Only Fools - Chapter 2: Chapter 2

"Hey, Aspen," Naomi says excitedly as she leans against the locker next to me. I let out a groan at her words and shake my head.
"No. Don't do that,"
"What?" she asks, looking over at me, obviously confused as to what I'm talking about.
"Talk," I respond.
"Why? Did I do something? Oh my goodness, I am so sorry for whatever it is. Sometimes I do things without thinking and-"
"Nope. Not mad. Just hungover,"
Her light blue eyes widen slightly at my response, but she recovers pretty quickly.
"Oh. Ok. Then I guess I'll be quiet,"
I nod at her words and internally let out a sigh of relief. That's all I wanted.
"But seriously, Aspen. Who the heck goes to a party on a Thursday night? I mean, seriously, you couldn't have waited one more day? And then you obviously got extremely drunk at said party. I mean, what is up with you and the drinking? Honestly, at the rate you're going, it could become a problem, if it hasn't already that is. Aspen, I'm getting seriously worried...."
With each word that she utters, it feels as though my head is being slammed up against a brick wall, repeatedly. I just have to wait out the bell, which should only be a couple more minutes. Then, I can just go to class and wait for the Motrin to fully kick in. Closing my eyes, I rest my head back against the locker and attempt to tune Naomi out. On a normal occasion I would probably feel bad about doing something like this, but today I can't help but to not give a shit.
After what seems like an eternity, but what is most likely closer to about two minutes, the bell rings, signaling that it's time for students to begin to make their way to first hour.
As I enter the classroom to my first hour class, I immediately notice Tori sitting in the far back corner of the classroom with her head in her hands. Her being hungover makes me feel slightly better about myself at least.
Tori lets out an annoyed groan as I sit down at the desk in front of her, and I just have to assume it's a result of any sound that I made.
"I swear to god, Mason. I just don't have the time or enough fucks left to give to deal with you right now," Tori says sharply, not even looking up to see that I'm not whoever this Mason guy is.
"Well, I guess I'll be sitting somewhere else today," I tell her rather sarcastically. Her head instantly snaps up, and her dark brown eyes widen when she sees me.
"Oh, shit. Aspen. I'm so so so sorry. I thought you were someone else.... and the pounding headache obviously doesn't help,"
"Yeah, Naomi kept trying to talk to me this morning and sometimes I hate that she doesn't get drunk with us, solely because she doesn't have to suffer the next day. I love her, but whoever isn't with us is against us, and that applies in this situation,"
Tori nods her head in agreement.
"Who's this Mason guy?" I ask her, raising one eyebrow.
"Oh, it's just some guy from the hockey team.... or at least I think he's on the hockey team. We made out at a party a week ago or so and he's been pestering me ever since. He's cute and all, but being in a relationship would be so much work. I mean, for one, I can't just kiss or flirt with whoever the fuck I want. For two.... well, I guess there's only one point,"
"Relationships aren't that bad," I say with an eye roll.
"Oh, come on. You haven't dated anyone in forever. You're one to talk,"
I have also been crushing on the same person for all of high school. Those two points must be related. Huh. Strange.
"Ok. So I haven't been in a relationship in a while. Neither have you. Maybe they're better than you think they are,"
"I highly doubt it. Monogamy will be the end of me,"
"Whatever you say," I say with an eye roll. As I turn around to face the front of the classroom, the bell rings, signaling the start of the school day, which I can already tell will be a rough one.
————
"Miss Grayson, it would be wonderful if I could have your attention,"
My head snaps up upon hearing my name being called and I'm met with a rather annoyed Mr. Todd. Glancing around the room, I notice that almost everyone is now staring at me. My cheeks heat up slightly from the sudden attention and I instantly look back down at my desk. Normally this would be extremely embarrassing, yet the pounding in my head leaves no room for worry.
"Alright. I'm sorry," I say quietly. I don't look back up to see his reaction to this, but it's not long before he continues to drone on about whatever we're supposed to be learning. I'll just get notes from someone at the end of class and look over them later. It'll be fine.
Tori lets out a quiet laugh from behind me, to which I immediately whip around to send her a glare. When she sees my expression, she just shrugs her shoulders in response. She literally breaks the dress code every day because of the purple at the end of her brown locks and yet I get in trouble for falling asleep in class? The system is rigged.
Shaking my head at her, I turn around and rest my head back in my hands.
My eyes fly open as I feel my desk shake, accompanied with a loud bang.
"For the last time, Miss Grayson, it would be great if you would pay attention to this lesson. There's a test on it in two days, not to mention that knowing this lesson is key to even beginning to understand Monday's,"
I nod at his words, and, seemingly satisfied with my response, he walks back up to the front of the classroom to continue the lesson. I lift my pen back up and glance down at my empty notebook page. If I pretend to take notes for a while, he'll probably lay off for a bit. Then, I can go back to my attempts to ignore the pounding in my head. Is this Motrin going to ever kick in? Shit, did I forget to take it?
"Miss Grayson, please just stay after class so that I can talk to you," Mr. Todd says with a slight strain in his voice as he shakes his head.
Damn it. Did I seriously zone out again? I should make more of an effort to stop. And yet, I've already been summoned to see him after class. So what does it matter now?
————
"What happened with Todd, Cap?" Tori immediately questions, using her little nickname for me which she knows I hate that refers to my captain position on the cheer team, before I can even take a seat at our lunch table. And yet I'm too exhausted to even put energy into rolling my eyes at her. Letting out a small groan, I drop my lunch tray down onto the table and take a seat next to Naomi who is staring at me with eyes filled with curiosity.
"Nothing exciting," I tell them with a shrug.
"Aspen, nothing is actually exciting here. It's high school. We just wanted to know if you got a detention or some shit," Tori says before shoving a forkful of salad straight into her mouth.
"I did not get detention, actually. He just called me in to talk to me about-"
"Sorry, but did you guys hear that Brianna and Matt broke up. I don't know why, but that's so crazy to me. I mean, they had been dating for like two years at least. I just. Who actually has hope in relationships after that. It's...."
Tori trails off as she glances at Naomi to see the glare she's giving her for interrupting me. Her eyes widen as she lightly places her hand over her mouth, nodding at me to continue on.
"Well, he really just wanted to talk to me about grades. Really nothing that interesting," I say, staring down at my food on the table in front of me. Glancing up at my two friends, I notice the difference between their expressions. While Tori simply nods along with my words, with no doubt in my honesty, Naomi stares at me with a confused expression imprinted upon her face.
"Well, anyways, I heard that at the party last night.... seriously, what now, Naomi?"
Tori stops her story rather abruptly as she notices Naomi's glaring expression yet again.
"What? She was finished!" Tori exclaims, throwing her arms up in exasperation.
"You have to read her body language, Tori. She's holding something back, and as good friends, we're going to listen to the full story,"
Tori rolls her eyes at the blonde girl, but then turns her full attention to me. I quickly glance over at Naomi to see her fully attuned to me, genuinely wanting to know everything I was previously holding back.
"Fine," I huff, "Todd said that he thinks it may be in my best interest to get a tutor for the class. In order to avoid that, I will have to earn a B or higher on the next test."
As soon as the words leave my lips, Tori suddenly begins to laugh. Naomi and I both give her looks filled with confusion, not quite sure what was even remotely funny about the statement.
"That's a good one, Aspen. You. Needing a tutor. 'Miss Full Ride Academic Scholarship'. The next thing you're going to be telling me is that you can't go to the party tonight for some reason," Tori says between laughs.
"I actually probably shouldn't go to the party tonight. I think it would be best if I just stayed home and studied," I tell her slowly.
"Wow. The smartest girl in school needing to study? Honestly, I bet you don't even study. You are quite the prankster today. Either that, or you're sick.... Aspen Grayson skipping out on a party? Unheard of,"
"I think she's being serious, Tori," Naomi says rather quietly. Tori's eyes widen for a moment before she gives me a look filled with sadness.
"Are you, Cap?" Tori asks me.
"Yeah. Sorry, Tors,"
"Ok. But seriously, please come to the party. I get that you may need to study or whatever, but I'm sure that you can afford to have a social life for one day this weekend. You still have all of Saturday and all of Sunday to study and do whatever smart girl homework you have to do. Otherwise I'm gonna go to the party and miss hanging out with you the whole time. Come on, please?"
With that, she begins to give me her best puppy dog eyes. Damnit, she knows how to make me break.
Rolling my eyes I reluctantly nod my head, and honestly don't know why I do. Going to the party tonight won't be enough. I'll have to go Saturday night also, and the hangovers from each won't allow me to get much of anything done. I'll fall behind in my work despite my internal plan to finally catch up. So I just push the plan to the next weekend. And yet, every weekend I fall back into the same cycle, doing absolutely nothing to break from it and instead seemingly supporting it. At least I'm living life to the fullest, or at least thinking that makes it feel better.
"Are you sure, Aspen?" Naomi asks me, light blue eyes filled with concern.
"Yeah. I mean, Tori's right. I still have the rest of the weekend to study. It'll be fine,"
Naomi gives me a look filled with doubt, however, with my lack of reaction to it, she just shrugs it off and turns her attention back on her food.
"Hey, girls,"
As soon as the voice registers in my mind, I have to hold back an eye roll.
"Ashley!" Tori exclaims, genuinely excited, as the demon sits herself down right next to me. I take a quick glance at Naomi who seems to be wearing a smile just about as fake as mine. How Tori can stand this girl is honestly beyond me.
"Ashley," I say, a little less enthusiastic than Tori. I'm a good actress, just not that good.
"So, party tonight at Michael's. I assume that you all will be there,"
"Of course we will, Ash. I don't even know how you could expect any different," Tori tells her with a laugh.
"You are so right. That was rather silly of me. Anyways, Brody and I will of course be there. You all know who Brody is. Star player on the football team and all, as proven by yesterday's game," Ashley gushes as she twists her long light brown hair between her fingers.
"Yeah, Brody's a good player, but he's no way the star player, Ash. I hate to break it to you, but that's Ivy," I quickly cut in.
"And that's bullshit. Everyone is just making a big deal about her because she's a girl. Sure, she can catch a football, but if she tried to play defense like Brody does, she would probably just snap like a twig," Ashley says with a shrug as she grabs a fry off of my plate and pops it into her mouth.
I finally understand what people mean when they say that they get so angry that all they can see is red. Ashley goes in to reach for another one of my fries, but I quickly slap her hand away. A squeal escapes her lips as she pulls her hand back to her chest, sending a glare in my direction.
"Those are fucking lies and you know it. Ivy is the goddamn captain of that team because she deserves it. She was the wide receiver through an entire undefeated season last year, and she has broken more records in this school than I can count. Ivy is one of the strongest people, if not the strongest person, I know. Period. Notice how I didn't say girl, because that shouldn't matter. It doesn't matter. She has proven herself well beyond that and her hard work honest to god continues to amaze me every day. So don't you fucking sit there and tell me that your boyfriend is the star player of that team when the best thing that he can do for it is follow her orders,"
As I finish speaking, I glance around at our table and take in my friends' expressions. Tori's mouth is hanging open slightly in shock, completely in disbelief over what I just said. Naomi, on the other hand, is trying and failing to display the same expression of shock, and yet the smile that threatens to spill onto her lips is a dead give away.
Ashley is giving me a different look entirely, a glare which delivers the message that if looks could kill then I'd be so far down in my grave that even my body would be in hell. Her light green eyes nearly burn holes in my head. I twiddle my thumbs nervously and glance down at the floor. I can't believe I just did that. What was I thinking? But before I can overthink too much, something strange happens. She smiles.
"I guess you could be right, Aspen. I may be underestimating Ivy a bit. It's not like I understand football all that much anyways. I'm just trying to stand up for the man that I love. I mean, standing up for the person you love? You would know about that, right?" Ashley says, each word sickly sweet. The color from my face drains as she gives me a quick pointed look before she turns back to Tori.
"So, are you bringing anyone to the party, Tor?"
With a laugh, Tori begins to launch into the story she told me this morning about her latest conquest. I'm probably just overthinking this all way too much. Ashley is probably just talking without actually thinking about what comes out of her mouth. I mean, that's what Ashley does.
"And then he got all possessive when he saw me kissing his best friend! Saying stuff like: dude, she's mine, I had her first," Tori exclaims, lowering her voice to mimic the guy in the situation, "No one fucking owns me. I am my own person. I swear, what the fuck is up with men and objectifying women?"
"Whoah, Tori. You didn't tell me that part," I interject as I suddenly tune into the conversation.
"What?"
"I really wouldn't have pegged Mason to ever act like that," I say with a shrug. Tori begins to laugh suddenly, and it only takes a few seconds before Ashley joins her.
"Oh, I'm not talking about Mason. I'm talking about Brad. You clearly weren't listening, Cap. The night started with Mason, but then he got too clingy and I transitioned to Brad. And then Brad got boring and Adam was just standing there so I thought why not,"
"Well, anyways.... I would ask Aspen if she was bringing a date, but we all know that she clearly can't get one, as proven by her never bringing one. Unless there's something that she's not telling us...." Ashley cuts in rather quickly.
"Oh, come on, Ash. It's Aspen. She's like an open book. She just shares my views that a party isn't a party unless you're blackout drunk and making bad decisions by the end. Otherwise, what's the point of going?" Tori says with a laugh. I crack a smile at her comment, but I can't help but be reminded of how much it hurts to lie to her about such a big part of myself.
"Oh, and speaking of dates, I heard that, oh what are their names again? Harold and Ryder are going to be there? I mean, I honestly will never understand those two. Like, gay people are fine and all, but I guess I never expected Ryder, or whatever his name is, to be one of them. He's like the captain of the hockey team or something like that. Anyways, I really don't understand how Harry turned a hot guy like that gay," Ashley suddenly blabbers on.
I glance over at Tori to try and gage her reaction to the sudden topic change, but her being in the middle of eating doesn't exactly reveal much besides her obvious hunger. Now that I think about it, that was a pretty sudden topic change. Shit. Does Ashley know about me? I mean, there's no possible way for her to. I've only ever told Naomi and she knows how I feel about it getting to Ashley. Ashley will find out and then in the blink of an eye the entire school would also know, and things would never be the same.
"You know that people don't just turn gay, right Ashley?" Naomi asks, sounding slightly concerned.
If Naomi defends this does it show personal connection to the topic? No. I need to stop this. I'm just being paranoid now. Naomi is just being a good friend in both defending you and what she believes in. Ashley couldn't possibly tell anything from that. She's just being the annoying bitch that she always is. I just need to stay and try to make it through this conversation, then everything will be fine.
"Well, yeah. Of course. But how else would you explain it? He-"
Yeah, no. Rolling my eyes, I decide that I've had enough of her bullshit for the day, and tune Ashley out as I turn around to see Ivy talking with the football team at their table. As she emphatically waves her hands around, I can't help but smile. I wonder what she's talking about. Not that it would matter. I would be interested no matter what she was talking about.
It's just then that she turns her head to look at me, almost as if she could feel my gaze. Almost on instinct, I slide my eyes over to Dustin who is sitting next to her which I know puts a smile on her face. I glance back over at her to see her getting up from her seat to walk over to me. My eyes widen, in a slight panic before I turn back around in my seat. Chill, Aspen. She's literally your best friend and just thinks that you were staring at Dustin. Everything is fine.
"Hey, bird. If you're gonna check out Dustin like that, try to be a little more discreet.," Ivy says with a laugh as she approaches me. Oh shit.
My eyes float around the table at the rather diverse expressions of my friends. Naomi looks as if she's ready to burst out into laughter at any given second even though I can tell that she's just trying to look surprised, Tori actually looks surprised about the recent development, and Ashley is simply sitting there confused due to the fact that she just tried to slyly and rightfully (though she's unaware of that part) accuse me of having a crush on my best friend a minute ago. What am I going to do about this? I mean, I could just lie and say that I don't like Dustin so that Tori doesn't accidentally spread it around and Ashley doesn't purposely do the same thing, but then what would I tell Ivy? Shit.
I'm guessing that Ivy notices their reactions too, because she slaps her hands over her mouth before slowly shaking her head.
"Oh, shoot. They didn't know, did they? I am so sorry, Aspen," she says then turning her attention to my friends, "Please don't tell anyone. I know you guys are Aspen's friends too, so please just forget I said anything about her little crush. In fact, just forget I was here."
"Yeah, of course, Ivy. We heard nothing," Naomi says as she gives her a thumbs up in response. Tori and Ashley both nod along. If only I could fully believe that their nods were binding in keeping this a secret. Ivy smiles at this before she glances back at her teammates and lets out a small laugh.
"Well, I really only came over here to tease you and I even messed that up. So I'm just gonna go before I say anything else dumb. Plus it hasn't even been five minutes and the guys are already acting like huge idiots. I don't think they'll survive without me for much longer," Ivy says rather sheepishly.
I nod, cracking a small smile before she waves goodbye to the other girls at the table and walks back over to her football family.
"Anyways-" Ashley's voice suddenly cuts in to spew out some more bullshit. Yeah. I'm done here.
Letting out a short sigh, I lift my lunch tray from the table and turn around to make my way over to the trash. However, after taking only a few steps away from my table, too distracted by my own thoughts to even try and look where I'm going, I collide into something, or someone, that is.
She lets out a gasp of surprise as my leftover lunch flies all over the front of her shirt. My tray falls to the ground, and I can almost feel all the eyes of our peers on us. I hear the girl mutter curses under her breath, and without much hesitation, or even looking up, I pull my tray off of the ground and set it on top of the nearest table before grabbing the girl's wrist and dragging her out of the cafeteria.
Throwing open the bathroom door, I quickly tug her in behind me and it's then that I finally whip around to actually look at her. Whoah.
"First, you spill your food on me, and then you proceed to kidnap me and drag me in here. I believe you are now holding me hostage in the school bathroom.... but I could be wrong. Overall, I would rate this introduction a solid 6/9, a 66% if you will. I really think that the whole hostage and food spilling situation brought you down. A simple 'hello' really would have sufficed," the girl says as she pulls a french fry out of her dark curly hair and tosses it into the trash bin.
"Well, then, hello.... My name is Aspen?" I say, offering her a sheepish smile.
"Wow. That wasn't so hard, was it? Now, if you do that every time then I'm sure you'll actually find people to be friends with. Goodbye, now," the girl begins to turn to walk out of the bathroom, but I quickly grab her wrist to turn her back around.
"And we're back. I was joking about the hostage thing. You do realize that taking someone hostage in a public setting usually doesn't work out, right? I mean, especially when everyone saw you grab my arm and drag me out of the cafeteria already. The trial would just not run in your favor,"
"Your shirt is completely covered in food," I say softly, rather guilty about it even if it was an accident.
"Wow. And she has working eyes too. Crazy,"
Rolling my eyes at her, I quickly peel the sweatshirt off from my body and reach my arm out to hand it to her.
"Thanks, but I'm good. I can deal with a couple extra stares," the girl says as she pushes my arm away. Shaking my head, I push the sweatshirt back towards her.
"Also, how were you even wearing that anyways? Last time I checked, 'outerwear' like so is strictly prohibited from being worn over the gorgeous uniform that we have been blessed with,"
I let out a chuckle as I glance down at my dark blue cheer sweatshirt that I got a couple years ago.
"If you're confident enough, the teachers either don't notice or care. Only like two teachers here actually care to enforce the dress code and steering clear of them isn't awfully hard. In your case though, I'd say that you have a valid excuse to be wearing this if anyone questioned you. I'm just always cold in this school no matter what. Honestly, I feel like being cold when I really shouldn't be is just a personality trait at this point. Oh, and don't feel bad about taking it or anything because this was seriously all my fault and I can suffer through being cold for the next few hours if I know that it's for a good cause," I say with a small shrug and playful smile. With the lack of response from the girl, I push it closer to her.
"Seriously though. I still feel pretty guilty over the entire thing. This is like the least I can do," I tell her.
Letting out a sigh, the girl shakes her head before pulling the sweatshirt out of my hand and tugging it onto her body. Sticking her hands in the front pocket, she sways from side to side for a second before looking back up at me.
"I'm going to head off now. Please don't tug me back after I've already turned around. I'm really not in the mood for some whiplash today,"
With a small smile, I nod my head before she quickly turns around and walks out of the bathroom, leaving me alone and quite honestly already pretty cold.