Bad Habits

Chapter 28

It's been around two weeks since Harley and I made up, as well as my brother and I. During that time my parents had finally arrived home, and Noah had bagged himself a cute girlfriend with the name Jessie.

Yeah, so that happened. None of us had been shocked about it, other than Noah himself. The boy was like a lovesick puppy around the place ever since he took Jessie out on their date. Now all myself and Poppy see at lunchtime is the both of them cuddling up and stealing small kisses here and there. It was utterly adorable and sickening at the same time.

Poppy couldn't say much about it though as I watch her sitting next to Aussie with a big dopey smile on her lips, the both of them laughing at something on Poppy's phone. They'd had a great time on their date, he'd won her a bunch of cute plush toys and fake proposed to her with a fake diamond ring he had from the slot machines. He'd won her heart instantly as she lapped it all up when everyone around them in the arcade started cheering him on.

He had asked her to be his girlfriend a week later on their second date at the movies. She told me she was hesistant at first, but he'd cracked a joke to ease the awkward silence and she realised how genuinely happy he makes her all the time so she said yes and planted a big kiss onto his lips. Her words not mine.

Surprisingly Ollie was now sitting with us at lunchtime everyday. I guess having a genuine friend like Aussie was eye opening for him. He'd ditched the jocks table with his teammates and the cheerleaders and was happy to sit and converse with us.

When I asked him about the change of heart he'd simply shrugged and said, "life's too short for me to be hanging with fake friends and fake double D's." Then resumed eating his French fries like nothing had ever changed. I couldn't argue with that even if I wanted to.

Harley and I, we see each other pretty much every weekday. We wouldn't talk every time, just simple head nods and small 'hellos' as we passed each other in the halls, although we did go to the ice cream place again one day after school when everyone was busy doing their own things. We had fun, only argued twice and that was because he insisted that he paid for my ice cream, in the end we split it. Levi was ecstatic that we were both talking again, said his fragile little heart couldn't take the sinking of his ship before it even started, whatever that meant.

Ollie was no longer cautious of me and my 'revenge plan'. I'd had enough of seeing him basically shake with fear whenever I entered a room, so I finally attacked and with the help from his dear friend Aussie who happily distracted my brother one afternoon, I snuck into his room and took all his video games. I had them for well over a week before he caved, crying tears of complete misery while on his knees, hands clasped like he's praying, begging me to forgive him and give back his games. I'd happily handed them over, confusing him with my sudden happiness. I was just amused to see him resort to tears and begging, it was a glorious day.

All was well with our small group.

Apart from the slight annoyance at the back of my brain telling me to pluck up the courage and finally ask Maddox about the whole max thing.

I still hadn't spoken to him about it, and he'd basically avoided me like the plague whenever I was near him, so that didn't help matters either. I hadn't told Poppy or anyone else about it, battling with my mind on whether I was even going to address the issue or just ignore it and hope it went away.

I had a silent feeling that Noah knew about it. He'd silently watch me from time to time, a frown on his face as he probably wonders why I haven't blown up with questions over it. I was surprised with that myself, usually by now I would of caved and demanded I have all my questions answered, but like I said, Maddox ignoring me whenever I was around made me think twice about it, plus I'd been swamped with school work that was piling up by the minute and working at the garage.