"Now, you need to explain to me what were you doing with Mr. Bad Boy From Wesseltown High yesterday." Piper said to Delancey with a teasing smile.
They were at the ice cream shop that had just recently opened which Piper had been gushing on about and practically begged Delancey to check it out with her.
And so here they were, sitting at one of the booths with a chocolate mint ice cream in front of Piper and a mixed berries one in front of Delancey.
Delancey rolled her eyes as she scooped some of her ice cream and put the spoon in her mouth.
"He needs help with his studies so he asked me to tutor him."
As she said that, Piper's spoon dropped from her hand and she stared at Delancey in shock.
"Did I really hear correctly what you've just said or do I suddenly develop a hearing damage?"
She can't believed it! Her best friend, the strict and cold Delancey Hardy, was tutoring the new guy! What's more shocking was that the boy had that big of a courage to ask her to tutor him.
"He must be really something to have you accept him with open arms," she mused and Delancey glared at her.
"I was helping! None of the other students even dare to approach me so he's actually the first person to do that… I'm not evil, like they all see me as." Delancey defended herself, swallowing another scoop of ice cream and feeling the coolness in her throat as the taste of sour-sweetness lingered on her tongue.
"Hmm, true," Piper agreed.
How she and Delancey became friends was also because they have known each other since kindergarten and were also neighbours before both of them went to Wellsworth Academy.
Delancey then without warning scooped some of her chocolate mint ice cream and put it into her mouth, snapping Piper out of her thoughts as she yelled quietly at her best friend, trying to not get the attention of other people. Delancey only smiled innocently at her and Piper scooped some of the black haired girl's berries ice cream as well.
They were talking and laughing about how Piper had once mistaken her trash can as her laundry basket and had thrown her shirt into it because she was too sleepy when the bell by the entry door jingled, indicating someone had just come in.
"Oh, gosh, Dee, I swear you guys are meant to be together." Piper said in a quiet voice as if she was telling a secret while her eyes were staring straight at something behind Delancey.
Delancey turned around, confused by what Piper had just said when she saw Ashton Sawyer, Julian Kenneth and Roxy Zachary entering the ice cream shop. Then Ashton turned around and their eyes met while he seemed shocked, like he wasn't expecting to see her being all casual in an ice cream shop. They stared at each other for a while before Ashton smiled and gave her a small wave. Roxy then turned around as if to talk to him but then when she followed his gaze and looked at Delancey who glanced at her, her smile vanished from her face and she seemed pissed as she whispered something to him.
"Oh my god, I hate that girl." Piper fumed, her face changing to an annoyed look.
"Why?"
"Simple. She's a b*tch."
"Piper!" Delancey scolded, her eyes widening.
Piper rolled her eyes. "I know you wanted me to not talk bad about any of your father's students but please, Dee, let me just hate this girl because I can't keep pretending to look at her face without feeling like I wanna punch her between those oh-so-pretty eyes that every bad boy in this town seem to be attracted to."
Delancey gave out a little laugh at that. "Goodness, who told you that last part?"
"Gabbie, her roommate. She was almost out of her mind the other day and unfortunately found me to rant to—I have a feeling she'd pull out her hair if she don't— and told me how Zachary was telling her that all the bad boys in town, whoever the hell those boys are, are in love with her even if they don't admit it and that she's different than other girls because she prefers to hang out with boys more than girls because all the girls hate her. And it's true, we all hate her. Gabbie had once wished she could poison Roxy if murder isn't illegal," she paused as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Let's just say, Roxy Zachary is self-conceited and should see a psychologist."
"Pip, what has gotten into you?" Delancey asked, bewildered.
"Everything about Roxy, that's what. I hate how she plays the victim when actually she's the evil one and I totally hate how she treated you… like hello? Had she looked into a mirror?"
Delancey couldn't help but smile when Piper said that. She was grateful to have a best friend like Piper Lawrence, who could be a little crazy sometimes but was always the one who speaks what she thinks is right.
Her best friend's groan snapped her out of her thoughts as the girl slapped her palm to her forehead.
"Someone kill me now."
Delancey chuckled. "What? Why?"
"They're coming closer to us," Piper paused. "And sorry, honey, but if your sweetheart is dating that chick I'll have to kill him tonight."
"What are you talking about?" she asked but didn't prod further when the three walked past their booth and took a seat directly behind Piper, in the other booth.
Ashton was seated exactly facing Delancey and Roxy sat beside him while Julian sat in front of the two, his back and Piper's back facing each other.
Ashton, it seemed, kept glancing at her as if wanting her to look back at him but all she did was concentrated on Piper's face, trying to seem engrossed with whatever topic her best friend was rambling about now even though she can't really concentrate when someone was staring at her.
"He's staring at you, isn't he?" Piper suddenly asked, a smile growing and gone were all her anger toward Roxy just now.
"How'd you know that?"
"Because you're my bestie and I can tell when you can't concentrate on what I'm saying, you'll look like you're on the verge of an identity crisis."
"I mean, what do you expect me to do? Stare back a—"
"Yes." the blonde girl deadpanned and Delancey glared. "I have a feeling, that he likes you, even for the slightest bit."
"But what if he's with the girl?" she asked.
"He's not. I can tell by the way he's annoyed by her a few times while they were ordering just now."
"You're a weirdo." Delancey commented, giving her friend a look.
"Yet you still love me." the blonde girl blew a kiss while Delancey gagged.
Then she looked up and of course, Ashton was already looking at her. He was smiling, but Delancey was not sure at her or at whatever Roxy was telling him while Julian was silent most of the time, only talking a few times.
"Hold on a moment, I wanna go to the washroom. Be back in a sec." Piper said and stood up before walking away, leaving way more empty space in front of Delancey as she broke eye contact with the blonde boy and looked away.
She dared to look up again and somehow, she didn't even know why, but she felt like a little bit of her good mood dropped.
Roxy was resting her head on Ashton's shoulder and then grabbed his hand before playing with his fingers to which he was pretty confused but kept silent nevertheless while Delancey couldn't see how Julian was reacting, she only heard a small noise coming from him that sounded something like a grunt.
The boy was too quiet for his own good!
"Hey, do you wanna keep staring at them or do you wanna go? Because if I were you, I'd put that little brat in her place right about now." Piper's voice from behind made her jump a little and she glared at her friend before nodding.
She finished the last bit of her ice cream, suddenly feeling like it didn't taste that good before standing up and the two girls walked out of the place.
All the way back to the academy, Delancey couldn't stop thinking about what she felt just now. What was that? That never happened and she wasn't even supposed to feel anything like that, she was the Head Prefect!
But somehow, some part of her kept wondering what it would be like to feel carefree and rest her head on someone's shoulder without caring if anyone's gonna talk about her?
Ashton watched as the two girls (specifically the girl with the black hair) walked away from the ice cream shop until they were out of sight before he looked back to his friend who had a smile on his face and then he glared.
"Oh my gosh! They left, that's amazing. One is a b*tch and one is a witch… urgh! I hate them so much!"
And I would hate you too if you won't stop being annoying. Ashton thought to himself as he pried off her fingers from his hand and straightened up his shoulders so she would have to lift her head up.
"Guys, let's head back to the academy… we can drink our shakes as we walk."
"Fresh air! That's more like it!" Julian suddenly exclaimed excitedly. He too, was getting tired of Roxy's gushings that he had even started eavesdropping to Piper's and Delancey's pretty interesting conversation behind him and their voices even sounded like they have personalities compared to Roxy's "I'm so different".
Roxy huffed and muttered something like "you guys wanted to hang out with me just to see those girls" but the two ignored her as they stand up and walked away with their milkshakes in hand. She caught up with them and was silent all the way to the academy, seeming to be sulking while the blonde and redhead boy chatted with each other as if the girl didn't even exist.
When they reached the academy, Ashton told Julian to go to their dorm first while he will walk Roxy back to the girls' dorm, much to her delight.
Both of them were silent but when they stopped, Ashton turned to her.
"Roxy, I wanted to tell you something."
She smiled. "Really? Me too! And I, I wanted to apologize for being a negative energy just now around you guys… looking at those two girlies just washed away my mood, you know. I promised I won't act like such a brat again next time we hang out."
Ashton sighed. "Uh, that's the thing… I don't think we should hang out anymore."
Roxy gasped, her eyes growing wide and she seemed taken aback. "Are… are you serious? I mean, we've been hanging out for, like, every single weekend and so what about our friendsh—"
"Yeah, that's the major thing. I can't keep pretending I wanna hang out with you when I actually don't. I just wanna chill in my room sometimes during the weekends, you know? And you just forced me to go here and there with you. I don't even feel any friendship with you."
"Well, I… I can make it up to you! I won't force you guys again! I'll be—"
"Except you don't and you won't. I've told you about this for the past two weeks and you said the same thing and you did the other way around. So, yeah, I can't just fall into your guilt trip again."
"Guilt trip?" she questioned, tears welling up in her eyes.
But for the first time since he stepped foot into this academy, he didn't care about someone else's feelings.
"Yeah. You know how you kept telling me how everyone hates you and that you have no one else whenever I refuse to hand out? That's a guilt trip. And I can't do that again. I also don't like when you grab my hands, touch me or even hug me without my permission… you didn't listen to that too."
"Ashton! I… I won't do it again, okay? I didn't realize that—"
"You realized it, Roxy," he interrupted her again. "But you just chose to ignore it"
Then she was crying as silent tears fell down from her eyes. "But I like you! I think I like you a lot and maybe… maybe that's why I acted like that!"
Ashton was shaking his head then. "I'm sorry… I don't think I can like youand that's no excuse for acting that way. This hanging out thing? We're not doing it again. Me and Skinny."
Right after he said that, he was about to walk away when she yelled at him.
"This must be about that witch Delancey, right? She was always ruining my life!"
Ashton wanted to yell back that Delancey had nothing to do with her, but he kept on walking before he did something he regret.
He thought of going back to his room, where he could clear off his mind because Julian would sure be spending his time in the art room like always, but he decided he didn't want to go there.
His mind was a bit cloudy and blurry by what he had just let out to Roxy. He had kept those thoughts for so long it was lucky he didn't explode. He did felt a bit of guilt soon after seeing he had made a girl cry.
Was he too harsh on her?
Was he wrong saying it like that?
He kept walking until he realized he was at the school park, which was of course empty since all students were basically out enjoying their young lives, and then he stopped when he saw a figure sitting at one of the benches there, all alone.
It was a girl and it just so happened to be Delancey Hardy.
How fateful because she was one of the people he was looking forward to seeing.
The sight of her, even when she frowned and stood up and walked toward him slowly, brushed away a bit of the clouds in his mind.
"Ashton, you seem a little bit off. Is everything okay?"
He looked at her for a while, his mind trying to process her words.
Why was he like this? He was sure he was fine a moment ago. Then the thought of Roxy filled him with anger mixed with guilt again.
"It will be." he answered Delancey before suddenly pulling her into a hug.
He didn't know what he was doing and he knew if someone was there, the two of them would be the talk of the school the whole year but somehow hugging her brought a sense of calmness and peace upon him as he wrapped his arms around her and just breathed in her vanilla perfume.
Look who's hugging someone without permission now. A tiny voice nagged at his mind but then he felt Delancey's arms wrapped around him as well telling him that she actually accepted his hug. She was hesitant at first, of course, but it felt nice to know she wouldn't push him away.
They stayed like that for a while, with a cool breeze blowing gently every now and then. One thing that helped them from being seen by others was the fact that the park was sheltered and covered mostly.
He pulled away from the hug and looked away, embarrassed to meet Delancey's questioning eyes.
"I'm sorry, Delancey. That was… rude."
"I'm glad you acknowledge that." she agreed, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Yeah, I do. It's okay if you wanna expel me or suspend me, I'll accept it."
Delancey stared at him long and hard before tilting her a little.
"I'll let it slide if you explain to me what happened to you."
And so he explained everything to her.
"Do you need me to tell this to the principal? What she's doing is unacceptable." she asked with a concern written on her face after he had told her everything that happened for the past weeks he had started hanging out with Roxy.
Ashton shook his head. "I think she won't disturb me after this."
Delancey seemed unconvinced but she nodded. "If there's anything, tell me."
"I will, Delancey. Thank you," he paused. "Why are you here all by yourself, by the way?"
She shrugged. "To think, I guess… I thought you were together with… her."
"Roxy? No. I can't feel the same way about her because… her vibes just seem off to me."
Besides, I might be liking someone who I won't have a chance with. He wanted to add, but kept silent instead as the comfortable silence embraced them again.
"Should we go now? I mean, other kids might be back soon and they might see us," he finally said.
"Sure, you go on ahead," she paused. "And the hug didn't happen."
She looked at him expectantly, to which he smiled and laughed a little before nodding, getting the message. She would be the talk of the school if anyone else knew.
"The hug didn't happen." he repeated, then waved and walked away.
After he left, she sighed.
What was she thinking? She should have pushed him when he hugged her because that would be something that could ruin the image of a head prefect.
But they're both humans and young, and both needed a hug themselves so… was it really wrong?
"But it felt so comfort—no. I need to stop this. He's a student who could start causing chaos real soon considering his record from his old schools. I'm the Head Prefect who everyone looked up to, I can't ruin my reputation." she ranted to herself as she paced back and forth.
I can't be catching feelings for a boy who I barely even know and who would be gone by the end of the year. She added in her mind and sighed.
She had never felt this way, it was almost scaring her… why him? Why not some other boy with excellent discipline and was raised with perfection? Someone like her at least?
Her feelings and her thoughts were not making any sense, she felt betrayed by them because they have never let her down before in concealing her feelings. Now look at her.
Delancey decided to not acknowledge them and walked away from the park, back to the girls' dorm.
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