Cathartic ── Aiden Clark

─ii─

As the group pondered the options, Angelica's mind travelled to when it all started. The first day of school, two weeks ago.

She had entered the school bus, feeling tired and with a big headache. Last night had been rough for her, as she got trapped in the middle of being kind of nervous for her first day and some other things, so she didn't really slept much.

When she looked at her seat, a redhead she knew as Ashlyn Banner was sitting there, wich was normal given they shared a seat since the latter half of last year. Angelica wasn't a very talkative person during that moment and soon realized the redhead wasn't either, so she respected that boundary, and in exchange the green eyed girl would tolerate her enough not to scowl when she sat with her. Besides, none of them liked loud noises, since Ashlyn had sensitive ears and Angelica was prone to migraines. 

She said hi to her with a nod while approaching the seat and notice behind her two unfamiliar faces. One of them, a brown haired boy with broad shoulders, was resting his head against the window peacefully. The other boy, who had bleached blonde hair, unusual red eyes and some eyebags, looked way more active, and seemed to be talking Ashlyn's ear off. 

Said girl sent Angelica an almost pleading look as she got closer, making the dyed boy follow the direction of her gaze and locking eyes with her. She noticed the grinning boy observing her curiously and smiled at him politely, not really able to bring up anything else.

Meanwhile, he observed her for a moment. She had long black hair and her blue eyes looked kind of tired. 'Bad night of sleep, I guess?' he thought to himself. As she sat in her seat, the boy leaned forward against her backrest, looking down to her.

"Hi, I'm Aiden and this is my cousin Ben," he said, his smile never leaving his face. At the same time, Ashlyn let out a quiet sigh of relief, she was free now that Angelica stole his atention. I mean, yeah, now she would have to deal with him, but some sacrifices need to be made sometimes.

"I'm Angelica," she answered, taking off her earphone, hoping he won't continue that conversation by ranting about something and chatting her ear off as he did with the freckled girl. Guess she jinxed it. "You guys are new?"

He nodded.
"Yes, we just moved here from Virginia. We're about two streets down from you."

After that, they made a bit more of small talk about the school and the neighbourhood and eventually arrived school. As she watched the three of them leave, the redhead's phone buzzed.

Angelica
Active 1 minute ago

You owe me one on this

She locked her screen again and shook her head, putting on her headphones and heading inside. She appreciated it, though.

Back to the three teenagers, they were about to enter the building.
"Woah, you were right. This is a small school," the talkative boy commented, eyeing Angelica and noticing her hesitate before crossing the doors. "You good?" He asked and she looked at him, locking their eyes together. They were almost the same height, but Aiden was taller.

"Yeah," she mumbled and cleared her throat, "Yeah, I'm good."

Aiden narrowed his eyes a little, but quickly returned to his nonchalant persona. The raven haired girl and Ben listened to him yap about many things, she was impressed by his ability to trail off what he was saying and instantly bring up a different topic. It would be mentally draining to anyone, but she didn't really care. She even found it more entertaining that she thought it'd be, except for the migraine that was starting to arise in her head. It wasn't Aiden's fault, really, it happened at random times too and the lack of sleep wasn't helping it, but the constant noise was starting to become kind of annoying.