"Casey!" I called, running down the hall after her. "Case!"
She stopped and turned around, waiting for me to catch up with her. I paused beside her, trying to regain my breath.
"I've run around this whole school looking for you!" I explained, holding my side.
"Why?" she responded, looking slightly amused.
"Want to walk home with me?"
Casey raised her eyebrow at my request. Well, it sounded more like I begged her rather than asked her.
"Why are you asking?"
"Because lately we haven't been walking home together since I've been getting rides, or you've been getting rides... mostly you," I said, narrowing my eyes accusingly. "And it's too boring to walk home alone."
Casey smiled sheepishly. "Actually..."
"Casey!" a new voice called, and Casey looked behind me, a smile spreading on her face.
I turned around and Willis grinned at me.
"Oh," I responded in defeat. "You're going home with him?"
"Him?" Willis responded, sniffing. "I do have a name."
"Sorry," Casey responded, bowing her head. "It's our one year and a half anniversary so..."
I waved my hand. "Don't worry. You two go have fun."
Willis grinned, wrapping an arm around Casey's shoulder. "You can join us if you want, Holly."
"Nah, I don't want to intrude," I told him.
"You need to get a boyfriend so we can double date," Willis commented, frowning slightly.
Casey laughed. "Oh, trust me. We couldn't double date with the guy she's got her sights on."
"Casey!" I warned, glaring.
"Don't worry, I can keep a secret, Holly."
"I know but..."
"What are you two talking about?" Willis interjected, looking curious.
"Never mind," I said quickly. "You two go have fun... I'm going to go walk home... alone... I could be kidnapped... maybe even killed--"
"Stop being over-dramatic, Holly," Casey reprimanded, rolling her eyes. "See you later."
I grinned, shaking my head. "Okay, bye."
I watched as they walked off towards Willis's locker. When they were out of sight I sighed, turning around and walking straight into someone. I winced at the contact of my face and their hard chest.
"The tables have turned," a familiar voice commented. I looked up to see Mr. Heywood smirking down at me. "Watch where you're going, Holly."
I scowled, stepping away from him. "Right."
I turned around and started walking for the back exit of the school. All the other students went out the front where the buses were, and I didn't feel like dealing with the chaos. I heard footsteps behind me that told me Mr. Heywood was following me.
"You're not angry about me taking your phone away, are you?" he questioned, falling into step with me.
I ignored him, concentrating on the door so I didn't snap at him. He chuckled beside me.
"Or maybe you're jealous of my date again?"
I swallowed, willing myself not to talk. I couldn't let him know I was the least bit jealous, otherwise he'd mock me. Or figure out I liked him.
The thought passed through my head and I almost froze in surprise. Well I did freeze for a split second, but I forced myself to keep walking. I pushed open the doors that led outside to the parking lot.
What if Mr. Heywood did figure out I liked him? Would he ignore me? Would I be scolded? Would I get in trouble? Or maybe he would tell me he liked me too...
I shook my head. Impossible.
"Holly!"
I heard a horn blare, and a rough grip on my arm made me stumbled backwards, back into Mr. Heywood's chest again. I looked at him in surprise, he stared down at me, his eyes hard.
"Don't walk out into the road without paying attention! You almost just got hit!"
I looked to my right to see a black car with tinted windows stopped about a foot away from Mr. Heywood and myself. The car door opened and, to my surprise, someone familiar stepped out of it.
"Jeremy?" I gasped in disbelief.
"Holly, Chris," he greeted with a grin.
"What are you doing here?" Mr. Heywood asked, a frown slipping onto his face.
"I've come to pick up Holly."
Mr. Heywood glanced at me, and I smiled smugly back at him.
"How..." Mr. Heywood trailed off, his eyes narrowing.
I shrugged. "I don't know. You took my phone away so I couldn't call him."
"Is that why you weren't answering my texts," Jeremy commented with a frown.
I nodded, hooking a thumb towards Mr. Heywood. "He tricked me and took it away."
"That's not very nice, Chris," Jeremy commented, frowning at Mr. Heywood.
Mr. Heywood scowled slightly. Jeremy shrugged and gestured me towards his car with a nod of his head. I nodded, walking away from Mr. Heywood and going to stand by Jeremy.
"Where are you going?" Mr. Heywood asked.
"Some place," Jeremy responded vaguely.
"Have fun on your date," I added, doing my best to keep a straight face.
I walked around the car and got into the passenger's side of the car and got in. Jeremy climbed into the driver's side. Mr. Heywood was hovering beside his window, frowning. Jeremy rolled down his window a little bit.
"Seriously. Where are you guys going?" Mr. Heywood asked.
"On a date," Jeremy responded, a grin spreading on his face "See ya later, Chris!"
Mr. Heywood opened his mouth to respond, but Jeremy quickly rolled up his window, cutting him off. I turned my head so Mr. Heywood couldn't see me snickering. Jeremy pressed on the gas pedal, and we left Mr. Heywood standing in the middle of the road with a scowl on his face.
I started laughing. "That was great, Jeremy!"
Jeremy smiled, keeping his eyes on the road. "I only think it's fair. After all, he's trying to make you jealous, so two can play at that."
I sighed. "Even though you say that, and I want to, Mr. Heywood would never be jealous."
"I wouldn't so sure of that."
"Eh?"
"Well he took your cell phone away, right? Chris is an ex-gangster. Do you seriously think he enforces the school rules on people? And isn't he one of the student body's favorite teacher?"
"Well no, but..."
"Why did you even have your cell phone out?"
"He wanted me to prove I had your number," I responded, frowning. "He tricked me though. That's when he took it."
Jeremy started laughing. I scowled at him.
"It's not funny. I need my phone and my mom works all day."
"Holly, did you ever think the reason he took your phone was because he didn't want you to contact me?"
"Yeah, but that's impossible."
"Why do you think that?"
"Because he's a man... and I'm just a high school girl."
"That wouldn't stop me," Jeremy pointed out, giving me a side-long glance.
"But you said--"
"The point I'm trying to make," he started, cutting me off, "is that you should have a little bit of confidence in yourself."
"But he's got a date," I muttered, looking out the window.
"Date, Holly. That doesn't mean girlfriend. You and I are out on a date, aren't we? And I'm not your boyfriend... unless you want me to be."
I smiled, shaking my head. "You're right... they're just on a date."
"You can always steal him back."
"I never said I liked him," I pointed out, turning to look at Jeremy.
"You didn't have to. It's obvious."
I blushed, quickly looking out the window again. "Is it really?"
"To everyone who has seen you interact outside of school, then yes. Well except to you and Chris, I guess."
I sighed. "There's no way he could like me."
Jeremy smirked. "If you ever get the chance, look at his cell phone."
"Eh?"
Jeremy shrugged, focusing all his attention on the road again. I watched as we passed the downtown area, and soon the outskirts of town. I frowned slightly, turning back to Jeremy.
"Where are we going?"
"It's a secret," he responded in a teasing tone.
I frowned, but let it go. I watched out the window as we pulled onto a dirt road that led into the forest. The deeper we drove into it, the more dense it became. I glanced at Jeremy nervously.
"You're not bringing me out here to kill me, are you?"
Jeremy laughed and shook his head. "No, I'm going to show you something you might appreciate."
"All the way out here?"
"Look."
I looked out the windshield and my eyes landed on a huge building. I could tell it was abandoned; the paint was peeling, the windows were broken, the lawn was overgrown, and part of the roof had collapsed.
"Oh joy. A rape hut," I said sarcastically.
Jeremy snorted. "A what? What the hell is that? But no... it's not 'a rape hut'. This is mine and Chris's old gang hang out place."
"Really?" I looked at the building with new respect. "What happened?"
"A few years back a storm knocked a tree into the roof, and none of us were carpenters, so we had to ditch it."
"Why not just call a carpenter?"
Jeremy raised an eyebrow. "And exploit our hideout? I think not."
I nodded in understanding. It was kind of exciting to have a secret hide out spot. I wouldn't want anyone to know where mine was if I had one. But it was a sad thing to have to abandon it.
Jeremy parked the car and I unbuckled myself, getting out quickly. I started across the lawn, eager to look inside.
"Wait up, kiddo!" Jeremy called after me and I heard his footfalls as he ran to catch up. "It's dangerous in there, so don't wander off alone."
"Dangerous?" I repeated, turning with a frown. "How?"
"Can't you tell? It's falling apart. I haven't been here in a few years, well no one has been here in a few years. Who knows how safe it is?"
"I still want to go inside," I complained. "We drove all the way out here."
Jeremy looked at me for a moment, and then sighed. "Fine. But if anything happens to you, you tell Chris it's not my fault."
I grinned. "Deal."
With that, I turned around and hurried towards the porch, stepping up the creaky stairs. I tried to the door, and was pleasantly surprised to find it open. I turned around to shoot Jeremy a grin. He smiled back, making his way slowly up the steps.
I opened the door and a heavy sent of mothballs and dust filled my nose and I coughed for a second, trying to adjust myself to the musk. When I did, I entered fully entered the house, only to be enveloped in darkness. The only light came from the door I had just entered from.
"Is there a light switch in here?
"To your left," Jeremy responded, coming into view at the door. "But I highly doubt if--"
Light filled the room as I switched on the light switch Jeremy was talking about. He looked at me in surprise.
"Maybe the electric company didn't notice yet?" I suggested, shrugging.
"Maybe," Jeremy murmured in agreement.
I surveyed the room in front of me. It was very large, and very bare. The only pieces of furniture in the room were a ratty old couch that was against the far left wall, with a recliner to accompany it, and scattered chairs against the right.
There was a stair case on either side of the room, that led up to a balcony that hovered over the last quarter of the room. It was very grand.
"What was this room used for?"
"Fights," Jeremy replied simply. "Mock fights. Challenges. Practice."
I stared at him in awe. "You actually fought here?"
"It was our base for a reason, you know," Jeremy responded, raising an eyebrow. "C'mon, I'll show you something cool."
"Okay."
I followed Jeremy towards a set of stairs on the left, and he carefully began stepping up them. He took one step at a time, testing each stair with his weight before stepping on it fully. When we finally made it to the stop without incident, he gestured me toward a door directly across the hall.
"This is our hall of fame in a way," he told me, opening the door the room.
I peered in and furrowed my eyes in confusion. "What are all those papers on the floor?"
"What?" Jeremy looked around me and he let out a little gasp. "What happened here?"
The room was scattered with papers all over the floor. There were also a few miscellaneous items lying around as well. Jeremy pushed me aside and walked into the room, frowning deeply.
"I wonder who did this," he commented, squatting down and picking up one of the papers.
I walked further into the room and bent down and picked up what looked like a photograph. I turned it over to the front and was staring at a familiar face, only a few years younger.
"Jeremy," I started, walking over to him. "Is this you?"
Jeremy stood up, taking the photo out of his hand. He looked at it for a second and grinned. "That's me. Back when I was a junior."
"You were so cute!" I commented, taking the picture back. "I would have totally dated you."
"Hey," he said, sounding offended. "I'm only four years older now."
I ignored him, bending down and picking up another piece of paper. This time it was a news article cutout. I scanned it quickly. There was a picture of a teenager, who was a little bit handsome, on it. In a nutshell, the article was about the teen who had beaten another nearly to death.
"That's Jason," Jeremy commented, making me jump. "He was arrested though."
"Why is the clipping here?"
"Didn't I tell you? This is our hall of fame. Granted, everything used to be on the wall though... I really wonder who tore it all off."
"Hall of fame? As in..."
"As in if you did well in a fight, you're picture would be up on the wall. On the back it'd say your name, age, opponent, and how long the fight took. You could also get on the wall if you got into the newspapers. There were other ways of getting on it, but I'm not going to explain."
I looked at the picture of Jeremy when he was a junior. Sure enough, there was writing on the back. "So it took you ten minutes to beat this guy named Aaron?"
Jeremy nodded. "It wouldn't have taken so long if the bastard hadn't surprised me with a knife.
I let out a startled gasp. "Is that legal?"
Jeremy gave an exaggerated sigh. "There's nothing illegal or legal in fighting... well, technically speaking."
"But that doesn't seem fair..."
"Nothing's fair in fighting, Holly," he informed me. "You'd do best to remember that."
"O-okay," I responded, turning my attention back to the papers on the floor.
I continued to look at the backs of photos and random news articles about all the different people who were in the gang. There were quite a few of Jeremy. All the ones I found with him I put in my pocket to save.
"Found it!"
I jumped at Jeremy's sudden outburst. "Found what?"
"Look, look!" he said excitedly, shoving a photo into my hands.
The photo was of a very handsome teenager, who was glaring at the camera. I had to resist the urge to snicker.
"Was he always like this?"
Jeremy laughed. "Chris would never smile for any pictures... however there is one in here."
"He's so cute. I wish I knew him when he was younger," I commented, flipping the photo over. "Eh? Why aren't there any names on it?"
"Because, he was our gang leader."
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