Becoming the Fifth Second of Summer - a FanFiction

Cold Knees

'Daisy why are you late?' Mr Davis stares me down, probably eyeing me up in my skort. What a freak.

I don reply, instead I stare right back. Im not going to tell him that i was smoking behind the sports hall. Its my fucking life, not his.

He strides towards me, and grabs my arm, pulling me to the side of the tennis court. 'Im not going to ask again, Daisy.' He says breathing down my neck. I shove his hand away from me, turning to face him. I raise my chin to him, putting up a cold front. He knows where i have been. Im there every Monday period 3, he just wants me to admit it. Tough luck, Mr Davis. I shove my hands into my hoodie pocket, and kick a piece of gravel with my foot. I know he is still looking at me, I can feel his eyes burning into my scalp. I wait for him to lose his patience, and guess what, he does.

'Go back to the group. Detention tonight until 6.'. I walk back over to the group and reluctantly join in their warm up. I complete the lunges half-heartedly, and walk the high skips, and then for the shuttle runs, I just stand still on the blue line.

'Daisy, laps. Now.' I hear Mr Davis address me, and I start to walk around the court. Some people laugh, but i ignore them. Im not running for anybody. I get around to the second pitch, nearing the net when I hear a whistle blow.

'I said run. Do you want me to make that detention into a double?' He smirks. I can hear his pervey little face erupt into a fit of ugly cackles. He knows he has power, and he abuses it, little shit. Slowly, I jog. Wanting to annoy him even further. I pull my hood up over my head, and sneakily plug in my head phones into my phone, which I had hidden in my pocket, along with a pack of Camel Menthols and a lighter. I listen to Jet Black Heart as I get onto the third court, far away from my class, which I see now are playing dodgeball. Mr Davis throws a ball at Tiffany, the skinniest little rabbit of a girl, even quiter than me. She squeaks in pain, and he laughs as he high fives one of the boys. Twat.

I carry on to the 4th court, and I stop at the wore fence, taking a break. As the class is quite far away form me now and I know that i cant be seen, I decide to escape through the gap in the fence, which leads to the abandoned running track. I duck under and through the gap, jogging into the bushes which conceal the forgotten track. I stand for a moment amongst the trees, mud underfoot, and contemplate what to do. I head towards the track, and I sit on the fading-red tarmac in the 3rd lane. I pull out my cigarettes and my lighter. The song switches to 'Sirens' by Make Out Monday. I put the straight to my lips, and I get my lighter. I click the button, and again, and again. Shit. It must have run out of juice. Pissed, I go to take the smoke from my mouth. But just as i do, a feel a tap on my shoulder.

FUCK. IF MR DAVIS HAS JUST CAUGHT ME SMOKING IM GOING TO BE PHYSICALLY SICK.

I pull out my headphones, and slowly turn my head to reveal who had just caught me.

Of all people, it was Marcus.

'Daisy, what ar-'

'Shut up!' I snap. I dont need another person to lecture me on the effects of smoking, I already fucking know. He lowers himself, and sits next to me, quite close may i add. He brings his knees up and rests his hands on his knees.

'I was going to offer you a light, but okay..' He trails off, smiling.

'Oh, uh. That would actually be great, aha.' I say, nudging him slightly so he would turn to me.

He nods, and stretches out his long legs to grab his lighter form his pocket. He also brings out a pack of Camel Menthols and puts it between us, I smile at our similar taste. I put the cigarette to my mouth again, pointing the end toward him. He turns his whole body to me, holding up his black Bic lighter. He leans in, and so do I. He ignites the flame and holds it too me. I lean in closer and hover the end over the flame, giving it a few seconds to catch. When it does, I lean back and so does he. I inhale, getting the familiar minty taste in my lungs. I watch the smoke leave my mouth, swirling and mixing with the air and rise up out of sight. The cold blue sky is painted with its fumes. I lie back, my knees still in the air. My head hits the cold hard track, and I take another drag. This one longer, and more fruitful. As I quickly exhale to the side, I offer it to Marcus. He obliges, and lies back also, then continues to smoke. We both watch the smoke dance up and up. I turn my glance to his face. I watch how his eyes focus on the vapour travelling away from us, and his face is slightly red in response to the harsh cold air. I love him. Every red blotch, every crease in his lips, every curve of his face. Hell, even the tiny black heads scattered on his nose. I love all of it.

We share the cigarette, and finish it. I flick the butt into the pile that had collected on the side of the track, the majority of them being mine. I sit back up, and turn to look at Marcus. To my surprise, he is ready looking at me. I blush pink immediately, and play with the tattered sleeve of my hoodie.

'Im surprised that you smoke. It kind of occurred to me that I dont really know anything about you.' He said, almost sadly. He lies on his side, with one hand supporting his head and the other playing around with his lighter.

I mimic his position. 'Well, what would you like to know?' I smile back, semi-conscious of my awful flirtacious vocabulary. 'What did you do on the weekend?'.

Crap.

I guess he would like to know why I couldn't meet him. A valid question I guess, but I'm nervous to tell him the answer. I mean, I know it was pretty cool, but I dont know if he likes 5SOS, or would judge me for liking them. I decide that i should tell him, I dont want to lie to him.

'Well, uh, its kind of a long story...'

'Well,' He looks at his watch. 'We have 40 minutes until P.E finishes, should that cover it?' He smiles, knowing that I have to tell him now. I smile back, and take a deep breath.

'Earlier this year, I played in the 5sos concert, and I guess they liked me. They invited me to see them in Birmingham for a weekend.' I look at him, to check his expression, and to make sure that i didnt lose him at '5sos'. He looks genuinely interested, and gestures for me to carry on. 'So, I went up on Saturday, and came back last night, so thats why i couldn't see you.'

'What did you do?' He questions.

I played their set list, showed them my songs, I wrote a song. I wrote a song about you.

'Uh, I played with them, and I did quite a bit of writing.' I beam.

'Really? What do your songs sound like?'

You. They sound how you make me feel.

'I dont know, you would probably think that they're are bit girly or sad.' I laugh, then stop suddenly.

I've revealed too much, shut up.

'I would love to hear them sometime.'.

I smile back, and we sit there on the track staring into the empty sky, wondering, thinking.

We hear a bell peel in the distance, and our silent sanctuary was demolished. We look at each other, smile awkwardly, and stand up. I pull down my skort, realising that it had ridden up quite a bit whilst we were sitting. Marcus gathers his things and shoves them into the pockets of his P.E shorts, then bends down to do up his laces. I turn my attention to the stupid knee high socks that the school insists girls wear. I pull at the elastic woven into the white cotton, and try to get them to cover my knees, which were pink with chill. Max straightens, and i quickly stop fiddling with my socks to meet his eyes once more.

'I liked our little date.' He said, rubbing the back of his neck.

'Date?!' I spurt out.

'Um, yeah. Wasn't this a date? I dont know.. meeting?' We laugh at the suggestion.

'I prefer date..' I giggle back, biting my lip.

He bites his lip as well, and spins on his heel to face the path back to the tennis courts. 'Me too.' he mutters under his breath.