Chapter Four

『 AUDREY 』

"Jesus." Cayden sighed, running his hand through his hair. "I can't believe you're so affected by something that petty."

I whacked his shoulder. "I don't have many friends, okay? You should feel even honored that I'm even friends with you."

Cayden replies back by rolling his eyes.

Long story short, I called Cayden and asked him to meet me at a nearby park. He refused at first, saying he was way too lazy to go out.

He ran out of his house when I said I'd buy him food.

He's such a friend I can count on.

Cayden stretched himself, then drank the red velvet frappe that I bought him. "Justin hates me."

I blinked a few times. "How do you know? You're probably overthinking."

He shook his head. "The fucking practice. Against Radwell. He always targets me." He took another sip of his drink. "Cayden, take the balls. Cayden, you wash our clothes. Cayden, buy us drinks." He imitates. "I want to cut his balls, wash them with bleach and then place it in his drink."

I shook my head, laughing a little. "It's my fault, huh?"

"It is? Wow, it's not like that's obvious already."

I shot him a face and he replies with a shrug.

"Does Eric know?" I asked him. He raised an eyebrow. "About the whole... er..."

"That I wanted to kill myself?" He finished for me. His facial expression didn't change, like as if him trying to kill himself is a Sunday thing for him. "He doesn't have to know. Not that he cares, anyway."

I groaned and rest my head on his shoulder.

He tensed up a bit, then turned to look at me.

"My shoulder's that comfortable, huh?" He scowled. I nod my head, giving him a sheepish smile.

He tried his best to look annoyed, but I saw that small smile on his face.

Then he started humming.

I thought his voice was beautiful before, but damn. This is a whole new kind.

I listened to him hum a song I was familiar with, but couldn't recognize.

Of course, all good things must come to an end.

Cayden's phone started ringing loudly.

In shock, I moved away from him. Cayden cursed lowly before taking the call.

"What do you want?"

Gee, what a way to start a conversation.

"What?" He frowned. "Why would I do that?"

"Fine, whatever." He muttered. "Meet me... yeah. Yeah. No... I have a few pots at my house."

The last sentence made me frown at him.

He ended the conversation, then looked at me. He opened his mouth to say something, but I made sure I beat him to it.

"You're going to smoke pot?" I practically shrieked at him.

"Shh! Just..." He sighs. "You have your own way of dealing with stuff, and I have mine, okay?"

I frowned at him. "Doesn't mean that—"

"Just let me be." He basically pleaded. "Now, I gotta meet up with Justin, Eric and the rest."

I watched him walked away. His tone of voice and words tells me that he wants to join them, but his facial expression says so otherwise.

But now, I have a bigger problem than Cayden doing drugs.

"Cayden, you idiot! Throw away your food wrappers!"

▲▽▲▽▲▽▲

"Janet, that bitch." Haylee hissed. "Follow me."

Zoe and the other cheerleaders shrugged and followed her anyway. Although I'm still confused as to why she's so angry, I tagged along.

You know the stereotypical queen bee and her minions following behind her? It's basically in every movie and storybook. Well, that's basically us right now.

"Fishnet!" Haylee snapped. Janet looked at Haylee, sighed and closed her locker door.

"What do you want?" Janet asked in annoyance.

Haylee, who's so used to people sucking up to her, widened her eyes before pulling Janet's ponytail.

Call it an instinct or no tolerance of bullshit or whatever, but before I knew it, I was running towards their direction. "Stop!" I practically commanded Haylee.

"Back off, Audrey." Haylee hissed. "Clearly, she needs someone to teach her a lesson or two."

"It's just..." I looked at Janet. Surprisingly, her face stayed strong, and she continued standing upright.

And how I admire her for that. Because I could never. I'd break down straight away.

"We're late to homeroom." I tried to come up with an excuse.

Haylee frowned. "Late? No, we're no-"

And that's when the bell rang.

"See?" I shrugged. She shot me a glare before walking away with the rest of the cheerleaders.

"Janet, let me-"

"Back off." Janet snapped at me. "What the fuck? Do you want me to get bullied even more? Why do you suddenly want to 'help' me? Little princess has nothing better to do so now she's defending the freak? Get away from me."

"No," I said to her. "I was trying to-"

"Help?" She finished for me. "Okay, so what happens now? Now, your majesty queen Haylee will think you hate her. And do you think she'll take it out on you? No. She'll take it out on me."

I blinked at her. "I didn't-"

"Just fuck off," Janet said before leaving.

I stared at Janet, trying to take in what just happened.

"Oi." Cayden tapped my shoulder. "Homeroom."

I looked at him. "Oh... uh..."

He raised an eyebrow. "Why do you look so shaken up?"

"I don't know... Janet, I guess."

Cayden sighs. Then he did something so unexpected, I would've jumped down from that rooftop because I wouldn't be able to believe it.

He pulled me close and hugged me.

"Cay—"

"Don't you let any of these fuckers get in your way, okay?" He said to me. "Seriously, don't listen to them. And whatever you do, don't ever step on that rooftop ever again."

He pulled away from me and smiled.

To be honest, I want to continue hugging him. He smells like cinammon and his hug is so warm.

"I—"

A cough interrupted the both of us.

"Cayden." Justin nodded. "I need to talk to you."

Cayden did a small 'tch'.

"About what?" He asks.

"Nothing Audrey needs to know." Justin shot back. "Come on, now."

"I need to go to homeroom," Cayden said, shooting a challenging look to Justin.

"Since when do you care?" Justin gritted his teeth. "Let's. Talk."

Cayden huffed, then turned to me. "I'll catch up with you later." He smiles. "Bye."

I nodded, then watched them walked away. If only I could listen to their conversation, I would.

▲▽▲▽▲▽▲

"So, if you combine the two—"

I stared at Cayden, who seemed to just stare aimlessly at the teacher.

Then I looked at Justin. He's sleeping. So, nothing new about that.

Cayden looked at me and raised an eyebrow.

'What did Justin say to you?' I mouthed to him.

This time, Cayden frowned. 'What?' He mouthed.

I sighed and wrote it down on a piece of paper.

Then I passed it to him. It wasn't much of a challenge since he's sitting across me.

Cayden read it and shrug. And for the rest of the lesson, he never looked at me.

After the lesson ended, I grabbed his shoulder and pulled him.

"Cayden," I called him.

"Jeez." He cursed. "You could've just called my name."

"But where's the fun in that?" I smirked. "So what did Justin say to you just now?"

Cayden shook his head and walked out of class. I followed behind him. When we stepped out of class, he turned and faced me. "You wanna hang out?"

"What?"

"At the..." Cayden blinked a few times. "Uh... zoo?"

I looked at him for a second or two, then started laughing. "Oh my gosh," I said in between laughs. "I can't believe..."

Cayden rolled his eyes. "So yes or no?"

I calmed myself first before answering him. "Yes, Cayden. I'll go to the zoo with you."

He nods. "Is this considered as uh..." he scratched the back of his head. "A date?"

I shrugged in response. "Do you want this to be a date?"

"I—" he coughed. "Wouldn't mind... you know..."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Going on a date with you..." he mumbled.

"It's a date then!" I grinned.

"What... what do I do?" He looks at me. "During a... date? Do I get ready... or do I set the time or something? I really don't know."

I laughed a little. "Saturday. I'll meet you outside the gates of the zoo at—" I looked at my watch. "12."

"In the morning or afternoon?"

I gave him the 'seriously?' look.

"Afternoon. Of— of course, it's in the afternoon. It wouldn't make any sense if it was in the morning. I mean, not that mornings don't make sense, I just think, who goes out on a date at 12 am? A few people, actually, I— I'm blabbering, aren't I?"

"Yeah." I laughed. I kinda don't want him to stop. I can hear his voice for a whole 24 hours and not get tired of it. I just love it that much. "I'll see you then, okay?"

Cayden nodded.

Someone pushed Cayden so hard, he had to grab a nearby railing to stop himself from falling.

"What the hell?" Cayden shouted then turned around.

Of course, it was none other than Justin.

Who would've thought?

It was kind of expected, actually.

"You are dead, Nowell." Justin flared at him.

Cayden only sent him a smirk.

"Try me, motherfucker."