The Honesty Rule

1:: Graduation night

The graduation after party was said to be the best night of the entire six years we spent at North Hill Secondary College. We should of been shocked when Hunter, one of my closest friends, suggested that our little group, the five of us, ditch the party and go to Wool instead. Wool is our cafe. Well, it's not our cafe, we don't own it, but we might as well live there.

Collectively, it took our group about five seconds of thinking before we realised that no, we really didn't want to go to this party, and yes, yet another night at Wool drinking coffee and chatting sounded perfect. It wasn't that we didn't like the people we went to school with, or that we hated parties. I actually loved parties, as did Madeline. Madeline was the newest addition to our group, I met her about a month ago and we immediately clicked.

So no, it wasn't that we hated parties, we just really liked sitting in Wool. It was our place.

We didn't even go home and get changed before we went to Wool, we were still in our graduation outfits, the boys in suits and us girls in dresses. Well, I was technically wearing a two piece set, this gorgeous black crop top and midi skirt combo that I had found a few weeks ago in this little boutique on the other side of Melbourne.

I was sitting in between Harry and Madeline on one side of our usual booth, and Chloe and Hunter were on the other side of the table. Chloe and Hunter were the strongest couple in our class, they never fight and are pretty much all round the perfect couple. They met when Chloe was five and Hunter was six, when Chloe moved to down Melbourne from Sydney, where she was born, and they started dating when they were fifteen and sixteen. Harry, sitting on my left side, has been best friends with Hunter since they were seven. The three of them were inseparable, and they were called the three musketeers by everyone they knew. I was the next addition to the group; Harry met me at a party early last year. And then there's Madeline, who pushed me out of the way of a speeding car last month. That is the honest to God story of how we met Madeline, she saved my life. We actually laugh about it quite a bit now.

"And you, Kate? A latte?" Phil asked me. Phil is our favourite waiter at Wool, he has gotten to know us pretty well and will usually stop and chat if the cafe isn't too busy. He well knows that if we're just having coffee opposed to actual food, I'll have a latte, but he always asks anyway. Out of courtesy, he tells me.

"Yes, please, that would be fab," I said to him.

Phil hurries away to grab the coffees, leaving us to ourselves again. Apart from an elderly couple sitting near the window at the front of the cafe, we were the only people in Wool. The cafe is usually heaving with people, but it's just gone eleven on a Friday night and most people are probably out partying.

"So, I wonder what all the others are doing?" Madeline wonders out loud, referring to the rest of the people in our year at the graduation after party.

"Probably raiding Melanie Hill's dad's bar," Hunter snorted. It was North Hills tradition to for the previous years graduating class to pick the host for the graduation after party, and last years class had picked Melanie Hill. Melanie's dad and his college buddies had invented some tiny piece of technology that goes in airplanes, and the family was disgustingly rich. Melanie bragged about this every chance she got, and we all disliked her but she did have a gorgeous house. Although she was stuck up, the girl knew how to throw a party.

Phil came by and handed each of us our coffees. "So, what brings you all here in such fancy clothes?" He asks, glancing at each of our outfits.

"Graduation night," Harry and I said simultaneously.

"Oh, that's right." He nods. "Isn't there some big after party?"

"Yea, but we skipped. We'd much rather spend the evening with you, Phillip," Madeline said with a smirk, knowing full well that he hates being called Phillip. I think she might have a crush on him, but she swears black and blue she doesn't.

"Put a sock in it, Madeline," Phil said jokingly before leaving to clean up behind the counter.

***

"Well, that was lovely," Chloe says as she put her now empty coffee mug down on the table, "but I think Hunter and I are going to leave." She smiled cheekily at him, having to look up at him because Hunter was about two heads taller than her. It wasn't that Chloe was short, she was a little bit shorter than average, but Hunter was really, really tall.

"Teddy bear wrestling?" Hunter asked.

"You know it," Chloe said with a smirk, and the two of them left the cafe, giggling. Harry and I rolled our eyes.

"What's teddy bear wrestling?" Madeline asked once Hunter and Chloe were gone. We had only known Madeline about a month, and she didn't yet know all of the little nicknames we had for things.

"Teddy bear wrestling is what Hunter and Chloe call sex," Harry explained to her.

"Really? Why?" She laughed.

"Oh, their first time, one of Hunters teddies fell on them from a shelf above his bed without them realising and it kind of became a threesome," I elaborated with a laugh.

"Hunter has teddy bears? This is gold!"

"Yeah, it was hilarious," Harry said. "Although that happened a year ago, I think he might of gotten rid of them."

***

Authors Note:

Hey! I know it's been ages since I've posted anything to Wattpad, sorry about that!
This is a new story that I've been working on for a little while, and I'm so excited to start posting more and more. I'll be uploading twice a week, on Sundays and Wednesdays (Australian time). This first chapter was a little short, but the next few are quite a bit longer. I've had so much fun writing the parts that I've already written, and I hope you'll love The Honesty Rule as much as I do!

So much love,
Ella x