His arm, as usual, was firmly stuck in place.
Either around her boney shoulders or tightly gripped on her waist. Today it was on her waist as they walked down their school hallway. It was busy and rowdy yet he made sure that nobody would even come close to touching his precious girl.
------
a/n
i hate this chapter. but since i am just posting my old stuff, this will have to do.
idk why I used to write like that and I'm sorry if this chapter makes you drop it :(
if anything just ignore it or skip bc it's just here for me to reread and cringe 🙈
from now on any chapter I think worth skipping will have a
ᡕᠵ᠊ᡃ່࡚ࠢ࠘ ⸝່ࠡࠣ᠊߯᠆ࠣ࠘ᡁࠣ࠘᠊᠊ࠢ࠘𐡏.
----
She followed in his direction through the crowed halls and took a sigh of relief once they had finally reached the cafeteria where they're 'friends' would be. Elaine and Maon shared the same group of four boys as friends.
Mason had been friends with two of the boys since elementary school which was almost as long as he'd been dating Elaine for.
The boys were all very protective of her although that didn't stop many people from trying to approach her, maybe she just had a welcoming face but she doubted it. She looked like a skeleton with a diamond shaped face and hollowed cheeks and sunken electric blue eyes, her long nearly black hair framed her face and it made her eyes pop even more in addition to her dark mascara and eyeliner. She had a small button nose and round plump lips, she had a small figure and stood at a height of 5'5, she looked even tinier in comparison too Mason.
Mason was a lanky guy, standing at 6'1. He had a mop of golden brown hair that fell down just above his hazel eyes.
They walked in and at the center table sat the 'popular' group of guys, who immediately started shouting them to come over when they noticed Mason and her. There also a few people scattered all around the room. Elaine eyed them warily, she tugged on his shirt sleeve. "What?" He answered gently.
"Can we just go to the library." She mumbled slowly into his ear, she had to stand on her tiptoes to be able to reach him.
"No Lainey, you barely talk anyways, you need to talk to other people besides me." Mason sighed annoyed. They had this conversation everyday.
"I talk to loads of people, I just don't have enough energy to listen to you guys shout at 8am." She whined.
They had been standing at the front of the caf for a while now whispering to each other. People were starting to stare and Lainey awkwardly shuffled at the attention.
"You do this everyday," He looked around and noticed the glances, "Can we fucking go now."
She nodded awkwardly and he walked off in front of her. For a second she wondered if she should just go off by herself but quickly decided against it.
They took a seat at the loud table and Mason involved himself into the conversation whilst Elaine sat there comfortably in between his thigh as his arms were stroking her long dark brown her.
It was still fairly early in morning and she wondered how they could be so energetic already. "Lainey didn't even say hi to us" Cameron smirked as the rest of the group halted their conversation and stared at her.
She rolled her bright big blue eyes, "...Hi."
"You know what, everyday i question if you really even love us." Another one of the boys - Lucas feigned a sad look and held his hand on his heart. Lainey giggled.
In total there were five guys including Mason. Andrew, Ian, Cameron and Lucas. Mason had been friends with them for years and they all treated Elaine as a younger sister even though she was the same age as them.
"What do you think." She spoke softly, her voice was quiet and barely above a whisper. They all chuckled and Ian who was next to her softly bumped her, making her whack him.
They turned back into their conversation and left Lainey to her own world.
The boys being just conventionally attractive and upper middle class. Attracted a gaggle of girls by their side everyday. Elaine didn't mind the girls, there were only three but Riley just got on her nerves.
Avery and Riley were the typical boy-crazy girls , Riley took any chance she could to ignore Lainey and Avery loved to diss her.
Mia however was the only one she could stand, she just followed her friends around. She didn't really have a backbone.
Her train of thoughts must've subconsciously attracted them.
"Hey boys" Riley's voice called out as she walked up behind Cameron and kissed him on the cheek.
The other girls - Mia and Avery went to their chosen partners.
Elaine was 95% sure that they had had an entire conversation dedicated to who would get which friend.
Riley somehow got Cam, Avery got Lucas and Mia got Andrew. The only boy that actually even liked his girl was Andrew, he was smitten for Mia. The other boys however lead on the girls and only used them for their bodies.
If Lainey was a better person maybe she would have said something but in all fairness, she didn't care.
Mia waved at her, "Hi El," In response Elaine just smiled at her.
"Hi Lainey!"
"Oh, I didn't even notice you were here." Riley scoffed, "Hi Elaine."
Lainey ignored her and snuggled back further into Mason. "Guys you wouldn't believe what just happened to us." Avery crossed her arms and settled into a seat.
"What happened," Ian responded clearly uninterested.
"So there's this-"
Riley interrupted her, "Let me tell the story."
"But-"
"There's this new girl, she's a total freak show. So us being us, we came up to her and gave her a welcome but the girl totally ignored us and walked off." Riley blabbed. "Can you believe her? I cant name one person that would want to ignore a pretty and nice girl talking to them."
"That's crazy Riley," Cam replied as he was on his phone. The whole table had pretty much died after the girls came. Avery and Riley were talking amongst themselves, Mia and Andrew were whispering to each other flirtatiously and the rest of them were on their phones apart from Lainey who was watching Mason scroll through Snapchat.
Elaine tugged on Masons shirt sleeve and he hummed quietly in response. "Can we go now" she whispered.
"Go where?" He whispered back smiling.
"Anywhere but here..."
He looked down at her face and she stared at his pleadingly. He turned back to the group and announced, "I'm going for a smoke."
Cameron excitedly piped up, "Can I come?" That caught Riley's attention and she asked to come aswell.
"No Cam." Mason stood up and so did Elaine who was in front of him and ready to go.
Cameron whined, "Whyy?"
"Yeah why cant Cam come if your just going for a smoke." Lucas raised a brow cockily and everyone on the tables attention turned to them. The girls stared at them intently.
Mason smirked and looked at Elaine, and when he thought she wasn't looking he made a sexual gesture at the boys and they started snickering.
"Have fun Lainey" Andrew leaned back into his chair smugly.
"Oh shut up." Elaine slapped the back of her boyfriend's head playfully, "No we aren't."
"Nevermind I think I'll stay here." Cameron laughed.
"Sure sure...."
Lainey rolled her eyes and walked off with Mason in tow.
Cameron and the boys hollered and shouted behind them. Avery shook her head in disgust, "Are they really going to do that?"
"Of course not, Elaine's a total virgin." Riley said snakily.
Ian frowned, "Just because you spread your legs at any chance given, doesn't mean that she has to."
The group tried to hide their laughter but Riley stared at them angrily. She got up and stormed off and Avery ran after her even though she the one who was laughing the most.
---
Lainey sat at the back of her homeroom class with Ian and Cameron. She sat there in boredom as the boys were moaning loudly and throwing objects at random people as if it was the funniest thing ever.
They suddenly stopped as Mrs Bernard strolled in with a girl behind her. She eyed them at the back giving them a stern look, the entire class went silent as she cleared her throat.
"Class I'd like you to meet our new student- what's your name dear?" The dirty blonde haired girl next to her spoke up.
"Uh I'm Nora..." She shifted from one foot to another.
"Tell us a bit about yourself Nora.."
"There's not really much to tell..."
"She's hot" Cam whispered to Ian and Lainey and they both sighed and looked at each other.
"Okay class so Nora will you please take a seat next to Isabella, she'll tell you everything you need to know about the school."
Nora shuffled into her seat which was conveniently right in front of them. As soon as she sat down Cameron kicked her chair which made her jolt and groan.
He waited a few minutes and he did it again whilst Ian was snickering with him, Elaine watched them in disbelief.
The third time he did it Nora whipped around and yelled, "OH MY GOD STOP IT!" Cameron and Ian just sat there laughing as the whole class stared.
"Nora and Cameron. Maybe you'd like to discuss whatever is going on after my lesson. Detention, after school, today." Mrs Bernard called out sternly from behind her computer.
Nora gave Cam a death stare before turning back around.
"Are you actually going to go the detention?" Ian gave him a him a look and Cam snorted.
"Of course not." And he stuck his hand in the air.
Mrs Bernard looked over to him and asked him what was wrong, the class was staring back at the group again.
"Well i cant make it to the detention today."
"Why's that Mr Knox?" She said exasperated.
"I'm busy."
Ian sniggered and Lainey sunk back into the chair.
"Cameron Knox you will be at that detention at 3:50 exactly. Or else-"
Can interrupted, "But Mrs B-"
"I've told you not to call me that!"
He rolled his eyes, "Mrs Bernard. My dads picking me up today, I couldn't possibly delay such an important guy."
She looked dumbfounded, "Well- I- no- but- well you couldn't."
"So i don't have to go?"
"Well no I guess not."
Everyone in the class was unbothered as they had gotten used to Cameron's many ways of getting out of trouble.
But Lainey could feel Nora's anger radiating off of her in waves. When the class had settled down again Ian and Cameron quickly resumed what they did best. Annoying everyone.
They ripped a page from Lainey's book and started chucking pieces of paper at people. Lainey couldn't even be bothered to protest all she wanted to do right now was be in Mason's arms.
Ian leaned down to her face which was resting on the table, "What's wrong Lainey wainey," he bopped her nose.
"You guys are idiots."
"We're bored, what else can we do?"
"I don't know... but start with trying not annoy everyone and anything within a 100 meter radius of you."
He laughed and Cameron turned to face them, "Lainey why don't you try."
"No thanks." She deadpanned.
"Come on! We'll even teach you how to play."
She stared at them and sighed giving in, Ian and Cam high fived each other dramatically and began to explain the rules.
"So hitting someone that's right in front of us is 10 points, next row is 20, row after is 30 and you get the drift right?"
Elaine nodded and giggled as she took a piece of paper and randomly threw it up into the air, it landed on the floor next to Isabella with a plop.
Ian and Cam cracked up, "You might want to work on your technique"
She grinned, "whatever,"
The bell rang out signaling the end of class and they all started to pack up their stuff. Right as they were about to leave, Nora turned to face them and menacingly said to Cam and Ian. "Count. Your. Days." And then sped off with her Isabella.
Ian and Cam stood there in confusion as Lainey patted their backs sympathetically, "If i were you I think I might want to go into hiding for the next week or year."
"Fucking hell"
Through the class window, Lainey could see Nora glaring at them as she walked past and she just gave her a small smile.
"So I'm guessing those are the popular kids?" Nora asked her shy friend as they walked down the halls. So far the first hour at her new school had sucked ass, first she'd been terrorised by a group of girls and then she'd been given a detention for something that wasn't even her fault.
Her only light right now was her friend Isabella but even that ship wasn't sailing very well. Isabella was a quiet and chubby girl who hid behind her glasses and mass of chocolatey brown curls whereas Nora would describe herself as an outgoing and fun loving person. Isabella did just not meet the criteria, no hard feelings.
"Correct" Isabella sighed, "The blonde guy was Cameron Knox, I recommend that you avoid him as much as you can. Number 1 he's a dick and number 2 his family basically runs the entire town."
"He fucked with me first, he gonna get what he deserves." Isabella stopped and looked at her like she was crazy.
"I'm being serious don't mess with him." Nora shrugged her shoulders. "Nora he killed someone."
"What?" Her eyes widened.
"Don't ask too much about it...his dad covered up the whole thing but I'm just telling you don't get too involved with him."
"Are you going to give me more details or...?"
"I can't, not here or now," Isabella suddenly got shoved out of the way by a freshman with a massive bag. They took it as they're cue to keep walking and carried on their way to the next class.
They got into chemistry and settled down next to each other as partners whilst the teacher droned about unimportant stuff.
"Who were the others?" She flicked her blonde hair out of her round face.
"Well the tall, black haired guy was Ian Belstraus, our schools sports star. He's basically on every sports team and captain of most of them. He's the only one out of the guys that I can stand."
"Izzy he was literally kicking my chair with that other guy." Her blue eyes stared at Isabella blankly.
Isabella flushed and stuttered, "No no trust me he's way nicer, hanging out around Cameron just brings out the inner dick in everyone-"
"OMG you totally have a crush on him."
Izzy brought her hand up to Nora's lips and shushed her, "It's not like that I swear.... I just help him study sometimes and he's honestly such a sweet guy."
Okay so maybe Isabella wasn't that bad. Nora gave her a wink as Isabella started speaking again, "And um the girl was Elaine Howard, I don't really know how to describe her..."
"Is she a bitch?"
"Well no she just doesn't speak to anyone but the guys, I'd say she's more of a pick me girl if anything."
"She gave me the bitchiest smile when we were leaving the classroom I get your pretty but it's no excuse to be a bitch, let me guess she's dating Cameron?"
"No actually she's dating-"
Both of their heads turned to the front of the classroom where Lainey, Mason, Mia and Lucas stood in a row. Lainey was clung to Mason's side who looked unbothered at how the teacher was fuming at them, Mia was checking her nails whilst Lucas was crossing his arms awkwardly.
"Care to explain why you four are late....again?"
Lucas, Mia and Lainey piped up at once, "There was a lion!"
"I went to the nurses office
"I don't remember,"
The teacher gave Lucas a dead glance, "Really Lucas? You couldn't even try and make it believable. And Mia why is it that every chemistry lesson you always feel the need to go on a random excursion to the nurse. Elaine take a seat whilst Mason can explain to me what happened,"
Elaine walked past them to a seat at the back where she slumped into her seat, "Why is she getting special treatment?" Nora whispered.
"Nobody knows but it probably has something to do with the fact that last year she disappeared from school for 6 months and came back with everybody coddling her." Izzy shrugged.
Nora turned back to face the girl who was just staring straight at the Mason guy. "Oh." Nora couldn't lie, she found Mason extremely attractive. They're entire friendship group was hot, no wonder they were so popular.
"Look word of advice, don't start giving Mason the googly eyes or else those pretty blue eyes of yours will be framed on Elaine's wall."
Nora shivered, "I'm guessing that's her boyfriend then."
"They have some weird Edward Cullen and Bella shit going on." Nora laughed as the rest of the group walked past them.
"You good?" She heard Mason ask Elaine.
Lainey rubbed her forehead, "Yeah, I just don't get why they're still treating me like that ."
"I mean what happened was pretty bad, it hit us all really hard. It just hit you harder." Mason whispered to her as he swung his arm right back over her shoulder.
"The new girl keeps giving me stares."
"The one Cam's obsessed with?" She nodded, "Where is she?" Lainey discreetly pointed at the short, tan and skinny girl.
She buried her head into his chest, "I just want to go home."
"You mean you just want a xanny."
She looked up at him irritated, "I'm not fucking addicted."
"Sure just don't take it out on me." She gave him a blank look and he laughed at her.
From the table across they could hear Lucas annoying Mia, he whipped around to them and mouthed, "I'm stealing Andy's girl."
Mason raised a brow at him, "Dont you have a girlfriend..." he mouthed back. Lucas grinned showing off his pearly whites and shrugged playfully before turning back around to Mia who gave them a look as to say 'save me'.
For the rest of the lesson Elaine zoned out whilst she played with Mason's rings, she snapped back into reality to find herself sat at their usual table in the middle of the cafeteria surrounded by her group talking to each other over noisy room.
She sat on Mason's lap tiredly whilst he talked to Cameron. Andrew watched her fiddle around concerned, she looked sluggish and her red cheeks. He leaned down to her ear worriedly and whispered, "Are you alright?"
Why did they have to ask her that all the time. "IM FINE! YOU GUYS DONT HAVE TO KEEP BRINGING IT UP EVERY SECOND." Silence halted the table as they stared at her.
They all looked taken aback as she got up and walked off as tears pricked her eyes. "God shes fucking dramatic," Riley rolled her eyes.
"shut up for once." Mason looked unsure of whether or not to go up after her.
Cameron grimaced at him, "I'll come." They both stood up and followed off after Lainey's trail.
"It's too loud in here, can we go field." Mia offered awkwardly to clear the tension and they all agreed. Even the girls weren't sure what had happened last year that left the group in a mess, the only people that knew where the boys and Elaine.
The group walked out and a few minutes later in their place sat Nora and Isabella. "I'm not sure if we should sit here..."
"What why?" She asked as she happily popped a fry into her mouth.
"This is their table and by their i mean Cameron Knox. Didn't you notice them all sitting here when we walked in.."
"I was too busy looking at the food." Nora sighed in delight as she continued to eat, "Plus its not like they own the table." She dipped one of her fries into the little ketchup bowl she had but accidentally flicked the bowl of the table and onto a white fabric bag that was next to her.
She sighed in relief and Isabella blanked at her, "You better clean that up,"
"Nah as long as we leave soon, nobody will know that I did it." Nora shrugged.
"And They do. It's the only table in the caf made out of wood, Cameron's dad had it specially made."
"Oh... we'll at least they're not here."
Izzy looked straight behind Nora and looked like she'd just shit herself, "They are, Cameron and Mason are making a beeline right over here."
Nora turned around so quickly that she thought her neck might have snapped and there they were. 30 meters away, no 20, no 10, NO THEY'RE RIGHT THERE STANDING IN FRONT OF HER.
Her mouth fell agape as Mason ran a hand through his hair. "Have you girls seen a white bag here?"
Cameron scoffed, "Better yet, why are you here?" They didn't answer.... "Close your mouth Nora dear, your catching flies."
She instantly shut it only it to open it a moment later to spit angry words, "We're here because we can be."
Cameron snorted and Mason looked bored, "Good one Nora, maybe if you leave your mouth open for long enough next time you'll catch a brain."
Instinctively her mouth dropped again, she couldn't believe the nerve of the boy. "I- You- Just-"
Mason yawned, "Isabella have you seen the bag?"
"Uh ye-yes. It's next to Nor- Nora give them the bag."
Nora held up the ketchup stained bag slowly and winced once she saw the pissed look on both of their faces.
"So you spilled ketchup on a random person's bag and you didn't even bother to clean it up?" Cameron gave her a look.
"I was going to but now that I know it's yours I'm glad I didn't." She smiled proudly at herself and Mason just shook his head whilst Isabella looked like she was shaking in her seat.
"Do you know how expensive that was?"
"...no?"
"Limited edition Louis Vuitton from the Paris collection, great going retard."
"Shit."
"Shit indeed, this bag is ruined. I can never even use it again." Conner sighed dramatically.
Nora rolled her eyes, "It's only a bit of ketchup." She brought the hem of her shirt up the the bag and attempted to wipe it off but only ended up smudging it in even more.
Both of the guys deadpanned at her, "Are you stupid."
"Wait all it need is a little bit of," Nora grabbed Isabella's water bottle off the table and before anyone could stop her she poured more water than was necessary onto the bag and kept wiping which did nothing to help and only made the stain spread out further and further.
"Your actually an idiot. This bag was $1200, can you pay for it?"
"Bro i only have $2 to my name..."
"Well you should have thought about that before you completely ruined my bag. Your going to have to pay me back somehow." Cameron hummed and Mason tapped his foot impatiently.
"Cameron we have to go..."
"Wait,"
"I'm dirt poor, I can't pay you back."
"Then... I guess from now on your my...slave, until you pay me back."
Nora looked dumbfounded, "What."
"I have to go but I expect to see you 8am sharp tomorrow at this table with a coffee. Cheers babe." He winked at her before he grabbed the bag and left the table.
"Your an idiot." Isabella looked at her with a straight face.
Nora just breathed out confusedly, "Who even needs such an expensive bag." She stared at the pair as they left the cafeteria.
"Who even spills ketchup on someone's bag and doesn't clean it up, because of you we're now on a radius" Izzy smacked her head down on the table, "Is having friends always this hectic?"
Nora smiled and patted her hair, she was probably Isabella's first friend. "Not really"