song for chapter: super rich kids by frank ocean, earl sweatshirt + play on repeat!!
𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕣𝕕 𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕤𝕠𝕟
the six troubled teens stood in their normal meeting spot by the vending machines before lunchtime, and they all talked and conversed with each other casually like they would on any other school day.
jordan ryder made sure to bring up ethan's infamous keg stand record again, and this sparked up some conversation about the dolan's party the two boys had held only a couple days ago.
"i swear that's the highest i've ever been." jordan says with a chuckle following his words soon after.
as much as the boy didn't want to admit it, he had a raging coke addiction.
his friends knew he was a sucker for the thin white lines, but none of them knew the extent that his love for the drug was at.
all of them had done cocaine a few times, ecstasy too, and sometimes even a special mix of both— but never as frequently as jordan.
the drug is extremely expensive, though, but luckily for him that's not a problem; being a drug dealer has its perks.
jordan had snorted a total of twelve lines at the party, and not a single worry had crossed his mind the entire time.
it's unhealthy, but it's become normal.
at least for him it has.
"honestly, same. i thought it was a good ass time." jasmine johnson says with a small grin, looking at the boys with approval in her eyes.
jasmine had spent her time at the party cross faded and hooking up with a random guy who just happened to show up and be a plus one with someone.
people who don't know the dolan's will still show up to their parties since it's all open invite, especially because everyone in this part of town knows how crazy their house parties are.
and if you haven't been to at least one of the dolan's parties all throughout high school... you're basically living under a rock.
jasmine hadn't seen the boy before so she assumed that he went to another school, which he did, and she doesn't even remember his name.
this was normal for jasmine, though. the girl's never even had a boyfriend because of how boring commitment sounds to her. it's just a part of her lifestyle.
suddenly, ethan then diverts his eyes to the random girl that had just turned the corner to walk into their hallway, and his eyebrows raise once realizing that she wasn't just some random girl.
the boys take notice of ethan's staring to find whatever it was he was looking at, and it grows quiet between them from the new presence of alexia bennett.
the shy girl says nothing, and only gives a quick glance to the popular group before turning away with red cheeks once realizing they had been eyeing her.
"hey, alexia." maya maddox says in a small yet kind voice, and alexia looks at the girl while passing her, not bothering to stop, "hey."
jasmine gives alexia a subtle dirty look as she continues to make her way into the cafeteria to sit with her best friend like she does on any other school day at lunch.
"i don't get how rebecca is so close with her." jasmine says with a scoff once alexia was out of sight, not understanding the two's friendship.
maya gives her best friend a look, giving her the impression that she didn't agree with her statement.
"what, are you guys like besties now or something?" jasmine says to her best friend with a bit of aggression laced in her tone of voice, causing maya to stiffen up.
"no," maya says while shaking her head, but she pauses to then shrug with her bottom lip popped out, "but i like her. i think she's cool."
jasmine looks at the four guys, hoping that they'd disagree with the way that maya feels about alexia and knock some sense into her.
alexia doesn't belong in their world, and they all know it.
just like how they don't belong in hers.
"really?" isaac davis says to his girlfriend while scratching the back of his neck, "she was a little weird at our drug deal this weekend."
"wait, what?" maya says in disbelief, surprised and confused as to why alexia out of all people was involved in a drug deal with her boyfriend, "what deal?"
"oh, yeah," isaac says with a chuckle, "we forgot to tell you."
maya looks at the boy skeptically while raising the prominent arch of one of her eyebrows, "we?"
"i was with him." ethan speaks up, and maya looks at ethan before nodding back at her boyfriend for him to continue explaining.
"since when does alexia fucking bennett do drugs?" jasmine intervenes with an amused look on her face, finding the whole thing to be a bit humorous.
"well, it wasn't her that was buying." isaac defends with a shrug, "it was her friend."
"oh, rebecca hart?" maya asks her boyfriend, and he nods, "yep, that one."
"she's hot." ethan says from out of no where, causing the group as a whole to laugh.
"which one? alexia or rebecca?" grayson says with a smirk, and jordan chimes in with his goofy looking smile, "both."
the four boys laugh, clearly letting their immaturity shine through, and maya and jasmine roll their eyes.
although, maya lets out a small giggle, finding what jordan said to be a bit funny, but jasmine wasn't having it.
"alexia's not pretty, she's invisible." jasmine says with a sour look and grayson looks at jasmine with a taunting look on his face, "you're just pissed because she's probably getting dick and you're not."
"don't even, gray." jasmine says while shaking her head.
grayson just smirks, not saying anything, and the rest of the group can feel the obvious sexual tension between the two.
jasmine has been fucking around with grayson for about a month now, and everyone in the friend group kind of knows that it's a thing.
jasmine fucks other guys, and grayson fucks other girls, but when they really need their sexual desires to be fulfilled, they always call one another.
as much as they've tried to keep it lowkey, their friends still had their suspicions about the pair at the end of the day, but it's not like it really bothered anyone.
"yo, look at this." isaac says once reading a message that he had gotten on his phone, and he shows the three other guy friends.
"he said we could get all of that in tomorrow for only that price." isaac says to the boys, and all of their eyes light up in excitement as they look down at his phone in awe.
"fuck yes, we've been running low on that shit." ethan says while his eyes scan the message, and maya chimes in.
"what is it?" the girl asks her boyfriend, knowing that it was just a restock of their variety of drugs, but not knowing exactly what kind they were.
"molly, shrooms, lsd," her boyfriend says with a shrug, "like we're getting a fuck ton of tabs, people have been going crazy for that shit recently."
the boys began to converse about the products they'd be selling, and maya finds herself zoning out of their conversation and jasmine goes on her phone in the meantime.
maya is used to her boyfriend constantly paying more attention to drugs rather than her, and it seemed to not even bother her anymore.
isaac is a great guy and he does have a kind heart deep down inside, but he just isn't the best boyfriend.
maya settles for it, though, and has never showed any complaints with the way he treats her.
it's how she's always been, and more often than not she's quick to give isaac the benefit of the doubt.
suddenly, a newcomer strolls into the hallway, and the familiar shaggy blonde headed boy catches the girl's eye.
"maybe we can get bennett bitch to buy this shit, too." jordan jokes with a laugh, clapping his hands together as they made fun of the poor and clueless girl.
maya's head whips to the four boys quickly once seeing the blonde boy approaching their group, something that the boys hadn't noticed, not even jasmine either.
"guys, shut up." maya says quietly with big eyes, and ethan smirks at the girl with raised eyebrows, "what? you're not actually friends with her are you— "
"ethan, stop." maya cuts him off in an assertive voice, and she discreetly points to the boy who was passing them in the empty hallway.
the boys all stop talking instantly, knowing that it's not smart for random people to hear about their drug business talk, and the blonde boy glances up at the group before timidly looking away once seeing that all of them were already staring at him.
once the scrawny looking white boy turns the corner, maya lets out a sigh, and her boyfriend looks at her questionably, "you know that kid or something?"
"not exactly," maya says with a bit of panic, "but he knows us."
"what are you talking about?" jasmine says while putting her phone down, surprised that her best friend hadn't filled her in on whatever it is about the boy previously.
"he's in my calculus class," maya starts out, "and he was talking about your guys party this weekend to his friend," she swallows, afraid to say the next part, "...and apparently his dad is the new sheriff in town."
"why the fuck didn't you tell us this shit earlier?" grayson says through gritted teeth, looking like he was filled to the brim with anger, and isaac shoots him a look from the way he was talking to his girlfriend.
"i'm sorry, i know." maya says while running a hand through her long hair in a stressed motion, "it just slipped my mind."
in reality, it hadn't slipped the girls mind; she just didn't want to get involved.
but once seeing the boy walk past her friend group and knowing that he saw her standing with them, she knew she had to get them to shut up to save her own ass.
"look, let's not trip the fuck out until we have a reason to." ethan says, trying to keep the peace of the friend group, "for all we know, he might not've even heard anything."
"are you fucking dumb?" grayson says to his twin in disbelief, "twelve's already on our radar and there's a possibility of this kid snitching to his dad about our shit, and that's not a reason to freak out?"
"grayson's right," jordan says while agreeing with the twin, "we don't know this kid but the fact that we also don't know his intentions or what he's capable of should be enough to get us worried."
ethan releases a breath, tired of the paranoia haunting him everywhere he goes.
no matter how hard he tries to hide it, it's always there in the back of his mind.
not just paranoia about getting caught up with the cops, but also paranoia for his own physical safety.
it's not easy being a drug dealer, and it automatically makes you the perfect target for a robbery or a home invasion.
the boy even sleeps with an ak-47 under his mattress to keep him feeling guarded and protected during the night, but the feeling of safety only lasted for so long.
"guys," isaac says, diverting the two boys away from attacking ethan, "no more business talk at school, it's too risky, and only sell to loyal clients."
ethan then looks at isaac with squinted eyes, "how do you expect us to make any fucking money if we only sell to half of our original clients? sales will be awful for us the next couple months if we do that shit."
"yeah, well would you rather risk some bands or your life? huh?" isaac says to the ignorant sounding boy, and ethan just clenches his jaw in anger and silence.
the group stays quiet and still, the only motion being jasmine who was chewing her gum alongside maya and still watching their intense little conversation.
"all i'm saying is that we need to figure out a plan to keep this shit completely under wraps, and if you can't figure it out, then i will." isaac says to ethan before looking at the other two boys.
the bell rings unexpectedly, meaning that lunch was now over, and kids started to disperse from the several cafeteria doors and out into the hallway.
"well, i gotta go. bye." maya says, truly just wanting to slip out of this heated conversation, and jasmine does the same as she follows her best friend.
the rest of the group follows suit and begins to leave the vending machine area, and ethan spots alexia who was walking out of the cafetria with rebecca.
ethan licks his lips as he looks at her, and alexia looks up and notices his intimidating stare before quickly looking away.
the boy simply chuckles to himself as he walks away, leaving his thoughts to resonate back to the fact that him and his friends may just be in over their heads with their secret business.
𝕒𝕝𝕖𝕩𝕚𝕒
i looked at the student audience in front of me and smiled as i closed out my speech, "and if you guys happen to have any questions about the food drive later on, just send a message to me or another officer. we're here to help! you guys are free to go."
i watch as the kids get up from their auditorium seats and disperse out into the rows that led to the exit doors.
i take a look at my apple watch and sigh, seeing that it's already a little past four o'clock.
it was just like every other monday, my after school weekly charity club meeting.
i'm the president of the club and actually the founder of it as well.
i've always been one that's wanted to give back to the community, and my way of doing so was starting my own club at school.
it had to get approved through administrators and the principle, of course, but they were more than happy to give me the green light.
the only thing i had to make sure of is that i could get a teacher to sponsor the club and act as our mentor, and it wasn't hard to get my favorite english teacher on board.
my teachers always adore me, but this teacher in particular i actually adored back.
when she agreed to the role, i started the club at the beginning of my junior year. it didn't take long for many kids to join, especially since i already had so many connections through student council— which i'm also the president of.
don't get me wrong, i love what i do, but i'm not nearly as passionate about it as i was in the beginning.
it's not the community service that i mind, it's more like the people.
they're all boring rich kids who only joined the club to make themselves look better for college.
which, i get it, because that's something i kept in mind when starting this organization... but i just feel like i'm different than a lot of these other kids.
i feel like i always have to pretend around them, and as bad as it sounds, they're just so incredibly boring to me.
it's like they're all the same— just innocent brainwashed robots.
even though these are the people i choose to always be around by participating in stuff like this, they're the people i'm really not fond of at all.
i'm nice to them regardless, but i can only pretend to be friendly for so long. it gets tiring.
everyone at my school stereotypes me to be just like these kids, and i may seem like that on the outside, but on the inside i can't help but daydream about all of the bad decisions i could be making instead.
and now instead of fantasizing about them, i'm actually going through with them.
it's not like i can fuck up my chances to getting into college now... i've strived for nothing but perfection all my life.
and not only have i strived for it, but i actually achieved it.
"hey, alexia?" i hear a girl call out from behind me, and i turn around to look at whatever club officer had called my name.
i'm met with ray of sunshine, isabelle, and she smiles at me, "the food drive is at three, right? and it ends at five?" she asks, referring to the food drive that i put together for this saturday.
i nod, "yep, but make sure to get there at two to help set up." i say back to her, and she nods, understanding that she has to come early to fulfill her duties of being an officer.
"will do!" she says in a squeaky voice, and just as i'm about to turn around and gather my belongings together, her voice stops me again.
"hey, i just wanted to ask," she says timidly as i look at her with raised eyebrows, "were you at the dolan's house party this weekend?"
my heart drops instantly and my eyes widen out of shock, not expecting those words to be the one to leave her mouth.
how does isabelle know out of all people? she wasn't even there?
i swallow, "why?" i ask calmly, not even answering her question and trying my best to not make my tone sound bitchy.
she looks a bit freaked out from me asking her why, and she shrugs, "oh, i just saw you on someone's story. you were in the back of the picture or something... but i didn't really expect to see you there?" she says as if it was a question.
i wish people could just learn to mind their own fucking business.
i let out a deep breath as i maintain eye contact with her, "i just went for rebecca, that's all." i say casually, knowing she's aware that i'm best friends with the outgoing girl.
rebecca and i are complete opposites, but that's what makes us the best of friends.
rebecca has never really given a shit about her grades, nor has any desire to participate in anything that has to do with school, but the girl's averagely smart and is planning on going to a community college for her first year anyways.
"oh." isabelle says in a quieter voice, almost giving me the vibe that she was still quite suspicious of me.
"i just wanted to make sure you're not doing anything you'll regret." she says with a soft look on her face, "these kids really look up to you as the president... so i just wanted to make sure that you're actually doing your job as president. i'd hate to see you get in trouble for a simple mistake like this." she says in a fake sympathetic voice.
my blood boils out of anger from her words, not believing how incredibly annoying she was being about this whole thing.
isabelle is the vice president and is very dedicated to her role— or, trying to steal mine.
when entering this club, you have to pledge appropriate behavior like you'd have in school to be the same as when you're outside of school.
kids snitch on each other all the time in order to make their way to the top, and finding bait against me, the president, would be a total score for isabelle.
"thanks, isabelle," i say with a clearly fake smile, "but i think i got it handled."
she nods frantically, "oh, of course! i'll see you tomorrow." she says before walking away to the main doors of the auditorium, and i watch her in silence.
i roll my eyes once she's finally out of my presence, and i grab my backpack before making my way out as well.
"goodbye, mrs. ellington!" i call out in a genuinely kind voice, and she turns to give me a warm smile from the opposite side of the auditorium, "bye, girl! i'll see you this saturday!"
"i can't wait!" i say with an even bigger smile, but this one wasn't as genuine.
the thing is, is that i actually could wait.
i really don't want to spend a whole three hours with these kids, but i just need to focus on the purpose of the food drive and why i'm there.
i grab my backpack and unzip the first pocket to grab my phone before swinging the bag over my shoulder.
i walk out of the auditorium, being one of the last officers to leave, and i pull out my phone as i walk.
once seeing my phone screen light up, i nearly do a double take at my lock screen from the sight.
i gasp quietly, already feeling so many questions arise in my head, and i feel my heart speed up out of nerves.
ethandolan added you as a friend!
what the fuck?
i put my phone back down by my side and continue to walk out, not even knowing what to think about it right now.
i push open the auditorium doors and am utterly surprised to see my best friend standing in front of the door, making me jump a bit.
"shit, you scared me." i say while placing a hand over my heart with a breathy laugh, "what the hell are you doing here?" i ask.
she giggles, "i wanted to surprise you with something." she says with a glimmering sparkle in her eye, and i furrow my eyebrows, "with what?"
she gives me a certain look, and then i realize what she means.
"oh, please don't tell me you have it on you right now. we're literally in school!" i whisper scream at her even though there was no one else in the hallway, "relax! everything's at my house, we're fine. i just had to stay after school because i'm failing fucking pre-cal, so i decided to come here and wait for you until you're done."
i reluctantly nod and smile a bit as we begin to walk together, "so you down? drive to my house?" she asks while raising her eyebrows up and down.
"of course i'm down." i say with a scoff, and she looks at me with wide eyes, "wow, i never thought i'd hear those words come from you."
i nudge her side with my elbow a little bit and she only laughs in response.
"oh shit, listen to this," i say as i whip my head to the side to look at her, remembering what had just occurred only a few moments ago, "the weirdest thing just happened."
she narrows her eyes at me, already looking intrigued, "what?"
i bring up my phone for her to see the notification that i still hadn't cleared on my lock screen, and her eyes bulge out of her head in absolute shock.
"i know." i say, not believing it either, "what do i do?"
"are you fucking dumb!?" she shrieks, and i shush her before she can continue, "add him back!"
"okay, okay." i reluctantly say while pulling my phone out, and i click on the notification to open snapchat.
once opening the app, i notice that he had added me by username which only made the whole thing even weirder.
i press accept, and sigh, not exactly sure why he added me or how he even got my snap.
rebecca clears her throat obviously, and i side eye her from the clearly fake cough.
"what?" i ask her, not knowing why she had this smug look on her face.
"i was just thinking," she says with a short pause as i examine the hint of mischief twinkling in her squinted eyes, "geebs or a bong?"
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧*:･ﾟ✧
a/n: hope u all are enjoying the book so far!!! vote/comment, the support is truly what gives me motivation to update!!! ty for reading!