Tip of the Tongue [CMS Bk. 1 - BoyxBoy][Complete/Editing]

Chapter 14

Ren peered down at his notebook. He skimmed the notes, not actually taking in the information.

There was never a point in Ren's short life in which he thought he was completely hopeless. Ashton Mantel changed that. In one day, he'd turned Ren's world upside down. Now, he didn't have a clue as to how to make it right again.

The point in which his life turned for the worse could have been discovering Ashton covered in blood standing over a corpse. Or it could have been when he watched Ashton set said corpse on fire.

But either way, he couldn't get those images out of his head.

He'd been so caught in his own thoughts that he didn't notice Darrien enter the cafeteria. He made his way to Ren's empty table and stood there before Ren could look up.

He sad across from Ren as if it was no big deal. It was. The entire lunch room was staring at them. Ren had the thought to tell him to fuck off, but he thought better of it. There was always a small part of him that battled with the other half. One wanted to fight—tooth and nail—while the other wanted to duck and run.

Darrien brought both those sides out. He'd realized it back in the parking lot and hadn't given it much thought until now.

Instead of putting up a fuss, he sighed while closing his notebook. "What do you want?"

He guessed not making a scene was out the window. He thanked his brain who thought it was a good idea to start a fight.

Darrien was wearing a black t-shirt with a rock band logo that Ren didn't recognize. He only knew it was a rockband because it had a bunch of long-haired men with their mouths open in a scream in the photo.

Not that he had anything against rock music.

He was more of a piano goth follower than anything else. There was a joke in there somewhere—about vampires being legendary goths—but he was too focused on Darrien sitting in front of him to think too much about it.

"I wanted to apologize." Darrien pulled out a peanut butter and jelly sandwich from his pocket.

Ren raised a brow. "Apologize..."

It was a little hard to wrap his head around the concept. People didn't apologize to him. Especially people like Darrien who hung out with people like Regan.

Darrien unwrapped the sandwich from its plastic casing. He took a large bite.

"Yeah," he said with a mouth full of food. It struck Ren how unashamed Darrien was about it. He was nonchalant. "Regan can be a real fucktard sometimes."

Ren snorted. "Sometimes?"

Try all the time. Regan was like a cliche douchebag from high school movies. Of course, the ones from the 80s that diverged so far from reality that they didn't even include vampires.