BAD OMENS ✬ luke hemmings

0.1 | senior year

Aria waits outside Michael's house. He hasn't been on time since school started – a month ago – and has continuously left the girl to sit in her car for ten-minutes every morning. Sighing, Aria sticks her head out the window, and yells.

"Michael! Get your ass out of that house!"

Aria hasn't been driving for long. She got her license over the summer and her dad bought her a car – nothing grand – something fit for a seventeen-year-old girl and the one friend that her dad knows.

"I thought driving to school would mean I wouldn't be late!" She yells again, seeing a flash of faded green hair through the window. "I see you!"

The front door swings open and Michael comes out with his feet shoved into his unlaced converse, and a piece of toast in between his teeth. His bag unzipped with notebooks and laptop threatening to fall out any second. The boy – slowly – jogs towards the passenger door and hops in, letting his bag fall between his legs on the floor.

"Sorry," he mumbles, chewing on the plain piece of burnt toast. "My alarm didn't go off and mum forgot to wake me up before she went off to work." He ties up the laces of his shoes and finally zips his bag up.

"Just be glad you're not taking the bus anymore," Aria says, "it wouldn't have waited for you." She reverses out of the driveway, heading towards the school. It's only a fifteen-minute drive, twenty if there's consistent red-lights, and nearly thirty if there's traffic or congestion.

The windows are rolled down, and the girl's phone is connected to aux playing some song that isn't 'punk rock' enough for Michael. It's been three years and the boy still is on that whole look.

Speaking of which, Michael and Aria have been best friends since the first day they talked. They had almost every class together, and he was the only one who didn't care about the girl's torn friendship with Luke. Since then, the two have made more friends, obviously, found themselves in a small group of people.

There's Sade, and Jonah.

Yes, only two people added to their friendship, but that doesn't mean they don't have other friends. This is just their inner-circle.

"So, Aria, have you heard from Ashton recently?" Michael asks, "Last I heard, he was backpacking in Europe and planning a gap year."

Ashton, he graduated. However, he became one of Aria's friends after her first day of high school. They barely talked at school, considering they never shared any of the same classes – except for study hall – and he had his own friends.

"Uh, yeah, but I don't know where you heard about the backpacking in Europe thing. That's not true, he and the band were focusing on gaining a following." She explains, "He's really serious about this band thing, and they've got a gig tonight at this bar downtown."

"We should totally go!" Michael exclaims, "I'll get my fake ID out, and you'll use your sisters. Come on, it's Friday! Let's go out and support the guy."

"So, what? I tell my dad that I'm going out to a bar and I'll be gone until midnight?" Aria questions, taking the third exit at the roundabout. "He's not going to let me do that."

"Are you dumb?" Michael scoffs, "Obviously you lie, damn, it wouldn't be the first time you snuck out."

"The difference is Michael, that I'm taking the car." She points out, "How do you think my dad would feel when he looks out the window and sees that my car is gone? In the past I would walk."

"Tell him you're staying at mine!" He says.

"I'm not opposed to watching Ashton perform, the guy invited me, we just need to come up with a foolproof plan." She says, "If I take my car, stay at yours, I can't drink, and neither can you. Besides, do you even have enough money to spend on overpriced drinks at a bar?"