Hell On Earth

two | my friends will kill me

I know it was rude, but I left him on read.

I also added him as a contact.

I'll have to face my friends today and try to explain why I suddenly have a guy's number, when I don't have the answers for them myself.

A car honks outside.

I grab a protein bar, an apple, and a lollipop, putting both in my bag, before grabbing my empty Starbucks cup, and tucking it into the pouch on the side.

Ashton is waiting for me, as she always does on Tuesdays. She and I have made an agreement where she drives on Tuesdays and Thursdays, while I drive on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. However, I didn't drive her yesterday because her mom wanted to drop her off. But typically, that's our schedule.

Ashton honks again.

I stumble out the door, lock it behind me, and slip into her car.
"Morning." She says.
"Morning."
"So, are you actually going to talk today? Don't make me get Christine to make you talk."
Ashton sets off for Starbucks as we talk.
Christine Nang is another friend of ours, but she has her own thing going on to0, with being captain of the girls wrestling team and other groups of friends. She also can be very threatening when she wants to be.
"Okay, I'll talk today, but I'll do it when all of you are present, okay?"
She sighs a little about having to wait. "Fair enough."
She hands me the aux. I shuffle play my Lauren Aquilina playlist, as always.

When we get to the Starbucks a minute from my house, I get a vanilla frappe with whipped cream and caramel, while Ashton orders for her and the rest of the group. Ash gets a peppermint mocha frappe, Mom a milk with pumpkin flavor, Jade a black coffee with cream, Zoe a green tea, and Christine a hot chocolate, in case she shows up today. Lee doesn't drink Starbucks, so we get her a cheese danish.

The first thing I do when Ashton and I arrive to school is grab the lollipop out of my bag and toss it to Jade. She's a bit of a sugar addict. I don't think I've ever seen her eat healthy food a day in her life. I hand her the coffee when she's tucked the sweet in her bag.

"Thanks, you two." Mom says as we distribute drinks and Lee's danish. The others also chime in their thanks.
"So, second day. Ready for set number two?" Zoe asks, speaking up for once. She's typically a lot quieter than the rest of us, but we broke her out of her shell a bit, and since then she's talking more.
I grin. "Uh, yeah. I've got my favorite class today. Of course I'm ready."
Suddenly, there's someone grabbing my shoulders. "YAH!" Christine Nang yells from behind me. I yelp and nearly drop my cup. "Christineee!" I groan. She just laughs and plucks the hot chocolate for her from Ash's hand.
"Thanks for the cocoa, guys. Ready for day two?"
"Zoe already asked that, like, five seconds ago." Lee says.
"I know, but I wanted to say it myself."
"So, Cole had some tea for us. Teatime, everyone. Gather 'round." Ashton says.

I shoot her a glare of annoyance, but she just grins a bit.

Sitting on the concrete bench, I sigh and pull out my phone from my hoodie pocket. "Here goes nothing. It's my last class of the day, right? I'm in the back of the class, and the bell rings and all that, so people start coming inside. Like our sophomore year," I glance at Jade when I say the next part, "it was filled with jocks. There were, like, maybe two other girls." Jade sends me a nod off understanding. In our sophomore year, when we had English together, that class was composed of mostly hormone filled teenage boys and a couple girls. I carry on. "So, because both girls were popular, they're not going to sit with me, which meant the person sitting to my right is a guy named Luke."