Learning From The Bad Boy

Axel

Axel:

After leaving Celia's house, I couldn't help but worry about her. If she was supposed to be home then why was the house empty? I killed the engine to my bike when I pulled up to my house. I needed to talk to her. When the door shut behind me, my mom shouted out to me.

I rolled my eyes. If she called for help this time of year, it was probably to ask for my opinion on an outfit. I so solemnly believe she really wanted a daughter. Sure enough she was standing next to a suitcase holding two dresses next to eachother.

"Purple or blue?" She asked in the most serious face she could manage. My mom knew good and well she shouldn't be asking advice about clothing from me.

"Either." I said, not knowing what else to tell her.

"Purple it is."

I smiled a little. My mom was always packing days ahead of when she was really leaving.

Per usual, her and my dad were going on a vacation for their anniversary, which mostly fell the day after Thanksgiving. They usually left the night of Thanksgiving.

But here she was, packing her things on Tuesday. Was it really that difficult to pack the day before? Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her neatly fold the dark violet dress away.

Suddenly she put her hands on her hips. Oh great.

"Okay, what's wrong?" She narrowed her eyes.

What can I say, I am a mama's boy and she knows it. I shrugged indifferently. "Nothing."

With my hands shoved down into my pockets, I left the room before she could pry anything out of me. God knows that my mom would get her way if she wanted to, that included uncovering my idiotic mistakes.

I fished my phone out of my jacket pocket. Silently I scrolled through the list of names, landing on Little Red. Before I could talk myself out of it, I pushed the call button. It rang. Her voice sounded, but only as a recording to let me know she wasn't picking up. Once more won't hurt right? I let out a puff of air. I redialed the number.

Ring. Ring. Ring. Ri- "What do you want?" Her cold and unattached voice caught me off gaurd.

"Ginger?" I was almost convinced it couldn't be her speaking like that. "Look I'm-" She cut me off mid sentence.

"Don't call me that. Oh and by the way, why don't you give Chelsea a call? She actually cornered me and asked me to pass on a message." The anger in her voice was palpable.

Chelsea? What did she mean Chelsea cornered her? I knew that I'd messed up, but I didn't expect her to be this angry. What did Chelsea have to do with this? There's only one reason she'd be mad about Chelsea. And yes, I'm vain enough to say it has to be jealousy.

"What the fuck? What are you talking about?" I asked in pure confusion. I knew she wasn't jealous of Chelsea. There was no way that was possible.

"I had a bad enough day, okay? So quit calling. Maybe just leave me alone. This was a bad idea, and it's clear you don't want to be around me." Her voice was sorrowful. I'd be damned if that didn't make my chest ache.

"Red?" I said to her pleadingly. "Listen to me, okay? What happened today-" any bullshit explanation I was going to conjure up was cut short by her, again.

I heard her scoff on the opposite line "You don't have to explain yourself. Just go talk to her, I need to take a shower and wrap my ankle. Goodbye Axel."

Wrap her ankle? Was she hurt?

Wait. Wait. Wait.

Did she say goodbye?!

"Don't you fucking hang up! Ginger please listen to me!" I begged, almost yelling now. The line went quiet.

Dammit!

Hundreds of questions whirled in my mind. What had happened to her? Was she hurt? Did any of this have to do with her mom? Sarah? Aaron?

Fully knowing she wasn't going to answer if I called again, I opened a new message.

I wasn't good at this. What was I even supposed to say?

Slowly I started to typing. I'm so damn sorry, Ginger. Please just let me explain everything to you. I know I screwed up, okay? I do. But don't ever think that I don't want to be around you. I want to be around you more than you know.

No. Backspacing quickly, I picked up where I left off. I care too much about you to just let you go. Please just talk to me. I can't think that you hate me, and even if you do just pretend you don't for my sake.

I was so damn pathetic. I backspaced again. I don't want you to hate me. At least let me know if you're okay?

If this is what idiocy felt like, I didn't want to feel it again. Not only did I feel like an idiot, but a class A asshole as well. I sent the message, cringing as I did so. The apologizing scene wasn't something I was used to. Let alone groveling for a girl. I fell back onto my bed. Celia wasn't just some girl. So why did I try to pretend she was?

I ran a hand through my hair. A slight knock on my door let me know my mom was about to enter.

My hands rubbed across my face. She sat on the corner of my bed.

"Maybe you don't want to talk about it now, but when you do I'm here." She ran a hand through my hair. I'd come to appreciate her motherly affection much more after seeing how callous and uncaring Celia's mother was.

"I just did something stupid. Hopefully I fixed it. I hope it's fixed. I don't know what I'll do if it isn't." It was complete honesty. The ginger was almost like a leech, a cute leech, but still a leech. She'd attached herself to me, hell and she didn't even know it, and there was no getting rid of her.

Kind of a piss poor analogy, but it was the only thing to pop up in my brain.

Smile lifted on my mom's face, she stood up. "Well that's good because I don't want to lose my daughter in law. I'm quite fond of her already."

What did I say? She knew me like the back of her hand. I smiled a little.

I don't want to lose her either, mom.

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A little bit of Axel's side from last chapter.

Not that fantastic, but oh well. Ignore the typos. Seriously if you think that the story is lacking anything (ex. Dialogue, description, depth etc...) let me know!