After Midnight

Chapter 3

Noah's POV~

The first half of the day flew by in a flash. True to her word, Claire was in all of my classes, which included lunch. Not that I was complaining. The whole day could have been a whole lot worse if I had never met her. 

It was now lunch and Claire had dragged me all the way to the cafeteria, rushing for a spot in line. Apparently the kids here were ruthless when it came to food. I guess it wasn't that much different than any other school, except for the actual fist fight that broke out because someone budged. 

"Don't budge in front of Rider, he'll kill you." Claire whispered to me as teachers came to break up the fight. I nodded in understanding. There were quite a few boys I was supposed to avoid here. 

We were successful in the endeavor of grabbing our food and making it back to our table, where Echo was already seated in the middle of devouring her lunch. "How do you always get here so fast?" Claire asked her with a pout. 

Echo shot her a wink, "A magician never reveals her secrets." 

Zach showed up a few minutes later and took a seat next to Claire. "How's everyone's first day going?" He asked as he sat down. 

Echo groaned as she threw a fry back onto her plate. "I have the Latin teacher again. Not even for Latin, and they're still trying to teach it!" She complained as the rest of us laughed at her misery. 

"What class is it supposed to be?" I asked her in curiosity. 

"Pre Calc!" We all laughed even harder. How could you possibly incorporate Latin into Pre Calc? I've never taken the class, but it's math, how could you do that?

"How about you, newbie? How's the first day at West River High going?" Echo asked me, trying to change the subject. 

I shrugged in response. "Claire and I have the same schedule, so we've just been screwing around in every class so far." I explained. Claire nodded in agreement as her boyfriend looked back and forth between us. 

"Bro, switch schedules with me." He whined. 

I shook my head at him. "No way, I'm not gonna give her up. She'll probably be the only reason I pass this year." I said with a chuckle. I wasn't exaggerating either. 

"C'mon." He said, holding out the "o". "I'm stuck with the twins and Ben in all of my classes so far." 

Echo and Claire both looked at him with sympathy. I understood now, I had met the twins earlier today. Even if Simon wasn't bad, Maverick made up enough 'bad' for the both of them. I'm sure adding Ben into it didn't help either. I hadn't met him yet, but from Claire's rundown, he would be a handful. "I'm sorry babe, hopefully the rest of your classes aren't as bad." Claire tried to comfort the distraught boy, but I don't think it worked very well. 

I felt around in my front pocket, trying to find my phone. I didn't feel it, so I checked my other pockets, no luck. "Crap, I forgot my phone in my locker. I'm gonna run and grab it real quick, I'll be back." I said to the group. The two girls nodded in acknowledgement, but Zach didn't pick his head up from where he had dropped it on the table. It had already been a rough day for him. 

I hurriedly made my way through the various hallways it took to get to my locker. The sound of  a locker being aggressively slammed made me turn my head for a second, but apparently a second was long enough for me to run straight into a wall. 

A wall that dropped something with a crash and cursed loudly. 

I turned my head and made eye contact with said wall. Tyler had bent down to pick what he had dropped. My eyes widened when I realized he was holding a cracked lap top. 

With a fierce glare, Tyler turned his attention to me. I gulped, knowing I was definitely dead meat. 

"Ty, what're you- Whoa bro, what happened to your lap top?" A red haired boy had come up behind Tyler and slung his arm around his shoulders. His concerned eyes flashed from the lap top to me. 

"Someone ran into me and made me drop it." Tyler sneered, clearly pissed I had broken his electronic. 

One of the twins came barreling down the hallway, abruptly stopping next to us. "What's happening guys? Dude, you should probably get that fixed." I knew from there it was Maverick. He was pointing at the lap top. 

I shrunk in on myself as Tyler's scowl only seemed to grow. "Thanks captain obvious." He said. 

Maverick looked over at me, his eyes lighting up for a second before he seemed to connect the dots. "No, please tell me you didn't break his lap top." He pleaded. 

"I-I didn't meant to!" I rushed, realizing then that I hadn't actually said anything yet. "I'm sorry! It was an accident, honestly!" I said, hoping beyond hope that Tyler would let me off easy. 

Maverick turned his pout to Tyler. "Please don't kill him, he's cute!" He begged. 

I flushed red at his words, which only egged him on. "See! Look at him blush, you can't seriously want to punch this face." He said, grabbing my face with one hand. I was quick to push his hands away. 

Tyler groaned and threw his head back. "Can you pay for it?" He asked, but it was quiet and not directed at me, so I didn't catch it. 

"Huh?" I asked. 

He directed his eyes to me, glaring into my soul. "Can. you. pay. for. it?" He asked, drawn out like he thought I was slow or something. 

I messed with the sleeves of my sweater as I looked down. "No?" I said as more of a question than an answer. I really didn't have any money and I knew my parents weren't going to lend me a penny for this. 

He groaned again. "Fine. Then after midnight, you're mine." 

My head shot up as I blushed at how terrible that sounded. "I'm sorry what?" I asked fro clarification. 

"Every night from midnight until six am, you're mine. You do what ever I tell you to, whenever I tell you to. If you can't pay off the debt, you can work it off." Tyler explained, his arms crossed over his chest. 

"Ty, are you sure about this? He isn't exactly... well I mean look at him. He isn't me and Si, is the deal really his best option?" Maverick asked, looking slightly concerned for my safety. I mean, how bad could it actually be, other than completely messing with my sleep schedule. 

"You two survived, I'm sure he'll be fine. It's that or..." He didn't say another option, just cracked his knuckles. My eyes widened. 

"Okay, okay, jeez. I'll do it." I said, holding my hands up. 

I had just gotten out of the hospital, there was no way I planned on going back. 

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Wow, I have not updated this in forever. For the few that still read this, just want to let you guys know that I should be updating a little more often, seeing as there's the whole quarantine thing going on and I don't have much else to do. 

~Sad Bean