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Chapter Fifty

I walked late into my classroom causing stares from all my classmates. My brother's attention peaked more than the others. I could tell by his raised eyebrow and the stern expression on his face. Always curious and always worried, at least after what Ally did to me.

The teacher scalded my late arrival but I only ignored her scowl. I was rarely late and I was the best student in her class. That isn't just me tooting my own either, it was the truth. I was sweeping the top students in this class under the rug with my grades. Lincoln high never needed to yell at me for things I already knew were wrong. I just couldn't escape the inevitable sometimes.

I slid into the desk next to my brother and dropped my books onto the tan surface in front of me. I offered a halfhearted apology to the teacher stood at the front of the room just to get her to shut up. She took my fake apology and continued on with her lecture about some mathematic theory I had already taught myself back at my old school. Typical nerd behavior.

At the end of class, we were given homework time. The only plus about this class. We were always given time to get as much of our homework done as possible while still at school. This teacher was actually one of the most understanding that we had a lot of shit going on as teenagers. We had lives outside of school. We didn't need to dedicate our whole lives to doing stupid school outside of school.

Reece took this time to question me, instead of doing his homework. I actually decided to focus on doing both, having a conversation with him and getting the homework done.

"Want to explain yourself?" Reece pulled my desk towards his causing the metal feet to screech across the floor.

"Grayson was talking to me about Ally. It was urgent, I guess. He didn't want to wait. And I've had enough of fighting against people so I let him speak." I scribbled down numbers onto my blank piece of paper as I spoke.

"Okay. Good." Reece ended a conversation I thought was going to take the rest of the period there. I was able to actually do my homework in peace, for the most part. At least until Reece would interrupt with questions about the math he would never understand. I guess more like Reece leaned over me to copy down my homework onto his clean sheet of paper.

"Yes, Reece, copy my work. Use my brain power to make yourself look smart. That is totally okay." I gave my brother devil eyes, but only jokingly.

I didn't care if he copied my work. Hell I didn't care if he copied off me on a test. All of this high school bullshit wouldn't matter. A grade he got on a test in a math class in junior year really would not matter.

"You're the best." Reece smiled as he bumped his shoulder into mine.

"From hating me to loving me. I must have such great charm!" I smirked.

"Don't take things too far now." Reece smirked back at me.

"Can I ask you something?" I changed the topic of our conversation to a serious tone.

"Oh, I don't like the sound of this." Reece rested his head on his hand propping his head up.

"It's about Em." I watched for his expression to change but it didn't.

His silence urged for me to continue on.

"Gray said Ally pushed someone over the edge." I looked away from my brother not wanting to see an expression I'm sure would appear if my suspicions were correct.

"Hey," Reece placed his hand against my shoulder, "you don't have to feel guilty about asking. The truth is I can't answer the question you want answered. The only one who has that answer is Emery and maybe Ally. As for what Grayson is talking about, his sister has pushed a lot of people over the edge."

"Then why do you all stay friends with her?" I couldn't understand why anyone would want to associate with someone so volatile.

"She's Grayson's sister. They're twins. You have one you have the other. It's how it has always been. Ally does have her good days but she can also be the worst person on the planet. We all take it day by day and wait for the girl to explode." Reece shrugged so nonchalantly about it all.

"More a ticking time bomb than me. That's scary."

"Competition in every way sis. She was inevitably going to hate you. Even if Pierce wasn't involved."

"Well, that's just great to know." I leaned back in my chair and threw my head back in frustration.

"You're smarter than her. Have more life knowledge than her. Don't abuse people like her. You swoon her brother. You pull attention easily. Even if you don't want it. You do. You don't try, she does. She is envious of you. It's just how she is."

"I'm just so tired of it all Reece." I let out a big breath letting my head fall onto my brother's shoulder.

"You had sixteen years of worse hell than this. You're stronger than you think. You have me. You have Pierce. You have our group always. If you need to take some mental health days away from this, I'll talk to mom and dad for you. I'll get all the notes. Not that you need them. Whatever you need, tell me and I'll do what I can to help." Reece wrapped his arm over my shoulder pulling me into him. "Stop stressing, relax, get out of your head. Just like you tell me. You got this Charlee."

My attention was pulled away from my brother when I saw Pierce standing in the doorway of our classroom. He didn't just pull my attention away though; he also grabbed the attention of our teacher.

"Mister Hudson what are you doing out of class?" My teacher pulled her glasses from her face to look at the beautiful boy standing in the doorway.

"Checking on someone important." Pierce glanced at me for a quick second before looking back at the teacher.

"I think being in class is more important." My teacher furrowed her brows at Pierce.

"I beg to differ." Pierce crossed his arms over his chest. "Last time I checked you teachers failed at your job of protecting a student. So yeah, I'm going to do my job at keeping my peers safe."

Pierce's comment made me move my hand under my desk. He knew how much I hated attention. I didn't want anyone giving me that unwanted act.

"Do you want to be sent to the principal's office Mister Hudson?" The teacher fought back against the boy who would always protect me.

"Pierce." I said quietly trying not to interrupt other students.

"Okay." Pierce nodded at me and walked away from the doorway.

"He loves you too much for his own good." Reece chuckled to himself. "How was our group so oblivious to both of your feelings for so long?"

"Because we tried our damn hardest to hide the fuck out of our feelings. We are born liars and hiders."

As brutally honest as the statement as that statement was it was the truth. Pierce and I could lie our way through anything. We could hide our feelings, our emotions, our pain, everything so easily from the world. It's how we made it so far in life. Hell, we even lied to ourselves to make it all easier. Even though it never helped.

That was the thing between Pierce and I, no one would ever understand what we went through. It would always be inevitable for the two of us to fall into each other.