Dedicated to cocoamelon23
***
So what if nothing was more embarrassing to sniff your bedsheets with your best friend turned "enemy"? What was more embarrassing- at least to Grey - was the fact that he was caught eating out of the cookie jar his mother kept on the fridge. By Nathaniel.
"That little snitch," he thought.
Now he can't eat anymore because his mother told Nate to put it somewhere else. He has been looking everywhere this morning but can't find it. He felt like crushing the kid into its bitsy pieces. Hell, he should have done it a long time ago.
"Hey!" July's voice made him jump.
"Hey, sugar!" he throws his around her as they walk through the crowded hallways. He felt the glares and the "seriously?" stares as they did. He couldn't care less, though. Hoes before bitches that don't matter, that's his motto.
"How were your classes so far?" he asked
"They're okay. So far. You?" she smiled as she clutched the books in her arms closer to her chest. He could tell she was nervous. He has to lighten the mood somehow.
"Terrible, math's the worst!" he lied. He doesn't have math on Thursday mornings.
She giggled, definitely seeming less uneasy. "Of course, and it always will be!"
"You free after school? I wanna show you something." They both stopped near their respective lockers.
"Um... I'm grounded, remember?" she frowned.
"Ah. Right."
She put her books in her locker and takes out another. "I'm sorry."
"Don't apologize. It's not your fault," he smiled at her. Staring at her with soft eyes. "It's mine."
"I chose to."
"Because you felt like you had no other choice but to." Biology? Nah. Chemistry? Does he have Chemistry?
"Do I?"
Grey flashed her a grin. "I don't think so."
"Right," she asserted. "So it's my fault."
"How?"
RING! RING!
And that's the bell. July closed her locker, more like slammed it, and waited for Grey to slam his. Grey shoved the books he found in his bag and slammed the locker like his life depended on it. So hard that all the other lockers shook and some books fell out of an open locker.
"Oops," he snickered.
"That's mean, Grey!" July scolded.
"What? It was an accident!"
July crossed her arms across her chest sassily, quirking an eyebrow as she did it. Sassy, sassy, sassy. "Sure."
"Plus, you do it all the time!" he reasoned.
"Because my locker is so damn old, it won't even shut properly!" she laughed.
"You won this battle, my love, but you will not win the war!"
"What war?"
Grey laughed at her confusion, wrapping his arm around her again. Pulling her body closer to him as they walked back to where they came from.
"It's just something stupid I made up," he clarified, jolly. "Don't mind it."
"You seem way happier than when I first met you," she pointed out.
"Really?"
"Really."
~~~
"Grey, everyone's worried. It's like five o'clock!" Audrey sighed. "What are you doing here?"
Grey watched as she walked across the road and hopped over the wooden fence. She walked on the green grass towards him. The evening breeze gently flowed through her crimson hair.
Now that Grey thought of it, she and Nathaniel had the same red hair. Same waviness, the color itself... just that she didn't have the same beautiful dark brown eyes. A shame, really.
Her jeans and the Polar shirt were going to get ruined if she sat where Grey was sitting, but she did so anyways. Sitting amid ankle-high grass, and saying nothing, watching the sky with her friend.
Grey stared aimlessly and silently at the fluffy clouds in the cotton candy sky. He could hear the lake nearby but barely. Just enough to be comforted by it.
"You ok?" Audrey asked softly. She moved some of Grey's hair out of his face and tucked it behind his ear.
"What do you want me to say, Rey?" he inquired.
"That you're okay and that you're going home soon."
"I'm okay. And I'm going home soon," he repeated, no life in his voice. As if he was a machine.
"Without lying to me."
He gulped and went back to his staring at the purple and pink sky. Fixating on a particular cloud that was lit up by the setting sun, turning it bright orange. It looked beautiful as it moved in the evening sky.
"Grey. Come on," she shook his arm. "Grey!"
"Hmm?"
"Why are you here?"
"I just wanted to watch the sunset."
She squinted her eyes and genuinely looked at him. "That's not all. Is it?"
"She said I looked happier. Do I?" Grey asked her.
"Who?"
"July. Do I really look happier?" Grey finally turned to look at her. "Do I? Because I feel like a mess."
"You are a mess!" she began.
"Thanks much," he coldly replied.
Audrey rolled her eyes. "But you shouldn't let what you're feeling make you do shit that's weird."
"Like watch the sunset in a random forest?" he asked.
"Like watch the bloody sunset in a random forest," she confirmed.
Grey started to play with his hands, unable to keep the guilt and anxiety in him.
"But do I?"
"You do. Especially when you're with her."
Grey smiled. Maybe he does.
"You giggle and you smile and you laugh and you just... You're just so damn happy," she smiled softly. She took Grey's much larger hand in hers. "And that is what makes you two perfect for each other. Duh."
That made Grey chuckle a bit before looking up at the sky again. "But what if--"
"Grey, seriously? What if?" she scoffed.
"Yeah! I mean, what if I'm not good enough for her?"
Audrey's jaw fell open. "Is Grey Evans showing... insecurity?! What?!"
Grey rolled his eyes for the forty millionth time this month. "I'm just saying! What if?"
"Then it is what it is, Grey!"
"No, the fuck it's not!"
"You're right," she backtracked, trying to find what's best to say. "..But you have to move on if it doesn't work out."
"And if I don't?"
She shrugged. He sighed. "But I'd love to see her in a beautiful wedding dress with glitter and sparkly jewels all over it dancing with you in your tuxedo at some rich place. Maybe a palace? Or a pool? Pool wedding?"
"A pool wedding? Seriously?" Grey scoffed.
"Seeing that it's not even been three months and you two are already making out, yes. I'm dead serious," Audrey smirked.
"I guess it hasn't been three months...?"
"And it hasn't been three months since you've pulled a prank or vandalized something. Or stolen cheat sheets," she grinned.
"I guess that's a good thing?" he grinned back.
"Mmm, still no fun."
"So not really?"
"Not really."
Nothing is like staring at the sky with a friend you can speak your mind with. Even better when you both are idiots, it's just wonderful.
"Is it gonna rain?" Audrey asks.
"Why?"
"I wanna see if I can actually drown looking up at the sky when it rains," she clarified.
The gray clouds came across the evening sky, covering its beauty and blocking light. Grey couldn't help but be excited.
"Nah, you don't. I tried it," he joked.
"Without me?!" she cried. "So rude!"
Their laugh filled the cold wind that now blew into their faces. Grey shivered, and Audrey's questionable laugh replaced his.
"Your laugh is one I compare to the annoying sound a dolphin makes," he commented.
"And yours make you sound like a roaring yeti!"
"Yetis don't even exist."
"Is there even a plural form for a yeti?"
"You expect me to know?" he gasped.
"Yes."
Grey gasped and placed his hand on his chest and forehead, falling backward onto the grass as if he just fainted.
"Dramatic much?" Audrey rolled her eyes.