black tide. | ✓

0.4; past

"if your heart was full of love, could you give it up?" - not about angels, birdy.

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flashback; charlie's pov {one year ago}

The crowds at school were buzzing, everyone talking about the latest gossip that was spreading around like wildfire:

Head cheerleader – Ali Browne – had quit.

I hadn't yet had a chance to find the idiot and shake some sense into her, but I'm sure there was a reason for that; she knew once I saw her she'd never hear the end of it. That girl was mental to throw away this huge part of her life, this massive opportunity to be head cheerleader when she was only a sophomore!

As I passed by a group of other cheerleaders, I heard the one voice that makes me want to punch a brick wall. Or punch her face with a brick. Either one works.

"At least with that skank gone now I can finally be head, we all know she was a shit leader, and I would do a much better job." Lola bitched on, ignorant of the fact that if her boyfriend – Aiden, Allison's brother ­– overheard her talking about her like that, their relationship would be over in a heartbeat.

Luckily for Slut Evans, Aiden was nowhere in hearing distance.

Unfortunately for Lola, I was. 

"Hey Slut Face," I walked up to her and her squad of hypnotised followers, who chased after her like lost puppies every day and hung onto her every word, as if she was literally the next Jesus. "You okay there talking shit about my best friend or do you need me to slap you with a chair covered in spikes?"

For a second she looked mildly fazed, but the Ice Queen hardly ever backs down. Especially not to someone a year lower than her in school. "What do you want, Williams?"

"Ooh, last name basis – I'm scared!" I was suddenly overcome with a surge of confidence, considering normally no one would dare even look Lola in the eye, let alone back chat her. But she was rude about my best friend, and no one is rude about my best friend and gets away with it. "You realise that once your pretty little boyfriend hears about all the shit you've been giving Allison he's gonna break your precious heart, right?"

"You're just jealous." She retorted, turning her nose up at my attempt to break her down. I was only just starting. "Because my 'pretty little boyfriend' is mine, and not yours."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"We've all seen the way you look at him, stare at him, even. You used to be best friends, didn't you? You and that skank, the terrible trio." She continued, reminding me of the time when we were younger, and the three of us – I, Allison and Aiden – were inseparable. We would do anything and everything together, never apart. That was until puberty hit and Aiden preferred to spend time with his "popular" friends instead of his little sister and her weird best friend. "And then he left you! Because he found better friends and realised how truly fucked up you are –"

"Say one more thing. I dare you."

"Ooh, the good girl's turning bad! Run along now, sweetheart. Run along to your shitty best friend who's even shittier at cheerleading –"

"You know what? You don't need Aiden to break your heart. Because I'm gonna break your face."

And with that, I retracted my already clenched fist, and projected it in one swift motion, landing smack bang on Lola's not so perfect nose. With one piercing crack which managed to gain the attention of the rest of the student population, the few that weren't already watching our heated argument, I'd finally taken down the one person who made me really hate humanity.