Boys Who Steal Cats

5 - Confessions of Awkward Situations

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We had never tried this before. All of the years that I had lived next door to the Black's and neither one of us had tried to get into the others room through the window. A large tree with thick branches stood between our houses. The branches were too high up to climb up the tree but they were the perfect level to reach the other window. It was easier than we thought.

It took less than five minutes for Austen to climb out my window, jump onto the closest branch and cross through to get to his own window. I was amazed by how graceful he was, not even second guessing what he was doing at all. Like a damn cat.

The only problem was that it was locked. So now not only had Austen discovered a new way to sneak into his bedroom, he also was currently kicking off his shoes and climbing into my bed.

"Why the fck are you in my bed? There's guest room." I scowled, not wanting him in my house to begin with.

He gave me a look as if to ask if i was seriously questioning his actions. "Y'all put the cheap mattress in there. I'm not sleeping on that. And it would be weird to sleep on your moms bed."

"Then go sleep on the couch?"

"You go sleep on the couch. Turn the light off on your way out."

"Austen, get out of my bed." I was tired and was not in the mood to deal with his bullshit. At this point I had sobered up plenty and couldn't wait to get away from him. I made my way over to the bed, climbing in right next to him. "Its my bed."

"I guess we are just going to have to cuddle."

"GET OUT!" I managed to kick him off the bed and he went tumbling down onto the wooden floors. He stood up, scowling and making his way over to the door. Victory was mine.

"...always have to be such a bitch.." I heard him mumbling under his breath. I rolled my eyes, letting it roll right off my back. He had called me worse before.

********************

I wanted to drown my soul in gallons of coffee. That was how I felt the next morning while walking to my first class. Kai looked like she was in way too good of a mood from someone who had to be at school. Someone obviously had some fun the night before... Ryan looked just as tired as me, but he remembered to put concealer on, unlike me. My face was clean of any make up and I was sure somebody would ask me if I was sick. Love being a girl.

"Hey, boo." He greated. "Where did you end up last night? I went to find you and I couldn't."

"I made it home. Guess who found me." He immediately shot me a knowing look. That was one of the best parts of our relationship, I didn't even need to mention who it was, he already knew.

"He offered you a ride home? Wow, thats so nice for such an arrogant-"

"Who are we talking about?" Kai budded in, curiosity all over her face. Ryan shot me a look, asking if it was okay to share with our new friend. I guess that was the thing about new friends, you aren't sure how good they are at keeping secrets.

"Austen Black." I tried to say his name as casual as I could, not wanting to cause a reaction from the girl.

"So you guys ARE a thing?" Kai's eyes opened wide with excitement. "I TOTALLY ship it."

"You what?"

"Ship it."

"No, no, bitch. You're new here so you don't know how this works. Theres nothing to ship when it comes to Austen Black." Ryan cut in for me. "Leave that fandom talk wherever you came from."

Kai stuck her tongue out at Ryan, turning back to me and wiggling her eyebrows up and down. "So i think Henry likes me."

She was twirling her hair like some kind of love struck fool. She had managed to get dressed for school this morning, unlike me. Kai wore her knee high combat boots and a pair of black ripped up jeans. Her tank top was simple but she had a choker on and a grey leather jacket on top of it and her hair had been straightened, showing off its unique color.

"Honey he likes your kitty cat." Ryan rolled his eyes, pointing out the obvious again.

"Is he always this blunt?"

"Yes." I nodded to emphasize just how honest and blunt my best friend was.

"Meh. Im heading to class." Kai began to skip off, humming Dangerous Woman by Ariana Grande.

After she had left our view, Ryan and i were finally alone to talk about what had happened. I quickly filled him in on the night before after I had left the party.

"I just can't imagine him being nice." He expressed as we took our seats in our first class.

*****

The cafeteria was full when Ryan and I  arrived, quickly searching out my group. To my surprise I found Kai sitting with none other than Austen Black and his crew. When she spotted us she stood up and waved us over. I left out a harsh sigh as I made my way over towards the table. Austen smirked from where he sat, with Alexia Hardeman sitting next to him and batting her eyelashes desperately.

"You look tired." He said as soon as he saw me. I rolled my eyes, ignoring his existence and taking a seat at the end of the table as far as I could get from him.

"Hey Ryland." Cade nodded a greeting when I sat down next to him, purposely ignoring Ryan. He was currently reading a book - The Art of War. It wasnt unusual to see him reading books. Ryan sat on the other side of me, glaring at Cade and keeping his distance. To my surprise Cade continued speaking. "Can I ask you a favor?"

"Uh, yeah. Whats up?" Out of the corner of my eye I could have sworn that I saw Austen watching us from his end.

"you know how my mom is hosting that charity thing?" Cade's mom was very popular in our town for hosting charity events. She went all out for them, and they were always black tie events. I had only ever gone to one and I was bored out of my mind the entire time. "She wants me to bring a date who meets her standards. So... Can you be my date? Strictly platonic."

It was weird that Cade of all people would ask me to be their date to one of the events. I was actually surprised i met his mom's standards and he would choose me. "Why me?"

"You're the only girl I know who hasn't slept with Austen." Cade stated bluntly. Ryan spit out his milk in laughter at that, drawing the table's attention over to us. I busted out laughing with him, pretending to wipe a tear out of the corner of my eye.

"Bless you." I said sarcastically, setting my hand on Cade's shoulder as I tried to hold back laughter. "Yes. Yes, I am in."