˖ ࣪ AGAIN, AGAIN, 𖥔 ࣪ ᥫ᭡
AGAIN. . . !

━━━━━ ( 006. real life )
✶ ・・❛ YOU'RE JUST TEMPORARY. ❜

( ☼ )

"HEY, STORI?"

"yeah?"

"can you shut the fuck up so i can remember my locker combination?"

"woah. okay, chris," astoria scoffs, crossing her arms and stepping aside to stand next to nick. "what the fuck does me talking have to do with you remembering your locker combination?"

"it just does." he rolls his eyes, finally remembering the code and opening the locker.

astoria turns to matt and nick. "the fuck is up with him today?"

matt just shrugs. "kid was expecting clementine to be waiting for him with open arms and now he's disappointed, i guess."

chris groans, throwing his jacket into his locker and closing it behind him. he leans against the locker once he's done. "shut the fuck up, matt," he scowls, matt just rolling his eyes.

astoria turns to chris and narrows her eyes at him. "chris.. i thought you were just gonna accept your ridiculous fucking loss and move on after she started dating jax."

"i can't," he sighs helplessly, genuinely frustrated. "i can't just watch her be with some complete douchebag when she's supposed to be with me."

astoria blinks. "you broke up with her," she deadpans. "you broke up her on christmas eve with the literal shittiest reason ever. you have like.. no right to be mad." matt and nick both nod their heads in agreement.

"i know, i know," he shakes his head. "i just don't understand why she had to move on with jax."

"to get under your skin. duh," nick says obviously.

astoria nods her head, but matt's nose scrunches up and he clears his throat. "yeah but like... she clearly does actually like him now. like yeah, sure, she used to hate him just as much as the rest of us and maybe she started dating him to make chris mad, but she's clearly into the guy now—even though he's a complete dick to her."

chris sighs and sinks further against the locker behind him. "she does like him and it's absolutely sickening. shit makes me nauseous."

nick raises his eyebrows. "woah, chris, what happened to staying strong and getting her back?" he questions, pointing out his downcast and unmotivated mood.

"fuck off, nick. i still am staying strong and i still am gonna get her back," he instantly responds, a slight edge to his voice as he took offense to his words. "that doesn't mean i'm not allowed to mope."

matt shakes his head and pats his shoulder. "toughen up, kid," matt says like an encouraging dad. chris glances at the touch on his shoulder before scoffing and shrugging his hand off of him. matt doesn't falter, he just crosses his arms. "you're never gonna snatch her from jax with that attitude."

chris sighs so unbelievably loudly. "why are you discouraging me one second and acting like an encouraging dad the next? i'm so confused."

"i don't know," he shrugs, pausing for a moment before saying, "i'm just kinda rooting for clem so.. like i just want her to be freed from jax's weird ass," he explains, making chris sigh again. "i mean.. kid calls you sturniolo like there's not three of us. come on, he's gotta start specifying."

nick steps forward and pats matt's shoulder with a tight-lipped, sarcastic grin. "glad that's your main takeaway from this, matt!"

matt just rolls his eyes and chris speaks up pointedly, "yeah and there's technically four of us. how are you leaving out justin right now?"

"i know there's four of us, you idiot," matt reiterates with an obvious tone. "justins graduated now though and i don't even know if jax remembers his existence."

chris just loses interest in the conversation. jax, jax, jax. he's so tired of hearing that name, especially when it's mentioned with clementines. he wills himself to just zone out.

he wishes he could just go back to when times were simpler. when the spot next to clementine was always reserved for him and not jax fucking cunningham. simpler times way before he let stupid thoughts get to his head and way before things got so fucking complicated.

chris isn't even that sure of what he's doing anymore, he just feels lost. clementine being in his arms again is the only he can think of that would fix the feeling. if someone had asked him what he planned to do after graduation at the start of the year, he would've said he had no fucking clue, but that he knew he'd be with clem. what the fuck would he say now?

youtube is always a goal, yeah, and making sure he's with his brothers no matter what is something he's sure of but what about clem? what about the plans they had made? he knows he tore up the map of their future journey together but can't he tape it up? can't he glue it back together? can't he do anything?

god, fuck him for being an overthinker and making everything worse for himself.

he'll get her back though, he knows he will. he also knows he keeps saying that but come on, there's got to be some deep part of clementine that isn't ready to give him up, isn't ready to fully commit to this douchebag jax. there's got to be some part of her heart missing him, some part of her yearning for his presence back just as he yearns for hers. he just has to dive deep and find that hidden part of her. he knows his clementine is still there somewhere. through the small changes in her makeup routine chris used to watch her do daily to the huge changes in who she surrounds herself with now, the clementine he once knew like the back of his hand is there. he knows it. he just has to find her again.

and fuck, he's determined. who the fuck is jax cunningham to try and stand in his way? it was always as clear as day that chris and clementine were meant for each other, it was written in the stars for fucks sake. jax just had to sweep in and take the one thing chris had always been so sure of the second he messed up. he would've realized his mistake on his own, he didn't need jax of all people to come in and ruin every thing!

he sighs to himself and just as he begins to listen back into the conversation, he catches sight of clementine walking through the school doors with jax following behind.

she's rolling her eyes and jax is trailing right behind her, muttering something with a clenched jaw when chris realizes oh no, they're fighting. the corner of his lip twitches upwards and he leans further against his locker.

jax catches up to the girl who is currently whispering something to him in a clearly harsh tone from the way her lips move as he notices chris watching the pair. he scowls at the fact that he's watching a sour moment between the two and attempts to put his arm around clementine.

clementine though, gives him a dirty look and shoves his arm off of her, taking the opportunity to walk away from him. jax throws his arms out in frustration and calls something out to her as she walks away. chris genuinely chuckles at his rejection.

nick, matt, and astoria all notice him chuckling and share a glance before turning to see what he's staring at. it's at this moment, that jax notices chris looking at clementine's retreating figure and then back at him. to no one's surprise, he begins heading right for chris' direction with a scowl.

"the fuck are you looking at, sturniolo?" he speaks out harshly once he reaches him. nick, matt, and astoria all share a collective sigh and step a bit away from the pair.

chris rolls his eyes at the pointless use of his last name seeing as there's three sturniolos in school and breathes out an honest, "well, i was looking at your girlfriend but now i'm looking at you."

jax's jaw is instantly clenched in annoyance just at the sound of her name leaving his lips. "you need to stay away from her."

"who? clem?" chris furrows his eyebrows mockingly.

"yeah, clem, my fucking girlfriend." he reiterates, reminding the boy harshly.

"okay," chris chuckles dryly. "you can't force me to do shit, jax."

jax scoffs at the boys attempt to test him. "yes, i fucking can."

chris shakes his head, taking a step away from the locker and towards him instead. "she might be yours now but she was mine. she was mine for way longer than you've even known her. she was always mine. you're just temporary, i know it."

jaxs eyes narrow into thin slits and he looks him up and down with a scoff and a dry laugh. "you don't know shit. you're real cocky for someone who—what? has spoken to her once during the past three months? yeah well, while you pine over her all day, i get to actually have her."

chris' jaw clenches, hating the way he's right. he keeps his composure though and shrugs. "i'm her first love. what are you, jax? some high school football player cliché? we don't even compare. your two fucking months with her doesn't mean shit when clem and i have history that goes back for years."

jax shakes his head at his attempt to get under his skin. "and that's all you are, chris. history. clem genuinely hates your guts. you're the past, i'm the present. i'm her future," he tells him, taking a step closer to him to get all up in his face. "for the last time, stay away from my fucking girlfriend."

chris' face drops into a frown, the words obviously getting to him, but he still manages an unbothered shrug. "no."

jax's jaw clenches and chris recomposes himself, furrowing his eyebrows at him mockingly as he takes a step back. "what are you gonna do? tell her to stay away from me? tell her she can't talk to me?"

"if i have to, yeah." jax responds easily.

"well, to tell your girlfriend," he pauses for a moment to really emphasize the word jax keeps repeating before continuing, "to stay away from her ex, you've gotta make sure you keep her as a girlfriend first, and it seems like you're already struggling with that," he shrugs, referring to how him and clementine were clearly arguing in the hallway.

jax shakes his head with a tight jaw before looking chris straight in the eyes. "you're dead, chris," he says seriously but chris just thinks it's as corny as ever.

chris rolls his eyes as jax turns around and walks away. he calls out a, "see ya, cunningham," with a sarcastic grin and jax doesn't even stop, just turns his head to scoff at him before continuing to leave.

chris is left alone, feeling satisfied with himself before nick, matt, and astoria come back over with parted lips. "chris... what the fuck was that?" nick is the first to speak in shock.

"what?"

"you just told jax that you're out to steal his fucking girlfriend," matt deadpans. he's followed by astorias exclaim, "are you crazy?"

"what's he gonna do?" chris shrugs, seemingly unbothered by it all.

"he's gonna make your life hell and obviously fucking tell her that you're trying to get her back!" matt tells him obviously, chris just blinking.

chris opens his mouth to respond but gets cut off by the bell ringing. he glances up at the speakers for a second before taking a step away, patting matt's shoulder as he starts to walk. "good," he grins as matt looks at him like he's crazy. he begins to walk away before turning around and calling out, "are you stupid, nick? come on, we've got fucking english."

( ☾ )

"LOOK, CLEMENTINE, I'M doing this with your best interest in mind."

clementine scoffs. "i don't understand why you won't just let me change my partner," she tries. "i just. . . have personal issues. . . with the student, so i should be able to put in a complaint!"

clementine's currently in the art class before the first bell rings, pleading with the teacher to just let her change partners for this stupid project. jax has been cutting into her since yesterday about it and god, it's pissing her off. she'll do anything to get him to just chill out.

the teacher tilts her head at the girl before adjusting her glasses with a sigh and turning to her computer. she clicks the mouse a few times and clementine stands with her arms crossed until she speaks again. "you've gotten straight A's in every semester you've taken this class for your past four years here," the teacher tells her.

clementine just nods, unsure of where this is going and unsure of what it has to do with her requesting a partner change.

the teacher folds her hands together. "you currently have a 72% in here," she informs her, her face dropping. "the last project you got an A on in here was the last one right before christmas break, one with chris sturniolo."

"oh."

the teacher gives her a sympathetic smile, having clearly seen that the two were together before and not anymore. "i understand that it may be hard to work with someone again after so long, but clementine..." she trails off for a moment. "when was the last time you drew something just for your enjoyment, and not because i assigned you to?"

december 18th, she immediately knows. she knows the dates in her sketchbook and she knows the day very clearly as it was the last school day before christmas break.

"i don't know," she says instead of the truth.

the teacher gives her a knowing look. "was it possibly when you were still speaking with the sturniolo boy?"

clementine breaks eye contact and shakes her head. "does it matter?"

the teacher takes in a breath and leans forward in her seat. "sometimes we—as humans and artists—can lose our touch. it's a natural thing," she explains easily. "when this happens though, we have to go back to our beginning roots and find ourselves again. we have to find our purpose—find what makes us us again."

clementine frowns.

bullshit. chris is not her fucking purpose and she doesn't need him to do a stupid art project.

she does not voice her thoughts.

"i understand you may have some.." the teacher pauses for a moment, clicking her tongue to think of the right words before continuing. "personal difficulties with the boy, but i think this will be good for you."

clementine has no clue what to say since she's ridiculously annoyed by the teachers words, and luckily, the bell rings. she's never zoomed out of a classroom so fast in her entire life.

how the fuck is she supposed to do a project with chris without sending jax into a complete tantrum?

💌

this is lowk rlly short i apologize but there will be chris and clementine interaction next chapter so that's a W🫡🫡

ALSO I WASNT BEING SARCASTIC WHEN I SAID UR GONNA LOVE THIS CHRIS WHAT THE FUCK. IM BEING FR GUYS!!!! sry i gave u like.. trust issues... or wtv 😂😂😂😂

<3
jaden