Friendship And Family (Currently undergoing a rewrite. Do Not Read.)

CHAPTER 23. Cheat

Maria's POV

"I'm not sure he's coming." Agnes' tired face matched her voice.

"Let's just wait a little longer," Francis said.

I looked to my side at Andrew who kept dialing his number and getting no response. "He's not picking up," he said.

We decided to take our group study seriously, substituting hangout time for it. So we made it to the community library after school, but Mathias was yet to show up.

I started to think it wasn't going to work, and then a tall skinny boy in a navy blue hoodie and a bag across it walked into the library. The bookshelves were arranged against the walls, with only a few people seated at the rectangular wooden tables in the middle, making it easy for him to spot us.

"Sorry I'm late," Mathias mumbled when he met us. He then noticed my gaze on his bruised knuckles and quickly pulled his sweater over it before taking a seat across Andrew and I, next to Agnes and Francis.

"You should have at least picked your call," Andrew grumbled.

"I didn't hear my phone ring," Mathias answered harshly.

"Okay, shall we...?" I said quietly, putting an end to their bickering.

We started pulling out our notebooks from our bags to the table. There was a phone vibration in the process that got us distracted, and Mathias took out his phone from his hoodie pocket.

He hesitated for a moment after checking who it was, and then he picked the call just when we thought he wouldn't.

"Hey," he answered with his head down. "Okay," he said and ended the call.

"Who was that?" I asked, and he surprised us all as he began stuffing his bag with the books he'd just brought out.

"There's somewhere I really need to be." He got up and left in a hurry.

"Is he..." I broke the silence of our shock, but didn't complete my statement that assumed the worst.

"He's nothing," Andrew spoke in his defense to whatever he thought I was thinking.

Mathias' POV

School was deserted at this hour so the gate was locked. I pulled myself up until I was hunched on the back fence, and then I jumped in like a monkey. My eyes ran three-sixty as I walked further in hopes that no one saw me. I'm not a criminal, it's just this once. I kept repeating the words in my head.

Flexo was seated at his usual hidden spot with his two friends and, as I approached him, he took out a folded piece of paper from his shirt pocket, fixating his eyes on me while he waited with the paper in his hand until I got to him. Without a word of greeting, he held it out to me, and I took it from him.

"You're sure about this, right?" I asked.

"What do you think?" he replied in a cocky tone.

"I already paid you, so I need to know it's legit."

He scoffed. "Since you're not so sure why don't you use your brain?"

His friends snickered like hyennas at his comment, while he held a deriding smirk at me. I felt like a knucklehead, and I couldn't argue because he wasn't wrong. I just put the paper in my hoodie pocket and turned around to leave.

"You want the other stuff?"

I halted like a driver who'd just avoided an accident.

"You hear?"