♥Song of the Chapter- Fine By Me by Andy Grammer

Dedicated to- @smurfswift (MY BESTIE! LOVE YOU GURRRL <3)

✐Chapter 5- "Came out sounding like Elmo on drugs."✎

"Oh, hey there S- um, buddy..." I winced into the phone. If Lucas heard I was on talking terms with Sam he would question it, and Sam would murder me and my poor, poor laptop for telling a living, breathing soul that goes to our school that I knew him as more than just 'that kid that looks really hot that skips school and is totally out of my league'. And nothing is coming between Lesley and me. I'd never be able to live with that guilt.

"Buddy? I'm not your buddy!" Sam yelped into the phone.

"Oh, where am I, you ask? Yeah, I'm at a friend's house." I heavily pronounced 'friend's house' so that he wouldn't question the 'buddy' part anymore. If I still had to hide the fact that I lived with him the least he could do is improvise with me. I shuddered just thinking about being buddies with that hobknocker! (a/n don't look that word up you will regret it)

"How are you going to get home now? They would obviously know you live with me if you're new friends drove you here." He demanded. Huh, never thought of that part...

"How about..." I pulled a thinking face, and was silent for a couple minutes, and Lucas looked at me and mouthed, "Are you okay?" pointing to my face.

I immediately stopped my thinking face.

"Text me." I whispered into the phone so only Sam could hear and not Lucas either (who was so obviously eavesdropping, pretending to read a dictionary- one, who reads dictionaries? And two- it was upside-down) and hung up on Sam. "Hey, Lucas, where's the bathroom?" I questioned, faking a potty dance by crossing my legs and biting my lip and jiggling up and down, and crossing my eyes.

I'm really not good at acting. I've never really had many opportunities that needed it. That's why I'm going to become a famous author and not a famous actress.

Lucas laughed. "Oh, that's why you were making that face as you talked on the phone! Are you constipated?" He added in.

Why does everyone think I'm constipated! Gosh, I'm going to really have to practice by taking selfies by a mirror or something.

"Ha, you caught me..." I tried a laugh but it came out sounding like Elmo on drugs.

He pointed down the hall, and I quickly excused myself. I passed Mason who was coming up the stairs with a sandwich in hand that was the size of a five dollar foot long they sell at subway.

You know, the, 'Five! Five dollar! Five dollar foot longs!"

If you weren't just singing that in your head you are shunned.

(Just kidding... Maybe.)

I entered the bathroom and shut the door behind me and locked it. Swinging out my phone I texted MME (My Mortal Enemy) as fast as I could.

H... I... S... Okay, where's the A...

Ten minutes later...

Hi Sam. I will get dropped off at my new house, not yours. I will walk across the street to your house. Bye.

Three seconds later...

Ok ttyl jst b quik

Jesus Christ. I scowled at his typing, I hope he doesn't talk or write like that in school, like when he's going to skip school he goes up to the teacher and yells:

YOLO BYOTCHES C U L8R SK8R

I stifled a laugh at my thoughts. I could not picture him saying that at all. I then heard a knock on the bathroom door making me jump a little.

"Uhh, Des? When you said you had constipation I didn't know you were serious... Are you okay in there?"

"Oh ye-yeah, um, be right out." I mumbled, and flushed the toilet to make it look like I actually went the bathroom, and then washed my hands (one can never be too sanitary) before walking out the door and explaining to Lucas the whole carpooling deal.

He, of course, being so sweet, agreed. He drove me over in Mason's car while Mason watched the Bachelorette On Demand.

Let me just tell you one thing- DO NOT GET IN A CAR WITH LUCAS DRIVING UNLESS YOU WANT A DEATH WISH.

He ran every stop light. He honked to the tune on the radio. We passed a pet shop and he had to slow down to 'ooooh' and 'aaahh' at every dog in display while the cars behind us were yelling at us and threatening to damage us and the car if we didn't move faster... The people here are just wonderful.

At every turn he ran over the curb and I would slam my head against the window and he'd apologize and say he wouldn't turn that fast again.

Guess what he did at every corner even after saying that though?

Drive like a maniac at every corner again. Some people never change.

When we finally (thank the lord) arrived at my house, I was pretty sure I had a bruise in that spot now. I thanked him and quickly skedaddled out of that Volkswagen, after we exchanged numbers, over to my house.

When he left I sprinted over to Sam's house (seriously though, this is the most exercise I've ever gotten) and when I entered I slid to the ground with my back on the door.

I was dealing with serious throbbing pain in my hand from the punch.

Also, I was dealing with the aching bruise forming on my head.

I thought of all that I had gone through today, the nightmares yesterday, living away from my mom and Hailey, Sam making my life Hell, going to Hell, the Jocks from Hell that will most likely gang up on Lucas, Mason and I and humiliate me in some way (because they're not dumb enough to punch a girl- I hope).

I started to cry.

✐✎✏

At some point I remember falling asleep by the door, my eyes probably blood red from tears. I don't know really why I cried, I just think it's... Too much in the span of one day. Or maybe it's just hormonal girl stuff, you know, like- actually, I'm not going to go through details.

When I woke up I was in between soft sheets and was curled up on my bed with all my curls in my face and my glasses drooping. I fixed them and yawned when I heard a voice.

"Good." He said flatly. "You're awake."

"Sam?!" I said, a little flabbergasted. "You carried me here?"

He shrugged. "I can be nice." I snorted, and stifled it with a cough.

He glanced at me. "You look awful, by the way. Like you were ran over by a truck and then swam through a garbage can."

"Gee, thanks." I groaned, rolling my baby blue eyes. And he said he could be nice... (not)

"Were you crying?" He questioned, resting his chin on his hand, sounding genuinely concerned.

"Um, nooo..." I lied. Then I felt something wet on the side of my cheek to realize it was dog slobber. "Ew, Sam, you have got to keep that dog of yours, Mike, Psyche, Dirtbike, whatever his name is out of my room, it drooled all over my face!" I cried, frantically wiping it off.

"Spike's been in his cage." Sam said with a smirk. Why is he smirking at me lik-

Oh.

"Oh, shut up!" I mumbled and hid my face under the covers. "I didn't know I drool! Don't smirk at me like that!" I said, my voice muffled from under the blankets. I brushed some of my rat's nest I call hair out of my face and squeaked in pain, which was now shooting up my arm. Sam frowned and grabbed my hand [not so gentle, may I add] as I winced.

"What happened?" He said, turning my hand over in his, rough, muscular hand that sent shivers down my spine and tingles through my toes.

My knuckles were bright red, and a little bloody and scratched up, beginning to bruise. My fingers were throbbing and shooting bolts of pain up my arm as I clenched my teeth.

Should I tell Sam I got into a fight!? On the first day of school, never the less. And surely he'd spill about it to my parents and sister. I decided to go with the safer option-

Lie.

Just one problem. If you haven't realized by now, I cannot lie for the life of me.

One time, when I was in second grade, this kid Noah was picking on me because of my pigtails and Finding Nemo backpack. So I grabbed a rock off of the ground in the playground of my elementary school and threw it where the sun-don't shine... It was a fairly heavy rock...

I was a violent child. Don't judge.

Then when the playground monitor came over to see if he was alright he was in too much pain to talk. I quickly spurted that a Tyrannosaurus Rex attacked him with the help of Blues Clues. I claimed that I had tried fighting off Blues Clues (I had never liked Blues Clues for some reason, so I wanted to add him to my story making it seem as if I defeated the scary blueberry dog that haunted my dreams from time to time. Take that, Blues Clues!) but the T-Rex threw the rock and it hit him in the... Painful place... How I came up with a story like that in a matter of three minutes is far beyond me.

Yeah, what I didn't know is that the other teacher on duty [hehe, duty... I'm sorry, I had to say it] had seen me throw the rock (as if my story wasn't a no-brainer lie). But I got to go home from school early at least.

Another example. In fifth grade, I had a presentation to give to the class in Social Studies. I was a painfully shy person speaking in front of other citizens of the Earth, so I nearly peed myself thinking about the speech I had to give. The day of the project there was a substitute, and when she called my name, I got a little nervous. I quickly sputtered out that I 'wasn't here' and the teacher questioned that. All the students were saying that I was here and the teacher, complaining about a headache, asked for me to explain. I had told her, "My twin sister is sick today, and I'm usually home-schooled, but she asked me to fill in for her. I can't do the project because I don't have it remembered, sadly, and she'll probably want to do it herself when she feels better." That had been the best lie I had ever told, until the teacher then asked my name.

I blurted the first thing that came to mind. "Fred!" Then, if you can't guess what happened next, you are either stupid, have memory loss about when I talked about how shitty my luck is, have dyslexia and didn't catch the part where I complained about how shitty my life is, or all three.

The whole class had burst into laughter and I was known as 'Fred' the rest of the year. Also was sent to the principal's office for 'playing mean tricks on the substitute'.

Lying is not fun for me. So I don't know what I was thinking when I lied to Sam about my hand.

"Oh, um, well, I have this rare skin disease that shows up whenever I'm close to a boy around my age, called... Um, Socialanxietyawkwardyaphobia-itis, and um, it spreads quickly if you get closer, and it's really nasty, it eventually turns purple and blue and yellow like a gross bruise, and it'll spread to my thighs and my face, and give me acne and I've become a lab rat for scientists, because I'm the only person still alive with this disease..." I winced, but not because of the pain still in my hand. That one was a pretty bad lie, and I mentally face palmed myself, and also mentally hit myself in the face with a Lying for Dummy's book [knowing the world we live in, that's probably a thing].

"Oh, so that's why you don't hang around with any boys our age!" Sam said, snapping his fingers, while making an 'oooooh!' noise.

Holy Hutcherson he believed me!

"Yeah..." I lied. I actually don't socialize with boys our age because I make a fool of myself.

Like right now.

"But what about last night?" He said, gradually coming closer. I gulped. "We slept in the same bed, and I was shirtless and everything! We might've even cuddled a couple times!" He whispered in horror. "Are you okay?!"

"I'm fine." I said curtly. I gulped a couple more times.

"Then would your disease get worse if I did this?" He uttered, placing a scarred (probably from all his 'bad boy street fighting'), cold, roughed up hand to one of my warm, slender hand.

I nodded again.

I gulped as he started laughing so hard that he doubled over, then patted me on the head like I was a poodle.

What the mother trucker fudger ducker who screwed a sucker! What the frickity frackity paddy-whackity actual flipping fuck!

"Oh, you are so gullible." He humored himself. "You really thought I believed you? Wow, you're an idiot. And a bitch, for lying to me." He drawled as I blinked repeatedly, to make the salt water about to spill from my sky blue eyes stay hidden. "Gosh, that's too funny. And you thought I believed your made up, phony phobia lie, or whatever. Anyway, are you going to tell me what really happened to your hand?"

Get your shit together Destiny. You're crying because he called you a bitch. Maybe he just thought of you in female dog form? Like how he patted your head like you were a dog. Maybe he thinks of you as a dog?

But for some reason, my heart felt like it was ripped out of my chest, thrown to the floor, and then stomped on by a sumo wrestler into a thousand pieces. Then it was glued back together only to be mauled by a hammer, and then thrown into a pit of poison. Then after that, blown up by-

Okay, no, just kidding.

I think it just got me because, who insults people to their face like that?

After a couple moments of silence, I chanted to myself, breathe in and out. In and out. In and out. In and ou-

Okay Destiny, you're beginning to sound like a pregnant woman.

"Please just... Don't tell your mom... or my mom, or my sister... Or your dad, because I suppose he would probably tell your mom who would tell my mom, who would tell my sister, who would go all hormonal bitch on me and dropkick me, Chuck Norris style, all the way to Australia. And I really don't want to be dropkicked Chuck Norris style all the way to freaking Australi-"

He shut me up by flicking my forehead.

"OW!" I cried out. "What the hell was that!?"

"You were annoying me." He shrugged, as I closed my eyes and counted to three to keep my anger in check.

"Well?" I asked.

"Well what?" He questioned innocently.

"You little piece of sh-" I leapt at him and he shrieked like a little girl before grabbing my wrists and pinning me to the bed.

"Calm the fuck down, I was kidding!" He said, his face very close to mine, and his breathing was heavy and uneven.

"Well?" I whispered again.

"It didn't sound good." He finally admits. He cautiously let go of my wrists and I sat up, crossing my arms for a minute before holding out my pinky. "Pinky promise you won't say anything to them?"

He looked at it in disgust for a second then shook his head. "This is so fucking first grade." But reluctantly hooked his finger with mine.

"God, if anyone saw this, I would fu-"

"I punched someone! This really mean jerk who picked on my new friends and I, and I punched him." I interrupted. "Then we ditched the rest of the day." I looked down so fast I heard my neck crick. You could have probably heard a pin drop.

"Come on." He muttered after a few minutes, pulling me downstairs by interlocking my left hand with his. I couldn't help but notice how perfectly my petite, pale hand fit in his large, but safe, hand. It felt like he was reassuring me everything was going to be all right without speaking when he lightly squeezed my hand. We entered the kitchen and he grabbed me by the waist (I yelped) and lifted me onto the counter. I squirmed in his grip but he held on firmly and whispered by my ear. "Stay there, Destiny."

He moved with two large steps to the fridge, and opened it, releasing a burst of cold air as he grabbed an ice pack. Then he closed the door and moved over to the napkins, wrapping one over the ice pack multiple times. He placed it onto my knuckles and then brushed my chocolate colored bangs out of my eyes. He sighed.

"And how did you get a bruise on your forehead, exactly?" He said, exasperated.

"Lucas, my new friend, drove me home... He's not exactly the best at driving..." He walked back over to the fridge and got another ice pack. "You're a trouble magnet."

"Am not!" I weakly protested. He gave me a flat look. I squirmed uncomfortably. "Ok, so maybe I am..."

"So..." Sam said, hopping onto the counter with me, holding onto the ice pack on my forehead. "Who'd you punch?"

"This jock... Um, Jason? Justin? Uh, Jared? Yeah, Jared." I said. His eyes doubled, I think.

"Looks like a freaking monster truck?!" He exclaimed.

"Yep."

"Man, I hate that kid!" He said giddily, with a bright smile lighting up his face. "You punched him?!"

"Kicked his ass, more like it. Also kicked his balls." He snorted as I paused for a sec. "I think I broke his nose, too. Heard a 'snap', anyways..." I stated, tapping my chin with my forefinger.

"That kids on my basketball team. Now I have blackmail, he got the crap kicked out of him by a girl."

I think I just made a new friend. With the boy who thinks of me as a dog nonetheless.

✐✎✏

The past couple weeks are just insanely different from the first couple days at Sam's.

I got a job at a bookstore called, "Read All the Books" (No surprise there) and the woman who owns it is just the sweetest old lady named Ms. Betty. She let me read and do homework, since rarely anyone came in the store.

Sam invited Lucas and Mason and I to eat at his lunch table.

Yeah, you heard me right.

No, you do not need to re-read those last two sentences, I wasn't kidding, and no, you aren't hallucinating.

Surprisingly, he's... Not... As much of a 'jerk' as... I... Thought...

There I said it.

Don't ask why he's being 'caring' to my friends (not completely friendly with me yet... we're just in a 'truce'), I have no clue. I took up his offer, including Mason (who had a fangirl attack when I told him and started twerking to Milkshake) and Lucas, who reluctantly agreed because he didn't want to be, quote unquote, the loner in the corner.

Sam's girlfriend hasn't been at school the whole time I've been here at Jefferson High. He told me she was on vacation to visit her grandparents in Venezuela. I've gotten along good with Sam's friends, they to me under their 'wing' because I didn't annoy them with shoes and the mall and Vera Bradley.

There was Thomas (the toddler; he acted like such a little kid sometimes), Ian (the idiot; always believes the answer to 2+2= Fish, and is convinced that humans can also eat cat food), Dan (the Dick; grabs a girl, hooks up, leaves at midnight, BAM she's pregnant and he pretends she's an annoying fly when she tells him it's his child). But he's actually not that mean once you get to know him. And JJ (the Joker; lemme tell ya, that kid is HI-freaking-LARIOUS. He introduced himself with the pickup line, 'Are you religious? 'Cuz you're the answer to all my prayers'. Instant friendship.)

Those boys were 'The Gang'. The 'pretty boys'. The 'handsome, usually jerks to girls, always get what they want, but are surprisingly sweet', boys. I had become quite popular, because I was hanging out with them. Every girl was either glaring at me or trying to talk to me (and I feel bad for those girls, I whimpered and ran away every time someone tried to say, 'hi') and the guys were perving, asking me out, staring at me threatening (they were usually Jared and his friends), or just ignoring me altogether. This lifestyle was so much weirder than the one I was used to. This one, people actually knew me (Well, some of them at least).

Before hitting the pillow, I sauntered sleepily over to Lesley, and pulled up my blog. I needed to do something to get my mind off of the fact that Sam's girlfriend would be coming back to school tomorrow.

Instead of writing a whole long paragraph like I usually do, I typed up something sweet and simple.

Blog #74

Life works in mysterious ways.

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AUTHORS NOTE

So guys! Hows life?

QOTC- Favorite quote? (Ex. A movie quote, book quote, wattpad book quote *Wink, wink*)

Mines probably... Well, it could be, 'Always', or, 'It's a metaphor, see' or, 'I do, Augustus. I do.' Or 'Real or not real? Real.' 'Do you find this----distracting?' Etc. etc.

Vote if you liked the chapter [or if you just want more chapters ;)] and comment just to make my day! I love when you guys comment <3

Stay perswaggy guys,

siriusly_fandoms