Monday, lunchtime

     Frey had struggled through the weekend, with a fuming in anger mother since he wasn't at the club to be picked up after his shift, and she stayed up to witness him coming home drunk yet again.

She now even threatened to stop him from working in the club overall, but Frey had managed to talk her out of it since she was the type of mother that wanted her kids to learn responsibilities, and with that, earning money themselves.

But she was planning on finding him a new job, agreeing he could remain working at his father's club until she found something fitting.

Frey wasn't going to quit his job, but he lacked the energy to fight her in the discussion, so he shrugged it off and ignored her for the entire day on Sunday. He even locked himself in his room and refused to go with her to church.

He was done with everything and he stayed in bed all day, now behind on homework too.

He was sure to get detention because of it, but then Arun stepped in, and allowed him to copy his homework for the day.

Frey smiled at him thankfully after he copied most notes by the time lunch had came around. "You're the best friend anyone could wish for, Arun." He muttered, staring at his notes. He deliberately changed some answers or sums for Math—Arun always was better in Math than he was—and he corrected some of Arun's answers in Biology while he copied that.

"No problem, Frey. That's what friends are for, right?"

"Why are we even friends, Arun?" Frey voiced the same question he had voiced aloud before many times in the past year.

"Because you were the only one who never made fun of me when we moved here last year." Arun shrugged and smiled. "And because we have the same stupid sense of humour, the same interests..."

"But I treat you like shit half the time," Frey cut him short in his explanation, now finally voicing something that had been eating him alive from the inside.

"No, you don't." Arun shook his head and turned in his seat a bit to look at Frey. "I know what you are like, so your insults every so often don't bother me at all. Besides, don't I do the same to you? I called you a slut last Saturday." Arun chuckled, thinking back of the moment Frey had told him he was taking Michelle to his father's apartment, and Arun had indeed called him a slut, waved him off and told him to behave.

As if Frey knew how to behave. Even if he wanted to behave, he never failed to do something stupid, or insulting.

Take Daniel, for instance. Frey had no intention of pissing him off when he spewed shit about Mitchel, yet he somehow behaved or talked the wrong way, pissing him off anyway.

"Yeah, you did." Frey agreed with a sigh, stopping their conversation in total as soon as Hendrik and his two friends James and Wes sat down at their table.

"We overheard Mrs. Roberts and Mr. Jones talk, and they mentioned how pleased they were with your attitude today." Hendrik smirked to Frey, patting his shoulder. "We also overheard rumours that said Frey Sanders left the club last Friday, with Michelle as his company." James chuckles, Wes stared at Frey with envy, and Hendrik wiggled his eyebrows.

"Are you whipped, Mr. Sanders?" Hendrik teased him, nudging him in his ribs. "Is she turning you into a saint?"

"What?" Frey scowled with a bit of drama to it. "Hell no. She's just good for a bit of fun."

"But you never sleep twice with one girl, so why now?"

"I lacked energy to find someone new and she was in for another round anyway." Frey shrugged and forced a smirk on his face. He didn't need everyone to know just how shitty he was feeling. He didn't want them to think he was weak, he didn't want them to take advantage of that.

He didn't ever want to be bullied again for being different, or weak.

He had had enough of that in preschool already, because of his over-bearing mother. Or the fact she made him wear braces with stupid headgear because she wanted to correct his overbite so badly.

Or because—even then—she had been scheduling his entire life, and if there ever a time in which Frey managed to get a friend over to play, they would think of him as weird because of said schedule. They never returned to play for a second time.

He had been a lisping kid because of the braces, with crazy controlling mother, and that was enough for the other kids to start calling him 'lispy loony'.

Frey shuddered at the thought of that and was thankful their father bought the club that year, and they moved away from the hell-hole he grew up in, right after his braces had been removed.

It was one of the reasons he stood up for Arun when he arrived in school last year, and people started making fun over his accent.

Something had snapped inside Frey, and he used his popularity that he had gained ever since they moved, to prevent Arun from undergoing the same faith.

They had been best friends ever since.

"Look, your girlfriend is coming over." Hendrik nudged Frey, waking him from his stupor, and nodded his head in a specific direction.

Frey turned to find Michelle tentatively making her way over to him; shy smile, uncertain posture.

Frey did not want her to start acting clingy, and he wondered how he could stop her from thinking more of their contact than he did.

It was pure lust, nothing more.

She wasn't even the best he slept with, or the most attractive girl. She was handsome in her own way, yes, and loved by many.

She just missed something that could land her a model-contract, and Frey slept with girls that matched that level of attractiveness.

"Hi, Frey..." she greeted him as soon as she stopped next to their table. "Can we... talk?"

"Oh, your boyfriend would love to talk." Hendrik nudged him, but Frey resolved in hitting him against the back of his head, sending him a warning look.

"I'm not her boyfriend." He snapped annoyed, turning to Michelle. "What about?"

"Eh..." her face flushed, while she quickly looked at Frey's company.

"They know we had sex, Michelle." Frey shrugged, Hendrik smirked, Arun sighed at his tactless way of pointing out the obvious.

"Well... right... so, that. I want to talk about that."

"What is there to talk about? We slept together, twice. We had fun. That's it." Frey really didn't want her to get her hopes up, and making it painfully clear that was all there was to it, might get her to understand sooner then later.

"But... Michelle's face turned beat-read, and she fiddled with her T-shirt a bit. "What about Saturday?"

"What about it?"

"People think you like me because you..."

"I don't. Not like that." Frey turned away from her a bit. "It was fun, Michelle. That was all it was, that's all it'll ever be."

     Right after school, Frey planned on heading over to the store—as requested by his mother—to buy a birthday present for Victor's and Rudy's upcoming birthday this weekend.

But when he grabbed his bike, Lacy grabbed hold of his wrist, and yanked him away from the bike to face her.

"I will kill you." She seethed, staring at him in a rage. "If you won't stop hurting Michelle, I will kill you."

"She knows my reputation, Lacy." Frey mumbled tiredly, not doing anything to stop her from letting him go. "Be a good friend and warn her about me than."

"I did!" She cried out in annoyance, again pulling his arm in frustration. "But god damn it, Frey. Stop... charming her! She's head over heals in love with you. What's going on with you lately anyway?" She finally released her hold on him, only to cross her arms. "You are worse then ever."

"I'm not." Frey huffed, crossing his arms to mimic her stance.

"Frey... You even managed to piss of Daniel. And that's... something." She rolled her eyes and sighed deeply. "Stop pissing of my friends—or hurting them. Or you'll be mine, got it? I only ever give one warning, and this is it."

"Don't worry, I won't bother Michelle anymore, as long as she stays away from me. And Daniel..."

What about Daniel?

Lacy pulled up an eyebrow, awaiting him to finish his sentence.

"Forget about it." Frey grumbled with an eye-roll, grabbed his bike, and took of before she could stop him.

He didn't even know why it bothered him this much that Daniel was still angry, while Frey didn't intend to start a fight. But he never really cared about what others thought of him. He already cared too much about Daniel's opinion in the first place.

It was annoying since Daniel was the goody-two-shoe kind that was constantly trying to get Frey to behave better. He was the kind that—despite disliking Frey—would always bring him home whenever he was drunk, and made sure Frey was fine before he left.

Daniel was the caring kind of friend that went above and beyond for his friends, and for a short while, Frey had considered him as a friend, simply because Daniel did those things for him.

But he wasn't worthy of a friend like Daniel, now was he? Daniel deserved friends like Lacy, who stood up for him no matter what. Not someone like Frey, that would insult him anyway, even if as a joke.

Frey absentmindedly went inside the store where he was going to buy two presents, as instructed by his mother.

He had some ideas on what to give Rudy and Victor, but he actually didn't need to think of something himself. Not with a controlling mother like his. She instructed him and Julia to buy specific gifts that wouldn't only function as gifts. No, they would be things that would help them in their education, or their intellectual development.

Julia was told to buy specific books, while Frey was told to get some sort of game that was more educational than it was fun.

Frey and Julia, however, agreed to buy them both a remote-controlled car they'd been asking for, for two years already.

They just needed to hide the toys until the birthday came and prevent their mother from confiscating them before Victor and Rudy would see the gifts themselves.

They'd be unpacking gifts at their father's place, so she wouldn't find out until later anyway.

Frey walked to the isle where he first saw the cars his brothers specifically had been eyeing. He grabbed a blue one for Victor, and a green one for Rudy, both their favourite colours, before he made his way over to the register.

Before he made it there, he stopped in his tracks when he saw Daniel in the isle with girl toys; accompanied by a young girl, that was whining and pulling his sleeve.

"But I want it!" She cried out, grabbing a doll from the rack.

"No, Hannah, I told you we'd go and look for something else." Daniel denied her the doll that Frey knew was popular amongst young girls right now.

Hannah started sobbing a bit, holding the doll—still in the cardboard container—close to her. "I want this."

"I can't afford that, Hannah. I already told you. Be glad I'm trying to buy you something."

"It's not fair!" The girl was now crying for real and Frey kind of felt bad to see her, wanting something so badly, not getting it.

Frey wondered why their parents didn't just buy the gift, but he stopped overthinking as soon as Daniel turned around and found him staring.

The boy looked horrified, his face flushed, and he stared at Frey with his mouth slightly agape.

"Danny, I want the doll!"

"No, Hannah... we..." Daniel stuttered, still staring at Frey. "We'll come back later to pick something else." He pulled the young girl's arm, turning away from Frey and hurrying away. The girl dropped the doll halfway down the isle, now full-on crying.

Frey, for a second, stared at the two remote-controlled cars in his arms, back to the doll, and felt bad—spoiled even—for buying his brothers these expensive gifts while Daniel couldn't give his younger sister the one thing she wanted.

But then he shrugged it off, reminded himself his parents worked hard for their financial positions and he did the same. He shouldn't feel guilty about Daniel not being able to save enough of his money to buy a decent present. He made plenty of money in the club, and he worked triple the amount of hours Frey usually worked, so he could've had triple the amount of money on his savings account.

Frey had plenty, which was why him and Julia could be rebellious during their brothers' birthday, by buying them something expensive their mother would never approve of herself.

Wordcount: 2176

Total: 10550