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"Whitley, wake up." I'm shaken awake by Charlie, who is holding a handful of candy bars in his hand. "Woah, you look like shit." "I bet I do," I say. "And watch your language. Are those for me?" He nods. "I don't like nougat, but Dustin does." "Nougat's amazing." I argue, sitting up. "We're leaving in five minutes," Collin calls from the kitchen. "Shit! Shit!" I jump out of bed, pushing Charlie out of my room so I can change. "You watch your language!" Charlie shouts at me while laughing. I notice that I'm still in my outfit from last night, and my makeup was still on. What happened last night? I glance at the floor to see my black vans placed next to each other and my socks folded next to them. I definitely didn't fold my socks while I was drunk. Ignoring the massive headache I have, I pull on my high-waisted mom jeans, then a white polo and tuck it into my jeans. I slip on my black vans, and wipe all of my smeared makeup off. I didn't have enough time to do my usual mascara and lip gloss. Pulling my backpack with me, I follow Collin and Charlie who were already out the door and into the car. The bell had already rung when I arrived at school, meaning I was late. I run to class, because if I'm late, it would show up on my record. I rush to my seat. Everyone was staring at me. Billy was watching my every move as I sat down. "What?" I ask him. "You don't remember anything last night?" He raises an eyebrow. I frown, thinking of the events of last night. "I remember you going upstairs with some girl, me talking to Jonathan, and then I had some drinks. Then there's a huge blank." He rolls his eyes. "I didn't do anything with her, y'know." "Sure," I snort. "You don't remember me taking you home?" He leans back in his seat. My eyes widen. "You took me home?" He nods. "I found you on the bathroom floor after you had thrown up." Everything is piecing together now. "You were pretty drunk last night." He adds, scribbling down notes the teacher was writing on the board. I feel embarrassed that he saw me in that state. I feel embarrassed that I was that drunk. What if I had said something stupid to him? Shaking my thoughts away, I decide to pay attention to the teacher, copying down the notes that were on the board. "By the way, you looked ravishing last night." Billy whispers in my ear. All of the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and a shiver runs down my spine. I try to ignore him. He's just being the player that he is. Every now and then Billy would "accidentally" nudge me with his elbow as he writes the notes. I know he's just doing it to annoy me. The bell rings, meaning it is now passing period. "What's your next class?" Billy follows me out the door. "Math," I reply, heading in the direction of my next class. "I'll walk with you," He says as he catches up to me. I frown. "Is your class even in this direction?" "No." I smile to myself. We walk in silence. It wasn't awkward though. People stared at us as we walked down the hall. When we arrive at my class, he pauses to say, "I'll see you at lunch." "Bye," is all I can manage to reply. Does that mean he's sitting with me or something? I take my seat and took notes on the new concept we were learning. "Last night he took me upstairs in Tina's house..." I hear a girl from in front of me mutter to her friend. It's the girl that Billy brought upstairs last night. I focus on their conversation. "So I started to make out with him, but then he pushed me away and told me he couldn't do it." She exclaimed. "He said something to himself like he couldn't fuck me because of some girl." What?Maybe he has a girlfriend back in California. "Since when would a guy like Billy Hargrove be committed to someone?" Her friend asked. "I don't know, but I'm hellbent on finding out who this girl is." She muttered in response.
Jonathan ditched school today, so I sit at the usual lunch table that today was joined by Steve. He was telling me all about how he and Nancy aren't together anymore, and how everything played out last night. Because he's pretty upset about it, I give him a hug to cheer him up. "The hell do you think you're doing, Harrington?" Billy walked over to our table. His fists were clenched angrily. Steve and I share a confused look, pulling away from our embrace. "I'm talking to Whitley. You got a problem with that, Hargrove?" Steve said as more of a question. "Don't fucking touch her." Billy pulls him up by the collar of his shirt. Everyone in the cafeteria was staring at us now. "Billy, calm down! He's upset!" I jump up, trying to push Billy off of Steve. Why is this even a big deal? "Billy!" I touch his arm. He turned to look at me, his face slightly red in anger. He drops Steve to the ground after a moment. Steve jumped up. "What the hell, Hargrove?" Billy glares at him. "Don't touch her, you hear me, Harrington?" "You seriously have anger issues!" Steve yells at him. "She's not even your girl! You need to chill out!" "What, you like her or something?" Steve continues, stepping closer to Billy. Billy continues to glare at Steve. "Don't make me beat your ass, Harrington." Then he turns to me. "Let's go." "What? What are you talking about?" I ask as he practically drags me out of the cafeteria. He drags me to his car. "I'm not ditching school, Billy." I tell him. "Oh yes, you are." He gets in the driver's seat and starts up the engine. "What the actual hell?" I throw my hands up in the air in annoyance. "Get in, Wilson." He says using my last name. I glare at him and reluctantly get in. He drives to a diner that is close to the school. Theres a few customers in the diner when we walk in, mainly just adults who came here for their lunch break. I probably look like I'm being held hostage. We got a table in the back of the diner, a secluded area. Neither of us say anything as we both flip through the menu. The waitress comes over to us. "Can I start you off with anything to drink?" She batts her eyes at Billy. "Orange soda." He says with no emotion, not even looking up from the menu. "I'll have a Oreo milkshake." I say. "I'll bring those right out." The waitress scuttles away shyly. "Oreo milkshake, huh?" He looks up from the menu. Folding my arms over my chest, I squint my eyes at him. "Are you going to tell me what just happened?" He doesn't respond. "Fine." I lean back into the comfy booth seat. "We've talked about this. I just don't want him near you, alright? He's a selfish asshole." Billy says after a long silence. I scoff. "What are you, my father? You don't get to decide who I can talk to or not. I barely even know you. Now that that's established, Steve just broke up with Nancy. He wanted someone to talk to." The waitress comes to deliver our drinks, interrupting the tense conversation. "Can I take your orders?" "Cheesburger. No onions." Billy hands her the menu, not taking his eyes off of me. "And you?" She turns to me. "I'll have the chicken strips." I gave her a soft smile, since Billy wasn't being so pleasant to her. "Your order will be right out." She returns the smile. Back to the previous conversation, "Why did he break up with Nancy?" He asks. "Something at the party... I don't know. She was drunk and she said their relationship is bullshit." I shrug. "I don't get why you have such a problem with me hugging Steve." "It's simple, actually. I don't want him or any of the other douchebags at our school touching you." "Is that why you hit Jonathan with a basketball?" I eye him. He groans. "Why is this such a big deal?" "Oh, I'm sorry, did I hear you saying I'm making this a big deal?" I sarcastically laugh. "I'm hearing so much bullshit... I think I need to get my ears checked!" He holds his face in his hands, annoyed. "You are surely something, Whit." "I could say the same thing about you." I retort. The waitress brings us our food and runs back to the kitchen without a word. The two of us eat in silence. I'm so confused and irritated because of this whole situation. I thought my life here would be normal, but so far it's filled with a lot of drama. When we finish eating and we're waiting for the bill, he asks me, "Why are you always covering up your left wrist with that huge ass bracelet?" "Huh? No reason." I quickly pull my hand under the table. "That wasn't suspicious or anything." He raises an eyebrow. "Shut up."
