˖ ࣪ AGAIN, AGAIN, 𖥔 ࣪ ᥫ᭡
AGAIN. . . !

━━━━━ ( 002. real life )
✶ ・・❛ I SWEAR. ❜

( ☾ )

"ALL THE PRETTY GIRLS involved with me, making pretty love to me. pretty, pity, pity!" clementine sings the lyrics to the current song playing as her best friend, bianca grins at her in the seat next to her.

"god, frank ocean fucking slaps," bianca sighs as the chorus exits into the next verse.

"for fucking real," clementine agrees easily as she pulls into their schools parking lot. "how he manages to come out with songs like godspeed and white ferrari and then release novacane is beyond me."

"man's just that talented," bianca shrugs. clementine just nods her head in agreement as she focuses on finding a parking spot. "also, why didn't we ride with jax and finnley? i mean, i'm not complaining at all, but that's usually what we do," she changes the subject to something she's been curious about since clementine picked her up this morning.

"ugh," clementine instantly groans from her own boyfriend being brought up. "he was being such a fucking dick yesterday literally just because i accidentally ran into chris."

"oh. wait... chris?" bianca questions. "chris, the ex?" clementine nods her head as she begins to pull into an empty parking spot. "the ex that broke up with you on christmas?" she narrows her eyes as clementine nods her head again. "well," she now leans back further into her seat. "how was that?"

clementine just sighs, not answering until she's safely parked in between the two white lines. when she has, she turns to bianca and shrugs. "it was.. something, i guess."

"something?" bianca raises her eyebrows, squinting her eyes suspiciously just a tad. "isn't he the one you were like crying for weeks on end over?" she questions.

"what the fuck!" clementines jaw is instantly dropped, taking offense to the words immediately.

"woah, i'm not shaming you, babe i swear," bianca laughs a bit at her offended face before shrugging, "you're allowed to cry over your ex. i mean.. you guys dated for what? a whole year?"

"a year and a half," clementine dreadfully corrects the girl.

"yeah, okay, you're definitely allowed to be sad," bianca continues her thought process before turning in her seat to face the girl completely. "so... be real, how was it running into him?"

clementine pauses for a long moment before ultimately sighing and actually letting it out. "i don't know. i mean, it was like our first time actually coming face to face like that, yknow? the most i've even interacted with him has been really quick and awkward eye contact or having to pass by each other in class so... being alone together for a second was like-"

she's cut off by a sudden knock to her car door window.

she jumps on instinct and immediately turns in her seat to meet the face of whoever it is, instantly sighing of relief when she just finds her boyfriend jax.

bianca, from the other side, groans loudly at the sight of his face, but clementine pretends she doesn't hear it as she notices the drink in his hand. she ultimately rolls down the window.

as she does so, finnley is revealed from behind jax as he steps forward and pats a hand on his shoulder to be closer to the window. "clementine! bianca!" he exclaims. "thank fucking god you guys are here."

clementine rolls her eyes amusedly at his enthusiasm. "hi, finn," she greets him with a grin before glancing over to jax who tilts the drink in his hand slightly. "hey."

"hey babe," he responds back nonchalantly like he wasn't being a complete ass yesterday. clementine holds in a sigh and hopes her face doesn't scrunch up too much at the use of the pet name. she's not sure why she's struggled so much with getting used to him calling her things like that, but all it does is.. gross her out every time he says something. she's trying her best to look past it as much as she can, though.

jax is different. clementine needs different. different is good.

so, she smiles as he hands the drink in his hand out to her. "sorry for being a dick," he says simply. "i got you tea."

clementine used to be such a coffee person. she would absolutely swear on her life that coffee was ten times better than any type of tea. she used to force matt to stop and get coffee every day before school and then just sleep on chris the entirety of the way there.

but that was forever ago and things are different now. things have changed, like the fact that clementine prefers tea now. all coffee does anymore is leave a bitter taste in her mouth; she can't bare it.

"thanks," she responds to jax, gratefully taking the drink from his hand and sending him a grin. "it's okay."

he sends her a grin as well before noticing bianca getting out on the other side and taking a step back with finnley so that clementine can also get out of the car.

she climbs out of the car, rolling the window up while the door is still opened and then closing it behind her. once she's out, she opens the back door and grabs her backpack. she swings it over her shoulder as bianca walks to the drivers side of the car, her backpack already on her back as she had it by her legs in the passenger seat.

"alright guys," finnley speaks up with a loud sigh as the group begins to walk through the parking lot, jax's arm easily coming around clementines shoulder as she sips on her drink. "we've got ten minutes until first period."

"are we not skipping today?" clementine furrows her eyebrows.

she used to never skip classes, her grades meant far too much to her to risk missing anything important. everything's different now though, and jax always wants to skip, so clementine doesn't mind having to make changes to cater his wishes.

"nope," finnley sighs disappointedly as they begin to reach the front doors. "we've got a fucking test in english."

clementine immediately groans. her and finnley both have english for their first period class and she absolutely hates it. "i hate english so much."

finnley instantly chuckles. "it's english you hate?" he questions amusedly. chris is in that class.

clementine rolls her eyes. "shut up, finn."

"alright, alright," he just laughs, backing off. "i actually love that class."

"yeah, i know," she tells him obviously. her friend gian is also in that class and the boy is completely obsessed with her despite her disinterest.

finnley just turns and grins at the girl, no shame at all.

jax suddenly speaks up as the begin to walk through the school doors, "wait, isn't sturniolo in that class?"

there's three sturniolos, clementine thinks. she keeps her correction to herself though, used to containing most of her thoughts nowadays. "yup," she responds absentmindedly.

"ah," he says, returning his arm around her shoulders after they've made it inside the school. "i fucking hate that kid."

yeah, we know, she thinks. "mhm," she hums, not even fully paying attention anymore. "tell me about it."

he begins to go on one of his usual tangents about how chris is a dick, how chris thinks he's better than him, how chris can't play lacrosse right, how chris this and how chris that. it's just chris, chris, chris and clementine is kind of losing her mind. the boy himself just spoke the first word he's said to her since... yeah. so no, she can not deal with the mention of him right now.

of course though, as they're walking through the hallways, god wants her dead. she's zoning out during jax's chris rant, just trying to sip her tea but no. no — because of course, of fucking course, she feels someone looking at her and turns her head to find them passing chris' locker.

unfortunately, with his locker, comes him himself as well. he's looking at her and for some reason it's weird. they've made timid eye contact where it burns them to look at each other for more than a split second but this isn't that. his eyes hold something different that she can't figure it out.

whatever it is, she hates it. she hates it, she hates it, she hates it. so she keeps her façade. her face doesn't falter once as she looks back at him, it stays stone cold like she's looking right through him.

he stays unaffected. he doesn't look away as if he's been caught, his face doesn't falter from her blank expression, he stays the same. what the fuck? why isn't he backing down and looking away?

never once has chris stared at her like this since they've broken up and clementines heart skips a beat. look away, look away, look away, she's commanding him through her mind because hello? she can't be the one to look away first because then he'll think he affects her.

she closes her eyes for a moment too long and when she opens them, he's still looking. can he not? why can't he just avoid glancing in her direction like before? why is he suddenly-

everyone begins to turn the corner so clementine snaps out of it, glancing at chris once more with the same expressionless face that for once, isn't bothering him, before turning the corner.

CLEMENTINE SITS IN HER seat next to gian in english, finnley occupying the seat behind gian—as always—with the other seat next to him empty. clementine sits on her phone, mindlessly going through snapchat as she listens to gian and finnleys conversation.

"suck my dick, finnley."

"woah... are you flirting with me right now?"

"no."

"don't lie. you want me so bad."

gian scoffs disgustedly and clementine watches her from the corner of her eye amusedly as she rolls her eyes.

gian has absolutely hated finnley for as long as clementine can remember because well... she hates jax and finnley is friends with him. it's completely ironic since she's friends with clementine who is currently dating jax, but she knew clementine before jax, she knew her during chris. she also knew her after chris and how badly he hurt the girl, so she tries her best to ignore the fact that she's dating a scumbag now. when she first found out, all she said was that she was, 'not mad, just disappointed.'

just as clementine looks back to her phone, not paying attention to finnley's blatant flirting and gian's blatant disinterest, a group of students begin to pass by the desk she's sat at.

clementine pauses because she feels a singular pair of eyes looking at her from the group of people and she knows it's chris. she knows it's chris before she even looks over to confirm it because she knows what his stare feels like.

she returns his look with an unbothered expression even though she is very, very extremely bothered. she's not sure why he keeps staring at her like he hasn't been avoiding glancing in her direction since forever now. she's not sure why it's even happening, but she fucking hates it and it needs to stop.

it's taking him a while to pass by because of how slow all the people in front of him are, but he won't back down with his staring. his brother nick is in front of him, typing something mindlessly on his phone, but instead of attempting to talk to him, he's staring at her.

so.. clementine makes a point of noticeably pressing the buttons on the side of her phone until the music playing in her ears is at full volume. chris' eyes glance down to the phone as she does so and she just blinks at him. she sits down further in her seat and decides on boring her eyes into her phone instead of looking at him any longer.

finally, thank fucking god, he gets to pass by their desk.

right as he does though, clementine steals one final glance at him, expecting to find a frown on his face as he walks away.

what she does find however, is an amused upturn on the side of his lips. she instantly narrows her eyes and turns forward in her seat. she lets out an extreme huff of air because what the fuck? he should be as annoyed as ever or as sad as ever. what is amusing to him?

she hates him, she hates him, she hates him. she hates him and that stupid upturn on the side of his lips so fucking much.

"clem!" gian exclaims, snapping clementine out of her trance.

"sorry, sorry," she shakes her head slightly, turning to her. "what is it?"

"look," she says, gesturing with her head to a guy awkwardly standing in the front of the class. "there's a new kid."

"oh," she says simply, blinking as she looks at the guy who seems fairly nervous. she really feels for him, so she turns back to gian, "should we invite him over here?"

"yeah," gian answers easily, leaning back in her seat to turn and find finnley already dozing off behind them. she groans and slaps his arm. "wake the fuck up, finnley," she exclaims, him instantly raising up and blinking repeatedly.

"what?" he asks. "what is it?"

"we're gonna invite the new kid to sit over here," gian tells him, gesturing to the empty seat next to him at his table.

"oh okay," he just shrugs, sinking his head back into his arms on the desk.

"alright," clementine says before turning towards the new guy and waiting for him to look back at her. when he does, she calls out a quiet, "hey, you can sit over here if you want," she tells him, pointing back to the seat next to finnley.

"oh," the guys eyes widen, shooting her a small grin and beginning to walk over to the table. "okay."

clementine gives him a smile as well as he walks over and sits in the spot next to finnley, setting his stuff down on the desk as the trio turns to him. "i'm manny," he tells them.

"i'm clementine."

"i'm gian."

...

everyone turns to finnley, waiting for him to speak.

"you have the same name as the little kid in diary of a wimpy kid, ya know that?"

"finnley."

( ☼ )

TODAY IS CHRIS' DAY.

he sits in the back of english class, nick sat in the seat next to him as he watches clementine towards the front of the classroom.

the teacher hasn't started the class yet so he watches with a small grin on his face as clementine talks to the new kid she invited to sit with her and her friends. it's such a clementine thing to do, the type of thing the old clementine would do, back before she got mixed in with jax cunningham.

recently, he's only ever seen her act coldly or just plainly unbothered with anything and everything. he understands it though, he understands it because he was the one who broke her first.

but he's gonna fix it! he's decided he will get clementine back with him again no matter what it takes. he made a foolish mistake over christmas and now, he's determined to fix it before school ends.

so, he's been unashamedly staring at her all day and he knows she's noticed. she acts unbothered every time, but he knows her, so the act is really no use.

jax cunningham has seriously got nothing on him. sure, clementine is in a relationship with him now and like.. 'hates chris' or whatever, but none of that matters. he knows he'll get her back. he has to.

"chris, buddy, this is embarrassing to watch," nick's sudden voice snaps him out of the trance he was in from staring at clementine.

chris sighs, turning to his brother next to him. "shut the fuck up."

nick just narrows his eyes at him, setting his phone face down on their table. "i'm sorry, but what are you expecting here?" he asks genuinely, dumbfounded by his brothers sudden determination. "you to say, 'hey, sorry i practically kicked you out of my house on christmas eve, but i miss you,' and for her to drop jax, her whole ass boyfriend, and come crawling back to you?" he deadpans.

chris shrugs. "something like that, i guess."

nick stares at him in disbelief before shaking his head. "we both know clem, chris. she holds grudges and she rarely even glances in our direction now," he tells him knowingly. "it's not gonna be easy."

"yeah, i know," chris responds easily, leaning back in his chair. "i can fight though."

nick just sighs and chris grins at him. "also," he speaks again. "we've made eye contact twice today and it's only first period. progress already."

"wow," nick says with mock enthusiasm. "i'm just still confused on why you wanna win clementine back so badly all of a sudden. yesterday, you were literally moping and whining about the girl at school, and then when you came to the car you were like, 'hey! i'm gonna get clem back!' out of nowhere?"

"just snapped into it," he shrugs easily, nick just blinking at him.

"just be for real," nick deadpans.

chris is silent for a moment before sighing "okay, okay," he gives in. "i got into it with jax in the locker room and then when i walked out, clem was there. she was standing there waiting for him and it was the first time we've been alone ever since... you kn-"

"since you did her so dirty on christmas?" nick finishes for him.

"yes, nick. since that. thanks," he rolls his eyes momentarily before continuing. "it was obvious she was just gonna ignore the shit out of me, but i said hi. and then she just stared at me like i was some type of fucking alien, and i was thinking, what the fuck? like i can handle the glares and the blank looks, but that? that made me feel like the scum of the earth. it was just so. . . i don't know? it just put some shit in perspective for me because holy shit, she used to look at me with like.. love and shit," he explains to nick, his face scrunching up towards the end because he hates being sappy, but he's trying his best to genuinely dissect all his feelings here.

"yeah, yeah i get that," nick quickly reassures his brother with a small smile, gesturing for him to go on.

"and then astoria came out, and then jax did too, and... i just had to watch her walk away with him. i don't know. it just.. made me realize i don't want her to look at me like that anymore, you know? i want.. god, this is gonna sound so corny, but— i want her love back. i want my clem back," he tells him with a sigh, nick grinning at how vulnerable his brother is being right now. "because i realized i made a mistake as soon as i saw her with jax, but this, this just made me realize it's time for me to fix it and get shit straight."

nick stays silent for a while before sitting back in his seat, still looking at him with a sly grin. "yeah, you've still got it real bad."

"shut up," chris rolls his eyes, chuckling a bit.

"i'm rooting for you," nick grows slightly serious this time as he talks. "she won't even talk to me, matt, or stori anymore either, you know. we miss our best friend."

chris nods his head. "i'll get her back for us, i swear."

💌

bro really thinks clem is gonna be waiting there at his door or smth 😭😭

no but smug!pining!whipped!notgivingup!cocky!chris will be SO fun ❤️❤️❤️

also this will get angsty at times since yk... they're exes... and there will be flashbacks... but it'll be nothing TOO bad... i think!

also, if u haven't noticed, the sun/moon being underlined determines who's pov it is so if it's chris it's the sun and if it's clem it's the moon 🤗🤗

<3
jaden