The Psycho Is Innocent | ꪜ

Chapter 18: You Love Ricky

Present

"EVE, WHERE'S PARKER?" Evelyn peered up from her plate of food, "I thought you were mad at me," Ariel lowered herself down opposite her best friend and snatched a fry off her plate, "I was but I get where you and Parker are coming from. Yes, I expected you guys to be the first people to help me, but you're concerned for my well-being and if that's not being good friends, I don't know what is. Plus, I don't want to drag more people into this and get them hurt."

Evelyn's lips tugged into a wide smile. "I wish you'd just stop, though. I don't want you to get hurt, Ariel. But you're stubborn, so there's nothing I can do about it," she lowered her hand down onto Ariel's, "just promise me you'll be safe, okay?" The two girls stared into one another's eyes for longer than expected before Ariel broke free from Evelyn's burning gaze, "where's Parker?" Evelyn's mouth suddenly thinned. She lowered her head down and tutted, "I knew this day would come."

"What, Evelyn? Where the hell is Parker!?" Evelyn raised her hand in the air and motioned to the table at the far end of the cafeteria. Sat amongst his former friends was Parker Lynn. The same former friends who abandoned Tobias the moment he was thrown into jail. Neither of them stood by his side nor defended him when he was in desperate need of it. They went as far as to vandalize his locker, turning their backs on him without a second thought. Parker being Tobias' best friend broke free from the group, but it was only a matter of time till he found himself back with the baseball team.

"Well, they were all friends once upon a time. You can take the guy away from the baseball team but you can't take the baseball team away from the guy." Ariel ignored Evelyn and turned her attention to Lewis steadily approaching them. "Howdy mi amiga cheetahs! What's happening? Why do you guys look so gloomy?" Ariel frowned, "the hell are you so happy for? That's the real question." Lewis shrugged as she fought to bite back the giddy smile on her lips, "oh nothing," she sang.

Everyone was beginning to piss Ariel off. Nothing for the past few days has been normal but to see Parker's sudden change of heart and Lewis' weird behaviour; she wanted nothing more than to crush them both beneath the soles of her feet. "I'm going to that freaking table and I'm getting some answers." Evelyn shot up from the bench as Ariel stomped around the table towards Parker. She followed in suit behind, hands flailing towards Ariel, incoherent words of distress and pleas flying from her lips, never to reach Ariel's ears.

"Ariel, please don't snap. Don't throw away all that progress you made with Doctor Julian because of Parker. Just leave him be, his karma will come back to bite him ten times harder." Evelyn reasoned as she wrapped her hand around Ariel's arm in an attempt to slow down her hasty footsteps. Ariel halted abruptly and swivelled her head in Evelyn's direction sharply, "I am karma, bitch." She ripped her hand from Evelyn's grasp and marched towards the table, her hand balled tightly in a fist.

"Parker!" The table of rowdy boys went silent. Parker peered up; at the sight of Ariel his smile fell into a frown, "can I talk to you, alone please?" She inquired through gritted teeth, ignoring the perverted eyes that swallowed her up with one single gaze. "Are you hitting that, Parker? It's about time, I knew something was going on between you two." One of the baseball players exclaimed, his cackling voice ripping at the strings of patience that kept Ariel civilized. "no, he's not hitting that you degenerate asshole, why don't you mind your goddamn business and go back to eating your dinosaur chicken nuggets before I shove each of them up your ass."

The table bustled with bubbles of laughter and cheers as the guy cowered in shame. He parted his lips to try firing back an insult but Parker cut him off, "what do you want, Ariel. This table isn't a place you should be in." She didn't understand the sudden change in his attitude. Weeks ago he'd been ranting about how everyone turned their backs on Tobias and now he was sitting there with the very same people he despised whilst simultaneously pushing away the only person who was there for him.