Hallelujah

chapter twenty-three

I headed towards the detention room but Brendon grabbed my arm before I walked in.

"Why did you get detention?" he asked.

"I punched Spencer in the nose during History," I said rolling my eyes.

"Is he still giving you a hard time?" he asked. I could tell he was angry.

"Yes, but Brendon I can handle it myself," I said walking into the room. Brendon followed close behind. "Why are you in here?"

"I wanna be with you."

"You didn't get detention?" I asked.

"Nah," he said sitting in one of the desks and kicking resting his feet on another nearby.

"Ugh, you two again?" the supervisor, whom I learned was Mr. Wilson, I was getting to know him well. "Just please don't cause trouble, I can't afford to have them make me hang out with you for an hour with how often you're in here," he said walking out. I turned towards Brendon and laughed.

"He's really good at his job," I said. Brendon laughed and took his feet off the desk in front of him.

"What would you do without me? You would be sitting in here all alone."

"Well sometimes it's good to be alone," I said.

"Sometimes," he paused, "but it's always better to be alone with someone instead of being alone by yourself."

"That made no sense at all," I said laughing.

"I know that, but you also know what I meant," he said smirking. He was right; I understood completely and agreed with him. We sat pretty quiet and I was just doodling in my book but I stopped and looked at Brendon.

"Brendon, can I ask you something?" I asked curiously. He looked at me and nodded slowly. "You say you like me, and you say you care about me and stuff, but you're still with Maddy," I said getting quiet on the last part.

He let out a sigh, "I know." I looked at him and he continued, "You saw the video she has. You might think I wouldn't care but as much of a bad boy that I am I still have a reputation. Everyone might know about who I am but that doesn't mean a video of me has to be plastered all over the place for everyone to see, especially not my dad. I'm the pastor's son, I don't mind getting in trouble and breaking rules but I don't want to get kicked out of the house and have him never speak to me. It's bad enough I don't have a mom, I don't need to be without a dad too," he explained.

"So she's blackmailing you?" I asked. I knew Maddy was low but I didn't know she would go this low.

"Yeah," he said quietly.

"Brendon, she can't do that we have got to stop her. You can't let her play you and control you like that, it's wrong and you deserve better."

"Do I really though?" he said more of a statement than a question.

"Yes."

We sat in silence for the rest of the hour and I watched him playing around with the Polaroid photo of me and I got an idea.

Mr. Wilson came back into an extremely quiet room and he laughed. "Is this how you were the entire time?" he asked. We didn't respond and he shook his head, "just go you two." We walked out and I grabbed my things from my locker quick and ran to Brendon's.

"Brendon I need a ride," I said tugging at his sleeve.

"Home?" he asked as we walked out of the school.

"Not exactly," I said smiling.

We got into the car and I could feel my phone buzzing with texts from my mother but I wasn't going to let her ruin this.

"Turn here," I said pointing to the dirt road that went around the town. I continued giving him directions and eventually told him to pull over. "We're here," I said getting out and sprinting ahead of him to my spot overlooking the cliff. He walked next to me and I let out an amazed sigh. I laced our finger together and squeezed his hand tightly.

"What is this?" he asked still taking in the scenery.

"You took me to your place last night, so I took you to mine."