Popularity Rules

Chapter IX

       The sky seemed to immediately darken as I approached the outskirts of the town. The men on the street eyed me suspiciously as I sped past them, I did my best to hide my face so they couldn’t hunt me down. I remembered the direction we had taken the previous night, it made me feel like some creepy stalker – remembering the exact direction to her house after just one night taking her there.

       The few large raindrops had begun pouring by the time I pulled up to the house. It looked even worst in the daylight if that was even remotely possible. The rain was coming from the sky in large portions and I hurried up the broken stone path and up to the front door. I punched my fist on the door and tried to shelter under the small roof covering that prodded itself over my head. The door was pulled in so suddenly that I almost fell headfirst into the room.

        The smell of warm brownies wafted up to my nose and my brows furrowed, I expected to see people polishing guns, not serving brownies. I looked over to the person who’d opened the door, she had a striking resemblance of Avery, and she was way shorter than her with cropped brown hair and red-rimmed eyes.

        “Who are you?” she asked, closing the door in the process. I guess I passed the ‘Is he a creep’ test.

       “Uh, Avery’s… friend?” I said a little unsure.

       She seemed delighted. “Avery had friends? That’s really great!”

       To me, she looked really high strung and really young, so I figured Avery hadn’t been lying about the older sister thing. Before I could respond, the person of the moment walked down the stair-case and gave me a look of disbelief.

       “Get out!” she exclaimed, pointing to the door. “Reena! You can’t just let complete strangers into the house.”

       Reena looked flustered and she looked back and forth between us uncertainly. “He said he’s your friend.”

      Avery turned to me and raised a brow. “I thought I made it clear we aren’t friends and we never will be.” She inclined her head to the kitchen then looked down at Reena. “Your brownies are burning.”

        Reena scrambled off into the distance and Avery pulled her sweater closer, folding her arms over her chest tightly. “I’m just trying to be a friend,” I told her.

       “You’re trying so hard to make me accept you. Is it so hard to believe there’s a girl oblivious to your ‘charm’,” she replied, air quotes around charm.

       I gritted my teeth in frustration. “Is it so hard to believe that I actually care? I don’t want anything from you.”

       “Then leave,” she exclaimed. “Get the hell out of my house.”

       Reena rushed past from the kitchen with a tray of brownies in her hand. She pushed it under my nose and pointed eagerly at it. “It’s better hot.”

       I reached to take one but paused as Avery raised a brow at me. “Let me guess – weed brownies.”

       Avery rolled her eyes and muttered, “Bingo,” the same time Reena said, “Only the best.”

        I pulled my hand back and smiled at her. “No thanks,” I mumbled, wiping my hand into my pants.

         Just as I thought the small room was stuffy enough, the door swung open roughly and hit me squarely in the back. I turned and looked around, seeing two men enter with huge joints in their hands. They pushed past me as if I wasn’t even there. They both sat on the small sofa, seemingly breaking all the springs, they blew large puffs of smoke into the air.