After school, Cassie took a deep breath and glanced over at Peter. "Um…you want to walk me home?" She smiled, hesitant and shy at first, but Peter returned the gesture, leaning over and giving her a quick peck on the cheek.
"Okay. Besides, you were going to talk to Jessica today, right? I guess you'll need me for support…or something…" He looked down at his shoes and blushed, his cheeks turning pink.
After a moment, she reached over and grabbed his hand, squeezing it a little. "Thanks…" He mumbled a quick, "No problem," but trailed off dumbly, losing his voice. He was too worried about sweating. That was gross, right? Sweating all over someone's hand? It was like something a smelly old pervert would do.
She tugged on him a bit and walked out the door. Sharon was walking off with her friends, Jessica included. Cassie took a few deep breaths and called out her friend's cherished nickname.
Jessica turned around and sneered. "What do you want? You've got Peter. Don't tell me you're selfish enough to think you deserve to be in our group…" Some of Sharon's friends snickered along with Sharon herself, giving Cassie a victorious smile.
Cassie swallowed the lump in her throat and stared straight into her ex-friend's eyes. "I don't. I just want you to know…that I think it's childish how you started out trying to be kind to me, and instead wound up becoming just like all those girls that bullied you in elementary school. So it's okay if you hate me. Just…think about what you've turned into, okay?"
She turned bright red and took a few quick breaths, hoping not to make it too obvious she was terrified the entire time. She squeezed Peter's hand and hastily walked in the direction of her house, with him trailing after her.
Sharon just scoffed. "Ch, whatever, loser. Come on Jessica. Let's go." She and her group of friends turned in the opposite direction, toward the road leading to the mall, leaving Jessica rooted to the intersection, staring off into space and thinking.
After a long, long pause, she made her decision, broke into a light run.
"Hey guys! Wait up!"
––––––––––––
Thorne grinned and stepped off the bus, glanced back at Nicholas and Henrietta. "I can't believe you managed to get him to school today!"
Henrietta laughed and put an arm around the taller boy, mussed his curly hair and gave little kisses on his cheek, playfully. "I have my methods, Thorne…" He just sneered and waved his hand away from her. After a moment she draped it back over him again and leaned over to his ear, whispered something.
His cheeks turned slightly pink and he spun around to face her, escaped from her clutches as he backed up. "N-No! Absolutely not! That's just sick, Henrietta, even for you!" Henrietta just laughed and shrugged her shoulders. Thorne looked between them and chuckled. Well, Nicholas sure seemed a lot less tense ever since those two got together; and when Nichols was tense, it was a bad, bad thing.
A crazy impulse shot over his synapse, and he felt the compulsion to act on it. So, he grabbed Henrietta's hand and pulled, making her do a spin into his chest. She looked up at him, puzzled, and Thorne glanced at Nicholas, grinned like a maniac.
He looked back down at Henrietta, lowered his head to capture her lips in a kiss. "Heh heh. If Nicholas isn't willing, I'd be willing to stand in for him…" As he pulled back, he could see a small smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.
However, before he could do anything more, a fist collided with his face, right in the nose; he stumbled, releasing Henrietta as he fell backward. Nicholas glared down at him, grabbed Henrietta's arm. "Don't you fucking dare do that again. She's far too stunning for a dick like you."
Henrietta gave Thorne a worried smile and waved at him as Nicholas dragged her off down the street from the bus stop, to his house. Nicholas turned his head and glared at him lying there, by the bus stop. "Jesus, Thorne. Could you get any more like Kenny?" The moment the words were out of his mouth, he spun around and began walking away faster.
Thorne simply laughed and got up, wiping the blood off his nose. He'd have to tell that one to his "lunch friend" when he snuck out to their little hiding spot in the bushes, where they liked to smoke and talk.
I MAY do a sequel for this story involving Kenny, Thorne, Damien, and a whole mess of crazy, like Satan's obsession with small dogs (since he's gay and I'm all about stereotypical humor like that) and Damien setting Nicholas's shoes on fire any chance he gets. However, the idea's fairly askew, because I'm not sure if I should pair Thorne with Kenny or not. I think I like it with them being friends and shit, but them paired together also makes my heart melt. What do you all think? IF I'm able to make a sequel, would you rather have Thorne and Kenny paired together or just friends? Either way, Kenny's going to be a sexing SOMEONE up, though I'm not sure who, yet.
The biggest problem (aside from the whole pairing issue) with making a sequel would be the whole Jessica issue, because Cassie would definitely appear there, and since I wanted to leave Jessica's choice open for interpretation, not mentioning her at all in order to leave it open would simply make you all assume that she decided NOT to be Cassie's friend. (To be honest, I didn't actually have either party in mind, concerning who she ran after. As far as I know, she could have run after a pack of cats and jumped off the face of the earth.)
Please read and review. Give me your answers. I already started writing the first chapter of the "sequel"; I'm just unable to continue because I can't make up my mind. At all.