Chapter 4

We finally get to my house, safe and sound. I turn off the engine and turn to Michelle, waiting for her to tell me what happened.

"Do you wanna talk about it now, or over ice cream?"

She turned to me and gave me a look that told me all I needed to know.

"Okay, let's go." I said.

We got out of my car and headed inside. Hoping my mom wasn't home, I walked in and called for her.

"Mom! I'm home!"

I got no response and relief washed over me. I needed a little time alone with Michelle so she could calm down, and my mom's worried questions wouldn't help.

"Go sit on the couch and I'll be right back," I shooed her.

I went into the kitchen to go grab some ice cream, Mint Chocolate Chip to be exact, and joined Michelle on the couch.

"How are you feeling?" I asked, hoping to make her comfortable enough to vent to me.

She hesitated for a second, contemplating on what to say before she began.

"I'm just tired. I came home and they decided to argue with me about drugs. As if I would ever do that. They kept pressuring me, accusing me of doing them and when I kept denying it, they got mad and threw stuff at me. I didn't get hit, but it hurt, ya know? I didn't realize they were drunk until my mom threw a vase at me first." By the time she finished, she was sobbing.

I held her in my arms while she cried things out. Michelle has abusive parents. They would argue with each other, and when Michelle was around, they turned their anger onto her. It wasn't right.

She finally sat up, wiping her tears away, and smiled a sad smile. My heart nearly broke.

"Michi, you know you can stay here as long as want. You don't have to go back tonight if you don't want to." I tried to ease her worries a little.

"I really don't know what I would do without you Cassie. Seriously, you're the best friend anyone could ask for," she said while hugging me. I just shook my head and chuckled.

"I don't know what I would do without you either Michi. You know I've got your back."

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"Michi! Get your ass up!" I yelled from downstairs. It's 7:45 a.m. and that girl still isn't up.

"Alright, I'm coming!" she finally responded.

Five minutes later and she came flying down the stairs, hair half done and looking tired. Yet, she still looked gorgeous.

"Alright sleepy, let's get to school before my mom kills us both." I chuckled.

"Bye mom! We're leaving!" I called out.

"Bye kids! Drive safe and watch out for pervs!"

I laughed and unlocked my car. The drive to school was quiet, other than the radio playing some new pop song.

We finally made it to school, only for me to be greeted by the King of Assholes himself. Gosh what does he want now.

We get out of the car and Chris decides to step right in front of me.

I simply look at him with a bored expression, hoping he gets the message to leave me alone. Not with my luck, though. He just smiles his devious smile. If he weren't so annoying, I'd almost think it was cute. ALMOST.

"Hello my sweet Cassandra."

"What Chris? Not in the mood," I said, bored.

"We didn't quite get to finish our talk from yesterday, did we?" he smirked.

"Are you seriously not giving that up? Look, you wanna talk so bad? Meet me at Barbara's Café at 4 o'clock after school today. Okay?" I said, already annoyed of this conversation.

I seemed to have caught him by surprise by agreeing, but he quickly got himself together and smirked.

"Will do babe. Just don't leave me hanging, okay?" he winked, and then walked off.

Glad that it was finally over, I gestured for Michelle and I to go to class. We were already late as it was, no need to make things worse.

"What was that about?" she asked as we were walking into the school.

"Nothing. Chris is just hounding me."

"That didn't seem like nothing to me."

I just gave her a look that hopefully let her know that I didn't want to elaborate.

"Okay I'll let it go, for now." she said as she giggled.

I just rolled my eyes and waved as I walked in the opposite direction towards my class.

I got a text from Charlotte asking if I wanted to hang after school when I bumped into someone and fell hard on my ass.

"Ouch," I mumbled as I got back up.

"My bad. I was staring at my phone and didn't watch where I was going." I said, sheepishly.

"Haha no worries. I see this might be our thing. Bumping into each other and whatnot."

I looked up to be met by those beautiful blue eyes once again. Funny how this is the way we keep meeting.

"Oh yeah, haha. I have a bad habit of that I guess." I said, embarrassed.

"It's fine. Gives me a reason to talk to you." he flashed me his boyish smile.

I just looked down, a blush creeping up my neck.

"Would you like to walk to class together? I mean, since we have the same class and all." he asked.

"Yeah sure."

We walked to class in silence, but it wasn't completely awkward.

As we walk in, I notice that the teacher was already writing notes for us to take, which means he's definitely going to call us out on being late.

Mr. Lithard likes to do that to students who are late. Embarrass them by having all eyes on them.

"Well, if it isn't Ms. Anders and Mr. Davis. How nice of you to join us. Care to explain why you're late?"

All eyes turned to us, and the blush that I had just moments ago, came right back. Before I could speak, William jumped in to the rescue.

"I wasn't paying attention and knocked Cassie over. I helped her get her stuff up and we came straight here." he said with no hesitation.

I just looked at him, shocked he came up with that so fast. He wasn't completely lying, we did knock each other over, but that wasn't the main reason I was late.

"Hmph," was all Mr. Lithard said before he waved for us to take our seats.

Since all the seats were taken, we just say next to each other.

When I saw Mr. Lithard wasn't paying attention, I quietly whispered a thanks to William for speaking up. He just looked at me and smiled.

The rest of the class went by fast, taking a bunch of notes and zoning out when the teacher would just keep talking.