The Social Outcast

Chapter Twenty-Two

"Relax Calum, you're more nervous than I am," I laughed.

"I know, I just don't want to see you get hurt. I love you so much," He said.

Today was my first day of going back to LAA. I was wondering if they would even remember me, by how much has changed.

"I love you too, but you have to calm down. Your palms are so sweaty," I kept laughing.

"Okay, okay," He pulled into the school parking lot.

"Well, I'll see you when school ends. If you need anything, just text us. I don't care if you get in trouble because of it, just please text me. I love you," He kissed my forehead.

I opened the doors of the school, the familiar smell of air freshener and a combination of other questionable smells.

My schedule ended up being the same as it was two years ago. Apparently you don't get a new schedule unless you sign up for new classes.

Someone caught my attention. Lucy.

As usual, she was with her boyfriend, Zach. Lucy saw me, and narrowed her eyes.

"Do I know you? I feel like I know you from somewhere," She said.

"Um, two years ago. Your boyfriend put me in a trash can and rolled it down the staircase," I confidently said before walking to my first class.

The day went smoothly. No one messed with me after seeing how confident I was. I acted confident, but on the inside, I was freaking out.

Now, it was time for chorus.

Ms. Greene was sitting at her desk when I walked in. She raised her head, mouth dropping when she saw me.

"Oh my gosh, Hallie!" She ran over.

"It's been so long, welcome back. How're things going?"

"Perfect as of now." The rest of the students came in the classroom.

Finally, it was time to leave.

"Hello beautiful," Calum smiled, as I got into the car.

"Hi!" I said.

"By the beautiful smile that's on your face, I assume things went well."

"For the first time in my life, no one bothered me today. I don't want to jinx myself, though."

"Oh c'mon, jinxing isn't real."

"Yeah it is, Michael and Louis told me it was."

"Okay, first off, think about what sources you got that from. You got that from Michael and Louis," We both laughed.

"It did seem pretty weird. They had creepy smiles on their faces when they told me."

We went to the hospital, everybody sitting in Calum's office.

"Why are you always in my office? Don't you have offices of your own?"

"We do, but we all wanted to see Hallie," Liam said. I told about my day at school, they were all listening, as if soaking all of my words up.

"So you had a good day? No one bothered you?" Ashton asked.

I told about Lucy coming up to me and what I said.

"Yeah, I sounded more confident than I was feeling."

"And that confident act is going to get them off your back. It's going to make them realize that you're not the same person you were two years ago. Your bigger than them," Calum told me.

"If only I got the same advice two years ago."

Calum rubbed my back as I leaned into him.

Soon, all of them were paged to do something or another, leaving me.

I was on Instagram for a while, when a phone started to vibrate. It was Ashton's. He must've left it when he got paged.

The contact said, 'Kaykay' with a heart emoji.

I didn't mean to be nosy, but the text messages were in front of me.

What else was I supposed to do?

Kaykay: I had fun today. The picnic was lovely :)

Ashton: I had fun, too. So, would you want to go out again?

I facepalmed at Ashton's message. He was clueless when it came to talking to girls.

"Excuse me," Someone breathed against the back of my neck, making me shriek and jump. Ashton was standing behind me with a knowing smile, holding out his hand to get his phone back.

"What do you think you're doing?" His eyebrows raised.

"I was just... your phone started to vibrate... when were you going to tell me you had a girlfriend?!" I changed the subject. He chuckled at this.

"We're not an official couple. We've known each other for a little while now, and went out on a couple of dates. I didn't want to tell anyone until it was official."

"Well if it's going to be official, you need to learn how to talk to girls," I laughed.

"I'm literally an OB-GYN, I'm pretty sure that I know how to talk to girls."

"I meant like romantically. You need serious help. You're so lucky that I read your text messages when I did. You could've ruined everything by saying something like that. You have to be subtle, yet straight to the point."

"Okay then."

That afternoon, I gave him tips about girls and other stuff, and soon, he had another date the next day.

"Are you not going to thank me? I saved you big time."

ONE OF THE LONGEST CHAPTERS YET! NOTHING REALLY EVENTFUL HAPPENED, BUT I KIND OF LIKED THE ASHTON AND HALLIE MOMENTS.

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XOXO, L.