CHAPTER 3: Bad Habits

As I drove home, I thought about what Kylie and Andie said earlier, how they didn't think Aaron was such a good person and that they didn't trust him... I didn't think that was true, especially since he was such a gentleman holding the door for me and everything, but then again books can't be read by its cover. So, what should I believe? That he's a goody-goody or that he's a crook? Then again, what gave them the right to think so cruelly about him?

As these rhetorical questions came to mind, Andie finally sighed in the passenger seat and turned down the radio. "Ok," he started, "you're never this quiet for half the car ride home, what's wrong? Something either happened to you or something has been bothering you."

Damn, he always gets it square on the nose. I sighed, closing my eyes for a brief moment then opening them again to watch the road. "No, it's nothing major but yeah something has been bothering me... It's that new kid, Aaron. Kylie says he's some kind of bad guy 'cause he did something at his previous high school but he doesn't seem like it, I mean, he seems like such a gentleman and he's kind and… I don't know. I mean, you don't trust him either so I don't know what to think."

I heard Andie chuckle. "Well, it's your opinion; don't let your judgement be based off of us. Besides, there's no proof that he was or not." He paused for a moment, "Unless…"

I gave him a sideways glance, just enough to see him smirking, then returning to the road to see where I'm driving, and back to him repeatedly. "Unless what…?" He turned to look at me. "Unless we look him up on the United States profile page." My eyes widened and I felt the car hit a curb and I woke up from the shock, fixing the car back to the road. "Andie, we are NOT hacking again."

Although Andie is a goody-two-shoe, he loves using his brain. He first figured out how to hack in middle school, hacking into the grade book to change some of his grades. Then he went farther in by hacking a game called World of Warcraft. After that he hacked into the school itself in eighth grade. After those 'little shots', he tried the big guns and hacked into the official Government website itself without getting caught his freshman year of high school. However, he was almost caught because of the type of computer he was using and the consistency of using the same one. After all that, when I found out he was almost caught, he promised he wouldn't hack into any system unless it was a serious situation, and was an emergency with my permission. Now, he was asking for it.

"Please Audrey, you want to know about him and I want that adrenaline rush and-"

"Oh, so it's like a drug now?!"

"No, no! Not at all, sis! That's not what I'm saying! Look, I just want your permission-"

"To hack into the government, yeah, I know. But Andie you were so close to getting caught-"

"I was a freshman! I'm a junior now!"

"Yeah, but Andie…" There was a stop sign so I stopped, leaning my head against the steering wheel. "Just… When they called about the money mortgage I felt that you were so close to going to jail… And if mom had answered you were going to be a goner…" I looked up at Andie, feeling my eyes sting and water slightly. I held all of it back though, but kept my expression of worry and determination. "Andie, I just don't want you to get in trouble." Andie put his hand on mine, which was on the stick. "I won't, just think how much I've kept my promise for so long; I haven't done anything without asking you. So please, I'm asking…" I felt like something was holding my vocal chords back from speaking. I couldn't speak; I was just so frightened of something happening to him… What could I say? He wants to so bad, but I couldn't allow him to, especially for such a petty reason. So, to show a response, I shook my head and kept driving past the sign, feeling my brothers' once hopeful spirit drown under all of his sadness and slight anger.

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A quick side note: Something that I should explain about really quickly is how empathetic I am. Seriously, I can usually feel what the other person is feeling emotionally at the exact moment I'm near them. I don't know why and I know it seems weird but it's oddly useful, for example I know that my brother is extremely pissed at me right now and I should tread carefully. At other times, however, it sucks because it can affect my moods sometimes, for example like right now. I know, it seems stupid, but you're the one reading this so obviously you're interested in some way.

I guess while I'm here I might as well explain another odd feature about myself: I can predict the future using my dreams. Now, before you think about how ridiculous I am and whether or not I'm insane, this is actually not that uncommon. Lots of people are known to have seen into the future through their dreams while they were asleep. (Look it up, I'm not kidding!) A lot of times it has saved their life and other times it has shown a significant event in their life. For me, I usually have these dreams when something very important is going to happen in my life and they usually come as nightmares... Yay me... It's actually really interesting, and I suggest you, the reader, look it up sometime when you're done reading this. Or right now. Or never. Whatever you want...

Anyhow, Let's get back to my life story, shall we?

I believe we were at the part where my brother is pissed at me.

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When we got home, I felt a rise of anger fill me and, while I tried to push out the emotion that I realized wasn't mine, I stormed out of the car and into the house. "Mum! You home?" I yelled, unlocking the door. My parents' car wasn't there, so I assumed she wasn't but I wanted to check anyway. No answer. I opened the screen door and a wooden door leaving it open for Andie. He slammed the screen door closed, but the wooden door stayed opened. I looked at the door then Andie with an exasperated look. "Really?" I asked him, and I walked to the door and closed it sighing. He scoffed. "Not like it matters anyway, I never make you happy even when I keep my promises." I rolled my eyes. Here he goes again.

"I don't want you hacking into the government! It's not right, Andrew!" He narrowed his eyes; he knows I don't use his full first name unless I'm serious about something. "And it's not right for the government to keep all of these secrets away from us which is why they need hackers like me. Besides, you're the one who asked how to find out more about that new criminal guy-"

"He's not a criminal!-"

"How do you know, Audrey? What, you suddenly have powers to see through people and who they are? You've got enough weird going on as it is."

Knowing what he was talking about, I tried very hard not to smack him right then by tightening my jaw. "Don't you dare go on making fun of my nightmares. Every single one of them has gone true so far and you know it."

He scoffed again, this time loud enough that it was more of a fake laugh. "Yeah, and like that's completely normal! Doesn't that show you enough that you have bad judgment?"

I glared at him and spat, "At least I never dated a whore, unlike someone."

I regretted the words as soon as I said it, but didn't want to take it back. Andrew's ears and face turned red. "You know we're to never speak of Cherry again…" he spat back through gritted teeth. I narrowed my eyes. Of course I knew I was about to cross the line but I didn't care right then. I just wanted to hit him where it hurts. And if I couldn't physically, then emotionally would have to do. "What, did she really hurt you that bad that now you can't even talk to another girl without holding back? C'mon, Andrew. Even I knew she was bad news from the start."

"Audrey…" Andie warned.

"I did try to warn you; Even her name gave it away!-"

"Audrey."

"-And every one at school knew she was a whore! But did you listen? Oh no! You couldn't! Because she was your first love and all that jazz-"

"Audrey…!"

"-and then you 'loved' her so much-!"

"Audrey! I'm warning you…!"

"What? Am I going too far? 'cause you certainly did!" Andrew pushed me against the wall with one arm and pinned me to the wall.

"Why can't you keep your mouth shut?!" he yelled.

I kept looking at his glare, trying to ignore the fact that my back was now hurting, and I kept my hands on his arm that was pinning in a light. Ugh, why oh why did I have to push his button? Now I'm caught up in this shit. He continued glaring at me as I thought of a reason, and after a moment Andie put a tighter grip on my forearm and released slightly, as if to remind me that he was waiting, and I came up with something so he could understand. As easily and slowly as I could, I said to Andie a line mom uses a lot that calms him down: "Because you have to look at your future, by remembering your past, and moving on…"

Andie's facial expression was still fierce, but his hazel green eyes soften, and he, I think, finally understood why I wanted to protect him so much, why I was so consistent. And little by little, his body eased up, his hold on me being the last to do so. As soon as he lessened his hold, I felt a large pressure release from my chest, both one that was physically done and emotionally. I sighed and slid against the wall onto the ground and sat myself down against the wooden floor. As I stared at Andie's ragged tennis shoes for a moment, I began thinking that there must be a better way to calm Andie down than to yell at his face so that he would listen to me then tell him that common quote of our mothers' while he is trying to strangle me. Really need to fix that anger issue first, though.

I sighed again and leaned my head against the wall, closing my eyes momentairly before looking up to my brother. "Why must you always get upset at the most stupidest things?" I watched him lean over and squat on the floor next to me as gently as he could, his knees bent. "I don't know, I thought you'd know by now." I chuckled and shook my head, looking up at the ceiling fan. "Nope, I've known you all my life and I still don't know." Andie chuckled at this, and it stayed quiet for quite some time. Finally, Andie spoke: "You wanna go to BK or something?" I looked at him and smirked. "Sure, but I get first dibs to drive there and back." I got up almost immediately after saying so, helping Andie up as well, and grabbed my purse as Andie sighed, meaning he agreed to the deal. After all that, the two of us almost completely forgot that the whole fuss ever happened. Almost. Almost because we knew it happened, we just don't want to mention it. So, we'll just forget about it with Oreo Milkshakes and double whoppers. Yeah, that sounds good. Maybe with a large bucket of fries, too. Oh, yeah… What just happened again?

A/N: I'm sorry for the short, crappy chapter... You'll see why I put this up later on. I want to thank those who have reviewed so far. You're all so kind! :"3 (blushing kitteh face, teehee!) To my first reviewers, I give you all a big hug with a Girl Scout Samoan cookie! (This is my first fanfic, so I'm actually really flabergasted, haha. = VwV =) If you don't know what they are, look them up on Google. Your taste buds shall have an orgasim in your mouth. (If you like coconut) So. Freaking. Good. o.o You can only get them during Girl Scout cookie season though! :DD

Oh, and to respond to one of my reviews: x Red Blood Lies Love x, I actually didn't know that the anonymous reviews was disabled. I'm glad you suggested that, haha. It's enabled now. xDD I'm glad you like Aaron! :DD To everyone else who reviewed! DangerouseLove , Sexy Paranormal , xPaiige and the Starsx , killer-kelly420 , thank you so much and I shall update soon! (And Aaron is purtty hot, hehe. Especially in my mind, he's eye candy. ;DD Hahaha!) I just want to lengthen the story over a period of weeks! If I upload all of them now, then it'll take me even longer to post up the chapters! At the moment, I just finished another chapter to it, but I am at a writers' block. D: I'm sure I'll get out of it soon, but don't worry! You have many a chapters to go before you get to my writer-block chapter! Haha, until then, happy reading! And I apologize for the short, crappy chapter again. I promise the next one will be better and with some humor and not so much drama. :) ~

A/N Update: Ok, this was the one of the couple of chapters that REALLY irked me. Like, seriously. After rereading it, I saw its potential and was largely disappointed with myself. But, I fixed it better now, so hopefully it's better for you guys too. I dunno, if you read this before and are reading this now, lemme know what you think of the changes. Thanks again. ~