"gh," Jennie says. "Why is it so crowded?"

"The Night Chicks are performing tonight, duh," Zach replies.

"They're not even that great," she rolls her eyes.

"As if you'd be any better," Zach mumbles and I kick his foot, glaring at him.

"Dude."

"You know, it's true," he replies.

"Come on, let's go sit down," Alex says and we all go take a seat in one of the booths.

The band starts performing as soon as we take a seat. Ever since the music started, I can only think about one thing: when the hell can I go home? I love this diner and spending time in it and everything, but I hate loud places.

I get out my cigarettes pack and grab one, placing it between my lips and lighting it up.

"And he still smokes," Zach comments and I shrug.

A waitress approaches us. "Hello. Welcome to Pinecrest diner, I'll be your waitress for tonight. May I take your orders?"

"Hi, can I have a strawberry milkshake?" Alex tells her and the waitress scribbles it down.

After she's done taking everyone's order, she turns to me and smiles at me, and then she pushes her hair behind her shoulder. I just ignore her actions and take another drag of the cigarette. I should really tell Aunt Tina that her workers are flirting with her nephew.

"What about you?" The waitress asks.

"I'll just take a cherry smoothie. Thanks," I reply.

"You sure you don't want anything else?"

"I'm good," I answer, as I take out my phone to distract myself from her actions.

"Can you please go and get our orders now? Thank you," Jennie tells her and I glance at the waitress to see her rolling her eyes before walking away.

"Dude," Zach says, nudging me.

I look up from my phone, "What's up?"

"That girl is hot," he points at the girl with red hair on stage that's playing the drums.

"And what am I supposed to do with that information?" I ask.

"She is hot," he replies in this tone as if I'm the dumbass here.

"Okay," I fix my gaze on my phone again.

"You have horrible taste in women, that's why you don't see it."

"Thanks, Zach," I say, sarcastically.

After about half an hour, the waitress gets us our orders and I notice that she slipped a paper under the glass. I'm not that surprised when I find her number on it. I crumble up the paper and put it aside. Let's just hope she didn't do anything to my smoothie.

| | | |

"It has been freaking an hour and a half and I still didn't get my cherry cola yet," Jennie complains.

"Didn't you already order it?" I ask.

"I did, but that stupid waitress never brought it," Jennie seethes. "I'm so telling the manager."

"I'll go get it for you," I shrug.

"Really? You would do that for me?" She asks, smiling.

"Yeah, sure."

I got to admit though, I just want to get up because the waitress won't stop staring at me and she's making me uncomfortable.

"Thanks, Luke," she kisses my cheek.

I give her a tight lipped smile and stand up, before I walk to the cashier and order the cola.

"Here you go, Luke," Nigel, the guy who works at the cash register says with a smile and hands me the glass of the cherry cola.

"Thanks, Nigel," I tell him with a small smile.

I turn and start walking back to our booth. I hear my phone chime and I get it out of my pocket, turning it on.

New text from Mom.

I glance at the clock.

12:00 AM.

Suddenly, I bump into someone, noticing that I bumped into a girl and the cherry cola spills all over my shirt and all over the floor. I try to grab her hand and save my phone at the same time, but I end up pulling her into my chest and the phone clatters to the floor.

Her wide dark eyes stare in mine, as her breath quickens.

"Crap," I hear her say in an Australian accent, her voice is so soft and gentle. And very familiar.

I recognize her as the singer of the band that was playing. And I couldn't help, but notice that she reminds me of someone else. When suddenly it clicks in my mind. Anna Falls.

"I'm...so sorry. I didn't mean to bump into you. I-I was just looking at my phone and I didn't know that there was someone else..." she trails off. I'm so focused on her voice that I don't even notice that she stopped talking and I glare at her.

"Watch where you're going," I tell her, coldly and let go of her arm to grab my phone from the ground, checking its screen for any damages.

"Wow. Rude much?" She mutters before crouching down to grab her phone from the floor.

I roll my eyes. I'm not really in this mood to deal with this bullshit. "Just watch where you're going next time. You don't want to end up hurt, do you?" I say.

"Whatever," she rolls her eyes as well and walks past me just as I do. I bump my shoulder into hers, half-accidentally, half-on purpose; the place is really crowded and my shirt is fucking wet and smells like cherries, but she bumps her shoulder in mine just as hard too and I swear to God, it feels like I got paralyzed for a few seconds.

I know I'm being an asshole when she had accidentally bumped into me and even though, she apologized, I'm not really in the mood to deal with anyone. People annoy me.

I just brush off the whole thing and walk to the bathroom to try and get rid of the dark stain on my dark green sweater. The door to the bathroom opens as I dry off my shirt and I look up to find Zach walking in.

"Dude, what are you doing?" He asks, closing the door behind him.

"Some girl bumped into me and I spilled Jennie's cherry cola all over my shirt," I explain shortly.

"She's going to be pissed," he snorts, leaning on the door and crossing his arms.

"I'll just explain the whole thing to her."

"As if that will tame the beast," he mumbles.

"Why are you so fucking against her?" I raise an eyebrow at him.

Alex and Zach loathe Jennie. For what reason? I don't even fucking know. She didn't do anything wrong. She could be rude or blunt sometimes, but it's nothing extra really.

"Because she's a bitch," he shrugs.

"Stop calling her that." I roll my eyes.

"Whatever. She's going to do some shitty move one day and don't stop me from telling you 'I told you so'," he holds his palms up in defense.

"And why the hell would that even happen?"

"Because she's evil," he whispers out and I give him an empty look. "She just seems like the kind of person that would kick a toddler or, or flip a turtle on its back and just leave it there like that."

"I don't blame her on the toddler part, but the turtle thing is just too cruel," I tell him.

"You're just as evil. I don't know why I'm telling you this." He pushes himself off the door and opens it. "Come on, bitch."

"Asshole," I insult him back and he laughs in response, walking outside of the bathroom and I follow him. We make our way back to the booth and take a seat.

"Luke, where's my cherry cola?" Jennie asks, crossing her arms.

Fuck.

| | | |

*Ring*

"And we're back to detention," Zach says, plopping himself down in a seat.

I sit down in the seat next to his and cross my legs on the desk. "I guess we should get used to that."

"True."

I notice two girls standing in the doorway and I smirk when I see Anna Falls.

"That's her," I tap Zach's arm, grabbing his attention.

"The girl that bumped into you?"

"Yeah."

"Isn't that Anna Falls?" And I nod in response.

We sit there for almost an hour, when I notice that Mr. Schroeder fell asleep and his chair was tilted back, resting on the board behind him. An idea strikes in my head and I turn to Zach. He grins and we both get up from our seats, walking to Mr. Schroeder's desk.

I scratch Mr. Schroeder's nose and he leans back in his chair, waving his hand around. The chair ends up tilting back even further and it falls down. Zach and I scramble back to our seats. We're childish, I know, but what's detention without a bit of fun?

Mr. Schroeder stands up abruptly, huffing and glares at all of us. "Who did that?" He demands. He looks around searching for the culprits until I'm met with his narrowed eyes.

"Mr. Thompson and Mr. Carter, you'll both be staying in detention tomorrow after school, for two hours," he tells us sternly.

"Why? We didn't do anything," I shrug.

"I know it was you boys who pulled this immature joke on me," Mr. Schroeder claims, pointing at the both of us.

"You don't have proof of that, do you?" Zach asks him.

"No, but I'm-" Mr. Schroeder starts.

"You don't have proof, which means you don't know if we did it or no," I say, trying not to smirk.

"B-but, I'm almost-" Mr. Schroeder starts again.

"Should have had proof, Mr. Schroeder," Zach shakes his head.

Mr. Schroeder looks at us with puzzlement before walking out of the detention room.

"Well, I guess that's the end of detention for today," I say, standing up with Zach following me. We both walk out of the room and as soon as we make it out, we burst out laughing.

"That was awesome," Zach chuckles.

"Sure was."

| | | |

"What did you do this time?" Luna asks as soon as I walk through the front door.

"How do you know I did something?" I question, closing the door with my foot.

"Because you're my brother, maybe," she replies.

"So, what? You're gonna play mom now?"

"No, I'm just playing 'young sister who's an exception of mom'," she answers, making air quotes.

I sigh, "I was sleeping in Mr. Harris' class, and then he woke me up and asked me to answer this question. I was about to answer to it, when he said: that proves that human stupidity is increasing, so I told him: are you sure it doesn't prove that you're not a good teacher? And he gave me detention. That's pretty much it," I explain.

She grins. "That was a great comeback."

"Thanks, shortie," I grin back, ruffling her hair.

She scowls, punching my arm. "Ow," I chuckle, rubbing my arm.

"I'm not short. You're two inches taller than I am," she huffs, glaring at me.

"Of course," I say. "Where's mom anyways?"

"Buying things from the store, since we're visiting Aunt Lucy on Saturday."

"That's in two days?"

"Mhm," she nods.

"So, where am I staying?"

"In the streets," she replies, smiling innocently and I send her a dry look.

"You're not funny," I tell her.

"You're right, I'm hilarious," she remarks confidently.

"You sure are," I chuckle and ruffle her hair once again just to annoy her.

"Luke," she huffs.

"Stop annoying your sister," Lara says walking out of the kitchen and going upstairs.

"You know that's not going to stop me!" I shout, telling her. I love doing nothing but annoying my sisters. They're probably sick of my ass, but I know for a fact that they love me too much to be annoyed by me.

"Yup, you're definitely staying in the streets when we go to Aunt Lucy's."

| | | |

❀