Mickey’s POV:

Coming home late on the first day of school wasn’t exactly the best impression on my parents. They had already finished eating their dinner and had left mine in the microwave. I gave them some bullshit excuse about how I was out with a friend, but as soon as they started asking questions things started going south. Giving a name was simple, I just said Alex, and making up something about what we did was always very easy. I told them that we went out to a movie and got ice cream, which was obviously the complete opposite of what we did. And they actually seemed to believe it. My mom was so happy that her outfit choice had worked and that I should always dress like that. She was actually happy with me! But then came the gender question. Dad didn’t mean any harm when he asked whether ‘Alex’ was a boy or a girl, but my mom flipped out when I told them he was a guy. She immediately accused me of sleeping with him. I did try to defend myself, but it didn’t exactly work. You would think that after countless nights of sneaking out and doing things I wasn’t supposed to do, I could easily protest and make myself seem innocent. But, you see, I didn’t think my actions were all that wrong. So, why try to make myself seem like somebody I wasn’t?

Well, it led to me being grounded for the rest of the week. It just didn’t make much sense to me. I got grounded quite a lot, but I still managed to stay out until pretty late. But they were just making it very easy for me this time. My mom had to take a night shift at the hospital she worked at and my dad was out until pretty late for a business dinner. I could easily come home after school, wait for my mom to leave, then sneak out and sneak back in through my window. Before school started, I had made sure I knew how to get up there. It left me with some bruised knees and scabbed elbows, but I knew the perfect way to do it with barely making any noise. Over the years, I started to make it a tradition to figure out how to sneak in whenever we moved houses. A couple of times neighbors did inform my parents of what I was doing, but usually, they thought it was a burglar and my mom would immediately know it was me… At least I still got a fun night out, so it didn’t really matter to me.

But for now, I had to survive another day of school. It was only my second day here and the second day of the school year and I was already fed up. I couldn’t wait till the homework I wasn’t going to do started piling up! It was always the best time of the year… not. The best time of the year was summer vacation. I didn’t have to give a shit during those months. Well, I didn’t give a shit all year round, but you get what I mean. Then I didn’t have to get up til two in the afternoon, while I still had to get up at six thirty every morning now.

I was wearing the clothes I wanted, making myself feel even better. My black tight skinny jeans were hugging my legs again, a black beanie was making sure I didn’t have to do anything with my hair, boots ready to kick some bitches if needed, a ripped shirt accompanied by an army print jacket, my lips prepared to leave marks, and my eyeliner showing everybody they better not mess with me. Now, this was what I wanted to wear to my first day of school. Nobody better get close to me if they were smart.

In the morning, I had gotten all my textbooks from the library, unfortunately, and decided to dump them in my locker. I wasn’t going to use those little shits anyway. Plus, now I always had an excuse to go to my locker in between classes instead of having to go from one room to another straight away. While everybody was in the hallways talking before class started, I went right up to my locker and unlocked it. I couldn’t help but smirk at all the comments. Some people didn’t realize I was the same person as yesterday, and others were saying they’d never ever want to approach me. Perfect reactions. My whole day was practically made. Everybody knew who I really was and nobody was going to come up to me--

“Mickey!” A male voice shouted from across the hall where I had seen Alex and his friends talking to each other.

I tried my best to ignore the call of my name, but I could hear his footsteps approach me. He was standing way too close to me for my liking; practically touching my back, trying his best to get in my line of sight. If I just acted like he wasn’t there, he would leave me, just like all the others did. Nobody wanted to talk to somebody who ‘didn’t realize' they were there.

But Alex still decided to try and make a conversation, much to my despise. “I didn’t even realize it was you! You look so different. I only noticed it was you when I suddenly saw you opening your locker. Holy shit!”

I threw another book on the high shelf, craning my neck to give Alex an unamused bitchy glare. “Can you back off?”

He took a step back, but still continued to try to get me to look at him to have a normal conversation. “So, about last night--”

“I don’t think you understand what I meant with ‘back off’. I mean fuck off, get lost, beat it!”

“Hey, there’s our friend Mickey!” Jack bounced up beside his best friend and tried to wrap an arm around me.

I shuffled away before he could touch me. If he had succeeded, he would have had a black eye. I threw my books into my locker and let out a frustrated sigh before turning around looking at the two boys. “Alex, if this is about me telling you ‘did fine’ last night, it’s exactly what I meant. You don’t really deserve much more credit. When I say you were fine, I mean you were fine. You definitely weren’t the best I’ve had. Just spruce things up a little, ok? As much as I like taking control, you could also have done a couple of, how do I put this, more interesting things.”

Alex shook his head in disbelief. “Wait, what--”

“Oh, and guys, I’m not your friend.”

With that, I closed my locker and pushed past Jack to leave. The whispers turned into people wondering if I really had just rejected Alex Gaskarth. Well, guess what, bitches, I did. Alex Gaskarth really wasn’t a god like he thought he was. He was actually quite far from it.

And I really thought Alex and his friends were going to leave me alone after that… but I really was wrong.

At lunch, I decided to sit at the table that had caught my attention the day before. It was somewhere further in the back -- other than in the middle where Alex sat with all the girls and guys that were his friends -- and nobody was sat at it. A perfect place for a girl like me. Nobody would bother me, and I could easily see everything going on. And with seeing everything going on I meant scoping around to see if there were any cute guys that I would consider banging. It was what I did at every school I went to. I did not need to sit around with everybody and hear all the gossip. Being on my own was good enough for me. I always managed to make friends outside of school and that’s when the good stuff started happening.

But, as I sat there trying to eat the sandwich I had prepared that morning, two figures got up from their usual place and made their way over to me. I already groaned when I saw both Jack and Alex walking up to me. They hadn’t explicitly said or gestured they were coming over to me, but I could just see it in the occasional looks they had given in my direction prior to them actually taking action. Hadn’t my outburst in the hallway taught them anything? Did I really have to start using the harsh and mean way? They were just a couple of boys, I didn’t want to have to make this even worse for them.

They sat down opposite of me, without any food in sight, and just stared at me for a while. I just raised my eyebrows at them and put my sandwich down while I swallowed the last bite. They obviously wanted to talk to me, but I honestly didn’t feel like dealing with the consequences. I really didn’t think that this would be such a problem! Couldn’t they just leave it be and deal with the fact that I didn’t want to be their friend, nor did I want to talk to them. It seemed simple to me, but obviously not to them.

I sighed and looked at the guy with black hair and really weird random blonde streaks running through it (I also didn’t understand why they thought I would want to hang out with someone that looked like that). “Look, Jack, I’m sorry, but I will not be taking your virginity. You can try to convince me, but no matter how hard you try, I won’t do it. I just don’t take people’s virginity.”

His eyes widened dramatically and he shook his head. “I’m not a virgin!”

“It’s ok,” I assured him, and awkwardly gave his hand a couple of pats to comfort him, “I know a virgin when I see one. There’s nothing wrong with it. And, trust me, there’s a lot more virgins here, in this room, right now, than you realize. They aren't so good at hiding from me.”

“No, I’m not a virgin,” he repeated, but he seemed too uncomfortable for my liking. It was like he was trying too hard to defend himself.

“Keep telling yourself that.” I shrugged it off, feeling pretty confident in my theory. Maybe I was telling him this just to annoy him, but it would only be better if he actually was. But now it was the other boy’s turn to be irritated. “As for you, Alex, I really thought we were on the same page. It was pretty obvious we only wanted to sleep with each other, and we did, so that should be it. I’ve heard a lot about you and your one-night-stands. You shouldn’t have any trouble with this. Or are you just annoyed ‘cause I actually want you gone rather than being all over you and begging for more of your attention?”

“I just want to befriend you… I’ve done that with many girls,” he told me with a sigh, “is it really such a crime?”

“Yes, yes it is. I don’t do friends! I’m guessing you didn’t befriend those girls right after sleeping with them. Honestly, it’s pretty awkward to ask a girl if she wants to be friends right after having sex,” I informed, speaking in a way as if I were speaking to a young child that didn’t understand fast and difficult words.

He thought for a while, twirling his hair a little as if that helped him concentrate and think of which girls he fucked and became friends with afterwards. “Well, no not exactly. I just think you’re an interesting person that I’d love to get to know a bit better. Just because I slept with you, doesn’t mean we can't be friends. I’ve done it with other girls before. We can put what happened yesterday behind us. I remember you telling me that you didn’t befriend guys you slept with. How about we forget what happened?”

“How about no. I actually thought I finally found the guy version of myself; both just out finding somebody to have a one-night-stand with, no feelings, no emotions, no nothing, just sex. We could have been allies, you know. I thought you understood, but you clearly don’t.”

“We still can be. I’ll look out for you, you look out for me. We’ll still be civilized around each other and maybe we can get to know each other in the process. We won’t be friends, but we can build up to being it.”

“God, Alex, you are the clingiest person I’ve ever known!” I screamed and immediately got the entire cafeterias attention. “Just leave me alone! I don’t want you around me!”

“Well, jeez,” he slumped in his seat before putting his hands on the table and pushing himself up. He walked away, dragging Jack behind him, while people stared and followed Alex with their eyes.

Some girls scowled at me, just making me want to laugh. They should be happy that I was letting them get together with Alex without me getting in the way at all. As soon as Alex was sitting down in his old seat, the mumbles and gossip started. Everybody was surprised that I had called him clingy. Alex was by far the least clingy person they'd ever known. That was the Alex I had hoped to ‘get to know’. But I was stuck with this whiny determined boy who was used to getting exactly what he wanted. Well, not in my book.

Notes

Things are getting heated up!!!! And this is just the beginning.

You guys don't even understand how excited I am. (I actually wrote this chapter in one day!!!! That hasn't happened in ages!)