Chapter 6: Give Me The Deets

I had to stay another ten minutes in the classroom.

The monitor made us fill out the sheet, and I wrote as quickly as I could without making my handwriting completely illegible.

The boys took longer. How long? I don't know.

The monitor let me go after I was done and I walked out without looking back.

Aaron called my name as I walked out but I ignored him. He was being an insensitive jerk that was blinded by whatever it was he was feeling, and I refuse to further acknowledge his presence.

I throw a book across the floor of my room.

I'm cleaning, something I always do when I'm upset or sad or bored. I walked in my house from Gracie's car, stomped up the stairs to my room, and slammed the door. I took one look around my room, taking in its slight messiness, dumped my bag on my bed and immediately started to clean.

My dictionary hits the floor with a hard thud, and I ignore it, turning back to face my desk.

"Cass, wha-"

My dad abruptly stops as I turn to face him.

His eyes scan my face, the state of my room, that has objects strewn all around it, and the cleaning supplies that are on my desk chair.

"Never mind," he says, backing out of the room and closing the door behind him.

I roll my eyes at the closed door and proceed to clean.

Two hours later, and I'm done.

Nothing is on the floor, all of my clothes are put away, and my dresser and desk are cleared off.

Just seeing the cleanliness of my room calms me down.

It's nice knowing that everything is in its place, is where it's supposed to be.

I sigh and open my bedroom door, making my way downstairs.

It's seven o'clock, which means it's time for dinner.

My family likes to eat an early dinner so there's time to do other stuff before bed.

When I enter the dining room, my plate is already on the table and my parents are already seated.

I sit down and pick up my fork.

"How was school, sweetie?" Mom asks.

I shrug. "Fine." Except for the last part of it.

"Make any new friends?"

"No," I say bitterly, memories of Aaron and Cole and Adrian and detention coming back to me.

The three of us fall into silence, and it's moments like these that I wish I had a sibling.

Maybe a sister, so I could talk to her about how confusing and stupid guys are. Or maybe a brother, so he could threaten the guys that talk to me or, I don't know, fight with me or something.

I just wish I had somebody-besides Gracie and Gabs-that would be there for me when my parents are gone, which is basically all the time.

I use my fork to push the salmon on my plate around. I've had it before, so I know it's really good, but I don't want to eat it. I'm not that hungry.

Me not being hungry is rare. I'll never turn down food, so when I do, something is wrong.

Nothing should be wrong. I thought I got all of the anger out of my system while I was cleaning my room, but apparently some bad feelings are still there.

I don't know why. It can't be because of Aaron. I met him eleven hours ago; it's not like we're best friends.

"Wh-"

"Can I be excused?"

My parents exchange a confused look.

"Is something wrong, sweetie?" Mom asks me, worry evident in her voice.

"Nothing's wrong." Nothing's supposed to be wrong. "I'm fine. Everything's fine. I'm just not that hungry."

I watch as each of my parents grow even more confused and worried.

"Okay, honey," Dad finally says after a few seconds of silence. "You can go. Get some rest."

I nod and stand up from the table.

As soon as I'm halfway up the stairs I hear them begin to whisper, but I don't eavesdrop like I normally would and instead continue on my way up the stairs and to my room.

I go into my room and close the door behind me. I walk to my bed to see that my phone is lit up, with the screen showing around twenty text notifications, all from Aaron, the most recent one being the word please.

I scroll through them on my lock screen, not wanting him to know I read them and didn't respond.

Because that would be me being petty.

And I'm not that type of person.

Okay, fine, I refuse to admit that I am that type of person at times.

Fuck that. Here we go.

I unlock my phone and go to the chat with him in it, and re-read all of the messages he sent me in the last hour.

But I'm not going to text back. I said I was no longer acknowledging his presence, and I think that also applies to his texts.

I start reading the last quarter of all the text messages he's sent me.

Dumbass: I'm sorry

Dumbass: I overreacted

Dumbass: cassie

Dumbass: cassie talk to me

Dumbass: please

The three bubbles pop up which means he's typing.

Dumbass: cassie I'm sorry

Dumbass: answer me

Dumbass: please

Dumbass: u got to go and get angry at all of my honesty

Dumbass: u know I try but I don't do to well with apologies

Dumbass: I hope I don't run out of time can someone call a referee

Dumbass: cause I just need one more shot at forgiveness

Dumbass: I know u know that I made those mistakes maybe once or twice

Dumbass: and by once or twice I mean maybe a couple of hundred times

Dumbass: so let me oh let me redeem oh redeem oh myself tonight

Dumbass: cause I just need one more shot at second chances

Dumbass: yeah

Dumbass: is it too late now to say sorry

Dumbass: cassie

Dumbass: did u just leave me on read or are u actually reading the texts

Shit, he knows. Abort mission, ABORT MISSION!

Dumbass: cassie I'm sorry I didn't mean to please forgive me I'm sorry

Dumbass: if u don't forgive me I'm just going to keep texting you

Dumbass: give me a c

Dumbass: c!

Dumbass: give me an a

Dumbass: a!

Dumbass: give me a s

Dumbass: s!

Dumbass: give me another s

Dumbass: s!

Dumbass: give me an i

Dumbass: i!

Dumbass: give me an e

Dumbass: e!

Dumbass: what's that spell?

Dumbass: cassie I'm sorry I know I messed up I know I hurt your feelings but I'm apologizing now and I think that that's what really matters so can you just grow up and forgive me already

That asshole. Me grow up? He's the one that completely flipped out for no reason, but I'm the one that needs to grow up?

He's such a... a... an asshole.

Me: you know what I was just about to forgive you

Me: but now you can go fuck yourself in a ditch and die alone you asshole

Dumbass: whoa that's a little harsh there don't you think cassie

Me: don't call me that

Dumbass: why not cassie?

Me: because I said so

Me: go suck a dick

Dumbass: just forgive me

And that is when I hit the power button on my phone once, plug it into my charger, and leave it face down on my bedside table.

Asshole.

---------

I wake up to my phone alarm blaring.

I groan and reach for my phone to turn the alarm off.

And then Gracie bursts into my room.

"WAKE UP, CA-"

When she sees I'm already up, she stops yelling and pouts. "Why are you up so early?"

"Why are you in my house so early?" I retort.

Why the fuck is she in my house at five in the morning?

I immediately check her hands and relax to find them empty. Don't want a repeat of yesterday morning.

"I have to plan your outfit, silly." She claps her hands together excitedly.

I fall back, putting a pillow over my face to muffle my groan. I forgot about that dumb shit.

Why did I agree to this?

"Go take a shower," Gracie tells me over her shoulder as she digs around in my dressers.

I groan and get out of bed, heading towards my bathroom to take a shower after I grab underwear and a strapless bra from Gracie.

After I get out of the shower, I see that there are clothes laid out on the counter.

I examine the off the shoulder floral top and the light blue jeans before putting them on and stepping out of the bathroom.

Gracie is digging around on the floor of my closet and she stands up triumphantly, holding a pair of gold sandals.

"Okay, where did all this stuff come from? I've never seen these clothes or those shoes before."

Gracie shrugs before she tosses the shoes at me. "Put those on."

"Bossy much?" I mutter before bending to put the sandals on.

After I stand up, she takes in my wavy dark brown hair that's a little frizzy from the humidity in the bathroom.

"Sit down," she says, pointing to my desk chair before she heads to my bathroom.

She comes back out with a straightener and I immediately stand up.

"No," I say, backing away from her and shaking my head. "No way."

"Cass," Gracie whines. "Why not?"

"Because you almost burned me with that thing the last time I was stupid enough to let you use that on me."

"Only because you moved suddenly and I was unprepared," she says defensively. "Now sit down."

I shake my head.

"Come on, Cass." Uh oh. Here comes whiny Gracie. "You never let me do anything and then the one time that I actually have the opportunity to do something for you that makes you look pretty you don't want to let me. What kind of friend does that?"

I stay silent.

"You know what? Fine. I'll just leave this here and go and never come back and I'll go over to Gabby's house because at least she actually appreciates me and allows me to do things with her hair and-"

"Fine," I mutter as I sit back down in my chair. "Let's get this over with."

Gracie grins in victory. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, Cass. I love you so much."

I roll my eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I love you too, Gracie."

She plugs in the straightener and sets it beside me before skipping off towards my bathroom.

She comes back out with a brush and a comb in her hands.

Right before she starts to brush my hair, I stop her.

"Wait."

She raises her eyebrows at me.

"What?"

"Can you give me my phone?"

She rolls her eyes before handing it to me, and then she starts to talk about random things.

I ignore all the messages from Aaron and unlock my phone.

I scroll through my screens looking for a game to play.

Subway Surfer, here I come.

---------

After Gracie finished my hair, we went to show my outfit for the day to my parents, who teared up, at which I rolled my eyes, and then we went outside to Gracie's car to pick up Gabs.

We're in front of her house now, watching her as she comes out of the house in jeans and a crop top with a jacket.

"How come her outfits are always so much better than mine?" I ask Gracie.

"You were literally wearing almost the exact same thing yesterday, Cass."

Oh, shit, that's right. I was.

I swear I knew that; my mouth just likes to say things without letting my brain review it for approval to make me look stupid.

Gabs gets in the backseat and immediately starts talking.

"Oh my God, and today your hair is straightened, what will you look like tomorrow?"

I roll my eyes.

"Aw," she sniffs dramatically. "My little baby is growing up."

I roll my eyes again when I see her wipe away a tear.

Gracie and Gabs laugh together.

---------

When we pull up to the school, we all get out and start walking towards our lockers in the main building, and I notice that, like yesterday, all eyes are on us when we enter the building, even though we're not laughing like we were yesterday.

Kids these days are so weird.

Oh my God, I'm turning into my parents.

I shudder before I try to open Loki.

Keyword in that sentence being try.

Loki refuses to open and I resist the urge to hit him.

It's like he loves to watch me suffer. Maybe Loki suits him in more ways than I thought. For those of you that haven't figured it out yet, I named him Loki because 'Loki' and 'Locker' both start with L.

And the fact that Tom Hiddleston might just be my favorite Marvel actor ever.

Besides Tom Holland.

Tom Holland is my husband; he's an adorable little baby that must be protected at all costs.

Robert Downey Jr. is also my husband, mostly because he's a sarcastic little shit and, honestly, is my male role model. I aspire to be as sassy as him one day.

I'm also married to-

Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I'm married to a lot of people. I think I keep a list somewhere. Gotta keep track of them all.

"Can you still not open your locker?"

I stiffen at Aaron's words.

I turn to look at him and I see that he's smirking at me.

I glare at him and the smirk falters.

I step away from Loki and motion to him. "Go on."

He turns to Loki and opens him on the first try.

Asshole.

I grab all the books I'll need before lunch and place them in my bag, and then I turn to Aaron with my eyebrows raised. "Can I help you?"

His face falls. "Are you really that upset about yesterday? I said I was sorry, Cassie."

"Yeah, I know," I tell him. "And then you told me to grow up like I was the one that did the wrong thing."

"I just meant that you were being a little childish with the whole not texting me back thing."

"I was being childish," I scoff. "Yeah, right. Says the one that kept spamming my phone with song lyrics. I never pegged you as a Belieber."

"Belieber? What the fuck is that?"

I open my mouth to respond but he cuts me off.

"Forget it. But I apologized and you continued to ignore me."

Why do I even bother?

I turn away and start walking towards my Chemistry class, ignoring Aaron who is walking beside me, before I stop suddenly.

"Shit," I groan.

"What?"

"I didn't do the fucking Chemistry homework."

Aaron snorts. "And you're worried about that?"

I turn to him. "Did you do it?"

I highly doubt he did. I mean-

"Yeah."

I stare at him in shock. What is the world coming to?

"Do you wanna copy it?"

I immediately shake my head no.

I don't like copying off of people.

It proves that I decided to cop out of actually doing the work, and that I would rather get the answers off of somebody else, instead of taking the time to do the assigned work.

I have no problem letting other people do that. If they ask me directly, I'm fine with it because, hey, that's what they want to feel like and that's what they want to be seen as. Who am I to judge?

I have a problem with other people pretending to like me and have an interest in me just to get fucking answers on a homework assignment or a project.

Like, if you don't know, go to the fucking teacher. That's what they're there for.

I have two options at this point.

I could attempt to do the worksheet right now against Loki, or I could attempt to do it in class before Mr. Griffith asks for it.

I'm going to go with the first option because it's easi-

Rinnnnnnnng.

Fuck.

In class it is.

---------

"Ah, Ms. Parker," Mr. Griffith says as I walk into the classroom. "Walking in together with Mr. Brewer, I see."

Aaron is still beside me and I don't know why.

I'm not the best grudge holder out there, and if he keeps this shit up, I'm going to end up forgiving him.

"Alright, Ms. Parker, time to spill. Give me the deets."

I cringe and stare at Mr. Griffith in horror. Deets. He actually said deets.

"The whole senior staff team is dying to know if anything's going on between the two of you," he says, motioning to me and Aaron. "And frankly, so am I."

I shake my head in disbelief. "Nothing's going on."

Mr. Griffith looks at me like he doesn't believe me. "Ms. Parker, I have trouble believing that, and, by lunch time, I doubt that any other senior class teacher would believe that either."

I'm horrified. What kind of teacher talks to his students about these things? And I definitely could have lived without the knowledge that teachers tell the other teachers everything that goes on in their classrooms.

Maybe that's how, even on the first day of school in every year of high school after my freshman year, teachers seemed inclined to hate me.

Let's just say I didn't make the best impression on this school or my teachers in freshman year.

Aaron walks past me to go to his seat, laughing, and I do the same, but without the laughter.

Mr. Griffith moves aside and allows me to rush to the seat I sat in yesterday. I see Aaron looking at me from where he sits in the back of the room.

I take my seat and pull out the blank worksheet and start to fill it in. Luckily, it looks to be just a review from last year, and science was really easy last year.

"Okay, guess what?" Mr. Griffith says as he claps his hands once.

I don't lift my head, still focused down on the worksheet.

"These seats will be your permanent ones for the rest of the year, unless you cause a problem that requires you to be moved."

I'm fine with the people around me. I'm most likely never going to talk to them outside, or even inside, of this classroom, but I'm fine with them.

"But first, let's make some adjustments."

I stiffen the slightest bit. Okay... that's a little weird, but it's not like anything he could do would mess with me.

He starts to say a bunch of names, and a bunch of people stand up and trade seats with other people, but I continue to fill out the worksheet, making it look as neat as possible.

"Aaron, why don't you trade with John."

Who's John? I don't care, as long as he isn't anywhere near-

The boy next to me stands up.

-me.

Fuck.

I look up at the boy to my right. "I'm guessing your name is John?"

He rolls his eyes at me before moving away and is replaced by Aaron.

"Hey, Cassie."

Mr. Griffith lets out a sound. "Nicknames. So cute," he mutters under his breath.

I feel my cheeks heat up and I pray that nobody else heard that.

"It looks like Mr. Griffith over here is shaping up to be our biggest fan."

My cheeks heat up even more and I look back down at my paper so my hair can fall forward and cover my face from Aaron.

"Okay," Mr. Griffith says. "That looks good. Why don't we see how this goes?"

I look up at Mr. Griffith and we make eye contact and then he winks at me.

That little shit.

He put Aaron next to me on purpose.

--------

The bell rings and I remain seated, and I take note of Aaron who is still seated beside me.

I get up once most of the other people are gone and exit the classroom.

Once I'm outside, I turn to Aaron to complain about how he kept trying to talk to me during class, only to see that he isn't there.

Did he give up?

Instead of relief, hurt is the main emotion that I feel.

After wallowing in it for a few seconds I shove it away.

Whatever.

I walk towards Loki and wait by him for Gracie and Gabs.

We have five minutes to get to our next class, and I've already wasted four of them waiting for my friends so I start walking to my next class.

Someone falls into step beside me, and I look at them out of the corner of my eye. It's Aaron. Shit, I forgot we have most of the same classes.

We keep walking towards the classroom, and I notice that Aaron is staring down at the ground, a contemplative look on his face.

Once we make it there, the teacher, Ms. Kelsey, looks at us with a gleam in her eye.

"Hello, kids."

She motions for us to take a seat, and Aaron automatically takes the one beside me.

Ms. Kelsey grins.

Just how many teachers are interested in me and Aaron?

"Hello, again, class. I do hope you've chosen your seats well, because they're going to be like this for the rest of the school year."

Is every single one of my teachers going to do this to me?

She jumps right in with her lesson plan.

"I always like to start with our first book project early in the school year, and because this is an Advanced Placement class, we're going to start it super early."

Nobody says anything.

"As in today."

Cue the groans.

I'm actually kind of excited. I love doing the book projects; it allows me to dive deeper into a book and discover its hidden meanings.

"We'll be starting off with something simple, but I couldn't decide between two books. So, you guys have the choice of either Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen or The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon."

Ooh. I've read them both and they're both really good books. This is tough.

Which one should I pick?

"Why is this this hard?" I mutter under my breath and Aaron snorts.

"It's not, Cassie," he says. "Just pick one."

I'm a very indecisive person when it comes to certain things, those certain things being books, food, and a handful of others.

Pride and Prejudice has the relationship between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth, which I fucking love, as well as an implied jab at the roles that pride and prejudice had in the late eighteenth century, but The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time highlights the struggles of autistics and how some of them view the world and have trouble understanding the people around them.

So which fucking one should I pick?

"Pride and Prejudice it is."

I blink, startled. It seems that the class has already decided on a book while I was deliberating.

Well, thank God, for that.

I let out a sigh of relief and happiness.

Mr. Darcy, here I come.

---------

Which book would you choose?

--Rose