A/N: I don't own anything. Reviews are very much appreciated.
Reid Garwin sighed. Caleb was on his case again. This time it was exceedingly stupid, because he refused to share the answers to the history test, so Reid had to find another way to acquire the information. That other way happened to involve mind reading.
"If you keep using like that, you're not gonna make it past thirty! And it wont be my problem when you can't stop using, and you have to live the rest of your pitiful life addicted to the power," Caleb yelled. Reid rolled his eyes and tried to storm off. Caleb threw him back against the wall, and held him there firmly by the neck. "If I catch you doing something like that again, you're screwed." Reid pushed Caleb off him and stalked off, fuming.
Everyone knew that in the 'sons of Ipswich' that Caleb Danvers was the leader, Pogue Parry was the adrenaline junkie, Reid Garwin was the trouble maker, and Tyler Sims was the quiet one. It was really quite funny that Caleb tried to control everyone, even though it only made them angry.
Walking up the stairs to his room, he ran into Tyler, who was going down. "Hey Reid, are you coming to swim team practice?" he asked.
Reid rolled his eyes again. "No, I feel crappy. Tell Caleb that I'm sorry I couldn't make it." He stormed the rest of the way up the stairs. Tyler shook his head and continued the rest of the way down the stairs.
Once in the room, Reid walked over to the his laptop and opened it. As he was waiting for it to turn on, he leaned his head back on the chair. He was so tired. When the computer finally loaded, he opened up his e-mail. '9 unread mail'. One by one, he opened, read, and deleted the e-mails. Nothing worth keeping. Just advertisements, and forwards. He shook his head in frustration. He couldn't stop thinking about using. It sounded so good right now. His head was pounding in his skull, and his body ached. He hoped that this feeling would pass soon. He walked over to the mini fridge and grabbed a soda, hoping the caffeine would cure his aching head. Reid sat in silence for a while, thinking about nothing unparticular
Just then, the phone rang. "Yeah," he answered. It was Tyler.
"Caleb and Pogue and I are headed to Nicky's. You wanna come?" Tyler asked. "We're leaving right now, so if you want to come, you should get down here now."
"Okay, I'll be right down," he hung up the phone. Might as well shoot some pool to get his mind off things. He grabbed his black stocking cap and walked out the door, closing it behind him.
"Hey Reid. I'm glad you're feeling better," Tyler was waiting for him outside the dorm. "Caleb and Pogue already left. They said to meet them there." Reid and Tyler got into Tyler's truck and drove down the road.
Reid sat in silence, his head resting on his hand, staring out the window. When they arrived, he saw that Sarah and Kate were there too, along with a new girl he had never seen before.
"Hey Tyler, Reid," Caleb greeted. "This is Amanda Hodges. She's new," he introduced the girl standing to the left of him. She was pretty, and shy. Reid took the chance to introduce himself to her, in hopes that maybe he would get to her before Tyler, who was clearly eyeing her.
"Hi, I'm Reid Garwin. Where did you come from?" he asked flirtatiously.
"I transferred in. I'm actually from London," she said, her voice thick with the British accent. This made Reid grin.
"Wow, I love your accent. It's hot," he said, moving closer to her. She was wearing dark jeans, and a dark grey t-shirt over a long white tank. Caleb shook his head at the sheer obviousness of Reid's flirting.
"Let's go inside," Caleb said, walking in next to Sarah. Reid put his arm around Amanda and followed them. Amanda politely removed his arm. Reid pretended not to notice and sat down at a table. Pogue and Kate sat down with Caleb and Sarah next to him.
"Garwin, come here so I can kick your butt at pool!" Tyler called from where he was racking up the balls. Reid got up and grabbed a cue.
"What do you think of Amanda?" he asked. Tyler looked up from where he was aligning a shot.
"She's hot, and definitely not into you. Hate to break it to you," he answered honestly. Reid glared at him, waiting for him to take his shot. When he was finished, Reid lined up his shot carefully. His eyes went black, and he sunk the 6 ball in the corner pocket. Reid chalked up the cue, looking pleased with himself. In two seconds flat, Caleb was at his side, grabbing him by the upper arm and dragging him out side.
"What are you doing Garwin? You're such an idiot sometimes!" he yelled. He sighed and rubbed his forehead. Reid took this chance to do something he'd wanted to for quite some time. He decked Caleb across the face. When Caleb recovered, Reid took a step back, in defensive mode, his eyes black once again. Caleb ran at him and shoved him to the ground. Now, Caleb's eyes were also as black as night.
"You pushed it to far Garwin!" he force threw Reid back against a dumpster. This was the second time in a few weeks that they'd fought like this. Only last time, it was before both of them ascended.
Reid got up quickly and brushed him self off. He ran forward and knocked Caleb to the ground and began punching his face. Just as Caleb pushed him off of him, Pogue came running out to see what was happening. Caleb threw himself at Reid, and began punching his face again and again, until Reid managed to get him off of him. They both stood up and looked at each other. Reid wasn't done yet. He force threw Caleb against a wall. Caleb brought him along with him, and they both kind of just sat against the wall for a minute, eyes closed. When they opened them, they saw they had an small audience. Pogue and Kate were over by the door, with Sarah. Tyler was holding Amanda, who had no idea what was happening. She buried her face in his shoulder, obviously upset at the fact that two of her new friends had tried to kill each other, not to mention the creepy black eyes.
Caleb pushed himself up off the ground. He walked over to Pogue and Tyler. He was clearly going to have them explain every thing to Amanda, he had no choice. Reid just sat there, staring at Tyler, who had not let go of Amanda. He had absolutely no idea how to handle him right now. It was so clear that Reid liked Amanda, and with in 20 minutes of him telling him that, he was all over her.
Pogue and Tyler left with the three girls, and that left Caleb alone with Reid again. "Reid, get up. Let's get out of here," he said. Reid just looked at him, and shook his head.
"I'm gonna stay here for a while. I'll walk back. Just leave will you," he said calmly, with out emotion. Caleb nodded and hurried to catch up with Tyler and Pogue.
Reid got up, and went back inside. He headed for the bathroom so he could clean up a bit. His lip was bleeding, along with most of his face. He looked in the mirror, Caleb had done a nice job on him this time. A nice collection of bruises and cuts. Once he'd wiped all the blood off his face, he went up to the bar.
Three hours later, when Nicky's was closing up, Reid was still sitting at the bar, barely able to sit up straight. One of the waitresses walked up and sat in the bar stool next to his.
"Is there any one I can call for you?" she asked sweetly. 'I must look absolutely pitiful' he thought.
"No, I'm just gonna walk back to the school," he slurred the sentence together with as much sense as he could muster.
"I don't think you're even fit to do that. Why don't you call one of your friends you were here with earlier," she suggested. Reid laughed drunkenly. That would go over well! "I'll even call them for you."
"NO!" Reid was tired of this questioning. He stood up to quickly and fell down. At this point, Nicky, who was wiping down the bar, walked over.
"Hey, you," he said. "Either you call someone to pick you up here, or you call someone to pick up down at the station. Now, just tell me that guy's number you were here with." He said sternly, helping him up. Reid gave in and gave him Pogue's number. He was the only one who wasn't completely pissed at him at the moment.
Twenty minutes, Pogue was helping him out to his motorcycle. "I hear you're a lousy drunk," he said, trying to lighten up the mood that Reid was in. Reid laughed drunkenly again.
"Yeah. I guess." Pogue got onto the motorcycle and started it up.
Once they were back at the dorm, he helped his swaggering friend up the stairs and to his room. "Tyler, open the door," Pogue said through the door. Tyler opened the door, and stepped aside so he could get in.
"What are you doin' here?" Reid slurred.
"I live here smart one. I got it from here Pogue. Thanks." Tyler said, guiding his drunk friend to his bed. Once Reid was safely there, Tyler got up and grabbed some water. "Drink some of this," he threw the water bottle at Reid.
The next morning came too fast in Reid's mind. Before he even had a chance to adjust to having the sun leak through the blinds, Tyler yanked them open. Reid moaned and buried his head under his pillow.
"Reid, get up. We have to go to Lit. in 30 minutes. You may want to hit the showers. You reek," Tyler was already up and ready. Reid reluctantly and sluggishly pushed him self off the bed and out the door, grabbing a towel on his way out. 'This is going to be a long day' he thought.
When he got back, he realized that Tyler had already left. He hurried and finished getting ready, picked up his things, and left the room. It took him about 10 minutes to catch up with Tyler, Pogue, and unfortunately Caleb. They were all standing out side the class room talking.
"Hey Reid, how you feeling?" Pogue asked, walking over to him. Reid grunted in response. Caleb was looking at him, waiting for an explanation. When none came, he prompted him.
"So, what did you do after we all left last night?" he asked, with mock curiosity.
"Like you don't already know!" Reid said shortly. Reid was a little pleased to see that Caleb's face looked sore, and swollen. His eye was purple, and there was a shallow cut above his eye. At least he did some damage. "Nice face."
"I was just about to say the same to you. Look, we shouldn't have handled it. I'm sorry. You just have to learn that you can't act like that anymore."
"How is it that you can still get a jab in, even when you're apologizing?" Reid asked, leaning against the wall. Just then, the door opened, and they went inside the class room.