30 LOVE

"Oh, for fucks sake."

"Aria!"

I ignored the voice and continued to transfer items between my tote bag and my locker.

"Aria!"

I was in no mood to deal with annoyances today. My brothers had spent the majority of the weekend being broody, drinking, and being even more broody. The pure tense silence made me want to rip my hair out for the last twenty-four hours. I don't think I've ever been more irritated by anything in my life.

"Aria!" Freckles patted my shoulder to get my attention as she stopped in front of me. "Where did you go last night?!"

"I left," I mumbled, knowing that if I didn't answer her, she would only get more and more annoying.

"What? Why?!"

I closed my locker door with much more force than I intended and began walking towards my classroom. "Because I felt like it," I snapped.

"Well, you could have told us you were leaving! Sebastian asked us where you were and we couldn't even tell him!"

I stopped mid-step, almost making her run into me. "Freckles. I'm going to be blunt- I literally cannot tolerate you right now, so can you please just go to class? Just save whatever you have to say until lunch, please."

She looked shocked and I didn't wait until she said anything else before speed walking to my class. The last thing I was going to be able to deal with was Aleistor.

...

When I opened the door to Mr. Spears' classroom and sat down, the bell hadn't even rung yet and only three other people were in the classroom. As I placed my notebook and pencil on the desk, I realized something with dread.

That blonde had this class.

At least he wouldn't try anything stupid with Mr. Spears in the room. For his sake, I hope he didn't.

Minutes ticked by and as we got closer and closer to the bell ringing, there was no sign of him. Hopefully, he got so drunk he drowned in his own vomit and I wouldn't have to deal with him ever again.

The final bell rung and Mr. Spears rose from his desk and stood at attention at the front of the classroom. He gazed down the aisles of the classroom and noted the absentees. After a few moments, he cleared his throat and set the attendance clipboard down.

"Good morning class… I noticed that quite a few of you are absent today. I hope that has nothing to do with the party many of you attended this weekend." He prattled on about how going to such events ruined academic focus and there was still no sign of the blonde.

I relaxed a bit, realizing that even if he showed up now, he'd only be kicked out immediately.

…

My morning was relatively annoyance free. I somehow managed to not run into Aleistor and I hadn't seen Alois at all.

However, as I walked to art class, I realized that I would be seeing Freckles sooner than lunch, which I had no intention of attending; which meant I couldn't avoid her.

I stopped in my tracks and thought quickly. I could just as easily skip that class. Ronald was probably so incompetent that the likelihood of him actually taking attendance for once was incredibly low. I probably wouldn't even be marked as absent.

I ducked into a bathroom and quickly closed myself in a stall, waiting for the bell to ring. Once it did and the bathroom eventually emptied, I slowly stepped out. Teachers occasionally checked in the bathrooms for skipping students, so I had to move quickly.

Hearing no approaching steps from the hallway, I opened the restroom door and quickly walked to the exit door I had seen a few times before. Before, when I had skipped classes, I would just kindly ask the guidance counselor to write me an early release form and drive back home. Of course I wouldn't usually come back because it was much more of a hassle and I never actually wanted to. However, my car being in the state it was, I couldn't drive home, not to mention that if I went home this early, Sebastian and Claude would only get more annoying and I really couldn't deal with that.

Wishing I had thought out my plan a bit better, I looked around the campus for somewhere to duck into for the remainder of the period.

Ah, the school had an old rundown area that they had been meaning to rebuild for ages that was completely closed off to students, but I could probably still get in.

The key to doing things you weren't supposed to at school, especially skipping and walking the campus, was to make it look like you had a purpose and were going somewhere. So, without hesitation, I began making my way to the old building.

I walked for a few minutes and as I approached the old building, I began to smell something strange on the air.

As I thought, the entrance to the building was completely blocked off, although to my extreme misfortune, it didn't seem like I was getting in there anytime soon. It looked like the brick around the entry had completely caved in as well as the ceiling from what I could see through the dirty glass. Even if I did get in, it would be a hassle and a very obvious unexplained reason as to why the front entrance had basically been excavated.

I sighed in frustration. The smell was brought back to my attention. It was a pungent smell. Sharp, almost like….

I saw a trail of smoke out of the corner of my eye and without thinking, walked around the side of the building.

Oh, for fucks sake.

"Aria? Oh fuck, we thought you were a fucking teacher!" Alois cried, barking out a laugh.

I stood, absolutely speechless.

Alois and his friends - a blonde with shortly cut hair and a redheaded girl of which I don't think I'd ever even seen before - were out here in the middle of the school day smoking pot. Was my luck really that bad? I accidentally ran into the person I was trying to avoid the most and this, , was my punishment?

I didn't even bother responding. I just turned around immediately, walking as fast as possible without breaking out into a sprint, wishing I could be anywhere else on the face of the earth except for here.

"Hey, Aria! Wait!" I heard behind me, right before a warm hand gripped my forearm.

"Alois!" His female companion hissed at him in surprise.

Exhausted, I turned around and waited for whatever idiotic things that had to come out of his mouth. I swear, I was very close to elbowing him in the throat and walking away. However, the chances of him actually dying as a result of that were far too great, so actually listening to him was the best option that I had.

"What are you doing out here?" Maybe it was the second-hand smoke getting to me, but it was suddenly hard to focus.

"None of your business," I snapped, taking his hand from my arm. His eyes widened a bit but suddenly a devilish smirk tugged on his lips, pulling his lip ring taut against them.

"You left pretty early at the party. Did Ciel take you home? He's such a gentleman, really."

I narrowed my eyes at him and took a glance over his shoulder at his friends, not even trying to pretend that they weren't listening.

Scowling, I grabbed a hold of his wrist and tugged him along with me out of their hearing. When I deemed us to be far enough, I stopped and spun around.

"Listen, I don't like you. In fact, I'm beginning to think that I hate you. Even so, I'm going to say this: do yourself a favor. Deny any rumors going around that you kissed me at the party. Don't tell anyone that you did. Claude is really, really on edge these days and if he kills you, you'll never get a chance to be with him."

His smirk persisted. He placed a hand on his heart and mocked being injured. "You don't like me? I'm hurt. I thought we were really getting along well."

He took a step closer to me, he had a really bad habit of getting too close. I could smell the smoke on him a lot louder now and it was making me dizzy.

"And like I said before- I'm not interested in Claude at the moment, I'm interested in you. And you know what? You seem pretty interested in me."

Irritation bubbled over into anger and I cocked my head to side, raising an eyebrow. "And what makes you say that?" I asked blankly.

"Well, anyone would be interested in their first kiss. Oh- feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. I just," He let out a little laugh. "I don't think that I am."

Anger quickly turned to rage and I was immediately regretting not introducing his windpipe to my elbow sooner.

"Shut the fuck up," I hissed. "You don't know anything. For your sake and mine, don't fucking tell anyone."

I stomped away, trying to put as much distance as possible between me and that stupid fucking smirk of his. Dealing with Freckles was a thousand times better than this dumb shit. Might as well just go back to class. I mumbled curse words left and right under my breath as I made my way back to the main building.

…

Ciel was sitting in art class, glancing up at the clock every few minutes. After looking at the clock, he would look over to the empty seat capturing all of his attention.

He could have sworn he had seen Aria arriving at school this morning, but it was nearing twenty minutes since class had started and she still hadn't shown up. Her friend, the tomboyish girl, was sitting in the seat next to Aria's and he saw her look up at the clock every few moments as well. He had to wonder if she was waiting as well. Surely, she wouldn't sit in that seat if she knew Aria wasn't coming.

He was putting way too much thought into this. Sighing, he resigned himself to his grogginess from lack of sleep and rested his head on his palm. His nightmares, on a momentary lull, had returned in full swing and sleep was becoming a rare commodity once again.

Suddenly, the classroom door all but slammed open. Ciel looked up, startled, and was shocked to see the person in the doorway.

Aria.

Her face was bright red, a shock in itself as she usually seemed so composed, and her hair was a complete mess, flyaway strands from her bun sticking to her sweaty face. The noisy classroom had gone silent at her entry and even Mr. Knox seemed too shocked to actually say anything about her tardiness. She practically threw her bag on the ground before she noisily plopped down into her regular seat.

"A-are you oka-" The girl besides her tried to ask but was immediately cut off by a loud -

"I'm fine." Aria placed her head in her hands and it looked like she was pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration.

What in the world had happened to her?

…

Ciel narrowed his eyes at Alois as the blonde sat down. He had just walked into the cafeteria with Bard and Meyrin and had an incredibly smug smirk on his face.

It seemed like every time Aria was ever flustered, Alois was somehow involved and it didn't seem like this time was any different. Alois hadn't said a word about talking to Aria lately and even though Soma had teased him about it the weekend before, he seemed intent on not admitting anything.

That only worsened Ciel's curiosity. What exactly had he done or said to make the emotionless and extremely indifferent Aria Tamburlaine that embarrassed?

As if on cue, Ciel saw movement out of the corner of his eye and looked up. Aria was walking into the cafeteria closely followed by her usual companions.

She glanced around the cafeteria with a scowl on her face and her glare fell on him. She acknowledged him with a gentle eyebrow raise and Ciel nodded towards her. Her gaze then traveled to something behind him and her glare returned. Though she had turned away almost immediately, it wasn't fast enough to hide her reddened face.

Ciel frowned and instinctively turned to his left. Alois, who had been looking past him, met his eye.

What the hell did he do? Ciel wondered, frustration mounting as a grin stretched across Alois' face.

...

"Alois!"

The blonde turned as his name was called. It was after school now and he had been walking down the sidewalk in the direction of his apartment.

Pluto was jogging towards him, a scowl on his face. He was a senior and also turning twenty this year. Every teacher in the school knew of him as he had to repeat his last year twice since he hadn't earned enough credits to get a high school diploma. Although, everyone knew he didn't come to school enough to even fail his classes. High school students were good business for a drug dealer after all.

Alois mirrored Pluto's scowl as he turned and waited for the nineteen year old to catch up to him.

"Why the fuck are you telling people that I gave you Molly?" the older boy demanded when he was a few steps away. Pluto was a relatively relaxed person. He was only angry when people told lies and an angry Pluto was not something anyone wanted to deal with.

"Because you did!" Alois snapped.

"Why would I charge you such a low price for Molly?! I don't even sell that. Everyone knows I sell prescription only!"

"Everyone also knows that you will do anything when you get bored." Alois deadpanned. "I thought we were cool. Why would you fuck me over like that?!"

Pluto's expression clenched with rage. "I'm telling you that I fucking didn't! I don't care what the fuck you think happened, but I sold you the usual. Anything else is on you. If you don't let this go, I'm not selling to you anymore, so make up your mind."

Alois frowned and looked down at the ground. Pluto was a lot of things, but he was not a liar.

"Alright," Alois acquiesced. "Maybe it was someone else." Pluto nodded, but didn't say anything else for a moment.

"Hey, have you seen a pretty girl with black hair and greyish eyes?" Alois frowned in confusion.

"Aria?" he asked without thinking. Pluto looked surprised.

"Yeah that's her. She goes here right? You know her?"

"Um, yeah… yeah I know her," Alois mumbled.

"Do you know where she is?"

"No. I mean- she's probably left already." Pluto was frowning so he elaborated. "With her brothers."

"Ah…" Pluto seemed to consider that information. "Okay thanks. I'll see you around."

"Sure. Bye." Alois waved and watched as Pluto turned around unsteadily and began jogging in the opposite direction. Alois turned back around himself and resumed his walk. He found himself even more confused than he had been before.

If it wasn't Pluto fucking with him, then what the hell happened? And why did Pluto know Aria anyways? What was she doing with a drug dealer?

Hi, all! Hope you're having a good day! I have a quick little announcement- recently I've been almost overcome by different story ideas that are on the shorter side. And from the moment I started this story I promised myself I would only write this and one other story so if I wanted to write more I had to finish something first. And, well, I did that. But now I have about 5 or 6 different story ideas- none more than 20 chapters that'd I'd like to write and I'm incredibly motivated to write them. The problem is I don't necessarily have the time to sit down for hours and hours at a time to write them and write this story that I'm equally motivated to write. Anyways, my point is I'm going to be writing a whole lot more and if you'd like to be aware of when I post those other stories- which may not be posted until they are 80-90% complete please follow me as an author. Also, because I've been so wishy-washy with my updates lately I'm going to officially lower it to one chapter a month, that way I can remain consistent and not stress about updating twice. I'll still be writing just as much but I'm usually able to get a chapter and a half done a month so I think that'll take off some stress and give me more time to write other stories!

Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I will see you guys the first Sunday of November! Thanks for all the support you guys have given me!