Cigarettes [Bennoda] ✔

Chapter 24

This picture literally has nothing to do with the chapter, but I just wanted to show how fucking cute Jason and Jack are.

Chester's POV
I stayed home the rest of that week. I couldn't go outside in fear of getting followed. I was already a very paranoid person, and this was not helping. As the days past, there were more and more articles about Mike and I. I couldn't bring myself to read any of them. I'd probably have an anxiety attack if I tried.

Mike called at least once every day. It was usually at night and we'd talk about our day and how much we missed eachother. We texted eachother all throughout the day as well. I couldn't wait until I saw him again. There was only about one more week left, and it would've been fine if my mom had let me stay home, but I was missing so much work and she basically forced me to go that next Monday.

"Chester! Up! Now!" She yelled that morning. "Mom... please don't make me go. Everyone knows about Mike and I. I can't." I said from the other side of the door as I started to tear up. "Well I'm sorry Ches. He's your boyfriend. You're gonna have to deal with this kind of stuff. You knew that." She said in a softer voice. "Just please try and go today. If things get too bad, then come home." I sighed and got dressed.

I looked in my mirror and realized that I looked like a train had hit me. My blonde hair was slowly fading, which I was kind of grateful for. Maybe I wouldn't be called his "Mystery Blonde" for much longer. My eyes were red from crying and drinking too much, and I smelled like a cookout or a party of some sort.

I sighed loudly again and went to the living room to get my backpack. I walked out the door without saying anything to anyone, which was kind of rude, but I was not in the mood that morning. I was an emotional wreck and just knew everyone was going to be staring at me even more.

I got to the school and went to the spot that Ryan, Amir, and I had met up at ever since we had started high school. This morning, I was there before them which was surprising because they were always there before me.

I sat on the last stair step and waited for them. They finally showed up a few minutes before the bell rang.

"Morning Chester. How have you been?" Ryan asked. I shrugged. "I miss Mike, and now there's ten times as many articles as there were at the beginning of last week." I said. "Everyone keeps fucking staring at me and it's getting on my nerves." Ryan nodded and leaned down to hug me. Amir hugged me too and then the bell rang. Ryan and I went up to our first class which Amir wasn't in. Ryan and I had almost every class together and Amir was only in a few of them which was a bummer. Ryan and I weren't as close with him as we were with eachother, but we still loved him like a brother and would do anything for him.

We walked into my first class and sat our desks. Everyone was looking at me. Some were murmuring and snickering to themselves. It was mostly the guys in my class doing that. I was okay friends with most of the girls and they were just giving me sympathetic looks. I sighed. Ryan sighed as well and got up out of his seat.

He walked over to the guys that were snickering and put his hands on their desks as he leaned in to talk to them. I couldn't hear what he said, but whatever it was, it left them stunned for a second after Ryan came back to me.

"What did you say?" I asked. "I told them to stop or River and I would beat their asses." He said like it was no big deal. "Ryan what if they come after you now? What if they hurt you?" He chuckled. "I'm 6'2 Chester. I'm like two feet taller than those idiots. Plus I have a brother and boyfriend who'd kick their asses if they touched me." He said. I just sighed again.

Class started and drug on for what felt like forever. All of my classes went by so slowly and the same thing would happen in each one. The kids in class would stare and snicker and Ryan threatened them.