This Is What Happens When Love Meets Destruction

Lazily, I watched as my boyfriend flipped through his paperwork, checking to make sure he had written down all the proper classes that he wanted to take during the new spring semester. Nodding his head slightly, he then straightened out the papers, setting them aside as he turned his attention to me.

"What does your semester look like, babe?" I asked.

"If I get my way, I'll have welding, health, and ceramics with you." he replied as he casually slipped an arm around my waist.

"I'm surprised that you didn't ask for the same exact schedule as Vinnie," Alex teased.

Jack huffed slightly, and then kissed my cheek gently before he answered Alex. "If Economics and psychology weren't senior classes, I would have." He pointed out.

Smirking softly, Alex opened his mouth to reply but at that exact same moment, a small section of students that made up the school choir started singing to another student who had received a singing Valentine. Laughing softly, I watched as the girl - whom I recognized to be a sophomore on the JV softball team - blushed deeply and did her best to sink lower down in her seat.

Two weeks ago, when the choir was hanging up flyers for singing valentines, I made Jack promise me that he wasn't going to send one to me. My freshman year, Jaime had sent me one, and it took me a good three weeks to get over the embarrassment of having my entire PE class stop their games just to watch me as the choir kids sang to me some cheesy love song.

"Aww, how cute." Lauren smiled as she too watched the spectacle. "Jacky, did you do anything special for Vinnie today?" She questioned, giving him a look that clearly stated that she expected him to say yes.

"I baked her brownies that I gave her this morning." Jack said.

"Actually, his mom baked them." Rian spoke up.

Jack rolled his eyes, but chose not to say anything in response. Lauren, on the other hand, raised an eyebrow, giving Jack a slightly disgusted look.

"That's it?" She asked. "You gave her a bunch of brownies that you didn't even bake yourself?"

Jack frowned softly as a confused look spread across his face. "Well, I have other stuff planned but it's supposed to be a surprise." He said.

"You could have gotten her flowers."

"She told me not to." Jack said defensively. "She said she didn't want to be packing around a bunch of flowers all day long. And plus there are very few flowers that don't fuck with her allergies."

"But - "

"Lauren, I told him I didn't want flowers." I sighed. "Drop it."

"But it's Valentines Day Vinnie," she whined. "Flowers on Valentines Day is a must have."

I eyed her heavily, but chose not to reply, seeing as how I would be fighting a losing battle. Lauren had always been old fashioned when it comes to dating, apart from the time she made Jack ask me to be his date to the homecoming dance.

Lauren turned her head in the direction of the main entrance while she spoke. "You still have time, Jack." She stated. "Lauren isn't allergic to roses or ... " she trailed off, shrugging her shoulders as she was at a loss for another type of flower I wasn't allergic to.

"Fine," Jack sighed, a hint of annoyance in his voice, "I'll have you know that I did get her some pretty roses, but she's not going to get them until tonight. So until then - " My boyfriend cut himself short, staring across the way. Tilting his head to the side, he squinted his eyes slightly as if trying to determine if he was really seeing what he was seeing.

Curious, I glanced in the direction he was looking and felt my mouth drop when I saw my cousin holding hands with and kissing Jason Stone, the star of the varsity basketball team. She pulled away from him after a few seconds and smiled up at him, looking as if they had been together for a while. Knowing my cousin, I wouldn't be surprised if she had indeed been running around with him behind Alex's back for that long. Behind them were a group of seniors who classified themselves as the cliché 'high school royalty' group.

My hands clenched involuntarily into fists, and I looked over at Alex to check if he had already seen it for himself. When I caught sight of the expression on his face, I felt my heart drop to the pit of my stomach, while the anger I was trying to keep down made its way to the surface. As if feeling my eyes upon him, Alex looked at me with sad eyes.

"Don't say it, Vinnie." He whispered, shaking his head before he stood up and made his way out of one of the side doors.

Growling lowly, I pushed all reasoning aside as my anger took control of my actions and stood up, making my way to the slut dressed in a black mini skirt and a light blue sweater. Upon seeing me, Amy laughed to herself, an amused smile perched on her gloss lathered lips.

"Well, if it isn't the other Nava, here to get something off her chest." She said.

"Fuck you," I snapped, "how dare you run off behind Alex's back you fucking bitch."

"I don't see what the problem is, Victoria," she sighed. "If I remember correctly, you had admitted to me that you sort of had a 'thing' for him at the beginning of the year. Now that I'm obviously done with him, you can get rid of your current boyfriend," she sneered, glancing over in Jack's direction before turning back to me, "and run off with Alex."

"He had his chance." I growled. "Even though he picked you over me, he's still one of my close friends, Amy, and I'm not just going to stand around and watch you humiliate him in front of the entire school."

"Yeah, and what exactly are you going to do about it?" She questioned, the smile on her lips turning into a challenging stare.

"Eventually, I'm going to kick your ass, but first I'm going to start out by letting everyone know how you really are."

"Oh, yeah, okay." Amy said, rolling her eyes. "I'd love to hear what you have to say."

"Tommy," I said, glancing over her shoulder to meet the eyes of one of the boys that had walked in with Amy and Jason, "I'd hate to tell you this, but you really got syphilis from Amy during the two months that you two dated, not from the rebound girl you slept with after you two broke up. Amy got it from the boy in Jersey that she was sleeping with behind your back." Ignoring the shocked look on his face, I moved on from him, I looked at the girl staying to Amy's side. "Amy sabotaged your prom dress last year and made it look like it was your dog that did it. She was jealous because that was the dress she really wanted but my uncle wouldn't buy." Glancing around to the rest of the group, I sighed heavily. "I have dirt about Amy that concerns each and every one of you, but it honestly only gets worse. And Jason," I said, turning my eyes to him, "you might as well get out of this 'relationship' while you still can. If you don't, it's only going to last until Amy realizes just how much you're lacking in the 'equipment' area. Don't forget, I've seen all you have to offer during the incident in the locker room."

"You fucking bitch," Amy growled lowly, "you swore you'd never tell any - "

"No, I didn't swear anything to you," I snapped. "I've kept my mouth shut because it wasn't my business, but now I've had enough with all your fucking petty high school games, Amy. You've fooled people into thinking that you're a sweet, innocent person, but really you're cruel and emotionally abusive because of your stupid little insecurities."

If I hadn't been expecting it, Amy's fist would have made contact with my mouth, but I moved to the side just in time before I punched her in the side of the face; fist fights with my brothers in the younger years taught me to know better than to aim for someone's mouth. From there on in, I don't remember much of the fight; I just remember punching any and every part of Amy that I could reach.

No one made a move to pull me away from her until a couple of teachers caught sight of what was going on, and came over to break us up. Yelling a few choice words at my cousin, I was able to swing one leg freely and kick her in the side as she tried to get up.

"Victoria, that's enough!" Insisted one of the teachers holding my arms back.

"Let go of me!" I demanded.

Before they could reply, I jerked my arms out of the grasps and pushed my way past Jack, Rian, and Lauren, to storm out of the cafeteria. Hearing the footsteps following me, I broke into a run, not stopping until I reached the place where I knew Alex would be.

I had lost whomever was pursuing me when I ran through the second wing of the school, so by the time I got to the tennis courts, I slowed down to a walk. Shoving my hands into my pockets, I crossed the tennis courts silently and entered the pool area. Sitting on top of the bleachers was Alex, his hood pulled over the top of his head while he sat there staring into space.

Frowning softly, I slowly made my way up the bleachers, taking them two at a time. When I got to Alex, I sat down beside him without saying a word to him.

"Don't tell me that you told me so." He whispered. "Just don't say it, Vinnie."

"I wasn't going to." I whispered back.

Alex took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. "I'm so humiliated right now, Victoria." He said. "I can't go back in there and face everyone."

Not knowing what else to do, I leaned over, resting my head against his shoulder. "Right now, Amy is the one humiliated." I told him.

"What did you do, Victoria?" He questioned halfheartedly.

"I may or may not have 'blurted' out some of her secrets, and I may or may not have beat her up in front of the cafeteria." I admitted.

"You got into a fight?" Alex asked. "But ... how is it you're not sitting in the principles office right now?"

"I can run pretty fast." I mumbled.

"Victoria." He sighed quietly, and then wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me closer to him. "You shouldn't go around, beating up girls and then running from the staff."

"I had to kick her ass, Alex. No one fucks with my best friend's feelings and gets away with it."

Alex made a disgusted sound, and then shook his head. "You know, my heart wasn't really in this relationship. I wasn't with her, hoping that one day we'd run away and get married. I just wanted someone to be happy with, just for the time being. I wanted someone to keep me preoccupied, but still after finding out that she really was the slut you warned me about, I'm still hurt."

"No one deserves to be treated like that, Alex." I told him. "Of course you're going to get hurt, regardless of whether or not your heart was in it."

Without a single word, Alex hugged me tightly and then pulled away just enough so that he could kiss my cheek. His lips were gentler than they needed to be, and they stayed there longer than they should have. I closed my eyes and leaned against him.

It was then that I realized that no matter what he said, or how he acted, Alex Gaskarth would always have feelings for me.