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"You're not saying what I think you're saying."

It was all Dakota said, sitting so calmly on the bed with his eyes on me. I wasn't looking at him anymore. I just couldn't. But I could feel his eyes, boring holes into the back of my head.

I swallowed a dry breath. "I think it's for the best."

"Is that what you honestly think or know? Because there's a huge fucking difference."

"You don't need to swear at me." I seethed, still not looking at him. "Take a moment and listen to me-for once. We're always fighting. Give me a day where we weren't at each other's throats."

"This morning."

I scoffed. "I said give me a day. That's only a few hours."

"Well, it was going fine until you started this argument."

"Of course it's my fault. It's always my fault, isn't it?" I sneered. "Don't you see it? It's right in your face. Normal people don't fight like this."

"Yes, they do. They just do it with closed doors so no one can see them." He huffed. "Every couple-I mean, pairing-get's in to arguments."

"I wasn't trying to say they don't. But I doubt they're always at each other's throats like us. I'm pretty sure I can't think back on one entire day where you didn't tick me off or where I didn't make you mad. That's not normal."

"No one is normal." He stated. "That's such a subjective thing to argue about. What one person finds normal may be abnormal to someone else. There is no single definition or idea of what normality is. It's different for all of us depending on our culture, our upbringing, and lots of other possible variables."

"You know what I mean. It's not healthy."

He sighed. "I'm not continuing this conversation until you look at me."

"No."

"Silvia, turn around. If you want to stop arguing and have an actually conversation you're going to have to look at me." I didn't look at him. "I said, l turn around!"

I threw the shirt I had in my hands down on to the floor and finally faced him. "You're so demanding. Is this how you were with Carmen? No wonder she ran off with Hunter."

His eyes squeezed shut and took in a strained breath. "You did not just say that."

My hand flew to my mouth. "I'm so sorry-"

"You basically said I deserved to be cheated on."

"I don't know where that came from." I shook my head and stepped away from him. The words had catapulted out of me before I could've stopped it. I was angry; he was angry. My mind, let alone my common sense, was never in the right place when I was with him. "You pissed me off."

That was all it took to light to fuse. Suddenly, his eyes had fluttered open and he was back on his feet again, quicker than ever. "You're blaming me? You're unbelievable! Since we're taking low blows, I might as well do the same."

I stumbled back. "What are you talking about?"

"It's a small town, Silvia. Word spreads. I don't know the details, but apparently you didn't move to California to get close with your dad. You were expelled from your school, for one. You had some issues with students, especially some parents. It isn't clear why just yet, but I must say, I am impressed." He began to clap slowly. "It makes sense why you've got a long, long list of enemies at Crescent High. It's like you've a talent for making people hate you. Tell me, Silvia. What's your secret? I want to know how you do what you do oh so well."

I puffed. "Nice try, but I'm not offended by that comment. Mainly cause it's coming from someone like you, Kota. You've a larger hate club than me. It's so massive it fills up this entire county."

He snickered. "I'd take that any day than to have a father who can't keep his dick in his pants. I'm sure you've got little half-siblings running around this entire country. You're ignorant if you think Evelyn is the first mistress he's had."

"I already knew that. My dad's a bit of a gigolo." It felt so wrong to laugh, but I did. Dakota wasn't expecting that. His silence only made me laugh even more. The laughter spread uncontrollably. I hadn't realized what I was doing till I felt a moisture, running down my cheeks. And they weren't from laughing so hard.

I slid my back against the wall I was behind and crumbled to the floor. My hands shielded my face, waiting for his menacing laughter to begin. I just knew he was going to laugh at me for crying in front of him. Dakota seemed like the kind of jerk that laughed at emotional people. I was merely waiting now for the inevitable.

"Are you...crying?" he lowered himself down to the floor and went to touch my face.

I slapped his hand away from me. "What the fuck do you think I'm doing? Yes, I am crying."

"Silvia..." his voice became feebly as he glided his thumb over my fallen tears. "I didn't mean to make you cry, doll. I'm sorry."

"No, you aren't." I hadn't seen his face yet. I knew he had a smug look on his stupid face. I just knew it. "Why aren't you laughing? It's hysterical, isn't it?"

I flashed my eyes up at him. What I saw wasn't what I was expecting. His farrowed brows were gone and so was the deep frown. Concern washed over his anger. That scold I knew by memory was nowhere to be seen on his face.

"I would never laugh at you for crying." He said, scoffing like he was offended that I had even thought he would laugh. "I think you paint me out to be worse than I actually am."

"Like how you treated me when you found out how my father was..."

He caught another tear with the pad of his thumb, quirking a smile. Placing a hand over his heart, he said: "I'm a changed man."

I returned the smile.

I didn't know how we had gone from screaming to smiling. It was obvious that the storm had passed and we were only left with the aftermath of its damage. I had to find the willpower in me to want to pick up the pieces.

He moved from his crouched position in front of me on the floor and sat down, tucking his left leg under himself and bending his right, making some sort of bridge over my stretched out legs.

Dakota wiped off the last of my tears with the back of his hand. He didn't move it away from my face, instead holding my face in his hands. "Now, we're going to talk. Why were you crying?"

"You'll think it's stupid."

"No, I won't."

I sucked in a breath. "With all of the shouting it...it reminded me of my parents. After that thought sprang, I thought of how I feared that I'd end up like my parents or something. I'm practically destined to be in a messed up relationship like theirs."

"That's not going to happen. Your parent's mistakes will not be your own. You're your own person. You can make your own fuck-ups." He mused with a smirk.

"You don't get it, Kota. There was nearly zero trust by the end. What really messed my mom up wasn't the fact that he was cheating. I think she'd be a lot better if that was all. He'd cheated before Evelyn when I was a kid. I didn't see it then-I was only nine. But now looking back, I could tell that it wasn't even the first time with that woman either. But what was so different with Evelyn was that my mom could see my dad changing, becoming more responsive, listening to her. At first, she thought it was of her own doing, but after Evelyn stepped in the picture, mom knew that it wasn't because of her at all. He was changing for another woman. She'd tried so hard to tame him, I guess. But with no luck. Dad didn't like going to family outings, but now he does. He didn't like taking vacations, but now he flew Evelyn to all sorts of different countries and states. I know I'd be crushed if I found out someone was changing for another person, but after all of my own failed attempts."

Dakota shook his head. "People don't change for others. You can only change for yourself. I know that for a fact. You can try all you want, but people will not change unless they are willing to change for themselves."

"No, I think actions by other people can help show that someone how big their mess-ups really are and open their eyes to what they're doing."

He leaned forward and tucked a few strains of my hair behind my ear. "We can agree to disagree."

I shuddered at his warm, assuring touch, full of longing and loneliness, trapped in his fingertips. Moving my head in to his hand, I planted kiss in the center of his palm. I lifted my eyes up to his. It took everything in me to not close that distant to meet our lips and seal the day with a kiss. I knew I wasn't the only one who thought that, because not too long after, he cupped my face and kissed me.

He didn't rush to take of my clothes and I didn't race for the buckle for his belt. It wasn't like what you'd expect with us both so close to each other. It was a slow burning kiss, heartbreakingly good that it almost hurt. There was an unattainable part of him still shut off, even with everything I'd done at this point. It was like no matter what I did, there would always be an intangible portion of him that wasn't up for grabs.

That was the day I officially saw Dakota as a challenge. Desperately, I needed to know what made him so guarded and closed off from everyone who tried to care for him. I wanted to disarm this self-proclaimed bad boy, even if it ruined me in the end.

. . . . . . . . .

The rest of September consisted of some uneventful things. Evelyn drove me to school like she always did. Maven remained being a pain in my ass. Hunter and I got a bit closer after we studied for a chem test together, but I still had iffy feelings about him. I had Ronnie over at my house for a couple of study sessions. Dakota had offered to take her place, but we both knew that he couldn't go inside of my house.

Heath relentlessly tried to convince Dakota to let me into their plan. It took time, but he finally cracked toward the end of September. We took a short amount of time to conjure up some kind of scenario that would fool Pierson into think I hated Dakota and that whatever we had was history.

"I don't like this plan," Dakota said outside of the cafeteria. He had pushed back this little scene we had played out for as long as he could manage. It was the first of October already. "I think we should do this at Lunch tomorrow."

"Tomorrow's Saturday, doofus," Ronnie reminded him. "It's a good plan. Don't sweat it."

"Yeah, because you thought it up," he countered, then glanced over at me. "It's so overdramatic and unrealistic. I doubt anyone will believe us. I don't know why you had to bring Ronnie into all of this, Silvia."

"I'm her best friend, I'm involved in anything she's involved in," she answered for me.

"I wasn't aware you guys were a package deal." He rolled his eyes and inhaled sharply. "Are you ready to do this now?"

"I've been ready since last week." I blurted. "You're the one who's always flaking out."

He raised his hands. "Alright, alright. Relax. I'm ready now."

He took another set of breaths and we walked into the cafeteria. Ronnie stayed back at the entrance. Once we got closer to the row of tables, I made my first move and grabbed his hand. Like we planned, he shook me off.

"Don't touch me, I'm still not okay with what you did the other night-"

"Louder," I whispered from the side of my mouth. There was no way people would be able to hear him. No one would notice us with how he was practically mumbling his lines. "And more ticked off."

He sighed and rolled his eyes.

I went to grab his hand for a second time, and like before, he shoved it away.

"Don't dare you fucking touch me, Silvia. I'm still not okay with what you did the other night."

I faked a whining noise."I'm sorry."

To give it an extra touch, I forced my eyes to water. All it took was a few sad thoughts of middle school and repeating any and all of the horrific memories I had. Soon enough, I was bawling.

"Of course you're fucking crying. How pathetic. You aren't allowed to do that, Silvia. Not after what you did." He racked his eyes over my outfit. "I don't know if you know this, but we're in school, Silva. Who are you trying to dress for with a skirt that short? It's so short."

"Thanks," I seethed, wiping my face. "The designer used your dick as inspiration."

A row of students in the nearest table started laughing, tuning in on the show unfolding in front of them. Perfect. The rest of Ronnie's script wasn't any tamer.

Dakota took a step closer, pointing his finger at me. "You try so hard to be funny, maybe you should try harder to not being so damn awful at giving head."

"Maybe I should add a bit of a bite next time." I snapped my teeth together.

"Fuck off!" he walked off, gaining a few more rows of people to start watching us.

"No, you're not going to just run away like that." I chased after him and grabbed for his arm. Just like how he rehearsed, he held on to my shoulders.

"What don't you get? You mean nothing to me after what you did. You look pathetic running after me like this," He shook my shoulders. "Wh-"

"Step away from her." Someone said from the left us. We both turned --and just how we had hoped-- there was Pierson. His hands were balled up in fists at his side. I spotted his usual entourage at his side. Doug and Hunter were a step behind him."I'm warning you, Ridgewood."

"Get out of this, Pierson. It doesn't involve you." Dakota shouted.

"You're making me get involved in this. Now before you do anything you regret, get your hands off of her."

Dakota scoffed. "Or what?"

"Just do what he says," Doug demanded.

"I'm not taking orders from your master, Derek," Dakota said and looked back at Pierson. A glimmer of something new sprang into his eyes. His hands dropped from me, like he was supposed to. But what he did next wasn't a part of the script.

He spat. Right into Pierson's left eye.

"Oooh, looks like you've got a wee bit of spit on your eye, lad." Dakota mocked Pierson's accent. That was all he said before Pierson's fist met Dakota's face, hitting him square in the jaw.

Abort mission. I repeat, abort mission, my thoughts shouted.

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PLEASE VOTE AND COMMENT :)

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A/N: Just to clarify, I don't how long this book will be. I don't really have a set number for the amount of chapters I plan on producing, Once we get to PART THREE: The Ugly, that means we have come to the last set of chapters.

Disarming the Bad Boy reached #141 on the teen fiction charts today. Thank you so much for that! :D Sorry for all the swearing in this chapter. Next chapter, I'll try to have none.

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Song for the chapter: PILLOWTALK by Zayn

Lyrics:

❝ It's our paradise and it's our war zone.❞

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