Monday back to school was not exactly what I was expecting.
Madi came to school with such a stressed look that it threw me off my game. Madi was known for being well-kept in all circumstances, so to see her standing before me with her hair messy and her clothes not iron was a bit puzzling.
"What happened to you?" I asked her.
"Well, my mother found out that I went to the party without Oscar and then we got into an argument and I practically had to tell her that I was a woman now and didn't need a man to watch over me. This was the result" she gestured to herself.
"You guys fought?" I asked, still confused.
"No" she screamed. "She said that since I was a woman now I had to iron my own clothes and make my own appointment with my hairstylist," she grumbled.
"Your mom was still ironing and picking out your clothes?" I asked and she rolled her eyes.
"Is that all you got?" she whined.
I laughed, "Madi, just pick out clothes that don't need to iron and if you can't do that then just iron all of them on the weekends or something, and making appointments aren't hard. Just make a phone call"
"Don't worry. I will summer dress this year out. They don't wrinkle and they're effortless" she flipped her messy hair out of her face as we started walking to the front of the school. We had stopped waiting at the spot for Oscar. It was becoming overbearing. "Plus, appointments are hard. You have to know your schedule to make one and I don't necessarily know mines"
"Just chose a day and make it mandatory. Anything after that would have to come around that" I respond, not understanding where the hard part kicked in.
Madi, however, didn't stop in trying to make me understand what she was talking about. So, to avoid a debate, I just nodded my head in agreement. My eyes wandering over the parking lot before spotting Lucas, Flint, and Matt of into the distance.
They were just standing there, eyes glued to something behind me. I looked back to see the football team- Oscar included standing in a huddle as well, but their eyes were locked with the bad crew. What was weird was Sally was walking over to the football team as well.
I watched as Oscar spotted Sally his face lightening up a bit and then him throwing his hand over Sally's shoulder and pulling her close. She whispered something in his ears and then he burst out laughing.
I don't know when last I saw him smile like that. Madi and I have tried talking to him, but one-sided conversations really couldn't solve an issue. We just had to wait until he came around, but knowing me I didn't really have the patience. Especially now, when he was dating Sally. I wanted to know what had gotten into him. Why was he doing this?
I looked back to see Lucas looking at me. The look of his warm eyes yesterday at the party in the closet flashed into my mind, but the ones today were different. These sets were more colder and harder like the ones at the party after our session.
Maybe that was just a blimp in his personality yesterday. A moment of dysfunctionality before he reset himself back to default.
To being cold-hearted.
I looked away, tuning out from what was going on behind me and more into my best friend's rant about how she would now have to book her own hair appointments.
Today was going to be a peaceful day. I declaring it.
~~~
Someone had stuck a pin into my peaceful day as soon as the bell rang for lunch and we filled the cafeteria.
Everything was going normal as it should, but when you're in a life of Raine. It's going to rain.
Ha! See what I did there?
I wasn't positive on the issue between the Bad Crew and the Football Players. I assumed that it had something to do with the fight with Lucas and Oscar, but even after that they- the football team- didn't really show that they had a problem. So, it was a mystery why the tension between them had intensified so much today.
I noticed a preview of it this morning in the parking lot with them just staring at the football team, but I just brushed it off.
The Bad Crew didn't really need a reason to do things that they shouldn't do.
When Lucas, Flint, and Matt were walking into the cafeteria, I watched Oscar say something out loud- but not loud enough for everyone to hear. That made the surrounding people burst out laughing.
Then, it all happened as a chain of events. First, it was Matt flinging a food tray directly at Austin our QuarterBack like a frisbee. It hit him in the back, but the way that could have seriously injured him if it had gone a bit further up didn't go unnoticed.
Austin soon picked up his football and threw it at Lucas, but it missed. Before I can even figure out how they got so close together, there was a full-out brawl happening in the cafeteria.
I screamed, grabbing Madison's hand to pull her away from the fight and back to the furthest wall. Other students took out their phones to record the fight of the school year, but I was way too scared to do anything.
The fact that Oscar was in a fight again had my heart beating to another level. What the hell was he doing?
He had a scholarship. He had a plan. Why was he doing this?
I screamed his name, but he wouldn't even bat an eye in my direction.
I looked over to Lucas to find him on top of one of the football players pounding his heavy fist into his face. Matt was cooly fighting with a player. They were both throwing punches at each other's faces. Matt, however, looked as if he wasn't taking anything serious despite the fact that he was already bleeding. He still had his smirk on.
Flint was fighting two players. I saw him take one head under his arm and kicked the other. I looked back over to Lucas, he was still in the same position, but now there was another player coming over to him.
It was Oscar.
My body felt as if I had teleported how quickly I had moved to stop Oscar from hitting Lucas. Too bad, Oscar was so hell-bent on his rage to get back at Lucas that he didn't even notice I was now between them. He still swung the tray.
I waited for the hit to come. The impact of the metal tray to graze my face, but it didn't.
Instead, I felt myself being yanked down and a weight hovering over me.
"Raine, what the frig are doing?" Lucas growled into my face.
"Raine?" Oscar said as he stood over us.
I was laying on my back with Lucas straddling me and Oscar standing over our heads.
"Stop fighting," I said. My voice cracked and I couldn't stop blinking because of my need to cry.
"You need to stay out of this" Lucas gritted, his arms tightened around me.
"You're hurting me," I said. His eyes widen, but soon his body was roughly pushed off me. Oscar grabbed my hand, helping me to my feet.
I heard our securities finally rushing in, stopping the guys from fighting.
I looked over to Oscar. "Are you okay? Why are you doing this?" I kept firing questions as I watch his face hardened. He had a bruised eye again. Shoots at this rate they would never heal.
I felt Lucas come up to me, his front pressing against my back.
I cursed myself that my body actually relaxes into his.
What the hell was going on with me?
Oscar looked up to him and then back to me. I saw his jaw ticked before he released my hand and stepped back.
He shook his head before he walked away being escorted by the security.
I span around, pushing Lucas. "You said you apologize!" He clasped my hands.
"I did. But, I need you to understand this because I am only going to say this once to you, Little One" he lowered his head to me, his warmth covering me.
"Please stay out of this"
He was yanked away from me. The security carrying him off to the principal's office. I huffed as I watched him be dragged away. What does he mean to stay out of this?
I was actually protecting him from being hit just now.
"Raine, are you okay?" Madi said as she ran up to my side.
"Did you see that? Oscar is officially losing it" I screamed walking away. Lunch wasn't even over, but I needed to go.
I needed fresh air.
"Yeah, I know"
"He's out here starting fights, getting into trouble! Oscar would never do that!" I continued ranting, vaguely aware that Madi was still following me.
I had stormed outside of the building, "He has a scholarship! He worked so hard for it! Now he's throwing that all away and for what?" I span around to look at Madi. She just looked at me with wide eyes.
I looked up to the sky, "I don't even know why he's doing it. Because he's not even talking to me." I looked down at my feet kicking the rock in front of me. "My best friend for 12 years, I don't even know what going on with him. This sucks unicorn ass" I fell down into a heap of myself while sitting on the grass.
I looked over to Madi to see her frowning at me. She soon walked over to me before sitting beside me and hugging me.
"I don't know what to say about Oscar right now," she said quietly. The wind around us blowing softly. "However, I do have something to say about you running into a fight to protect Lucas"
I looked over to her quickly, my mouth open to protest but she shook her head at me.
"I'm not stupid, Raine. Do you like him or something?" she asked.
I groaned, leaning back so I can sit on my butt. "I don't really know" I admit.
I know I shouldn't like him or even be interested in the fact of liking him, but then he's around and I do weird things like jump in a full out brawl. One of these days, the hit may just come.
"How did this even happen? I thought you hated the guy" she joined me sitting flatly.
"I can't even tell you. I know I do. Or did" I asked, before shaking my head, "I do dislike him for sure. I know he's my enemy, but then he does weird things and my stupid self falls for it" I plucked the grass.
"Stupid stuff like what?" she quirked up a brow.
"Well, he gave me a car ride in the storm, and then he came Saturday to make sure that I was okay" I bit my lip. "He does nice things along with his bad. He's like a walking contradiction" I purposely left out the part of him kissing me. I wasn't ready for that. Nor, was I ready for her finding out about how I stalked his house and he practically let me off free and told me that he wasn't a cruel person like his dad-like he wanted me to believe that about him.
Madi frowned as she mauled over my words. "Well, you know I don't believe in the whole guy liking you because he picks on you and pulls your ponytail, but this might be the case you know?"
I looked over at her with wide eyes. As much as I would like to believe that, I know for a fact- a 100% fact that Lucas did not like me. So, yeah he kissed me, but he also made it seemed as if I was just easy enough to get after that. Meaning that kiss meant nothing to him as much as it meant to me.
"Trust me, he doesn't like me. He just sees me as something to target right now. Soon he'll find a new toy and I would be over and done with" I let out a sigh.
Madi shrugged, "It may be true. It may be not. I just think that if he's working to get you in his pocket then he should do it the right way. No bullying and no possessive control and all that jazz of Wattpad good romance"
I sucked in my lip, completely agreeing with her.
I didn't believe in the whole enemy become lovers either. I believed in love being pure from the start. It was the reason why I couldn't believe that Lucas may like me. He was way too mean at times.
"Anyway, what are we going to do about Oscar?" she mumbled.
She dug her five fingers into the grass before pulling a chunk out. I smiled at her as the idea popped into my head.
"It's Monday and we know he's going to be home for sure. We're going to ambush him"
Madi looked at me, her eyes wide. "You for real?"
"Hell yeah"
~~~
Oscar's house was a little on the rich side. When I say that, I mean it wasn't small like mines.
It had unnecessary rooms, too many garages, and way too many windows. He often hated that he had to walk so far just to say hi to his mom and the intrusion of the different people his mother would hire was annoying. In other news, I would be just upset with him when he complains about it, but now I was happy the house was big enough to get in without any notice.
I'm guessing Oscar didn't alert his workers that Madi and I wasn't welcome here anymore.
When Madi and I came to sneak in, dressed in all black and a ski mask we were expecting to do mission impossible into Oscar's huge house. So, imagine when we jumped over the gate to see his security looking at us quizically.
He later escorted us to the front door and showed us how opening a door was way more useful than breaking in.
Thanks, darling.
Madi and I wondered over to Oscar's room by heart. We haven't been here a lot but when we do come here it would be only to his room. We have never ventured out any further. I did noticed that the painting that adorn the wall to his room was no longer up and there wasn't much staff running around the way they use to. Most likely, Oscar's mom was preparing her staff for Halloween, I assumed. She was like that in every way. Prissy and way off from earth.
Madi and I hesitated by his door. Not sure if we should just barge in or knock. We were having a crisis right now, but we weren't ready to risk it all and see Oscar in a position we should not even see.
I didn't need that kind of visual.
"Maybe we should just knock?" Madi offered and I nodded.
We stood there for a while before she said, "Well?"
"Well? You offered, you do it" I ushered her and she rolled her eyes.
She knocked hard on the door and we both held our breath.
There were many ways I was seeing this going down.
Oscar was stubborn and he could very well have us removed from the property. Or, we can be ignored until we finally get the picture. Or, we can get into a big fight leaving us way more torn than we are now and to be honest the latter scared me the most.
The door knob twisted and then it open to reveal a shirtless Oscar standing in front of us with bed hair.
"What?" he looked confused and then he rolled his eyes. "Why are you both here?" he folded his arm, not letting us inside of his room.
Ok.
"Well, we need to kill this beef. Obviously, you have a problem and we need you to say what it is so that we can solve it" Madi folded her arms too. I was glad to see that the fire she had towards Oscar hadn't died.
"I told you both that we're good" Oscar lifted a brow.
"Yeah, but the more you say that the more we realized that we aren't" I spoke. Oscar's eyes bounce to me before quickly averting.
Since he open the door he hasn't looked my way and I wasn't sure how much my heart was going to take from that.
"We're good"
"Oh come on, Oscar. Be a man for once and speak your truth" Madi snapped. I looked over at her, seeing her ears rimmed red. I know she was hurting just as much as me when it came to our friendship dynamic being ruined.
Oscar bit his lip before looking over at me and then stepping into his room. He came out a second later with a shirt on.
"Ok, go on" Madi urge.
I was too sick to even speak. The look in Oscar's eyes was something I have never seen before. He didn't look like the Oscar I was familiar with. The one that told me scary stories or help me prank my brother. The one who loved to go swimming with me - although I can't swim, and sit down and watch Marvel movies with me.
This Oscar looked different.
"I wanted to break this off with you both for a while now. I'm tired of having to bear the stupid positions you have put me in. Sitting in average on the social ladder, the whole I'm dating you both shenanigans, me having to fight your battles" Oscar's eyes wandered over to me. "I'm sick of it and I am sick of you both. I tried to end what we had in a good way, but I guess you both are dumb as you looked" he smirked on the end.
The ball in my throat won't go down. It just stays there as my throat tightened around it. I kept blinking as I stared at Oscar.
His words. Were they?
Were they his? Did he really just say that to us? We were friend for so long, why?
"You're lying" I croaked. "You- you don't"
"Raine, don't tell me what I mean. I am tired of you thinking you can control me. I know what I said and I mean it. I am tired of you most of all"
My mouth snapped shut at the same time I heard a loud thwap. Madi had slapped Oscar. His face flying to the side, his jaw clenching. Madi just stood there with her hand still in the air and blinking at him.
"Whatever is happening to you. Whatever, you're going through. You better go through it and don't do anything you'll regret, Ozzy. We're giving you until the end of the month" her face was red and she looked like she was going to cry.
I didn't understand. Why was he doing this? This wasn't Oscar. Oscar declared over and over how he loved us. Why would he do this?
Oscar raised his hand to rub his cheek before looking over to Madi. "And I am going to give you 5 minutes, because you know the house is big, to get the hell out of my house" he snapped. "Both of you" he looked at me one more time.
My best friend of 12 years with warm green eyes looked at me as if I was a stranger and then went into his room slamming the door.
I felt my heart shattered.