Chapter 6
Mom must have cancelled her meeting with her clients because when Grayson dropped me off, her car was parked in the driveway. I was still feeling very sick and hearing her yell at me was not going to make it better.
"Thanks for the ride," I said to Grayson as I got out of the car.
"No problem," Grayson said. "I'll see you tomorrow, Flower." He drove off as I walked in my house, preparing myself for Mom's yelling.
She was waiting for me at the front door. "I can't believe you skipped school, Poppy!" she said in a loud tone. "You need to be there every day if you want to be a doctor!"
But I don't, I thought. "I'm sorry, Mom. I really wasn't feeling good. Even if I went, it would have felt like I wasn't there because I wouldn't have been able to concentrate."
Mom shook her head. "I don't want to hear your excuse, Poppy. I am very disappointed that you skipped school, even more so since you were with Grayson. Didn't I tell you he's a troublemaker?"
"All the time," I said. "I didn't skip school just to be with him. I told him I wasn't feeling well, so he took me to his house to rest."
"So it was just the two of you?" Mom asked. "Alone? Didn't you make the same mistake before?"
I couldn't believe what she just said. She knew what happened wasn't my fault. "Grayson did nothing! All he did was let me rest! And I did not make the mistake! It wasn't my fault!"
"Don't you raise your tone at me," Mom said with a stern look. "I will not have one of my children hanging around someone who could cause the same incident."
Oh, please no. "What do you mean?"
"You're not allowed to hang out with Grayson anymore," Mom said, crossing her arms.
I knew it. "Are you serious?"
Mom nodded. "Dead serious."
"Mom, you can't do that," I said. "You can't prevent me from hanging out with my only friend. Belle convinced everyone at the school to hate me and Grayson is the only one who doesn't!"
"It's the only choice," Mom said. "Ever since you started hanging out with him, you've been getting into a lot of trouble. Skipping school, getting detention..."
"Whoa," I interrupted. "Me getting detention had nothing to do with Grayson. We didn't even talk to each other until after I got detention. And I only skipped school because I was feeling sick. I didn't want to throw up in the middle of class."
"It was still unacceptable to skip," Mom said. "For the rest of the week, you are grounded. No TV, no video games, no computer, no phone." I sighed as she held out her hand. I pulled my cell out of my pocket and placed it in her hand.
"What about Grayson?" I asked. "Can I still hang out with him?"
"We'll talk about it when your father and I are home," Mom said. "As for now, I have to go to the meeting I had to postpone." She grabbed her keys off the kitchen counter before leaving.
Seeing as I was now home alone, I took it as an opportunity to take a nap without being disturbed.
~*~
I woke up to Dad calling my name. I was feeling a lot better, but I still had a slight headache.
I silently groaned as I got out of bed and walked down the stairs. Dad just arrived home from work. "Your mom called me. She told me you skipped school to be with a boy."
I sighed. Why was Mom putting it out of context? "I didn't skip school to be with a boy," I told him. "I did skip, but that's because I was feeling really sick. Grayson took me to his house to rest."
"Okay," Dad said. "Thanks for clearing that up. Your mom also told me that she doesn't want you hanging out with Grayson. But I told her to let you make your own choices. If you want Grayson to be your friend, then he should."
I gave Dad a smile before hugging him. "Thank you, Dad."
Dad was always supporting my decisions, even if Mom was against it. He wanted me to make my own choices and learn from possible mistakes rather than having someone choose for me. He also knew how much the incident last summer affected me.
"No problem, Poppy," Dad said. "I don't want to take away your only friend. Speaking of, Gary and his sons are coming over for dinner tomorrow." Gary was Grayson's dad.
Hold on... .Sons? Did that mean Graeme would be coming as well?
"His oldest son, Graeme, couldn't make it to dinner last time," Dad continued.
I just nodded, not really wanting to think about Graeme. On the bright side, Grayson would be there and he promised to keep Graeme away from me.
"You should be getting some rest," Dad said. "You look very tired and sick."
"I am," I muttered. "I'll be in my room."
I went upstairs and went back to my room. I laid down on my bed, looking up at the ceiling. Graeme was coming to my house tomorrow and he always flirted with me, even when his brother told him not to. Maybe it would be different since my parents and his dad were going to be there.
Ugh, I really wish I could call or text Grayson to tell him about tomorrow and how I didn't want to be near Graeme. I guess I would just have to talk to him in school tomorrow.
Chapter 7"What are you wearing?" Mom asked as I came down the stairs. I came home from school about an hour ago and immediately got changed into a very comfortable outfit; baggy sweats and a loose fitting t-shirt. My hair was in a messy bun.I looked down at my outfit with furrowed eyebrows. "Why? What's wrong with it?""You look like you just got out of bed," Mom told me. "Need I remind you that we are having guests over today?"I nodded. "Yes, I know. But I don't think they'll care what I wear. I mean, I am friends with one of them."Mom sighed. She was always so high maintenance, always wanting to have her family look their best. I didn't understand why we had to dress nicely for Grayson's family."Poppy," Mom began, but she got cut off when someone knocked on the front door. Good thing too, because I was not going to get changed.Mom opened the front door, welcoming them into our home yet again. Grayson entered the house before Graeme, thankfully, and walked over to me. "Hey, Flo
Chapter 8 As soon as my Biology teacher, Mr. Franklin -who was also the vice principal- told us we'd be going to the biology lab, I knew we were going to dissect something. Fantastic. Grayson was in my biology class so I could actually pair up with someone to dissect whatever we were going to. Normally, I went by myself since everyone hated me and I didn't talk to Grayson then, and it was horrible. I had to do everything by myself and I nearly vomited a few times. While our class was walking to the biology lab, Grayson and I walked beside each other. "About what you said to me yesterday," I said. "Is it true?" Grayson sighed. "Yeah. I heard him talking to his friend on the phone about it before we got to your house. He said something along the lines of 'Grayson has a new friend. I'm going to try to get her parents approval.'" He sighed. "Sometimes I think he dates my friends just to bug me." "That's horrible," I said. "But there's a four year difference between me and G
Chapter 9 School was unbelievably boring for me. Not only was my only friend suspended for a week, but Mr. Franklin decided to give me detention for the incident yesterday because he felt as if being kicked out of class wasn't punishment enough. So here I was, in detention with most of the football team and cheerleaders. I had no idea what they did to get detention, but I did not want to know. "Looks like we have a full house here," Mr. Pierce said as he was, once again, the teacher in charge of detention. "There hasn't been one of these for a while. Just in case some of you don't know, the rules to detention are simple. No talking and no texting. If I catch any of you doing either, you will be here tomorrow. Understood?" Everyone nodded. "Good." I had nothing to do in detention. I finished all my work in class and I had no upcoming tests. I was even more bored because of it. I was sitting at the back of the class so I could easily see Devon glare at me. I didn't glare
Chapter 10 A week later, I knew something was going on with Devon, Belle, and their friends. Grayson was back at school and they seemed to be everywhere Grayson was. At lunch, wherever Grayson and I ate, they were there too. After school, Grayson offered to give me a ride home. Since I was ungrounded, I had my cell phone back and I was able to call Mom to let her know. Usually, I had to use the phone in the office which took forever because there was always a huge line up. I hadn't seen Ben since the time at the beach, thankfully. I was also so worried about seeing him again. "Grayson," I said as he drove out of the parking lot. "Do you notice something weird going on with Devon and Belle?" "Kind of," Grayson said. "It is my first day back after my suspension so I have no idea if they were acting like that when I was gone." "Trust me, they weren't," I said. "It's kind of creeping me out." Grayson looked in his review mirror. "Speaking of creeping..." I turned a
Chapter 11Grayson After dropping Poppy at her house, I drove straight to mine. I was not in the mood to do anything after what happened. Poppy found out about what happened two years ago and I did not want her knowing quite yet. Then there was what she told me. She was assaulted by Belle's brother and was blamed for it. I swear, if I ever see that Ben's face again, I was going to personally send him to the hospital. "Grayson, there you are," Dad said when I walked inside. "Your sister called. She doesn't know your cell number and she wants to talk to you." I nodded as I went upstairs to my room for some privacy. Honestly, I loved talking to my sister, Gale. She was twenty-two and was in university. She was always there to support me, especially since Dad always looked down at me. I dialed Gale's number and held my cell phone up to my ear. "Hello?" she answered shortly after. "Gale, hi," I said. Gale squealed. "Grayson! I haven't talked to you in so long! So, how'
Chapter 12 I got to school the next day, only to be extremely confused. I thought it was just any regular day. Until I talked to Grayson. Actually, rephrase: Until I tried talking to Grayson. But he just walked away as if I didn't say anything. What if he didn't want to talk to me anymore because of my past? No, that couldn't be it. He promised Ben and Belle wouldn't hurt me anymore. There was no point of promising that if he wasn't going to talk to me. After school, I was putting my books away when Grayson went to his locker. Right beside mine. I decided to just give him space just in case he needed it. I had no idea why he wasn't talking to me, but I hoped it didn't last. It felt a bit weird, though. Whenever I was at my locker and Grayson went to his, he always said, "Hey, Flower." He didn't even do that. "Poppy," Belle snapped suddenly. I turned to her, once again not in the mood to talk. "How was finding out that your friend nearly killed my boyfriend?" She had a s
Chapter 13 One of the sports I hated the most had to be volleyball. Then again, I hate basically every single sport. But out of all of them, volleyball was definitely the worse, especially if Belle is in my gym class and was on the opposing team. I wasn't that skilled in volleyball. I could do the simple underhand serve and volley, but other than that, I was not good at all. When my gym teacher, Miss North, told us we were going to play volleyball, I silently groaned. Why did we have to play the sport I hated the most? When Miss North started dividing up the teams, I honestly hoped Belle would be on my team. As much as I hated her, it would be better to have her on my team as opposed to the opposing team. That didn't happen. On the bright side, Grayson was on my team. Well, if you considered your only friend ignoring you and is one your team a 'bright side'. But then it was ruined when one of Belle's friends, Loni, was put on my team. There were four teams and two di
Chapter 14Grayson "Grayson!" Dad called from the kitchen. "Your sister will be here soon!" I didn't reply as I continued slaughtering zombies in the video game. I had to get my anger out somehow because beating the crap out of Devon yesterday didn't do the trick. And quite frankly, killing graphical zombies wasn't making me feel any better as well. Shocker. "Grayson!" Dad called again. "Did you hear me?!" When I still didn't reply, Dad stormed into the gaming room and turned off the TV. "Hey!" I exclaimed. "I was in the middle of a game!" "You didn't reply," Dad said. "I didn't know that I had to," I told him, dropping my controller on the table beside the couch and crossing my arms. Dad sighed and shook his head. "Gale called and said she'll be here in less than ten minutes. Graeme and I are going to head out now to get a few things from the store. Don't make a mess." "Sure thing," I muttered as Dad left the room. Seeing how I lost the game since Dad turned i