Falling In Love With You | cth

xii

xii | pleasant lunch

In five minutes of waiting outside in front of the school awkwardly with Luke and Michael, a beige car pulls up, revealing the driver to be Ashton. With that curly hair, beautiful, and a smile to die for, it's no wonder why girls fell for him, he was a masterpiece made by God.

Ashton lowered the window, he smiled widely when he saw me. Michael dragged me to the back seat so I could play air hockey with him in the backseat with Luke following closely behind.

"Mikey, why can't I play with you?" Luke asked, slightly pouting.

"Because you always cheat," Michael answered.

"No, I don't," whined Luke, sounding like a child.

"Uh-huh, you tickle me so you can win" complained Michael.

"Nuh-huh."

"Girls, stop fighting." chuckled Ashton.

"I'm not a girl! I'm a grown man!" said Michael.

"Says the guy wearing My Little Pony socks," I giggled.

Ashton, Luke and I burst out laughing, making jokes about Michael and his socks. Soon Michael joins us, making a fool of himself as well.

I was genuinely having fun that barely I noticed my surroundings,  Ashton parked inside a diner parking lot. The place wasn't that far from the school. We got off and walked in the diner, we greeted some of the employees before we made our way to sit at a booth.

"Cassidy?"

I look up to seeing a familiar face, Grace Padilla, probably the one and only friend I had from middle school. I haven't heard from her in years, she had moved to the Northside of Cali, she hasn't changed one bit. 

"Gracie!"

"It's been so long!"

"It has, what are you doing here?"

"I work here, 24/7. Ever since I got a kid back home,"

"What?!-"

"Gracie! Get your ass back to work!" yelled a man from the kitchen with a scornful expression stared at Gracie, making her sigh loudly before taking our orders, one Club Chicken Sandwich meal, two Cheeseburgers meals, and a medium pepperoni pizza meal. 

"I'll give you my number later. We should during the weekend or something,"

I agree with her before she was yelled at once again, she groans and walks away to take orders from others. 

"How do you know her?" Ashton asked.

"Gracie was my best friend back then, way before Calum started bullying me," I answered.

Ashton simply nodded before he started a conversation, from behind him, the front The door opened, I instantly regret looking. The pack of muscular tallboys walked through the door with petite girls behind them, following a boy with the mop of ebony hair. I sank in my seat, hoping for them not to look at our way. However, the ebony boy finds Ashton, Luke, and Michael, walking over to our table.

"Why is she here?" Calum asked the boys.

Michael grabbed my forearm, pulling me up more insight, "She eating with us!"

Michael smiled at Calum like a little boy on Christmas Eve while Calum glared at the boys before he turned his heel and left to go to his table. Fear overcame me.

"He's right, why am I here?" I asked the boys.

"Cassidy, we want to be friends with you," Ashton told me.

Before he could explain anything else, Gracie came back with our drinks and food. By now, they tried to avoid bringing up Calum and his followers. They had joked about some things and talked about bands to me. I excused myself to the restroom.

Entering the bathroom, I go to the sink to wash my hands. The door opens, I looked up slightly, seeing the captain of the cheerleading squad, Annie with her two followers, Josie and Gigi. They tend to bully me secretly when Calum isn't around.

"Well isn't it The Reject Girl?" laughed Annie, "Why are you here, Caggie?" 

"It's Cassie." I gritted my teeth.

"Yeah, whatever. Quick, question is: How are you here with Ashton Irwin, Luke Hemmings, and Michael Clifford?" Annie asked me.

I didn't answer, I turn off the faucet, grabbed a towel before throwing it away to walk passed them until one of them grabbed my hair and pulled me back, falling to the floor. Gigi goes to the door, locking it. Annie pulled my legs and got on top of me and grabbed my hair as she started to slap my face. While Annie was doing that, Josie and Annie were kicking my sides. I yelled as one of them started to take off my clothes.

"Oh, girls, look," laughed Annie

Knots twisted and turned as my legs, wrists, and waists were exposed, showing my body was full of cuts. I tried my best to hide my horrifying scars, whether they may be old, healing, or new. It's something I tried to hide from everyone with baggy clothing or heavy color correlating concealer underneath a heavy foundation. Now with my body exposed to them, I could only imagine what would happen afterward. 

Then a sign from God, the door opened wide, revealing a concerned, worried Gracie holding chain of keys and a pissed off Luke. The girls smiled as they got up and left the bathroom, acting like nothing happened. Leaving me with my bra and underwear on, I brought my knees to my chest to hide my body from Luke. I could hear Gracie telling Luke to go back to the table and ask to take the food with them.

"Cassie, honey, are you okay?" Gracie asked

"Why are people mean?" I cried," I just want a normal life!"

Gracie got her knees and wrapped around my shoulders, rubbing her thumb in a circulate motion on my back. I hugged her and cried into her shoulders. What a pleasant lunch, note the sarcasm.