Two days. It took two days for my face to go back to normal. And in these two days, everytime Zack saw me, he would smirk feeling proud of his art piece while I would playfully punch him in the arm. His own face also got better from the bruises Max had given him.
They would leave in the morning for school and return in the evening. I was just waiting for my face to go back to normal before going back to school because, of course, when people would have seen me, they would have definitely asked what was wrong. And I hate being the centre of attention. My parents didn't even call back to check if I was Okay. They just shut me out of their lives. While these boys accepted me as a part of their own.
I learnt a lot about the boys' lives in these days. Their friendship with each other would just warm up my heart. Max is a silly and weird one like me. Liam is just sweet. Zack is aggressive and authoritative. Damien is just quiet and reserved to himself most of the time.
***
"Jennifer, wake up!" I woke up to someone shaking me. I turned over to see Max and Liam standing beside my bed. "What?" I asked while rubbing my eyes and yawned.
"We are going out for shopping today." Max said excitedly.
"I don't want to go." I said.
"What? Why?" Max frowned.
"Why not?"
"But you were the one to suggest it initially."
"Well, um.. That was actually my plan to escape from you guys. I thought if we were out in the public it would be easy for me to escape."
"That was smart." We all turned to look up at Zack who was leaning on the door frame. He walked over to us and stood in between Liam and Max and stared down at me.
The three of them were hovering over me while I was taking turns in staring at each of them.
"C'mon, Jen. It will be fun. You can also stop wearing my clothes then." Max tried to persuade me.
"Well, we are skipping school today so we might as well go and hang out together." Liam added.
"Fine." I sighed. "So all of us are going?" I asked realising that Damien would be going too. The thought of hanging out with him made me jump out of the bed.
"No. I am not going." Damien said while entering the room. He looked like he just came out of the shower because his dark brown hair were wet. He was wearing dark blue jeans and a red t shirt. I felt disappointed by this news but didn't let it show.
"Why not?" Zack asked.
"I had already told you, Zack. I have a soccer match today and as the captain of my team, I have to be there."
"You play soccer?!" I said with twinkling eyes and an amused smile. Damien chuckled at my expression and the sound of his chuckle was so soothing. This guy was making it hard for me to not fall for him.
"Yes, Jennifer. I do." It felt amazing to hear my name from his tongue. "You guys go and have fun. See you later." And with that, he left.
"Did you guys see that too?!" Max asked, looking shocked.
"See what?"
"He laughed." Liam said.
"Last time he laughed was at the night they took Celine."
The three of them were staring at each other and then at me. I just shrugged.
***
We all got out of the car and all the female attention fell upon us. Well, upon the boys. Everyone around was dressed in nice clothes while here I am, wearing Max's blue jeans and his black t shirt which was loose on me.
The staring increased as we reached the entrance of the mall. A group of girls were checking the boys out while I wanted to evaporate. I hate attention so I tried to camouflage myself in between the boys.
"How do you guys have this much money?" I asked Zack.
Each one of us had two full bags of clothes except Max who had three and they weren't the slightest worried about money.
Zack smirked at me but before he could say anything I interrupted. "Don't tell me that you are going to steal it?!"
"What? Of course not. We have a couple thousand dollars left from the money we stole from the mafia." Zack replied.
I sighed in relief while Zack just gave me a blank expression.
***
"You ate breakfast just about 3 hours ago." Liam said to Max who was pleading to buy some French fries.
"So what? I always have space for French fries." Max argued.
"What do you say, Zack?" Liam asked Zack who shrugged, "Let him have it."
Max grinned before running off to get French fries.
Liam and Zack started talking about soccer while my mind wandered off to imagine how Damien must be looking while playing soccer in the field. How he chuckled at my expression in the morning. The hug he gave me last night. The tears in his eyes on remembering Celine.
I am jealous of Celine.
Me too.
You are me.
No, you are me.
What?
Is that Max?
I looked up to see Max running towards us with French fries in his hands. He had kept two fries on either end of his mouth to make them look like fangs. I laughed at seeing this silly behaviour of his.
But just as he was about to stop in front of me, he tripped over absolutely nothing and the fries came flying towards my face. His eyes widened as his face kissed the floor while I screamed and fell backwards. The fries were flying in the air above us and the people around stopped doing whatever they were doing and stared at us.
8 seconds went by and Max still had his face pressed on the floor.
"Are you Okay, Max?" I asked him.
He showed me a thumbs up but didn't lift his face.
I looked up to see Zack and Liam who were staring at us with wide eyes, looking embarrassed and mortified.
The poor French fries were lying all over the floor around us. Some of the people were taking pictures and recording this mess. What is wrong with people these days?!
"I Uh.. Don't know who these people are. Do you know them, Liam?" Zack asked him and Liam immediately denied. "Did you forget we had to do something, let's go." Liam said and they both left us to deal with the humiliation alone. Talk about being friends.
Max finally got up and helped me to get up as well. We both looked at each other before bursting out laughing. Though my cheeks were flushed with embarrassment but I was still laughing.
Suddenly, we heard clapping from the crowd. It was a little girl who was smiling at us. Max smiled and waved at her and her little eyes twinkled while she waved back.
Did she just think that we were clowns?
"My fries." Max whispered. "Is that what you're worried about the most?" I whispered to him. The cleaners came to clear the mess Max had created. They were glaring at us while me and Max kept apologising and then ran away from there to the parking lot to find Zack and Liam standing beside our car, chatting about something.
"Traitors." Max yelled at them.
"What?" Zack asked.
"You guys just left us to deal with that!" Max said while shaking his head at them.
"You created the mess, you dealt with it." Liam shrugged.
"What did I do in that?!" I retorted.
"You went flying on the floor." Liam laughed.
***
"And all the people were staring at them." Zack was telling Damien about what had happened at the mall today.
Damien looked over at me and Max, who were standing in front of him with our hands behind our backs like little children who were being punished.
Damien gave me a smile and I melted like wax. "It was Max's fault. I just got scared of the flying fries." I shrugged and Damien laughed.
He laughed laughed. The four of us were staring at him as if he had grown two heads. Max, Liam and Zack looked at me and then at Damien. They all looked just as amused as me.
*****
"So, how was your match today?" I asked Damien. We were sitting alone on the couch in the living room while the other three were busy doing their own things.
"It went great. We won." I nodded and smiled at him and he returned the smile.
"Must have been fun." I wondered.
"Not as much as it would have been to see you and Max flying around with French fries." He laughed again.
Oh my god, my heart was melting. Laughing Damien was so sweet. I could hear him talking and laughing for hours without getting tired.
We spent a few hours talking with each other. It was mainly me blabbering about random stuff while he kept nodding and replying wherever needed. The other three were giving us amused looks whenever they walked by us.
Soon it was time to sleep and Damien left for a little walk.
As soon as he left, I was surrounded by the three. "Guys! Did you see that?! Damien was talking and laughing!" Liam exclaimed.
"What did you do to him, Jen?!" Max asked me with wide dramatic eyes.
I smirked at their amused faces and flipped my hair behind my shoulder. I felt so proud.
"Only Celine was able to make him that happy." Zack commented.
The air was suddenly filled with a different atmosphere. Max nodded but no one said anything.
*****
"C'mon, Jen. Go to sleep. You have to go to school tomorrow." Max said to me before leaving my, I mean, Celine's room.
"WHAT?!"
"Yes. We all will drop you off. Goodnight." He said and switched off the lights before leaving.
Shit. I wasn't ready to face my life right now. But I had to go back. Zack had given my phone back to me and there's not a single text or missed call from Ashley. The only notifications are that of candy crush.
She didn't even check up on me. Looking at the kind of friendship these boys shared, I doubted Ashley's and mine friendship.
It was nothing like theirs.