'Raen! Raen! Raen! Raen! Rae-'
Was that Alex...?
"SOMEONE TURN THAT OFF!"
"It's Raen's phone. She let the guys record their own ringtones yesterday."
...
Why did I do that, again?
'Raen, wake uuuuuuppppppp, or I'll jump on youuuuuuu!'
...I hate Matthew.
"Kill it."
"It's your phone, sweetie."
"Kill. It."
"If I do that, you'll get mad at me. It's time to wake up, anyway. You were saying you had to meet up with your team today?"
"...Yeah. What time is it?"
'Raen, if I end up calling you that means Matt and Alex have tried and failed. Please wake up, while you're away they're wreaking havoc on me.'
Ugh.
Sorry, Eli.
"It's 9:36. In the morning, just in case you're confused."
....Ugh.
"I've got three hours, twenty two minutes 'til I have to see them."
'Hey Raen, wake up, we've gotta goooo!'
I swear to God, Mark. You too?
'Get off the damn bed.'
...Kevin.
'Raen! Raen! Raen! Rae-'
"What." I answered, realizing they would just keep calling me in the same order over and over again.
'Raen! You're awake! Hurry up, we're already here!' Matt said, and I blinked.
"...We agreed to meet up at one. I've got over three hours." I said, and he sighed, sounding amused.
"We're gonna be practicing for League at one. We're hanging out until then!" he exclaimed, and I blinked again.
"...Goodbye, Matthew. See you at one."
'Wh-N-Raen!'
"I'm not spending three hours with all of you in one place. I'll get claustrophobic and never regain the courage to 'hang out' with you in the same place ever again."
"It's the mall!"
"That makes it worse."
"Yeah, yeah. Grouch. Just hurry up, or we'll come get you!" and he hung up.
Sadly, I know he isn't kidding. He'd come get me.
"Carter, your friends are evil." I said as I shoved my feet into the mismatched bunny slippers next to my bed. He shrugged from his position against my door, straightening up to pull his feet in to let Mum pass.
"Their your friends more than mine. Matt's the only one I know."
"I know them because of Matt. Your crap has infiltrated my life."
I was ready to start rolling on the floor and bask in my sorrow.
"Your game messed with your life."
That's just mean.
"There's no actual interaction in my game."
"Wonderful way of encouraging young minds such as yourself to go outside and play. That's stupid."
"...Your face is stupid."
"Right. Make it quick, Mum says I should let you shower first."
"Hn."
--TIMESKIP--
"Are you going by yourself, or is Carter taking you?" Mum asked. I shrugged.
"Carter!" I called up the stairs.
"What!" he screeched back.
"Take me to your leader!"
"Mum's downstairs with you!" I facepalmed.
"Take me to the mall!"
"Oh, that leader," he grinned, coming down the stairs. He was already dressed, and Mum and I looked to each other before eyeing him.
"Where're you going?" Mum asked, and he shrugged.
"To take her to them," he replied, and Mum sent him a look.
"You're in the jacket you bought yesterday, clearly for a reason; you cleaned those shoes last weekend and hadn't worn them since, also for a reason, it seems; and you smell of cologne. Where were you going again?" she asked, and for a few moments there was nothing but silence.
This is the reason behind me having graduated college at sixteen.
My mother was actually Sherlock, minus the sociopath tendencies. So she's literally an upgraded Sherlock.
"Fine, I'm going out with someone, okay?" he grumbled, and Mum raised her eyebrow while I just made a disgusted face. The thought of some poor sod going out with Carter was kind of disgusting.
"Uh huh. When are you coming home?" she asked, and he groaned.
"Mum, I've twenty one!"
"And living in my house. When are you coming home?"
"...Around eleven?"
"Hmm... fine, but get the girl home at a safe hour." she said, and Carter pouted, but nodded. I rolled my eyes.
"Yeah, are you done? Can we go now?" I kissed Mum's cheek before hollering a goodbye to Dad, upstairs in his office. He shouted a goodbye back to me as I shouldered my bag and went outside, leaving the front door open behind me.
All that talk of Carter going out with that poor girl got me hungry. Speaking of that poor girl, I'd probably have to steer clear of her when they broke up.
Carter got into the car, smelling of cologne, like Mum had pointed out. It smelled really nice, actually.
"What cologne is that?" I asked, and he shrugged.
"Something...?" he mumbled, and I facepalmed.
"I swear, if it's from Dad's collection he's gonna be annoyed." I warned, and he waved me off.
"He gave me. Actually, he was the one who sprayed it on me when I was going downstairs." he replied, and I gave a short laugh. Dad always did get excited when Carter said he was going on a date, something that's only happened twice before. I sighed at the thought of his previous dates.
He pulled up in front of the mall, and I gave him a smile, just to be polite.
"Later," I said, and he nodded, checking his phone with a nervous expression. I scoffed and slammed the door shut, waiting for him to drive away. I was jumped at once, and my eyes widened. I got ready to flip them; grabbing their wrists and twisting, but stopped when I realized who it was.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow, owowowowowowow!"
"...That wasn't my fault." I defended as soon as Matt shut up, and Carter snickered from his car. I raised an eyebrow.
"Don't you have a date to be getting to?" I asked, and he cursed out loud before revving the engine and driving off.
"Poor girl," I said out loud, and the team looked to me, confused.
"What do you mean? I doubt Carter's that bad a guy." Matt said, laughing a little. I 'hmm'ed.
"It's not his personality I'm worried about," I began. It was his preference. The poor girl would be heartbroken, and Carter wouldn't even acknowledge it. He wasn't against it, he just had no idea it applied to himself.
"Carter's gay."
--TIMESKIP--
"What, why?" I whined, tugging on the strap of my bag that I was still holding onto, Mark on the other side, pulling at the other strap.
"Because you look like you need it." Eli said, shrugging non-apologetically as he said so, watching as Matt and Alec pushed and pulled me -respectively- towards the counter painted a bright pink.
"Besides, we're all getting one." Kevin butt in, adjusting the mask over his mouth. I huffed, but relented and went with them to the counter.
"You're going to regret this," I mumbled, and Matt gave me a wicked smirk.
"You get hyped on sugar? Well then, we definitely wanna see it, since you're lethargic as fu-"
"Watch your language, heathen." Eli said, karate chopping him over the head. Matt frowned, pouting as Kevin ordered their stuff. Looks like they went there often.
"Whatcha want, Raen?" he asked, and I wrinkled my nose, looking up from my phone -no, I was not on Tumblr- and realized we were at an extension of my favourite ice cream shop.
"Hey, I know this place." I said, and they looked at me weird. I rolled my eyes. "Okay, so not this place in particular, but when it's Carter's birthday, he always takes us to a different extension of this ice cream company." I explained.
"Oh, so you're familiar with the flavours here. Go ahead, pick one." Eli said, and I nodded, going up to the counter. I looked to the cashier, and, in one breath, recited my order.
"I want the Mega Baileys Sherbert Chocolate Truffle Candy Mountain Explosion, please?"
The five behind me all cracked up at once, almost tumbling over each other.
There was a beat of silence from the cashier before she nodded shakily and rang it up on her cash register after searching the servers for it. I gave her the money before she told me what my bill was, and gave her a small, polite smile.
"I'll wait over here." I said, pointing to the table where Matt and Kevin had already found themselves at. The other two went with me towards them, Alec nudging me.
"What the hell was that recitation?" he asked, sending Matt into another bout of laughter. I smiled lightly at their awed expressions.
"It's my usual at the extension Carter takes me to." I said. At the mention of Carter, Matt's grin widened slightly.
"So is he really gay?" he asked, and I huffed, rolling my eyes.
'If you're trying to get dirt on my brother it isn't working," I said, before looking at him fully, only slightly glaring at him, mostly a warning stare. "I'm the only one who blackmails him. If there are others it takes the thrill out of it." I said, and he swallowed before nodding.
"Yeah, sure. But, I wasn't- I mean, he-" Matt paused for a second. "Does he know?" he asked in a small voice, and I froze for a split second before my eyes narrowed at him. A small smile lifted the corner of my mouth, and I leaned forward, propping my chin up with both hands, fingers clasped together.
"Why is this so important?" I asked. He shook his head, shrugging it off, before kicking Alec's chair, resulting in a squabble that Eli eventually had to part. Mark had my phone and was playing whatever gamer Carter had put on it for whenever his phone died and we were out. Eli and Kevin were talking, like normal people. They were probably the most normal of the group. I looked from them, having a civilized conversation, to Alec and Matt, in a chair kicking competition. Then there was Mark, constantly falling asleep unless there was some sort of screen in front of his face.
Then there was me, the androgynous girl with no social life to speak of that didn't include people she met through a game.
...Right.
"Vanilla with caramel and chocolate sprinkles!" the ice cream server called, and Kevin stood.
"That's mine, want me to bring yours?" he asked Eli, who nodded, not meeting his gaze. I couldn't help but groan.
"Is every one around me gay, what the hell?" I mumbled into my hands. I pulled my hat off and ran a hand through my hair, messing it up before putting my snapback back on.
How is this my life.
"Oooh." I heard Alec say, leaning back in his chair. It obviously wasn't meant for any of us to hear, but I did, and looking in the direction his head was turned to see a girl, probably a little younger than him, with a black skirt a little higher than her knees. Bleached blonde curly hair and blood red lipstick, matching a red leather jacket over a t-shirt with the name of a band on it. I 'hm'ed thoughtfully.
"Am I doing something wrong?" I asked, admittedly randomly. Mark and Matt gave me questioning looks. Kevin came back and made a show of licking his vanilla ice cream. Clearly he wasn't planning on being a part of this conversation.
"I'm a girl," I said, and they looked at each other oddly before nodding to me with confused expressions. "Am I doing something wrong, as a girl?" I asked, gesturing from myself, with an airy hand, to the girl.
Mark did a spit take, while Matt just burst out laughing. Alec, who had tuned in halfway through, figured out what we were talking about, and began laughing as well.
"You're not doing anything wrong, Raen," Eli said, a small, amused smile on his face. "You're just different." he said, and I frowned.
"Different can be good," Mark said with a kind smile. I rolled my eyes.
"I'm not asking you guys to be all supportive and try to boost my ego. I'm just wondering if every other girl is like that." I said, and they seemed to think for a little.
"No," it was Kevin, surprisingly, who answered, "Not every girl is like that. Not every girl has to be." he said, giving me a look that said he understood my question. I nodded, understanding what his answer was, and nodded.
"Hm. Kay." I said, standing.
"Where're you going?" Alec asked, and I pointed over my shoulder with my thumb to the counter.
"My Mega Baileys Sherbert Chocolate Truffle Candy Mountain Explosion takes three minutes to make, give or take five or six seconds. This is taking too long; it's been at least six minutes." I said. Alec 'oh'ed softly, visibly sinking deeper into his seat as I explained, one hand in my hoodie pocket and walking backwards slowly.
"Need help? I think mine's done too. Alec, go get it." Mark said. Alec looked at him with a frown before rolled his eyes and stood, giving the back of Mark's head a little shove as he passed.
"If I don't, he might fall asleep and drop it." Alec explained upon seeing my questioning expression. I laughed; I could actually see that happening. We went up to the front of the counter, and while Alec went to collect his stuff, I went to the cashier.
"Hi. It's been three minutes, fifty three seconds over time." I said, and she looked at me with a weirded out expression before giving me a sickly sweet smile.
"It'll be out in a minute." she said, and I blinked
"You can tell?" I asked, and her smile fell slightly.
"I'm just- it's been long enough that it should almost be done." she stuttered. I smirked, tilting my head to the side slightly. Yeah, I've won this. You asked for a sass battle, lady.
"Oh so you can tell. Well then, I'll take your word for it," with that, I pulled off my favourite 'I'm just a kid' smile. "Thank you!" I grinned at her, before going back to our table with a slight bounce to my step, just to top it off. Alec was with me, giving me the side eye all the way back. He didn't say anything when we got there, just gave Mark his ice cream. But then Matt popped.
"What the hell was that, since when were you so fluffy and adorable?!" I smirked at his expression.
"I have to say, I thought Alec would break first. But that, Matt, was the reason I don't have to go to school anymore. Well, part of it, anyway." I said, and Eli gave me a curious look.
"What do you mean?" he asked, making me smile at the thought of not having to go to school or college.
"I've finished college." I began, but Alec coughed suddenly, making me stop.
"You what? But you're younger by like three years!" he said, and I blinked.
"I am? How old are you people?"
"Twenty and twenty one." Kevin said, and I facepalmed.
"That's not a three year age gap, Alec." I said, "I'm nineteen!"
Silence~
"Mega Baileys...Sherbert C-Chocolate Truffle Candy...Candy Mountain Explosion?" someone called, and I looked up to the ice cream counter to see a dude holding my ice cream with a cautious look on his face, as if expecting a monster to come for it.
"How are you nineteen, you're so shor-" I cut Alec off with a glare I reserved for special occasions, and he shut himself off. Then I stood and went for my ice cream. 'Jason', the name tag read, was holding my ice cream away from himself, and I narrowed my eyes.
"That's not how you give someone their ice cream, dude." I said, coming up to him. He looked from me to the cup, then back to me.
"S-Sorry?" he said, and I gave a sigh, taking it from him and waiting. He was just looking at me.
"Um. Get me a spoon, would you?" I asked, and he nodded, mumbling a 'sure'. He ducked under the counter and came back up with a plastic spoon, held out to me by the handle. I bit my lip.
"I was hoping for a kid spoon? Y'know, the one that looks like a shovel?" I asked, and he gave me an odd look before shaking it off.
"Yeah, of course, if you want, then- uh. Here." he said, fumbling under the counter again and giving me a light green kids' spoon, transparent and tiny, and just perfect. I smiled at him.
"Thanks," I said, taking it and dipping it in my ice cream.
I've got the best spoon and the best kind of ice cream.
"No one bother me." I said as I got to the table and set my cup down.
"Wh- Jesus, that looks unhealthy." Kevin commented, and I smirked at him.
"It probably is." I said, uncaring as I began to devour my ice cream.
'Excuji mee!'
I stopped, and my head made a 'thunk' as it hit the table as I laughed silently. I took my phone from Mark's outstretched hand.
"Usually I'd be pissed that my ice cream was interrupted, but the notif sound made everything better." I said, and Eli snorted.
"I cannot believe that's your message tone." he said, and I laughed as I waited for it to come up. Dumb phone's being slow again.
"Wait till you hear my email sound." I said, and he raised his gaze heavenwards before shaking his head in amusement. The message finally showed itself, and my smile faded. My eyes closed and I released a heavy sigh before reopening them and typing a response.
"What's up?" Matt asked. I looked up at him, thinking twice about telling him, but decided I would Matt was his friend too.
"Carter's date didn't go too well." was all I said, and there was a moment of silence before Mark spoke up.
"Was it because...?" he asked, and I nodded shortly.
"Carter's developed... a sort of... semi-homophobia from being in denial about being gay." I said quietly, and Matt made a choked sound.
"Is he even aware of-?" Alec asked, and I shook my head.
"He knows that he's in denial about being gay. He just doesn't know what his denial's doing to him." I explained.
'Kkaebsong!'
"What the hell- who even emails at this time of day?" I mumbled, and checked to see an email from League. Oh.
"Something from League, about a new offer for Ahri." I said to their questioning looks.
"Wait, that was your email tone?" Eli asked, and I smiled, nodding. He barked out a laugh.
"Somehow I feel like I should have known." he said, and I giggled, shrugging at his expression.
"There aren't any other weird sounds, are there?" Kevin asked, and I shrugged.
"Maybe?"
'Yehet!'
"For God's sake, Raen."
_________________________________________________________
Kay, this isn't exactly how this chapter was supposed to be, but this is as best as I can get it from what I remember before Wattpad fluffed up.
So.
Tell me whatcha think?
~Anna
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