Beyond Our Lies

t h i r t y s i x

"Hurry up!" I shouted from the open front door before laughing and running out to my car.

The weekend had ended and it was unfortunately time to return to hell once again. Despite the euphoric break coming to a finish, our Friendsgiving will always stay close in my heart. Not a single one of us would choose to alter that day in any way, shape, or form. The range of it was insane, being filled with pranks, laughs, crying sessions, and so much more in only a few hours.

Once Xander climbed into the passenger seat, the rest soon followed. I had somehow magically convinced them to accept my invitation of carpooling in my lovely car and not theirs. I had also convinced them to all stay just for one more night yesterday, hence why the carpooling with me would even be possible. It was a weak excuse of postponing Xander's unfortunate situation but I just wanted him to get a few more happy moments before having to go back to his father's. He would go home today but he promised his father would just ignore him since he had done what he was told.

After the four buckled in, I drove off to school. When I couldn't find anything decent playing on the radio, I grabbed the aux and passed it to Xander. He took it and began scrolling through his music, choosing a random quiet song as he was still running on drowsiness.

I giggled softly as I watched him snuggle into his hoodie and shut his eyes. I had no idea how people found him scary and threatening when he would act like a cute puppy when he was sleepy. Xander heard my laughter and peeked at me with one eye. When I glanced back at him, he flipped me off but still smiled as he shut his eyes again.

While I was driving, anytime I glanced in the rear view mirror, all I would see is the boys in the back going through everything I still kept in my car, nosey asses. "Why does it still look like you live in your car?" Alex spoke and immediately dropped one of my hoodies to cover his mouth when he realized what he said. Oliver and Elijah held their breath for a moment before filling the whole car with their laughter.

I scoffed in not only disbelief but amusement. Flickering my eyes to the mirror once again, the look of pure fear on his face caused me to join in with Oliver and Elijah as I pulled into one of the parking spots.

"That was a low blow," I calmed down my amusement as we stepped out of the car.

"You're... not mad?"

My expression softened when I noticed he was genuinely concerned for possibly offending me. I got on my tippy toes to reach into his dirty blonde hair and ruffled it into a gigantic mess like he would always do to me. Cheekily smiling, I then dismissed his concern. "It was funny, don't worry about it." He gave me a small smile at my response but then huffed as he realized he had to fix his hair, causing me to let out a small laugh.

Xander put one of his arms around my shoulder and I placed mine around his waist as we all walked from the parking lot to the gates of hell. My happy mood diminished in the blink of an eye once we walked into its vicinity. Students were quick to side eye me and I rushed to get Xander out of my grasp, not wanting them to find a reason to hate on the boys any more so.

"I'll see you guys during lunch, yeah?" My timid and shy voice would usually go unheard in these halls yet due to the conversations becoming whispers wherever I stood, it felt like it had boomed throughout the building. My friends glanced at one another with looks of contemplation and I scurried off before they could refute. Ever since the day I fought, the boys have continuously attempted to walk with me down the halls knowing they could defend me if someone said anything but I would always decline. They've done so much for me already. I have to do some things on my own sometime.

As soon as I had gathered a moderate distance away from the boys, the remarks were heard, "slut" and "kill yourself" being the most popular phrases today. I wiped my sweaty palms across my jeans before my hands shot right up to my necklace on instinct. With my head casted downward, I followed the trail of harsh words to my first hour.