Flawed Perfection.

Chapter 32

"Oh shit! I left something inside, I'll be back." I say, walking away from my friends and heading back inside school to pick up purse.

Of all things to not bring along with you Ash, your purse, seriously?

The hallway was already empty, I'm pretty sure the only people left in school were in class for club meetings. I hurriedly press in my code for the locker and I see the purse immediately, lying on top some books. I grab it and put it into my bag, close the locker and begin to leave. I don't want to stay here any longer the emptiness of the place gives me the creeps. I get a text from Steph telling me hurry, and I stop to text her back with a smile on my face.

"I've only been gone for about a minute I know you can't wait to see me, but practice a little patience. I'm coming!"

"Don't smile like that alone, you look creepy." A voice says interrupting my peace of mind.

"Woah, Penelope you scared me." I reply with my hands placed to my chest as I try to control my breathing. "What are you doing here?" I ask ,

"Stop being so much of a drama queen." She says rolling her eyes playfully which makes me let my guard down a bit. "I want to talk to you." She continues with a serious but tender look on her face. She almost looks genuine.

"What is it this time?" I groan, "Don't tell me you found my real parents?" I gasp dramatically.

Her expression immediately softens after seeing the way I acted and hearing my words. She opens her mouth to say something but words don't come out.

"If you don't have anything to say I'll be leaving now." I say, but she holds me by my hand to stop me.

"I'm sorry." She apologizes and my eyes widens in shock.

Without waiting for me to say another word she continues "I know, I've been nothing but a bad person towards you, even when you were always being nice to me." She sighs "I'm just not used to things not going my way and when it happened with Nathan, I lost it." She looks down not wanting to face me but I wait for her to burst out laughing saying it's a prank or something, but it doesn't happen.

Is she being for real?

"But you have to break ties with Tyler." She says sternly looking facing me this time staring at me boldly.

I knew this was too good to be true.

I sigh and break away from her grip.

"You want Tyler now?" I ask raising a brow not taken aback by what she said.

"No! not that. He's just using you." She says,

Now that's bullshit.

I start walking away, because nothing she's saying makes any sense.

"He's using you to get back at Nathan." She continues. I stop in my tracks and turn back to face her and she continues without waiting for my opinion.

"He couldn't get Serena, but he has you, and he knows it's driving Nathan crazy."

"What does Nathan have to do with all these?" I ask trying to process her words.

"You can't tell me you don't know Nathan's in love with you?" She sighs yet again "He only kissed me because he was jealous you kissed Tyler. He was fucking mad at me for the stunt I pulled in the hallway that day and made it clear that he was in love with you." She says snickering a bit.

She moves closer to me till she's just inches away. "I don't hate you, I admire you and I'm a bit jealous, but it doesn't matter. I don't know if Tyler actually likes you, but I meant everything I said, maybe you should talk to him about it. I promise I won't do anything stupid again, I'll just have your back and I hope you eventually forgive me." She finishes and then walks away.

I stand there still shocked about everything.
She didn't mean what she said about Tyler, maybe she's just guessing. I shut out every other reasonable thought in my head and hurry to meet my friends.

******
Noah and Cade had something else to do so it was just me and the girls. We went to a small restaurant not too far away from school and I tell them everything that Penelope had told me.

"She was joking yeah? Maybe she's just trying to pull another stupid prank and mess you up." Steph says looking into my eyes as if searching for an answer.

"Tyler and Nathan never really had a good relationship, but I don't think Tyler would take it that far." Ray says calmly.

I look over to Nat for her opinion, but she doesn't say anything, I don't even think our minds are in the same place.

"What are you thinking about Nat?" I ask placing my hands over hers and just as I assumed she jolt up in shock before looking at me and then at every other person.

"Sorry, what did you say?" She asks,

"You good?" I ask worriedly cause she hardly ever blanks out.

"Yeah I'm fine." She laughs "If Tyler was just messing around, I'll make sure he regrets ever coming back here." She says with gritted teeth.

"Nobody's doing that Nat!" I say laughing trying to lessen the tension in the air. "I think I need coffee." I say getting up from the table.

On about getting to the table, My legs leave the ground.

"P junior!" I hear a deep unfamiliar voice say, and it dawns on me that I've just been lifted off the ground by this stranger.

"Put me down!" I demand immediately and he does.

"It's been so long! Gosh you've grown but you still look the same." The other blonde haired guy with him speaks before I'm able to.

"What the fuck are you guys talking about? You don't just lift up any girl you see and start spilling bullshit!" I raise my voice.

"Come on P, don't act like you don't know us." The one who raised me laughs.

"It's us! Ian and Grayson!" The blonde guy says with a wide smile on his face which lessens when I still don't seem to remember them.

"You can't tell me you've forgotten the trio Ed, Ed and Eddie, I mean with Archie around." The other guy chips in.

"Who's Archie?" I ask in utmost confusion.

"What's going on here?" Rays interrupts before they're able to answer me.

"I don't even know," I sigh, "I'll go get my coffee now." I say and walk away from them, leaving Ray with them.

I get my coffee, ignoring them, I walk back the table. I give them the details of what just happened and we brush it away, and talk about other things. Ray soon joins us and explains that they mistook me for someone else and also extends their apology.

Engulfed in different topics, time flies by without us knowing and we decide to leave, after I decided that I had to talk to Tyler and I wasn't going to wait till another day to do so.
Nat takes me home and during the ride I text him telling that we have to talk and he agrees, so he's going to pick me up in the evening.

It's not possible that everything we did together was just to piss off Nathan.

I tell myself over and over again.

"Ash!" I hear Nat call,

"Yeah?" I reply, and looking around my surroundings, I realize I'm home.

"Stop thinking too much Ash!" She snaps, which draws my attention back to her. "You've been spacing out quite a lot ever since Penelope showed you the class picture. Since then you've not been you. I wish you would just talk to me." She says softly.

I flash her a huge smile "Stop worrying too much, I'm fine." I reply and hurriedly step out of the car.

"I'm always here for you!" She shouts from the car, which makes me smile, and without turning back, I walk away, into my house.

I feel so much for Ash, I wish she would just talk to somebody.
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