♠ Aiden ♠
My friends are chatting endlessly at our lunch table while I.. was not in the best of moods today.
"Dude, what happened?" My friend, a jock named Brett, asked, slinging his arm around my shoulder, making me sigh.
"Woah woah woah! Aiden just sighed when you slung your arm around him! This isn't likely!" Tristan, another friend of mine- and a jock too, says, sliding beside me and ruffling my hair.
I groaned internally making them gawk at me.
"What?" I growled, picking on my food- cafeteria's special today is good ol' meatloaf.
"Is this true? The specimen before my eyes?" Brett blinks at me, making me scoff.
"You're getting overly attached to the girl in your Bio class for you to talk like that." Tristan snorted.
"W-Whatever! I'm just thoroughly shocked that Aiden didn't punch you straight on your face for messing his hair." Brett pouts, making Tristan's face pale.
"Gosh, I'm so sorry, Aiden! Please don't hurt me!!! I didn't mean to ruffle your hair! Trust me! I got carried away because of the moment!!" Tristan pleads.
Gosh, am I really that harsh? Tristan looks so terrified.
"Whatever, Tristan. I'm not in the mood to pick fights with anyone today." I say, resting my head on my arm.
"Whew, that's a relief." Tristan chuckled.
"What's up, Ai? Please don't tell me..." Damien smirks evilly, as if telling me that Gabriella is the cause of my *tropical* depression. Although, maybe, some part, yes, it is her fault.
I was about to respond but then my attention and gaze diverted to four people walking down the cafeteria, laughing, chatting and finding a table, perhaps?
Yup, you got that right- Gabriella, Lianna, Seth and their newest member to the group- Ashton.
It's not that it mattered but for some reason, it bothered me greatly. Ashton being with them- Maybe it's because a new sight to me.
Everybody seems to be all new about it. Ashton- the untouchable- the loner with no friends- now has friends.
"Thought so." Damien chuckled, making me turn away and cuss under my breath.
"Woah, check that out!" Tristan says, nudging Brett's and Damien's shoulders. "Isn't that.. Ashton?"
"Hmm? Ashton? You mean- the super rich guy with no friends who throws parties so that he could actually have some?" One of the Malibu girls.. trust me, I couldn't pinpoint who's who even if they all became my exes because they all look extremely similar.
"Yeah, that guy. He's with.. not so popular students too but still, this is the first time I ever saw him eat lunch with someone." Tristan says, "Good for him. I kinda felt sorry for the guy."
"Well, he's kind of cute." Another one of the Malibu Barbie look-alikes added.
"He still gives off a creepy vibe though." Brett shivers, "I don't know about you, guys but.. it's just weird, you know?"
I kind of felt sorry for Ashton.. if he's hearing all the things people say about him- although I'm pretty sure he has an idea already- he'd be so hurt.
"He's a nice guy." I suddenly blurted out, and I know I should've regretted it but I didn't.
"What? You talked to him?" Brett asked, feigning shock. "That's ridiculous, Aiden!"
"Yeah, he's.. cool." I say honestly, sipping on my Coke.
"If.. Aiden thinks he's cool then, he must be really cool." Tristan smiles, "Tell you what, should I go to their table like- right now and introduce myself?"
"Yeah, sure, why not?" I shrugged, because it seems as if he's asking permission from me- which is weird because they really don't have to do that. I'm not a god.
Within seconds, Tristan already ran across the cafeteria, all eyes on him as he stops abruptly infront of their table.
Damien nudges my arm playfully, whispering,
"I bet you met Ashton because of the brunette."
"Well, yeah.. but it doesn't mean anything." I shrugged.
"Aiden.. you're gradually changing." Damien suddenly says, which made me blink.
"What do you mean?" I hissed at him.
"I don't know, Aiden. It seems weird to me that you actually let Tristan go off to their table. Is this because of Gabriella?" Damien asked, although keeping his voice low to prevent the other Malibu Barbies and the jocks to hear.
"No, Damien." I say firmly. "Gabriella is out of this. Ashton's a really cool guy. That's all I'm saying."
"If you say so, then." Damien chuckled making me glare at him.
"I'm serious, Damien." I sighed, knowing he doesn't believe me.
"I didn't say anything, did I?" He laughed, slouching. "Why the long face anyway?"
"I don't know," I replied honestly. "I just.. feel strange. I don't feel like.. myself."
And to be honest, I felt weird.
Somehow, Gabriella's words from last night took a toll on me, and I couldn't even sleep thinking what she meant.
Defense mechanism? For what?
Problems? About?
For the first time in my life, I actually had doubts on who I really am.
♡ Gabby ♡
It was actually nice of Ashton to wait for me outside my classroom. We talked about a lot of things on our way to my locker- petty things, jokes, light conversations.
Of course, the sort of evil-like stares are still there but I don't mind anymore. Because looks couldn't kill, sadly.
Lianna and Seth met up with us halfway- the teasing began and I blushed countless times but ignored it. The four of us then went to the cafeteria together.
I'm glad Seth and Lianna are opening up to Ashton. Of course, I want him to feel at home.
When we reached the cafeteria, I couldn't help but glance at the popular table where Aiden sat.
Today- he looks strange- devastated, hopeless, everything negative put together. I hope it's not because of me and what I said last night.
I decided to just ignore it- I might be overthinking too much, and the four of us went in line, ordering our lunch and then proceeding to one of the empty tables.
It is evident that people are whispering and staring at our table because of Ashton but the thing is- I don't care, Lianna doesn't care, Seth doesn't care and I hope, Ashton doesn't too. What matters is we're friends and we're together, having fun.
"Heads up!" I hear a voice echoing in the cafeteria, then my eyes widened as I saw Tristan, one of the popular jocks- according to Lianna, is making his way to our table.
Of course, it attracted attention. Like- who are we to be visited by one of the popular crowds, right?
Is this Aiden's joke or something? I hope not. Or else, I'll have to kill him myself.
Tristan, with his shiny chocolate locks and white toothy grin slung his arm around Ashton's shoulder. Tristan's cute, a bit buffer than Ashton, but not that buff to have muscles in his arms the size of watermelons.
"What's up, Ashie? Can I call you Ashie?" Tristan perkily says.
"Uhh... I guess?" Ashton shrugs, although it sounds like a girl's name to me which makes it funny.
"Can we be friends?" Tristan suddenly asked, shocking probably the whole cafeteria because- a popular guy like him asked him to be friends with him! It's like- legendary.
"Um.. sure-"
"Look, is this some kind of prank?" I asked, interrupting Ashton. Sorry, Ashton, but I smell something fishy.
"What? Prank? Of course not! Why would I do that?" Hmmm, sounds convincing enough, but I remembered Tristan's part of the theater club so-
"It's suspicious for you to suddenly come here and ask Ashton to be his friend." I reply, narrowing my eyes at him.
"Oh... sorry for not explaining further, Ashie." Tristan shyly says, scratching the back of his head. "You see, we were shocked that Ashie's not eating lunch alone. We were pretty much talking about it when Aiden says that Ashie's a cool guy. Of course, Aiden doesn't say shit like that unless it's true so... welcome to the club, Ashie!" Tristan smiled, raising his fist and Ashton gladly fist-bumped him.
I was dumbfounded, not because Tristan kept calling Ashton, 'Ashie', which sounds weird too but whatever, but the fact that Aiden said those things about Ashton.
I mean- last night, he's obviously cocky and wanting to pick a fight with Ashton but.. he really said those nice stuff about him ?
Wow, I felt.. different. My heart skipped a beat, actually.
I felt happy for Ashton, and I now can confirm that maybe, Aiden's.. not as bad as I thought. Maybe- the guy I loved five years ago, is still in him.
I wouldn't raise my expectations though.
"Me too! Me too!!" Another voice echoed in the cafeteria, as another good-looking, and popular kid from the popular table swerved his way towards our table.
"Oi Brett!" Tristan waved, high fiving his friend.
"Tris!" He chuckled, his hazelnut eyes captivating, I almost got lost in it. Wow, these popular kids are all really good-looking. "Ashton!!! Awesome parties!"
"Um.. thanks....?-"
"Brett. Short for Bretterson, so just call me Brett, it's complicated." Brett laughs.
"This is Ashie!" Tristan claps.
Brett gave him a blank stare then laughs hysterically.
"Dude, that sounds sissy!" Brett laughs, punching Tristan's arm.
"Ow! It's cute, alright? It suits him." Tristan smiled.
"T-Thanks?" Ashton says, feeling surprised, probably. Meeting two new friends- later, maybe the whole popular battalion.
"I'm NEXT!" Another voice echoed down the hall, making every student gape at our table now.
I mean- one by one the popular kids are coming by our table.
Yet, another hot guy- brown locks, goofy grin, long lashes and sexy smile- with DIMPLES. God, how could I miss that? He looks.. rather raveshing.
"I'm Damien." He says, shaking Ashton's hand. "Hi Ash."
"Ashie!" Tristan demanded.
"Ash." Damien finalizes, making Tristan pout.
"I'm still calling you Ashie." Tristan smiled, giving Ashton a manly hug.
The three of us ate in silence, exchanging looks as Ashton's being surrounded by the popular kids.
But, it suits him anyway, with the popular crowd- his good looks, academics and rich- what's left for him to do is join the football team and he's good to go.
I'm just happy he made friends.
I was busy poking my pasta salad when I caught a glimpse of Damien actually smirking at me making me blush and feel flustered.
What's with that? I almost choked on my food.
"And who's the lovely lady?" Damien asked, smiling at me.
The rest of them glanced at me too while I pointed at myself, not sure if I was the one he called lovely.
"Yes, you." Brett winks. Damn, are all of them these good-looking? I think- I'm possibly- in heaven in earth.
"Gabriella." I smiled, introducing my friends too. "These are Lianna and Seth."
"Hi!" Lianna perkily greeted, followed by a husky "Yo." by Seth. Typical Seth, I thought to myself.
"Hi! Damien, Brett and Me! Tristan!" Tristan says, introducing his friends one by one.
Surprisingly, they're actually fun to be with. They're full of jokes and pranks, at the same time, they're friendly.
I wanted to thank Aiden for this. For being nice and.. helping Ashton gain friends.
I was scanning the popular kids table, the Malibu Barbies and some of the jocks are still there but Aiden's missing.
I frowned at this, wondering where he could be.
"Ashie! We're going to have so much fun!" Tristan suggested. "You should join the football team!"
"I-I don't know guys.. I'm not athletic.." Ashton shyly replied.
"You can watch us practice every Mondays at the gym. We'll help you practice after our training if you're interested." Brett suggests.
"Yeah, it'd be fun! Aiden can also help." Damien smiled, somehow, his eyes never left mine- which made me feel uncomfortable and weird.
I didn't hear Ashton's reply after that- I was actually busy scanning the crowd for Aiden.
I never imagined the day I'd actually wanted to find him.
No sign of him- I wonder where he went.
**
So??? So??? I bet everyone's views on Aiden might've changed! :))
What do you think of Ash's new pals?
New cute boys alert too! Entering the scenes- Damien, Tristan and Brett. New hotties!
And the picture on the side goes to......
*Drum roll please*
Tristan! Our very hyperactive, funny and cute football jock played by Liam Hemsworth! ❤
>>>>>>
See you in the next chap and please please please send some vomments !
Love lots,
Xx