Anger Management

Chapter 2

"You're late."

"I'm on time."

"Mmmm…nope. You're late."

"And you're a stalker. Why are you always waiting at my locker? Thought you had so many friends?" Annabel gently pushed his shoulder, making him step to the side. "Did you need something?"

"I never do." He glanced at her hand. "Where's my ring?"

"What?" She looked down too before making a face. "Crap. I left it. I have to take it off every night when I take a shower. The tape wouldn't hold then."

"My ring is that big on you?"

"It is," she told him as she put some of her things in her locker. "I'm sorry."

"There's nothing to be sorry about." He just watched as she reached over, taking the one dangling head phone and listening for a second to what he was before dropping it. "What?"

"Nothing. I just like to hear your music sometimes."

"Sometimes?"

"Sometimes."

He smiled at her, but she was busy with her locker again. "I work after school, so I hope you weren't planning on doing anything."

"I wasn't," she told him. "Kirsten's here still, so she'll probably want to do something. Shopping, dinner. Something."

Nodding, Owen said, "Have fun."

"I'm sure all she want to do is talk about last night."

"What about you?"

"What about me?"

"What would you want to talk about?"

With a straight face, she told him, "Underrated music."

Blinking, Owen told her, "It's things like this that kept us from becoming official."

"Oh, shut up." She finished with her locker and turned to face him. "Are you walking me to class?"

"I can." He put his other headphone in before taking her hand. "Come on."

Annabel relaxed into his grip, following along willingly. "Can you hear me? With those in?"

He just nodded as the song he was listening to reached a guitar solo.

"Mallory sent me a message over UMe last night," she told him.

"'bout what?"

"She wants to hangout on Saturday."

"Oh."

"So I was thinking that you could ask me over then."

"Ask you over what?"

"Ask me over to your house. For dinner."

"Oh." He glanced at her. "Uh…sure."

"No, Owen. You have to ask."

Sending her a look, he said, "Why?"

"If you don't, it'll seem like I invited myself over."

"So? Invite yourself whenever you want."

"That makes me look obsessive."

"You are obsessive." He smiled at her. "That's okay though. I like it."

"Invite me over, Owen."

"Fine. Do you wanna come over to dinner on Saturday? And I guess hangout with my sister too because for some reason you don't know how to tell her no when she asks you to do something?"

"You botched that."

"I still asked you, didn't I?" He frowned as someone slammed into him from the side. "I'm really tired of this school."

She squeezed his hand slightly, smiling as they came up on her class. "I'll see you at lunch then, I guess."

Owen let go of her hand. "Yeah. See you then."

After watching Annabel walk into her class, Owen turned around, headed for is own homeroom. It would be a long day.

"I got you a soda."

Owen took the drink from his girlfriend before sitting down. "Thanks."

"You did get me one yesterday."

"You can't pay me back, Annabel. That ruins the gift."

"Oh, shut up. If I just got one soda, you'd have asked for a drink from it anyways." She handed him a bag of chips as well. "Now who's late?"

"Not late. It's lunch. You can't be late for lunch," he said, shifting on the wall. "Man, it's hot out today."

"Yeah, I know." Annabel took a bite of her sandwich. "So what were you doing?"

"When?"

"Owen."

He smirked at her. "I was buying some CDs from this guy I know. He went to a concert over the weekend a few towns over and I had him get me some EPs."

"So you do have friends."

He just smiled at her, not saying anything as he opened the bag of chips. She had a book out, probably for her English class.

"You know, Owen, Kirsten told me that she was very disappointed in you."

"Me? I didn't even say anything to her last night."

"She meant about you bringing flowers. She called you a wuss, that Brian was willing to stand up to my father, but you just brought my mom flowers and kept your mouth shut."

"What was I supposed to do? I don't care if they're living together or not. And I'm not fighting with your parents. I don't plan to ever be." He popped the tab on her soda. "So have things blown over with her and your father?"

"No. They haven't even talked yet. He's pissed."

"Why can't Kirsten get a job and pay for her own apartment?"

"She has a job," Annabel defended. "Her apartment is just expensive."

"Then maybe she should get a less expensive one."

Annabel shrugged. "Maybe."

"Perhaps instead of judging me for being nice to my new girlfriend's parents, she should work on being an independent adult."

"You want me to tell her that?"

Owen shrugged, going back to the bag of chips. "Who cares? She's leaving today, right? So I probably won't see her for a long time."

"As far as Dad's concerned, neither will I."

"What do you mean?"

"He told me I can't go to New York now."

"What?"

"I know," Annabel raved. "What does it change if I'm staying at Kirsten's and Brian's there? Nothing. I don't mind Brian."

Owen, not really wanting her to go to begin with, shrugged. "You know, you could always get him to let you to come to Arizona with me."

"Oh yeah, I can't stay with my sister in New York, but I can go stay in Arizona with my boyfriend. That will go over well."

Owen still was getting used to that term, boyfriend. Though he technically already was that to her, it was nice to have it stated and certified. "Worth a shot."

"Owen, be serious."

"I am. Besides, I don't want you going to New York anyways," he told her. "What good would you be to me there? And I won't be in Arizona long. When I get back, what am I supposed to do?"

"Gee, maybe hangout with those friends you were boasting about," she commented. "And besides, I'll be the one that is actually alone while you're gone."

"Going to Arizona is very different from going to New York. I'm going to a desert and you're going to the City of Lights."

"The City of Lights is Paris, France, Owen."

"…That's not the point, Annabel."

"Then what is the point?"

"Spending a whole summer in New York is like a vacation."

"As oppose to your vacation in Arizona?"

"That's not a vacation. That's meeting my dad's new girlfriend who's old enough to by my girlfriend and realizing that my old friends aren't my friends anymore because we lost touch."

"It's a different music scene, right? Than here? That'll be fun."

"As oppose to New York's music scene?"

"Then I'll pick you up a few CDs. Free of charge."

"Annabel-"

"If you wanted me to come to Arizona with you, then why don't you think about coming to New York with me?"

Owen blinked. "Oh, yeah, that'll go over well with your dad."

"In comparison to your suggestion?"

"My suggestion was a joke. I was being funny."

"You should try harder at it. Me? I'm a master of funny."

"Right. That's why you have no friends other than me."

She just stared at him for a moment before looking off. Owen sighed.

"You're the one who kept saying that. I was joking. It was funny. Laugh." He bumped her with his elbow gently. "You probably have way more friends than me. You just don't hang out with them."

She didn't say anything on that and Owen decided to leave it alone. He sighed, messing with his mp3 player again.

"So your dad has a lot of girlfriends?"

"What?"

When Owen looked up, Annabel was blushing, clearly thinking she had asked the wrong question or was invading his privacy.

"I was just…you said…"

"Oh," he said, smiling at her. "Uh, yeah, I guess he does. He thinks that they should all live with him too. It's so annoying when I go visit him and there's some chick running around that automatically doesn't like me for some reason or another."

"Maybe it's because you're a freak that listens to weird music."

"Oh no, Annabel, tell me your real feelings."

"I like your freakiness."

"I'm sure you do."

"That's why I'm your girlfriend."

He scooted closer. "That's why? All this time I thought you were just after my body."

"Something like that." She leaned slightly into him, dropping her book back into her bag. "Something very close to that, but not that at all."

"How can something almost be something, but not be it at all?"

"You're just not smart enough to understand," she told him as he wrapped an arm around her.

"Oh? Is that it?"

"That's it."

"Owen, I'm bored."

Glancing towards his bedroom door, which was now open, he said, "And?"

"Let's do something. Can't we go see a movie?"

"No. I'm busy," he said, looking back at his computer. "Oh and thanks, by the way."

"For what?"

"For inviting Annabel over."

"You're welcome."

"That was sarcasm." He looked at his sister again, who was still just standing there, watching him. "If I wanted to have Annabel over, I would have asked her to come over."

"I didn't ask her for you, Owen. I asked her for me. So that we could hangout."

He snorted. "You and Annabel are not hanging out."

"Yes, we are. When she comes over-"

"When she comes over, she's going to be with me. Not you."

"I invited her over."

"And she accepted only because we're together. And I would really appreciate it if you left her alone."

"What? Why?" Mallory's hands went to her hips. "Annabel and I get along a lot better than the two of you do."

"Yeah, well, I really don't care."

"Why are you in such a bad mood?"

"I'm not, alright? I just wasn't planning on having Annabel over. That's all."

"So? It's not until Saturday." Then, tossing her hair over her shoulder in a way that made Owen roll his eyes, she added, "You don't even have to see her if you don't want. I already have plans."

He glanced back at her. "Plans? For what?"

"That just so happens to be the same day of my sleepover, so-"

"You-"

"-if we had a real model, like last time, it would really help. Especially considering the fact that there will be girls here this time that weren't before."

"What? No. No. I did not know that you were having some sort of stupid sleepover on Saturday. Why didn't you tell me?"

"So that when I did my big reveal, right now, you would be shocked and amazed. So ha, I win."

"No, you don't. I'll just call Annabel and-"

"And tell her what? That you don't want her to come over?" Mallory smiled victoriously at him. "Face it, Owen. I won."

"No, you didn't. I'll tell her exactly what happened. She won't want to come over when you're having a sleepover. Besides, I'm sure there's some kind of band or something we can go see instead of staying here. She'll understand."

"No. She's going to come to my party for a cameo appearance, making stupid Jenna Steele realize that I should definitely be the leader of our modeling club."

"Modeling club?"

"Oh. We're starting a school club. About modeling. And everyone thinks that Jenna should be in charge of that because her dad's a photographer. Me, though, I have an in with a real model."

Owen went back to his computer, shaking his head. "Annabel doesn't model anymore."

"Not now she doesn't, but she'll start again. Eventually."

"No, she won't."

"Well, the point is she did it, alright? This is going to skyrocket my place in that club."

"So you're using Annabel. Great."

"I'm not using her, Owen. I would want to hangout even if she couldn't help my social standing. The point is though that she can." Mallory turned to leave. "It takes a lot of cunning to make it in the modeling world."

"You guys aren't part of the modeling world," Owen groaned. "What are you guys even going to do in this club?"

"Talk about modeling and discuss our prospects."

"Prospects?"

"Photographers that will want to take photos of us."

He blinked before turning his music all the way back up. "Go away, Mallory. I'm busy."

After sticking her tongue out at him, she closed the door, leaving him alone. Owen went back to music searching, though that only lasted about another hour. Mainly because after an hour, Rolly called and wanted Owen to meet him at World of Waffles. Though he really didn't want to go, he figured it would at least give him something to do. It was only eight, after all, and he still had no other plans for the night.

"So what exactly did you want?" Owen asked as he sat down at the table across from his only real friend sometime later when he made it to the resturant. "Because I-"

"I did something. Something bad."

Frowning, Owen wished that he had brought his jacket. It was freezing, like always. He shouldn't have made such a dumb mistake, but oh well. He'd just have to suffer through it.

"What did you do?"

He glanced around. "Can you keep a secret?"

"Who else would I tell, Rolly?"

"From Annabel. Can you keep a secret from Annabel?"

"No. I don't know. I don't think so. Why?"

"Well then I can't tell you."

"Tell me what? Why can't I tell Annabel?"

"Because, Owen, she'll tell Clarke."

He frowned. "Do you mean you-"

"In my defense, Clarke fought with me after the party and then after we had breakfast. So tonight, I went out without her and might have-."

"You didn't."

"I mean, I didn't, like…sleep with the other girl, but-"

"Why are you telling me?" Owen frowned, looking around. "You do realize that if Annabel asks-"

"In what way would that ever come up?"

"I don't know. It really wouldn't have if you didn't tell me."

"I told you because you're my friend."

"What do you want me to do about it?"

"I just need your help. Should I tell Clarke or-"

"I would."

"Seriously?" Rolly frowned as the waitress came with their orders. That made Owen frown too, but for a different reason.

"You ordered for me?"

"Meh, moot point right now."

"No, that's still kind of weird."

"You always get the same thing. Now pay attention." Rolly dug into his pancakes. "If II tell Clarke, she might break up with me."

"But if you don't tell her and she does find out, she'll definitely break up with you." Owen frowned. "Where exactly were you tonight, anyways?"

"Well, our school had an off day today."

"For what?"

He shrugged. "Teacher work day or something."

Owen knew that his friend went to the Fountain School, which was hardly a school at all, so this news wasn't very shocking.

"Anyways, continue."

"So I went out with some people from my homeroom. We were all just going to hangout at this guy's house and she was, like, all over me."

Owen blinked. "Really."

"Hey. I'm hot, you know?"

"Really."

"I am! To some people. And I'm charming."

"The charming cheater."

"I didn't cheat. Not really."

Owen shrugged. "It depends on who you ask."

"If you ask me, it wasn't cheating."

"What exactly did you guys do?" Owen picked at his food, kind of disappointed that this is what Rolly wanted to talk about. He was hoping that he had some sort of cool concert tickets or something. He really didn't care if he cheated on Clarke or not. Well, he cared, kind of. "You and this girl?"

"We just made out. And touched. Under clothes. And I-"

"Okay, okay." Owen looked up at his friend. "Yeah, if Clarke finds out about this, she will totally think it's cheating."

"I was drinking. It shouldn't count."

"Think of it this way, Rolly, if you found out that Clarke and some guy did this, would you think it was cheating?"

"That would be different."

"How?"

"I don't know. It just is."

"The only reason that it's different to you is because you're the one getting hurt in that scenario."

"No."

"Yes."

"No, Owen."

"Look, if I ever did that to Annabel, which I wouldn't, I would tell her. The second it happened. If I didn't, then I would be lying."

"This isn't about you."

"Look, what do you want me to do? All I know is that if Clarke finds out-"

"How would she find out, Owen? This girl goes to my school. Clarke doesn't know her. As long as you keep your mouth shut-"

"I'm not going to lie."

"And who's asking you to? Just don't bring up the topic and you don't have anything to worry about."

"That's a lie by omission. And when this comes out, because it will, Annabel will ask me if you ever said anything to me. And now, thanks to you telling me this, I'll have to say yes. Then she'll be mad at me. I'm not having my girlfriend mad at me because you did something stupid."

"I regret it. Isn't that enough?"

"It's been, like, what? Three hours? And you already regret it?"

"Yes." He took a sip of his water. "I'm a very complex person, Owen."

He blinked. "Just tell her. It'll be better if you just tell her now instead of later."

"No. I'm not going to tell her. In fact, now that I've gotten it off my chest to you, I hardly even feel bad. It was just a stupid mistake. A screw up. And it's in the past now."

"It's up to you, man, what you do." Owen finally started eating his food. "Know this, though. If Annabel suspects anything, and I mean anything, I have to tell her."

"Bros before-"

"Stop yourself before you make me mad at you too."

Rolly smiled up at him. "Clarke's not mad though, Owen. That's the beauty of it, really."

"If you say so," Owen mumbled, shaking his head. "If you say so."

"Where were you?"

"What?"

"I called you, like, twice. Sometime happened."

Owen went over to his bed and sat down, heart pounding. Clearly, Annabel had somehow found out about Rolly and was about to bust him. "I left my phone at home. Sorry. What's going on?"

"You will not believe it," she began, excitement now evident in her voice. Settling back on his bed, he let out a silent sigh, thankful. See, when you're thankful for when your girlfriend doesn't know something, it sure seems like you're lying. "Kirsten came back over."

"Oh boy."

"That's not the good part, Owen," she scolded.

"Then what is?" He reached over with one hand and grabbed the remote to his stereo before turning it on softly. "Huh?"

"She and Brian are getting married."

He frowned. "Really?"

"Yes."

"…And you're happy about this?"

"Well, not happy, no. Not sad either though. It's just so…I don't know."

"You sure sound giddy."

She paused. "Giddy?"

"Yeah."

"Giddy, Owen? Really?"

"What? Am I not allowed to use that word? Last time checked, I can use whatever word I want." He smiled slightly. "So why are you so excited?"

"It's just something to do, now. All my parents have focused on is me since… And now that Kirsten is doing this, I'm finally out of the spotlight."

"That's good." Owen rolled onto his stomach. "So she's for real though? About getting married?"

"I don't know. I think part of it is just to rile my parents up, but who knows? She did tell me and Whitney though that he proposed to her last night, after dinner, telling her something about how they belong together and how dare Dad try to keep them apart." His girlfriend giggled. "That's so lame."

"Yeah," Owen agreed, changing the song with the remote. "Would you accept? If that was my line?"

"Depends."

"On what?"

"If you were for real or not. God, I think I just lost some respect points for Brian."

"They won't go through with it anyways."

"Yeah, I know."

Owen closed his eyes. "I went out to dinner with Rolly."

"Is that where you were? Did you go to World of Waffles?"

"Yeah. I'd have invited you, but-"

"We don't have to go everywhere together, Owen."

"Considering all the drama going on over there, I'm kind of glad I didn't stop by."

"My parents like you. You're no threat to anything."

"No threat? I'm a threat."

"Owen-"

"I am. I could be. If I wanted to be." He frowned slightly. "Anyways, change of plans about Saturday."

"What?"

"Maybe you shouldn't come over."

"…How come?"

"Mallory's having a sleepover and the whole reason she invited you over was so that she could get some kind of social importance in her group of friends because she knows a Lakeview Model."

Annabel paused for a beat. "So I would help her by showing up?"

"I guess."

"Help her do what?"

"They're starting a modeling club or something. I don't know." He opened his eyes again. "So I was thinking that you can come over on Friday."

"Why can't I on Saturday?"

"I thought I just explained it to you?"

"I want to help your sister, Owen."

"Annabel, you coming to dinner was supposed to be…important."

"Don't turn into Brian on me."

"Ha ha," he retorted. "I just meant, I want you to come over to my house for me. Not for Mallory."

"What if we do dinner on Friday' then? And on Saturday, I come over for a little bit and help Mallory out with her sleepover? Then we can go out and do something."

"Do what?"

"Anything you want."

He paused. "I guess. So on Friday then?"

"Yeah. It'll be…special."

"I said important, not special."

She pretended to be offended. "Is it not special?"

"It's special too, I guess." He smiled slightly in the dark. "You know you were trying to mock me though."

"Me? Mock you? Never."

He rolled his eyes. "So did you do anything else today? Other than have your sister get engaged?"

"Not really. That's taken up most of the day." He heard her close a door. "So what did you do to day, Owen? Just go out with Rolly?"

"Pretty much," he said, on edge again as the topic of his dinner came back up. "I also looked up some more music."

"So an overall boring day for you, huh?"

"In comparison to you? Yeah, pretty much." He rolled onto his side. "What are you doing right now?"

"Laundry. You?"

"Laying down, listening to music."

"How was work?"

"Meh. They had screwed up the schedule. I didn't even get to go in. I showed up and everything, but four other people were already there. Manager sent me home."

"So do you work tomorrow?"

"Yeah. I should."

"Oh."

"You could always order a pizza. Then you could see me."

"Who said I wanted to see you?"

"Why else would you ask that question?" He changed the song again. "You know, Annabel, it's okay to admit that you're obsessed with me. I'm not surprised by it."

"Shut up."

"What? I like it, personally."

"You're way more needy than me."

"Needy and obsessive are two different things. Both of which I am not."

"Get over yourself. I went my whole life without you."

"Yes, but that was before you knew me. Now you couldn't live without me."

"I doubt it."

"I don't." He shook his head. "Anyways, did you do your Physics work? Because I didn't."

"Owen."

"It's too hard. I don't understand vectors. Can you help me?"

"Of course. If you had come over today, I'm sure I'd have been able to help you better."

"Yeah, yeah," he grumbled as he got up to find his backpack. "I wish we were dating back when I took Chemistry."

"You had trouble with that too?"

"I have trouble with most anything."

"Maybe you should pay attention in class better instead of just listening to your music."

"You have no idea how I am in class."

"Hmmm."

He just sat back down on the bed as he found his backpack, unzipping it as he switched his phone to the other hand. "So is your dad still pissed?"

"He went out. Said that he needed a beer or something. I think he went to go hangout with his friends."

"And your mom?"

"Around him she's acting upset, but Kirsten's over right now, downstairs talking with her. They're both really excited."

"What about you?"

"What about me? I don't care if they get married or not."

"You don't want to be a bridesmaid."

"I highly doubt she'd pick me to be one."

"She could though. Then you'd have to suffer through her wedding in some ugly dress."

"I like weddings."

Owen shrugged before feeling stupid, considering that she couldn't see him anyways. "I've only been to two."

"I've been to five."

"Really?"

"Yeah. When I was a kid though. I haven't been to one in years."

"I don't like them."

"That's because you're a guy."

"They're just a waste to me. I mean, you throw down all that money on something that means nothing. If you love each other, then why do you need to spend so much money? Just go down to the courthouse and get it taken care of. The media's made weddings something they're not. Not to mention the shitty music they play at receptions-"

"Owen, please, let's just get started on vectors."

"If you insist," he sighed.

"I do."