See Chapter One for misc. details.
A/N - Eek! Thank you everyone who faved/reviewed/alerted. Appreciate it. :)
I took the liberty of editing some of the details and formatting chapter one to make it more readable. Crack ahead.
"God, could this day get any worse?" I muttered under my breath, dialing my brother's number into the grubby number pad of my cell phone with one hand and delicately picking a spitball out of my hair with the other. Detention. Sucked.
Strange. The call went straight to voicemail. Apparently God's way of telling me, Why yes, Roxas, yes it can. I called several more times before leaving a frantic message that went along the lines of, "Cloud, pick up the phone, I got detention; I need a ride home. Call me back."
Rain ran off my forehead and into my eyeball, (Ow) so I did what any self-respecting teenager would do. I cursed off a raindrop and took out my anger on a nearby cement pillar (Well, fuck) before taking cover under the awning.
It was had been a thoroughly unpleasant afternoon, and from the look of the suddenly-grey skies, it was about to get a lot more…unpleasant-er. I'd accidentally fallen asleep in Aerith's class, and she had made me stay after school writing a three hundred word short story about a chocobo named Fuzzy and the importance of staying awake in English class. I'd half-assed the entire thing and handed it to her (all two hundred and ninety-nine words) half expecting her to tell me to redo it, but she scanned it quickly, smiled in a pleased sort of way and told me I clearly had a gift for writing. I plastered a grimace on my face for the next ten minutes as she raved about how excellent this piece was, especially the part where Fuzzy was punished for not paying attention by being thrown into the incinerator by Htirea, his wicked teacher.
Contrary to popular belief, Aerith was kind of weird.
Anyway, I was waiting outside in the rain for Cloud to pick me up. Or at least, I'd been waiting for twenty minutes and was still waiting.
And waiting. I checked my cellphone. No new messages.
…still waiting. Two chittering girls walked past me, and one of them flipped her hair over her shoulder sending a mist of rain into my face. Ooh. Strawberries.
Forty-five minutes later, I was silently plotting my brother's untimely demise. The only excuse I would accept at this point was that he'd been attacked by members of the triad after borrowing money to buy waffles and was currently bleeding to death in a gutter somewhere – in which case, I hoped he'd had the decency to call me a cab before he lost consciousness. No calls, messages – no sign of him in the parking lot.
I was setting his stuffed animal collection on fire as soon as I got home. Whenever that was.
The first set of late buses had driven away, leaving me - rapidly getting soaked – on the sidewalk (irritated, I'd called Naminé, and she'd suggested for me to wait outside of the awning for "just a few more minutes" because Cloud "might not have seen me") looking like some half-drowned sewer rat. But then, like a beacon of light…(cue angelic music)
"Blondie! You look like some half-drowned sewer rat." In a scene right out of a teenage drama, I whipped around and blinked away a few raindrops off my eyelashes to glare at the redhead striding towards me, jingling his car keys. Fucker. Probably just got out of detention. Not that I was one to say anything.
"No shit, Sherlock." I said sourly and crossed my arms to stave off another shiver. He noticed anyway and peeled off his damp sweater before throwing it over my head and a casual arm around my shoulders, pulling me close enough to feel his breath on the shell of my ear as he purred, "I'd be nicer if I were you."
A thousand warning lights went off.
"I don't need a ride, and definitely not from you. You'll probably crash and kill us bo-"
As if completely deaf, Axel adjusted the black hoodie on me and said, "So it's settled!" Before I had another chance to complain, he dragged me out to his car – a plain Honda with CDs thrown left and right in the backseat (a quick glance told me that crazy he was, but bad taste in music he had not)– and threw me into the passenger side. My butt squeaked on the leather and he chortled before slamming the passenger door shut before I could comment on his immaturity. Blowing a straggly strand of hair off my face, I wondered where his surreptitious attitude had gone from the first time I'd seen him. He seemed all fun and games today.
After giving him my address, I pressed myself as far away from him as possible. Axel snuck a few cat-like glances at me, smiling the entire time. An awkward silence descended between us, and Axel took it into his hands to remedy the situation; he turned on the radio, upped the volume and thumped his fingers against the steering wheel. Four seconds into the song, I was beginning to feel a little awkward. A few tacky guitar bars, then:
"I wanna love you in my room….
I wanna take off all your clothes"
My fingers inched toward the dial. He batted my hand away easily without taking his eyes off the road.
"I wanna see you in the day time
I wanna see
you in my room"
"Have you ever seen the music video for this song? It's a fucking riot. It's like a slideshow of people making out." Axel said cheerily, over the "wah oh oh oh oh ohhh"s over the speakers. At this point, I was trying to melt into the leather seats. He finally noticed my discomfort and patted me reassuringly in a spot vaguely higher than my hip. Judging from the fact he was glaring at the road and honking at some car that was driving 40 in a 60mph zone, it had probably been an accident. Nonetheless, it was the last straw. I unbuckled my seatbelt and flung myself at the window, scrabbling at the glass,
"I'M STUCK IN A CAR WITH A MOLESTER – PLEASE HELP!"
The car swerved a little into the left lane, and I think I heard Axel say, "Jesus!" but thankfully he recovered and he smiled and waved at the stunned couple in the car next to us.
"Roxas," he said, still waving, but sounding a little panicky now, "sit down, I'm fucking driving. And wear your damn seatbelt."
Axel killed the engine in front of my house and looked over at me; I was already ripping off my seatbelt and grabbing my scattered books (I'd made a few other attempts to escape, nearly causing a three-car collision at the intersection) while pointedly ignoring his unnervingly steady gaze. He handed me my biology textbook, which I snatched out of his fingers. I didn't want his filthy molester fingers on my stuff, which is probably why I jumped a mile into the air (figuratively, of course. We were in a damn car, after all) when his filthy molester fingers shot out and grabbed my collar as I jerked open the car door.
I was hanging half in and half- out of the car. I think my biology book was in a puddle somewhere in the vicinity of my right foot. My pant leg was getting wet.
I couldn't move. I couldn't even shut the door.
I couldn't really do anything except accept Axel's not-so filthy molester hands fisting my hair and his not-so filthy mouth on my suddenly filthy ones and make these filthy little noises that seemed to make Axel get all makey-outy, so I bit his lip and he pulled away.
I stared kind of stupidly at him breathe all funny.
"I want…that sweater back." was all he said, though.
And then he pushed me out of the car and drove away. How rude.
In hindsight I would note the fact I forgot to say thank you. (For the ride, not the impromptu make-out session) At the time though, I was confused and wet and cranky. I hightailed it out of his arms and into my house, never turning once. It was a good thing I didn't, though as I soon found out. When I all but stumbled down the kitchen door – after peeling off my wet socks and coat downstairs - I was greeted by Cloud standing by the window with a steaming mug something and an expression that screamed, "you're grounded!"
My mouth opened to say something like, "Hello dickhead, your phone wasn't open; I hitched a ride with a molester and ended up making out with him in the passenger seat and you're sitting here drinking shit and giving me that look?!" but ended up making fish eyes at him instead.
Cloud seemed to get the gist of it, and rolled his eyes. "Call me the next time you decide to hang out after school, alright?" My mouth flexed and I pointed a shaky accusing finger at him.
"I - Called..I fu- Wait, I-"
A frown.
"Roxas, my phone's been right here the entir-" Cloud patted his empty pant pocket triumphantly. Then froze.
"…Oh shit."
"That's it. I'm setting Miss Piggie limited edition Winter Princess on fire."