I ignored Graeme for two days, not because he did anything to upset me but I had found out that Alexa was his ex girlfriend and although she and my brother were trying something -it didn't change the fact that he was a no go territory.424Please respect copyright.PENANAKC3EgJBSrL
Graeme Yorkley had so much secrecy to him and being forbidden made me fall for him even more. I liked having the rush of having to sneak around although we hadn't been -but I wanted to. 424Please respect copyright.PENANAAqj5yrrO7B
Like I have said before, I wasn't a big fan of the entire Valentine's day thing and in the year 2018, I couldn't decide whether to rule it over as good or bad. That day, when everyone was high on love, when I wished I could show off Graeme Yorkley by my side -had brought something else along.424Please respect copyright.PENANAOJqeFav9cf
I had History before lunch and Graeme and I went about our day as if we hadn't spend Saturday night together, like we didn't kiss on Monday in his brother's cabin. That didn't end very well, it couldn't -I had spoiled everything when I ran from the house and he was left unattended. I was happy to learn through his texting that he wasn't mad at me and that whatever Alexa said about him wasn't all true. That's when I found out they dated, so I never texted him back.424Please respect copyright.PENANAG6ij3zIxqt
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It was safe to say he was furious -I played my stone diva tricks on him.424Please respect copyright.PENANAnQJ2nmxJ6Q
So, as I plunged my books into my locker Jae Starling told me Coach Byrd was looking for me in regards to me not participating in the Olympics. We ignored each other since Heather Rory's party -neither of us giving a care and that day he'd spoken to me for the first time. I wasn't ready for the Olympics, just like I hadn't been for the conversation that motivated why. On my way to Coach Byrd's I saw Kath struggling to put all her gifts into her locker, so I did the moralistic thing and helped her. I wasn't prepared for what I saw next.424Please respect copyright.PENANAti3LSKvAeb
"That's my step dad and my mom." She smiled. "He's a doctor."424Please respect copyright.PENANAa8bj0A0UIE
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I could feel my chest shrinking and I was sure I was going to have a panic attack in front of the entire junior hall.424Please respect copyright.PENANAdkq96pLZjE
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I knew him, his name -Barry Wiggins. I knew him from one of our old school's, Marigold Prep's private gym. I kept staring at the face in the picture and I know it must've became weird for Kath, because she took it gently and said.424Please respect copyright.PENANAEB3io3iRzA
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"You'll meet him later. He's going to be the new doctor for the gymnastics athletes. Just don't try to jump his bones." She teased.424Please respect copyright.PENANA7WaOds9iI4
I smiled at her weakly and excused myself, heading towards the exit. I didn't have anywhere in particular but I walked until I couldn't see the school any longer. It wasn't long when I heard the roar of an engine echoing beside me. It was Graeme's pick up -he said nothing only let the engine roam giving me time to decide whether I wanted to get in. His patience didn't wear thin, he drove slowly besides the sidewalk without saying a word, without pressuring me to get inside.424Please respect copyright.PENANAzQujq75Ecc
We drove in silence along Anchor Road and halted where the road split between the woods and our town border. The gravel path lead to another road that divided into three and it was already an easy choice, no consideration to it whatsoever, we took the second and it lead us straight to solitary.424Please respect copyright.PENANAXLfvZ7SVUi
My heart started to beat faster as we walked up the wooden porch and Graeme retrieved the keys, like it was our was. Alexa wasn't in my mind at that particular moment, only Barry Wiggins and Kath Ivanhoe's words.424Please respect copyright.PENANALWoohsiyil
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Graeme continued to make us hot chocolate, I hadn't noticed until the creamy aroma found nostrils. It was safe to say that my encounters with Graeme had always somehow involved something from my past.424Please respect copyright.PENANA8ZqKNVRp2f
"I saw you talking to Kath. Did she say something that upset you?"424Please respect copyright.PENANA6rh08DDlAH
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I chuckled at the thought, I had made it through approximately 54 different schools throughout my life -a popular girl saying something upsetting wasn't at all a problem for me, but in the case of Kath, it was.424Please respect copyright.PENANAoHIp0JYdqk
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"No." I said, and leaned in to kiss him. I didn't break it, only pushed my tongue further into his mouth in hopes he'd receive me eagerly.424Please respect copyright.PENANAh80LaxQnsG
Graeme Yorkley was my first passionate kiss. He made my toes curl and my stomach toss and when he broke the kiss, the feeling still remained. He looked at me for a minute, I can still remember how I hated it -he was seeking, analyzing, concluding and instantaneously he knew.424Please respect copyright.PENANA5JnnQYqyqV
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"What is wrong?"424Please respect copyright.PENANAVrwhm7rnXh
On Valentine's day, I had seen a different side to the daily Graeme Yorkley. He wasn't the bad boy everyone who'd warned me against him tried to make of him, he cared and initially read me better than everyone else did. It scared me but not enough to stay away.424Please respect copyright.PENANAHZoFS2b8ez
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"Nothing." I sighed.424Please respect copyright.PENANAmrEyAF3opa
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"I'm not about any of the highschool drama. You can rest assure that your secrets are all safe with me." He said.424Please respect copyright.PENANAtxftiynyfm
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"It's not that I don't trust you, I don't like talking about my life...and I'm pretty sure I'm not good at it either."424Please respect copyright.PENANAOwWuH97cHU
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"At what? Saying what you feel or talking about what causing all this hurt you carry?" 424Please respect copyright.PENANAtOSVH1w1AP
Graeme stared intently into my eyes, the were soft, kind and beyond them I could them worn out.424Please respect copyright.PENANA4hpeLuEOws
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"Sentiment in the whole. Emotions, talking about them like it will be fixed or gone. Don't you think so?"424Please respect copyright.PENANAW9Ujx2frlR
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"I used to." He cupped my hands in his. "Than, I realized everyone is going through something and maybe someone is willing to listen but it's me who's preventing them from being able to do so."424Please respect copyright.PENANAhohGM6ylSA
424Please respect copyright.PENANApdbNSeW5uX
There were similarities in the way Graeme and I handled ourselves, I guess that's what attracted us to one other. The way he looked at me, like he could take everything and make it good again, mended -no cracks to indicate my flaws. He couldn't save me from myself or the past or whatever may be in store for me in the future -I knew. It didn't mean to but I couldn't help myself from loosing all control, breaking down in front of Graeme was the last thing I wanted to do. I cried as every vile thing that ever happened to me played through my mind. The clear face of Barry Wiggins in every nightmare I had -how he touched me and his hands in places it shouldn't have been. 424Please respect copyright.PENANAG5un00Yv98
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His voice, "It's just a routine check up, every gymnast athlete must go through one." So trustworthy, his eyes so comforting and the results of his fingers' thrust leaving me permanently scarred. I hated that I kept my mouth shut because, I knew it would happen again, so I cried into Graeme's Yorkley shoulder. For not being able to confess this partial part of my bigger secret, for having to go through continuous sexual abuse at the young age of twelve and, for the girls I didn't safe -the ones who'd committed suicide at the hand of Barry Wiggins. I knew why they had done it and I still kept shut. I know it was wrong of me in every way but at the time the only thing going through my mind -no one would believe me. Barry Wiggins had said so himself.424Please respect copyright.PENANAGwA01xnqWT
The lie we could all tell ourselves -I'm fine, or maybe, it was because it had become so easy to tell everyone, for just their own satisfaction. I concluded that the reason we're so eager to accept it as the truth is perhaps 'cause we need to nurture our broken souls and the only way possible -to accept such lies so fondly as it is told.424Please respect copyright.PENANAxuxJz7Gvu4
Graeme made me realize that being broken didn't mean that everyone else would see it too. At seventeen, I had gone through enough to make me regret being born but getting to know Graeme Yorkley had changed the way I see the world today. 424Please respect copyright.PENANADdK06xNRQ8
Everyone falls in love at some point and although I had convinced myself the feeling between us was just pure energy fueled by teenage hormones, I knew it was more than that. Having him comfort me, embracing me while allowing me to break down as I wished, had been the first time I allowed anyone other than my family, to see me cry.424Please respect copyright.PENANAm5wIX60aRs
"Kaye..." He said and let his forehead rest on mine, "I don't want anyone knowing about us."424Please respect copyright.PENANA3V1N84m6oX
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It was so sudden, I barely processed the fact that I had bawled my eyes out in front of him than his words so inconsiderate, so quickly hit me. If during or after any other occasion he had told me this, I would happily agree to it but the fact that he'd said it at my most vulnerable time, made me want to cry even more. "Wow." Was all I could manage.424Please respect copyright.PENANA4pwCM6LrqA
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"Don't take this the wrong way," his voice immediately shaking, "I want to get to know you, I really do..."424Please respect copyright.PENANAEBedfZHCaJ
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"-but you just don't want anyone to know. Might ruin your chances with the hot, popular girl, right."424Please respect copyright.PENANABAWtIPApUc
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"Yes," he said.424Please respect copyright.PENANAsgrTHJQdXj
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I immediately stood up, lunging for my bag in the processes of heading toward the door.424Please respect copyright.PENANABPyF9rbMF2
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"Dude!" He said, raising an eyebrow. "You are the hot, popular girl." 424Please respect copyright.PENANAGGOZ4YmusM
I swear I wanted to punch him and as every girl would, to the image of his smile, I did but only lightly against his chest. He caught my hand, kept it over the left side of his chest and I could feel his heart pulsating faster and faster, it made my own heartbeat quicken and my knees weaken. His eyes never left mine, they were scrutinizing and if on any other occasion, I would have looked away but there was so many things unspoken but said, so much our hearts had achieved in just that one look. 424Please respect copyright.PENANAqqvxOGmJyl
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"I don't want everyone else to ruin something that could be great, before it ever started. Whenever the time, my ears will be ones to hear your story and whenever mine, your heart will be the one to have known the real me." 424Please respect copyright.PENANAttS7IPA3dz
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"What do you mean by that? You know I'm not some typical teenager who'll fall so quickly." I told him.424Please respect copyright.PENANAaRVkmm1chE
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"Everyone gets to talk about who I am, how I think, how I will act...what I will do. No one really took the time to know me without listening to what people had to say first, yet everyone gets to have a say about me. I, for once, want to have a say about me."424Please respect copyright.PENANAMkErLrE04R
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"Why let them talk than?" I asked him.424Please respect copyright.PENANABMbqru0RAI
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"Well..." He said, "no one would believe me."424Please respect copyright.PENANA3Ie1colbGv
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I knew what it felt like, so I let him talk -we both needed to. "It doesn't matter how badly I'll try, things works differently at Bloomfield Gym -once your reputation's been spoken, to everyone that'll become you. It's just how it is, how it's always been."424Please respect copyright.PENANAGVBHyZGcV5
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"You know, I chuckled as I moved to the sofa and sat in front of the fireplace. "I've never heard a rumor about you since coming to Bloomfield, only, that I shouldn't go there."424Please respect copyright.PENANA4izP9oRHIx
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He smiled again, that smile so perfect. "And here you are. A bit of a rebel, aren't you."424Please respect copyright.PENANABdaYVXd5Qe
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"What kind of stone diva would I be if I suddenly started giving a damn what people had to say." 424Please respect copyright.PENANAmToE5i6xSq
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"But you do, anyway, that's why you never texted back after I asked about Alexa. Are you friends now or something?"424Please respect copyright.PENANA6TODj6wtbs
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It felt a bit awkward talking about Alexa, seeing that she's not only he's ex but she is dating my brother and "we're friends, yeah."424Please respect copyright.PENANALOLhng4mvR
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"I'm glad, I didn't picture you as the cheerleader's type of friend, your trio never made sense, at least not to me."424Please respect copyright.PENANAXKnqKLK5ma
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I felt ashamed that people knew I was friends with Carissa and Stacey, not only for their obsession with Alexa but their insensitive and arrogant natures; and typical and on purpose mean girls act.424Please respect copyright.PENANAIvbMyaqeFU
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"Yeah." I shrugged. I took a sip of my cooled hot chocolate, than entwined my fingers around the mug, not sure I wanted the answer to the question I asked. "So, how did Bloomfield's Bad Seed earn his name?"424Please respect copyright.PENANAtsvYzLZNo2
Just when Graeme Yorkley had temporarily taken my mind of everything, he replied. "Kath Ivanhoe."424Please respect copyright.PENANAwUpX9QKpmD
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I was so confused, supposed best friends Alexa Drew and Kath Ivanhoe had dated my guy? "I don't picture you with any girl akin to Kath Ivanhoe." I tried to play it cool.424Please respect copyright.PENANAxf4rpapXmj
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"Than you would probably be the first to believe me when I say, I would never go there, ever and I never did. She came on to me but I turned her down and I didn't want to say anything to Alexa at first because she was going through a tough time. Kath had been her bestfriend since she came here, I didn't want to come between them but Kath has a streak, she might come off as quiet and so innocent but she's evil in the whole. She can't be trusted."424Please respect copyright.PENANAWClRb6CArt
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Quiet Kath. Quiet Kath had a mean streak, who would guess. Not me, at least, if not for Graeme's confession. He continued, "Kath got jealous that Alexa and I were spending so much time together, so one day she told her I wanted to get with her...like that. Alexa always chooses a friend and that's how I got the reputation claim." 424Please respect copyright.PENANAbkHx711p57
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I stared at him intently; and just like him, I seeked, analyzed, concluded than said. "I believe you." 424Please respect copyright.PENANA6ZzAkyCXWk
I did, I really did but it didn't stop me from feeling jealous that he spoke so highly of Alexa, like she was the truest saint out there. For a minute I considered that I'm only being used.424Please respect copyright.PENANA4BeVnhhI9W
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"Now tell me, what did Kath say or do that caused you to skip school on foot?"424Please respect copyright.PENANA3TUg2VBk1Y
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I froze, panicked. I didn't trust Graeme Yorkley would understand or handle the situation maturely, although I sensed he was capable.424Please respect copyright.PENANAZ57q4FAr7A
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"I saw something I wished I had rather not but it's something I'll have to deal with when the time comes." I told him. 424Please respect copyright.PENANAoF0zLdiGO4
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Graeme was truly concerned. "And I'll be right there and I will finally truly understand you, Kae Burchart."424Please respect copyright.PENANA4Ag7dXVIfz
He placed his hand gently on my cheek, slowly leaning forward. I swear I could feel the chemistry between us, it was the first time I experienced it so passionately. The first time of loosing complete trust in anyone. Graeme kissed me, no cannabis cologne, only the chocolate flavour on his soft lips. Graeme Yorkley was a damn good kisser and I didn't care if the entire Bloomfield Gyms girls had kissed them.424Please respect copyright.PENANAvfwNPHukop
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He said. "I want only you." Like he knew what was going through my head.424Please respect copyright.PENANAATYEWydNqG
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When I said I had lost all my trust to Graeme Yorkley I meant it. "I was raped." I blurted out.424Please respect copyright.PENANALPzp7mp5Ab
He was about to respond but than a knock on the door brought the horrible realisation to the both of us, that we got caught. Than, the second knock indicated the urgency of the matter.424Please respect copyright.PENANAV6hJBC4VRa
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"I need to hide." I told Graeme in a whisper. He pointed to a door, so I quickly summoned my things and went for it.424Please respect copyright.PENANAtFhnFpP7mp
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"Graeme, I know you're in there." The distressed voice surfaced, stopping me from reaching the door.424Please respect copyright.PENANAwAeMvRV9so
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Both Graeme and I looked at each other, he mimicked that he wasn't going to open it but I grew curious and I needed to know what my brother's girlfriend wanted from her ex boyfriend.424Please respect copyright.PENANAbV58ZXswdR
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I continued to the door and found a nice and cosy bedroom behind it, instinctively locking it from the inside.424Please respect copyright.PENANAL7al98NCE5
"Graeme!" I heard Alexa bang against the door again. She was upset, I could tell by the sound of her voice. 424Please respect copyright.PENANACXYQghPmnh
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I wondered if she and Wiley had a fight that lead to a break up and now she seeked a rebound and what better way than everyone's bad seed -Graeme Yorkley. My thoughts were motivated by both confusion and jealousy.424Please respect copyright.PENANAJ1vrnjlHdx
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"Alexa, what are you doing here?"424Please respect copyright.PENANAQLsO2JNUog
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"I need to talk to you." She said and I could hear her pacing up and down in the living room. "Is there someone here?"424Please respect copyright.PENANA1ol9K3KPHU
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"No." He said and although I was the one whom wanted to hide I couldn't help but feel a bit hurt. "I'm alone and I don't have anything to say to you, so just go."424Please respect copyright.PENANANajWB2HUKS
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"Look I know we've been through stuff but you're the only person that sort of knows me."424Please respect copyright.PENANAAi3wdG5EMg
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"Alexa," he said, "you have Wiley..."424Please respect copyright.PENANAXBocVLT85P
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"My mom's back." She said, completely dismissing the fact that Graeme was trying to remind her of my brother, her boyfriend. Someone other than him that she could turn to.424Please respect copyright.PENANAZ89lnFaeu0
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A long silence endured and I didn't feel so special after all.424Please respect copyright.PENANAoE5qDE0QQH
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I heard Graeme gradually say, "I imagine it must be hard on you but..."424Please respect copyright.PENANAoJTTCScSn2
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Just than, I tried to move to the window to make an escape causing the old wooden floor to make a cracking sound. 424Please respect copyright.PENANAPaJVjG85SU
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"Someone's in there?" I heard Alexa ask. "You told me you were alone."424Please respect copyright.PENANAWkRJa5OP53
I needed to get away. In my mind, on that particular moment, Graeme still felt something for Alexa and she was taking Wiley on a long demising ride. I knew I had to tell him but it was a matter to be considered once I had successfully climbed through the window; out of sight from the cabin. I ran as fast as I could, afraid that either of them would see me. 424Please respect copyright.PENANAr69E9BkaBz
It started to shower but all I could feel was the scrapes the branches left on my legs as I lunged through the forest trees, heading nowhere in particular in hopes to get far enough from my supposed friend and my heart's desire. I slipped and sprained my ankle. The pain was hardly felt as I found myself tumbling forward, rolling endlessly down a hill. At the bottom, I was happy to be in one piece despite having a sore foot. 424Please respect copyright.PENANA5z9DKcKyVr
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A large river stretched out in front of me and a far distance beside it, stood a wooden cabin. I hoped that there would be someone once I reached the distance and continued to haul myself up against the steps, soaked from the rain that was heavily pouring down. As I hopped with each step, I heard the creaking sound of the door and the distant hum of the wind chimes.424Please respect copyright.PENANA95LUUOXo9b
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"Kaye" I heard my name being said. When I hopped on another step, I was both happy and anxious to see no one other than Jae Starling.