Author's Note: I greatly appreciate criticism and compliments. However you feel, lemme know. Thanks for reading~ c:
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Shit. Fuck. God fucking dammit.
I tumble around the corner, yanking my pants up with one hand and dialing my phone with the other. My alarm hadn't gone off. Which, incindentally, means that I slept in twenty-five minutes.
"GOD DAMMIT, RAILEY!" I slam the front door behind me, screaming at the smirking boy in the beaten-down car.
I yank open the door and all but fall inside, pulling the door shut with me and then realizing I had no shoes on. Fuck.
"Rai I-"
My piece of shit once-blue now-grey vans land in my lap and I sigh and slide into them as the car jolts forward. See that's the thing about Railey and me, we're together so often that our possessions are split between the two of our houses like a divorce. He reaches over and pets at my rat-nest of curls and I growl, sliding down in my seat.
"You alright?" His quiet country twang asks and I smile.
"I'm fine. I just can't believe she left without waking me up. She knows when I get up."
He nods, "Well you look beautiful."
"Aw," I pull my hand up to my chest and glance at him, smiling. "liar."
Rai laughs and pulls his car up into Cat's driveway, hitting the horn. Cat bounces out of her three-story house, flipping her long black hair over her tan shoulder with a perfect little frown on her painted-pink mouth.
"Rai-ley!" She whines, leaning in his window and pouting. "You're late."
"Hey," He jerks a thumb at me, "wasn't me."
Cat's brown eyes narrow as she looks at me and her face suddenly breaks into a huge smile.
"THEO!" She's suddenly crawling into the backseat and leaning up to set her rounded little chin on my shoulder. "Hi, gorgeous."
I laugh at her and Railey rolls his eyes, pulling the car back out onto the road. "Hi, Cat."
"S'goin' on with your hair there, buttercup?" She asks, eyebrows scrunched.
I reach up to smooth it down and sigh, flipping the mirror down. "Who knows?"
The sound of clutter jangling around is quickly followed by a hairbrush landing in my lap and I glance back at her. "You expect me to brush this?"
Cat laughs and leans around the seat, taking the brush and working at my hair from the ends, ignoring my wincing. Railey rolls his eyes and ignores us. He'd long ago given up on trying to get Cat to wear a seatbelt. Ever.
She finishes right as we pull into the school and I glance in the mirror to see my hairs at least less knotty, if not a little frizzy. I sigh. I don't think I'm ugly, or even close, really. I just have really long, thick, curly dirty blonde hair that's annoying and a nose that's a little too upturned for my liking. My eyes are definitely my best feature, a really light blue with weird green/gold spots.
We get out of the car and Cat presses herself into my side, with her 5ft form only reaching my chest I've got almost a foot on her. She wraps her arms around my waist and sighs.
"Two more weeks." Rai says, zipping his jacket up.
"Two weeks too many." Cat replies, huffing.
The five minute bell rings and Cat releases me with a wave, skipping over to her boyfriend. I grab Railey's sleeve and tug him off to math, hearing him sigh. We shuffle in with everyone else and take our seats against the wall, me drop-kicking my bag under my desk as per usual.
"Theo." A voice snickers from behind me and I turn around, already knowing who to expect.
You can practically see the ego rolling off him in thick waves as he tilts his head at me and moves a little bit closer.
"Wanna take me up on my offer yet?"
"Harley." I sigh, setting a hand on his chest. "Can you like not?"
His hair falls in his eyes when he smiles, dipping his head down close to my ear. "Please?"
Harley pulls back to look at me and I can't help but notice his eyes are the weirdest shade of green. He sets his hand on my hip and tugs me closer and I feel a flash of heat travel from my chest up to my face, causing his smirky ass smile to grow.
"Harley Grey. What have I told you about tormenting girls in my class?" Mr. Morris' deep voice hits me like a blast of cold air and I fall back into my seat, away from him, blushing.
The never-faltering smile flashes to Mr. Morris and Harley laughs, bouncing backward down the aisle of desks. I lean against the wall, closing my eyes as the late bell rings. Douchebag.
I know class goes on for a good twenty minutes before I yank myself out of my thoughts, turning sideways to look at Railey. He's sitting with his bag up on his desk, his phone leaning against it and with both his headphones in. I raise an eyebrow at him and tap my fingers on his desk, causing his eyes to flash up just long enough for him to mouth 'Supernatural' at me before he's back on the screen. Nothing cooler than Netflix in class, Rai.
I roll my eyes and start turn back around when I hear a whisper of my name and glance over to see Harley's chin setting on Cheyenne Douglas' shoulder, both sets of eyes locked on me. I mouthed 'what' and Harley sneered at me, leaning away from Cheyenne slightly. Cheyenne's eyes shot toward the door and she raised her eyebrows before looking back mouthing 'we need to talk'. She must've seen the confusion on my face because she yanked open her binder and started scribbling down what I hoped was an explanation.
She tore the paper out and folded it neatly and handed it to kid sitting next to her. I shrugged to myself and turned back around, setting my head in my palm and yawning. Someone asked to go to the bathroom and as he walked past me a note landed on my desk with '~Theodosia~' printed on the front. Without looking back I opened the note and began reading.
U & me need to talk. I miss u.
I almost laughed out loud at that but instead just looked back at her and nodded, trying not to grimace at the smile that broke across Cheyenne's freckled face.
I stood up as soon as the bell rang and slammed my hand down on Rai's desk to get his attention. He rolled his eyes at me and tugged his headphones out. "I heard it, bitch. Chill."
"Come on. I gotta piss."
His nose wrinkles up as he stands up, sliding on his backpack. "You need me for this why?"
"Ugh, Railey, just hurry." I shift my bag on my shoulder and shuffle out the door ahead of him, trying to get out befo-
"Theo!" Fuuuuuuck.
I morph my disgusted expression into one of contempt as I turn back around and meet Cheyenne's eyes. She bounces over, her red-blonde hair curled and up in a high pony tail. I roll my weight to my left foot, adjusting for the weight of my bag and sigh.
"Baby, we need to talk." She sticks out her swollen bottom lip and I hold back a gag.
"About what?" I ask quietly.
Cheyenne sighs. "I'm just trying to protect you, ya know? You and me were like... the bestest of friends, ya know?" She nods quickly, answering her own questions. "I just think you should really stay away from Harley after the whole... shebang." Her hands move with her words.
I raise my eyebrows at her. "'Cause that involved me how?"
She slumps forward in a dramatic sigh, "Well, I mean... it was mostly me, yeah. That's the thing though, Theo. I don't want you to get involved in it like I a-" She pauses. "was."
"You sure you just don't want any more competition?" I shouldn't have said it. Mostly because I had such little in Harley that it was virtually impossible to lie about wanting him, but also because of the shit storm I'd just started.
Wide brown eyes go narrow and she sticks one of her manicured fingernails directly in my chest, stepping forward. "Listen here you little bitch. If you think for one second that you're any threat to me at al-"
The minute bell rings and cuts her off, sends kids scrambling through the door and her innocent demeanor is immediately back in place. She waves at a few girls and with one last quick glance at me, she's walked out the door, hips swaying.
The late bell rings the second I get to my building and I listen to the click of all the teachers closing their doors. Fuck.