The Not-So-Bad Boy Next Door

Chapter 13

I wake up and I turn off my lamp's light. I walk over to my closet and grab a white cami and a crop top that says 'beautiful young & free'. I pull on a pair of black shorts and button the three buttons on the top. I walk into my bathroom and start brushing my teeth and combing my hair. I step back into my room and grab my bag and sweater. I walk down the stairs and throw on my Levi's.

I walk out of the house making sure to lock up when I left. I start walking down the sidewalk. It should be like a 20 minute walk if I speed walk. I pull my phone out of my back pocket and plug in my ear buds. I scroll through my songs and start listening to Life Support by Sam Smith. I see quite a few people walking, that go to my school, but I don't walk up to them. I just give them a nod or a little wave.

~

Without looking to see who was calling, I pressed the answer button on my ear buds and then I hear an angry Aiden on the other line. "Claire, would you hurry up. I've been waiting for 10 minutes. Get your ass outside now."

I stop, a little taken back by Aiden's casualness. I hang up the phone and I turn up the volume and continue to listen to I Want Crazy by Hunter Hayes. I just love this song. After listening to the first verse I start singing it aloud. "But I don't want good and I don't want good enough. I want can't sleep can't breathe without your love. Front porch and one more kiss. It doesn't make sense to anybody else. Who cares if you're all I think about? I've searched the world and I know now. It's ain't right if you ain't lost your mind. Yeah I don't want easy I want crazy. You with me baby. Let's be crazy."

I'm full on singing by the time I get to the second verse, "I wanna be scared don't wanna know why. Wanna feel good don't have to be right. The world makes all kinds of rules for love. I say-" My ear buds get pulled out of my ears from behind me. I quickly turn around, yelling, "What the fuck is wrong with you?" I see Aiden standing there with his truck running. I turn around, on my heels, "Never mind I already know the answer to that."

I start to put my ear buds back in for them just to be pulled out all over again. I turn around, eyes turning black, anger in my voice when I say, "What do you want from me?" He closes his eyes for a second, "Why are you walking to school?" "You interrupted me, twice, just to see why I was walking? Are you insane?""

"Am I insane? No I think I'm perfectly sane. I think that you're insane for leaving and walking to school this morning. What were you thinking?"

I turn around and start walking, taking only two steps, before Aiden's arms lock onto my waist, turning me around, "What!" He looks like he's trying not to start yelling at me, "Answer the question!" I try to pull free and he just repeats his previous statement. "You mean why did I walk? I walked because I wasn't gonna sit in a car this morning in an awkward silence. Besides the fact that I'm not talking to you because when I tried yesterday I got nothing."

I turn on my heel and start running towards school. I'm only five minutes away but I lost so much time and I still have to go to my locker before homeroom.

~

"Ms. Gilbert you are partners with Mr. McCartney." Aiden stands up and walks to the teachers desk. "Um, actually you will be partnered with Mr. Mathews, Ms. Gilbert." My mouth drops, "W-what? W-why?" I stutter at this arrangement. "Is there a problem, Ms. Gilbert?"

I give him a smile then nod my head, "Yes I do have a problem with being partnered up with Aiden. Can I go to the office? I want to go file for the class transfer now! I'll also go sign the paper to drop out of the math team." His eyes go wide. If there was one thing that would get him to not partner me up with Aiden, it was that threat. I'm supposedly was the best one in this honors Pre Cal class. I knew they wanted to keep me in this class and on the math team.

"Okay, never mind. Mr. Mathews your partner is Ms. Hills." Aiden starts to send our teacher death glares.

~

"So Ty do you want to work on the project today or tomorrow?" We start walking towards our lockers, "Can we do today at your place?" I nod and we both open up our lockers. He puts a few books in and grabs a couple things out. He shuts his locker and turns to lean on it, "So what was up with Aiden today? Since when do you not work on projects with him?" I give him a shrug, "There's nothing wrong. I'm just mad at him for quite a few things." He doesn't try to pry for more answers. He just lets it go and accepts what I told him.

We head out the door and start walking towards the direction of my house. We get there after about half an hour. We talked for most of the walk so time passed like nothing. I'm merely 30 feet away from my front porch when Aiden walks out of his house with Madison. She starts running towards me with their dog, buddy. She wraps her arms around my legs, "Hey Maddie! Are you guys going to the park?"

"Yeah do you want to come?" I give her a frown, "Sorry, Mads I have to work on a project for school. Don't grow up too fast, high school sucks. They give too much homework." She laughs and then their golden retriever, buddy, tackles Madison, licking her face like she had peanut butter on it. I wouldn't really be surprised if she did. She manages to get herself into a lot of messes and it wouldn't be the first time, either.

~

I place my hand over my mouth, letting out a long, noisy yawn. "I think that's about all we have to do here Ty. Do you want to eat or something before you leave? it's 8:30 so i highly doubt your parents didn't already eat dinner." He stands up and stretches, his shirt lifting up revealing his six-pack, "Yeah sure. What are we gonna eat?"

"We can eat spaghetti. No, we should eat omelets. Wait, do you like breakfast for dinner or am I just really weird?" He lets out a deep chuckle, "No I love breakfast for dinner. I love spaghetti but the omelets sound really tempting.

~

"Claire, this is so good. How did you learn how to cook? This is amazing one of the best breakfast for dinners I have ever had." I take another bite and swallow it before replying, "I kind of just picked it up from my aunty." He nods, "Well it's amazing."

"Thanks."

~

"Bye Claire!" I wave back, "Bye Ty!" I turn and see Aiden sitting there on his porch. He gets up and I don't even want to know if he is going to walk over her or not. I turn around and walk into my house, avoiding him. I don't know how long I'm gonna be able to keep this up. It's hard to avoid him but it's hard to just apologize to him, with his stubbornness. This is gonna be a long week.

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