Chapter 5

With the long night she had, Beth was not looking forward to school at all and had even considered ditching but she had her pride as an older sister. Eric looked up to her. And she couldn't be the responsible older sister who encouraged her brother to go to school and study hard if she was playing truant. Also, had she not gone to school, she wouldn't have witnessed the shocking sight of Ed Lee and Charley Brewster, in between classes, hanging out together in school for the first time in forever.

Noticing her, Ed immediately and furiously waved her over, looking more frazzled than ever, so sensing the urgency, she made her way over to them. Since she was cutting it close that morning, she barely made it in time for class and after that, had different classes from the pair so really, she wasn't able to talk to Ed till now.

"I tried calling you this morning! Where were you? Why didn't you pick up?" Ed hissed, not even letting her get a word out.

"First of all, good morning? Secondly, do not hiss at me, Edward Lee. I had to cover someone last night so it's been a very long night for me," she warned and Ed backed away a bit. "Also, my battery was dead so I just plugged my phone in and crashed for the night. Didn't even have an alarm to wake up to because of that but Eric woke me up. We were late so I didn't even look at my phone which is still powered off."

"Okay, fair enough," Ed acquiesced. "My bad. And good morning."

She nodded in acceptance. "Good." Looking between Ed and the very silent Charley Brewster, she canted her head in confusion, gesturing from one boy to another with a finger. "Sooo… What's going on here? You boys back together?"

Charley shook his head vehemently.

"No way," he denied and she narrowed her eyes at him after noticing the slightly hurt look on Ed's face.

"A simple 'no' would have sufficed, Brewster."

"Guys!" Ed interrupted before Charley could respond, if he was even going to respond.

"What?" they questioned in unison.

"Adam's not here today," Ed pointed out.

Charley was baffled while Beth did admit that it was odd to not see him in school. Even if he wanted to ditch, his mother would never allow him to and he would have to be on the verge of collapsing to be able to skip school.

"So? Maybe he's just sick," Charley retorted.

Beth would have come to that conclusion too if she took into account Mama Johnson but maybe he managed to wiggle his way out to avoid seeing her after ditching her without a word.

Ed stared at him in disbelief. "This is Adam we're talking about. You know, the Adam you grew up with?" Ed shook his head. "Look, you can deny it all you want, Charley, but you were part of our group for years. You were our best friend. Adam is rarely sick and if he was, he would still be texting me. People don't change overnight."

"Why not? I did," Charley said.

Ed stared at Charley in silence, jaw clenching slightly and she sighed, patting the bespectacled boy on the shoulder.

"It might not as be serious as you're making it out to be, Ed." When Ed looked at her in sheer disbelief, she stopped him before he could explode by revealing, "Adam was supposed to come over to my place last night for dinner but he didn't show. Things might be a little awkward between us so he might have ditched because of that."

Now both Ed and Charley were staring at her.

"He was supposed to meet you last night?" Ed repeated.

"What? We're friends! We can hang at each other's place," she defended.

Ed shook his head. "Wait, he was supposed to go to your place for dinner?"

"Yes!" she hissed, feeling awkward enough.

"She literally said that," Charley groaned.

"But he didn't show up and we might have been in a slight disagreement about certain things so he might have chickened out because he didn't keep his end of the deal," she elaborated.

"Thanks for the information but that's not the problem," Ed said and pulled out his phone, clicking and scrolling furiously before handing his phone to her, Charley peeking over to take a look. "Adam was gonna meet me last night."

Dinner now. Meet you after – Adam

Beth's eyes narrowed at the words and her jaw clenched.

That fucking coward.

The time stamp showed that he had texted Ed sometime past seven. She had been waiting for him and he didn't even have the balls to text her.

"Look, Adam didn't show up today and he didn't reply last night when I texted him that I couldn't meet up because I got caught sneaking out. I tried calling him this morning and his phone's off too."

"So?" Charley questioned.

"So, something must have happened to him! We have to go over to his house and check on him," Ed said, looking directly at Charley.

"Or he could be really sick. It's not uncommon for people to suddenly fall sick overnight and Adam's been long overdue for any kind of sickness. And for all we know, he could have eaten something wrong last night and he's just lying in bed, completely miserable, with his phone off so he can get some sleep. You know how his Mum is. She wouldn't let him miss a day of school if he wasn't horribly sick. Two years ago, he was sneezing his brains out and she still sent him to school," Charley pointed out.

"Or something could have happened to him."

"Dude, do you want something bad to happen to him?" Charley asked, completely annoyed. "Why are you jumping to the worst-case scenario?"

Quietly, she asked, "Does this have something to do with what you two have been all secretive about?"

Ed straightened immediately and averted his gaze. "Maaaybe?"

Shoving at his shoulder lightly, she fixed the boy with a glare and harshly whispered, "Seriously, what have you both been up to? I can't imagine what the fuck it is but if you're this worried about Adam not answering then you must be in some deep shit!"

"It's nothing you need to concern yourself with, B." He paused and then turned to Charley, grabbing him by the shoulders. "But I need you to come with me to Adam's house."

Charley shook his hands off immediately. "What? No! I'm not going. If you guys are in trouble, go to the cops!"

"We're not in that kind of trouble… Okay, maybe some of things we did might get us into legal trouble but I'm also pretty sure that's not the kind of trouble we will get into."

Charley was unamused. "You do know that that's not helping your case, right?"

She interrupted before they went off tangent again. "Ed, I will go with you."

"No, you don't need to get involved, Beth," Ed stated.

"Excuse me?" Now she was pissed. "I wasn't asking, Edward Lee. I am telling you that I am going. According to you, something has happened to Adam and the both of you have somehow gotten into trouble. Also, you don't have that many options of people to ask for help."

"Point taken."

"Maybe he just moved?" Charley suggested.

"Overnight?" she questioned.

Ed was aghast. "Without so much as a goodbye? I don't think so!"

Really? That's what was more important?

"Look man, I have something on later. I just can't." Charley sighed, nervously glancing over at Mark and Ben who were waiting for him by the lockers. "Look, I don't have time for this."

"You don't have time for anything. Especially for people like us," she countered.

At least he had the decency to look ashamed.

"You can't leave," Ed stated. "I have a video that can go viral within minutes. You know, me, you, Adam, in tights? The one Beth filmed for us?"

Oh, so Ed was resorting to threats now and of all the things to threaten Charley with, it was the one video that would ruin Charley's new image completely. She remembered filming them and then she wondered why she even agreed to film that blackmail material.

"Pretty sure your reputation won't be able to survive that, Brewster," she added.

Adding more fuel to the fire, Ed threw in another piece of blackmail. "And when you borrowed my spanx from me so that you could masturbate yourself for an hour?"

"Fine! Fine!" Charley caved and Ed smiled victoriously.

"Good." Before Charley could leave, Ed had one last thing to say. "And for your information, I loved those spanx."

Charley scurried off, leaving the two of them. Remembering Ed's earlier words of how she didn't need to be involved when he was so eager to get Charley involved, she felt her anger renew.

"Well, I have to get to class," she said and moved to leave but Ed grabbed her hand.

"B-"

"No. Just don't," she said, shaking his hand off. "I get it. It's always been the three of you after all. As a friend, I'm concerned about Adam so after we check on him, maybe we should just go our separate ways. I'll see you both later."

Walking off, she ignored his calls, her heart aching as she realised that she was actually going to end their friendship. It was Charley they needed, not her. She was just the tagalong and would never be privy to their big secrets. Even though Charley had left them, Adam and Ed would constantly mention him and how things would be different if he were with them again. They wouldn't even tell her what was going on and yet, Ed seemed so ready to get Charley involved while keeping her out of it.

Then again, it had happened time and time again. Maybe she was the one who was holding on to their friendship. Maybe it was time to let go. After all, Adam could text Ed and yet, couldn't even let her know that he wasn't coming despite knowing that she would be preparing dinner and Ed had directly told her that she didn't need to be involved. So maybe she truly didn't need to involve herself with them anymore.

Beth thought that her day was already bad enough. She had ignored Ed's attempts to talk to her and Charley's questioning gaze so she thought it was a blessing in disguise when her phone rang just as Ed had caught up to her. Alas, the call did give her an excuse to avoid Ed and leave school earlier. However, the call also did have her hurrying over to Eric's school while dropping Ed a text that she would be late later or might not be able to meet them at Adam's but to keep her updated and making a beeline straight for the Principal's office where her brother and two other boys along with their parents, the teacher and Principal were waiting for her.

Well… This can't be good.

"Miss Woods, glad you could make it. Please, have a seat."

Crap.

It was an hour later that they were finally free from the Principal's office. Technically, they could have been done much sooner but the mothers were prolonging the whole situation by nagging on and on about the bruises and scrapes their sons were sporting. Eric was trudging along behind her, clearly refusing to make eye contact with her by accident.

"…Wanna get some juice?"

It took only a second for Eric to appear next to her.

"I'm not in trouble?"

Glancing down at him, she replied, "Oh, you're in trouble, all right. No more cartoons for a week."

"But they started it!"

"But you shouldn't have continued it." She sighed, seeing his frown and lowered herself to a squat. "Eric, you could have gotten hurt."

"But they were saying mean things about you! They kept saying that we were abandoned here and that your Mum's a whore!"

And that was the only reason that Eric was let off while the mothers were left red in the face out of embarrassment and anger after the teacher had corroborated Eric's story, mentioning that other students had witnessed the whole incident as well. That put an end to their whole tirade and led to them all but dragging their sons out of the office. Technically, what the boys had said weren't lies.

"Eric, remember where we lived before moving out here?"

"Yeah…"

"Back then, people talked badly about us all the time. It didn't matter whether we were right there with them or not."

Eric nodded in agreement. "They said mean things all the time."

"And what did I tell you then?"

"That they don't matter to us so what they say shouldn't bother us at all."

"Exactly. And those boys weren't your friends, were they?"

He shook his head. "I never liked them."

"Atta boy."

"But… It's just… I don't like it. I don't like people saying mean things about you."

"Aww, sweetie…"

She wrapped her arms around him and automatically, his latched onto her.

"I don't like it…"

"I know, I know. And I'm so proud of you for standing up for me like that. You're such a big boy now."

If anyone ever spoke ill of Eric, she wouldn't take it lying down either.

"I'll get bigger and stronger so that when I grow up, I will protect you, B. From the mean old witch and daddy. I won't let anyone hurt you anymore."

Her heart melted at his sweet words.

"Sweetie…" she murmured before smiling. "All right. I'll wait for you to grow up big and strong."

Releasing Eric from her embrace, she stood up.

"So… Can we still get juice?"

She couldn't help but laugh. "Of course! Let's go get that juice."

Eric held her hand and they both made their way to her car, Beth's heart swelling with happiness as she thought of Eric's words and how she would always hold them dear to her heart.

When Beth and Eric returned pulled up in front of their house, they were met with the rather unusual sight of Jane Brewster standing outside their neighbour's house. Was she finally taking action against their neighbour for crowding his own driveway and ruining the idyllic appearance of their lane?

Ever since the dumpster had appeared on the driveway, the siblings had been subjected to listening to Jane make noise about it whenever they encountered each other even at the grocery store but never once were her complaints directed to their neighbour. As much as she adored the woman, Beth dearly hoped something was finally being worked out because she really didn't want to listen to Jane complaining about it again.

"Think she finally warned the guy?" Eric asked as they got out of the car.

She shrugged, sipping her juice. "We'll find out soon, I guess."

"Beth! Eric!" Jane called out, stopping them in their tracks as they were making their way to their door. "Come over here!"

"Correction. Guess we'll find out now."

"Sounds like good news though. She seems real happy," Eric noted and she nodded in agreement as they changed course and walked over to their neighbour's, only now noticing a man crouched down with his back turned towards them, fiddling with something.

"Hey, Ms. Brewster," she greeted.

"Ms. Brewster," Eric echoed as their mysterious neighbour got up to face them, allowing them their first look at the guy Adam and Ed were so wary about.

Well, at least now they knew why Jane was in such a good mood. There was no denying it. Their new neighbour was hot! Dark hair, dark eyes, broad shoulders and muscles poorly concealed by his white undershirt, the man was a walking orgasm. But while Beth appreciated having a new eye candy, the predatory gleam in his eyes as he looked her up and down sent shivers down her spine, making her feel like he could eat her whole.

"Beth, Eric, this is our new next-door neighbour, Jerry Dandrige. Jerry, this is Beth and Eric. They live on the other side of you," Jane introduced.

Jerry grinned. "Ah, so you're Beth. I've heard about you. All good things."

She quirked a brow. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Dandrige? I think?"

As though seeing her with new eyes, he raked his gaze over her whole appearance once more with a newfound appreciation and she had to give him props for being honest about it since he sure wasn't being subtle. He cleaned his hand and held it out to her. Beth accepted the handshake, ignoring the way her pulse raced as his eyes bore into hers like he was trying to look into her soul.

"It's very nice to meet you," he said. "And please, call me 'Jerry'."

There was something unsettling about Jerry Dandrige and it wasn't just his eerily good looks. Beth was always wary of handsome men for the mere stupid reason being that her father was a handsome man. Her mother had been so charmed by him, blindly doing whatever he wanted in exchange for empty promises.

And look where it got her.

Beth would never be like her mother. She refused to swoon over his good looks and simply shook his hand once, keeping her grip firm and business-like before pulling her hand away, placing it on Eric's back.

"Say hello to Mr. Dandrige, Eric."

"Hello, Mr. Dandrige," Eric murmured, clinging to her and she sighed at her mistake.

Eric clearly sensed her tenseness and took her lead, putting a distance between himself and their neighbour. Her issues weren't Eric's issues and for all she knew, Jerry Dandrige could be a nice guy. A creepy but nice guy. Deep down inside. And she checked him out so it was only fair that he checked her out.

Jane cleared her throat, clapping her hands together which effectively broke her out of her thoughts. "So… How was school today?"

Author's Note: Reading your reviews and learning that there are readers who have stuck around for this story truly makes me happy so thank you for making my day! I hope you guys have enjoyed this chapter!