Built For Pleasure

| Chapter 9 |

[ATLAS POV]

I may or may not have just left school and gone home but that's beside the point. Luckily mom isn’t home and she won’t be home too late tonight so it’ll be like I never skipped school. 

I am so smart.

Nevermind...

I heard the front door unlocking not even a second after congratulating myself. Can I get just one win today?

Please god if you even exist just please let this be some serial killer and not my mother. The serial killer(I'm hoping) set something down in the kitchen and then walked into the living room where I was laying on the couch.

My mother didn’t notice me at first but the second I moved to try and run away- not a smart decision but what would you do. Sit there and take whatever punishment she was about to give out? Hell no.

"Excuse me young man what are you doing home from school at this time!?" I stood there maybe a foot or two away from the front door and did the only rational thing.

I told my mom the truth, about skipping school.

Yeah no haha I ran out that door so fast like lightning McQueen fast. I heard her yell out to me but of course, I didn’t listen. 

I ran and ran as fast as I could because she can’t catch me. I ran until I made it to a house that I am ashamed I went to but it's not like I had many friends, Zaire was my only option. 

I walked up to his front door and took a deep breath before knocking.

I can’t believe I'm doing this I mean he and I aren’t friends, we probably won’t be ever again. He’s the closest thing I have to a friend and yet again I'd rather be with him than be at home. 

I knocked on the door, after a couple of minutes of nothing happening I pulled out my phone and saw the time. School doesn’t get out for another hour.

I'm so smart. Today is going amazing and when I say amazing I mean amazing. Today could possibly be the best day of my life. I bit my lip and smiled. Please note the sarcasm.

I sat down at his front step and scrolled around on my phone. On that addicting app I wish I could get rid of. Not tik tok though screw that, its Instagram. I think Zaire convinced me to get it a while back and now I can't get rid of it. 

I followed a couple of kids from school, and just some other random people. I think I had 2 posts all from a year or two ago.

I clicked on my profile to look at my shitty bio and shotty posts. One of them was a picture with Zaire, Wren, and I. They were both on either side of me and were kissing my cheeks. I had such a big smile on my face.

I scrolled my screen to the left and saw the next picture. It was Wren carrying me on his back and Zaire presumably taking the photo. 

The final photo was all three of us cuddling together on Zaires bed. I remember that one time we were watching Netflix and just laying in bed eating snacks. Zaire's sister came in and she took the picture.

I smiled and held my phone close to me. I shouldn't miss them. I hate them, well not hate I just don't like either of them that much at the moment. 

I looked back down at the picture and then moved to the next post. The first one was a really ugly picture of Wren I took. I remember the exact words he said to me when I took it. "Sneaky bitch." I muttered quietly. The next one was a video when it started playing I was running and Wren was chasing after me. 

"DELETE THAT PICTURE!!" Wren yelled.

"NEVER!!!" I yelled back as I kept running.

When he caught up to me we both fell to the ground with the phone somewhere by us and all you could hear was us laughing before the video cut out.

Stupid feelings I thought as I wiped tears from my eyes. I pressed the button with the three dots and hovered over the delete button for god knows how long.

"Stupid feelings." I repeated out loud, I exited the app and texted Zaire. 

A: skip school I'm at your house

Z: I have so many questions..

A: don't you dare

Z: First, why are you at my house? Second, why are you at my house? And third I'll be there in a couple of minutes with a friend.

A: that last one wasn't a question dumbass

Z: See you soon :)

I closed my phone and rested my head on my hand. I swear to god if he brings who I'm thinking he's gonna bring I'll kill him.

Should I really be sitting on his front porch that'd be weird. Oh God he already thinks this is weird. 

Calm… I am calm. I dont give two flying fucks what Zaire thinks. I opened my phone back up and went back onto that god forsaken app.

I went onto Zaires profile he had a lot of posts but y'know gotta torture myself so I scrolled down to all the stuff with us. The last post we had together was the three of us on the bridge that ruined our friendship. 

I scrolled more not wanting to see that. There was a picture of him and I skateboarding (Wren most likely took it) we were holding hands and going down the road.

I looked at the next one and before I could relive more of my old memories I heard a car pull up. 

I walked up to the car and greeted the person in the driver's seat. "I kinda forgot you live like 5 minutes away." 

Zaire smiled and exited the car. "Yeah yeah. Anyways I brought a friend as you saw and yes dipshit I know that's not a question" He paused. "but I figured maybe we could try and y'know fix things between us and work through all our…. trauma…" 

Wren gave me a look that I could quite decipher; it was half sympathy and half hopefulness. I didn't care though. "Yeah whatever." 

Wren smiled as did Zaire. "Hey could I see your phone.?" Wren asked, I just shrugged and handed it to him. I didn't have a password, too much work.

He chuckled and tapped Zaires shoulder. I furrowed my brows in confusion at what was so funny. Zaire formed an O shape with his mouth and smiled. "Maybe you don't hate us that much."

I snatched my phone back and crossed my arms over my chest. "Say a word and I'll rip out your tongue and feed it to Wren." They both put their hands up in defense and I muttered a curse word under my breath. 

Zaire walked past me and unlocked the door to his house and we all went up to his room. "Look at us. Hanging out like old times." I looked down at the ground and pulled out my phone again.

I went back to my post and looked at the one with them kissing my cheeks. I have to admit I miss that. We were all so happy and naive back then. Wren looked over my shoulder. "You look cute in that picture." 

I blushed and punched his shoulder. "Shut up." Zaire took that as a good time to take my phone and look at the picture. "Aww I remember that, Atlas was being really stupid for some reason and joked about how gay we were and so we kissed him. We even had a contest for who the best kisser was. I obviously won." Zaire said, the end of that wasn't so accurate but maybe I'll let him have this one.

"Actually I'm pretty sure I won. I mean look at me, when people see me they immediately think 'oh he's a good kisser' and they're all correct." Wren said I smiled. They're stupid we all know who the real winner was and it was neither of them.

"Okay okay boys, stop lying to yourselves it was me and we all know it." They both shook their heads at my statement.

"Why don't we make a bet. I bet you both $50 that I am a better kisser meaning whoever wins gets $50." 

"I accept your challenge." Wren said in response to Zaire's proposal. They both looked over to me and I just nodded.

This'll be fun.
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<3