Rebellion Project (9 page)

Chapter 15

Arrested

“Ouch!” I cried as Ryan put a cool jelly over the tattoo. It looked like petroleum jelly when I saw him put it on Kayden’s back. Now it let the pain subside as Ryan put what looked like saran wrap around me to cover the jelly. Once he was done wrapping the tattoo on my side, he went to work on covering the one on the back of my neck.

Kayden had gotten a compass on his back, similar to the one I now had on my neck, and a quote on his arm. I had yet to see what the quote actually said since I had been too nervous to come back before they had finished it, but Kayden liked it. He got it tattooed on him, for heaven’s sake. I hoped he liked it. Even though I hadn’t been here for him while he got his tattoo he was there for me. He held my hand as I tried to not react to the needle like he had. The whole time I watched he barely flinched. He made it look so easy, but now I knew that he had to have been faking it. I had twitched and cried out, there were even a few tears as the needle went to work. It was a painful experience, the sound was unpleasant, and only added to my nerves as Ryan put the needle near my skin.

I had a hard time trying to stay still. I wasn’t sure I even wanted the second one since I felt like a pin doll being stabbed repeatedly. Kayden had to squeeze my hand when Ryan went to put my mother’s quote on my side, slightly under where my bikini would be. She had made her mark on my choices when she told me it was time to make my own decisions and that no one was going to tell me what to do anymore, so to honor that moment, the moment I changed, I had it tattooed on. The whole time I was silently thanking God that I had at least put on a cute bra if people had to see it while I got the tattoo done.

“You’re all set, Lauren,” Ryan said with a chuckle. “The pain will go away; the gel is going to numb the area. You’ll be fine and you won’t even notice it soon.”

“I sure hope so,” I stated honestly, causing them both to laugh.

“You’ll be fine, baby,” Kayden said with a smile as he handed his friend money. I glanced at the stack of money and gasped at Kayden. As if he read my mind, he responded, “You don’t have to pay me back. I wanted to do this for you.”

I didn’t know what to say, but it was a lot of money for Kayden to put down for me.
We weren’t really dating, we weren’t even really friends, so why would he bother paying for me?
I wondered as a girl walked into the shop. She immediately wrapped her arms around Kayden. I rolled my eyes as I realized it was the girl I had seen him making out with in the hallway a few days before my life blew up in front of my face.

“Kayden, it’s been so long. How have you been, handsome?” she asked in a flirty tone.

“Hello, Cassandra,” Kayden stated curtly as he weaseled his way out of her hold. I could hear the annoyance in his voice as she tried to wrap herself around him again.

I let out a giggle, causing Ryan to glance at me with a curious expression. He glanced between Kayden and me, clearly confused as to why I wasn’t helping out his friend and my so-called boyfriend. I shrugged my shoulders with a laugh as Kayden turned to me with a pleading gleam in his eyes. He was silently begging for Ryan or I to get her off him since she clearly wasn’t taking his hints—one of us had to be blunt. I guess this was the role I was supposed to take as a girlfriend.

“Excuse me, Cassandra,” I said politely as I pulled her off Kayden. “I don’t think we’ve met properly before, but my fist would be very happy to meet your face if you don’t get off my boyfriend.” The smile on her face quickly dissipated as I smirked, waiting for her answer.

“Boyfriend?” she asked curiously, glancing at Kayden and not at me. “You told me you were still too broken up about your last girlfriend to be in a relationship again.” I saw her glare daggers at Kayden as she waited for an answer. I think this was the part where Kayden got the most uncomfortable, clearly he hadn’t thought about explaining to past girls about his newfound girlfriend. He had always brushed it off as nothing, but now he had to state that he was with a girl, as per our agreement.

“Yes, this is my girlfriend, Lauren,” Kayden said, with a forced smile as he unwrapped himself from Cassandra’s hold and came over toward me. I let out a laugh at the glare he gave me. He clearly wasn’t pleased with how I blurted it out, but I was pleased because of his glare and Cassandra’s open mouth. The news took her completely off guard and for once, she was speechless.

“Hi Cassandra, we had Math together last year. You tried to copy all of my homework and my tests. When I wouldn’t let you, you did everything you could in P.E. to beat me and make my life miserable. How does it feel to lose to me now?”

“Lauren Scott?” she asked, utterly flabbergasted. I was about to reply when I saw three police cars stop outside the shop. I felt my eyebrows furrow in confusion as officers exited their cars and headed over to Kayden’s. I glanced back at him to see him trying to explain to Cassandra why they didn’t date and why he got a girlfriend within a few weeks of telling her that he didn’t want to date anyone. He was still stuttering through an explanation when I turned to interrupt.

“Kayden, I think we have a problem,” I said as I pointed to the officers making their way into the shop.

“Kayden Daniels, and Lauren Scott?” one of the officers questioned as they looked between the four of us and tried to determine who was who.

“Yes?” Kayden asked curiously as he came from behind me and placed a hand on my shoulder. “Did we do something wrong, officers?”

“Yes, you did, son,” the male officer said as he came toward us with handcuffs. “Turn around and put your hands behind your back. You should know the drill by now.”

“What exactly did he do wrong?” I asked, without noticing that a female officer hand come up to me and started handcuffing my hands together. I let out a girlish squeak as I looked at the officer in utter confusion. “What did I do? I haven’t done anything, I promise. Kayden has been with me all day and we haven’t done anything remotely worth being arrested for!”

“She didn’t do anything!” Kayden cried out when he heard me squeak. I could tell he was trying to move around the male officer to talk to me, but the officer wasn’t letting him. “Let her go, she wouldn’t do anything to get arrested. I don’t care what you got called in for, but I can guarantee she didn’t do it.”

“You’re both under arrest for stealing the car. Mrs. Daniels called in to tell us her car was stolen by her son and girlfriend, and you were kind enough to run a few red lights so we could find you. I can’t thank you enough for making my job easier today,” the officer said as he led Kayden out of the shop. It was a little too forceful, if you asked me. I just let the officer lead me out without a fight, in fear of getting hurt or possibly another charge for obstruction of justice or something. I suddenly wished I watched more criminal shows so I knew what to do in this case, but I never planned on getting arrested.

“Just get into the back of the car, and stay calm,” the female officer told me. “Just behave and you’ll be fine. Now lower your head so you don’t bang it on the way into the car.”

I listened and ducked into the car to see Kayden beside me, fuming about how his mom called the cops on us. I felt my stomach clench, knowing the police were going to call my dad and tell him I had been arrested. I shivered—I was going to be in so much trouble and I couldn’t even convince myself that my mom wanted me to live life, because she certainly wouldn’t have wanted me arrested.

I felt my bottom lip start to quiver as it always did when I was about to cry. A tear slipped over my eyelashes as I let out a ragged breath. The sound caught Kayden’s attention. He stopped mumbling and after a few moments I felt his shoulder on mine. I looked at him, shocked, he had never shown compassion or attempted to comfort me at all. In fact, I was sure he found a sick pleasure in my pain from how he treated me, but in this moment I couldn’t see it anymore.

“It will be okay,” he said as he gave me a small, forced smile. I just nodded as the car pulled away from the tattoo parlor, and spent the rest of the ride trying to control my tears, although, as we got closer to the police station I couldn’t hold back anymore. Kayden tried to comfort me by talking to me, but it didn’t help. He put his forehead to the top of my head as I leaned into him to cry. He talked to me, tried to soothe me, but soon he was taken away. A male officer quickly yanked him out of the car and left me behind until the woman came to retrieve me.

I felt alone and terrified. I wished Kayden hadn’t been taken out. I wished he could have come with me instead of going separately. I knew I looked like a mess because when the female police officer came to get me, a look of pity crossed her face.

“It’s going to be fine, just calm down,” she whispered as she led me inside and into what she called a holding cell. Kayden was in there, angry and yelling at the male officer as I walked in. Once the woman put me inside, she took off the handcuffs and told me to sit down, that my father would be here soon to get me. I barely heard her because as soon as the cuffs were off me Kayden had me wrapped in his arms and started to coo softly in my ear to calm me down.

“You’re okay, it’s going to be okay. I’m sorry this happened, I didn’t mean for it to. I never planned for you to get arrested. You handled it so well. I’m so sorry this happened, but I will make it up to you, I promise.” I didn’t answer him, I just cried as he tried to calm me down. I cried in his arms until an officer came to retrieve me from the cell when my dad came to get me. Kayden quickly used his t-shirt to wipe away my tears and tried to make it look like I hadn’t been crying as he swiped my new bangs into my eyes. “Please stop crying, it’s killing me on the inside. I feel so awful. I will make this up to you. I’m going to make sure you don’t take any of the blame. It’s all on me, Lauren.” He leaned in and kissed my cheek, taking a few tears with him.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and let the tears fall. Between his comfort and his touching support I was putty in his hands.

Chapter 16

Jail Break

The last few nights had been rough. Kayden and I had spent a few hours together in a cell. He comforted me the entire time, and made sure I was taken care of. He would ask the female officer who brought me in for water, and to let me make a phone call for my dad to pick me up. I had cried when I called my father…he was livid when he came to pick me up and it only got worse. In the car ride back home when I took off my coat in the hot car, I had accidentally revealed the compass tattoo on the back of my neck, which was still covered in plastic.

Needless to say, I was grounded the second I got into the house, about a week into winter break and I was already in trouble. We had barely started my transformation, I was already grounded and barely recognized myself when I looked in the mirror. I actually really liked the blue hair, it seemed to be more like me, even though I missed my blonde hair. I liked that I had dressed a little differently too because I was expressing myself instead of hiding under my clothes. I used to wear jeans and baggy shirts, but now I was wearing tighter clothes that I felt were flattering.

It didn’t please my father as much as it pleased me, however. I had to thank Kayden for it, and comforting me when I was put in a holding cell. I felt my lips twitch as I thought back to it. He had done it willingly, but I never expected him to comfort me. It wasn’t really his fault either, but he took the blame for me getting put into the back of the cop car. It was almost as if he cared about me the way he took care of me and held me in his arms while I cried. Then when I stopped crying, we started talking as if we were actual friends.

I shared with him the first and only time I had ever lied, which I had felt so guilty about afterward that I never lied again. I explained that I had lied to my mom about how my khaki pants got ruined. I had said that someone spilled their coffee on my pants because I wasn’t sure what really happened. It was only later that I realized my swim bag leaked and caused coloring to dye my pants. I had felt so guilty about lying I never did it again.

Kayden laughed and told me he thought it was cute. He wished he could have seen it so he could have watched the blush sweep across my features as it did whenever I got flustered. He said that it’s cute when I blush, which only caused the heat to run across my face. It gave me such an odd feeling that I had been thinking about since I got back home.

He had been nothing but mean to me throughout high school and now he was being nice to me. Of course, he had done it because I was a wreck from getting arrested, but it still makes butterflies go wild in my stomach. I sighed heavily as I sat back on my bed, confined to my room for the remainder of my punishment. I had heard very little from Kayden since I got back home. He had let me know yesterday that his mom had finally come to get him out of the holding cell. She dropped the charges on him naturally, but I haven’t heard from him since.

He said he had something planned, but when I told him I was grounded he just groaned and gave me a talk about how rebellion meant not caring that I was grounded. He was going to break me out and then do something special for me, but I wasn’t sure what. I also couldn’t get the idea of Christmas out of the way, if Kayden and I were fake dating, would we still have to spend time together for the holiday or could we just skip it? Though with how angry my father was at me lately, I would prefer to spend the holiday with Kayden. Then again, I’d have to be with Kayden’s mom for the holidays, and I didn’t want that, either.

My father had been so upset after bringing me home, he had rarely spoke to me and when he did it was mean and callous. He didn’t support my change, but he didn’t understand that if you never try to fly you will live your whole life on the ground, and I didn’t want to live on the ground any longer. I wanted to fly high above the ground and be free from gravity’s hold. The only way I knew how to have that chance was to be the exact opposite of what I had been. I was going to do it no matter what.

I heard a knock on the door that brought me out of my thoughts, I slowly opened my door to look down at the main entrance as my father opened the front door.

“Ugh, not you again.” I heard him groan as I tried to look around my dad’s large body to see who was at the door. I heard a familiar chuckle that brought a smile to my face and lifted my spirits as I raced down the stairs to see Kayden looking around my dad to see me. He smiled and extended his hand for me to take.

“It was a pleasure to see you, Mr. Scott, but I came to get Lauren. Now that she is here I would like to get her and leave. I have a special time planned for her,” he stated calmly as he motioned for me to follow him.

There was something about the way he said it that filled me with excitement. I wanted to reach out and take his hand, and see what he had waiting for me. I let an excited squeal leave my lips as I made my way toward the door, but my father’s voice stopped me in my tracks.

“She’s not going anywhere with you,” he stated as he put his hand on the door frame to block me from making through the door. He blocked off my exit and looked back at me as if waiting for me to accept his choice. When I didn’t move, he ordered me to. “Go back to your room, Lauren.”

I could see the anger in his eyes, shrinking my confidence. My words caught in my throat as his gaze lowered my self-assurance; I wasn’t sure what to do. I heard Kayden scoff, and could just imagine him rolling his eyes.

“I think that’s her choice now, Mr. Scott. Not to be disrespectful or anything, but it’s typically up to the lady what happens when it involves herself. Although, I guess in this day and age you can’t be sure, can you?” I heard him ask with a condescending tone. “But don’t worry, I respect your daughter, and no means no. She will have no fears with me.”

“Except getting arrested again,” my father replied in a cold tone.

I heard Kayden’s breath catch in his throat for a moment before he cleared it uncomfortably. There was a moment of uncertainty on my part, unsure of what to do, but once I glanced over my father’s shoulder and saw Kayden’s downturned face I made the choice. I ducked under my father’s outstretched arm and linked my hand with Kayden’s to offer support as he had once done for me. I wasn’t going to let my dad berate Kayden for stepping forward to protect me.

“I’m going, Dad. I’ll be back later,” I forced out. I gripped Kayden’s hand for comfort as I tried to make myself stand up to my father. If I wanted this change, I would have to learn to stand up for myself, and I should probably start while I have someone here to support me. I would need his support for a while, but I would eventually have to learn to do it without Kayden by my side. I knew once our agreement was over and I gave him the only thing I had to offer him; he would leave, I had no doubt about it. Maybe I’d accept it by the time it came for us to go our separate ways, or maybe I’d be crushed from how attached to him I had become. I was already attached to him, I could feel it, and that didn’t mean good news for me.

“Lauren, you can’t be serious. Get inside, you’re still grounded,” my father yelled.

I froze momentarily, I had never been able to handle getting yelled at. I broke down the second someone started to scream at me, and I think Kayden knew that. He squeezed my hand lightly to offer support and to push me to keep trying. He was what I needed, and with his help I would be able to stand up to my dad for the first time.

“I’m very serious, Dad. I’m going with Kayden, and I’ll come back later.”

My father’s face scrunched up in shock. His eyebrows crashed together, his forehead gained a few lines as the skin moved with his eyebrows and his lips turned down in an angry frown.

“What led to this, Lauren? You never would have done this before. You always listened, and did as instructed. You were well-behaved and on a good track for life, but now you’ve thrown it all away to be with this boy. You’re got arrested, you got a tattoo, and all of this stuff, why are you doing this?”

I stopped and thought about his question. To be honest I wasn’t sure at first, but I had been thinking about it more and more. I knew there was only one answer for him. “Ever since you cheated on Mom you showed me that even if I did everything I was told to, then there would still be something that could go wrong.”

“What does your mother have to do with this?”

“She has everything to do with this, Dad! Don’t you see?”

“No, I don’t! I don’t understand what has gotten into you or what has caused you to change like this. You used to be so well-behaved and now look at you,” he yelled as he flicked his hands toward me in total disgust.

“What’s the point of living life under these rules if I’m still going to end up being hurt like Mom was? She did everything right, did what she was supposed to do, and then you cheated on her and ruined her life. Then worst of all she moved out of the house she loved, because she couldn’t stand to be near you anymore. She had to take a different route, and then she got into a crash, but she gave me advice before she died. She told me to live my life, the one I want to, not the one you want me to, and in order to do that I have to break some of the rules,” I pointed out.

“You wanted to be a doctor!”

“When I was like five, Dad! I haven’t wanted to be a doctor since sixth grade, and every time I tried to tell you that you just brushed it off as if I said nothing at all. Mom heard me, she listened. She knew I had other interests and encouraged me to follow them.”

“And I didn’t listen?” he asked, completely flabbergasted at the idea that he hadn’t listened to me growing up.

“She was the only one that truly understood me because she listened to me. She cared for me enough to accept that I no longer wanted to be a doctor and she just wanted me to be happy. You wanted me to live the life you didn’t, but this isn’t what I wanted. I have no idea what I want to do, but I know I don’t want to be a doctor. I want to date who I want to date,” I said as Kayden stepped closer to me and took my hand in his. “And I want to be able to do whatever I decide to do.”

“You can’t do all this, Lauren, you’re not―”

“Dad, I’m being a teenager. I’m meant to get into trouble, I’m supposed to do things that you don’t approve of. Just give me my freedom.”

“Will you follow my rules? If not, then you’re still grounded and I’m not going to tolerate any more of this wildness. No more of this boy, either! I don’t want to see him ever again!”

“He’s the son of the woman you cheated on Mom with! You used your freedom and made your own choices. I now have the freedom to make my own choices, and I’m not going to give that up, Dad. Either you accept that or I walk away. I’m not going to live under your rules anymore. I want to be able to live how I want. You can’t take that away from me again.” I turned on my heel and pulled Kayden out of the house while my father shouted for me to come back—but I wasn’t going back. There was no going back.

“I’m impressed. I didn’t think you had it in you,” Kayden complimented as we got in the car and drove off. I was surprised that my father hadn’t chased after us. Either he didn’t care that I was leaving, or he had given up. I hoped it was the latter because I didn’t want him to stop caring about me. I just wanted a little more freedom.

“Thanks, I have you to thank for that. If you hadn’t been there to support me, I’m not sure I could have done it.” I turned to look at him and noticed the faint smile on his lips. “So where are we going?” I asked as he turned the corner out of my neighborhood.

“How do you feel about breaking and entering?”

I glanced at him to see if he was serious. His features were stoic, and that worried me. “I don’t like it.”

Kayden flashed me a mischievous smile. “Well, too bad. We’re doing it anyway, Rebel.”