I decided to discreetly have the Bella's drop me off close to the trebles as I found Greg had blown up my phone begging for me to meet up with him when I got back. Amy decided to go to the Bella's house first to freshen up before declaring her love to Bumper.
"Well?" I said sighing as I stood at the side of the treble's house, just a smidge out of view from the rest.
"I just— I wanted to apologize Cassie." Greg said quietly, I stared at him blankly as I waited for him to say something else.
"I really tried to be neutral. Cass, you know how much I love the both of you." Greg tried to explain as I sighed and leaned against the house.
"Neutral? You let people call me names!" I whisper shouted at him as he looked down at the floor somewhat ashamed.
"I know, I'm sorry Cassie. You know I'm not good at confrontation and, well, I live with these guys. It's hard to go against someone you have to wake up and see every day." Greg said as he awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. I sighed as I stood quietly for a moment and thought about it, that is until I heard loud bickering coming from the other trebles sitting around on the lawn.
"I know that I only have one vote—" I peeked my head out to watch as the boys argument on the lawn got louder.
"You have no votes, you're not in the group so..." Benji said shaking his head to Bumper.
"Okay, that hurt my feelings." Bumper said pursing his lips as he pointed at Benji.
"It's just the truth." Benji said quietly as he shrugged his shoulders.
"Well, that hurts my feelings, but my vote? I vote no to the pig and yes to this gloriousness." Bumper continued as he gestured towards his face.
"Yup. That's great, we'll put it to a vote later." Benji said giving up the argument as he sighed.
"Bumper, I'm coming!" I heard Amy's voice shout from far away. Bumper slowly turning around as he caught sight of Amy standing on a canoe as she paddled towards the house.
"Oh, wow." I mumbled under my breath to Greg as he also turned to watch Amy paddling over as she began singing.
"Many times I tried to tell you, many times I cried alone. Always, I'm surprised how well you cut my feelings to the bone. Don't want to leave you really, I've invested too much time to give you up that easy. To the doubts that complicate your mind. We belong to the light, we belong to the thunder!" Amy sang as she paddled to the shore, captivating nearly everybody's attention.
"Nope! Turn it around!" Bumper shouted loudly as he shook his head.
"We belong to the sound of the words we've both fallen under. Whatever we deny or embrace for worse or for better." Amy sang as she was almost half way across.
"I don't want to see you!" Bumper shouted once again, despite that Amy kept coming.
"Woo, really misjudged the size of this lake." Amy shouted before quickly jumping back into song, "We belong, we belong, we belong together."
"Why didn't she just walk around the lake?" Greg asked as we watched Amy finally reach the end of the lake.
"Amy doesn't do anything small." I said back as Greg furrowed his eyebrows.
"Have we become a habit?" Amy sang sighing out of breath as she climbed out of the canoe and onto land just across the street from the treble's lawn, "Do we distort the facts?"
"Now there's no looking forward. Now there's no turning back. When—" Amy sang as she paced the grass before a car stopped in the middle of the road and began honking at her.
"Go!" Amy shouted at the car, before shaking her head as she started crossing once she realized it wasn't moving only for it to just start moving as she did so.
"Well what are you doing?! I'm soloing here!" Amy shouted angrily as she raised her arms in disbelief at the driver. The car honking at her once more before finally driving past her, "Whatever!"
"We belong to the light, we belong to the thunder." Amy sang as she finally crossed the street and began making her way on to the lawn.
"No! No!" Bumper said as he put his hands on his waist and watched her.
"We belong to the sound of the words we've both fallen under. Whatever we deny or embrace for worse or for better. We belong, Bumper and Fat Amy, we belong together." Amy sang as she now stood in front of Bumper.
"Close your... close your..." Amy trailed off as she waited for Bumper to join her.
"Close your eyes and try to sleep now. Close your eyes and try to dream. Clear your mind and do your best to try and wash the palette clean." Bumper finally joined as he stepped forward, Benji watching on proudly.
"We can't begin to know it, how much we really care. I hear your voice inside me, I see your face everywhere. Still you say—" They both sang together before kissing each other, as everyone watched on, happy for them.
"The thunder!" They broke apart to sing once again, before beginning to start sucking faces. Everyone's happiness quickly changing to disgust as the two began sucking faces. Everyone beginning to storm back inside and the two fell to the ground while they made out.
"Oh, sick!" I said while my face scrunched up in disgust as I grabbed Greg's hand and we made away to the front of the house.
"That... That sure was something." Greg said as he began rapidly blinking, probably trying to get the aight out of his eyes.
"Hey! What's that girl doing over here?" I heard someone shout towards us from the patio. I sighed as I looked up and saw two of the newer trebles with some girls pointing at me. This caused more trebles to file out the front door to see what the shouting was about. Greg looked between the treble's and I before shaking his head and taking a step forward.
"Her name is Cassie and she's my friend, she has just a right to be here as the fourth girl this week you have over does." Greg shouted back to the guy, everyone's mouth dropping as they registered what Greg said. The girl the treble was with gasped while I did a double take at Greg.
"You said I was the only girl you're talking to!" The girl shouted at the boy before slapping him. Everyone gasped as the girl scoffed and made her way off the patio and began walking down the street.
"What the fuck dude?!" The guy shouted at Greg as he cradled his now brightly red cheek. Uni, Hat, and Donald now pouring out of the house as they looked at the boy. Donald looking over the direction everyone else was looking at which resulted in us awkwardly making eye contact.
"Cassie!" Donald shouted as he began sprinting down the patio and in my direction.
"I forgive you." I quietly muttered to Greg who broke out in a grin.
"Seriously? Well— I'd hope so, but seriously?!" Greg said excitedly as I nodded with an equally large grin on my face. Donald finally landing right in front of me.
"Cass, you're back." Donald asked as I just hummed in response. He opened his mouth about to speak before being abruptly cut off by the sound of a car horn coming towards us.
"Hey! You slut, are you forgetting we have to go study? You won't be graduating this year with that low grade in statistics!" I heard Staci shout as she began vigorously honking her horn. Everyone on the patio, grumbling at her to knock it off.
"I've got to go." I said to Greg and Donald as I began awkwardly heading over to the car.
"Cassie, when can we talk?" I hear Donald ask as he quickly followed after me.
"I'm trying to put things behind us and work things out, please Cassie. Can we work this out?" Donald begged as he rested his hand on the passenger while I buckled myself up.
"Yeah, yeah, this week." I mumbled to him as his eyes widened in shock.
"This week." Donald mumbled back to me as I nodded, he slowly stood back up and walked away from the car as he nodded, "See you later."
"Later." I nodded back as Staci finally took off and began driving towards the library.
"What'd I say?" Staci asked pointedly as she continued watching the road.
"Make him grovel." I muttered out as she nodded proudly.
"And if he's already that big of a hot mess, you'll be back together by no time." Staci said grinning while I shook my head.
"Thank god, being this alone after four years seriously blows." I said groaning as I reached into her glove box for her pack of gum.
"Soo... studying? That's the best you could come up with?" I said grinning as I eyed Staci down, who in turn started chuckling.
"It got you out of the conversation didn't it?" Staci said continuing to laugh as we pulled into the library parking lot.
***
"This is my first ever B!" I said scoffing while walking out of my statistics class with my graded midterm.
"This is MY first ever B!" Staci said enthusiastically as she kissed her graded paper.
"I've never been so upset to see one of my graded papers until today." I said sighing as we walked out of the building and head for the quad.
"Well let me show you happy I looked after seeing my first B." Staci said as she started dancing her way out the door.
"Uh huh. Uh huh." Staci cheered as she hopped around excitedly, while I laughed at her.
"But, I do not deserve a B!" I said as I followed Staci out.
"I feel the same way!" Staci shouted as she continued prancing around happily.
"He just doesn't like me." I said shaking my head as Staci paused her dancing and thought about it.
"You know, that could be. Whenever he talks to you he makes a face like somebody just cut one." Staci pointed out as I gasped, quickly swiveling around to look at her in disbelief.
"I never cut one, it's always Henry!" I exclaimed as I turned back around and striking directly into somebody.
"Holy shit, I'm sorry." I quickly spilled out as both I and the person I bumped into held our hands out so the other wouldn't go flying backwards.
"No you're alright, I was actually coming to talk to you." The person said, allowing me to look up and realize it was a boy from SBT that I knew.
"Oh, hey! What's up?" I asked as I looked at the boy in front of me.
"We're having a party, wanted to make sure you guys got an invite. Words traveling pretty fast that one of you are newly single." Paxton said stretching the sentence out teasingly.
"Neither of us are newly single." I said shrugging my shoulders as I raised my eyebrows at him.
"Oh I see, well the offer still stands." Paxton said grinning as he held his hands up defensively.
"See ya later, hopefully ten P.M. sharp." He continued shouting back at us while we waved at him.
"What a dork." I said grinning as I shook my head.
"A hot dork who totally wants to bang you." Staci snickered as we continued walking our path to the quad as we laughed, completely unbeknownst to the three boys not to far as they listened in on the conversation.
"Did you hear that? 'Neither of us are newly single'! She's still telling people we're together, that counts for something, right?" Donald said grinning ear to ear as he turned to the other two boys.
"Uh-huh." Unicycle said with raised eyebrows as he watched Donald incredulously.
"What?" Donald said, confused at the stare he was receiving from Uni.
"Well, it's just that..." Uni trailed off as he avoided looking at Donald.
"Just what?" Donald said getting annoyed with how slowly Unicycle was when it came to getting to the point.
"He's clearly going to fuck your girlfriend at the party." Unicycle said shrugging, Donald eyes widening in shock.
"Where the hell did you get that from?!" Donald said confused as Unicycle simply shrugged.
"You guys are on a break. People have sex with other people while on a break." Uni shrugged as Donald whipped over to look at Greg.
"Don't listen to him. She's not having sex with other people if shes still going around saying she's in a relationship." Greg said shaking his head at Unicycle's ridiculous statement.
"Right. Right." Donald mumbled as he turned around and began trailing off to the house. The sound of a loud slap coming from behind him followed by Unicycle whisper shouting the word 'ow'.
***
Donald's POV
"So let me get this straight, we're going to a party that you heard Cassie was going to?" Jesse asked as he drove us to the SBT frat house.
"That's the plan, if you could get there any faster." I said shaking my head, clearly tired of this line of questioning.
"Are you alright with constructive criticism?" Jesse asked, clearly about to say something witty.
"Not right now, no." I grunted as I tried to block out Jesse.
"That plan fucking sucks." Jesse flat out said as he glanced at me through the mirror.
"No, it's not. It's a good plan to show her that I care." I said before quickly muttering under my breath, "And to make sure she doesn't have sex with anyone."
"Donald! You were just mumbling on about how you plan on beating everyone up at the party!" Jesse shouted at me, hoping to have me tell him to just turn the car around.
"Who are you even planning on fighting?" Jesse continued once he realized I wasn't budging.
"Whoever she's with, I don't know." I said shrugging the comment off.
"I just want to hold you accountable for when you say, 'Hey Jesse! Jump in!' Or better yet, 'Benji! Swing on him!'. This is a terrible plan." Jesse mocked as he shook his head in disbelief.
"Everything will go smoothly if she's not with anybody." I said sounding as if fighting someone tonight was just an average Friday night occurrence.
"I feel like I'm on the way to a fight." I mumbled shaking my head while groaning.
"Don't say that! You're bringing along the weakest people in our friend group!" Jesse scolded as he scoffed.
"You're not gonna help me?" I asked while furrowing my eyebrows as I sat up to look at Jesse.
"We're not built for fighting Donald! Look at who you brought with! Bumper's trying to fog up the window to draw stick figures and Benji has a hamster sitting in his sleeve!"Jesse scolded me, while the other two looked at Jesse with a 'what the hell' expression.
"I could totally kick your ass right now." Bumper said clearly offended as he quickly wiped away his foggy stick figures.
"Okay then, Bumper let's fight." Jesse said mockingly as Bumper began scoffing as he looked at Jesse like he was fibbing. "No seriously, right when we park."
"I would fight... I would, but I pulled a hammy the other day when I was... riding around my security scooter." Bumper trailed off as he rubbed his leg and pretended to flinch in pain when he touched it.
"Do you see my point Donald?" Jesse asked rhetorically while shaking his head.
"Okay, maybe I could of chose a better group to bring with." I trailed off as I scratched my head. "Look are you in or are you out?"
"I'm out!" Jesse scoffed bewildered.
"Too late, you're already in."
"Then what was the point in asking?" Jesse rolled his eyes.
"I thought you'd change your mind and we'd have a heartfelt moment but clearly you don't care for your friends." I shrugged nonchalantly as I crossed my arms, the bickering continuing all they way to the frat house. As we got out of the car I noticed a large crowd standing outside the door.
"Great." I sighed as we all got out of the car, slowly making our way into the large crowd.
"Any girls?" The guy watching the door shouted as all the girls in the crowd made their way to the front.
"Yup, you're in. You're in." The bouncer like guy said to them as he let the girls through the crowd. I snaked my way through towards the front of the now all male crowd.
"Hey, my girlfriend is in there. Can I get in?" I asked as I gestured towards the door.
"No can do, it's a sausage party in there right now." The guy said as he shook his head at me before turning back to the large crowd and shouting. "I need more taco's! More taco's!"
"Look, I got a fifty. Can I just get inside?" I said as I dug into my pocket and pulled out the fifty dollar bill.
"Fine, just you, unless your friends have the cash too." He said taking the bill from me.
"Absolutely not." Bumper scoffed as he looked at the guy as if he was crazy.
"Campus security! Campus security!" Bumper shouted loudly with a large grin while pointing out his shirt. " I'm gonna have to step inside and ensure there no underage drinking occurring within the perimeter."
"Whatever, just go dude." The guy said rolling his eyes as Bumper smugly snatched the fifty out of the guys hands and placed it back in mine.
***
"I haven't seen Cassie anywhere, maybe she didn't come?" I said sighing as I grabbed a brownie off a plate in the kitchen and made my way back into the living room. Scanning the large room with Jesse as I ate the brownie.
"It's not that hard to just ask around Donald, look." Jesse said sighing as he turned to a girl in the corner of the room. "Sorry to bother, any chance you've seen a Cassie around here?"
"Cassie and Staci?"
"Yup! That'd be her." Jesse said relieved, I instantly perked up once I heard the mention of her name.
"Oh, they're right over there. They're kind of hard to see though they're surrounded by all those cute guys." The girl said as she pointed to a crowded spot somewhat in the center of the room.
"Cute guys?!" I asked loudly as I almost choked on my drink from shock.
"Uh... yeah, right there." She said confused as she pointed at the small crowd once again, I then caught a small glimpse of Cassie's hair shining in the light.
"Alright. I'm going in." I said trying to pump myself up as Jesse made a small tsk sound to show his disapproval.
"Let's just think about this logically." Jesse said tilting his head.
"No I need—" I said before being interrupted by the music suddenly getting a bit louder as a group of guys cheered loudly while Staci hopped up on a couch.
"I call you up when I know he's at home. I jump out of my skin when he picks up the phone. Why can't I tell if he's looking at me? Should I give him a smile? Should I get up and leave?" Staci sang along to the song that was now blaring through the house. Suddenly she held her hand out and pulled Cassie up onto the couch beside her.
"I know it's strange. I don't know what I'm thinking, but is it wrong if I see him this weekend? I really hope I can get him alone.
I just don't, don't want her to know." Cassie sang along with the song, before the two of them held hands.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. My best friend's brother is the one for me! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. A punk rock drummer and he's six-foot-three!" The two of them sang loudly as they jumped up and down on the couch. The two of them jumping around the couch and singing for the rest of the song before it finally ended.
I watched as Cassie leaned against Staci out of breathe as the guy who invited them approached the two. They laughed and next thing you know the boy teasingly shoves Cassie's shoulder, clearly in an attempt to flirt with her.
"Yo, you two find Cassie yet?" Bumper asked as he approached us, looking at where Jesse stood beside me and his eyes going as wide as saucers.
"She was decapitated?!" Bumper exclaimed horrified, I whipped around to look at Jesse confused only to see him awkwardly go from a 'cut it out' gesture to him awkwardly trying to play it off like he was scratching his neck.
"Morons." I mumbled as I watch Cassie head for the kitchen, I quickly followed along after her.
"Hey, I didn't know you were here." I said smoothly as I leaned against the kitchen island. Cassie turning around as she looked at me clearly surprised I was here. Anxiously I grabbed another brownie to help distract my mind from racing.
"Oh, hey, I didn't think I'd see you here." Cassie said while grabbing a drink from one of the coolers. "...Did you follow me here?"
"What? No... No, Jaaa...ustin invited us to come hang out over here." I stumbled over my words as I tried not to sound like a creep.
"Donald, I don't really feel like talking things out right now. I just want to have a good night, I look absolutely phenomenal." She said shaking her head as she opened up her can and took a large gulp.
"That you do." I said grinning at her as I looked at her outfit, taking another bite of my brownie hoping she would ease up with my compliment.
"I didn't need confirmation." She said shaking her head at me as she leaned on the table with her eyebrows raised.
"Right. No— I just meant that—" I awkwardly began panicking as she interrupted me.
"You should probably slow down." Cassie said as she gestured toward the final bite of my brownie.
"It's cool, I have a high metabolism." I said somewhat confused as I tried to play it off by taking the last bite of my brownie.
"No Donald, those are edibles." Cassie tried to slowly explain as I let out a chuckle.
"I know, that's why I'm eating them." I said furrowing my eyebrows, Cassie shaking her head as she pursed her lips.
"They're pot brownies." She said slowly as I paused. My eyes went wide as I looked back at the platter with the brownies.
"All of them?!"
"How many did you eat?" She asked clearly concerned as I struggled to remember.
"Six? Seven? I don't know I ate a lot while I was looking around for you!" I said alarmed as I looked at her not sure what to do.
"Oh my god, that amount with your body weight?" She said just as alarmed before noticing my face of terror and quickly trying to reel it in. "It's fine. You're fine."
"Then why are you making that face?" I asked with distress as she gulped. "Oh my god, I had four shots before I came here!"
"Let me just find Jesse so he can take you home, alright?" She said as she placed her hand on my shoulder comfortingly. As she went to turn towards the door I quickly grabbed her hand to stop her from leaving.
"Look Cassie, before you leave, I need to tell you that I don't want space. Okay? Matter of fact I don't want anyone to have space." I sputtered out, hoping these few words would allow her to take me back. I took her smiling as she stayed planted in her spot a good sign and continued my frazzled speech.
"I want to be standing right here in front of you." I began as grabbed hold of my hand and smiled back up at me.
"I want the air that you breathe to be the air coming directly from out of my mouth." I sputtered out not having any clue on where I was going with this, Cassie clearly not having any either as she tilted her head and look at me quizzically.
"I want to just be passing air back and fourth between each other until its mostly carbon monoxide and then we both pass out and die." I explained as Cassie raised her eyebrows in shock and took a small step back as she tried to hold in a laugh.
"Alright, look Donald let's just talk about this tomorrow. Preferably when you're not cross faded?" Cassie said smiling as she nodded towards me.
"Tomorrow. Do you promise?" I asked as she nodded.
"Promise." She reassured as I smiled before sliding down against the counter I was leaning against.
"Alright... I'm just gonna... have a small nap." I mumbled as I propped up my knees so I could rest my head.
***
Cassie's POV
I grinned at Donald as I watched his eyes slowly flutter closed. I made my way over to the door and stood by it as I scanned the room. Shockingly it didn't take me long to spot Jesse as he was staring the door down clearly waiting for us to come out. I gestured for him to come over and watched as he gestured for Benji to follow as he grabbed Bumper by his shirt and began dragging him.
"How's it going?" Jesse asked awkwardly as I held the door for them.
"Just need you to take Donald home." I said, sticking to the point while I gestured towards a sleeping Donald.
"Oh, alright. No problem." Jesse mumbled as he made his way over to Donald and tossed him over his shoulder.
"Well, uh, see you around?" He said as he turned to make his way to the door. I hummed while Jesse turned to look at Bumper. "You coming?"
"I'll meet you out there." Bumper said as Jesse nodded and made his way out the door, Benji following in tow as he shyly said goodbye to me.
"Cassie, my man. What's going on?" Bumper smiled sheepishly at me. I stared at him blankly as he waited for a reply.
"I got to get back over to my friends." I said as I awkwardly stood there not quite sure what to do.
"Fine, I understand we're not friends anymore." Bumper proclaimed clearly upset as he crossed his arm like a child. I sighed as I placed my drink down in an attempt to actually talk to him.
"Look, you brought this on yourself." I said gently as I shrugged my shoulders.
"I know I did, but that's no reason for me to suffer!" Bumper said dramatically as I sighed, this was clearly a hopeless conversation.
"I'm going to get back to my friends, Bumper." I said as I finally opened the can I grabbed from the cooler.
"Could you be any more annoying?" Bumper groaned as I began making my way past him.
"Yes." I shouted back pursing my lips as I continued walking back over to Staci.
"How exactly did that all go?" Staci said grinning at me.
"An absolute mess, I think I'm going to get back with Donald tomorrow though." I said glancing at Staci as she smiled.
"Good, there's literally no way that flame can be snuffed out." She said smirking before she turned to me "But, let's at least have some fun tonight, I didn't just have Kiefer spill beer all over my shoes for nothing."
"Agreed." I said as I held my can out, Staci tapping it wit hers before we both chugged our cans.
"Phew." I said out if breath as we both held our cans and watched the crowd in front of us.
"Cassie and Staci, gettin' it. Gettin' it." Staci said mockingly as I tried to choke back a laugh.