Chapter 4
Junior Year
"Hey, babe," Mason says, kissing me once I meet him at his locker.
"Hi," I breathe as I pull back from the kiss. "You look particularly hot today."
He scoffs, "I always look hot."
I laugh and shake my head. "You're a confident one. What are we doing tonight?"
"I don't know," he answers honestly. "I think Aaron's throwing a party at my place."
"Another party?" I ask with raised eyebrows. "Can't we just stay home all night watching horrible movies?"
Mason laughs at my suggestion. He just doesn't understand that I actually meant it. We always go to parties. It's actually incredibly boring.
I mean, we've been doing the same thing for over three years so far.
"I gotta go," Mason says hurriedly, kissing me once again. "Fourth period ditch day?"
I bite my lip. "I have an English test and-"
"C'mon, Grace," he pushes.
"Fine," I mumble and tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. "See you then."
My parents just busted me last week for ditching with Mason. They were not thrilled with me. My phone was confiscated for like a whole day!
I walk up to a large group of friends, no one in particular that I can actually talk to. They're all like mutual friends. I mean, besides Lucy and Mason, all my friends are mutual friends.
I don't really focus on the conversation about who slept with whom, my eyes trailing around the courtyard. There's two boys that catch my eye.
Andrew and Peter.
I haven't spoken to either since that horrid night. This is actually one of the very rare times I see them.
They're taking photos of different people, laughing every once in awhile. Peter surely has grown up, right along with Andrew. I wonder if they've changed a lot.
It's when I see those damn Transformers shirts that I know they haven't changed a bit.
"Checking out the nerds?" Willow teases. "The tall one is actually so hot."
It's weird to think of Andrew as hot. Even though we're not friends anymore, he'll always be like a brother to me. I just don't look at him in that way.
"They're weird," I mutter and tare my eyes from the two of them. "Do we have practice today? Because I'm not in the mood."
"Sadly," she sighs.
I pout dramatically. The only reason I started cheering in the first place was to be popular. Now that I am, I hate it. Though I can't just quit because everyone is counting on me. It's this weird loyalty pact we have.
The bell rings and I head off to my first period class. Really it's just a boring day, until fourth period when I ditch with Mason.
We're in the boys bathroom to hide away from any teachers. It's fine since the only thing we were planning on doing was kissing. My butt is in the sink, his hands on my hips as he stands in front of me.
I squeal when someone turns the sink on. The water soaks my jeans, and I quickly hop off the sink.
"Hey, what's your problem, Flush?" Mason asks harshly.
Peter is staring straight at the floor, his hands twitching. "I-I'm sorry."
I look away from him as Mason takes ahold of his shirt collar to slam him against one of the stalls. I've never really seen Mason bully kids before; I've just heard the boasting stories from him.
