Chapter 7

"So what was the matter?" Ashley asked when Matt came back.

"You know how it was in eleventh grade......"

"Girl troubles." They said in unison.

"Well, you're lucky you don't have that problem... anymore." Ashley said kissing him.

The next day Meredith woke up with a black eye. Last night her dad packed some things and left. Meredith got ready for school and put on some clothes. She was wearing black capri's and a lime green hulter top. She grabbed her stuff, put on her sunglasses and left. When she got to school, Jeff was waiting for her by her locker.

"Hey Jeff. Thank you for staying with me last night." Meredith said taking off the sunglasses.

"Meredith are you all right?" Jeff asked holding her face, she winced in pain.

"It's nothing I can't handle, trust me." Meredith said. Jeff gave her a weird look but then shook it off.

"Listen Meredith, my family hosts this big BBQ on Saturday and I was..... well, I was..." Jeff stamperd.

"I'd love to." Meredith answered.

"Great. And um maybe we could go out sometime?" Jeff asked rubbing the back of his neck. You could tell he was nervous.

"Jeff, I would love that."

"Okay cool, I'll see you later Mer."

The rest of the day went by rather slow. At lunch time Alex, Carmen, Meredith, Jeff, Shane, and Randy sat at another table. Surprisingly no one asked how Meredith had gotten her black eye. She assumed Jeff told them not to talk about it. She was greatful towards him for that. The last bell rang and everyone was in a circle outside. Meredith decided to see what was going on since everyone was yelling and cheering. Meredith figured it was a fight. She made her way through the crowd and found out it was a fight. This fight was brutal, punches getting thrown and blood, lots of it. One of the guys threw the other guy on the floor and he got on top of him. He started punching him over and over again. Meredith heard some guy yelling 'come on Chad get up'! Then it dawned on her, it was Chad and Jeff. Meredith ran over to them and yelled at them to stop.

"Jeff!" Meredith yelled. He was in the middle of a punch when he stopped.

"Meredith." He panted as he got up. Meredith dragged Jeff away from the crowd and over to her car.

"What are you doing Jeff?"

"Meredith he made you get that black eye. I'm just paying him back." Jeff explained running a hand through his hair.

"Well, now we can have a black eye together." Meredith said laughing. "Jeff you didn't have to do that."

"I wanted to" Jeff said kissing her.

"Jeff I can't, not yet." Meredith said pushing him away.

"You don't like me?"

"No no I like you. But I mean I'm already being called a slut and what would people think if they saw me kissing you?" she replied.

"Who gives a fuck about what these people think. We know the truth. That's all that matters, isn't it?" He asked.

"Yeah but still not yet. I need to get to know you better." Meredith said. "How about I give you a ride home?"

"Sure." Jeff answered.

Chapter 8
Chapter 6