Throughout the week I saw Jax everywhere. He was in the halls in every corner I turned with his friends, in the lunchroom, and worse of all, the seat next to mine in Spanish.

We hadn't talked since Sunday and as the week dragged on it became harder for me to face him. I started waking up earlier and taking the bus just to avoid him.

Rebecca was out of our lives for good and Hunter had moved on to other girls from school.

I was currently sitting in Spanish class, with Jax's empty seat besides me keeping me concentrated on my work.

Today was the first time he had skipped in a long time. I didn't know if to feel glad I wouldn't have to pretend to ignore him again or worried he didn't show up.

I knew he was in school because I had seen him at lunch last period with his friends.

Just as I was about to brush the thought of him off, the door swung open and in he came. He walked over to the teacher, handing him a note.

"Coach needed to speak to us about this season." He tells Mr. Brown.

Nodding, he instructs Jax to take a seat and within moments he's sitting besides me.

We were half way through the period when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I stop taking notes and turn to my side to see Jax looking at me with a soft smile.

"Hey." He whispers.

I press my lips together and give him a tight smile, throwing a little wave his way. I turn my attention back to Mr. Brown and ignore Jax's intense stare from my side.

"Emma," Jax calls out in a hushed voice.

Just pretend you don't even hear him I thought to myself. I'm sure he'll get the point and stop.

"Emmaaaa." He says, dragging out my name. "Emma, can you hear me?"

Sighing in defeat, I look at him, raising my eyebrows. "What?"

"Can you stay after school today? I have basketball practice and I want to talk to you." He says.

"No," I reply while shaking my head. "I'm busy."

"You're never busy." He responds. "Especially not for me."

Rolling my eyes, I look away from him and lean on my arm making sure he couldn't see my face. It was useless. When I wouldn't stop ignoring him he kept throwing pieces of little papers at me. After a while, I grew tired of him annoying me and hesitantly agreed on meeting him in the gym.

In the back of mind Hunter popped up. I didn't know how I was going to explain to him why I needed to speak to Jax. He would be in the gym practicing along with their other teammates.

Once the bell rang, I went along my normal school day until the last bell of the day for me rang. My heart suddenly picked up its pace and my hands were soaked with sweat. I tried wiping them on my jeans but it was no use. They were practically crying for help.

Walking into the gym, I kept my head hanging low. It was so loud in the gym yet the only thing I could hear was my boots hitting against the floor and my unsettling breathing.

The jacket I was wearing was too big and warm to be wearing in the gym. I took it off the second I stepped in and held it to my chest.

It reeked of socks and the air was so stuffy you could barely breathe.

As I looked around the gym, my eyes landed on the guys in the far corner huddled up together. There were some girls around the gym practicing for cheer and other kids on the bleachers watching the players.

I saw Hunter and Jax talking to their friends as they all pulled apart from each other and began stretching. Jax's eyes landed on mine, almost as if he felt my stare, and soon after, Hunter followed his gaze.

Jax said something to Hunter before making his way over to me and the whole time Hunter's eyes didn't leave either of us.

"Im glad you came." He said as he steps in front of me. He leans in to give me a kiss on the cheek but I only pull away.

"Well, you are my only ride home." I reply.

Awkwardly, he takes a step back and clears his throat. "I like the new hair."

Ignoring the funny pit feeling in my stomach as he complimented me, I move away from him and sit down on the bench.

"You wanted to talk?" I question.

He nods and sits down besides me. "I was a dick to you."

"Which time?" I snap.

He sighs in frustration and runs a hand through his hair. "We both said some pretty...stupid shit."

I nod, agreeing along with him. "I tried talking to you about it before but I guess you only take apologies when you want to."

"I know," He agrees. "I'm sorry."

My eyes find Hunter's as he stares at us from where he was stretching. Rapidly, I wipe my hands on my jeans from the formed up sweat and look over at Jax.

"I'm sorry for what I said about your dad." His shoulders tense up at the mention of his father. "It wasn't right of me to do that."

"Yeah, it wasn't."

"Jax," I let out a shaky breath. "You're nothing like him."

"I guess." He shrugs. He looks away from me and stares off into the distance.

"I'm serious. You're so much better than him." When he didn't say anything I continued to explain to him how I viewed him. "You grew up to be the opposite of that man. He didn't deserve you or your mother or Amanda."

"I can agree with the last part." He lets out a nervous chuckle.

"The Jax I grew up liking would never walk out on his family."

We stayed in silence for a while looking at the rest of the guys run laps back and forth as the coach eyed them carefully. Finally, after a brief silence, Jax found his words again.

"He wants me to go over on Friday."

I turn my head to him quickly, almost cracking my neck in the process. "Why?"

"The rest of my payment to him for saving my ass before with the money."

"What did your mom say?" I ask.

"Nothing," he shrugs. "There's not much she can say."

After gathering my thoughts, an idea popped in my head. I was about to tell Jax but he soon got called out by his coach.

"Are you going to stay?" Jax asked as he stood up.

"Yeah, I'll wait for you guys." I tell him.

Smiling, he turns around and runs out into the center of the gym. They begun passing the ball around a couple times and doing drills before they actually started to play. I watched them play for a while until I got bored and got distracted on my phone.

An hour and a half later the guys had changed and said their goodbyes as practice finished.

"Hunter is still in the locker room." Jax says, wiping his sweat off with his dirty gym shirt in hand.

He had on a white tank top and you could practically see his stomach right through it. He didn't have the perfect six pack but his body was fit enough that made him look attractive.

"Okay." I say. There was a short awkward silence between us before I remembered what I wanted to tell Jax. I didn't know if he would agree on it but it was worth a try.

"There's something I want to ask you." I begin to say.

"What is it?" He furrows his eyebrows.

"I was thinking since you're going to see your dad...well I don't know maybe," I stop to meet his eyes and hesitate to finish what I wanted to say. "If you don't mind, you know I could..."

"Yes." He says, not letting me finish what I was trying to say.

"I didn't even finish." I say.

"You wanted to know if you could come with me." He states. "My answer is yes. I would like it if you came and my dad would probably be nicer with you there."

I smile. "Thank you."

"For?"

"Letting me be there for you." I tell him.