bad influence 》h.g.

Thirteen || Heidi

I swallowed the lump in my throat, and slowly turned around. The employee who'd asked me if everything was okay earlier was stood there with an expressionless face. I'd been caught. I opened my mouth to make an excuse but no words came.

"I think this belongs to you." He suddenly said with a smile, as he held up my driver's license. I swear I nearly fainted with relief at that moment. But as I took my license from him and babbled something about accidentally dropping it whilst I was paying for my stuff, I couldn't help feeling overwhelmed with guilt. He was such a nice guy and I was literally stealing the wage from his pocket. I thanked him again politely and proceeded towards my car, trying to restrain myself from passing out. The whole experience had made me feel nauseous and disorientated, and it was a feeling I never planned to, nor wanted to feel again.

I drove home, and busied myself with the thought of where I might hide my board from my mother considering she'd know I hadn't bought it because she didn't allow me to spend any of my savings until I was in college. I settled for behind my wardrobe just because it was the only place I could think of where she wouldn't look if she planned an out of the blue raid of my room. She wouldn't be home from work for another 4 or so hours, so I didn't have to worry about sneaking the board past her.

I made sure to hide the Pennyboard immediately once I got home, before changing into some comfier clothes: a loose, long sleeve shirt, black yoga pants and Jack's red Nebraska hoodie that he left at my house a couple months ago when he came over to... Chill. Then I headed back downstairs where I made myself a sandwich and watched old Jerry Springer re-runs for a couple hours. I scrolled through my phone for a while, and it was only then that I realised Heidi never slept last night. I felt instantly guilty again and decided to invite her over.

Within 15 minutes, she arrived at my doorstep with ice cream and Doritos. Ladies and gentleman, may I present to you reason number one why I love Heidi Carpenter: she always brings food. "Knock knock." She grinned, stepping into the house like it was her own. It might as well have been for the amount of time she spent at mine. Kicking off her shoes in the hallway, she looked at me with a smirk before running and diving onto the couch. I followed after her curiously and slumped down beside her.

"I know that face." I chuckled. "Whats going on, Heids?"

"Well, obviously, as you know Riley and I have become really close lately..."

"No shit." I teased, remembering how they flirted beside the fire when we camped out, and when Heidi kissed him on the cheek after he gave her hot chocolate.

"Yeah, well, what you don't know is that we've actually been talking for about three months, but we didn't tell anybody..." She continued.

"Oh, really?" I asked, masking my disappointment with a smirk. I felt a tiny pang of hurt when she said that. Did she not trust me enough?

"I know you're a little pissed off, A, but Riley and I promised each other we wouldn't say anything and you know I don't break promises." She said carefully. Another thing I loved about Heidi, she could read my mind and know how I really felt inside. Although sometimes that wasn't always a good thing. "But yeah, and we've met up a couple times in secret, then there was the camp out the other night..." She told me. I nodded silently. "And last night, well, this morning he came to my house at around two a.m. He climbed up the porch and started knocking on my window which obviously scared the shit out of me." She giggled. I chuckled at the thought.

"And then...?" I prompted her. Her cheeks began to glow as she tucked a blue curl behind her ear. She had beautiful hair, long, wavy, pastel blue (dyed, obviously but in surprisingly good condition since she lathered it in this argan oil stuff and tonnes of smelly homemade hair masks made from egg and avocado and shit), the type my mother would never allow me to have. I smiled at the rare sight of a bashful Heidi.

"And then I let him in and after I gave him a five minute lecture on Why You Shouldn't Knock On Someone's Window Whilst They're Sleeping At two a.m, I asked him why exactly he was in my room instead of asleep in his own." She grinned.

"And his reply was...?" I pressed on.

"Then he said- and I quote- 'I can't go to sleep until I ask you something that I've been meaning to ask for a while.' And by this point I swear my stomach could've won a gold medal in gymnastics since it was doing that many somersaults." She laughed, causing me to roll my eyes teasingly.

"And the question waaas...?" I asked in a sing song voice.

"How do you feel about me?"

"Ooh, dayuuum!" I exclaimed playfully. She chuckled and continued.

"So then I got really shy and I started stuttering and I sounded like a total idiot. But then he just started walking closer to me and he put his hands on my hips so my legs were all shaky and he laughed a little and told me I was so cute- which I did not mind at all- and I didn't know where to look since I was blushing so hard so I just hid my face in his chest." She giggled.

"Aww!" I cooed.

"And then all of a sudden he just grabbed my face and kissed me!" She smiled coyly.

"WOOHOOOO! HEIDI'S GONNA GET LAID!" I cheered loudly, impersonating an average American teenage boy.

"You have neighbours, y'know, Ava!" She hissed in laughter.

"Oh yes, but of course! How rude of me to forget about them, I do apologise." I said in a posh, fruity accent as I ran to the door, yanked it opened and yelled, "Heidi and Riley are gonna make babies!" as loud as I could. Then all of a sudden she grabbed me from behind, pulled me back and shut the door before giving me the look. Yeah, that look. The one your parents give you when they know about something you've done wrong when they're not supposed to and they say 'anything you wanna tell me?'  Which I would like to put forward as the most terrifying question in the world when your mother asks you it. "Shit." I whispered before bolting up the stairs.

Being chased upstairs absolutely terrified me and so my legs would just turned to jelly and I always ended up just collapsing on the stairs and shielding myself with my hands everytime. My extremely brave- note the sarcasm- deed of giving up instantly seemed to 'tickle Heidi's funny bone' as her dad would put it. He was full of weird phrases like that. She collapsed beside me, clutching her stomach with laughter. I swear she laughed for like 5 minutes straight. "Okay, okay! Shut up!" I said, rolling my eyes.

"Okay, now I don't have to kill you since you just redeemed yourself." She chuckled. I shook my head.

"So you're official?" I asked. She looked at me, her cheeks the colour of roses in spring, and blinked the big hazel eyes that matched her brother's before smiling shyly and nodding her head. I hugged her happily, proud of her, but I couldn't help feeling a slight pang of jealousy. My best friend was in a happy relationship with a faithful boy who wanted her as much as she wanted him while I was in a relationship with a cheat who only wanted me when he wanted sex. Wait, no, shut up. That's not true, he loves you, Ava, you idiot. Of course he does.

Stupid mind playing tricks on me again.