Part 18: All About the Wordplay
A/N: Muhaha! It's on to chapter 22! Woo-hoo! I just wanna say that I've come a LONG way since the first chapter...yes...With the help of ALL of you people, I think it's been molded into one almost-perfect story. My throat hurts right now SO bad...every time I swallow...I'm going in for an audition for a band on December 11th, and I'm HOPING TO GOD that my throat gets better SOON! I don't know if you've all heard this song before, but Cassie Steele's song "Blue Bird"...ahh...I can sing that SO well...teehee... "I talk to bluebird, she said 'Why walk when you can fly?' She told me, 'Baby, life tastes better when you're high...'" That's SO awesome...ANYWAY, here's the new chapter:
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-Cafeteria-
"Ash, come sit with us," said Paige, patting the empty seat next to her. Ashley glanced over at Paige and paused for a second before taking up the offer and sitting down.
"Tell her, Ellie!" Hazel said excitedly.
Ellie smiled and looked over at Ashley. "Okay, okay, okay," she said. "Degrassi's First Annual Talent Contest is next month. Paige, Hazel, and I have decided to reunite Hell Hath No Fury for one last show. We want you to join us."
Ashley stared at Ellie. Accept or not to accept...accept. "Sure, that'd be great," said Ashley, nodding.
"Good," Paige said in a businesswoman-like tone. "We have music...all we need is lyrics."
"What do you want the song to be about?" Ashley asked. Paige thought for a moment.
"Something real. You can write real, right? Hazel, help me here..." Paige mumbled.
"How about abuse?" Hazel suggested. The other three turned and looked at her. "What? It's real. We haven't done it before."
"Not everyone is abused," said Ashley.
"Not everyone is raped, either," Paige said coldly. She had a point. "Besides, it's not about it happening to everyone, it's about happening to the person who wrote it. You didn't experience what 'Poor Thing' was about; you just wrote it."
"No, but I did experience Craig cheating on me and I wrote that song," Ashley snapped.
"Craig...Craig..." Paige muttered. "That's not a bad idea."
"What're you talking about?"
"Duh! Craig's a musician! He experienced abuse. Partner with him and you can write the song together."
"No. I'm not doing it."
"Ash, you're either in or you're out. If you want to be in, then you'll go out and ask Craig for help writing the song," Hazel said.
"Fine, I'll do it. Where is he, anyway?"
"He's at home. He's sick in bed. Headaches," Ellie answered.
"How's he been doing otherwise?" asked Paige curiously.
"Better. A lot better. Actually, on Saturday, the two of us are going to paint his room. We looked at paint the other day and he's gonna paint his walls black and then cover them with a bunch of posters."
"Sounds like fun," said Hazel.
"It will be."
-Craig's House-
Joey had just gotten home for his lunch break. He walked in the door and expected Craig to be sitting up watching TV like he usually would when he stayed home from school. But, no. Craig was on the couch, but he was sleeping, his face shoved into a pillow, and one arm hanging limply from the couch. Joey shook him from his slumber and Craig stirred and looked up.
"Hey, Joe," he said groggily. "What time is it?"
"Sometime around twelve," Joey answered. "Sleep well?"
"My headache went away," Craig said simply. He sat upright and yawned.
"Want something for lunch?" Joey asked as he went into the kitchen.
"Soup," Craig said instantly, standing up and following Joey. "Did you make any sales yet?"
"Nope," Joey said.
"Want me to help out?"
"Sure. Um...you can come with me after lunch."
"Okay." Craig watched interestedly as Joey heated the soup, as if he'd never seen anything like that being done before. At last, it was done, and Joey gave Craig a bowl filled with hot soup. Craig happily took it and sat down at the table.
"So how've you been doing lately?" Joey asked.
"Fine," Craig said coolly. "Fine. I mean, I'm doing okay in school, and I've been taking the medications and stuff..."
"That's good," said Joey.
"Yeah, I know." They laughed and continued eating lunch.
When they were done, Joey and Craig got into Joey's car and drove to the car lot. Craig spent most of the time cleaning the cars, but several times, he persuaded people into buying them. By the end of the day, Craig had single-handedly sold three cars. That put Joey in a good mood, and they decided that they'd go out for dinner that night.
After the celebratory dinner, in which Angie got a balloon, Craig checked the messages on the phone. Telemarketer, telemarketer, Caitlin...Ashley. Ashley. Hmm...Ashley. What did she want? "Craig, this is Ashley, um...I just called to tell you that there's something I need to ask you, so call me back when you can. Bye."
"Okay, that's kinda creepy," Craig said, turning and walking away from the phone.
"What?" Joey asked as he locked the door behind him.
"Ashley called when we were out and wants me to call her back. Yeah, right."
"Why don't you? She might have something important to say."
"Because...I can't."
"Why?"
"I just can't, Joey!"
"Craig, listen. The night you got in the accident, Ashley came over and talked to me for a while. She was worried about you! Just call her. Please?"
"I'll call her tomorrow," Craig snapped, walking toward the stairs.
"No you won't."
"Yeah, I will."
"Call her now." Craig turned and faced Joey.
"I do not want to talk to her," he whispered.
"Why not?"
"It hurts." Joey patted Craig's shoulder supportively and told him to go up to bed. Craig nodded. Now, he wasn't totally lying to Joey; it did sort of hurt to talk to Ashley. The main reason he didn't want to talk to her was because she always talked about medications and shrinks and all of the other things Craig could only stand talking to Joey about.
So, he decided not to call her. He did as he did every night before falling asleep: smoke a quarter of a cigarette, take off his shirt, and fall asleep. He was lucky Joey hadn't found the cigarettes when he was cleaning the room. He was scarily falling in Jay's footsteps; he still did drugs, he still smoked...but he hadn't been to the ravine lately...actually, the only time they had spent at the ravine was spent getting drugs.
Either way, he knew that he shouldn't be doing the things he was. It didn't matter. He liked doing the things he was doing...ecstasy, weed, even the occasional cocaine...but Joey didn't know about that. Joey didn't know the reason why Craig was always coughing, or the reason why he never had any extra money.
The Next Morning...
"Craig!"
Craig rolled over onto his side from the position that he was in while he was sleeping peacefully, however now that wasn't the case.
"What?" he shouted downstairs tiredly.
"Get down here!" Joey sounded angry, and Craig wondered why. He buried his face back into his pillow and groaned. He dreaded getting yelled at now, at seven-thirty in the morning. Weakly, he pushed himself up on his arms and got out of bed. He put the shirt on that he'd been wearing the night before and went downstairs.
"What is it?" he asked irritatedly.
"I just got a call from Snake. He says that you smell like cigarette smoke at school. Is there any reason why he would say that?"
"Nope," Craig answered. "But I heard that there's a lot of people doing crack these days, and—"
"Don't even say that!" Joey cried. "Where are they?"
At first, Craig was confused and didn't know what Joey meant. Suddenly, it struck him. Joey wanted the cigarettes. Craig watched the cat, who was crawling on the table, nervously. Joey pushed on Craig's shoulder and Craig inhaled sharply and turned away from him. Great, now Joey had hurt Craig's feelings without meaning to. "Craig, I-" Joey started.
Craig started upstairs and Joey followed slowly behind him. Craig was standing in front of his nightstand. He went to Joey and handed him the rest of the pack of cigarettes, which wasn't very much, and pushed past him. Craig must've been expecting a long, boring lecture. He went into the garage and sat on the couch quietly. Joey entered a few minutes later. It was cold in there; very cold. He had no idea why anyone, especially Craig, would be in this icy garage.
"How long?" Joey asked. Craig stood up and walked to the only wall that wasn't covered with something. He leaned him arms up on it.
"About a month," he replied.
"Is it...?"
"No. I'm not a chain smoker, Joey. You have to trust me."
"Trust you? You lied to me and you want me to trust you?" Joey said loudly.
"Fine. I'm not saying you have to; I'm asking you to. Please."
"You have two minutes."
"Okay, first of all, it's only one every four days...I mean, it's not that I smoke one every four days, it's...one lasts me four days. I don't sit in my room all day smoking, and I don't cut class to go smoke. I've been taking my medications for about as long as I've been smoking, and...I can stop. I promise, I can. You can start yelling at me now."
"I'm not going to yell at you. Why should I? This is just something that teens do. I understand. You can have one last cigarette."
"Seriously?" Craig asked, looking up from the wall.
"Hell, no. If your mother was here and she found out that I was giving you cigarettes she'd beat me to a bloody pulp." Craig laughed sadly and watched Joey. "You don't have to go to school today if you don't want to; part of your new quit-smoking therapy."
Craig shook his head. "No, I have things to do and people to see. Thanks for the offer, though."
"Okay. You might want to start getting ready, then."
Craig yawned and he and Joey left the garage. Craig went upstairs and took a shower. When he got out, he put clean clothes on and went downstairs. He sat on the couch next to Angie.
"Hi, Craig," she said. "I'm tired."
"I'm tired, too," Craig told her. "Too many wild, late night parties."
"You didn't go to any parties," Angie said.
"Sure I did. I just didn't want to make any noise, so I snuck through my window to go to bed."
Angie gasped. "Does Daddy know?" she said.
"Yeah, of course. Where else would I get my fake IDs?" Craig answered.
"You don't have a fake ID!" Angie cried. Craig tickled her beyond the point of mercy and stopped when she was laughing so hard she couldn't breathe.
"Okay, okay, I think it's time for school," Craig said.
"Can I ride in your car today, Craig? Please?" Angela begged.
"I don't know...what do you think, Joey?" said Craig, looking at Joey as he put on his jacket.
"Craig, you're already running late as it is..." Joey said.
Craig and Angie both gave Joey sad faces and Joey laughed. "Go ahead. But don't be late for school, Craig."
"I won't! I'll go top speed to get Angie to school! To the Beamer-Mobile!" Craig said triumphantly, leading Angie out to the car. He made sure that she was wearing her seatbelt and started the car. He drove Angie to school.
The little kids that were running around the front of the school stared at the shiny, black convertible in front of them. Angie got out and everyone watched her carefully. She turned around. "Bye, Craig," she said.
"Bye, Angie," Craig replied. Angie closed the door and Craig sped off to his own school. He parked across the street from the school and ran up the stairs. He had thirty seconds until the bell rang. He ignored his locker and ran to MI. Half a second after he sat down, the bell rang. He sighed in relief.
"Right on time," Mr. Simpson said. Then, he started that day's lesson.
Lunch...
Spinner, Jimmy, Sean, Marco, Ellie, and Craig all sat at a table, laughing at something Jimmy had just said. The laughter ended when Craig looked up and saw Ashley standing before them. "What?" he demanded. Everyone looked up, making Ashley blush.
"Craig, I was just wondering if, maybe...we could talk," Ashley said nervously. Craig looked at her incredulously.
"I didn't call you back last night for a reason," he said flatly.
"I know, but it's really important..."
"I don't care if it's important. I don't want to talk to you. End of conversation."
"Craig, be nice!" Ellie scolded.
"Why should I be, El?"
"Because Ash is a human being and she has feelings!" Ellie shouted. She stood up beside Ashley.
"I'm a human being, too, and I have feelings, and I feel like I shouldn't be forced to do anything that you tell me to."
"Well, I wasn't forcing you to do anything. I would appreciate it if you would shut up and listen to what she has to say."
"Ellie, since you put it that way, no. I have places to go and people to see."
"Craig, the more you put it off, the more she's gonna keep talking," Jimmy said.
Craig sighed heavily and rolled his eyes. He did NOT want to talk to Ashley, but everyone made it perfectly clear that he should. "Ellie, sit. Ashley, come," he ordered. The girls did not appreciate being spoken to like dogs, but they complied anyway and Craig led Ashley out to the hall. They walked for a while until they found a vacant bench and decided to sit there.
Craig was silent for a few minutes. "So, what's goin' on?" he asked quietly.
"Well," Ashley began, "I'm sure you heard about the talent contest." Craig nodded. "Me, Paige, Ellie, and Hazel are reuniting...um...Hell Hath No Fury." Again, Craig was silent. "And Paige wanted me to ask you...to help me...write a song."
Craig nervously ran a hand through his hair. "About what?" he asked.
Ashley coughed. "Abuse," she muttered.
"You want me to help your band, which you put together for the lone purpose of getting revenge on me, to write a song about something I've tried to forget for three years?" Craig said in half-disbelief.
"Yeah."
"I am going to think about that for a while, and...I will get back to you on that."
Ashley now figured that she'd blown any chance of getting help from Craig now; he was going to refuse to speak to her about his past. He had a good reason. He didn't even talk to Sean about it, and he and Sean were practically brothers.
Craig went home that day in deep thought.
Joey and Angie got home at around six; they had been out shopping. Angie went upstairs to put her new things away, and Joey sat down next to Craig on the couch. "Have a good day today?" he asked.
"Not really," Craig said truthfully.
"What happened?" said Joey.
"Ash wants me to help her and her band write this song...about abuse. And, as you know, I don't really like talking about it, and..."
"Did you tell her no?"
"I told her I'd think about it," said Craig. "And I have been. All day. I mean, I've been trying to forget about everything that happened, but it's pretty much impossible. There's always something around that reminds me of something I did or something that happened."
"I'm here...if you wanna talk," Joey said calmly.
"I know," Craig whispered. His eyes met with Joey's for a split second, and then he glanced at the wall. "I have a load of homework, so...I'm gonna go upstairs and...yeah."
Joey nodded and Craig rushed up to his room.
He rummaged through his binder and found all of his homework. He laid it out on the floor and winced. "This crap is gonna keep me up all night," he mumbled. Still, he pulled out a pen and started on it.
By 8:30, he was finished. He sighed in relief and stuffed it back into his binder. After stretching for a moment, he went downstairs to get water. "You want some dinner, Craig?" Joey asked.
"No," Craig answered. "I'm tired and I'm going to bed in three minutes."
"It's not even nine yet," Joey said.
"Yeah, well, if I go to bed now and wake up late tomorrow morning, then I get a lot of sleep that would be useful at the moment," Craig explained. Joey nodded in agreement, and they said goodnight to each other.
Craig went back to his room and fell asleep with only his head and arms on the bed itself, while the rest of him was on the floor. He woke up the next morning with his neck aching. "I'm never sleeping like that again," he vowed.
He sat down at the table and stretched his arms. "How'd you sleep last night, Joey?"
"I didn't," Joey answered. "I was up watching TV all night."
"Lucky!" Craig said. (Think Napoleon Dynamite.) "I was too tired to stay up and watch TV."
"I know that feeling," said Joey.
"Yeah, well, Mr. Old, you know what would make me really happy?"
"What?"
"If you would make me breakfast."
"Why should I?" Joey said, standing up from the couch.
"I'll love you forever," Craig said.
"What do you want?"
"I don't care...just something edible."
"Pancakes, then," said Joey simply.
"Yay," Craig mumbled. Just then, they heard a screech that sounded like that of a cat from outside. They rushed out to see what it was, and sure enough, Smokey lay dead on the street.
One thought struck them at the same time: Angie. Joey ran and got a shovel and picked the cat up from the street. He then dug a deep hole in the far corner of the yard and they put the cat inside.
They dropped the shovel in the wet grass and went back inside silently. They washed their hands several times and Joey continued making Craig breakfast.
"Daddy!" Angie called from the top of the stairs. She trotted down merrily and hugged Joey. "Have you seen the kitty?"
Joey sighed sadly. "Angie...Smokey went to Kitty Heaven." Angie was quiet and then she started crying. Joey hugged her tightly. "Do you want me to get you another kitty?" Angie nodded. "Okay, we'll go get one tomorrow." Angela smiled through her tears and Joey set her down on the floor. Then, she rushed over to Craig and sat on his lap.
"Hi, Craig!" she said. "Daddy's going to get me a new kitty tomorrow!"
"That's great, Angie," Craig said.
"Okay, Craig, here you go," Joey said, setting a plate down on the table. He poured him a glass of juice and set it next to the plate.
Craig thanked him and ate his breakfast slowly. When he finished, he washed the dishes and put them in the drain board. The phone began to ring and he dried his hands on his jeans and answered it.
"Hello? Hold on. Joey, it's Caitlin." Joey looked up at him in disbelief. Craig handed him the phone and he talked to Caitlin for hours. Meanwhile, Craig was in his room, being bored as usual. Then he remembered that he and Ellie were supposed to paint the room today. He laid newspaper on the floor and picked up his cell phone.
"Ellie, are you coming over?" Craig asked. "...Okay, see you then." Craig was amazed that Ellie had forgiven him at all for the day before; she was usually less forgiving.
When she arrived, she appeared solemn and didn't seem keen on talking.
"Listen, El, I'm sorry...about yesterday, and, um...I mean, I don't know what's wrong with me, and..."
"Craig. It's okay. Really. I'm just tired. It's not your fault I'm in this mood."
"Oh. Well, I...I'm still sorry. I shouldn't have acted the way I did. It was just...Ash being there, and..."
"It's okay. Calm down. I was up late last night."
"Still. Am I forgiven?" Craig asked hopefully.
"You've been forgiven since it happened! I understand. I'm not mad at you; I never was," said Ellie assuringly.
"Maybe we should paint next weekend," Craig suggested. Ellie nodded.
"Wouldn't want to pass out on a freshly-painted wall."
"Nope. Definitely wouldn't want that to happen."
"So..."
"You wanna watch a movie or something? Joey went to go see Caitlin, and...Angie went with, so we have the house to ourselves."
"Sure."
Craig went through all the DVDs that were in the cabinet under the TV. He chose "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre". It must've intensely frightened Ellie, because she told Craig that they shouldn't watch that one again.
She left an hour after it was over, and Craig was then home alone, bored.
The phone rang. Craig checked the caller ID.
K. Kerwin.
"I think not," Craig said, tossing the phone to the floor. Did Ashley not get the hint that he didn't want to talk to her? Apparently not.
He lounged around on the couch in silence, not talking or doing anything. Just sitting there.
"Lalala," he whispered. "Bored..."
He closed his eyes and fell asleep.
The phone started ringing again. He wondered if it was Ashley again. Hopefully not.
He got up and looked at it. S. Mason. Okay.
"Hello?" Craig said, yawning.
"Craig, there's some extra hours here and the manager wanted me to ask you if you want some extra cash."
"Yeah, I'll...be there in...ten minutes."
He hung up and put his jacket and shoes on. Six minutes later, he arrived at The Dot.
There were several piles of dishes awaiting him. Spinner came in to the room and said, "Craig, someone's here to see you."
Craig sighed and went out to see who it was. Probably Ashley, harassing him whenever she could get the chance.
No. Not Ashley. This was definitely not Ashley. Ashley didn't wear black clothes and sunglasses all the time. And Ashley wasn't a guy...Well, there was some contemplation about when they fought, but this wasn't the case. Craig looked outside and saw a Civic sitting in front of the building.
"Jay?" he said. Suddenly, everything turned black.
He woke up. Damn. No Jay. No extra hours at work. No extra money...No Jay. Why was he still trying to get over this?
Maybe because it happened so recently...
Either way, it was a scary thing to have a dream like that about Jay. He tried to consider the fact that maybe he needed to become more mentally stable than he had been...He'd only taken his meds about every other day...and he hadn't taken them yesterday or today...but he hadn't done much either. He sighed and got up from the couch to get something to eat.
Craig decided on a sandwich. The door opened and Joey and Angie walked in. "I thought you said you'd be home at six," Craig said curiously.
"It's six-thirty," Joey responded.
Craig looked at the clock. Sure enough, it was.
"How long was I sleeping?" he muttered. Craig thought about what time Ellie had left. It was about...three when she left...he'd slept for three hours? Strange...
"So how'd your time with Caitlin go?" asked Craig.
"Fine. We worked everything out, and...she's moving back in." Craig's eyes widened in horror.
"What?" he cried. "Why?"
"Because she legally owns this house and she has the right to be here!" Joey said.
"I knew you liked her more than me," Craig pouted. He had his own reasons for not wanting Caitlin back in the house. What she'd said to him before she left the first time still left a firm feeling of hatred burning in his mind. Why in God's name Joey would ever let Caitlin come back was beyond him.
Craig sat down at the top of the stairs and leaned his head on his hand. Joey looked up the stairway at him and sat down beside him.
"Craig..." he began. "I know you don't like the idea of Caitlin coming back, but me and Caitlin..."
"Belong together?" Craig finished.
Joey laughed. "Yeah."
Craig scoffed in annoyance. "It's official, then," he mumbled. "Joey Jeremiah has gone off his rocker. So when do I get to move out?"
"When you get out of high school," Joey said seriously. "I'm not letting you leave until then. Anyway, why do you ask?" Craig stared at Joey coldly.
"You and Caitlin are trying to build something. That something is called a family. The family that you and Caitlin want consists of you and Caitlin, plus Angie."
"Craig, you know that's not true," Joey protested serenely. "If anything, I'd rather have you than Caitlin. Sure, it would hurt her, but she'd get over it. Something tells me that you wouldn't."
Craig didn't speak. That's just what Joey wanted—for him to say something else so that he could counter it with something better.
"I'd rather you had Caitlin than me." And that was that. No more speaking. He stood up, turned, and went into his room. He pulled out a magazine he'd bought a few days ago and started flipping through it. Several times he did this. He wasn't looking at any of the pictures or reading anything. He was just acting like he was. An hour passed; two hours...He grew tired and fell asleep on the magazine.
The next morning, he got up early. Joey watched as he rushed down the stairs and picked up the phone. He glanced at Joey and then retreated upstairs once more.
A minute later, Craig jumped off the seventh stair and landed right in front of the door. He swayed for a second and then ran out to his car and left.
Caitlin came over a few hours later. She had all of her things that she'd taken with her when she left and was ready to move back in with Joey.
-At The Dot-
Craig waited a few minutes for Ashley to show up and when she did, a voice in his head said, "This was a bad idea."
Ashley smiled sweetly when she saw Craig and she sat down at the table. Craig thought it would be rude if he didn't smile back, so he gave her a tired grin and she sat down across from him.
"So you're really gonna help us?" she asked excitedly.
"I'm here, right?" Craig said. He sounded tired. And he was. "Um...do you think we could go somewhere else? This is a little bit public for my liking. I just didn't want to...you know, have to meet somewhere too private and make it look like we're sneaking around. You have a ride here?"
"I walked."
"Lucky me. I didn't. Let's go." Craig jingled his keys in his hand and led Ashley out to the car. They drove off, and Ashley admired the car's cleanliness. She wasn't sure if she would be able to keep a car as clean as Craig kept this one. Maybe it was because it was a BMW. Or maybe it was because he was just that way. Or maybe it was because he didn't have all of his friends in here all the time.
"So how've you been?" Craig asked awkwardly, trying to make conversation.
"Good. Good. I've been good."
"Cool. How's, uh...Toby?"
"He's fine. Just fine. How's Joey?"
"Good. Caitlin's moving back in."
"Is that a good or a bad thing?" asked Ashley.
"It's bad for me and good for Joey. Me and him had an argument over it last night. I haven't talked to him since."
"Since last night? I'm pretty sure you've stopped talking to him for longer than that before."
"Oh, I have. Believe me, I have." They pulled over at Ashley's house. The two snuck up to Ashley's room and sat down on the bed.
"Okay, I need some paper," Craig said quickly. Ashley took a notebook out of her binder and handed it to Craig, along with a pen. Ashley sat down next to Craig on the bed.
"First of all, thoughts. When you write a song about something in particular, you want to get the feelings out, right?" Ashley nodded. "So when I write a song about...whatever, I think about like...I don't know...how I felt when it was happening and how I felt afterward. But there are a lot of things that happened...things that I can't really put on paper. It's the things that I never want to talk about or bring up. Then again, there are the things that happened that I don't mind bringing up: what happened in general. Anyway, we should probably get started, eh?"
"I thought we were doing step one," Ashley replied, smiling.
"Yeah, I know, I meant that we should probably start writing something down."
Ashley blushed and Craig wrote something on the paper. She watched as he wrote and admired his handwriting; he was lucky. Her own handwriting had gone from bad to worse.
"Here." Craig handed her the paper and she read it.
"Wow," she whispered. "This is so...strong."
"That's the point," said Craig. "And it's not done yet."
"Oh, then, continue! This is amazing!" Ashley urged.
Craig snatched the paper back from her. He scribbled down another ten words. He groaned and pulled a cigarette and lighter out of his jacket. He looked at Ashley. She nodded and set a glass bottle from her nightstand next to Craig. Craig lit the cigarette and blew the smoke away from him and Ashley. He looked up at Ashley with a dark look. "Never start smoking," he said firmly, tapping loose ash from the tip into the bottle.
Ashley quickly wondered if something was wrong. The dark look he had given her was enough to tell her that he was hiding something. "Are you okay?" she asked quietly.
"I'm fine," Craig said coldly. Craig knew what he was gonna do when he got away from here: he was gonna go smoke some weed. Or get some other form of drug. Either way, he knew he was going to be happy with it. His leg shook anxiously and he was quiet.
Again, he began to write. Two hours and four cigarettes later, they had a page-long song that they would present to Paige. The words of the song ran through Ashley's mind and she couldn't stop thinking about them. The way Craig had written them was almost too good to be true.
Ashley called Paige, Hazel, and Ellie, and they decided to meet up at the infamous Dot.
Craig and Ashley sat across from the other three, and they all read the lyrics.
"We can't use these," Paige said coolly.
"Why not?" Ashley cried.
"They're too good. Craig can use them for himself. Those are genuine lyrics, and I don't care if it is for a talent contest. We don't deserve to use them!"
"I'm giving you permission," said Craig. "And I want you to use it. Please?"
"Okay," said Paige. "But only because you told us to! And, plus, who could turn down that adorable face?" Everyone laughed.
"Crap," Craig said quickly. "I have to go, but, uh...yeah, I'll see you all later."
He left and went to the drug house. One girl, Lily, had some mushrooms that she wanted Craig to try.
He did. And in the middle of his euphoria, he could've sworn that he saw Sean. Colorful, Rainbow-ish Sean. Colorful, Rainbow-ish Sean with a twisted face.
Craig finally left the house at around 5:00. He aimlessly drove around Toronto. He stopped at a 76 store. He bought a six-pack of Pepsi. He drank it while he was driving.
He began to follow a random car around. This particular car went down to...you might have guessed it...the ravine. He got out of his car and sat up on the picnic table. A girl with long, brown hair came and sat next to him. Her name was Jena, and she had dark blue eyes and tan skin, like Manny. She put her arm around Craig's shoulder. "Wanna hook up?" she asked casually. She gave Craig a knowing look. Craig looked at her for a second, and then smiled. She took him into the van and looked around outside before closing the door.
--------
-Tuesday-
Craig and Ashley talked for a while in his car. They laughed a few times, but it was mostly quiet and peaceful. Craig drove her home.
They stood in the driveway for a few minutes. "I'll see you tomorrow," Craig said.
Quicker than he could respond, Ashley leaned forward and kissed Craig forcefully. She then smiled and waved goodbye to him before strolling into the house.
A/N: MUHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH! YOU ALL HATE ME NOW! EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU! I KNOW YOU DO! BUT THAT RAVINE SCENE IS GONNA TOTALLY FUCK THIS THING UP! SO, READ, LEAVE ME A NICE, LONG REVIEW (I HATE THE 'LOVE IT, UPDATE SOON!' ONES!). TELL ME WHAT YOU DO AND DON'T LIKE, AND I'LL SEE WHAT I CAN DO! REMEMBER: NOT EVERY FIC CAN GO YOUR WAY. GET OVER IT. OR, GET A LIFE. EITHER WAY, DO SOMETHING, LIKE REVIEW!