𝗗𝗔𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗟𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦 (C.N) ²

xiii. success.

𝐃𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒
connor's pov.

❝ ⛳️📸🏌️🌿⚽️ ❞

"OKAY, SUCCESS." Cleo tells me as she sits down next to me. "She dropped me yesterday at lunch."

"And you're just telling me now?!" I ask, and she sends me a look before nodding.

"Yeah? You had golf." She deadpans, and I nod.

"Oh, right. Uhm— so now we just... wait." I answer, and Brady of course takes this as a time to insert himself into our conversation.

"Right, and what happens if he just... never leaves her? What if he continues his weird scheme for like.. the rest of the year?" Brady asks, and Cleo sends me a worried look.

I feel bad, because Cleo never showcases her true emotions unless it's something she truly cares about, and I can tell this is one of those things. The only other times I've seen her expression real emotions other than anger was when we stopped being friends, and when she saw Alana yesterday.

I wasn't exactly sure what was happening with them, but I knew Cleo really liked her, and she'd recently rekindled her friendship with Brady, so I was happy for the both of them.

Athena gets along well with Alana too, so I know there's no weird concerns there. Plus, Athena trusts brady endlessly and vice versa.

"He won't." I remember brady asked me a question. "He's done this before, unfortunately I was his friend during the last girl."

That gains all 3 of my friends' undivided attention, as well as Mason's attention as he walks past with Preston, who yanks preston and sits down at the table.

"You we're friends with Carson?" Mason asks, and I sigh before nodding.

"Yeah, we had math together last school year, and I didn't even realize what he was doing to the poor girl. I knew what he was gonna do the second I saw them speaking, but of course Claire had to come with me. He made the girl lose all her friends, made himself out to be her only reliable person to talk to, and then he basically made her do what he requested since she apparently needed to be more attractive, which was bullshit because the girl was gorgeous." I explain, and my face pales. "Oh no, what if he does that shit to Ki?"

Brady can tell I'm getting upset over the thought, and his face softens. "Connor, chill. Kiara has self control, she may be manipulated but I don't think she'll do anything drastic just to please him."

I nod as I take a deep breath, trying to restrain from getting up and beating the absolute shit out of Carson for ever treating a girl that badly, let alone now doing it to Ki.

"Man, that's awful. How've you not fixed this shit yet? Don't you have your weird savior thing where you love saving people?" Preston asks, and I roll my eyes.

"No, you asshole. I just wanna help out Kiara. She doesn't deserve to go through that shit." I tell him, and he accepts the explanation, getting up with Mason and the two of them claim they have to go.

"You're so whipped and you can't even tell." Cleo snorts, and I flip her off.

"Fuck you, I'm not whipped." I snap, and Cleo just smirks before changing the topic to her date with Alana tomorrow night.

"Yeah, I'm taking her on a coffee date since she insists that dinner is too formal for her liking." Cleo tells Brady, and he laughs softly.

"Alana always hated formalities. She always went on very casual dates, even if it was a serious relationship." Brady adds his inside information about his previous best friend to Cleo's knowledge on her. "She's had 2 exes, one boy, Charles Greene, and one girl... Alyssa Fenton."

The name sounds poisoned as brady says it. Alyssa. She's the one who nearly ruined Athena and Brady's relationship before it even started.

As far as I know, Alana and Alyssa didn't end well. I'm pretty sure Alyssa cheated on her with one of Alana's best friend, causing Alana to distance from everyone, including Brady, which is sort of why they stopped being friends.

"Can we get back to the Kiara situation please? I'm worried Carson's gonna do something awful to her." I say impatiently, and Cleo just side-eyes me for interrupting her rant about Alana, but turns to me and motions for me to speak. "She dropped all of us already, so it shouldn't be much longer, right?"

Cleo shrugs. "I mean, probably? You're the one who knows how Carson works, you tell us."

I nod, even though I'm unsure of my words. "Yeah, he'll get rid of her soon... I hope."

I could only pray he'd drop her, which sounds bad, but I wanted my Ki— no, the normal Kiara back. She isn't mine, what the hell? Why did I think that? I was so dumb to treat her like that, she didn't deserve to be led on.

The second that Carson drops her im apologizing, even if she doesn't accept it. I want to at least be her friend, I don't want to lose her completely.

I hesitantly look over and see Carson kissing Kiara's neck once more, which irritates me. What gives him the right to kiss her like that? She never hinted at wanting that with anyone, especially me.

"You're so jealous, holy shit." Brady laughs, and I flip him off.

"I'm not fucking jealous, it just makes me mad that he's the one doing it." I grit, and brady snorts.

"That's like... the textbook definition of jealous, Connor. Suddenly she gets over you and you want her? If I knew that's what it took for you to want her I would've had her pretend she was over you." Cleo jokes, and I groan.

"I'm not into her, and I'm not jealous. Can you all fuck off? I just really hate Carson." I mumble, and Cleo raises an eyebrow.

"Kiara's kissing Preston." She tells me.

My fists clench at my side, and I spin around to see that she's still with Carson. Cleo laughs loudly at my reaction, and I hear both Athena and Brady laughing softly.

"Fuck all of you." I snap, "maybe I just want to get the normal Ki back, okay? Is that so hard to believe? I already rejected her, god!"

Cleo frowned, but she stopped bringing it up. Well I guess being defensive gets the result I need sometimes, because if one more person says I'm into Ki I might just start going insane.

❝ ⛳️📸🏌️🌿⚽️ ❞

JENNA YAPS!

connor is in very heavy denial rn!! trust that Carson's demise comes very very soon, and I cannot WAIT to write it.

THE BOY IVE LIKED FOR 7 MONTHS REMEMBERS THAT I WANNA BE AN AUTHOR. IM DEAD. OH MY GOSH.

thank you all so much for reading and I love you all so much!!