Fallen Angels

Chapter Eight

A lie gets half way around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on

—Winston Churchill—

     At Chem. class I took a seat next to Dante and greeted him silently. "Hi," With ten minutes on the clock before the bell rung I glanced around the half empty room. I'd ditched Lottie to come and talk to him about last night's events.

     "Your head okay?" He frowned, examining me as if I were some lab rat behind bullet proof glass. "Sorry I dissappeared on you last night. I didn't think your mom would appreciate me being out with you so late at night."

     I narrowed my eyes into a glare as they locked with his steady gaze. Did he think I was stupid? Because I was most definitly not. "Lucky for me I didn't get in trouble." I said sarcastically although I was starting to think my parents were searching for mental hospitals to put me in.

     "That's all that matters right?"

     I hated how he thought I was stupid. It was obvious with the way he acted. I was not some gullible six-year-old who believed everything right off the bat. I laughed in response not really wanting to discuss further matters.

     "Hey, Ash!" Seth greeted from the hallway. He flashed me that stupid smile of his and stepped into the class. "Got tickets to Battle of The Bands. Come with?"

     "Seth." Dante said, greeting him despite Seth's obvious attempt to try and ignore him.

     "Ninja," Seth responded back with a sly grin. "Nice to see you again. By the way, I ran into that blond friend of yours. Liam?"

      I perked up at the mention of Blondie. Which was strange. I never acted this way. Towards any guy. I wasn't like those boy crazy girls who thought a man in your life was everything a girl needed.

     "You mean Xavier. And what of it?" Dante licked his bottom lip, passing the lip ring that seemed to add to his badboy charms. "You want his number or somethin'?"

     Seth tensed and I could tell he wasn't impressed by him. "Yeah, sure, I'd like to ask him why he was buying some—" The bell rung and Seth and I scowled in unison. What was my blondie buying? "Gotta go," He smirked and placed a ticket on my part of the desk. "See you tonight at eight."

     Now it was my turn to tense. "Wait but I—"

     "And he's gone," Dante smirked. "What a shame you already have plans tonight."

     I frowned. What had I gotten myself into? No, what had my teacher gotten me in? He was the one that paired me up with Dante. Ever since he did my life has gone down hill. "I do?"

     "You're going out on a date with me tonight, aren't you?" Dante's gaze once again locked with mine, and for a second I felt as if I were in a trance and all I could respond with was:

     "Right, I forgot. My bad." A giggle so foreign to me escaped my lips and it frightened me. Did he make me do that? Of course not. Just the thought was insane! But even so, it was my instincts that kept screaming to leave while I could.

     He smiled, pleased with my response. "Last night you mentioned your parents were leaving to Hawaii this morning. Is that right?"

     I cocked an eyebrow, surprised that he knew. I hadn't at all mentioned it to him. I wouldn't dicuss my plans to be alone for a few days without my parents at home. "That is correct." I said slowly as Mr. Becker walked in and the class went silent.

     "Alright everyone!" He said as he sat on his empty desk. "Today is the last day to get to know your lab partners. If you want to work with a stranger for the rest of the semester be my guest, but it would be nice to have trust among the two of you in case someone were to maybe catch on fire." This earned some laugher among the class but Mr. B. seemed dead serious. "Get to work."

     Dante turned to me with a sudden scowl. "He gets on my nerves." As he said this, Mr. Becker looked over at the two of us, and I swore he'd heard Dante, but when he turned back around and begun nonchalantly writing down a few things we could ask our partners onto the white board, my shoulders untensed. We were safe for now.

     "I thought he heard you for a second there." I said with a sigh of relief. "I honestly don't want to be on his bad side." Usually you found me up the alley of a teacher's pet, but Lottie was always the one to get me to loosen up and become more rebellious.

     He smirked a  bit but remained silent. "It's your life. Live it how you want Ashley. Why care what others, especially teachers, think about you? Who are you trying to impress?"

     Live it how I want, huh? Lately it was hard to do that when Lottie was constantly dragging me to be the life of the party with her or even try out for cheerleading. That was all too much for my taste. And sports weren't neccessarily my thing. My GPA had actually almost went down because I nearly failed my PE class. Of course I had to give a speech to Mr. Hamstrack as to why he should raise my grade to an A+, and in the end, it had worked out for me with an A.

     His last words broke my train of thought and I nearly scowled. I wasn't trying to impress anyone. I just didn't like to make enemies out of anyone unless they gave me a reason to not trust them or to dislike them. "I'm just trying to get through highschool trouble free." I shrugged.

     "Boring way to live life, isn't it, Ash?"

     Was it boring? I wouldn't really know. Lottie was always the one dragging me to events that caused enough drama to get me to not want to cause my own drama. Just hearing Lottie's drama actually made me glad I was mature enough to understand that living wild wasn't the way to go.

     "I wouldn't say boring." I told him. "I would say it's quite peaceful actually if I wouldn't have Lottie to deal with."

     This earned me a small chuckle from Dante, but there wasn't really humor in it. "She seems like a handful."

     "She is, but she's a good friend. The only person I trust actually." I smiled at the thought but Dante nodded, his expression quite serious as though he were actually thinking about the small but true fact.