◤ chapter five ▸ surprise? ◢

━━━━━━━ ✧ ━━━━━━━

         TESSA CORMAC WOULD NEVER claim to be the best student in the entire world, that was much too far from the truth. She didn't care, never did her work, her grades were subpar at best and it was clear that no college would ever accept her and so she would never get anywhere in life. Which she accepted now, even though there was still time to change she didn't think she would. She was too accustomed to this.

         She was probably the worst student in the world. While she wasn't loud and obnoxious, didn't distract everyone else during class, or make mean comments about her teachers she just didn't care. That was probably what made all of her teachers – besides Miss Brinley, but that was only because she was close with Finn and his step-sister lived with Miss Brinley – hated her. Because she sat in class, didn't do her work, didn't pay attention, and never did any of the work they assigned. Still, she passed all of her quizzes and tests and had a good enough grade, which was probably more infuriating. Oh, well.

         Before, when she was with Caden, she never saw a reason to do her work. Pre-Caden she was an amazing student. With nothing else to do, she would sit in front of the TV and do all of her work. It was either that or deal with the silence of her apartment since no one was ever home besides her. But, when she got with him, everything changed.

         School became a second thought, something she would wave off. Constantly, she remembered skipping, going out with Caden back to his house where they would fuck. Or maybe Finn would come with them and they would all hang around and get high together and talk for hours. There was never a dull moment. And then, at nights, there was always a party and she would get drunk so there was never any time for homework.

         School never mattered anymore, to any of them. Caden was a genius and didn't need to do his work to pass with flying colors and Finn was rich enough to get away with not caring about his grades. Tessa was the lone wolf, the passable one. At least she was better at school than Finn, but that still didn't mean anything at the end of the day.

         Caden was going to succeed. It didn't matter his past, didn't matter that he was a drug dealer, didn't matter what he did to Tessa Cormac because no one would even know her name.

         Finn was going to change the world, probably. He was the best one out of their old group. Juvie wasn't going to stop him. Plus, it didn't help that his father was rich. He was going places no matter what.

         But then there was Tessa. Poor Tessa Cormac who was probably going to end up working at a diner or in retail for the rest of her life, making just enough to get by but nothing more. All because she didn't care and no college would ever accept her. Not that she had the money to go to college or the grades to warrant giving her a full ride somewhere.

         And none of her teachers tried anymore. They had given up after the first two months of nagging her and getting no results. At least Miss Brinley still passed on some messages through Finn, not that she ever listened to them before.

         But Rylie was amazing at school, Tessa had learned. After a month of friendship, Tessa had learned a lot about her. Her older sister was the one looking after her because her parents were more dedicated to their jobs than their children. Her other sister, Eulalie, lived in San Francisco and was a writer. She was insanely smart, of course she had to be to get by at Midtown, and her best friends were two people named Betty Brant and Flash Thompson – although she wasn't really close with the latter, she told Tessa, she still considered him to be a close friend and cared for him a lot.

         In return, Tessa told her a lot about Finn and Caden and the disaster she called her life. Rylie was always understanding and never made a snide comment about her lifestyle, even offered to go to parties with her if she ever needed a friend to come along. Tessa smiled and agreed to take her up on that offer.

         At the end of the school day, Tessa walked down the hall to get out of the building and go home when Miss Brinley stopped her. She frowned to herself but went into the woman's classroom where she was standing just right inside.

         "Yes?" she asked her English teacher.

         "I wanted to talk to you about your grades," Miss Brinley started and she felt her heart sink. She looked so disappointed and Tessa hated when the people she cared about were disappointed in her. Admittedly, she didn't know much about her teacher other than what she saw during class and what Finn told her (which was actually a lot of useless things and often included the fact that she was a bitch but he loved her anyway) but she still didn't want to ever disappoint the woman.

         "Okay," Tessa nodded, mostly to assure herself that she was going to be okay even if she was about to be chewed out.

         "You have no annotations in your book, Tessa," Miss Brinley started off, "Which means your grade is about to turn from a B to a C."

         Her heart really plummeted. She thought she was actually doing okay in this class. "Oh."

         "And I don't want to see that happen, which is why I'm letting you have your copy back to annotate over the weekend. I expect it to be full of notes on Monday," Miss Brinley said, handing back her book which she took gratefully.

         "Thank you, Miss Brinley," Tessa told her and the woman nodded. She turned, about to leave when the woman called out after her, so she looked back around.

         "Have you seen Finn yet?" Miss Brinley asked her and, ashamed, she blushed and shook her head. She hadn't, she was too scared. Her ex – current boyfriend at the time – had been the one to get Finn charged and in juvie.

         "I haven't had the time – or the money," Tessa admitted, which was true though wasn't the full truth.

         Miss Brinley seemed to look through her, giving her a pointed look before saying, "Well, you should go by and see him. When you have the time and money, of course. I know he'd love to see you. You're his best friend."

         "Yeah," Tessa called back, "Bye."

         She left the room, feeling even more ashamed. Finn shouldn't be calling her his best friend, she was terrible. She was dating the boy he told her was wrong. The boy who she knew had cheated on her, who got him sent to juvie. And even though they were over now, she had broken up with him, that didn't make everything right. He was still in juvie – she still dated him.

         Still, Miss Brinley said that Finn would want to see her, even after everything. She couldn't avoid him for a whole year, or for the rest of her life. She'd never forgive herself.

━━━━━ ✧ ━━━━━

         That Saturday, Tessa found herself checking in to see Finn at the place he was being kept for the year. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she waited in the room where the inmates were allowed to talk to their visitors. This had been the longest gap of time where she hadn't seen Finn since their friendship and she hated herself for being the cause of the split. She was the one who could decide if they would see each other, Finn had no control and she had let him down again.

         The door on the other side opened and she saw Finn; her best friend. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw him and all she wanted to do was hug him but was unable to do so because of the glass between them and because she would be forcibly removed if she tried that.

         So, she swallowed and waited for him to sit down, taking in his elated expression at seeing her. She smiled and they both reached for the phones on their sides. "Hi," he breathed out and, God, it was so nice to hear his voice.

         "Hey," she gave him a sad smile, already feeling her eyes water, "Sorry I haven't come earlier, I just – I didn't have the money..."

         He nodded understandingly. He and Caden had always known of her money problems, though Caden knew more because of their relationship and because he had actually been over to her apartment. Finn, however, had not as she decided long ago that he would never know. It was for the best.

         "It's okay. You're here now, that's what matters," and he was smiling, he was happy. Because she was here and she was his best friend even though she had failed him. God, she felt like such a bitch.

         "I, uh, I broke up with Caden," she informed him, feeling that he should know, "The day of your trial, right after it. I couldn't take it anymore."

         He nodded again. "That's good. You're doing good?"

         "Yeah, I am," she breathed, smiling at him, "Sorry I never listened to you before. I should've – we should've been over a long time ago but I couldn't and you knew that I was making a mistake and tried to warn me and I'm sorry that I realized it too late."

         "Tess, it's okay. I don't blame you. At all," Finn told her earnestly, which made it so much worse.

         He should be yelling at her, telling her that she's the devil and blame her because it was her fault. Hers and Caden's. God, they were monsters. But he didn't. He didn't blame her at all, he forgave her and only saw Caden as the culprit. She was just a victim of his, just like him. But that wasn't right; she was in the wrong. She did this to him.

         "You should. You really should. I – I never stopped him, I encouraged him and I thought I loved him and he did this to you," Tessa cried, openly weeping as she let the tears fall, not caring anymore about appearances.

         "You have nothing to apologize for. It's not your fault that you thought you loved him and would do anything for him, that's not on you," Finn told her.

         "It feels like it is," Tessa sniffled.

         "But it isn't," Finn insisted and she nodded, although she didn't believe him and didn't know if she ever would.

         She took a moment, wiping her tears and trying not to look at the hurt look on Finn's face from seeing her cry. "There's a new girl at our school," she told him, changing the topic to something lighter, "Her name's Rylie and she's pretty cool. We're friends now."

         "That's good," Finn told her with a smile on his face, "What's she like?"

         "She's smart – like genius level, smart. And she's funny and she knows how to stand up for herself. She got kicked out of her last school for dying her hair blue, which is totally awesome," Tessa smiled as she thought of her new friend, "God, I wish you could meet her."

         Finn laughed and, God, how she missed his laugh. How she missed their jokings and their conversations and the milkshakes she had as he worked. How she missed him. "Me too, she seems awesome. I think we'd get along great."

         "Me too," Tessa laughed, looking at him and deciding that hated him in orange. It really wasn't his color. At all. "So, how is it...here?"

         Finn shrugged, "It's fine. My cellmate's pretty nice – his name is Gibby and I really don't know what he could do to get him in here. He doesn't wanna talk about it so I don't push it. Some of the guys in here and pretty chill, others are really angry. There's been a couple fights but I haven't been involved in any."

         Tessa snorted, "You were never a fighter, Finn. I mean, I think you can throw a mean punch, but I just can't see you getting into a full fight."

         He grinned back at her and for a moment it was like they were at Apple's Eye Diner again. There was no glass between them, just a counter and she was sipping on her milkshake while he would go around refilling drinks and handing out plates before coming back to talk to her. But they weren't.

         "I could totally throw down some punches," he agreed teasingly, laughing at himself and she did too.

         They laughed for a full minute before calming down but by then a guard was coming to take Finn away. Their smiles dimmed in sadness and Finn gave her a sad look before saying, "Bye, Tessa. Come see me again?"

         She nodded, already feeling the need to cry again but not letting herself. "Yeah, course."

         She watched as he was walked out of the room before standing up and leaving herself. She looked back at the juvenile detention building before officially leaving the sight with tears still in her eyes. She waited for the bus that took her back to the city, getting on it when it came and looking down at her phone trying to calm her mind.

         When she got off, her started on the track home before changing course. She didn't want to go home just yet – it would be too empty. Instead, she went to Rylie's because the girl always said her apartment was open if Tessa wanted to come over and they had already spent countless days there.

         She knocked on the apartment door, hearing someone on the other side unlock the door and then turn the knob. Rylie instantly smiled when she saw her friend. "Tessa! I didn't know you were coming over!" the girl said.

         "Yeah, sorry. I should've called beforehand..." Tessa apologized, shuffling awkwardly.

         Rylie shook her head and ushered the girl inside. "Nonsense. You're always welcomed here," Rylie said as she closed the front door and led her to the living room, "You can finally meet my friends from Midtown, too."

         Tessa nodded, following her. "Guys," Rylie got their attentions and Tessa saw two heads pop up from the couch. "This is Tessa, she's my friend from Lincoln High. Tessa, these are Flash and Betty."

         She waved awkwardly, taking in their faces before her eyes widened. She remembered that guy – from the party. Fuck. And it seemed like he remembered her too as his own eyes widened. "You're that girl from the party," he pointed at her.

         She laughed, "Yeah...uh, yeah."

         Betty looked between them, as did Rylie, before snorting, "Oh my God. Comedy gold."

         "I'm confused," Rylie broke in, "What's going on here? What party?"

         "Remember the party you didn't want to go with me too?" Betty asked her friend, "Well, I got Flash to go in your place and he played all Prince Charming for Tessa here when another guy tried to force himself on her."

         Tessa laughed awkwardly, looking at Rylie and then back at Flash. "Surprise?"