* Melissa Scott ^^ *
Aliza's P.O.V.
It's been a week since my date with Caden. We've been texting over the past few days but I haven't had the chance to see him since. School has just started again so I've been insanely busy with all the assignments that teachers just really love to throw at you during your first week back after summer.
Honestly, it sucks.
Caden seems to be the one that messages me first which I'm sure is a good sign, right?
My stomach swirls with butterflies whenever his name flashes up on my phone screen, sending my mind into a frenzy. Mel finds it hilarious because I basically throw myself across the room whenever he texts me back, she's even started a new little game called 'let's hide Liza's phone to piss her off'.
Yeah, not so fun for me.
I make my way to my next class, ignoring just about everyone in the hallway as per usual. Unless their name is Mel, they're not worth my time.
Wait, that sounded quite bitchy, didn't it?
Good.
I never claimed to be nice.
As long as everyone else in this prison they call a 'school', stays out of my way, I don't have a problem. People learned to stay out of my way pretty quickly in freshman year, lets just say I now know what the principle's face looks like when he's about blow a fuse. It's hilarious.
But anyway, I have Mel, and that's all I need. Friend-wise anyway. Most people probably think that's quite unhealthy, I mean, what happens if me and Mel suddenly fall out? I'd have no one, right?
Wrong.
Me and Mel will never fall out. It's just been the two of us ever since we were in kindergarten, we adopted each other as partners in crime. Terrorising teachers since our diaper days.
And that's something that I know will never change.
I walk through the crowded hall with my chin up, carrying my calculus textbook in my arms. I just need to make a quick stop at my locker before dragging my ass to French.
I hate French. As odd as it sounds, I'd rather pick up extra calculus lessons than study French. It's so goddamn confusing with all the subjunctives and tenses, it's a load of bullshit.
No offence to anyone that speaks French...
I come to a stop at my locker and swap my books over, slamming my locker closed once I'm done and set off towards my fourth class of the day.
All I have to think about is lunch... Just sixty minutes until I'm free to eat my body weight in tater-tots.
I arrive at my French class, a scowl ingrained into my facial features. I'm not even going to try and hide my distaste towards this class.
I've already had French earlier this week but we had a substitute teacher because the one we're supposed to have supposedly went AWOL.
Unfortunately, I wouldn't get away with that so easily.
I enter the classroom and find the table that I claimed during the previous lesson, throwing my backpack to the ground rather harshly before falling into my seat.
I'm not that early but I'm one of the few people in the classroom at the moment. I decide to pull my phone out of the pocket of my denim jacket and send a quick text to Mel. I'm pretty sure she's in physics right now, but I'm not even sure of my own schedule yet, never mind anyone else's.
The second bell blares throughout the school, ushering everyone to their classrooms. I drop my phone back into my pocket just as more students begin to file into the classroom, some of them chatting animatedly with their new classmates, others looking as bored as I feel.
Those are my kind of people.
Not that I'll attempt to interact with them or anything, but if we have to pick partners this year, I know who to avoid and who my best options are.
The teacher marches in hurriedly behind the final horde of students that make their way to their seats. I'm guessing this one is our actual teacher because she isn't the same person as our substitute earlier in the week.
I look her up and down, scrutinising her choice in clothing and lack of style.
She's a tall, skinny woman, probably in her mid-to-late forties. Her hair is messily scrunched on top of her head, held there with a surprising amount of hair slides. Her off-coloured blouse is crinkled and worn out, making her look much more flustered. Her pencil skirt doesn't fit her body shape correctly and ends at her ankles.
A definite no-no to anyone with an ounce of style.
I suppress a laugh when I finally notice the clogs on her feet, the size being very disproportionate to the rest of her body.
I finally look away, finding her appearance boring once I've finished scrutinising.
"Well, bonjour class. It's nice to meet you all."
I roll my eyes at her overly cheery attitude. I can already tell she's going to be one of those insanely annoying teachers that doesn't notice when they're boring an entire room of teens to death with her lecture.
I can already imagine how tortuous this class is going to be. Mel is going to need to give me some major therapy once I'm done with this year.
At least once this year is over, I'll never have to step foot in this school ever again. Now that's a thought that brings a smile to my usually blank face.
Everyone in the classroom remained deadly silent, completely disregarding what the teacher just said. Did she expect anyone to actually answer her?
Maybe she's loonier than I first gave her credit for.
I lean back in my seat, slouching down slightly to make myself more comfortable. After all, this hour is seriously going to drag, so I may as well get comfortable, right?
"Okay, well, my name is Madame Vaughn, I'll be your teacher for the year. Are we all excited to learn some French?" She asks, way too excitedly.
I have to fight the need to physically facepalm at her social-awkwardness. This lady needs some serious help. Maybe I could teach her some social cues?
Who am I kidding? Since when do I ever go out of my way to spend more time in this hell-hole.
The silence that drapes over the room is almost suffocating, I can actually find somewhere in my cold heart to pity the poor woman. Then again, she's a 'madame' which I suppose means she's married. At least someone can look past her major social flaws.
I think I'm being too harsh. I'm sure she has a lovely smile.
"Well, let's begin. I shall give you all fair warning that from this lesson onwards, I will be attempting to use as little of the English language as possible, from previous experience, I have found that this is quite helpful in learning a new language." She finishes with a bright smile, glancing around the room and catching the eye of multiple students, including me.
Definitely not the smile...
Just as she's about to move on with her lesson plan for today, the classroom door flies open, almost coming off its hinges at the force it was thrown open. Everyone's eyes immediately focus on the one who made such an abrupt entrance. I'm almost jealous of their ability to make such an entrance.
I'll definitely have to start turning up late and slamming doors. Who knew?
My gaze falls on a boy that I had seen around school a few times. I'm pretty sure his name is Alec, or something as equally unusual. He's one of those people that you seem to hear about more than you actually see them. He's the cliche, mysterious bad boy from what I've heard.
Then again, any guy who looked like him would obviously ignite a few rumours around a gossip-crazed school. We are teens after all. I usually hear girls cooing over his strong jawline and distinct cheekbones, but the only thing that makes me stare is the intricate swirls of art that he has engraved into his skin as far as his clothes let you look.
The tattoos are distinct and mesmerising, the artwork is beautiful and I'd hate to imagine how much it would cost to have all of it done. I can't even afford one. Plus mom and dad would totally kill me if I got one.
Mel brings Alec up in conversation every now and then when she updates me on the recent high school gossip, though I generally zone out because I can't find it within me to care half the time.
The few times that I had noticed him around school, he's never been with the 'it' squad, those who believe in a high school food chain and further believe that they deserve to sit atop of it, you know, those stuck-up bitches that wear identical cheerleading uniforms every day of the week... It's weird because he seems awfully popular for a guy who technically isn't popular.
My theory about the cheerleaders is that they just can't be bothered changing from day to day, I wouldn't be surprised if they slept in their mini skirts and high ponytails.
From what I can recall, Alec usually sits alone at lunch or every once in a while I'll see him sat with another boy, equally as mysterious. Some how I've never actually seen them communicate with each other. It's really odd.
I look away from him when I come back to reality and depart from my daily daydreaming. It probably seems like I've been sat here staring at him as a way of checking him out. But he's really not all he's cracked up to be. Sure, he's hot, devastatingly so, but the arrogance printed on his face screams 'asshole' which is just a major put-off.
From the various rumours I've heard floating through the halls, I can deduct that he's a drug dealing murderer who takes part in some professional fighting on the side. Sounds to me like he should be in prison.
I did say that this school was more like a prison, after all, maybe he's in the right place. Maybe I am too.
"Oh, hello. And you are?" Madame Vaughn asks, holding back on the French a little longer. Despite his blatant tardiness and rather rude entrance, our teacher seems more interested in getting to know him than scolding him.
If I can get away with similar shit, then I might grow to like her after all.
"Alec." His voice is deep, surprising me slightly. I mean, it's not like I was expecting Ariana Grande or whatever, but I also wasn't expecting him to sound like he did. I'd certainly put money on him being an excellent vocalist.
Though I doubt I'd ever come to prove my theory.
I wonder what his laugh sounds like...
Never mind.
"Well, it's lovely to meet you. I'll overlook your tardiness this once but can you please try to make it to class on time next lesson?" She asks politely.
"I guess we'll see." He retorts. His bluntness makes me chuckle but I quickly catch myself and return to my blank face. Though I noticed his eyes flicker over to where I'm sat and I'm almost certain he caught my amusement.
Madame Vaughn decides not to answer him and instead ushers him to take a seat. It isn't a very popular class so there are quite a few free tables, seats where he can have two tables all to himself if he wanted, much like I decided.
So imagine my devastation and utter shock when he walks towards where I'm sat and asks me to move my feet off the chair next to me.
Once I've gotten over the initial surprise, I straighten my features and look away from him, acting like I just hadn't heard him, hopefully, he'll get the message this way.
So imagine my further gob-smacked state when he decides to push my feet from where they rested comfortably on the seat and dropped to the floor, for him to then have the audacity to sit down beside me.
Like, seriously!? Is this asshole having a hard time understanding the blatant hint I gave to show that I didn't want anyone sat near me? Is he that stupid?
A scowl erupts on my face, showing my obvious distaste towards his actions, though my attempt at scaring him away goes unnoticed as he busies himself with pulling out a pen and some paper.
I think I'm going to have an aneurysm at the sheer nerve of this douchebag.
"Can't you take a hint?" I hiss, keeping a low tone so the French-enthusiast at the front doesn't call me out.
I expect him to give me a snappy reply, or maybe just look, even an eye roll would've done, but instead he just completely ignores me, keeping his eyes trained on the front of the class. I glare at the side of his face, willing my late superpowers to suddenly become apparent and shoot lasers out of my eyes.
I bet you can guess that it doesn't work. A girl can dream though, it would be super cool after all.
I let my gaze dance across his face, taking in his features. I don't think anyone has ever gotten this close to the beast. He looks different close-up, hotter almost.
I rid the thought from my mind as I focus on the teacher once more. I'm not actually concentrating, in fact, I'm not even listening to a word she says so God help me if she suddenly throws a question my way, but at least she can't call me out for not giving her my attention.
The class seems to go slower the more French she uses, so when the bell finally rings to release me from this torture, I almost cry out with joy. Madame Vaughn continues instructing us in French, though I have no idea what she's actually saying, even though everyone suddenly pulls out whatever scrap pieces of paper they have and begin scribbling something down.
I glance around the room before trying to peek over at whatever Alec is noting down. His writing is a messy scrawl and I don't have the effort to try and work out what any of it says so I flop back in my seat, discreetly putting things into my bag. I jump out of my seat and basically race to the door as soon as everyone else seems to make a move too.
I usher my way through the hallway, breathing a sigh of relief from finally being free from that class. I make my way to my locker once again, needing to check my schedule and find out what I have next whilst exchanging some more textbooks.
I quickly unlock the metallic door and pull my schedule out, glancing over it to find that I have AP math after my lunch hour. I smile to myself because I actually really like math. For some reason my brain just seems to get it, therefore, whenever I solve an equation, I find it really satisfying.
I know that's weird but everyone has a serial killer trait, I guess this one is mine.
I can feel everyone silently judging me right now...
Just as I'm closing my locker, I spot someone leaning against the lockers next to me, making me jump out my skin and causing me to squeal a little... Well, that was attractive, I probably resemble someone that's just shit themselves, which I may have actually done.
I'll check that later.
I'm kidding, I'm almost positive I haven't actually shit myself.
I turned to scold and curse at whichever asshole just decided to pop up out of nowhere but I instantly fall silent when my eyes find Alec standing there, staring down at me with a blank look on his. Wow, his poker face is even better than mine, goddammit. Now I just hate the douchebag even more.
"What the hell do you want? Don't you know it's not polite to creep up on people?" My attempt at sounding stern failed dismally.
"There's homework," I'm surprised by how deep his voice is once again, even though I've already heard it, he still managed to catch me off guard. I blinked, processing what he just said before frowning in confusion. He cuts me off before I have the chance to question him further. "There's homework in French, it's due Wednesday. I had a feeling you had no idea considering you basically slept through the class."
I blink up at him once again, completely confused by his kind gesture. Did he chase me out of class just to inform me about some homework I may or may not have missed? I mean, I did miss it but that's not the point.
Just as I'm about to thank him or say anything else, he turns and walks away down the hall. My mind fills itself with thousands of questions that I wanted to ask him and myself about what just happened but instead, I just shake my head and make my way to lunch, attempting to forget everything that just happened.
I make my way into the lunchroom and quickly set myself down at an empty and moderately clean table, which is rare at this school. Win.
I pull my phone out of my denim jacket and find several text messages from Caden and one from Mel. I decide to ignore Caden's messages and focus on finding out where my friend is. I open up our messages and find a new one saying 'please save me, I'm dying of boredom. This is a serious message, I might not make it through, send help.'
I laugh at her messages whilst rolling my eyes at her overly-dramatic attitude. I pull the lunch my mom packed for me out of my backpack and begin taking bites out of the cheese and ham sandwich my mom constantly makes me. She won't let me buy food from the cafeteria because she believes food should be blessed before it is eaten and doesn't trust me to do that by myself. Therefore my mom packs me a lunch so she can bless it, which basically means she prays to god about my ham and cheese sandwich.
I once made a joke and said she was just praying to 'cheesus' but that didn't go down too well. I got a lengthy lecture about how I should never mock the Lord's name in my own home because it is a sacred place filled with faith, kindness, and goodwill.
Yeah, I know... I did tell you they were Jesus-enthusiasts. Bet you didn't realise how 'enthusiastic' they can get.
Well, now you know.
I decide to check Caden's messages whilst I wait for Mel to grace me with her presence. My brow automatically furrows as soon as I find that I have seven unopened messages from him. My heart picks up its pace when my mind starts thinking of the worst. I quickly open the messages and begin reading them:
Caden 8:04 -morning bby xxxxxxx
Caden 8:12 - u awake yet??? xxxxxxxx
Caden 8:15 - r u ignoring me on pupose?? xxx
Caden 8:22 - u know I hate bein ignored
Caden 8:23 - have I done sumthing to upset u??? x
Caden 8:25 - fuck this!!!
Caden 10:31 - I'm srry bby, I'm just worried about u, let me know ur ok xxxxxxx
My frown deepens as I read the messages and quickly become even more confused and angry about his rudeness towards me. I mean, where did it even come from? I'm at school, it's not like I can message him back instantly. I decide not to message him back until later when my anger subsides just enough for me to avoid any unnecessary arguments. I'm pretty sure it's a little early in our relationship to be having arguments anyway. Aren't we supposed to be in the honeymoon phase?
Wait, I don't even know if we're in an actual relationship, neither of us has ever properly labelled it.
Before I'm able to over-think myself into an oblivion, Mel shows up just in time to save me. As always. This girl might always be late to class and various other organised events, but she has always shown up for me on time.
That's one of the reasons why I truly love this girl and is another reason why I don't need anyone else.
"Hey, bitch." I smile fondly at her, repeating the words back to her. She collapses into one of the other seats at the table and instantly slumps backward.
"What's up?" I question. I mean, I'm not expecting her to be overly happy whilst in school, it is school after all, but she isn't usually this mellow. On a normal day, she would have already enveloped me into an hours worth of gossip.
I swear this girl is my only ear in the school, she hears everything whilst I hear nothing. Then again, my brain seems to immediately shut down as soon as I see the school building.
"Nothing, that lesson just really knocked the mental energy out of me. You really should have sent help, I'm disappointed in you. This is all your fault." Mel pouts, sitting up straight in her chair and glaring at me.
"Oh come on, I was in class too, I couldn't just walk out, race to your class and make a dramatic scene of rescuing you. That's an easy way to get suspended." I laugh, shaking my head at her childishness.
"It's not like you've never been suspended before." She rolls her eyes.
I imitate the behaviour before reminding her that I would never return to school again if I got suspended during my first week of senior year because my parents would either murder me, send me to Christian Camp or force me to go to confession for every day that I'm suspended as a way of 'cleansing my soul' from my sins. To be honest, I'm not sure which one would be worse.
Mel laughs at my eccentric parents but nods along, knowing full-well that they really would do one of those three things, and I wouldn't survive any of them, hence why I would never return to school again.
"Have they graced your home with any more negative lectures involving my name?" Mel muses. She knows my parents disapprove of my friendship with her. They think she's a bad influence on me and has led me down a sinful path which I should know better to avoid. What they don't realise is that it's usually me that does the influencing and leading, after all, I'm the one that finds all the college parties we go to and drags Mel there.
"Not in about a week. I think they're slowly learning that I don't care for their opinions about who my friends are. The best part was when I used their religion to back my argument up."
"What do you mean?" Mel questions, perking up at the implication of drama.
"Well, I said 'if God didn't want us to be friends then he wouldn't have made it possible for us to meet, nor remain friends for all these years', but they didn't take that so lightly." I chuckle.
"Why, what did they say?" I can tell Mel is becoming more and more interested in this conversation.
"They gave me some stereotypical Christian spew about how God was just 'testing my faith', and according to my parents, I have failed miserably. Turns out I have officially been condemned to Hell by the good Lord." I smile, shaking my head at my parents' words. We have a very different opinion about religion, I believe it's all a load of bullshit, made up by some delusional, old guy whilst they fully believe what they read in the bible. Weren't they ever taught to never accept anything at face-value?
"Oh my God, that's rich. Don't worry, I'll probably be joining you in condemnation so it looks like you're stuck with me for eternity." I laugh when Mel air quotes the word 'condemnation'. She agrees with me that it's all a load of fairy tales.
Don't get me wrong, I respect those who have faith and I encourage people to believe in what they want, I'm only hostile towards my parents because they try and force-feed me their religion every chance they get and I don't believe that faith should be forced upon anyone, it should be a choice.
We quickly fall into our usual conversations about who the cheerleaders have recently hooked up with. I debate on telling Mel about being sat next to Alec in french but I quickly decide that the simple fact doesn't matter and it would just lead to Mel nudging me and discreetly trying to insinuate that something is going on with us, when there really isn't.
The lunch hour passes by far too quickly and soon enough, the bell rings to usher everyone back to their classes so the day can continue. At least I'm one step closer to going home...
******************
After school...
I stand at the bottom of the steps in front of the school building, awaiting the arrival of Mel so we can go home. Usually I'm the last one to come out so I'm surprised when I get here and find the space she usually waits, empty. I relieved when I find her cream-coloured, old-fashioned Volkswagen still parked in the school's parking lot.
I quickly send her a text, demanding that she hurries as a chill passes over my unprotected body. I pull my denim jacket closer to my body as a way of conserving the warmth I already have. As soon as I've sent the message, I notice Caden's number at the top of my message list and I'm instantly reminded of his hostile messages from earlier, reminding myself to text him back later.
Just as I'm sliding my phone back into my jacket pocket, I notice Mel making her way out of school, rushing down the steps, which is actually possible now because the majority of the school crowd has already left.
"What took you so long? Aren't you supposed to be the one waiting for me?" I muse, nudging her with my shoulder slightly.
"Sorry, Mr. Hottie held me back because of some homework I missed. I can't even remember him setting the homework, my mind just zones out as soon as I see him all dressed up in that sexy suit of his. I swear, he was giving me the yes all lesson!" She coos, grinning mischievously at me.
Mel has had a crush on Mr. Crowe ever since freshman year, and she's convinced that he returns the feelings but is just suppressing them for the sake of her job.
"So when you say 'giving you the eyes' you mean...?" I question, a little unsure as to what she means.
"I mean fuck-me eyes, Liza. Seriously you're so innocent, I really need to get you laid. My little apprentice has so much to learn." Mel teases, pinching my cheeks as she does so. I push her hands away from my face and grumble under my breath, not really having a retort.
Mel unlocks the car doors and we both slide into our seats. I drop my backpack into the footwell of the car before securing my seatbelt.
Mel laughs to herself, shaking her head, no doubt going over our latest conversation before putting the car into gear and reversing out of the school's parking lot. The car journey is pretty peaceful, both of us making a silent agreement to just let the radio flow through the car.
We come to a stop in front of my house, I glance out the window and stare at my house for a moment before unbuckling my seatbelt and quickly pulling Mel into a hug. I get out of the car and sling my bag over one shoulder as I wave to Mel as she continues down the road. We live pretty close, she's only s five-minute walk away so we carpool together.
I have my driver's permit but I'm not allowed a car because it apparently encourages greed and hedonistic urges which is a sin. Just like everything else I seem to do.
Yay religion!
I make my way up the path towards my front door. If my parents are in, they won't lock the door and considering their car is on the driveway, I'm going to assume they're home which means I don't have to dig around in my backpack for my keys.
I know what you're thinking; 'they have a car? That's such a contradiction!' - believe me - I have had the exact same thought. Their excuse is that it is a necessity rather than an indulgent luxury. Though I don't think my dad's late-night drives to the local bowling alley is a 'necessity'.
I walk through the door of my house and drop my backpack to the floor, pushing it to the side with my foot so no one trips over it as they walk through the door, as funny as that would be.
I hang my jacket on the hooks, alongside everyone else's coats and jackets, making my way further into the house.
"Mom! Dad! I'm home!" I yell. I'm not too sure where they actually are.
"We're in the family room."
I make my way into the so-called 'family room' which every other normal family just calls the 'living room', and find my mom and dad in the couch, a cup of coffee clasped in one of my moms hands as she reads through the magazine on her lap, her reading glasses perched on the tip of her nose. My dad, on the other hand, has relaxed into his favourite armchair, on leg crossed over the other as he watches some random nature documentary on the TV.
"Hey, guys." I say, making my presence known. My mom glances over at me, sending me a kind smile as she mutters a 'hi' back. My dad just nods at me.
"How come you guys aren't at work?" I ask. My dad is a minister at the local church, spending his day preaching about our glorious God and rehearsing verses from the New Testament. My mom, on the other hand, is an event organiser, which sounds cool, but what she really does is plan religious events for the local community, generally, they're fundraisers for charities and things.
"Your dad got the day off and I finished up early so I could spend the rest of my day with him." She mutters, not even glancing at me this time. Yeah, they really look like they're having a riveting time together.
"Okay, well ill be in my room. ill be down for dinner." I murmur, making my escape as I do so.
"You haven't told us about your day yet, hunny." My mom reminds me. I hate that this is something we have to do. I don't see why we don't just go over all this at the dinner table when its compulsory for us to all be in the same room, which I have recently started avoiding which is like an extreme sport with my parents.
"Um, nothing much happened. I have to go, I have french homework." I say quickly, making a second attempt for the door.
"We'll talk more at dinner." I just about catch her words considering I'm already halfway through the door.
Just as I think I've made my great escape from awkward family encounters, my baby sister, Daisy, notices me as she makes her way down the stairs. Her expression breaks out into a large grin when she notices, causing me to discreetly roll my eyes. My sister is way too happy for her own good.
Unfortunately for my sister, she is misguided enough to look up to me as a role model. I can honestly say that I'm probably the worst role model she could have found. I want to be a better person for her, be someone she can really look up to but I lose all respect for her whenever she quotes some religious-being. I know she's unsure about God and religion, what the church considers being 'agnostic', but she puts up a front in front of our mom and dad to give off the impression that she's their perfect, Christian daughter.
That's why I have lost my respect for her. She lets mom and dad indoctrinate her rather than being her own person.
I can't fully blame her though, she's only fourteen which means that a lot of things will be confusing her right now and it's probably easier to fake it in front of mom and dad in order to pacify them and avoid any drama. I suppose I did the same when I was her age but I never pretended to believe, I just didn't voice my own opinions.
"Hey, Aliza." She quirks, enthusiastically.
I send her a tight-lipped smile, muttering a dismissive 'hi' in response as I try to usher past her on the stairs.
"Do you want to hang out?" Daisy asks, sounding optimistic. I hate to rain on her parade but I really just want to hide out in my room until I'm forced to be sociable at dinner time.
"Not really. I'm kinda busy right now." I reply, wanting to get away as quickly as possible. I turn and continue rushing up the rest of the stairs, not before noticing the disappointed look on Daisy's face. I suppress the guilt before it makes me go back to talk to her. She's going to have to bet used to disappointment if she wants to live on this earth anyway, she should look at it like a life lesson.
I make my way into my room and close the door after me. My parents won't allow me to have a lock on my door so instead, I position my desk chair in front of the door to stop anyone from my loony family from just walking in, unwarranted.
I drop down onto my bed, spreading my arms out as if I'm going to start making snow angels. I close my eyes for a moment and breathe in deeply. my parents really do drain the energy out of me.
My phone suddenly buzzes from my back pocket, pulling me out of my relaxed state and back to reality. I look down at the bright screen, squinting slightly. I notice Caden has sent me another text which reminds me of my decision to reply to him now. I decide to open the message.
Caden 16:19 - come on bby, pls talk to me, I miss u xxxxxxx
I roll my eyes at his soppy text. I've never been a big fan of overly emotional text messages, I prefer to do all of that in person instead of hiding behind a screen.
Me 16:19 - hey, sorry for the late reply, ive been at school all day x
I press send and wait for him to text me back, I have a feeling it wont take long. My phone soon vibrates in my hand again as a notification comes through.
Caden 16:20 - I'm srry for my message earlier, I was just worried about u an I thought u were annoyed at me xxx
I frown at his excuse but I decide it's better to forgive him, I didn't give him a reason to worry but at least he's apologised, I don't want to be annoyed at him anymore.
Me 16:22 - dont worry about it, sorry for worrying you xxx
I sit up in my bed and look around my room as I comb my fingers through the tangles in my hair as a result of a windy day. My phone quickly buzzes again, causing me to smile.
Caden 16:23 - I'm so glad ur not angry wiv me, when can I see u again bby? i miss u xxxxxx
His message causes my smile to widen into a goofy grin, if anyone could see me right now, they'd think I had just won a competition.
Me 16:24 - soon, when you free? xxxxxx
I stand up from my bed and drop my phone on my bed, I hear it vibrate but I decide to ignore it as I close my curtains and scoop my hair into a messy bun on top of my head to keep it away from my face. Once I've finally sat back down on my bed, I grab my phone and read the recent message.
Caden 16:24 - can I see u tomrrw then??? xxxxxxx
I laugh at his eagerness, shaking my head in amusement even though I know he can't see me.
Me 16:29 - I have school, dumbass xxxxxxxx
Caden 16:29 - dont call me dumbass bby and u can ditch wiv me xxx
I frown as his reprimand, I was only messing with him. I shrug at the sudden attitude change and ignore it, maybe I hit a nerve?
Me 16:30 - you know I was kidding and my parents will kill me if I ditch xxxxxx
Caden 16:30 - thought ur parents were religious or sumthin?? xxxxxxxx
Me 16:31 - yeah but they would still murder me and hide my body haha xxxxxxxx
Caden 16:31 - only if they know ;) xxxxxxxx
I laugh at his insinuation but I know the school will call my parents if I don't attend. The excitement about seeing him again overrides my parental concerns so I find myself agreeing to his proposition in my next text.
Me 16:33 - okay :) xxxxxxx
Caden 16:33 - ill pick u up from outside ur school at 8.15 xxxxxxxx
Me 16:34 - see you tomorrow xxxxxx
Caden 16:35 - ;) xxxxxxxxx
I drop my phone onto the bed, lying back down with a small smile playing on my lips. I decide to just close my eyes for a few minutes and have a small nap so I can recharge my batteries before having to face my dysfunctional family for the longest and most dreaded hour of my day. at least I can officially say that French isn't the worst thing on earth. I think about Caden and the way he makes me smile, I think about how he calls me 'baby' and isn't afraid to message me first with kisses at the end. My tummy stirs with the familiar fluttering of butterflies as I slowly slip into my much-needed nap.
I really can't wait for tomorrow...
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Dedicated to @notgoodenough0 for their tremendous amount of support for all my books! You're my favourite kind of reader and I'm so grateful that you gave my books a chance.
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Catch you later, Criminals :)