Hello everyone, i'm back with the latest Chapter of Both of Us, which is Chapter 9- Two Friends! I hope you guys like this chapter, and stay tuned with the latest chapters of my other stories. ^^

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-Lily's PoV-

~8:15 am, Recess~

The door slams closed, the bell ringing to signal the start of recess. I sigh and look around, watching everyone else leave the classroom. Only a few people were left inside the classroom. I sat in my seat as the others left the classroom, or decided to chat with other classmates. As boredom started to get to me, I decide to venture out of my classroom, even though i'm too lazy to do that. I bring some snacks with me before leaving the classroom and stepping out into the hallway.

It was crowded, like REALLY crowded. I swiftly move pass any random passerby, making sure not to bump into them. Ayumi and Victor went missing the moment Recess had started. So I was left alone to wander off randomly, which is what i'm doing right now. I still didn't feel that right and I didn't feel like eating because that stomach ache yesterday was horrible. Note to self, never eat a bunch of expired chips without checking the date before eating it.

'Hmm, I wonder where's Andrew...' I mentally sigh to myself, wondering where everyone went to.

Wait, did I just think that?

I shake my head in disbelief before speed walking outside. I didn't notice I reached an area near the Gym until I almost trip over a tree branch. I sigh before looking around and deciding to sit on the first bench I see. As I sit down, I look around and take in the view, scratching my fingers to keep me distracted.

'So much has happened these past few weeks...' I inhale some air, closing my eyes and listening to the rustling of the trees.

It all started with the sudden arrival of Andrew, or me actually. Everything after that was just a pure mash-up of awkward and pretty 'okay' conversations and revelations I figured out. But it's still weird to see him after so long. I mean, its almost been 10 whole years or something around that area since I first met him. I hear a crack from one of the nearby branches. I snap my head towards the sound and see a boy around my age with neon colored paint in his hand.

"Oh my god, Hale is that you?" I ask, suspiciously looking at the paint bottle he had in his hand.

"Dang it, I didn't expect you to notice until this branch screwed me over." Hale sighs, walking towards me with the paint bottle tightly held in his hand. He flops down beside me, yawning and stretching his arms as he sits on the bench.

This dude or, 'young man' is Hale Reed, one of my friends from the other sections in our grade. A reckless boy at 16, brown eyes, black hair with some streaks of white here and there. Though only thing that's different to him is his personality, well, I think? We were classmates a while back, but teachers noticed both of us were 'noisy in class', so that's why we aren't classmates this year. In all honesty, teachers just thought we were noisy because Hale keeps borrowing my things. Oh, did I also mention how he's a huge video game addict? I know, weird, but I am one too anyways.

"So..." Hale pauses, playing with the bottle in his hand.

"You still a noob at sports?" Hale asks, grining sarcastically. I turn to look at him before glaring at him.

"Gosh darn it, can you stop that already? That was 2 years ago, you know." I sigh before slapping the bottle out of his hand. Shocked, he loses grip of it, making me have an oppurtunity to snatch it out of his hands.

"Anyways, what's with the paint? And neon, seriously?" I stare at the Neon paint bottle, shaking it and looking at the liquid move around.

"Ehh, nothing..." Hale holds his neck and looks the other direction.

"Though Iwas gonna throw it on your face as a prank, so there's that..." I hear Hale mumble something behind my back, making me turn to look at him.

"What was that? I didn't really hear you, dude." I ask. He shakes his head in disagree before looking away. I simpky shrug it off before deciding to stand up from my place. I start to walk away, hearing footsteps follow me from behind.

"Hey! Where are you going, Lily?" Hale asks, catching up and inhaling some air. He walks beside me, still waiting for my response.

"Class, obviously. Its still Recess, not Lunch break, so class might start in awhile." I sigh, walking faster to catch up to the time. Without even noticing, I was already running towards the entrance, leaving Hale who was running to catch up to me.

I stumble into the hallway, looking around to see most of the students heading back inside their room. I look at the watch hung on the wall and notice it was almost time to go back. I feel a tap on my shoulder. I flinch before turning around to see Hale, exauhsted from running.

"Next...time...don't...run..." Hale pants, inhaling some air to regain his energy.

"Hmm, sorry." I mumble, patting his back to help him recover. He looks up before stretching his arms once again.

"Could you uhh, give me back that paint bottle you got from me? You still didn't return it after stealing it." Hale asks, hand outstretched towards me.

"Oh, yeah! Hold on, lemme check if I have it." I say, putting my hand in my pockets. I felt nothing of the sort in my pockets. I check again, making sure to check throughly. Once more, there was nothing.

'Snap, I probably dropped it.' I mentally facepalm myself. Where could I have dropped it? Near the bushes or benches probably? The sound of the bell suddenly snapped me out of my thoughts and back into reality.

"Hale, just meet up with me during Lunch. I think I dropped it. I sigh. He looks at me, unsuprised rather than angry?

"I knew you'd drop it. You weren't holding it when you ran." Hale sighs, before turning around and walking to his classroom. As he walks away, he gives me a thumbs up, showing his approval for me to search it later.

I smile before turning around and heading inside our classroom. Everyone was just chatting with each other, as the teacher wasn't here yet. I approach my seat and sit down, waiting for the class to start. Victor approaches me, sitting by his own seat and turning to look at me.

"Lily, where were you? It's rare for you to be gone during Recess, well unless you went to buy food." Victor asks, getting a book from under his chair. I turn to look at him.

"I just went to get a breather. Oh, I was also talking to Hale since he found me sitting near the benches." I explain, scratching the table with my fingernails to keep me distracted.

"Oh, that's why..." Victor nods, yawning and slouching onto his seat.

"Why you asking, if I may ask?" I raise one of my eye brows, looking at him curiously. He simply shrugs before closing his eyes.

"Well, Andrew was looking for you." Victor replies, changing his position in a way where he's looking away from me. I tilt my head in confusion.

"Wait, Andrew was looking for me?" I ask, suprised at the sudden situation. I mean, why would Andrew look for me? If it's for something important, then that's totally fine.

"I don't know, he didn't really tell me." Victor turns to look at me, eyes still closed. The door opens, teacher coming inside our classroom.

We stand up to greet them, Victor standing up in an instant. We sit back down after awhile and start the lesson. I wonder though. Why was Andrew looking for me? Maybe i'll ask him later...

~11:58 am, Lunch~

I sigh, closing my book and dropping it on the ground with a thud. I kick it under my seat before standing up. I get my lunch box and stretch my arms. I walk towards the door and walk out of the classroom. As I walked through the hallway, I heard footsteps getting closer to me. I didn't really pay attention, until I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turn around and see Andrew.

"Ahh, Andrew. Do you need something? I heard you were looking for me." I ask. He puts his hand down before gesturing us to move over so we won't bump into anyone.

"Not really, I was just wondering where you were." Andrew mumbles. I didn't really hear him well because of the noisy around us, but I could still make some parts out of it.

"Oh, I was just eating and taking a breather somewhere. Need to relax, you know." I smile. He nods before turning around.

"Anyways, let's go for lunch?" Andrew turns to look at me. I nod before remembering something.

"Wait." I pause. He turns to look at me and tilts his head in confusion.

"Something wrong?" Andrew asks. I shake my head in disagreement.

"No, no. I have to go somewhere real quick though. So you should go eat ahead." I reply, remembering what I told Hale earlier.

"You could just go later, unless it's really important, I mean." Andrew smiles. I look down and wonder. Should I tell him where i'm going or not though?

"But its really, as in REALLY important. It will just be quick s-"

"Hey Lily, there you are! We just finished our class so I thought i'd hurry up since you guys finished early." A voice interrupts me from finishing. It was Hale, holding a book in his hand, showing that he really did just finish class.

I turned around and looked at him before looking back at Andrew. He looked confused but then he suddenly stepped foward and looked at Hale from head to toe. I turn to look at Hale and notice him do the same.

This is gonna be great.

"Errr, are you one of the old students before? I don't think I ever saw you here." Andrew asks. Hale looks up at him before grinning.

"Not really, pretty new but pretty old. You look rather new to me too." Hale replies. He passes his book to his other hand before stretching out his hand to Andrew.

"Oh, i'm Hale Reed by the way. It would be weird if we didn't know our names and all." Hale smiles. Andrew looks at his hand before looking at me. I look at Hale's hand and roll my eyes. Andrew shrugs before turning to look at Hale.

"I'm Andrew Kingstone. I'm a returning student so that's probably why I look new to you." Andrew holds Hale's hand and shakes it, letting go afterwards. Hale smiles, glancing at me before looking at Andrew again.

"Would you mind if I ask Lily to come with me, for a sec? She needs to help me find something important and all." Hale asks, putting his hands on both of my shoulders. I glance at him before shaking his hands off. Andrew looks at me, waiting for my response from earlier.

"Yeah, this is what I meant by having something important to do." I sigh, shaking my head in discontent. Andrew nods in assurance before smiling.

"Sure, go ahead. Goodluck with your search. Oh, and nice meeting you to, Hale Reed." Andrew says, a firm tone in his voice.

"Thanks. Nice meeting you to, Andrew Kingstone." Hale says before grabbing my arm and pulling me away from Andrew. I look at Andrew before mouthing a 'sorry' to him as I get pulled away. He smiles and nods before walking away and dissappearing into the crowd.

Hale continues walking, not a single word coming from him. When we finally reach outside, somewhere near the Gym, he stops and turns to look at me.

"Dude, what the heck was that?! That was really awkward. Literally." I sigh, gripping on the handle of my lunch bag. Forgot I was still holding that. I shake my hand, making him lose grip from my it.

"No kidding. But he looked new to me, okay? Got kinda suspicious there." Hale rolls his eyes. I sigh and shake my head. That was an awkward conversation back there. One thing I can't get out of my mind though is how they looked and spome to each other. It seemed a bit 'threatening' in a sense.

"Let's just get this done and over with..." I walk to a nearby bush and kneel down. I look at it, but I don't touch it because thorns are a thing, and that's not gonna be a good thing on my part if I get hurt. I hear rustling from behind me, making me turn around. I glance behind me and notice Hale looking in a bush, leaves stuck to his hair.

"I found it." Hale springs up and turns to looks at me. I turn back and pretend i'm searching for the bottle before looking back at him again.

"That was fast." I stand up and brush the leaves off of my skirt. I stand up and walk towards him.

"Didn't really need your help there, I suppose." Hale grins before throwing the bottle multiple times and catching it afterwards.

"Well, if that's all, i'm gonna go eat lunch now. Bye." I quickly turn around and start walking away from him.

"Hold up a second!" I hear Hale exclaim, making glance back to look at him. I wait for his response, an awkward silence surrounding the area. I hear him sigh.

"N-nevermind. Forgot what I was gonna say." Hale says before waving me goodbye. I smile before walking back into the school building.

After walking through the crowd of people running through the hallway, I finally reached the Cafeteria. Though I wasn't really that sure if Andrew was in the Cafeteria. But since we didn't decide where to meet up, 'maybe' he's here. I walk further into the Cafeteria, making sure not to bump into any random student holding a food tray. After looking around, I turn to my far left and see Andrew sitting down on one of the nearby tables, however...

"Man, i'm exauhsted from the practices this week..." A boy with ginger colored hair, and a green polo that says 'Yolo!' sighs as he leans near to a boy with brown hair, and a sleeveless blue shirt beside him.

"Come on Leo, it's for our school, and for the team. No use complaining about it." The boy says before looking at Andrew and another guy beside him. He tries to move away from the who seems to be Leo, the guy leaning on him.

"Hey, why you looking at me for reassurance, Lucas?" A boy with a bored face, blonde hair, and a orange peace sign shirt, rolls his eyes as he looks at who seems to be Lucas.

"Mike, come on, you siding with this creep?" Lucas shrugs his shoulder before moving away, making Leo, I think? Almost fall on his food tray.

"Ahh, guys, knock it off..." I hear a sigh. I turn my head and see Andrew sitting near the corner of the table. I hear all of them runt before they resume eating.

I notice of them look towards my direction, making me quickly look away. I immediately turn around and pretend i'm scanning for a table. I feel a hand touch my arm, making me look down. It was Ayumi, munching on a chocolate bar as if her life depended on it. She pulls me over to sit down, I glance at Andrew's table before nodding, sitting down on the opposite side from her.

"Where were you? You just left me during Recess." I ask, whispering under the loud voices of the other students in the cafeteria.

"Had to buy this, it was the last one." Ayumi smiles, bits of chocolate on her face. I stare at her before smiling.

"Fine. Some choco is on your face by the way." I laugh, pointing at her face. She lets go of her chocolate bar before rubbing her face.

"So, how's half a day without me or Victor around?" Ayumi sarcastically asks with a proud tone. I sigh before laying my head on the table, still looking at her.

"Well, awkward." I sigh, looking the other way. She looks at me, her eyes sparkling with curiousity.

"Ohh, do tell!" Ayumi exclaims, not that loud though. I bring my head up before supporting it with my hand.

"Fine." I roll my eyes. I glance at Andrew's table, avoiding any glances that seemed to be pointed at my direction. This day was awkward, but I already knew it was gonna get worse than this...

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Hello guys! Back with Chapter 9- Two Friends! Is it what you think it is, is it what I think it is, is it-
-A THIRD WHEEL?! A LOVE TRIANGLE?!-
Maybe, maybe not. Nobody knows just yet. Though I had fun writing Hale a bit there. Reckless characters just make me feel intrigued somehow. But the meeting between Hale Reed and Andrew Kingstone, it just seemed a bit, suspicious, is it? Though Hale is gonna be a key-character in future chapters, so he's gonna be staying for awhile. Who knows, maybe another character may be introduced. But that will wait for the next chapter/s. Hope you guys like the newest chapter of Both of Us! X3

Don't forget to vote, comment or even follow if you like the chapter! Don't be shy to comment whether it's criticism or just a comment passing by, don't be afraid to write it down in the comments! ^^. Also, don't forget to add this book to your library so you won't miss any updates! ^^