And Then You Meet The Boys

13 |Yes|

'Okay then, can you give me like two minutes?' I asked in defeat. He moaned in annoyance, getting grumpy again. 'You're wasting my time. Just hurry up.' he said, hanging up. Ouch. I hated it whenever he said that - but better than taking the bus home any day. After I put my phone back into my pocket, my frown deepened as I realised that I had left Hugo hanging.

He looked at me expectantly. 'What' I asked him roughly. My dad's grumpiness was rubbing off on me.

A confused look embedded itself onto his face. 'Y-you were answering my question' he stammered. I stared at him for a while, trying to remember what we had been talking about but I kept thinking about how rude my father was to me sometimes.

His features relaxed as he groaned. 'It's okay. I'll text you?' He understood the sort of turmoil my father and I were constantly in.

But for the life of me, I couldn't remember what we had been talking about. Right now, I had less than one minute to find Beatrice so she could ride with me. I nodded in agreement at Hugo, and smiled a goodbye. He flashed me an understanding smile back.

Running off, my eyes searched the room for Beatrice or Selwin. I quickly spotted them outside, standing extremely close to each other. I inwardly 'Awwwwwed' and ran towards them. As I pushed the doors open, they immediately stopped holding hands and looked at me with wide eyes.

I stopped and gave Selwin a 'I'm not stupid' look and said 'Yeah I know everything. No point hiding.'

Snickering, I grabbed Beat by the arm, leading her towards the stairs. She tripped along and frantically waved at him. 'Bye Selwin, text me!' she called out as I steadily pulled her nearer to the stairs. I practically dragged her down the stairs with her confusedly followed along. When we finally got to the bottom, I let her go and started running towards the foyer, where I could already see the car and my father on his phone, the white screen light illuminating his face.

I stopped in front of the car and watched Beat chase after me, already panting from the exercise she hadn't even been doing. As she got closer, she slowed to a walk, rubbing her arm. 'Geez woman! How hard did you have to grab me?' she frowned and showed me the red marks on her arm from my rough grip.

'Sorry...' I apologised sincerely, and thought back to the red marks I had gotten from Adrian, when he had dragged me away from Leo on my first day of school. It seemed like so long ago, when I thought he was my hero, as he saved me from Leo who had been a complete creep. I frowned as a sudden rush of guilt gripped my heart, especially when I realised that I was standing in exactly the same place that Adrian had saved me from.

Adrian had been nothing but nice to me since we became friends, and how had I treated him? I felt a knot in my throat as the guilt sunk deeper in my stomach. 

Beat had already hopped into the back of the car, and called out to me. 'Chloeeee' She sing-songed, jolting me out of the daydream. I shook my head, and gulped,  trying to get rid of the knot in my throat. I had to apologise to Adrian, and soon.

I greeted my dad and buckled myself in, and was met with a grinning Beatrice. Her smile was contagious, and the sides of my mouth twitched as I remembered that she was finally with Selwin. I raised an eyebrow at her, 'How did it go?' I slurred at her, trying not to be too obvious or my father would notice something was off. 'Goood' she slurred back, grinning so wide, she seemed happier than she'd ever been.

I put my arm around her and whispered, 'I'm super happy for you'

She leaned in to my shoulder and replied, 'Thanks Chlo.' We stayed like that for a while, until she abruptly shot off my shoulder and looked at me with eager eyes.