Chapter 35

I slammed the door to my house, passing Aunt Cherry who looked at me with a mixture of curiosity and worry. I ignored it and made my way upstairs where I quickly took a shower, dressed, and left. I ignored Blake’s yapping at my ankles and just exited the house with my cell phone and keys.

The drive to Jessie’s house was quick; maybe it was because I drove 20 miles over the speed limit. Or maybe it’s because I wasn’t thinking straight. When I got out of the car, I stormed up to the front door and knocked loudly. Jessie came to the door with a smile on her face. When she saw my expression, it slipped away.

“What happened?” Her voice was concerned as she opened the door, allowing me to enter the house. I heard barking and she walked over and slammed a door shut.

“I’m done with Adrian.” I whispered. She looked at me confused for a second.

“What?”

“I said I’m done with Adrian.” I told her a bit louder, my glare set on the floor.

“Why?” She asked, her voice hesitant.

“Because I just am, okay? I didn’t come here to talk about it. I came here to get away from them.” I told her and she nodded, walking over to the cabinet and grabbing hot chocolate mix.

“Want some hot cocoa?” She asked me, smiling at me. I nodded, wiping my eyes and brushing my hair out of my face.

We sat and watched movies until I decided to leave. I parked in my driveway, staring at the house beside mine. I looked at the clock, 11 PM. I had a lot of explaining to do.

“Where were you?” My Aunt asked the moment I stepped foot into the house.

“Jessie’s.” I muttered, kicking my shoes off of my feet. I shed my jacket, silently thanking Aunt Cherry for loving the heat so much.

“What happened?” She asked, her voice patient. Her arms were crossed over her chest and she stared at me.

“A lot.” I told her. She sighed, running a hand through her hair.

“Get some sleep, you look you need it. You have a lot to tell me tomorrow.” She informed me and I nodded, thankfully walking upstairs to my room.

I grabbed my pajamas and walked to the guestroom, not bothering to even look at the window. Blake was barking at my feet and I smiled down at the small dog. He let his tongue fall out of his mouth as he blinked his crossed eyes up at me.

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I woke up a bit earlier than expected. I got ready and decided to make my own breakfast, and then some for Aunt Cherry. My viola case sat on the couch. I made pancakes and eggs, eating them slower than I normally would. The events from last night consumed my mind.

When I finished eating and washing dishes, I still had an hour to kill before I’d need to leave. I decided to go upstairs to my room and get Blake’s leash to walk him. On my way downstairs, I hooked Blake up to the leash and was ready to exit the house, Blake bounding around at my ankles.

When I opened the door, Trent was standing there, tired. I quickly closed the door in hi face. “I just want to talk!” Trent knocked.

“Go away, I don’t want to talk.” I replied, my back pressed against the door.

“Eventually, you’ll have to.” Trent responded. I heard his footsteps fade away and I opened the door hesitantly, peeking out.

I walked Blake to the park and played with him for a while. I ended up leaving because I was too cold.

On my way back, I saw Logan standing on Adrian’s porch, running his hand through his hair. I silently tried to sneak by but he saw me. “Fi, I need to talk to you!”

Instead of listening, I darted towards my house but he was already leaping over the railing and bounding in the direction of my house to cut me off. I managed to get to my porch before he reached it.

“Just listen, okay?” He asked but I shook my head.

“I’ll listen when he comes over here to talk to me.” I snapped, leaving him on the porch to stand there.

I got out a cart of orange juice and poured myself a cup. I counted the minutes it took me to drink it. I had 40 minutes left until I would leave and arrive there 10 minutes early. Someone knocked on my door and I walked over, opening it cautiously. Adrian was standing there and he looked up when the door opened.

“Listen, Fio, can we talk?” He asked and I snorted.

“There’s nothing to talk about.” I slammed the door in his face. I heard a frustrated shout escape from his mouth and he knocked again. “What?” I called through the door.

“Please, just let me talk.” He pleaded.

“No, I don’t want to talk to you, or Logan, or Trent. So just leave me alone, okay?” I snapped, my back pressed against the door.

About 10 minutes later, a quiet knock sounded from the door and I nearly growled in frustration. I walked over and swung the door open, ready to clothesline whoever it was; Logan, Trent, or Adrian.

“What?” I snapped, but was surprised to see Mattie who was rubbing his eyes. “I’m sorry.” I immediately apologized.

“They told me you might yell.” He smiled up at me. He was still in his pajamas. It’s expected of a 7 year old to be in his pajamas at 8:20 AM.

“What are you doing here?” I asked with a smile, opening the door to let the little boy inside.

“They told me to give you these.” He yawned. I heard his stomach growl and I smiled. He handed me a bag and I peeked inside to see my shoes in them. I nodded and placed them onto the floor.

“Are you hungry?” I asked him and he nodded, stretching his arms out.

“Want some pancakes?” I raised an eyebrow and he nodded excitedly, all signs of sleep gone.

I took 2 of 5 pancakes and placed them onto a plate with butter and handed them to Mattie who picked up the syrup and began pouring it all over his pancakes. “Want some juice?” I asked and he nodded.

I went to the fridge and grabbed Fruit Punch and a cup, ready to pour it when I slipped on a stray ice cube and spilled red juice all over my yellow shirt. Mattie gasped. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” I muttered, standing up and pouring the juice despite my soaking wet yellow shirt. The whole bottom half was red. Luckily, it didn’t hit my jeans. Mattie laughed loudly and I smiled down at the small, innocent boy.

I gave Mattie the juice and sat with him for ten minutes while he ate. He animatedly talked about his room, thanking me about the splatter designs. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that was me and Adrian fighting and ending whatever hopes of having a friendship that I held.

When Mattie was washing his hands and face from the sticky syrup, I walked over to the door after I heard a knock. I opened it to see Logan standing there with a smile that turned into a look of terror. “What did you do to Mattie?”

“What?” I asked, confused. He motioned down to my shirt with a shaking hand and I saw the bright red stain and I smiled.

“I spilled some-.” I started to say but Logan cut me off.

“Blood? You spilled his blood?!” He nearly cried out. I shook my head and called for Mattie, who appeared beside me.

“I spilled some juice, he’s right here. I fed him, too.” I told Logan as Mattie hugged me and exited my house.

“Did you look at your shoes?” Logan asked and I shook my head.

“I don’t have time to because I have to go change.” I told him, closing the door and racing upstairs.

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After Viola practice, I came home to see Aunt Cherry watching television with a tub of ice cream in front of her.

Usually, a girl seems depressed when they are eating ice cream but not my Aunt. She was watching Teen Wolf and talking about hot Tyler Posey is. I just rolled my eyes but started walking upstairs.

“Eh, eh, eh.” My Aunt called, not taking her eyes off of the screen. “Why’d you come home so late last night? And why’d you storm inside like someone shoved dirt and ice into your pants?”

Furrowing my eyebrows at her analogy, I let out a sigh. “Guy problems.”

Her head darted in my direction before the word ‘problems’ came out of my mouth. “With Adrian?”

“Yes.” I told her; I’m surprised she remembered the boy’s name.

“Tell me everything.” She turned off Teen Wolf and made room on the couch for me. I sighed before walking over to her and sitting down.

“I like him.” She smiled.

“I know.” I frowned.

“Well, he doesn’t like me.”

“Start from the beginning.” She told me.

“That’s a long story; so I’m going to start from a few days ago. He had a football game and he snuck me out of detention-.” I was cut off by my Aunt’s gasp.

“What? How’d you get detention?”

“Brielle started a food fight with me because of what I did to Ethan.” She nodded. She knew about that.

“Anyway, he snuck me out of detention and prior to this event, he gave me his football jacket which I still have in my room. But after the game, which we won, Jessie, Trent, Adrian, and I didn’t want to go to the after party, so we didn’t.”

“What’d you do?”

“We went and played laser tag. After laser tag, I beat them all in it and a few other people, but that’s beside the point; a cute guy named Isaac who had an accent and everything came over to congratulate me and he gave me his number. Adrian didn’t like this and got all angry for no reason. I wasn’t going to call the guy! I like Adrian for peeps sake!”

“We all know this.” I glared at her. She gave me an apologetic look.

“Well, we got into an argument because he refused to tell me what his problem was and whenever I asked him the simplest question, he would say ‘ask Isaac’ and that didn’t go well. He even went as far as to ruin the paper with Isaac’s number on it by tossing a water bottle directly at it. I still didn’t know what his problem was.”

“Are you stupid? He’s jealous!” I glared at her but continued.

“Skip a few more arguments, Trent, Logan, and Emilia all found out my secret crush on him and they said they wouldn’t tell him. They didn’t, or at least I hope. I wouldn’t know, I’ve been avoiding them.”

“That’s not nice.” I rolled my eyes.

“At school, when we weren’t talking, Brielle, the girl I hate, came up to me and asked me about Adrian and my relationship. It’s nonexistent by the way. Anyway, I told her to ask him and he told her that nothing was going on. Then, they leaned in to kiss each other but thankfully, Logan stopped them by putting his wellbeing on the line and harassing a few ape like football players. Of course, Trent and Adrian, even Chase, all went to help Logan.”

“That was nice of Logan.” She smiled and I nodded in agreement.

“I know, but yesterday, when I went to paint Mattie’s room with Adrian and we had a huge fight.”

“About what?” Her eyes were curious.

“I’m getting to it, Auntie. We fought about a lot of things; Isaac and Brielle, Me telling his friends secrets that they couldn’t tell him, and about what Logan did.” I pursed my lips. “It ended up with Mattie’s room having splatters everywhere, he thought that it was a purposeful design but I didn’t have the heart to tell him that it wasn’t, and I ended up storming out without my shoes.”

“Your shoes are over there.” She told me, pointing to the bag I dropped near the kitchen earlier. I nodded.

“I know, they kept telling me to look at them.” I shrugged.

“Why don’t you?” She asked me, raising an eyebrow. I shrugged again.

“I don’t want to.”

“Why not?” Her persistence was annoying me.

“I don’t know.” I tried to smile but gave up after a minute.

“Let’s watch a movie, huh?” My Aunt asked with a smile. I nodded. “Let’s find one with Tyler Posey in it, eh?”

***
At 1 in the morning, I was still awake and sitting in my room. My aunt and I’d stopped watching movies an hour ago yet I couldn’t fall asleep. I already tried reading but I couldn’t focus on the words.

My phone starting ringing loudly, piercing the silence of my room. I picked up my phone without looking at the caller ID. “Hello?”

“Fiiioooo.” A drunken voice slurred.  

“Adrian?” I asked, furrowing my eyebrows.

“The one and only; can I ask a favor of you?” He was in a loud place but I heard him enough to know that he was drunk, very drunk.

“What is it?” I asked, letting out a sigh. I would’ve already hung up but I can’t. He’s drunk and out of it. He probably can’t even recall our fight yesterday.

“Can you come and pick me up from this party?” He asked me. I felt my voice hitch in my throat. “Please, Fio, I really need you, too.”

I let out a sigh before giving in. “Sure.” 

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A/N: Mattie's room to the side! :D It obviously doesn't have splatters on it. I was on weheartit (CREDITS GIVEN TO THEM) and I found it and that's how I got the idea for Mattie's room.

I wasn't going to do the fight scene with the paint but I said 'Hey, I can knock off something from the bucket list while adding drama' so I did. And don't worry about the bucket list yet, I know it's unupdated. I gots it under control bradahs.