Another City Of Lights.

Chapter 10.

3 months later...

Aaron's POV:-

The ball went over my head before I could even jump, and landed directly in the makeshift goal behind me.
The guy infront of me, looked rather pleased with himself and threw a smirk my way before going around passing high-fives to his teammates.
I groaned as I knelt down to tie up my shoelaces. My legs were killing me, my muscles all sore from standing and running all day.
Dash came up to me just as soon as I had stood up. He was drenched in sweat, and looked just as exhausted as I was.
"Don't worry about it, we're still in the lead. We just need one more goal and then we're done ", He reassured me.
I wanted to tell him that I didn't care who won. Because it's not like we were winning any actual prize for this game. It was just another random game we took part in, that was our thing now. Going around the city and playing for any random team that would take us.
We did play for our school, back in O'levels, and there we did win a couple of trophies, but nothing like that was happening now.
One reason for that was probably that this new school was a government funded piece of shit, and noone ever attended any classes, and hence no sports either.
So that is why Dash and I had to put our talent to use elsewhere.

As expected, we did end up winning. Dash didn't waste any more time putting the ball in their net, and then to celebrate our third victory of the day, he ran around the ground running like a lunatic.

We walked home after that, still dressed in our foul smelling clothes and carrying our book bags in our hands.
I'm pretty sure our parents knew that we didn't actually attend school, but they never said anything to us and neither did we to them.
We had actually gone on the first day, and that was probably our last day there as well, because after witnessing the political groups and random fist fights, we had concluded that that wasn't our scene. We'd rather play football all day then get beat up.
Our plan was, that we'd just study at the end of the year and sit for the exams, and hopefully pass.
My dad was pretty chill about it too, since he didn't have to pay much for this school, he really didn't care what we were upto. And I had been allowed to give up my job as well, an added benefit.

It was weird to see how life had changed in just a couple of months. Well, not much had changed between Dash and I, but Sam and Hailey, well that was a completely different story.
I hadn't talked to them much, every news I got was from Dash nowadays. He was the who Hailey would occasionally talk to.
Sam didn't really talk to any of us.

So as far as we knew, Sam was studying and preparing for medical school. Probably because of her parents, but who knew.
And Hailey wasn't sure what she wanted, so she had taken up some subjects at random.

It was a pretty dick move on Sam's part I think. None of us had expected for her to cut us off like this. But there was nothing we could do about it now.

The next morning when I met Dash outside of my house, I could tell straight away that he was upto something.
He was fidgeting with the straps of his bag, and he looked nervous as hell.
I gave him a pointed look, and he started blurting everything right away.
"So, I was thinking that we could go meet Hailey today?", He rambled.
"What? Why?", I asked him, suddenly annoyed by this thought.
"Uhm, because she's our friend?", He pointed out, "and maybe Sam too"; he added.
My mind went from annoyed to angry with a second.
"Why would I waste my day and travel so far into the city to meet someone who doesn't give a shit about us?", I spat at him, and regretted it when I saw his shocked expression.
"Come on Aaron! We haven't seen them in so long, and anyways it's a pre-birthday surprise", He explained, and I got the feeling all of this was surely Hailey's idea.
That cunning psycho.

Couple of months ago, I wouldn't have agreed to this. But times had changed, and so had I. I had probably gone soft, especially when it came to Dash, and therefore I agreed to waste a day and travel around in this blistering heat from my house to Hailey's school and then to Sam's, and then wherever the hell they wanted us to go.

Hailey was ecstatic to see us. She was practically jumping up and down and she even hugged Dash, who got uncomfortable by the sudden warm welcome. And as for me, she commented on how I needed a haircut. That part was probably true.
The only thing that surprised her was that we were now taller than her.
Not by much though, just a few inches I guess, but it still made her mad.

We were all a little nervous when we finally arrived outside Sam's school. We hadn't been here before and it looked a bit too fancy for me. The kind of place where I wouldn't fit in.
Hailey pulled out her phone and texted Sam to meet us outside. Since we didn't know if we would be allowed inside.
But due to some luck, it just so happened that classes were let off for the day, and the guard outside let us all in, saying that everyone had probably left.
The place was huge, and looked too preppy. There were a billion plants inside, all stacked up against the walls, and we didn't have to go further inside to spot Sam.
She had changed. I don't think we would've recognised her if it wasn't for the hair. She was sitting alone, with her phone in her hand, which meant she was completely ignoring Hailey's texts.
Hailey let out a girly shriek and ran up to her, engulfing her in a hug. She was somewhat disappointed when Sam didn't hug her back.
Dash and I hadn't moved from our spots. Clearly we didn't know what to do or what to say. So when both the girls came up to us, Dash was a nervous mess and I was completely silent.
Everyone was uncomfortable in their own way, and a moment of awkward silence ensued.
"Why are you all here?", Was the first thing that came out of Sam's mouth, and it shocked the hell out of us all.

I knew we shouldn't have done this.