Breaking His Rules

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Aaron's POV

"You may have conveniently forgotten to mention that you were dating again", Keon says in his British accent as he catches up with me after lunch, and I shrug, half dismissively, half apologetically.

Keon is my closest friend, and pretty much the only person I would trust with my life. We've known each other since we were in grade school, and we were nerds together, spending our evenings discussing chemistry problems and whatnot. He'd gone to England for six years, but we still kept in touch. Even when I joined the football team, we never grew apart, and I was even able to convince a lot of the jocks to stop bullying him. He and Quinn are like the family I never had.

He smoothed his dirty blond hair through his fingers and adjusted the thick glasses which were firmly placed on his nose. Unlike me, he actually needed his glasses to see.

"Are you angry at me?", I ask, because he looks a bit pissed.

He seems to consider the question for a while, then he shakes his head. "I know things have been hard with your parents and football and... Alicia. So I am considering your recent hardships and giving you a pass."

I give a small breath of relief, but he isn't done.

"Isn't Kayla one of the rule breakers though? I thought she and some guy on your team were dating."

"They were, but he cheated on her, and now she is with me", the lie slips easily off my tongue.

"So, technically speaking, you're more of a rebound than a potential boyfriend yeah?"

Maybe it's the way that he said it in his judgmental British accent, but I don't like his choice of words.

"I'm not a rebound ok? I'm genuinely dating this girl. Maybe I do have feelings for her"

I nearly gag as I say the words, but I can't bring myself to tell him that I am only dating her to get Alicia back. That would sound low, desperate and slightly psychotic. Also, Keon never really liked Alicia, always calling her a stuck up snob, and he would not be pleased that I'm doing all this to get her back. I know that he'll eventually adjust to her though, if only for my sake.

His voice brings me back to the present.

"Sorry, I zoned out. What did you say?"

"I was just saying that you should not allow Kayla ruin you and all that. You're not permitted to skip classes or get any of those deplorable marks of ink called detention slips. You know how your parents are."

Yeah, I do. They'd probably kick me out of the house if they heard of me skipping classes.

"Don't worry.", I say bumping his shoulder. "I don't intend to lose my star personality."

"Star personality? I beg to differ. Anyway, when do I get introduced to her?"

Good question. At the moment, I have no idea where Kayla is. As soon as lunch ended, she grabbed her bag and took off with Steph. Something about a birthday celebration.

I am about to reply when we round the corner to the classroom, we bump into a group of giggling girls. I smell familiar perfume, and I don't even need to look up before I know that Alicia is one of them.

"Excuse us ladies", I say while Keon just remains blank and unapologizing. He doesn't talk much around girls, especially the elites – they were responsible for a lot of bullying that came our way when we were still under the popularity radar and he doesn't forgive as easily as I do.

Alicia looks up at me, her soft brown eyes locking onto mine.

"Hi", she says to me.

"Hi"