Mickey’s POV:

Let me make something very clear. Just because Alex practically saved my life by letting me stay at his house while I was blackout drunk did not mean that I was friends with him. Sure, I had been ‘nice’ to him the morning after, but that was partially also due to my hangover. I just wasn’t up to being witty. It was way easier to let him have his way than having to come up with clever things to say.

But that wasn’t how Alex perceived it.

I was completely ready for life to continue. He would keep being the annoying little brat he was, trying his best to get my attention, while I would constantly turn him down and put him back in his place. It was how it always was no matter which city I was in. Only, usually, it would happen after having a one-night-stand with some guy at my school only to have him become clingy for the next week. They at least gave up, but Alex was stubborn. He had his ways as well, and they weren’t always as proper as he tried to make them seem.

You see, the bell had gone and I was at my locker, gathering all my things to skip school for the rest of the day. None of the lessons I had afterward were interesting anyway, so I wasn’t going to miss anything. It was much more fun to go to the mall and play games with the mall cops. They always tried to bust me for skipping school, but they never actually managed to catch me. The one time they did, showing my real ID that stated my age was good enough for them. Being nineteen apparently proved that you no longer went to school. Jokes on them.

So, I was preparing myself for another afternoon filled with shenanigans when Alex decided to sneak up beside me. Although he was behind my locker door, I could tell he was there trying to frighten me. You know, as a joke. But, no, I wasn’t that type of girl. He couldn’t play jokes on me like that. I would always be a step ahead.

“What,” I shouted loudly as I suddenly slammed my locker closed, the sound echoing throughout the halls and some teacher probably already out there to find me, “do you want?!”

Alex jumped and put a hand on his chest, clutching his heart as he nearly fell down. He glared at me while slowly dropping his hand, his face showing that he was not amused at all. But that didn’t stop him from cheerfully asking, “do you wanna eat lunch with us?”

“Does it look like I want to eat lunch with you?” I snorted, zipping up my black backpack and slinging it onto my left shoulder.

“Well, it does look like you wanted me to keep a secret for you, so…” He whistled and pointed towards the cafeteria that was at the end of the hall.

Without waiting for me to give an answer or retort with a smart-ass remark, he started walking down the hallway fully expecting me to follow. Now, during any other situation, I would have laughed, turned on my heel, and gone out of the doors to have my fun. Maybe there was a high chance that he wouldn’t tell anybody since he really didn’t want to be on my bad side, but I couldn’t risk him opening his mouth and telling everybody what had happened just a few days before. So, hesitantly I started following him, deciding that I would be able to sneak out of school just before lunch had ended.

Alex went straight for the table I always saw him sit at with Rian and Jack, plus occasionally some other friends. My table at the back of the room was empty and longing for me to sit at it, but I didn’t have a choice. So, while Alex slid into the seat opposite of Jack, I slouched into the seat next to him. Rian and Jack were staring at me, wondering how the hell Alex had managed to drag me there. Jack even stopped chewing the food in his mouth as he started questioning my presence.

“What’s she doing here?” He asked next, the half-chewed burrito nearly falling out of his mouth. I couldn’t deal with hanging out with people that were that disgusting. Occasionally saying something with your mouth full was ok, but keep your food inside!

“The reason why most people are here: for lunch,” Alex answered with an eye roll and pulled out a sandwich from his bag.

I refused to acknowledge anybody, longing for my escape. This was the last place I wanted to be other than being a passenger in my biological father’s car when he was drunk. These guys were the lamest things around, even the nerds probably had more interesting things to say and didn’t bother hitting on me. If anything, their nervous pickup lines worked better since I knew I could have my way with them. But, here I was.

I was staring off in the distance when Alex suddenly jabbed my side with his elbow. Letting out an annoyed breath, I looked at him as if he were my parents giving me some boring old lecture I hadn’t heard before. He needed to know I wasn’t here because I volunteered to do so. This was all he was getting.

“Well, aren’t you going to get out your lunch?” He asked me with a cocked eyebrow, eyeing the empty space on the table in front of me.

“Right…” I clicked my tongue and huffed out as I put my school bag on my lap and opened it.

I had to pull some other things out, however, before I could take out my lunch, which was at the very bottom. The most random and illegal things might have been in that backpack, but that didn’t phase me as I started placing everything on the red table. First came out a water bottle that most definitely wasn’t filled with water but seemed like it was, next was my iPod with my earphones wrapped around it, then came a baggie of weed and some cigarettes, soon after my black folding knife was added to the collection. Then, finally, came the tinfoil wrapped in a shitload of duct tape.

“Should I report this to the authorities?” Rian chuckled uncomfortably, looking around the room to see if anybody saw what was going on. That boy was so afraid of getting in trouble.

I just ignored him completely and was more focused on Jack who was trying to sneakily touch my knife. The thing might have looked cool and dangerous, and quite frankly it was, but nobody was allowed to touch it other than me. Before I knew it, I was going to have a murder case on my hands because Jack couldn’t handle the knife and accidentally stab somebody with it. I had my fair share of run-ins with the cops, but I wasn’t looking forward to one like that.

“Don’t. Touch. That.” I seethed, swiping the knife out of his sight and putting it closer to me. I put all my belonging back in my bag except for the sharp object and my lunch.

To get to my lunch that wasn’t easy to open at all, I had to use that knife. The duct tape made sure it wouldn’t open randomly and ruin my entire bag, but it also meant that getting to the food was practically impossible. So, I opened the knife and stabbed the package, cutting it open aggressively and barely missing my fingers a couple of times.

“I’m scared,” Jack whimpered, happy he didn’t touch it before--not because of how pointed the thing was, but because of what I could do with it.

“Why?” I laughed, putting the sharp end of the knife between my lips and licking the pizza grease off of it. When it was cleaned, I threw it back in my bag along with everything else. “Have you never played Five Finger Fillet?”

“No…” Alex frowned, shaking his head at me as if I had gone mental.

“Wow. You guys claim to party, yet you’ve never done that. You should step up your game.” I instructed and pulled open the rest of the makeshift tinfoil and duct tape to reveal the two cold two-day-old slices of pepperoni pizza I brought along.

“Did we have pizza, like, two nights ago?” Rian pointed out, having been instructed to babysit me the night before I had been forced to stay with Michael.

I nodded and took a satisfying bite of the food--to me, pizza always tasted better a day or two after. “This is the same pizza. I’ve been eating it for lunch, dinner, and breakfast for two days in a row now.”

He made a disgusted face, scrunching up his nose and furrowing his eyebrows. “It’s like that’s the only thing you eat!”

“I know, it is. But I can’t cook for shit and my parents are rarely home. Luckily, I’m an expert at calling places that will deliver food for me.”

Rian was about to say something back when a shadow loomed over me. I looked to my left and squinted to see a brunette staring down at me. She looked very high maintenance with her designer bag and manicured nails. Now, that was what a ‘Monica’ was supposed to look like, but I was nothing like her. Nothing.

Alex groaned and pulled a hand through his hair. “Oh my god, Heather, please just--”

“I’m not here for you, Asshole,” she snapped back, her eyes still boring through me, “I’m here for her.”

“For me?” I snorted, trying my best not to laugh at her just yet. “Are you sure about that?”

She nodded as she sneered at me, shoving Rian and Jack down a seat so she could sit right across from me. I stared her down, taking another bite of my pizza. Whatever she had to say had no interest to me. And I sure as hell didn’t mind the judgemental look she gave me as I was eating the unhealthy fatty food.

“I don’t know who you think you are, but you can’t just come waltzing in like you own the place,” she started, her eyes cold and heartless. “You see, there are rules here and I don’t mean those stupid stay-with-your-kind rules. I mean that you have to stay away from my man.”

“Oh my god, Heather!” Alex repeated in the same annoyed high-pitched groan as before. “We fucking broke up a year ago! Deal with it!”

“You guys dated?” Now it was my turn to laugh as I looked between the bothered Alex and enraged little girl. “This is gold!”

“Please don’t,” Alex muttered to me, his eyes telling Heather to leave.

“You’re getting lamer and lamer by the second, I’m loving this.” I sighed out in content, resting my chin on my knuckles as if I was daydreaming before turning to Heather and winking. “He’s all yours.”

“I hope I don’t have to make myself clear again.” She gave me one last stern glare and stomped away back to her pretentious friends. They were all just as fake as her: pretty on the outside, but ugly on the inside. And they weren’t even that pretty. Overdoing everything didn’t make you look any better.

I brought my second slice of pizza to my lips and tore off a piece with my teeth. “Well, isn’t she intimidating? I’m so scared of her.”

“She can actually be pretty scary,” Jack told me, shuddering at the thought of her capabilities. “She used to be the girl all the guys wanted in freshmen and sophomore year, and Alex was that lucky guy. You can see how that turned out. Now all she does is scare all the girls away.”

“But does she have a cool knife like me?” I pointed at him and took a sip out of my water bottle that contained something way stronger.

“Well, no, but--”

“Then she doesn’t have any shit on me.” I grinned, closing the cap before I started drinking too much. “Plus, I don’t have to be scared away from Alex, I’m already trying to avoid him with all my might.”

“And how’s that working out for you?” Alex nudged with a smirk.

“You just can’t seem to take a hint,” I crumpled up the tinfoil and duct tape and threw it on Jack’s school lunch plate. Thinking for awhile, I decided to make a proposal, “how do you guys feel about skipping school with me right now?”

“Um…” Rian started fidgeting, looking at his friends and afraid of their answers.

I chuckled and patted his shoulder. “Don’t worry, Ry, I’m not asking you.”

“Normally I’d say yes,” Jack piped up, seeming bummed out about something, “but I have an important Geography test that I can’t miss even though I’m most likely going to fail it.”

“Alex?” I batted my eyelashes as he bit his lip while in deep thought. “Come on, I know you skip school quite frequently.”

“Ugh, why the hell not?” He breathed out, accepting my offer.

Notes

It's quite short, but it's all I could fit in this chapter.
Confession time: I don't really like All Time Low's new song. I'm not hating on it or anything and people can like it, but I know that if this were the first song I ever heard of them, I would have clicked away almost instantly. I'm still going to try to get myself to like it, though. I've already done so with Dirty Laundry and I honestly did like Last Young Renegade. Still love them, though, and still excited for the new album. How do you guys feel about it?