Chapter Thirteen: Friends Who Always Have Your Back.
"Seriously, Violet? A guy in the house?" Dad whispered harshly once he had pulled me aside to the corridor first thing in the morning.
"I thought I sent you a message" I groaned, rubbing my eyes and trying to stay awake.
"What message?" Dad asked, folding his arms. I looked up at him and the sleep drained from my eyes. He was really mad at me.
Quickly, I took out my phone and showed him the message. "It's literally right here... Oh." I forgot to plug back the wifi so the whole message didn't send.
"I'm sorry."
"Grounded," he stated, folding his arms.
"What?" I hissed. "I did something good, Dad. Angelo needed my help and I had no idea the wifi was off when I sent the message!"
"Out of all the people he knows, you're the one he just had to come to for help."
"I was the only one available, it was raining and super late..."
"We have rules, Violet, for our safety, it's just you and me. You can't just let anyone into the house. No more spending hours outside for you, lady"
"Really Dad?"
"Yeah, you're back in this house by four, and no more fancy dinners or any dinners for that matter at the Franceses" He turned to walk away.
"You can't just- wait, what?" I blinked. That was... actually nice!
"You heard me" Dad replied and I followed him into the living room, nearly even dancing for joy. Best punishment ever!
Angelo was no longer on the couch when we entered the room, but he came out of the kitchen running the back of his hand over his mouth.
He stopped at the doorway once he saw us and I took a quick second to appreciate how good he looked with his long wavy hair all over his face and the black sweater showing one side of the curve of his neck more than the other.
"I just wanted some water..." He murmured before clearing his throat and straightening up. "Good morning, Mr. Adams."
"Good morning, Angelo, is it?" Dad asked, scanning him over with his eyes. I just knew he was thinking something along the lines of "player".
"Angelo Sullivan, sir" Angelo replied. He didn't even bother to sound at least a bit interested in this conversation, just his usual deadpan. "Sorry for any inconvenience I might have caused."
"You don't look sorry" Dad observed and I nudged him.
"Dad just doesn't like strangers" I put in but before I could continue, Angelo interrupted.
"I was hoping you'd recognize me, I've been to your restaurant several times" he said and I covered my grin with my palm. That was perfect, he'd hit the jackpot.
Dad's sceptical expression changed drastically. "I thought you looked familiar!" He smiled and from then on it was Angelo dropping subtle compliments about the food and Dad gushing on and on and seeking more.
I just left them to it, folding blankets and stuff. Then I was surprised when heard Dad saying stuff like "drop by anytime" and "you're always welcome here." That was quick. I just hoped he won't take my punishment away.
Anyway, soon, we were all outside in the cold morning, waiting for Angelo's ride.
"What did you say your surname was again, Angelo?" Dad asked, more relaxed than before.
"Sullivan, Jimmy" Angelo replied. Yeah they were on first name basis now. "There's my ride"
Dad and I both left our jaws on the ground when a black, shiny limousine pulled up in front of our yard.
Angelo picked up his one suitcase from where he left it on our porch and strolled up to the driver who had opened the door for him.
We waved, mouths still open and watched them drive away.
"Did the Late Heather Frances Sullivan's son just walk out of my house or am I jumping into conclusions?" Dad asked, still in slight shock.
"You're jumping but into the right conclusions." I replied.
"You're still grounded."
"I know." I was so gonna milk it!
(╭☞•́⍛•̀)╭☞
"Sorry, Hale. I can't do dinner tonight, I'm grounded" I said into the phone at lunchtime. Hale was literally sitting a few tables behind me with his usual group of friends but I didn't turn around once to see his face.
"Omg, he looks so mad" Annie giggled.
"What kind of father doesn't let you see your own boyfriend?" Hale hissed into the phone and I shrugged.
"I don't know, I'm really sorry. This is uh...hard for me too but he's really putting his foot down about this."
"You do realize that we're going to have to go shopping for our Paris trip, right?" He was mad, really mad.
"Paris?" I asked, struggling not to look over my shoulder. Susan and Annie shared a confused look.
"You never said we were going to Paris" I only knew about this because Angelo warned me ahead.
"Of course I did, you probably don't remember because you were messing around with my cousin!"
"I wasn't-" I took a deep breath. "I don't want to go to Paris." This was far easier to say since I couldn't see him but I half expected to be impaled by an arrow from behind.
"Too bad this isn't your decision to make, mother already booked tickets and made all arrangements, we're leaving next week so I don't know what tricks to you have to pull but make your father cancel your punishment."
I held my head in my hand as I sighed, "I can't do that, Hale, you...."
Suddenly, the phone got swiped out of my grip and I looked up to see Annie grinning right at Hale over my shoulder with the phone pressed to her ear.
"You're bothering us, Frances. We're trying to enjoy our lunch but you're making our food taste bad. Get lost forever, bye!"
"Amen!" Susan yelled with a grin.
Annie smiled with self-satisfaction and handed me my phone back.
"Thanks" I mouthed to her shyly.
"So...what do you think about the AngeloXViolet account?" Susan asked out of the blue.
"Not this again," I sighed.
"Be supportive, I've gotten a hundred more followers in a few days already!" She chided lightly before showing me her phone. "Check out my latest post from this morning."
Before taking the phone, I already knew she was referring to English, the one class we all had together.
Susan was on the row next to us so she had a good shot of Angelo sitting in front while I was behind him, free to stare at the back of his head.
Anyways, in the video, I leaned forward in my seat to return his ring. I didn't know it was permanently mine, okay?
I told him thank you and he turned all the way in his seat to look at me with a frown.
I shrank back shyly as he got in my face but I held the ring out to him and said something, he said something back with a very Angelo-y eye roll and pushed my hand back to myself.
The caption of the video read, "Shh, but it's HIS ring."
The likes were coming in fast!
"What do you think, huh?" Susan wiggled her eyebrows as I looked up at her.
"I have no words" I deadpanned, returning her phone.
Someone grabbed my upper arm suddenly and my heart rate spiked to the roof.
"We have to talk, right now" Hale growled in my ear, his nails digging into my skin. I winced, the last bruises were barely even gone and no he didn't want to talk.
"Hey hands off," Susan said.
"Sorry, but I need to borrow your friend," Hale said, his smile fake and tight with annoyance. Just before he could pull me away, Jason McGuire came to our table, taking a seat uninvited next to Annie.
"What's up guys?" He asked, but he was only looking at my friend who didn't even glance his way.
"Oh, nothing" Annie smiled up at Hale, "just Hale being clingy"
He released my arm immediately, "I'm not clingy, don't be stupid."
"Oh my gosh, you areee" Susan grinned, pointing at him. "You can't even let your girlfriend sit two metres away from you for once!"
"I bet he still hugs teddy bears to sleep."
"What's wrong, Hale Frances, did we hurt your fragile masculine ego?"
"Hale is so clingy! Hale is so clingy!" They sang together and some people paused to look at us.
Jason squirmed uncomfortably on his seat, "Dude, I think you should...you know."
Hale barked a dry laugh as a last attempt to look cool "yeah, bro, these two are mad as hell." With that, he walked away, leaving me with my friends once more.
I guess all I had to do was to make sure Susan and Annie were always around me, that way we could avoid this Paris discussion and I'd be free for as long as Hale was away!
"Jason, you should really go back to your popular table. People are starting to stare at us," Annie said, looking around. "Even your Cassandra!"
"My Cassandra, Annie?" Jason asked with a slight frown.
"Haven't you guys been dating since like, first grade?" Susan asked.
"Yeah, it's always been Cassie and Jason" I murmured with a shrug.
"I didn't hear what you said," Jason pointed at me. "But Cassandra isn't my girlfriend."
I looked over my shoulder to see the hot cheerleader strutting towards us in her killer designer clothes and straight, perfect strawberry blonde hair.
"Here she comes, Annie."
"Jasonnnn!" Cassandra sang as she went around the table to drop herself into his lap.
"There's plenty of room on the seat" Annie murmured with an eye roll. I smiled at her, this would be interesting.
"Why are you sitting here with these..." Cassandra took a look at the three of us and smiled painfully, "...girls?"
"What do you mean? And can you get off my lap, please?" The poor football captain requested, only to be blatantly ignored.
"Oh I get why you're here...the breeze around here is pretty nice" Cassandra said, picking at his food.
I looked at my friends with bored expressions as she babbled on and on about whatever and I silently asked if we could leave.
Annie stood up without any hesitation while Susan and I followed.
"He really likes you," Susan pointed out as we headed straight outside to the bleachers and I nodded in agreement.
"Oh please, you actually think he's being for real?" Annie scoffed, biting agressively at an innocent baby carrot.
"Not every guy is trying to prank you, Annie" I said, "stop being paranoid."
She laughed dryly and looked down at her tray, so we couldn't see her face. "If it's happened to you three different times, you won't be saying that."
I looked at Susan who shrugged helplessly. Unfortunately, neither of us knew how to help her with her trust issues.
Susan had crushed on everybody while I'd only ever crushed on Hale my whole life (very depressing, now that I think of it). But as for Annie, all the guys she'd ever really liked turned out to be jerks who were just leading her on for their sick fun, only to tell her that it was all a joke.
I didn't blame her especially since Jason McGuire was the most popular guy and she was just a random, pretty chick in her own opinion.
"Forget about that, let's hang out at your place after school" Annie said. "You're not allowed out but we're allowed in right?"
I nodded, "yeah, we haven't done that in forever."
(╭☞•́⍛•̀)╭☞
Susan hung upside down from the edge of my bed while stuffing her mouth with chips. "Next time we're here, we're bringing boys." She said.
"You're always about boys, how do you not have a boyfriend yet?" Annie asked, working on a protective hairstyle in front of my mirror.
"It's hard to make a choice okay?" Susan replied before sitting up. "Oh, all the blood's flowed to my head"
"We can't do that anyways, Susan. Dad's gonna flip out again" I explained, casually biting on red licorice.
Annie spun around to face me immediately, "Hold up girl, again as in you brought a guy here before?"
I blushed, "Angelo slept over last night."
"And you didn't tell us?!" Susan screeched, jumping off the bed to sit on the floor in front of me while Annie barked a surprised laugh.
"Is that why you're grounded?" She asked.
"Actually yeah" I nodded. "I didn't give him a heads up"
"I bet a million bucks Hale doesn't know" Annie grinned.
"Of course he doesn't, do you want me behind bars?" I joked with an eye roll.
"Oh forget about that, I bet it was really cute!" Susan squealed. "Did you guys cuddle when you slept? Does he snore?"
"What did you guys talk about? Did anything happen between you two?" Annie put in.
"Yeah, like spooning?"
I sighed in exasperation, "we didn't even come upstairs, Susan!"
"Oh, so you shared the couch then?"
"Separate couches"
"Oh come on, boring!" Susan groaned in annoyance and fell over backwards into the carpet like a total drama queen.
I stuck my tongue out at her and Annie laughed. "Don't mind her, if you don't wanna sleep with him then don't, Susan's just craving drama" She said.
"I live for it!" Susan stressed and sat up, "Why did he come over though?"
Oh boy, I couldn't actually tell them the whole truth. "Um...he was on his way uh... home but got caught in the rain, so he just stopped by since he was nearby."
"How did he get your address?" Annie asked with a raised brow.
Hmm, how did he get my address?
"Hale" I shrugged. It made no sense that Hale would give something like that to Angelo but luckily they didn't question it.
"So he just came over and you slept on separate couches?" Susan asked dryly and I rolled my eyes as I got up.
"No, Susan, we talked into the night about stuff, you know, life, had hot cocoa. Then I hugged him and he kind of hugged me back that's literally all that happened..." I didn't want to tell them about the birthday cupcake because it just kind of felt like our thing.
"You sure you didn't do anything else? Because you're really blushing" Annie chuckled and I covered my cheeks.
I guess it's because that hug felt like the most intimate thing I'd ever done with anyone in forever. Or maybe I was just being dumb.
"Nope, that's it girls, let's not talk about guys please. Let's watch Scream, I have caramel popcorn." I said and led the way out the room.
~UwU~
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Rhodes.