How To Tame The Beasts -- Alex Gaskarth Fan Fic

Chapter Twenty-Three

I cursed under my breath as I pulled against the locked art room door.  Apparently I must have missed the teacher who had locked it up and now I was stuck with not getting new supplies. 

I sighed, taking a step back from the art room door and bit down on my lip before turning around and nearly jumping out of my skin. "C-Christ!" I cursed, setting a hand against my racing heart.

"Sorry, sorry," Tony mumbled, taking a step back and rubbing his hands together. "I thought you heard me coming up behind you."

After regaining my composure, I narrowed my eyes.  I hadn't talked to Tony since he explained the incident with the Trouble-Makers, and since then Alex had already explained his side of the story.  I had no reason to trust Tony, especially after he left out a lot of what had gone wrong on his own part of the story.

"Nope," I said absently, going to walk past him.

"Oh, cold shoulder?" he asked, looking after me.

"You could say that." I didn't bother looking back at him but I knew he was following after me still.  I had no intent on slowing my pace, though.

"Geez, what did I do now?" he asked. "I thought after I explained to you what happened, I would at least have you on my side."

I turned to face him now, my eyes still narrowed. "And why would you even think for a second I'd go on your side rather than my friends'?"

Tony frowned now and furrowed his eyebrows.  "I-I don't know, because you actually listened to my story."

"Yeah, well, you left out a lot." I turned back around, heading for Rian's classroom.

"I told you that, though," he protested, continuing to walk after me. "I said I left out most of the details."

"You also chose to leave out how you sent Jaime to the hospital," I growled now, getting sick of hearing Tony's pleads for me to 'side with him'.

Tony gulped at that, nervously glancing away as he walked beside me. "Well, yeah, it's not something I'm exactly p-proud of," he stammered.

I chose to go silent now.  This conversation wasn't going anywhere and, usually, whenever I was around the Clique members, drama always stirred and I wasn't in the mood for it.

"So is that why you chose to believe them over me?" he asked now.

"What are you even talking about?" I asked now, coming to a halt and facing him.  As much as I knew I shouldn't even be talking to him right now, I just couldn't keep my mouth shut. "You seem genuinely shocked that I'm staying with my friends rather than going off with some stranger.  Did you honestly think I would just go off with you just like that? I'm sorry, but I have a much deeper loyalty than that."

Tony blinked. "Stella, they're not good people."

"Then why do you care if I hang out with them?! If they're not good people, than neither am I because those are my friends.  And, you have no idea who I am, so stop trying to act like you do," I hissed, turning down the hallway that Rian's classroom was on.

"Because, from what Zack's told me, you're a good person, Stella.  I hate to see them do the same thing they did to me to you," he insisted, chasing after me.

"Zack doesn't know me," I spat.

"You guys used to be friends, though.  Don't act like that didn't happen," Tony went on.

"Yeah, used to be.  Until he stabbed me and my best friends in the back."

"He's just trying to do what's best."

"Tony, what are you doing here?" Rian asked, walking out of the classroom.  He must have heard us arguing from outside.

Tony went silent now.  I guess he didn't realize I had been going down these hallways to find Rian in the first place.

"Stella?" Rian asked now, walking up beside me.

I shook my head silently, tearing my glare from Tony to look up at Rian. "You ready to go?"

Rian's jaw set and he looked back to Tony.  He wasn't willing to let this go, but I knew with a little conviction I could convince him not to escalate things any further.  Rian, afterall, was one of the most mature ones of the Trouble-Makers. "Yeah, I'm ready to go," he murmured, turning with me as we walked away from the previous Trouble-Maker.

"Thank you," I said quietly, looking up at Rian briefly before focusing on dead ahead of me.

Rian stopped abruptly and looked back at Tony who was still standing there. "You're lucky it was just me, Tony.  Watch yourself."

***

Alex beat his hands on my bed to the beat of the Blink song that was currently playing through my radio.  Whenever Blink was on, the entire mood of the Trouble-Makers was always lifted happily.  Even Jack grew less impulsive when Blink was on; it was like their very own cure in music form.

"I still think we should all get wicked jackets or something," Jenna said as she followed Mike up the stairs and into my bedroom.  Currently, the entire Trouble-Maker gang were at the house but, for the post part, it was just Alex and I in my room.

"You're not even a Trouble-Maker yet and you're already trying to change things," Mike huffed teasingly, collapsing on one of the beanbag chairs.

"It's the curse of the Trouble-Maker girls," Jack said in a haunted voice as he hopped up the stairs just behind them and, of course, Dave was with him now.  I was sure that Dave was soon to become Jack's shadow now that Jack was his mentor.

"Oh, please, having girls in the crew is just what you guys need," I protested.

Jack raised an eyebrow at me now and put a hand on his hip, which, I must say, made him look much more sassier.  "Really?"

"Yes, really," I insisted.

"I'm not so sure about that."

"Come on, Jack, can you really say you don't like this face?" Alex asked, hooking an arm around my shoulders and bringing me close. 

Jack chuckled now, shaking his head. "Maybe not you, Alex, but I have a little more of a backbone."

"I hardly even know you, but I can't wait until I see you fall in love with someone and totally eat those words," Jenna said, causing Jaime to snicker as he soon joined us upstairs with Rian.  My room was quickly feeling much more crowded.

Jack wrinkled his nose. "Gross, stop."

"He doesn't like the 'L' word," I explained and Jenna nodded her head.

Rian ended up catching my eyes from across the room and he raised an eyebrow up at me.  He was hinting for me to tell the boys what happened today, but I was unsure whether I should or not.  If I told them what happened, it would just cause more unrest within the group and make Alex grow even more protective.  But, if I didn't and they found out about it, no doubt the boys would feel like I was hiding more secrets.

I let out a small sigh, squeezing Alex's arm gently as I opened my mouth to speak. "Actually, I have something I need to tell you guys," I said finally.