𝐚𝐭𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐜 • 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐛𝐲 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐤

twenty-two

I dreaded waking up that Monday morning. It meant I would have to deal with Emilia, Colby and Hero, who I had successfully avoided all weekend.

It's funny how my parents didn't even notice. That's how little they knew about their children.

"Alright, sweetie," my mom said as we were in front of the school. I had convinced her to drive me to school so I wouldn't have to go with Hero. "Have fun."

I snorted. "Yeah, I'm gonna have heaps of fun."

She chuckled. "You will. Enjoy it while it lasts, high school was so much fun for me."

"Wish I could relate," I muttered, then opened the car door to hop out.

"See you tonight!" she spoke before I slammed the door shut, she drove off. I was not ready for today.

With a sigh, I entered the building. My brother hadn't arrived yet so I could find my locker in peace and drop half my books in there.

"Hey there," someone spoke behind me.

I turned around to find Tyler, standing there with his hands in his pockets. "Hi. Just saying, if you're here to talk about that shit with Hero, save yourself the trouble. I'm not feeling it."

"Fine," he sighed, leaning against the locker next to mine. "Can you at least talk to him? He feels bad."

"Yeah, well, he fucking should," I sniffed, closing my locker again. "And for real, I'm not talking about this. If I'm not just Hero's sister to you but your friend, you would respect that."

He stayed silent for a little, studying my face before speaking up again. "You know you're not just Hero's sister to me. Please just know you can talk to me, Ara. I don't want you fighting with everyone."

The bell rang, thankfully, so I swung my backpack over my shoulder and nodded at him. "Maybe I'll see you later, Tyler."

"What do you mean, maybe?" he asked confused, but I ignored him and just walked to class.

Once I walked through the door, I spotted Emilia in her usual seat. Not even looking her way, I sat down in the only empty spot left that wasn't mine - Colby's.

"Ara," I heard her soft voice speak up. "Come on, talk to me. Or your brother. You can't do this."

I turned around, looking her dead in the eye. "Sure, I can."

If you can use me to get to Hero, which we both know is what you did ever since you found out he was my brother, I can ignore you. That's my right.

"Colby will kill you if he finds you in his chair, just come sit next to me," she pleaded.

I turned back and whipped my phone out, not paying attention to whatever Emilia was muttering on about.

[Messages]
You to asshole: yo don't flip out i'm in your seat, you can sit next to emilia. also i'm still mad at you and this doesn't fix it.

Colby texted back pretty quickly.

asshole: fine. but don't make this a regular thing. also you suck.

I rolled my eyes and put my phone down on my desk, making doodles on my math book.

A couple minutes later, right before the final ringing of the school bell, Colby walked into the class room. He sat down into the chair behind me, not saying a thing.

I turned around, finding Emilia quite petrified in her chair. Alright now, Colby scared people, but he wasn't that bad. I looked at him, finding him looking back at me.

"What you looking at, Hayes?" he snorted. "As if it's not bad enough you're in my seat. Don't tempt me."

I rolled my eyes at the way he was playing this shit off, knowing it was just for show. "Fuck off," I muttered in reply, turning back in my chair.

My phone buzzed, so I picked it up to look at the notification.

[Messages]
asshole: do you want me to, like, make her a lil uneasy?

I chuckled silently.

You to asshole: as if she's not enough of that already. have you seen her face? she looks like she's about to run all the way to another continent just to get away from you.
asshole: watch this

"Yo, Rossi," he chuckled behind me. "You good, bro? You look like you're about to throw up or something."

Emilia cleared her throat. "I'm fine."

"Hmm," Colby replied doubtfully. "You don't look like it. Did you catch something from your one night stand this weekend?"

My mouth dropped, luckily facing away from them. I clasped my hand over my mouth, trying to hold back the wheeze that was trying to escape.

"That's not what he was. Also, freak, I'm not talking to you," she sniffed, though her voice was a little shaky.

Colby let out a small chuckle. "Maybe he wasn't to you. Anyways, you're not particularly interesting as well. One more thing though."

"What now?" Emilia sighed in annoyance.

"I'm sure Arabella will forgive you once you realize he's not going to stick around and you stop being up his ass."

I turned around now, watching as Emilia shoved out of her chair, the thing flying backwards and colliding with the floor. "You don't know him! You don't know Ara, and you sure as Hell don't know me!"

Colby's eyes flickered to my face, the clear amusement evident probably urging him to continue.

Man, I really shouldn't have thought it, but this was so fucking funny to me.

"You don't need a lot of knowledge of human nature to realize he was only interested in the chase and as an easy victim, you fucked yourself over, my dude," he replied, propping his feet up on his desk.

Emilia looked over at me, silently pleading for help, but she took my silence as her answer. "You'll come crawling back to me as soon as you realize Hero and I are more serious than you think."

"Sweetie, no matter what, I'm still his sister," I replied to her. "In the end, I'm still the one that can turn his girlfriends into his exes as quick as you can say my name. Or just keep it out of your mouth, who knows what that would do to it."

"You're a bitch, Arabella," Emilia scoffed.

I shrugged. "Yeah, probably, but at least I didn't act like I was your friend just to fuck your brother."

She snatched her backpack from the floor. "I never even really liked your sorry ass anyways," she spoke as her final words before bolting out of the room in shame.

The entire classroom was watching, the teacher included. Mr. Williams cleared his throat. "Now, that was an interesting begin to this mundane math class. We'll start on today's subject, then."

As the entire room fell into chatter, my phone buzzed again.

asshole: nice one, hayes. didn't know you had it in you.
You to asshole: watch it, brock, or you're next ;))

I heard him chuckle behind me, and for some reason it calmed whatever anger I still felt inside of me. He could deny it as much as he wanted, but right now, he was the best friend I had.

• • •

[ Author's note ]

another chapter already!!! to make up for the fact i had you all waiting for so long for last chapter. ;)

and also to celebrate that this story reached 1k and in the middle of it all reached 20k!!

as always, thanks for everything. i love writing this story so much, i hope you enjoy it as much as i do. ♡