Chapter 3: Thieves Are So Loyal to Fellow Thieves

The first thing I did was tell my sister that I needed some fresh air. She didn't know I was the culprit behind the pies, but knew that I was a victim. Hestia told me to come back home before midnight.

Mom and dad were at a class reunion.

First, I dropped Hestia off and then drove down the street to Nolan's house. His whole family was busy at the ball.

I snuck through the back entrance and tried to open the back door. Nothing. I didn't even have a bobby pin. I knew I should've come prepared. I kicked the doormat and heard a clink!

A silver key poked out from the side. These rich people were stupid. Opening the door, I entered the dark house and threw the key back near the mat, not caring where it landed.

The first floor contained the kitchen, living room, study, and a master bedroom. I tiptoed upstairs and barged into the first room.

Finding nothing relevant, I proceeded to the next.

Then to the next.

Finally, I ended up in Nolan's bedroom. I had to find everything in the dark. Turning on the light would raise suspicion. I didn't need the neighbors checking up what was going on.

I checked around Nolan's bed and then his closet. I completely flipped the closet, throwing clothes, papers, and sports gear out. He was apparently an ex baseball player.

As I rummaged through the bathroom cabinets, I heard a noise.

Someone came home early?

No. It was from inside the room.

My eyes widened as I saw a masked face climbing inside the room. An intruder.

Damn!

I edged closet to the baseball bat and picked right as the person hobbled over the windowsill. He or she carried a knife and a bag.

"Stop!" I yelled. The person was scaring me, but showing weakness would never work.

The stranger stood still.

"Who are you? And what are you doing here?" he demanded, taking off his mask. It was a guy. "Everyone's supposed to be at the Ball!" I didn't recognize the face. He had dark hair and dark eyes, though his face was awfully pale. "You're not a Milesblue."

Gee, he had his facts straight.

"I--I--" I didn't know what to reply.

"A fellow thief eh?" he grinned. I nodded, but then shook my head and then nodded. My nervousness was getting the best of me. I had left my cell phone in my car. "New in this business?"

I bit my lip and lied, "Yes." He wouldn't hurt me if he thought I was a thief too, right?

Why did I even get in this situation?

"Great. How about this: every man--every person for themselves?" he said. "You get whatever you find and I get whatever I find. Deal?"

"I just need one important thing that's in this room. You go ahead," I told him. I might find a phone to call the cops here somewhere. But then that would get me in trouble.

"Great," he said, walking to the door. "Ex-boyfriend or something?"

"Something."

He raised his hands, shrugged, and moved to leave when we heard a loud creak and a cough downstairs. Both of us froze.

Faint light scattered through the hallway. Someone was coming! The thief immediately ran towards the window and gestured for me to follow. I nodded and went, but the thing got jammed. Neither one of us could fit through. He scooted under the bed and pulled me down along when we heard footsteps getting closer.

Thieves are so loyal to fellow thieves.

The lights turned on and all we could see was a pair of shoes.

"What the hell?" Definitely Nolan. He was near the destroyed closet.

I forgot about the mess I made. Way to be inconspicuous. This was my second time breaking the law.

The thief next to me slipped on his mask, but I could see his dark blue eyes.

Nolan was pacing back and forth. I slightly shifted and accidentally pushed the baseball bat out. My fellow law breaker closed his eyes for a second at my stupid move.

Nolan stopped slowly and bent down. His green eyes met mine first and widened.

"Get out," he ordered. The thief and I came out with our heads down. "Why?" he asked with a grimace. "Who's that?" Nolan asked, pointing to the masked man.

"A robber," I answered. Nolan looked between us with a pale expression.

"So are you!" the thief said offended that I sold him out. Nolan was pulling out his cell phone when the guy kicked his hand and ran towards the door. "Come on!" the robber shouted at me.

I followed, knowing full well this was pointless. Nolan was chasing behind us with his bat. We ran downstairs to the living room. Then towards the back door.

When I hit my elbow against a wall, I ended up stopping from the pain.

"Come on!" my partner in crime yelled. He was at the back door.

"You go. I'll hold him back," I yelled back and moved in Nolan's way. Nolan tried to push around me but I wouldn't budge. "Go!" I shouted again. The thief exhaled loudly and ran away.

We thieves stuck together.

Wait, I wasn't a thief.

"Do you have any idea about what you just did?" Nolan asked angrily, slightly panting. All that running got to him. I nodded backing off. "You broke into my house with a robber?"

"No," I said defensively. "We met at your house."

Then I launched into the details of what had happened.

Once I finished my tale, Nolan said, "Now, give me one good reason why I shouldn't call the cops on you." I was happy his parents were still at the ball. I didn't know why he came back home early.

"You need me for the seven--well, now six breakups." He took a seat on the couch.

"I don't need you," he replied. "You need me because those photos are your problem. You got in trouble because you vandalized property! To cover that up, you came to vandalize more property! You need me, not vice versa!"

He had a good point.

"I'm not sorry, just so you know," I said truthfully.

"Get out of my house," he said sharply.

I didn't expect that. He was the epitome of a selfish brat. All he cared about was taking revenge for his broken heart! I could hear him panting still from all that running. Nolan pulled out a cigarette and a lighter.

No second hand smoking.

Disappointed, I walked out the back door and shut it behind me.

Where did he put the pictures?

¤》¤《¤

Princeton.

Were seven broken couples worth my college?

As long they didn't know. High school relationships never lasted long, right?

Sitting in my bedroom the following morning--Saturday--I received a text from the devil aka Nolan.

Meet me at the GV Park in an hour or I'll know you're not interested in Princeton.

He knew my weakness.

Groaning, I threw my phone on the carpeted floor. I got up and got ready to head out.

"Stop!" mom said when I was at the door. Warily, I turned and she asked, "Where are you going?"

I had the lie planned. "Meeting a delinquent." She looked confused. "I have a partner project. Since my partner is a lazy bum, I have to do majority of the work. So see ya later."

I waved and got out of the house. My mom was used to this. Everything was school related.

Nolan was already at the park holding a hand on his heart as he held a photo frame in another. He was overly obsessed with those girlfriends.

"Details," I said, sitting down, coming straight to the point.

"Breanna McCallistar," he said, handing me the photo. The picture had a smiling brunette girl with her head tilted. She was holding Nolan's hand who only had eyes for her.

People change dramatically, sometimes.

"What did she do to your poor heart?" I asked with mock sympathy.

He snatched the photo away. "Cheater. Once a cheater, always a cheater. She left her first boyfriend for me and then cheated on me with another guy."

I exhaled loudly at his "sob story." "Once again: you should be happy to get rid of her."

"Once again: I really liked her."

"Liked. As in the past. Move on," I said, getting irritated.

"No one can understand my situation," he said. I agreed with that. "Breanna goes to our school in our grade, so the breakup shouldn't be too hard. Her boyfriend is Nate Foster, the baseball team captain."

I was surprised to hear this. I knew of Nate, but not really Breanna. This only proved how much isolated I was from the rest of the people in my grade.

"How do I break them up?"

"Use your brain, snob," Nolan retorted. "Is it too difficult?" I narrowed my eyes at him, angry for getting my capabilities questioned. "You have two days to get this done."

"What?!" I exclaimed in disbelief.

He got up, put the photo in his jacket pocket, and left me sitting there. He was ditching me to come with a plan on my own.

¤》¤《¤

I spent the rest of the day on research and planning. Breanna turned out to be a cheerleader. She was nice, in that case. All cheerleaders in my school were nice people.

The whole scheme was to hire a fake boy for Breanna. She would cheat on her current boyfriend, Nate, with the fake guy and he would see them. It sounded easy, but really wasn't.

First, I needed a fake boy. Second, I wanted Nolan to be the fake guy.

"Okay" was all he said when I presented my situation. We were sitting in AP Euro waiting for our always-late teacher to come in.

"Are you messing with me?" I asked suspiciously by his answer.

"What better way to get back at her than that," he replied and met my eyes for once. "She's gonna get a taste of her own medicine." I couldn't believe this psycho. He was satisfied with the plan of breaking up a couple brutally.

"You're such a revenge-driven, bitter, cold-hearted human being--"

"Shut up and go study or do whatever you do," he interjected coldly. "I already know what you think of me." Staring right at me, he said, "And I don't give a damn about it."

Glad we had that established.

¤》¤《¤

Hestia had to leave for college, so my car ride was gone. School was a fifteen minute walk and my parents didn't think I deserved a car. Car would be a college gift. I had to wait seven or eight more months.

For now, walking it was. In the freezing cold weather. But first, I had to stay after school and support Nolan's plan.

Breanna was in the school gym holding pom poms, waiting for the basketball game to start. Where was Nolan? I searched around, but no signs of the devil. Nate, Breanna's boyfriend, had joined his girlfriend. They looked happy.

Not for long.

"I hate you, Nolan," I muttered and smacked the wall next to me. Then, I realized how gross and germy the wall was. I pulled out my pocket hand sanitizer and cleaned my hands.

"I'm sure the wall's just as unhappy to have your germs." Nolan stood next to me holding a soft pretzel. Something the concession stand sold. That explained why he was late. "The feeling's mutual, by the way."

He headed towards his girlfriend. It took me a little while to get which feeling was mutual. He hated me too. Well, he wasn't exactly the most appealing person on the planet.

Nolan stopped and sat on the bleachers--on seats closer to his ex. I followed and sat down next to him, begrudgingly. All for the breakup.

"Why are you not making a move on Breanna?" I whispered impatiently. I had to get home soon. My school work needed to get done.

"Relax. Let me eat my pretzel first," he said as if we had all the time in the world. As he brought the pretzel to his mouth, I snatched it.

"Talk to her first and then you can have this."

He shot me a death glare. "That's my food."

"It's my time," I argued. "Go! Now!" With a glare, he got up cursing at me and stormed to the cheerleader. Tired, I examined the food. No nutritional value.

I watched him talk to the boyfriend, but ignore Breanna. She tried to talk to him, but Nolan completely showed that she was invisible. What game was he playing? He came back with a satisfied look and took back the pretzel.

"Why didn't you talk to her?" I asked. Breanna was shooting confused looks our way. The brunette needed to focus on cheering.

"Important lesson: girls give you more attention when you ignore them."

I thought about it. "I don't."

"Well, you're a snob, so the rules don't apply to you," he said munching on his pretzel. "Now that my attention is on you, she's gonna feel even more curious why I'm ignoring her and talking to someone like you."

"Someone like me?"

"No one ever talks to you unless necessary."

"Says the school loner."

We had a glaring war and I won. Nolan turned away to watch the game. His ex looked over at us quite often. Nolan pretended to be talking to me when in reality, he was talking to his pretzel. The guy's mental structure was demented.

During half-time, Nolan went to tell the cheerleaders they were great. All except Breanna, he praised. I had to admit he was good. Breanna should've ignored him, but she didn't. Poor Nate.

Nolan came back with a smile this time. I didn't know he knew how to do that. We spent the rest of the time arguing and fighting about his revenge scheme. After the game was over, the highness herself made her presence.

Breanna said hi to us both and then turned to Nolan. "How have you been?"

Still heartbroken, I wanted to answer.

"Great," said Nolan brightly. "What about you? And Nate?"

"Good. He was just telling me how much it sucks that you quit the baseball team," she replied. Nolan was on the baseball team? Well, I did see the bat in his room. "I hope it wasn't because of me."

She thought she was that special? If Nolan really quit the sport for her, I would personally beat him over the head with his baseball bat. Isolating yourself from things you enjoyed because of one person was stupid.

"It wasn't," Nolan said and her face fell. I let out a laugh, but immediately covered it up with coughing. "Be careful there," he told me before turning back to Breanna, "So, I guess I'll see you at graduation."

Graduation was six months away.

The look on Breanna's face when she realized what he was saying was definitely worth it. Nolan and I walked out of there. For once, it was hard to contain my laughter.

But as soon as I realized I had to walk home, all the laughing died.

Karma.

Like the gentleman he wasn't, Nolan didn't offer me a ride home. Instead he called it payback for all my complaining and whining about his scheme.

What a complete jerk.

Mentally cursing him, I walked home at seven in the evening. During the winter, it got dark early. My parents had one car. Dad used it since he worked from six to eight. Mom worked from home.

I decided to take the train tracks home. It didn't take long to reach home then.

I had to eat dinner and then work on my homework.

To add insult to injury, Nolan sent me a text at midnight. He was seriously "A" from "Pretty Little Liars." That stranger that always threatened me and made me do unwanted things.

The text stated: Nate is going to find me with his girlfriend tomorrow. Make sure it's accidental. Bring him to the school roof after school. She just texted me to do some catching up.

His good luck.

But how the hell was I accidentally going to bring someone to the school roof?

Someone I've never talked to before at that!

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A/N

How was the chapter? Whatya think?

The criminal was nice or nah? Any ideas why Nolan quit the baseball team?

The second breakup will be the next chapter.
Oh and cheerleaders in my school were the nicest people on the planet.

Let's be honest: both boys and girls give more attention to those who visibly ignore them. It's normal.
I swear I never thought I would have to do research when writing books. But you really do.

Thank you for all the support so far! It's very much appreciated!!

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