I woke up the next morning around 5:45, a groan escaping my mouth as I rolled off the couch. It was really, really hot in here right now.
"Don't be so loud," My grandmother laughed as she walked out of her room. "You might wake up all the neighbors."
"Right, sorry." I played along, throwing on a t-shirt that I found on the floor. Maybe I should go down to the laudromat sometime soon, because the few items of clothing I owned were becoming quite dirty. I got up off the floor and saw her staring at me.
"When do you get your first pay check?" She asked. I pursed my lips and got up, slippng a pair of jeans up my legs. "I'm not sure," I replied. "I can talk to Cooper today, I'm going over there after school."
"Yeah, that'd be great," she said. The room fell silent as I packed all my stuff up for school. "I've been saving my money, you know."
"Really?" I asked. I know working at a gas station doesn't really pay for that much, but the only thing that I can think of that we pay for is really gas for the car. She pays for food herself, and I usually rely on Michael or Calum's parents to feed me, since they always offer to. For some reason, a wierd feeling of hope fluttered through my heart.
"Mhm," she replied. "So maybe we can get that apartment. Like, soon."
"Its really not that much," Is stated, slinging my bag over my shoulder. "I would help pay for it, remember?" I gave her a quick kiss on the forehead and said goodbye for now. I walked to my car, and thanked the gods that it was somewhat cooler out here this morning.
...
I pulled up to school, and reluctanly turned off the radio and slumped back in my seat. I was pretty early, as I find myself always arriving way before I used to. Probably because of Brooke, but thats totally okay with me. I decided to text Brooke, like I always do. I pulled my phone out of my back pocket, and was surprised to see the screen flashing, a new message from Brooke.
"Gooooood morning! Ha, I beat you to it today" It said. I couldn't help but smile to myself as I got out of my car, shutting the door behind me and slimming down the wrinkles on my t-shirt.
"Dammit, I was gonna say something incredibly poetic an inspiring to you this morning, but I guess you beat me to it :(" I sent. I walked up the steps of the back enterance to the courtyard, and scanned the area for anyone that I hate, which wouldn't be that hard. Sure enough, Jessie was sitting alone, her eyes glued to her phone. I sighed, and made sure to keep my eyes on the ground as i walked past her. I stopped dead in my tracks as I heard a light chuckle come from her.
"Can you like, not give me shit for one day?" I said frustratedly, turning to face her.
"Can you like, not talk to me for one day?" She snapped back.
"I wasn't talking to you," I retorted. "You were kind of asking for it."
"You didn't have to make a deal about it." She said. I rolled my eyes and turned back to where I was originally walking to. I could see Michael and Sydney over by the tree, and it seemed to be so much further than it actually was.
"Yeah fuck you too." I called over my shoulder. I stuffed my hands in my pockets and hastily made my way to the tree to find Michael and Sydney making out.
"Ahem," I cleared my throat. Michael's eyes shot over to me as he pulled his lips away from Sydney's. "Thank you."
"We saw that." Michael laughed, pointing over to Jessie who was now talking with some other people.
"She seems like a bitch." Sydney said.
"Yeah, definitely." I agreed with a sigh. We all went silent for a couple seconds, and I looked up at Michael, who just shrugged and continued to make out with Sydney.
My thoughts were interrupted by two small hands covering my eyes from behind. "Boo!" I heard a familar and beautiful voice. I laughed and covered my hands over hers, and spun around to see Brooke looking up at me. She wore a white long sleeve shirt with a pair of jean shorts which exposed her legs perfectly.
"Hey love." I greeted, leaning down to kiss her on her soft lips. I intertwined her little hands in mine, and turned around to see Calum and Natalie had shown up as well.
"Hey everyone!" Natalie said happily. I waved, and my heart sank as the bell rang. Oh well, at least I have english with Brooke at the end of the day. I tugged at her hand, so I could walk her to her 2nd period class. My eyes couldn't help but look aorund us, and my gaze wandered to a group of guys that looked like they played football with Nick and Luke. Oh shit, football is probably going to be hell for Luke. Poor guy. My thoughts shot back to reality as I saw them staring at Booke, their eyes seeming to travel up her body. I stopped in my tracks, Brooke stumbling as her momentum carried her acouple steps forward. The football players looked over to me, and I raised eyebrows at them; I could feel the anger in my glare. They looked at me, and they all seemed to look away from my stare. I kept my eyes on them until they walked away.
"Sorry," I mumbled, my grip accidentally becoming tighter on her hand. "They were staring at you."
Brooke giggled as we walked up to her class. "Don't worry honey," she said. "No one can do anything, right?"
I wrapped my arms around her waist as she leaned up, locking her soft lips with mine. I saw the door to her classroom open, and I sighed, letting go of my protective grip on her sides. "See you 6th babe." I said with a smile. She nodded, and planted one more kiss to my cheek before walking into her class. I slowly turned, and walked to my 2nd period class as well.
...
Luckily for me, 6th period rolled around in what felt like only a couple seconds. I really had no idea what Brooke and I missed yesterday, but I really couldn't care less. I took Brooke's hand in mine as the lunch bell rang, and walked over to Mr. Perkins' room. I saw Jessie walk into the room ahead of us, and I just sighed. I felt Brooke squeese my hand lightly, and I smiled down at her before letting go of her hand to sit down at my seat, Brooke slowly walking over to her desk. She sat down, keeping her eyes on mine for the first couple of minutes of class.
About one hour into class, we were doing a practice final for The Great Gatsby, and the room was slient. I made sure to look up and make eye contact with Brooke every now and then, and she seemed pretty fine with sitting next to Jessie. I couldn't do that.
The silence was broken as the phone rang at Mr. Perkins' desk. I watched as he picked it up and say "Hello?" his voice low. "Uh huh..." His voice trailed off as he looked over to me. I felt about 15 other eyes shoot over to me as well, and I had no idea what was going on. "Okay, bye." He said. He hung up the phone, and looked over to me. "They need you in the office, Ashton."
I felt my eyebrows furrow as everyone else in the room looked over to me, Brooke included. I nodded, and slowly got up out of my seat, my gaze staying on Brooke as I walked over to the door, the room completely silent. I reluctantly pushed the door open, shoving my hands in my pockets. I looked around the courtyard, and I sped my steps up as I saw Luke walking a little bit ahead of me.
"Luke," I said. He turned, and stopped walking so I could catch up to him. "Where are you going?"
"Office," Luke replied. "They said they needed me."
"Yeah same." I said, my eyebrows furrowing in confusion. "I wonder what I did this time." I laughed. We walked in silence the rest of the way across the courtyard, until we made it into the office. God I've been in this place so many times.
"Mr. Vallen wants to see both of you," The lady at the front desk said to Luke and I. Her tone of voice sounded angry, which confused me a little. "Now."
I nodded, and started walking further into the office to Mr. Vallen's office. I looked back at Luke, who looked scared to death. "Dude c'mon," I said just above a whisper. Luke looked around, and slowly followed me. "It's not like we did anything."
We walked up to Mr. Vallen's office, and I pushed the door open to see him sitting at his desk, with three chairs infront of him. One of them, Nick sat in. My heart sank in pure confusion, and I could literally feel the angst emenating off of Luke's body that stood behind me.
"Sup." I said as nonchantly as I could. Nick raised his eyebrows at me, and I just glared at him.
"Both of you," Mr. Vallen said angrily. "Take a seat."
Luke stumbled forward, and shakily sat himself down in the seat next to Nick. I slowly sat down at the end, keeping my gaze on Mr. Vallen as his eyes shot back and fourth between Luke and I. The room fell to an eerie silence, and I couldn't help but look over to Nick, who was staring down at his hands.
"So," Mr. Vallen said. "Is there anything you'd like to say?"
"Uh, well yeah," I said, my voice full of sarcasm. "Like, why are we here?"
"What I would like to know..." Mr. Vallen said sternly. His voice was controlled but I could hear the pure fury behind his words. I had absolutely no idea what was going on. "...Is why did you think it was a good idea to vandalize my car like that?"
I felt my heart beat one too many times in a single second, and my eyes shot over to Luke and back to Mr. Vallen is confusion. Luke's eyes were wide, his foot nervously tapping on the floor.
"What?" I said, my voice raising in anger. I didn't even know what he was talking about.
"My brand new Audi?" Mr. Vallen went on. "You smashed all of the windows, and the hood!"
"Uh, no we didn't...?" I replied. I know that my tone was full of annoyance and disrespect at my principle, but I didn't care. I've been in so many arguments with this guy. "I didn't even know that you had an Audi."
"I..I didn't.." Luke's worrysome voice trailed off, and I was concerned at how much it looked like Luke was going to pass out.
"I think you have the wrong people," I said as steadily as I could. "When did this happen?"
"Last night, in the evening." Mr. Vallen replied.
"Okay, well if I can recall," I said. "I wasn't on campus in the evening. I was at my tutor's house, you know, Brooke? You kind of assigned her to me?"
"She tutors you?" Nick laughed. I leaned over in my chair to look at him, and by the scared look of regret that instantly popped up on his face, I could tell that he knew that I was not in the mood for this.
"Well, that's not what Nick told me," Mr. Vallen said. "He's the one who came into my office to tell me he saw you."
"That's right," Nick said. "I saw the whole thing."
I felt my eyes widen in pure shock, and my body shifted forward in my seat. "You've got to be kidding me." was all I said.
"Don't believe him!" Luke bursted out. All eyes shot over to him at his random and rushed actions.
"Oh, really?" Nick taunted, leaning closer to Luke's shaking body. "I remember every detail! I remember walking back from football practice, and seeing you both smashing at his car. I yelled at you two to stop, but Ashton just laughed and said 'Cmon Luke!' and they ran off. That's when I came into the office to tell Mr.Vallen."
"Now, how could he say all those details on the spot?" Mr. Vallen said.
"Becuase he probably went over what he was going to say the whole night before!" I yelled. This was stupid. The only thing I could think of right now is how much I can't afford to get suspended at this point, especailly for something noethe Luke nor I did. Luke just shuttered beside me. "Call Brooke in here, you trust her, don't you?" I asked.
Mr. Vallen went silent as I kept my eyes piercing into his. I raised an eyebrow at him to encourage to stop being so fucking quiet and say something. He sighed, and got up off his chair and walked towards the door. "Okay fine," he said. "I'll be right back. If any of you try to run, its an automatic detention."
As soon as the door shut closed, I shot up out of my chair, and took a step toward Nick, grabbing him by the collar and bringing his scared face level with mine. "Look," I spat. "I don't know what shit you're pulling, but it needs to stop. I don't care what kind of part of me you saw on Friday, but I'm not scared of you one bit. If I could, I would literally beat the living crap out of you in one measley minute."
"I d-didn't do anything." He stuttered. I sighed and sait back down.
"It's quite obvious," Luke said, his voice back to normal. I still wasn't really sure why he got so worked up over something that we didn't even do. He looked over to Luke, who met his gaze. "That you're lying."
"What do you mean?" Nick asked.
"Dude," Luke spat. "I was your best friend for 5 years. If there's one person that can tell when you're lying, it would be me."
"Why are you doing this?" I asked. "Haven't you tortured me enough?" My heart sank, because now Brooke was going to be dragged into this when she really doesn't deserve to. The room fell silent, and I wanted to throw up. I could tell Luke did too.
The door finally opened, and Mr, Vallen walked in, followed by Brooke. Her eyes instantly shot me a look of confusion, but all I could do was shrug.
"What's going on?" She asked as Mr. Vallen dragged a chair next to me for her. She slowly sat down, and our hand's instantly found each other between our chairs. Mr. Vallen explained the whole situation to her, and I rubbed my thumb over the top of her fair hands. I looked over at her, and saw her eyebrows come down to form an angry and confused expression.
"He was with me until like, 6:30 last night," she said. "Remember? I tutor him every monday, and sometimes wednesday and friday?"
"Exactly!" I agreed, my voice still full of frustration.
"Wait a minute," Luke said, looking over to Nick. "Football is on tuesdays through Fridays."
My eyes widened in amuzement at the sudden panic that flashed through Nick's eyes, and the room went quiet again. Mr. Vallen nodded slowly, and looked over to Brooke, Luke, and I.
"I'm going to have a quick talk with Nick now," he said. "So you can all go back to class. You're free from trouble for now, but don't be surprsed if I call any of you back in here." I heard a sigh of relief come from Luke, and my tight grip on Brooke's hand softened with relief as well. Luke got up first, shooting a nasty look to Nick before opening the door. Brooke and I followed, and I didn't even bother looking at him.
"Thank God you were there," Luke said to Brooke as we exited the office. "My parents would have killed me."
"Is that why you were so like, jittery in there?" I asked. Luke nodded, and I couldn't blame him.
"That fucking bastard," Brooke spat. It somewhat amused me when she cusses, because it sounds cute coming out of her innocent little body. "I bet Jessie helped him, too."
"This is like a fucking warzone," I groaned. "It's ridiculous."
Before anyone could say anything else, the doors to the office opened, and Nick walked out, a stupid smirk on his face.
"Now what." Brooke snapped.
"Yeah, I got caught, but I'm not in trouble." He said casually.
"What, your daddy's just gonna pay off all the shit you did to your principle's car?" I asked, just as causal.
"Exactly," Nick laughed. "You know, maybe its better that Luke didn't get in trouble. I mean, think of all the shit your dad would give you-"
"Shut up-" Luke growled, stepping over to him. I grabbed his wrist before he could reach Nick and another fight breakout in the middle of the courtyard.
"Can you please just leave us alone, for good?" Brooke said, obviously just as annoyed as me. Nick just laughed, and before I could say anything else, I took Brooke by the hand and said goodbye to Luke.
...
"We gotta get back at them." Luke mumbled, pacing the floor of the record shop. After school had ended, I had to go to work but Brooke wanted to come and Luke really didn't feel like going home. Luke was walking back and fourth infront of the counter, and Brooke was sat on my lap as I sat on the stool behind the cash register.
"How?" I asked.
"I want to fucking get back at him." Brooke growled. I laughed and wrapped my arms tighter around her stomach.
"But how?" I asked again.
"I'm gonna go look for an album to get." Luke mumbled, walking off to one of the shelves on the far. He was obviously frustrated, and I could see why he wanted to get revenge on Nick so badly. I did too, actually. The way he played Brooke like a comlete jerk when she was brand new here disgusts me, and so do all the things he's said to me. Brooke hopped off my lap as more people filed into the store. She walked around to the other side of the counter, and placed her hands onto mine.
"Let's do something terrible." She laughed.
"Like what?" I asked.
"I don't know, you're better at this kind of stuff than me!" She said. I chuckled, and leaned over to kiss her nose softly. My eyes shot over to the left to see Cooper walking towards me.
"Hey man." I greeted. Cooper smiled, and tossed an envelope onto the counter infront of us.
"For your two weeks." He said. I nodded in my thanks, and waited until he was out of ear shot as I tore the envelope open.
"Slow down there, babe." Brooke laughed. I furrowed my eyebrows in concentration as I opened the paper up, and saw a check for 200 dollars.
"HOLY SHIT-" I covered my mouth before anyone could really hear my loud cussing. Brooke snatched the paper away from me, and she scanned the check and smile.
"You're breaking bank, Ash!" She laughed.
I didn't really know what to say because I was so happy. Isn't 200 a little bit too much? At this point, I could go over and buy that mother fucking apartment right now, if I really wanted to. I was in such shock that I didn't reply to my girlfriend for at least a couple minutes. I looked over to her and she smiled a bright and cheery smile, and I couldn't help but walk over to the other side of the counter, huggng her body to mine and locking our lips together breifly, so no one would get annoyed that we were making out in the middle of a store. "Proud of you." She said sweetly.
-
A couple hours later, the rush had died down and by now it was just me, Brooke, and Luke all standing around the counter talking. The topics have varied, but the thought of getting back at Nick never really left my mind. I mean, what the fuck could we even do? I'm sure Luke could think of something; he knows Nick way better than me and Brooke do.
The room fell silent, and the only sound I could hear was Cooper tidying some returned CD's on a rack near the front of the store. I looked over to Luke, whose eyes were wide with some sort of realization. "You alright Luke?" I laughed.
Luke leaned forward, a slight smile on his face. "I know exactly how we can get back at Nick." He said just above a whisper. I looked over to Brooke, who's gaze met mine for a second, before we both looked over to Luke,
"How?" I asked.
Luke looked around the empty store, then turned back to us and started talking.
Luke had a plan. An evil, over the top plan to get back at all the shit Nick has done recently, and it was weired hearing it come out of his shy self. It seemed almost diabolical and terrible...illegal, even. And it was the perfect thing to back fire at his little "vandalizing" stunt.
I fucking loved it.