. Jasper likes you because of you, he doesn’t care what made you that way”
“But Elizabeth”
“She is a washed up version Kate Hudson and I don’t think anyone really likes her—she does have a certain Blaire Waldorf flare to her though” I giggled, still feeling as if I didn’t deserve it.
“The thing is though, what if she’s right, I don’t deserve him, I am still treated as a victim a year later” I muttered.
“You aren’t though, you are the sun and you need to remember that, you don’t have to go with him if you don’t want to but Addie please don’t let her win”. Someone yelled at us to get back to class and we did, I spent the next 15 minutes deciding if I should go or not and when I finally walked down the steps and met him in the commons I realized that one moment should not define me, one moment should challenge me and change me but it won’t break me and sometimes the bad guy goes to jail and the good girl gets the prince.
Jasper kissed me that day, that week he made me smile, that month he made me laugh, that year he taught me how to love, and that lifetime he taught me to love myself.