Sometime later after contemplating the unexpected death of Lars, the three of them reach Northview just in time, a few minutes before classes start. Swift, Tom, and Audrey were still heavily unnerved by the blindsiding view of Lars' brutally maimed dead body. The blank, unblinking eyes that were washed by the falling stains of blood above his forehead had Audrey's stomach turning, while Swift and Tom, they've seen many other things worse compared to what they just witnessed, but they were still in shock to see it nonetheless. The car goes to a halt when it arrives at a parking space just outside of the school.
Swift pulls the gear stick to neutral, "We're not gonna talk about it at school, right?" He says, looking in the backseat.
"What? The accident back there?" Tom points behind.
"At least not near Matt in there. Sure, he's a bit dumb, but if he knows that we know, he's gonna know something." Swift replies.
"I'll swear on it." Tom raises a hand.
"Good," Swift nods. "And Audrey?"
By the time they arrive, Audrey was still in her trance of seeing Lars' corpse, seemingly unable to unsee it. Even the most grotesque details she remembers, and it still gives her an uneasy feeling. She exits the trance once Swift calls her. "Oh, huh?" She turns her head instantly.
"Try not to mention anything about Lars." Swift states.
"Of course. Why would I?" Audrey says as Swift suspects her.
"You look a little... horrified," Swift comments. Audrey turns away from him to the window, wanting to get out of the car with her hand nearing the door's handle. "Was it Lars?"
Audrey's hand stops, "I'm a little... disgusted. That's all."
Swift sympathizes with her for a moment, and then he nods. "I get it."
Audrey sees his demeanor as seemingly not being unfazed by it. "Aren't you?"
"A little," He replies. "Me and Tom have seen worse." Audrey nods understandingly, and she opens the door, going out of the car.
Swift and Tom go along with her, and the three of them head into Northview together. Swift is greatly thankful that Tom decided to bring backup clothes for him when he went to Audrey's, otherwise, he would wear a blood-soaked tuxedo capable of drawing unwanted attention at the moment. Although, he's not sure why Tom had the insight to bring those. Maybe for another reason that Swift isn't aware of. He'll ask Tom about that later. Then Swift fathomed that he didn't bring his sling bag, his school supplies and his schedule is in there. Swift isn't too worried about it, though. That's fine. He'll ask for a pen, and as for his schedule, he recollects that he took a picture of it with his phone a few days ago, in case the schedule paper goes missing.
Tom walks past Swift as he's pulling his phone out, "See you in a bit, Ryan."
"Yeah," He scrolls through his gallery, finding the picture of his schedule document. Great. Biology. Swift sighs exhaustedly. It's better than math class, at least. He turns to Audrey.
"And what about you?" Swift asks her. "What's your first class?"
"Spanish," Audrey says.
"Ah," He nods. "Well, good luck with your Spanish quiz."
"See you at lunch?" Audrey asks back.
"Absolutely, love." Swift smirks. Audrey walks into the hallway first after he lets her pass, but then she suddenly stops in her tracks, turning back to him.
"What did you just call me?" She asks, obviously knowing what he called her but she wants to know if he heard himself.
Swift becomes flustered in an instant. He would repeat himself but not in the middle of the hallway, but he ultimately decides to reply to her. "Um, love?" He brushes his head in the back. Audrey makes a small giggle when she approaches him.
"I like how you said that," Audrey smiles, leaving Swift red on his cheeks. Without a warning, she moves forward to him and gives him a short kiss on his lips. If Swift isn't blushing that hard right now, he totally is now. "See you later... love." She says it back.
With a final smirk, Audrey takes her leave. Meanwhile, Swift stands there in disbelief and glee. She just kissed him in school. Sure, it's eye-catching for some people, seeing the relatively new student already getting a new girlfriend, or at least that's what a few of the thinks. Swift doesn't think much of it. Instead, he just keeps on thinking about today's agenda. That's what he does until he turns further to the hallway when he spots Iggy, staring at him, mouth agape, utterly flabbergasted at something. Swift raises a brow at him.
"What... the hell... was that?!" Iggy shouts at Swift.
"What was what?" Swift says, taken aback by his aggressive question.
"Did she just-" Iggy speaks up again, but the ringing sound of the bell cuts him off. He huffs upsettingly and walks into the hallway further from Swift. "We'll talk about it later!" He shouts again before disappearing out of sight.
Swift is left in confusion at first, but he slowly realizes. She. It's clear that Iggy is talking about Audrey. The bafflement on his face says it all. As Swift traverses down the hall reaching for biology class, he rethinks about Iggy's reaction earlier. Although left surprised, he finds his reaction to that one small kiss appropriate. He remembers the fact that Iggy and Audrey, along with Dane, have been long-time friends since middle school. Seeing one of his friends kissing a new friend would be completely shocking for him, so Swift thinks he can let that one slide. After fetching a biology textbook he has in his locker, he enters the biology class, taking a seat near the back of the classroom, one row further from the wall. He relaxes for a moment, resting his back. Letting out an exhale, it turns into an annoyed scoff when he realizes who takes a seat right next to him.
"Goddamnit," He murmurs when the unwanted presence of Jake, appears beside him setting his books down on the table. "You again?" Swift says, trying to be calm as possible to not raise the situation into another conflict.
He already knows what Jake would do if there's no one in the room, especially the teacher, like for instance punch Swift in the face, but surprisingly he seems calmer than their previous encounters, even when he realized that Swift is in the same room. They've been in the same class multiple times, but none of them is as neutral as this.
"Didn't expect to see you here." Jake greets him after sharing a glance.
"You and me both," Swift says. "So, what are you gonna do next? The usual spitballing? Or the classic launching a rubberband at my face?" He quips quietly, Jake shows no amusement to that.
"The trouble I'm gonna get into if I do that now..." Jake says.
"Huh?" Swift raises an eyebrow. Thinking back, he recalls the brother-like relationship he has with Matt, who has saved him a bunch of times from Jake. "Oh, I remember," A chuckle leaves Swift. "What is he gonna do? Scold you? Is he your boss or something?" He laughs again, making sure to keep it silent and unnoticed by the teacher.
"Kind of," Jake tilts his head. "Speaking of Matt, he's looking for you." Swift, while opening his biology textbook, stops abruptly, and he looks at Jake with a hint of reluctance. He's looking for me? He thought he was imagining him saying it. It's rather odd knowing Matt, someone up to no good that Swift's been supervising secretly, is supposedly looking for him. Does he know? No. That's impossible. There were no tracks left behind of Swift or his partner Tom that needs erasing that would expose their cover to Matt, at least not that Swift knows of.
"Matt? Why?" Swift asks.
"Hell if I know," Jake says. "But he said if I tried to do any funny business, he'll kill me." Knowing who he is, he might as well. Swift's eyes roll. "Aside from that, he wanted to see you."
"I don't usually trust people like you, but if you say so..." Swift says so snarkily.
Iggy goes to slip out his notebook from the locker, almost letting another book fall out, but he catches it smoothly and places it back on the top shelf. Once he slams the door shut, he becomes aware that someone is calling his name.
"Iggy! Iggy!" Dane yells while running at him.
Iggy faces him, "Hm? Dane?" Dane stops and holds himself on his knees out of exhaustion, taking breaths rapidly. "What's wrong?"
"Audrey," Dane breathes in and out, unable to finish his sentence.
"What about her?"
"Her and...-" Dane breathes in again. "Ryan...- They,"
"Whoa, whoa. Slow down. Breathe," Iggy calms his friend down, so Dane did, controlling his breath. "Now, tell me what's what."
"Okay," Dane continues. "Ryan and Audrey, they came to school, riding the same car." He puts his hands out like he's puzzled. He said that so calmly, unfitting for the news he just told Iggy which for him felt like a big deal.
Iggy shakes his head, "Okay? Uh, what does that have to do with anything?" He asks. What's so shocking about that, is that Dane had to run tirelessly to tell him about it.
"Alright. Don't take my word for it completely, but I think they like each other." Dane says. Iggy facepalms.
"Oh, great. Here we go again," He sighs. It's always these small matters that Dane has to treat like it's a big deal. He always overreacts about things that mean little to nothing. "And what makes you think that exactly?"
"Have you not seen how they looked at each other back when he had lunch a few days ago? The first time we knew that they know each other?" Dane asks.
"...No?" Iggy raises an eyebrow, and Dane facepalms back at him. "Look, you're not making any sense! What do you mean they like each other?"
"See for yourself," Dane points to the entrance. "I gotta get to class, see you soon." He runs past Iggy who was still utterly confused.
"Oh, um," He gets bumped on the side by Dane. "Okay...?"
Later, after Iggy walks down the same hallway, he starts to see what Dane was talking about. It was coincidentally perfect timing too, as he sees Swift talking to Audrey with a sweet look on his face, the latter then being kissed by her. For Iggy, it is bewilderment at its finest. So that's what Dane was talking about.
The whole table falls silent after Iggy finishes his story. To that, Swift laughs nervously, scratching the back of his head while eyeing Audrey who does the same. The two of them are stared down by Iggy and Dane, and then beside them is Tom who continues to enjoy his lunch. Iggy has his hands grouped, fingers intertwining.
"Mind telling the rest of the story?" Dane says. When he asks, Swift and Audrey stammer together, not knowing who will speak up first to answer Dane's question.
"Uh...- Well,"
"You see, there's-"
"It's- It's-"
"It's a long story. Well, not that long, but," The two of them just keep on stuttering jitterily, making Dane's head hurt.
"Okay, stop!" Dane exclaims, halting them both. He sighs, "Ryan. You go first."
"Right. Well, uh..." Swift takes a deep breath, "Last night, I was busy doing a couple of things outside. I was heading until for some reason and out of nowhere, my car broke down," He explains.
"Your car broke down?" Iggy asks.
"Yep. Thankfully, Audrey's house was near so I went there. It took us a whole night trying to jumpstart that piece of junk,"
Audrey adds to the lie, "It was heavy."
"We got it up and running again in the morning. Of course, I had to stay at hers and... that's when it happened." Swift smiles at that memory. The kind of passion they both had for each other that night was something he can't put into words.
"I see," Iggy nods. Then a joke comes into mind, "Did you two jumpstart each other in bed too?" He laughs, leaving Swift and Audrey all blushing for the second time today. Tom hears his joke, almost spitting out his food in the process. Iggy sees them both, "Gotem'." Putting up a hand to Dane, the two high-five each other.
"For the love of God," Swift finds it unbelievable that someone else made the same joke twice on the same day. "We did not do that!"
"We're eating, damn it!" Audrey motions at her lunch.
Following Jake's instructions from earlier, who told him Matt is waiting for him in the restroom after school, Swift heads over to see what's what. It's kind of weird that out of all the places Matt could be waiting for him in, he chooses the bathroom. Hopefully, it wasn't a weird business that needs conducting. Aside from that, Swift tenses up as he walks to the boys' bathroom. Knowing who Matt is, he wasn't sure whether to be afraid or not. Does he know what I'm doing? Again, he questions as he walks into the bathroom. Peeking over the corner, he sees Matt, as Jake promised, standing before the mirror, fixing his hair. Swift heads in.
Matt notices him, "Oh, good. You're here." He turns and faces him.
"Yeah," Swift greets. "It's kind of an odd choice, don't you think?"
"Hm?" Matt says.
"That you chose the bathroom, out of all places?"
"I needed a more secluded spot to discuss something."
"Huh," Swift says. He starts to worry, "And what is the something that needs to be discussed?"
Dane crosses his arms, "Pick a number,"
"What?"
"Pick a number," Dane repeats himself. "Between one and five."
Without questioning the strange request any longer, Swift immediately answers. It's that simple, after all. "Three."
"Three?" Matt asks if he's sure.
"Yeah."
"Are you sure?"
"Absolutely."
Matt gives off a smirk. "Alright. Great choice." Swift suddenly senses something is off. Matt's smirk radiates weird energy, almost... vile. Turning around, facing away from Swift, he takes out a phone. A gust of wind hits Swift from behind. He ignores it, thinking it is just the uneasiness that runs down his spine.
Matt puts the phone up to his ear, "Hey. It's me," He says. "He said three," Swift starts wondering who Matt is talking to, telling his answer to a fairly irrelevant question. "We're on the clock, so get to it."
Then Matt puts his phone away after ending the call. Swift's eyes narrow, "What was that about?"
Matt gives Swift a wicked smile, something that says anything other than friendly. "Nice knowing you, Ryan Swift."
"What?"
His question is left unanswered, as someone he didn't see hits the back of his head so hard, that he collapses on the bathroom floor in an instant.