Chapter 09 | If That's Your Story
"You can't move forward because you've got your eyes in the rear view mirror." ― Love Happens
Sometimes, I just really, really wish that I lived somewhere in the south, like Texas, rather than here in Massachusetts. Don’t get me wrong, I do really love Andover and I do really love Massachusetts, because it’s my home, but still. I don’t think that it really snows all that much down there in Texas, which is why I wouldn’t mind living down there, because snow actually disgusts me. Then again, it might snow down there quite a bit, what with all of this outrageously ridiculous global warming stuff we’ve got going on at the moment and whatnot. Currently, it’s snowing here and it’s not just a little snow flurry with the cute and fluffy kind of snow that everyone loves. No, it’s more like a downgraded blizzard. Literally, the temperature is well below freezing, the snow is coming down hard and heavy and the wind is blowing really hard out there too, which obviously doesn’t make anything better at all.
Yet here I am, sitting in my first block class—psychology—waiting for the bell to ring so that class can start. Personally, I think that school should’ve just been out today because the weather is crazy dangerous to drive in right now. My school district apparently just doesn’t care about the well-being of their students though because they made the announcement this morning that all of the schools in the district would be operate as usual today. Granted, a lot of people probably won’t be here because a lot of people drive to school and there’s been a whole bunch of reports of accidents this morning. I tried to stay at home but my mother wasn’t having it and when I told her that I’d definitely have a panic attack trying to drive in the snow, instead of saying that I could just skip today, she brought me here to school in her car.
Also, in case you’re wondering whether or not Aspen is expecting or not, it hasn’t been confirmed that she is, nor has it been denied. As you might’ve guessed, she did indeed take a pregnancy test yesterday in the bathroom. That’s why she left during lunch, she said that she had this kind of weird stirring feeling in her stomach and given her history, I guess she just wanted to be sure. So, she went to a local drugstore and picked up a pregnancy test then came back to school and took it. The test did indicate that she was pregnant though and that obviously made her freak out. I mean, she was literally pacing back and forth in the bathroom for a good twenty minutes, blubbering about how her parents were going to disown her, murder her with a machete then set her corpse on fire. Those were her exact words and I’m not even kidding.
It took a while but I eventually got my poor, weeping best friend to calm down. I figured she wasn’t really up for staying at school, so the two of us left and I was going to take her back to her house but she said that she didn’t want to have to face her parents because she knew that she’d let it slip that she might be carrying their grandchild. Since she didn’t want to go back to her own house, I was just going to drop her off at my house and then come back to school but once we got to my house, we saw my mom’s car parked in the driveway, which obviously meant that she was inside. She definitely would’ve scowled the two of us for skipping, my mom would, so we left and she wanted to go to the health clinic, so that’s where we went.
She wanted to get an actual pregnancy test, like a real doctor one and I believe she also got an STD test. I don’t think that she thinks that she actually has an STD but I guess she wanted to know that she was okay, in case she actually is pregnant. Anywho, the results from the pregnancy test from the health clinic and her STD test haven’t come back yet—she’s supposed to get them sometime today and then she’ll know for sure. Personally, I think she’s pregnant but those drug store pregnancy tests sometimes read fake positives so maybe that’s it. At least, that’s what I hope it is because even though Aspen is amazing and all, I don’t think she’s ready for a baby.
“How do you even live with yourself, Sawyer?” A masculine voice suddenly says, interrupting my thoughts, making me jump as I look away from the window and at the source.
“U-um, what?” I say, getting a little nervous when I see that the person talking to me is creepy Kevin. He’s standing right in front of my desk and he’s glaring down at me angrily.
“You heard me,” He snarls and I swallow a growing lump in my throat. I wasn’t kidding when I said that I’m terrified of this guy. I mean, I’m uncomfortable with guys in general (except for a few like Beckett, Dr. Fontana, Jason and now Graham) but Kevin is just really scary and he reminds me so much of Flynn, them being step-brothers and whatnot.
He never really talks that much in this class, Kevin doesn’t, and when he does, it’s never to me so I don’t know why he’s talking to me right now. Like I said, he knows everything about what happened that night. Well, he knows Flynn’s version of what happened that night because if I know Flynn Decker at all (which I unfortunately do) he definitely didn’t tell his step-brother the truth about what really happened that night. As a matter of fact, Flynn and I are the only two people in the world who know what happened at that party.
“W-what’re you talking about?” I ask in a quiet voice, feeling my heart start to pound in my chest as he crouches down and leans forwards towards me, his elbows on my desk.
“You ruined Flynn’s life, you do know that, don’t you?” Kevin asks, raising his bushy eyebrows at me with an angry scowl etched on his features. “He was waitlisted for Brown for his freshman and sophomore years, that’s why he went to college around here, you know. That’s where he wanted to go to college, Brown University. He’d just gotten a phone call from the Dean of Admissions at Brown a few days before that dumb party and the Dean told him that they had a spot for him and that he could start the following school year, for his junior year. You know what happened after that though, don’t you? After you ran to the cops like a little bit?” Kevin queries and I wonder why he’s telling me things about Flynn that I have no desire to know. I think he’s trying to make me feel bad, but I don’t feel bad. It’s not my fault that Flynn did what he did to me and it’s not my fault that he went to jail. Besides, it’s not like he had a lengthy sentence there—he was there for thirty freaking days. I don’t say anything, mostly because I feel like I’m about to throw up and then maybe pass out but also because I don’t really know what to say to that. “Well?” Creepy Kevin prompts, leaning in closer and our faces are only about six inches apart.
“I-I…no,” I awkwardly stumble, shaking my head.
“The trial was all over TV, you idiot.” He snarls. “When he was charged, the news spread to Brown like wildfire and they rescinded his acceptance. That’s all he ever wanted, Sawyer. To go to Brown and you took that from him and you should be disgusted with yourself because I sure as hell am,” Kevin informs me and I blink a few times, trying to keep my tears from rolling down my face as I take a few bated breaths so that I don’t have a panic attack right here in the middle of the class, that would definitely be awkward.
“T-that w-wasn’t my fault,” I mumble, feeling my face flush red.
“Of course it was and you know it was,” Kevin snaps at me as if he’s personally offended by the fact that Flynn couldn’t go to Brown, which he has no reason to be offended by. “Anyway though, Flynn asked me to pass along a message to you. He’s been studying abroad in Bangladesh since the start of his junior year and he’s coming home for a few days in a couple of weeks for Christmas. He said he’d love to see you when he gets back,” He explains nonchalantly and my eyes go wide at the thought of the son of Lucifer being back in Andover. I mean, I didn’t know that he was in Bangladesh but I heard he wasn’t in Massachusetts anymore, but I just assumed it was because he’d moved away.
“He can’t do that,” I respond, proud of myself for not stuttering.
“Right, well, good luck convincing him of that,” Kevin chuckles, sitting down in Graham’s seat. He’s clearly not here yet, Graham isn’t, and I hope that the weather isn’t keeping him at home. Not that I like, look forward to seeing him every day or anything, it’s just that he’s the one person that I talk to in this class willingly, so if he’s not here, the period will be really boring. Theology too, for that matter. Considering the fact that I’m blowing off therapy to tutor him, he better be here. He usually is a bit late though, so there’s that.
Back to Flynn Decker though. Even if he really is coming back home for a couple of days (which I really, really, really hope that he isn’t and Kevin was just trying to scare me or something) he can’t see me or contact me or anything like that. I have a restraining order against him that legally requires him to stay at least 150 feet away from me at all times. I know that that’s not that much of a distance but it was the highest distance that the judge would grant to me, so that’s what I went with. I’m not sure if Flynn actually knows that I have a restraining order against him (it was filed right around the time he was let out of the county jail) but hopefully someone like his lawyer or maybe his father informed him.
“Oh, does the cat have your tongue now?” Kevin continues to taunt me, even though I think it’s pretty evident that I don’t want to talk to him right now or ever in my life, actually. “Because the cat never seems to have your tongue when you and Cambridge are talking every day throughout the entire class period,” He adds when I don’t reply to his words.
“Are you alright, Sawyer?” Graham says and my eyes avert from the desk in front of me up to Graham, who I assumed just walked into the classroom.
“Graham,” I say, breathing a small sigh of relief because I know that Kevin’s not gonna say anything to me while Graham’s standing right there. “Hi,” I greet.
“Hey,” Graham replies, looking suspiciously at Kevin, who is still sitting down in his seat as if Graham’s not standing there. “Uh, do you mind, dude?” He says to him.
“My bad,” He replies, standing up and making his way to his seat that’s just a few desks behind me. Great, now I’m paranoid that he’ll throw a pencil at me and try to stab me.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Graham asks me curiously, sitting down in his desk and turning around to face me.
“Yeah, erm, Kevin just was wondering the difference between qualitative research and quantitative research and Ms. Jacey’s not here yet, so I told him,” I evasively lie.
“Okay then,” Graham replies and I don’t think that he actually even believes that but he seems to accept it as an answer anyway. “So, I brought the CD,” He explains, reaching into his backpack and rummaging around inside of it for the CD. When he finds it, he pulls it out and hands the case over to me. I try to grab it out of his hand but he doesn’t let go of it, which confuses me, so I look up at him curiously with a questioning look on my face. “Promise me that you’re gonna take extremely good care of my baby while she’s in your possession, okay? I mean, really, this is probably my second most prized possession, right after my car,” He tells me with a serious look on his face.
“Yes, Graham, I will take care of your CD,” I assure him with a small giggle, taking the CD from his hands. “Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd,” I say, reading the title of the album.
“Yeah, it’s a compilation CD,” He says. “Most of my favorites from them are on different albums, so I figured I’d bring that one because it has most of my favorites.” He explains.
“Are these your favorites?” I ask, flipping the CD over and reading over the track list. “The ones that you starred, I mean.” I add.
“Yeah, Time, Echoes, Comfortably Numb, One of these Days, Wish You Were Here and Set the Control for the Heart of the Sun—those are the best. I mean, they’re all really great, of course, but those are the best of the best,” Graham informs me matter-of-factly.
“You’re really like, passionate about this kinda stuff, aren’t you?” I guess, noticing how happy he looks to just be talking about this right now.
“Yeah, I guess you could say that,” Graham nods in agreement with a light laugh. “And after you hear the album, I think that you will be too.”
“I really doubt it but I’ll listen to it when I get home,” I truthfully tell him with a small giggle before carefully tucking the CD case away in my bag. “So, any news on your brother?”
“Yeah, I got to bring him home last night, so he’s pretty excited though,” Graham replies. “Apparently he’s like, highly allergic to mushrooms, which no one knew until yesterday.”
I’m about to reply to that but before I can, our teacher, Ms. Jacey walks in just as the tardy bell rings. She’s a pretty nice lady, Ms. Jacey is, and a pretty cool teacher, which makes sense because she’s so young and therefore can remember what it was like to be in high school and how much it sucks already without awful teachers, unlike the rest of my teachers, who are all pretty old and well past their high school days. And by old I mean like, over 35. I know that most people don’t really consider that old but I do. It dawns on me then that Graham was actually on time to class today, which really is just such an extremely rare occurrence, but I don’t question it because Ms. Jacey starts talking then.
“I’m so sorry that I’m late, guys,” She apologizes, plopping down on her chair that’s behind her desk. “My sister went into labor just a few hours ago and her husband is on active duty, so he obviously wasn’t there, so I had to go over and it was just really crazy and gross and ic—“ Ms. Jacey suddenly stops with her story as she looks up at us after pulling her laptop out of her bag. When she notices that most of us have expressions of indifference or disgust, she promptly changes the subject. “Anyway, let’s just get started on today’s lesson,” She chirpily notes, standing up and grabbing a pen for the SMART Board.
For the most part, psychology goes by pretty speedily and I think that that’s just because I’m not really paying attention. We’re doing forensic psychology today and that really bores me because….well, it’s just boring. I like clinical psychology the most, I think, but we’ve covered that already a few times this year, so I don’t think we’ll be going back to it anytime soon. Graham and I are also talking to each other in hushed tones for a large portion of the class, which I think probably helps the time go on by.
In the back of my mind though, there’s one thing floating around, practically eating away at my brain. The idea of Flynn Decker returning to Andover shouldn’t really scare me as much as it does but it really terrifies me. I mean, yeah, I have a restraining order against him but who am I to say that he won’t violate it? In fact, I’m also positive he will violate the restraining order. He broke the law once and got off pretty easy and thanks to his dad being the district attorney, I bet that makes him think that he’s above the law or that he has some kind of leverage over it or whatever, which he kind of does, now that I think about it.
The last house that I knew him to live in is only about a five minute drive from my house too, which really freaks me out because I assume if he’s coming home, he’ll be staying at his old house with his parents. I decide then that after school I’ll look him up on Twitter or something and see if he’s talking about his trip back here. He’s one of those people that literally documents everything via social media, so I’m sure he has. He’s also quite the instigator, Flynn is, so I know that if he comes back, he’ll definitely try to start trouble.
Luckily though, Christmas isn’t for another three weeks, so that gives me three weeks to come up with a plan to avoid that monster at all possible costs.
After the bell rings, signaling the end of the block, Graham and I leave the classroom together, but we part ways at the door because our classes are on opposite ends of the school. I have European History with Aspen and Piper and I think that he said that he has English. Maybe it was Debate though—I’m not sure, really, my memory is pretty awful. When I get to my class, there’s only a few people here and thankfully, Piper is one of them. I’m a little bit surprised that Aspen’s not here already though because she’s usually one of the very first people to get here. Like I said, the girl is a genius and English is like, her favorite subject of them all, so she’s usually pretty eager to get here early, I think.
“What’s wrong?” I ask my best friend curiously, sitting down in the desk beside her, gauging the sad expression on her face.
“Jason and I got into a fight this morning,” She explains with a heavy sigh, raking her fingers through her long, blonde hair tiredly.
“Really?” I ask, raising my eyebrows curiously. Jason and Piper are actually perfect—they never fight. Well, except for when Jason slept with Aspen. “What happened?” I ask.
“I’m just kind of worried about him, I guess,” Piper admits. “Like, he’s just really going through some stuff right now with his mother and her boyfriend and everything. Not to mention the fact that he obviously misses his dad and he’s been gone for a while now. He won’t talk to me about any of it though, like, he just refuses to open up to me. I so obviously love him and I obviously want to be here to help him through everything but how am I supposed to do that when he doesn’t even want to talk to me about it?” She asks desperately, using her ink pen to draw a bunch of random little drawings on her notebook.
“Well, I don’t really think that I’m qualified to give out any relationship advice given my nonexistent list of boyfriends,” I reply, trying to lighten the mood, which I think I sort of succeed at because Piper cracks a small smile at that. “But I think that you should probably should just like, not push him. I’m sure he’ll talk to you about it when he’s ready.”
“I don’t think so,” Piper denies, shaking her head. “He kind of blew up on me this morning on the way to school—he said that I was ‘suffocating’ him, which is just ridiculous.”
“That is very ridiculous,” I agree with a nod. If anything, Jason is the one that suffocates Piper because whenever he’s up in Tewksbury with his dad, he calls her about 800 times a day (okay, maybe more like 10) but that’s still kind of scary). Sure, Piper misses Jason when he’s with his mom because they can’t see each other every day like they could when he still lived here in Andover, but she definitely doesn’t obsess about him or talk about him in every single conversation that we have. I like Jason though, I really do, because he’s a really good guy and he’s pretty nice (you know, aside from when he cheated on Piper with Aspen, of course), so I hope that whatever they’ve got going on, they resolve it because they’re basically the cutest couple I know. Granted, I don’t know many couples, but still, they’re adorable. “Are you guys still going to formal together?” I ask.
“Oh, yeah,” She confirms. “I don’t care how pissed he is, he’s taking me to the formal,” She says matter-of-factly. “What about you, are you going?” Piper wonders in response.
“No, I don’t think so,” I truthfully deny, shaking my head, running my fingers through my loose hair. “Maybe next year though,” I chirp.
Aspen comes into the classroom then, sitting down on the opposite side of me just as the bell rings and she sighs a breath of relief when she realizes that she isn’t late to class.
“Hey guys,” She greets Piper and me chirpily, grabbing her European History textbook out and flipping to the page number that’s written on the board.
Whenever we get to this class, we’re supposed to go to whatever page it is in the book that Mr. Davidson- our teacher- has written on the board and we’re supposed to read the passage and answer questions about it. Aspen usually does it as soon as she gets in class, which is good for her but Piper and I honestly never do the work. He never takes it up though, so it’d just be really stupid and pointless to do it. I don’t know if he’s aware that we directly disobey him, Mr. Davidson, I mean, but we do and he’s never mentioned it.
“Hey Aspen,” Piper greets in a dejected tone before pulling her iPhone out of her pocket and I assume she’s texting Jason.
“Hi,” I reply, giving her a curious look. “They haven’t called yet, have they?” I ask her, lowering my voice. I don’t think she’s told anyone else besides me yet about her situation.
“No, not yet,” She denies, shaking her head and pushing a lock of her hair behind her ear. “I think I’ll be sometime after school though. At least, I hope that’s when,” She adds.
“Have you like, thought about what you’re gonna do?” I ask her, glancing down at her stomach instinctively, which is obviously still flat. “Like, if you are,” I add.
“You mean if I’m gonna have it?” She queries for clarification and when I nod, she nods too. “Yeah, I know that I will,” She confirms. “I mean, I’m still wondering about if I want to actually raise it or give it up for adoption but my parents would never forgive me if I got an abortion,” She explains and I don’t find that hard to believe at all, being that they’re super Christian. I kind of want to ask Aspen if she knows who the father is but I feel like that’d be a little rude and maybe not the best conversation to have in class, so I decide that I just won’t bring that up because I’m sure if she wants to tell me, she will. Assuming she’s pregnant because like I said, there’s always the chance that it was a faulty test.
“Well, whatever you wanna do, I’ll obviously be there for you,” I assure my friend. “Piper and Sienna too,” I add because even though she hasn’t told them, they’d support her.
“I know,” Aspen replies with a nod and a grateful smile. Before I can get anything else out, Mr. Davidson commands silence before launching into a talk about The Black Plague.
✿✿✿✿✿✿
“So, you’re leaving with him?” Sienna asks me with a suggestive tone at the end of the day a couple of hours later as she, Aspen, Piper and I are leaving the building together.
“Yes, to tutor him, you weirdo,” I add, rolling my eyes at the allusive tenor in her voice. She is referring to how Graham and I are leaving together because she’s melodramatic.
“If that’s your story,” My weird brunette best friends chirps, pulling her keys out and pushing the beeper so that she can find her car. “Have fun,” She adds before she and Aspen and Piper break away from me, bidding me goodbye, as they go to her car. Piper rode with Jason this morning but I guess they haven’t made up yet and that’s why she’s not riding home with him and Aspen rode with me this morning in my mom’s car but I think the three of them are just gonna go over to Sienna’s house. She still hasn’t gotten the call, Aspen hasn’t but the health clinic closes at around 8 o’clock at night, so it shouldn’t be too long from now before she knows if she’s gonna be a mom in a few months or not.
“Hello,” I greet Graham as I find his shiny black car in the parking lot and slip into the passenger seat.
“Hey,” He replies, pulling his seatbelt on as I do the same thing and then he starts the car and backs out of the parking space.
“So, where should we go for this?” I wonder, pulling my iPhone out of my pocket and seeing that I have a text from Beckett, just telling me to be careful in the weather.
“We can go to my house,” He suggests then, pulling out onto the main road. “Or the public library,” He adds. “The public library works too,” He adds when I don’t instantly reply.
“Yeah, the public library has my vote—it’s a lot more like, study oriented,” I say. It’s not that I don’t want to go to his house it’s just that I don’t want to get stuck at his house. I mean, it’s not snowing anywhere near as hard as it was this morning but it’s still snowing pretty hard and obviously if it’s snowing, there’s probably ice and ice prohibits driving.
“Right,” Graham sarcastically says but I know he’s not actually offended because he’s grinning.
The library that’s closest to our school is about three minutes away, so when we get there, I notice that it’s empty, the parking lot, which makes me think that it’s closed. Just to be sure though, I get out of his car and walk up to the doors of the library, trying to pull them open. Neither of them budge though and it’s then that I notice the sign that’s on the door. It reads Closed for Renovation- will be open in time for the New Year. I think that our town has two libraries but the other one is all the way across town and something tells me that Graham doesn’t want to drive all the way to it, so I don’t ask him to.
“So, what now?” Graham asks as I get back in the car and we pull away from the library.
“Definitely not my house,” I reply. If we go to my house, Beckett will be hovering like a hawk and that’ll be so annoying. “So, we can go to your house, I guess,” I add.
“If you’re worried about being alone with me or something, that’s not gonna happen because we gotta go pick Jackson up from school anyway,” Graham tells me with a laugh.
“Get over yourself, Graham Cambridge,” I scoff, playfully rolling my eyes. Obviously, I’m not scared to be alone with him, like I said, I just don’t want to be stranded at his house.
Graham laughs at that and then he turns the radio up just as Radioactive by Imagine Dragons comes on. A few minutes later, we pull through the gates of a prestigious looking elementary school with a really fancy playground that would put all of the other school’s playgrounds in the city to shame. The sign reads Fulbright Elementary. Graham pulls around a round-a-bout thingy and then we’re at the back of a long line of cars full of parents picking their little kids up. It doesn’t take too long to get to the front though and once we do, I see a really adorable little kid with curly brown hair run over to Graham’s car and hope into the backseat, behind Graham. I don’t turn around to look at him, I just look from the rearview mirror and I can see that he’s actually the spitting imagine of his older brother, only way smaller. I mean, Graham’s hair isn’t really curly and the kids looks like he has green eyes, whereas Graham has brown eyes. Not that I like, stare into Graham’s eyes or anything, it’s just kind of easy to notice.
“Hey buddy,” Graham greets his little brother, pulling back around the round-a-bout and through the gates of the school that lead to the main road.
“Who’s that?” Jackson wonders and out of my peripheral vision, I can see the adorable little kid looking at me with a curious expression on his face.
“That’s my friend, Sawyer,” Graham replies. “Sawyer, that’s my little brother, Jackson,” He adds, briefly introducing us.
“It’s nice to meet you, Jackson,” I say politely, turning around and offering him a small smile.
“You too,” Jackson replies, giving me a toothy grin. When I turn back around, I can see him undoing his seatbelt in the rearview mirror and then he scoots to the middle of the backseat and pushes forward so that his little head is in between Graham and me. You know like, where the middle console in a car is? That’s what he’s leaning over, poking Graham’s shoulder. “Graham,” He says and I think he tries to whisper but seeing as how he’s only five, talking in a quiet voice isn’t his strong suit as one might’ve guessed.
“Yeah, buddy?” Graham wonders, not averting his eyes from the road.
“Your friend is pretty,” He says, glancing over at me but I’m looking straight ahead.
“Yeah, I think so too, bud,” Graham replies, which makes me go about as red as red as a person can go. “But put your seatbelt back on so we don’t get pulled over,” He adds. I know that Graham notices my blush though because it’s extremely prominent after that and also because he laughs. I think that he tries to play it off as a cough though but fails.
Shortly thereafter, Graham pulls into the driveway of a home, which is evidently his. It’s a normal-looking, two-story suburban home and there’s a maroon red Hummer parked in the driveway, which I assume belongs to his brothers. I realize then that this is Sienna’s neighborhood, which makes sense seeing as how the two of them became friends when they were kids. Her house is just around the corner though, if my memory serves me right. Granted, I haven’t been there in a while because I think that she, Piper and Aspen just all unanimously decided that my house would be the house they all come to because when we have sleepovers, they are usually at my house, but I really don’t mind that.
The three of us get out of Graham’s car and then he hits the button on his car remote thing. We walk up to the front door together and Graham unlocks the door, gesturing for Jackson and me to go in first, which we do. When we get into the house, Jackson drops his cute little Spiderman backpack on the floor and pulls his winter coat and shoes off before taking off, running to another part of the house.
“Are you hungry? I can only make like, macaroni and cheese but if you want some, I’ll make some,” Graham says, pulling his Duke University Blue Devils blue hoodie over his head. The grey t-shirt that he’s wearing beneath the hoodie also come up a little bit too, revealing the white band of his American Eagle Boxers. Not that I’m staring or anything, it’s just that the words are written across the top of them and I’m pretty sure everyone knows that so it’s pretty easy to tell.
“No, I think I’m good,” I reply, shaking my head with a small laugh. “Thanks though,” I add, running my fingers through my hair and unzipping my white North Face up a little bit.
“Okay,” He replies, sitting down on the couch. “Should we start?” He asks, grabbing the remote and turning down the volume on the big screen that’s mounted on the wall.
“That’s probably a good idea,” I note with a chuckle, sitting about two feet away from him as I pull out my Theology textbook and he pulls his out. “So, we have a test on Thursday,” I inform him, in case he doesn’t know that, which he should because Ms. Newman just told us today. “And it’s over Islam, so we can start on chapter 15,” I add.
“I really hate this class so much,” Graham informs me with a sigh but he flips his book open to the chapter anyway.
“It’s such an easy class though, Graham,” I refute, tying my long blonde hair back into a low ponytail as I pull my North Face off and lie it on the armchair adjacent to me.
I’m not wearing an ancient band shirt today though, so Graham can’t make fun of me like he usually does. Since it’s just so bitterly cold outside today, I’m wearing a plain V-neck t-shirt but it’s hidden by the pink Conley’s Blue sweatshirt that I’m wearing. I also have on a pair of black yoga pants, which I hardly ever wear outside of my house. Like I said, it’s crazy cold outside though and they always keep my legs pretty toasty, so I decided to wear them, along with a pair of comfy black furry moccasins.
“It is not,” Graham disagrees, shaking his head. “I’d rather take biology again and I hated biology,” He informs me matter-of-factly.
“How can you hate biology?” I ask him with a light laugh, giving him a curious look.
“How can you not hate biology?” He responds, raising his eyebrows, also laughing.
“I just didn’t think it was all that hard,” I reply with a small shrug. “I’m a lot worse at history,” I explain.
“And I’m amazing at history,” Graham replies.
“You’ve been at this new school for like, six weeks and you already have a new girlfriend?” A voice says, entering the room before I can reply and I assume it’s Tucker.
“No, I don’t have a new girlfriend, Tucker,” Graham denies, looking over at the person and I turn and do the same. Jackson and Graham look a whole lot alike but I don’t think that Graham and Tucker look anything alike. Aside from the brown hair that is but other than that, the two of them don’t really look like they could be related to each other at all. Granted, I don’t think that my brother and I look anything alike even though my mom always says that we do, which is just not true at all—Beckett’s not even a blonde like I am.
“Oh, that’s a relief because she’s way out of your league,” Tucker informs his brother, pulling his phone out of his pocket and starting to tap away at the screen.
“Okay, well, we’re trying to study, so can you make yourself scarce?” Graham wonders, disregarding his brother’s statement.
“Okay, sure, I can take a hint,” Tucker replies. “Hey Jackson, you wanna go get some ice cream?” He calls off into the house.
“It’s like, eight degrees outside, Tucker,” Graham reminds his brother who just shrugs and ruffles up Jackson’s hair as he runs back into the room.
“Yeah, well, it’s not like we’re gonna eat the ice cream outside,” He responds. “Do you want some back? I’ll bring you some back,” He offers.
“No, I don’t want any ice cream back,” Graham chuckles, shaking his head. “Do you, Sawyer?” He wonders and I think he knows that I don’t but he asks anyway.
“No, I’m good on that,” I reply, shaking my head.
“Suit yourselves,” Tucker says, picking Jackson up. “We’ll be back in a little while,” He adds before walking out of the front door.
“Your brother is very…adventurous,” I decide, trying to find a fitting adjective.
“Try stupid,” Graham replies. “He’s kinda cool though, when he’s not stupid,” He tells me.
From there, we actually start studying quite a bit from the book. Chapter 15 is a long chapter and there’s a whole bunch of stuff about Islam we have to know for the test, so it’ll probably take us at least an hour and a half to get through it. I mean, I’ve already read most of the chapter but I can tell that Graham hasn’t, so I just go through it with him and pretend like it’s my first time seeing the material. It’s not that I work exceptionally hard in school or anything it’s just that I have a lot of free time, so I sometimes do work early. We get about 1/4th of the way through the chapter before Graham demands a break and closes his book, putting it down on the coffee table.
“Theology makes my head hurt,” He complains with a sigh.
“You are like, insanely dramatic,” I tell him with a chuckle, book-marking our place in the book and closing mine as well.
“I am definitely not,” Graham argues, shaking his head. “So, are you going to formal?” He wonders and I realize that it’s just four days from now, the Winter Formal is.
“Well, my friends want me to but I don’t think that I will,” I reply truthfully, leaning back on the couch and crossing my left leg over my right leg.
“How come?” Graham asks curiously and then I hear the sound of panting, so I look up from my lap and see an adorable little golden retriever make its way into the room.
“I’m way too awkward for school functions and I have two left feet,” I tell him honestly, watching the cute little puppy trot over to Graham, who scoops him up from the floor.
“Have you noticed that you have a habit of selling yourself short?” Graham queries, gently patting the puppy’s head and looking over at me quizzically.
“Funny, my mother says the same thing,” I reply. “That’s your dog?” I ask, gesturing towards the cute and slightly panting puppy with a blue collar around his neck.
“Yeah, his name’s Bono,” He informs me and I laugh at that.
“I’m not surprised,” I say, knowing that that’s the name of one of those band singers that he likes though I’m not sure from what band.
“You really shouldn’t be,” Graham says, glancing over at me with a boyish grin before putting the puppy down on the carpeted floor and he trots away.
“What about you?” I wonder. “Are you going to the Winter Formal?”
“Yeah, I think so,” He confirms with a nod. “You know, since it’s my last one and what not.”
“Are you taking like, a girl from Volcom or something?” I wonder curiously. I mean, I don’t care who he goes with, I’m just curious.
“As far as I know, I’m going alone,” Graham replies. “And I’m no Derek Hough or anything but I mean, we could always go together, you and I could, if you want. You know, as friends, since your friends want you to go so bad and it’s my last formal ever,” He explains.
I’m kind of taken aback by that because he basically just asked me to the Winter Formal, which I definitely was not expecting him to—I figured he’d bring someone from Volcom.
“Obviously, we don’t have to if you don’t want to thought,” Graham adds after a second.
“No, that’s not it,” I deny, shaking my head. “I was just thinking about something,” I inform him. “Only as friends, right?” I ask for clarification.
“Only as friends,” Graham confirms with a nod. “Unless you actually wanna be my date, which I obviously wouldn’t object to,” He teasingly replies.
“I’ll go with you, as friends,” I suddenly decide. “But only if you get this next question right,” I add, which makes him sigh loudly and dramatically.
“Okay, sure, what’s the question?” He queries as I pick my Theology book back up and flip back open to where we left off, scanning the paragraph.
“How many pillars of Islam are there?” I ask him, finding that section in the book.
“Um…three?” Graham guesses after thinking about it for a few seconds.
“There’s actually five,” I inform him matter-of-factly. “But I’ll go with you anyway,” I inform him.
“Then what was the point of you asking me the question?” Graham laughs, giving me a confused look.
“Well, I had to know if this tutoring was paying off, obviously,” I reply in a ‘duh’ tone, which amuses Graham.
So, I guess I am going to the Winter Formal with Graham like my friends wanted all along. The weird thing though is that it was a whole lot easier to repeatedly tell Sienna, Piper and Aspen that I wouldn’t even consider going with Graham to the dance than it was to actually say no to Graham. He’s just kind of a really persuasive guy, Graham is, and he also has a really nice smile that makes it pretty impossible to even think about saying no to. I guess this means that I’ll have to go shopping sometime soon, which I know the girls will definitely be ecstatic about. After we agree to go together, we get back to the tutoring because it’s pretty evident that Graham actually knows nothing about Theology and if I’m going to be his tutor, I can’t have him failing because that’d look really stupid on my part.
Author's Note: Hello beautifuls! I don't think that I have too much to say this author note, mostly because I'm really tired right now, so I'm just gonna do a little list type thing here.
1. Thanks a whole bunch for all of you lovely comments last chapter! Don't forget that the person who leaves the comment that I love the most on this chapter gets the next chapter dedicated to them!
2. This chapter is dedicated to summerxtimesadness because I loved her comment the most!
3. Thoughts on this chapter? Thoughts on Sawyer? Graham? Jackson? Tucker? Aspen? Piper? Sienna? Any of the characters? Predicitions for the next chapter?
4. Notice the song and the picture, which is just a random gif of the lovely Candice Swanepoel, who plays Sawyer.
And yeah, I think that's all- I'll see you lovely people next Sunday! Don't forget to comment, comment, comment, comment and vote and vote and vote and all of that good stuff! Also, I don't know if I mentioned, so in case I didn't, I'll mention it here:
My Social Media:
Kik- @millie_wattpad
Skype- @millie_wattpad
Twitter- @millie_wattpad
Instagram- @millie_wattpad
Tumblr-
1. Tumblr for my stories: the-magics-not-here-no-more.tumblr.com
2. Tumblr where my character's outfits can be found: close-my-eyes-tightly.tumblr.com
3. My Personal Tumbr- walking-in-the-city-lights.tumblr.com
Okay, that's it, I think! See you guys next time! <3