I saw this picture and I was like FRANCISCOOOO then i realized it might not actually be Francisco...
I think this guy looks like him though, right?
*^*^*
I'm walking towards Zeke's locker, determined to put my heart on the table and tell him that I love him.
Ha ha, JOKING.
No, I've actually been told that I have to fetch the little doggy-woggy because he owes Mace or something– I don't know why, I was just told to get him otherwise Mace will fill my locker with slime.
So I walk towards his locker in a huff, annoyed that I'm leaving my precious doughnut for the sake of him not caring enough to answer his phone.
I am just about to turn the corner to where his locker should be on my left, when I hear a hushed, masculine voice. Quickly I hide, afraid to disturb the person's conversation. And also because I'm nosey but that's a minor detail...
"—don't care for her at all..." I hear and frown.
Who's this about? Why is Zeke having a hushed conversation with someone in the middle of a corridor. Unless he's on the phone?
"She wasn't worth it... She was no fun and so I just moved on... Yeah I know, I know... I liked her?" Zeke practically bursts out laughing at this.
I'm about to move closer to maybe hear the other person when suddenly there's a loud metallic slam as something hits a locker.
"That's a loud of bullshit! I was just using her to get to...I know you know but... Her name? Why do you want to know? She isn't worth the hassle... You could call her a slut or something, I wouldn't care..."
I tune out of his conversation as realization makes me want to cry. Is he talking about... me?
As quick as I can, I sprint away from him, not caring how loud my footsteps are as they thump against the floor.
I only hear the last bit of his crap before I reach the classroom that I am meant to be in right now.
"Yeah, her name was B—"
But I don't care. The fact that he was going to refer to me as 'Bîtch' hurts as well. I mean, why did he have to lead me on like that? I'm so stupid for even thinking that I had a chance with someone like him.
I walk into the classroom to see my true friends laughing. Rebecca notices me and her expression softens as she gets up to come towards my weltering figure, removing Mace's arm from her shoulders before she does so.
"Hayley! What's happened? Are you okay?" She asks and wraps her comforting arms around me.
I feel that just one word can sum up all of my anger, sadness and betrayal. "Zeke."
Dillon puts his phone in his back pocket and then comes towards me and wraps me in a hug of his own. "What did he do?" He asks as his chin rests gently on my head.
"Yeah we'll beat up that bastard." Foster replies as his hands form fists.
I pull back from Dillon's hug and face all of my protective friends, anger clear in their expressions. "No, don't. I just..." But I can't bring myself to say it.
"Shh, it'll all be okay." Rebecca soothes and takes a step towards me, but that only causes me to dive away from her.
"No... No it won't be okay." I slur as I panic.
All in a rush, I untangle myself from my friends and run towards the exit, tears streaming down my face. I can't bear it. And just to make the matter worse, guess who decides to show up just at the right moment?
The Loch Ness monster.
"Hayley? What's happened?" Zeke asks, concern in his voice.
It must be fake.
I look into his piercing eyes and want to scream. "You." Is all I say and then throw myself out of the door.
I hear footsteps running after me but just ignore them. It won't be Zeke.
Why would he care?
*^*^*
"Hush little baby go to sleep," I hear singing from next to me, in the tune of 'Ten Green Bottles'. "Hush little baby go to sleep."
"SHUT UP!"
"—Because your little screams are doing my head in, oh, hush little—"
"SHUT THE HELL UP OR YOU WILL WISH YOU NEVER LIVED."
"Okay okay, there's no need to get so grumpy, Bitch."
Yes, that was Mace if you hadn't guessed. Him, Myles and James have been singing to me and making horrific jokes in an attempt to make me feel better. I, on the other hand, have been hiding under a picnic table with my head in my hands, in complete and utter misery that I actually thought for even a second that a certain pig-faced jerk cared about me.
I mean, what was I thinking? I must be deluded.
"Where's Dillon?" I ask. My tears have dried up now and I should be okay to reveal myself to the public. Slowly, I crawl out from under the picnic bench and turn to look at the faces of Mace, Rebecca, Foster and Myles. James had to go off and do some essay thing so he left apologetically, but the rest of my friends have skipped class for me, which I am extremely grateful for if you block out the awful singing and cringy puns.
"And Dumbledore has revived." Mace states with a grin as he looks me up and down. I roll my eyes. "I thought you died?"
"I thought the same for you, but I guess dreams don't always come true." I state with a slight smile as the rest of the boys snigger. "And anyway, I have not been under there that long that I've grown a beard, thank you very much."
"I wouldn't be so sure..." Mace tilts his head as he looks at me and taps my chin.
I shove his shoulder. "So where is Dillon?"
"I don't know. After you left and ran out I saw him stay in the room with Zeke. I guess they had one of those 'friendly chats' if you know what I mean." Mace explains, shrugging.
"But Dillon doesn't fight." I point out, confused.
"Depends how angry he is." Foster says with a suggestive wink.
"Oh." Is all I murmur as my thoughts get knotted together.
Dillon would fight Zeke for me? No, I think he will just talk it out and use persuasion rather than force.
"Do you want to get something to eat?" Rebecca asks, hoping to lighten the mood, and takes my arm.
"Er, yeah...?" I murmur with an unsure glance at the boys.
They all nod. "It is lunchtime so we may as well." Mace agrees. "Sue college for trying to feed us such despicable meals."
I laugh and look at the cafe that we have chosen to eat in. I order a burger, of course. "How is that word even in your vocabulary? I swear you don't know what despicable means."
Mace looks at the ground. "I love Despicable Me..."
The rest of us burst out laughing as Mace turns red. Aww, he's so cute.
I munch on my fries as I speak. "In this scenario, Myles and James would be minions—"
I then hear a constipated evil laugh from Myles who is trying to paint himself yellow with some mustard.
"—and then..." I wonder who else I could put as a minion. Hehehe...
"Bella could be Lucy." Mace suggests, probably imagining Rebecca in one of those tight fitted dresses with an extra-slutty slit cut generously up her thigh. "And then Zeke could be one of those angry purple minions who have fuzzy Afros and spaghetti arms." Mace suggests and we all burst out laughing.
"I could imagine him looking like that." I say and nearly double over as I imagine Zeke with purple, Einstein hair and huge crooked teeth. Ha, I would pay to see that any day.
I think that people who are cocky about how fit they are should spend a day in someone less fortunate's body and then see whether they still want to comment.
Just saying.
I continue eating my amazing burger and fries until suddenly my phone buzzes in my pocket. Come on, I was just about to start on my dessert! Who would dare ring me when I'm in the middle of a meal? They should know better.
I look at the screen and see that it's an unknown number. Odd– no one ever rings me.
"Hello?" I murmur through a mouthful of cake.
What? If a girl needs to eat, then a girl's gotta eat.
"Is that Hayley?" The other voice rings through the speaker. It sounds masculine.
"Yeah, who's this?" I ask. Everyone else at the table has now stopped their laughing to be silent for me, which also means that they can kind of hear the voice at the other end of the line.
"It's Baz." He chimes.
I gasp and frown at the same time. How did he get my number? "What do you want, Baz?" I sigh, exasperated already.
"Look, I don't know what's happened between you and Zeke, but you need to sort it."
"It's none of your business." I groan. I then turn to everyone else at the table who are looking at me with quizzical expressions. "It's Baz. I'll be back in a minute, guys."
They nod and I leave the cafe to walk out into the park opposite.
"It is my business. My best mate is now pissed at everything and everyone because of you." Baz grunts.
"I doubt that." I sigh. Zeke doesn't care about me one bit. "I heard him talking about me, so I do know."
"What did you hear?"
"Erm..." I chase the unwanted memories back into my brain and try to recall a few of the words he called me. "He said I was a slut. And made it very clear that he doesn't give a shit about me."
"What? Of course he does! In fact he gives a lot more than a shit about you. He's practically in love with you."
I laugh. "Pfft, yeah right. Now if that's all you have to say then you can shut the hell up and get off the Dark Side. Darth Vada is damaging your brain."
"Hayley, that's not even funny. Get your head out of your ass and start thinking clearly!" Baz yells into the phone, now frustrated. "I was the one that Zeke was speaking to and I swear we weren't discussing you. Well we were at one point but it was all positive, I swear."
"I don't believe you." I state and cross my arms although he can't see me.
"Well you should. Now tell me where you are so that I can find your sorry ass and help sort this bloody thing out."
I raise an eyebrow. "Look, if you're going to come and creepily stalk me then—"
"I DON'T WANT TO STALK YOU NOW TELL ME WHERE YOU ARE!"
Ha, he's such a hypocrite. "Westrow Avenue. And anyway, what if I don't want to sort it all out. What if I don't care anymore?"
"I care."
My head snaps. "What?"
"I care about you, Hayley."
It's at this point that I realize that the soft, masculine voice is actually coming from behind me. "I'll talk to you later, Baz." I tell the other guy on the phone and then slowly turn around to see the annoying purple minion that I have been mocking all lunchtime. "Go away Zeke."
"No." He says and makes his way towards me, determination clear in his eyes. "I need to sort this out."
I stare at him bluntly. "No you don't. I don't want you to."
For a second he looks hurt, before he shakes his head and makes his way towards me again. "I want to explain. I swear I didn't—"
"There's no need to explain. I've heard enough." I speak angrily and wave my arms around in frustration.
"What are you talking about?" Zeke's face scrunches in confusion.
"I heard you! You called me a slut and a bitch. You said I wasn't worth bothering with and that I was no fun. Well don't worry, I got the message." I shout coldly and turn my back on him.
Zeke swears. "What? No, I was talking about Bethany."
I stop dead. "What did you just say?"
I turn towards him as he comes closer. "I was talking about Bethany- the blonde I was using to distract me—"
"Distract you from what, Zeke?" I narrow my eyes.
"Never mind." He mutters. "The point is that I do care! You don't know how much I do fucking care. I would never call you those words." He admits and looks at me shyly as though he just admitted a huge secret.
"Really?" I ask, unsure of whether to believe him, but a smile seems to brush over my face.
He comes forward and places a gentle hand on my cheek. He glimpses into my green eyes intensely. "Really."
I swear I died right then. I mean, he does care. Everything that I thought was real wasn't true. But there is only one thing that I don't understand. "But what about Bethany? You cancelled our movie night to be with her and then couldn't stop bashing your face against hers the next day."
He laughs at how I describe their little make-out session. "I never actually liked her. She was just a tool. I..." He starts and then shrugs.
"Spit it out Zeke." I say, no sympathy in my voice. I still haven't fully forgiven him yet.
"I kissed her to distract me from my own problems," He mumbles all in a rush.
I swear. "You would go round kissing someone just to distract yourself? You used her! And what kind of problems do you have anyway?"
He looks away and a strong blush tinges his cheeks. "We can forget that now. I promise you I didn't mean those things to be said about you."
I smile at the weak boy in front of me. "It's okay." I sigh. "I forgive you."
He sighs in relief and wraps his arms around me like I'm the only teddy bear left in the toy shop. "Thank you." He whispers.
"It's okay." I reply gently.
He hugs me tightly. He seems possessive but gentle. When he finally let's my feet touch the floor he looks me and tries to hide his smile, like he's still the cool, cocky jerk everyone else knows.
Our happy reunion doesn't last long though, as footsteps sprint towards us.
"Zeke!" I hear an angry voice yell from the other end of the park. "I'll kick your ass sky high if you don't get out of here right now!"
Zeke swears under his breath as Mace runs up to him and tries to throw a punch.
"Mace! No! Stop!" I shout as I try to heave an aggressive Mace off of a hyperventilating Zeke.
Mace looks up at me. "What did he say to you? I swear I'll kill him if he said anything bad—"
"No, it wasn't like that! He apologized!" I scream, genuinely fearing for Zeke's life.
I know, I'm such a great girlfriend.
Wait, what?
I mean I'm such a great friend.
Who is a girl.
Mace's eyes widen as he realizes what he just did. "Sorry, mate. I didn't know." He claims and lends a hand to help his friend up. "It's just that I didn't listen to three hours worth of sobbing without getting to throw a punch at you."
The two boys exchange some more grunts and head nods before Wave Two comes out from the café. "Zeke? What are you doing here?" Foster yells with Myles in tow.
The boy's hands form fists as they stand there. "Hayley, please give me permission to beat the shit out of this bastard." Myles says through his grinding teeth although I think he just wants a fight and is so used to tackling Zeke that he's not too bothered about hurting him.
I almost want to laugh at their protective stance. "No, don't. He's explained and apologized. It's fine now."
"Phew." Myles sighs. "I didn't want to have to do that." He says and winks at me.
He so did.
And then there's the glory of Wave Three...
"Zeke! You Jerk! How dare you come here after what you did to poor Hayley!" Rebecca screams as she strides towards him. I'm finding the whole scene too entertaining to try and stop it. Zeke looks at me with a panicked and scared expression and mimes to me to calm her down but I just laugh and give him a reassuring thumbs up as Rebecca continues her rant. "She's been crying her sparkly eyes out because of you and you didn't even have the decency to chase after her you manky piece of—"
"Rebecca! No I—" Zeke starts but Rebecca raises one of her hands lined with perfectly manicured fingernails and slaps Zeke right across the face, causing a red mark to burn into his skin immediately.
You go girl, and whack him a thousand times! I'll just stand here laughing...
"Don't even try to make up excuses." She mutters down to him as he balances weakly on his knees.
"Woah Bella, hold on a minute!" Mace speaks up through his laughter. "Zeke is innocent. We've already cleared that up."
Rebecca smiles. "Oh! Well that's great!" She beams at us brightly. "I take back everything I said about you, Zeke." She says sweetly. "Apart from the jerk and pile of shit bit."
Zeke grunts as he gets up off the floor. "Don't worry about it." I smile to myself as he glares at me. "You need to learn to control your friends."
I grin. "I know. I'll keep you on a lead next time."
He rolls his eyes and after being begged by some puppy eyes I reluctantly lend him a hand to help him up. He keeps hold of my hand, searching for my gaze to prove his sincerity.
"I do mean it though, I am sorry." He says, no lies hidden behind his silky voice.
I smile at him. "And I'm sorry too."
*^*^*
"All in!" Mace commands as he orders all of us out of the café and into the cars.
Rebecca and Foster climb in Mace's which drives off straight away before the rest of us climb into Zeke's.
"I'm driving!" Myles shouts happily and Zeke rolls his eyes.
Baz takes the other front seat and I climb in the back, but just as Zeke is about to slide in next to me, two figures in black suits grip his arms and pull him roughly away, nearly knocking him over as they do so.
Zeke immediately fights back, thrashing and kicking to try and get the kidnappers off him as they pull him away from the car.
"Zeke!" I scream as I watch the terrifying scene play in front of me.
He looks towards me, eyes alight. As soon as his gaze locks onto mine he stops struggling. Stops trying.
"Zeke, no!" I yell but he just holds a sad smile.
One of the strangers kick the back of his knee, making him fall to the ground in agony, while the other figure grips his hair roughly, making him wince and obey to their commands.
I start scrambling towards him, my eyes never swaying off Zeke's distressed expression. I'm not just going to be frozen on the spot like in films. I'm actually going to try to help him.
"No!" Myles yells and pulls me back.
I scratch at him but he doesn't let go. Baz then takes over, gripping my arm like a vice. He's the padlock and I don't have the key.
I keep my eyes on Zeke, determined to get to him, like my gaze will protect him. Then suddenly his eyes snap towards mine and he winks.
Say what?
I watch as Zeke suddenly darts towards the woman on his left, twisting her arm back and pushing her over, before sliding his leg under the man on his right, making him fall to his feet. He throws a couple more punches, before sprinting towards the open door of the car.
Just before though, the woman from earlier grabs him and throws a punch at his jaw, making his face bleed. Zeke stumbles, falling weak under the blow of his punch, but I am quick to violently pull myself away from Baz and race towards him. I throw his arm around my shoulder and force him to run with me. It's only then that I hear the sound of bullets bouncing off the car.
We make it to the car and I slide in first nearly followed by Zeke who is panting like a parched puppy. One of the figures sprints towards us still, determination clear in his strides, but with one last kick he is knocked out and bleeding on the floor. Zeke then throws himself inside the car, and Myles drives off in record time.
I feel the weight of what just happened hit me and I lean my pounding head against the cold glass of the window. I hear a faint moan to my right and see Zeke touching his finger to his lip, where it is cut open and bleeding. At that moment he slides his gaze over to mine and for a second we just look at each other, before Zeke's eyes slowly go cloudy and his head falls onto my lap.
I hear a sigh as the car goes silent, the cars wheels skidding on the smooth tarmac as the only noises echoing through the night.