02 | Nearly Caught
Waking up to the scream of bloody murder was not the most pleasant thing ever, as I learnt when Gavin decided to teach me this morning.
“Stop laughing. Stop laugh – Dad.”
My dad smirked at Gavin, trying – and failing – to cover up his laugh. My mother was chuckling next him too, as they both took us to school.
“Sorry son, I can’t hear you. I’ve gone deaf ever since this morning when somebody screamed like a hyena.”
Gavin had woken up this morning to see a “seven inch long spider that had lowered itself onto my face from the ceiling”. The traumatic event had left him in a shocked state, leaving dad to run in with a cricket bat, only to find out that there was an ant-sized spider “attacking” his nose.
The sight of Riverview Grammar approaching saved Gavin from further embarrassment. He openly sighed in relief, which mum and dad proved to hear just fine as they chuckle a bit more.
“Don’t you tell anyone about this –”
“Aw, Gav, why would I tell anyone about this?” I sang, teasingly. “It’s not like you would ever tell anyone about my fear of peanut butter.”
Gavin looks away guiltily. “Carson, you know that was an accident.”
Accident my ass. In sixth grade, Gavin learnt that I had a fear of eating peanut butter because I hate the way it would stick to the roof of my mouth. Once, he had a science project due the next day and tried to coerce me into doing it for him. When I didn’t, he swapped my tuna sandwich for his peanut butter-and-jam one on the day his project was due and everybody found out because I screamed my head off.
“Hmm, I’ll think about it,” I said teasingly while my lips formed a smirk. “Remember, I’m still angry at you for yesterday.”
I could feel Gavin burning holes in my back during the whole walk to the school gates.
---
“Carson Mathers.”
At the sound of my name I twisted my head around to see the sight of a fuming Gavin. What did I do this time? I didn’t tell anyone about this morning except for Harper – Harper.
As Gavin made his way around the table to sit directly opposite of me, I nudged Harper and tried to telepathically shout at her. Harper just stared back at me – confused or faking confused I wasn’t really sure.
“Look Gavin,” I sheepishly laughed. “You know I tell Harper –”
“Carson,” he interrupted me and panic rose in me. “Did you tell Aspen yesterday that I couldn’t go to soccer practice?”
Befuddled, I nodded mindlessly.
“Did you tell him?” he asked once again. “Or did you write a note and slip it into his locker?”
Oh. “I’m sorry Gav, you know I don’t like talking to assholes –”
“So it was you who wrote that hate letter.”
I was about to nod in agreement when I finally processed what he just said in my brain.
“Wh—what hate letter?” I nervously stuttered out. How did Gavin find out about the hate letter? And how the heck did it end up in Aspen’s hands?
Luckily Gavin interpreted my anxiousness for confusion.
“No, no, of course it wouldn’t be you. You’re devious, but not that much of a bitch. You were only there yesterday to give him that note, right?”
I flinched slightly. If only he knew the truth. Gavin rubbed the back of his neck, his head drooped low.
“Sorry Car, it’s just the whole thing about this morning –” out of the corner of my eye I can see Harper silently snickering, “—and then Aspen tells me someone hates him enough to write a letter to him? I mean, Jesus, the guy’s an asshole sometimes but he’s not that bad. He doesn’t need more stress, with the semi-final’s coming up and all.”
“That’s –” I paused for a second, searching for a word that was not a synonym of happy, “—sad to hear.”
Still, Gavin detected my sarcasm and he gave me a look. “But seriously, how pathetic is it to write a hate letter,” he continued, and for a second there I thought he was still on to, but it passed as he said, “The dude doesn’t even have a proper reason, just some shit about Aspen being perfe –”
“Wait, a guy? How do you know it’s not a girl?” Harper butted in. My eyes widened a fraction.
“Well Aspen is dead set on thinking that it’s a guy, because all the girls here love him.” I rolled my eyes silently. Typical of Aspen. “They said that they came to this school. They must be pretty stupid to reveal that, if you ask me.”
Cringing again I directed my attention to fiddling my fingers, something I did when I was nervous.
“Wait, you read it?” I asked my brother when I realised he was addressing to the contents of the letter.
“Well, duh,” he replied, and then sheepishly added, “Well I kind of stole it off him because he didn’t necessarily agree to me reading it but, yeah I did.”
“Has he read it yet?” I asked. Maybe I could get it back before he did and I won’t feel as guilty. But he must have read it if he told Gavin not to read it.
My face distorted a bit more at the thought.
“I don’t think so. He hasn’t been to his locker ever since I stole it, otherwise he would be killing me right now.” Gavin gave me another sheepish smile. “On that note, I better return it before he decapitates me.” Gavin swung his legs over the bench, got up and walked off in the direction of Aspen’s locker.
Harper stared at me for a second as if she knew something suspicious was going on.
“Does your brother know that his socks don’t match?”
Or maybe not.
a/n: Carson is a girl, Aspen is a boy. Also, if you are confused about anything--I take entire blame for it because this story has a lot of plot holes (and I suck at planning stories--not that I even wrote a plan for this one oops).
Dedicated to Lydia because she wanted one (fun fact--she's my friend in real life which is pretty sad because she's a weirdo and I'm a loser lol).
Best comment gets a dedication next chapter :-)
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Hate On Aspen Hale
Teen Fiction"Are you joking?" "No." "So you really wrote a hate letter to Aspen Hale and it accidentally ended up in his locker?" Carson Mathers didn't mean to write a hate letter to the school's golden boy, Aspen Hale -- okay, maybe she did. But she didn't mea...
