Manipulated Vunerability ~ HSMTMTS AU

Chapter 11

"You got your classes switched!" Ashlyn jumped up from her seat when she noticed Lila the following day.

"Yep!" Lila walked over to her.

"Okay, we still aren't doing much today." Ashlyn told her. "Wanna meet some of my friends? They're super sweet."

"Yeah... but, like, not too many at a time? That kinda sounds like a lot, in an already new place."

"I totally get that." Ashlyn nodded. "Uh..." she looked around. "Hey, Gina? Eej?" She looked at the fairly new couple. "Come here!" She invited them. They walked over.

"What's up?" EJ asked.

"This is Lila. She just joined, I figured I should introduce her to some people."

"Oh, I'm Gina." Gina offered a smile to Lila. "Ash is, like, basically my sister."

"I'm EJ." The boy introduced himself. "Ashlyn's cousin. Gina's boyfriend."

"Nice to meet you."

"To clarify, Gina is not my sister." Ashlyn butted in.

"Good!" Lila laughed.

"Yeah, it's a long story, but we're best friends and Gina lives with me. But, you know, not sisters."

"Cool. What grades are you guys in?"

"I'm a junior." Gina told her.

"I'm just here to help, I'm taking a gap year. Graduated last year."

"Oh, cool." Lila nodded.

The free time they had in that period resulted in introductions from not only EJ and Gina, but also Seb, Carlos, and Kourtney. The only drawback was that since this was their one period together, Big Red was missing his girlfriend. Mostly because he was stuck between Ricky and Lily.

"Oh, we should go!" Lily exclaimed, putting her hand on Ricky's chest. He had been talking about a party invite he had received.

"It's actually just seniors. I wish you could come." Ricky replied.

"Oh. We could just hang out instead." Lily suggested.

"I was kinda wanting to go."

"Come on, I wanna hang out." Lily whined.

"Alright." He agreed. Lily smiled.

"I'm gonna go use the restroom." She got up and left.

"Girls, am I right?" Ricky nudged Big Red's shoulder.

"Not really." Big Red said, seriously spooking at his friend. "You're partner shouldn't force you to skip things."

"She's not forcing me to." Ricky shrugged.

"I was a little concerned about going to the party. Ashlyn literally encouraged me to, even though we had plans. Or, plans to hang out, not huge plans. Then she'd probably want me to not go... but she wouldn't even force me to stay. She'd just leave it up to me."

"Okay, well, that's you guys." Ricky shrugged.

"Your thing just doesn't sound right."

"Well, we have our ways and they work."

"Right." Big Red forced a nod. He looked over at Ashlyn and the group around her, smiling lightly. "I'll see you in a minute." He excused himself, walking over to the group. He wrapped his arms around his girlfriend from behind.

"Hey." She smiled.

"Hey love." He kissed the back of her neck softly. "I feel like we haven't talked today."