.Chapter 8.

This chapter is dedicated to @DestinyJohnson101 my newfound friend :) Go check out her works.

Recap:

"I'm staying at a girl's place. I met her at a party . . . No, you asshole, I'm not screwing her, she's not my type anyways," I heard Bradon say on the phone.

My heart sank. I considered Brad as a friend, and he thought of me as 'a girl he met at a party'. The thought hurt like a bitch.

Last night, I had a lot of fun with him, his jokes, and his company.

But after hearing what he thought about all this, I knew I had to call the whole 'get Julian back' thing off. Of course, I would not confront him about it. Just tell him discreetly.

It was his perspective about the whole thing, and I had to respect it.

"Yeah, I'll be out of here as soon as I can," were Bradon's final words before he hung up, and resumed changing.

---

"Are we gonna sit like this all day?" Alicia whined, nudging Dan.

Dan nudged her back. "How the hell am I supposed to know?!"

"Why do you curse in every fucking sentence?" Alicia asked him, nudging him once more.

"And you don't, you hypocrite?" Dan said in amusement.

"I don't fucking curse in every damn sentence, you moron."

Dan shook is head and bowed down before Al. "Let God save you."

I raised my eyebrows, amused, and glanced at Bel to see her reaction. She cast a look between the two of them, and then turned to me.

"Welcome to my world," I said lazily, causing her to burst into a fit of giggles.

"What you choo laughin' at?" Dan demanded with a horrible impersonation of Stan Shunpike.

"We choo laughin' at nothin' Stan Shunpike," I retorted.

"But," Dan said, confused, "My name is Dan."

There was a moment of silence before everyone roared.

I fell down on the ground, holding my sides; Bel had tears in her eyes; and Alicia doubled over with laughter thumping Dan on the back, who looked clearly annoyed.

His reaction was so predictable, we just couldn't help it!

"Who is Stan?"

"Stan Shunpike, Dan. Stan Shunpike!" Alicia said inbetween her laughing fits. "Harry Potter? The Knight Bus? Rings any bells?"

Dan's mouth formed an 'O' shape before he slapped his forehead in realization. "I can't believe I forgot that!"

"Yeah, and even more when you know that you watched the movie this weekend," I teased.

"I honestly can't believe I forgot that!" Dan reiterated, slapping his forehead once more. "And I even remember making a joke about his pimples."

"You're an idiot," Alicia sang, nudging him.

"Will you stop doing that?!" Dan hissed. She shook her head and ribbed him with her elbow.

"Alicia, what are you doing?" I laughed.

"Pissing him off."

"Pissing me off." Both of them said in unison, and Dan glared at Alicia. "Move away you homo!"

"Dan," I said earnestly, "Please get your terms right." Dan turned pink, and ruffled his hair, smiling sheepishly at Alicia.

"Sorry for calling you a homo when you are not, babe. You can punish me however you want."

Alicia put on a thoughtful face, which brightened up suddenly, and then turned evil.

"However I want?"

Dan glanced at me with regretful eyes, and I knew immediately what he was thinking-Al was devious.

"Nothing too dangerous, harmful to health, humiliating illegal or which involves fake IDs," I supplied.

"Trust me, it's nothing like that," Al waved me off.

"I can nudge you whenever, wherever and how much ever times I want."

"No," Dan said immediately.

"Come on, Dan! It's not too much," I said mischievously. If looks could kill, people would now be attending my funeral.

"Fine," Dan said irked. "But only for today."

"Only for today," Alicia assured and shamelessly nudged him. Dan squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his fists as another nudge came his way.

I laughed. Oh this was way too amusing! Al knew exactly how to pull his strings.

"Only for today what?"

My smile immediately dropped when I recognized whose voice it was. Whipping my head around, I saw Bradon coming out of the kitchen, followed by Julian, who had a big slab of chocolate in his hand.

"Where did you find that?" Dan exclaimed. "I was searching for it my entire life!"

"Yeah, that's because you were never supposed to find it," Al rolled her eyes. "It was hers," she said, motioning her head towards me.

"I don't like to share with you," I said with a grin, as Julian plopped down beside me. "And sharing is caring," I tutted, and frisked it out of his hand.

"This house is full of hypocrites," Brad chuckled, and looked at me.

No one asked your opinion.

"It was mine," Julian whined.

"Was. But now isn't," I brushed him off, and stuffed the chocolate in my mouth.

"Mummy didn't teach you manners, did she?" Bradon teased me, but I stiffened, seeing no joke in that.

Majority of the people here knew that Mum was a touchy subject for me.

The tension in the air was palpable; Al, Dan and Julian looked at each other uneasily, while I stopped chewing.

"Excuse me," I muttered, and got up, leaving the chocolate on the sofa. I suddenly felt the need of 'fresh air'.

As swiftly as I could, I slipped out of the living room and into a balcony adjoining the kitchen. I took deep breaths, trying to focus on nothing but the beats of my heart.

Moments later, I heard footsteps behind me, and I figured it was Alicia. "It's okay, Al, I'm fine-"

"No you're not," I heard a masculine voice say.

Immediately, I was engulfed in a tight hug from behind. I inhaled his typical vanilla scent, as my hands automatically reached out to his arms near my face, squeezing them slightly. I nuzzled my face slightly against his arms, as my mother's face appeared before my eyes.

I didn't know how long we stayed like that, but it was long enough to comfort me.

"You okay now? Do I need to punch him?" Julian asked, causing me to chuckle lightly.

"I'm . . . confused," I stated, my voice cracking.

"I understand."

A comforting silence fell around us, before I decided to break it.

"She left me . . . us. All of us."

"I know, and I'm so sorry," he whispered.

"Why did she go, Ju? Did . . . did I do something wrong?" I chocked out, feeling my throat tighten and my stomach clench horribly.

"No Chris. You did nothing wrong. You're perfect."

My stomach did back-flips at his words, clearly affected by how tenderly he said them: but right now, for once, I didn't care.

I needed Julian right then.

"I don't want to lose anyone else," I mumbled almost inaudibly, but somehow, he caught that.

"Then you won't," he said simply.

"But she left," I reminded him. "Without saying goodbye."

"They made her leave, Chris: she had no say in that."

"How do you know that part? I don't remember telling you," I questioned, turning my neck slightly to catch a glimpse of his face.

"Cormac told me."

Oh, of course. Stupid guy should have kept his mouth shut.

Nonetheless, I was sort of glad that Julian knew; I could talk to someone about it other than my best friends.

Suddenly, I moved away from him. What was I doing? It was stupid to lead him on.

He would end up leaving just like all others. And even if he didn't, I wanted to take it slow.

"Hey, everything's alright?" A new voice said from behind Julian. I was almost on the verge of screaming with irritation, frustration and . . . well, irritation. I didn't want to see, hear or do anything with Bradon.

That one phone call told me that he associated with us just because he was somewhat obliged.

He and his obligations could kiss my ass.

"Yeah. Everything's fine. It's nothing that you have to worry about," I sneered.

His eyes darkened dangerously. "Julian," Bradon said in a controlled voice, without losing eye contact with me, "Could you give us a minute?"

"Sure," Julian said uncertainly, and was gone.

I made a mental note to kill him afterwards.

"What?" I said with attitude.

"What is wrong with you?! Everything was fine just this morning!"

"Yeah, it's because I was stupid and over friendly this morning," I said.

"I'm not getting you. Did I do something wrong?"

"Nope. It's all me," I drawled in a sickeningly sweet voice.

"You're a bitch," he seethed.

My eyes snapped up to his, and my lips curled up in a smirk, as I strutted towards him and leaned forward. "I know," I whispered in his ears.

"And you know what? I don't care what you think. So fuck . . . off." I hissed the last part with so much venom in my voice, that he flinched. I smiled to myself contentedly, as I saw the effect I had on him, and walked away.

---

I scrutinized myself in the mirror, before applying a quick layer of lip gloss over my already chapped lips.

A girl's got to do what a girl's got to do.

My phone buzzed, indicating that Dan was outside the house. I replied to him that I would be downstairs shortly.

"Izzy, we're leaving!" Alicia hollered, and we heard a faint, "okay" from the kitchen. Alicia smiled at me, and we left the house.

Dan's mother had insisted on a dinner with their family at a fancy restaurant. Mrs. Walter liked having us over, seeing her son was Alicia and my best friend; and my family and Dan's family somehow knew each other.

So here I was, looking out through the window, zoning out on Mrs. Walter's zealous and eager chatter.

Throughout this week, life was comparatively easy and back to normal. Izzy had returned, meaning we could sit back and not worry about food and laundry. School was going smoothly.

I had a date with Julian in three days, and my friends were more excited than me- apparently, many people in the school wanted us to get back together.

I didn't know so many people were jobless.

I saw Bel in the hallways occasionally, and we nodded and smiled at each other in acknowledgment. Once, I found a few pricks pressurizing her in doing their homework, but I stopped them. The bastards were cornering the poor girl.

Julian still hadn't told me he knew Bel, and how he knew her. Even through I knew the story, I still wanted to hear it from his mouth.

I hadn't heard from Brad since our last, rather memorable encounter, and trust me, I had no issues with that.

"We're here," Mr. Walter's deep voice brought me out of my long chain of thoughts.

Finally . . .

All of us got out of the car, as the driver drove off into the underground parking lot.

"Hey Edward, didn't see you there," I said, as my eyes landed on Dan's 13 year old brother.

"You would, if you weren't so interested in something which consumed your thoughts so much," he teased me, and everyone looked at us.

I shoved him when his parents' attention wavered off elsewhere. "Shut up, smart ass."

He just laughed it off. It was good to see him in such good spirits, because I knew for a fact that he was bullied in school. He would open up only to Dan; he was not who one might call a 'people person'.

He only fraternized with whom he trusted, and there were just a handful of them. I consider myself to be one of the lucky people.

Trust me when I say, Edward was truly a gem.

But he had serious trust issues.

"Reservations for the Walters," Mr. Walter said.

A wispy looking man sauntered towards us. "Ah! Yes, Mr. Walter!"

Saying thus, we were guided handsomely to our table. I was sitting between Edward and Alicia.

"I am going on a trip to New York for a meeting with your father this weekend, Alicia," Mr. Walter said to Alicia, just as the food which we had ordered, arrived.

"Oh, that's nice to hear," she replied politely, and the conversation continued.

I felt Edward tap me on my elbow softly. "What?" I whispered.

"Let's get out of here, I'm bored," he whispered back, and I actually felt sorry for the boy.

"Okay," I nodded quietly.

"Father, may I be excused?" Edward asked his dad, but I could literally feel mockery dripping from his words. He and his father did not see eye to eye at all.

"You may, but may I ask why?"

"Uh, no."

And with that, Edward was gone, leaving Mr. Walter to roll his eyes at the disrespectful behavior of his son.

"I'll go and talk to him," Dan muttered, and got up to leave, but I grabbed his hand.

"Let me."

He nodded suspiciously, but let it go. I followed Edward, and finally caught up with him. "You didn't have to be rude, you know."

"You sound like mum."

"Shut up. I care about you. Can't I say that much?" I demanded.

Edward sighed heavily. "Fine. Just stop guilt-tripping me."

I just grinned. "Hey, do you mind waiting for a minute? I'll just go and visit the washroom real quick," I said.

"Sure. Do your girly things. I'll be here outside."

I headed towards the bathroom, and reapplied a little bit of my make up. Checking if everything was in order, I washed my hands slowly, trying to extend my stay in the washroom.

I was bored of this life. Friends, popularity, fancy dinners, boy problems, the need to please everyone.

God, give me a break!

Knowing that my internal plea for a transition in lifestyle wasn't going to be anywhere near fruitful, I decided to finally join Edward and end his boredom.

"Sorry Ed, I took so long-" I started, and looked up. "Brad?"

"Chris? What are you doing here?" Bradon asked me with disbelief.

"I could ask you the same question."

"I'm here with my friends."

"I'm here with Dan's family," I explained, suddenly wishing that Edward was here.

"Uh, Bradon . . . Who's she?"

A handsome boy, as tall as Brad, and having carefully styled brown and golden hair emerged from Brad's right.

He was Sebastian Rite, the guitarist and singer of The Illegitimates.

I swear I forgot to breathe the moment I saw him.

"Chris this is Sebastian; Seb, this is Chris," Brad introduced us. He pulled me into a hug, and then wolf-whistled softly after eyeing me up, but not in a creepy manner.

"She's my friend-"

"No I'm not, actually," I interjected. "I'm just another girl he met at the party, the one who isn't his type, and trust me, doesn't even want to be."

****

It's 1 AM and I've updated. So please-Vomment lovelies! I'm kranky, Imma sleep now ...zzZZZ...

Brad>>> ;P

-Crazy