𝐎𝐑𝐏𝐇𝐈𝐂 𝐀𝐂𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐌𝐘 ☾ 𝐥. 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐠𝐞

𝐯𝐢𝐢𝐢.

one punch, partridge

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"ASTER!" I ran to Aster in the large foyer. The bottoms of my soles making tapping noises every step I took.

I reached out to hug her as she fell back due to all my force.

"I'm guessing you missed me?" She giggled as I took her hand in mine to stand up.

"We have so much to catch up on." She began to grab her luggage as I held her purse on my shoulder.

We walked through the boys' dormitory hallway, making our way to Louis and Thomas' dorm room. Aster and I's arms were linked as we roamed the halls.

"...We almost kissed!" I whispered yelled to her.

"You almost kissed Lou-" I covered Aster's mouth with my hand as the door swung open and Louis stood in the large doorway.

"Almost kissed who?" He looked down at us as he was a couple inches taller.

"No one! We were actually talking about Aster! She- she almost kissed a California boy." I widened my eyes at Astee as she began to take a hint at what I was reaching for.

"Right! Yes, I almost kissed a Cali boy." She let out an out-of-place smile as we stood there for what felt like years.

"Anyways, is Thomas here?" I asked, breaking the awkward tension in the hallway.

"He's at lacrosse practice, but you can wait here until he gets back." He offered as Aster and I were still tightly holding onto all of her luggage.

"Um, it's fine. We'll just go back to our dorm." Aster replied as she noticed how strange Louis and I were being.

I wanted to kiss him that night. I really did. I think I like him? But at the same time, I don't want to like him. He's rude, and weird, and cute, and funny, and competitive, and hot- What the fuck, Iris? Stop. You don't like him, okay? You don't. You can't. First of all, mom wouldn't like him due to the feud, and second of all, he's like your enemy. Also, he probably doesn't even like you back.

Aster and I turned around and walked towards the exit of the hallway when we saw Aria and Justin by the message board. We crouched behind a wall in hopes that they wouldn't see us.

What are they doing?

We slowly walked closer as I saw Aria putting pictures of Thomas up on the board. My eyes widened as I stood up quickly and walked towards her. Aster followed closely behind me.

"You were the one that wrote all that shit about thomas on the message board!" I furrowed my eyebrows out of anger and frustration. What is her problem?

"So, what if I was? What if I wasn't? They were all going to find out anyways." She crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows.

"Well, that's not your decision when they do." I walked closer to her as I stood two inches taller.

"Why don't you go complain about this to your daddy? Oh wait, you can't." I turned around as I saw Aster. Her face was confused as she mouthed to me, asking what she was talking about.

"Hey, don't talk to her like tha—" Louis came rushing in from his dorm room.

"—I can handle it myself. Let's go." I began walking towards the exit of the hallway as I heard Justin talking to Louis. I turned around to see Justin smirking.

"Louis Partridge, can't you see that Iris doesn't like you? I mean, she's slept with the whole school, but if she's not willing to do it with you, that's saying something." Tears brimmed my eyes as Justin was laughing.

"Shut the fuck up."

Louis punched him.

Justin fell to the ground as his nose began to bleed.

"Louis?" My eyes widened at the scene. Louis just fucking punched him!

"Go, go, go!" Aster, Louis, and I ran through the boys' dormitory halls, all the way to the girls'. We darted into our dorm room as I quickly shut the door behind us. We all collapsed to the ground as Aster began laughing.

"Wow." She breathed out. I began laughing with her as Louis joined in as well.

"Holy shit. You just punched Justin Grutera." I turned towards Louis who was slumped beside me.

"I'm sorry, that was so—"

"—So badass! I didn't know you had that in you, Partridge."

"Yeah, I guess I'm just a real man." He began to flex his muscles as Aster and I started to laugh even more.

"Oh, yeah. Definitely." I replied sarcastically.

We all sat there for a while, talking about Aria and Justin, Aster's trip to see her grandparents in California, and the reason why everyone hates the word, "moist."

Aster slowly got up as she reached for my hand and dragged me into her room, leaving Louis on the floor as he scrolled through his phone.

"What?" I sat down on her bed as she stood in front of me. She stopped laughing as I stopped too. What's happening?

"What was Aria talking about?" Her face was stone solid as she looked at me determined to get the truth out.

"What do you mean?" Of course I knew what she meant. I'm just not ready to telll her.

"When she said that stuff about your dad. What did she mean?" I'm just going to have to tell her.

"My dad, he um- he died last summer."

"Oh my God," She wrapped her arms around me and it felt like I was finally able to exhale all of the carbon dioxide out of my lungs. "Why didn't you tell me? I would've been there for you." She held me tighter as my head was rested on her shoulder.

My throat started to clog up, and my eyes began to water. "I didn't want things to change. I didn't want people to pity me and then I become, 'the girl whose dad died'."

"I wasn't going to change, you know that."

"I do know that, but everyone else will."

Nobody other than Louis and Aria knew about my dad dying. Well, I guess everyone in that hallway now knows and Aster. But only Aria and I know how he died.

She wouldn't tell anyone, right?

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a/n: my chapters are getting shorter by the minute lmao. this chapter sucked, i hope it'll get better but honestly idk lol. well, we'll see ig hahah
i love u, have a good rest of ur day <333
- x, sofia