Chapter Seven

As I gazed out of Axel Cambridge's living room window watching birds sing their morning songs from atop of the roofs of the small houses that surrounded his own rather spacious one, I couldn't help but wish I'd pretended to be unwell and stayed at home.

In all honesty, when I had arrived at school that day I had suspected that at some point Parker's friends might have made a sudden appearance in the attempt to whisk me off some place other than Oakton High. However, what I did not prepare myself for was to be ambushed by the school's front door, not even having a chance to step foot inside the cream coloured prison.

As soon as I had clambered out of my car, I caught sight of the pair. Even though I hadn't met either of the guys who were there to pick me up, I knew who they'd be friends with. One was blond and held a cigarette between his lips, the other had dyed hair, wore some vague band shirt (that I couldn't read the name of due to our distance) and a smattering of tattoos on each of his arms. They both stuck out like sore thumbs and to make their presence even more obvious, a large group of girls with bad hair extensions and designer bags had flocked around them. They all giggled loudly as if they were under the impression that males would deem higher-pitched sounds more attractive.

It seemed to be working for Blondie. Even from where I stood I could see his goofy smile and tell he was enjoying the attention. His friend was the opposite, a scowl on his face as his eyes continued to roam the area around him. It was at that moment that they had landed on me, trying to remain unseen, manoeuvring my way through the throng of students who lingered outside the building and awaited the bell to ring.

After that, everything went downhill. Tattoo Boy dragged his blond friend away from their admirers and made a beeline for me. With their long legs, it only took a few minutes for them to catch up with my pitiful escape attempt.

Suddenly there was four hands snagging my clothes and reeling me back to them. Touching, pulling and grabbing at my arms until they got a firmer grip on my squirming body to successfully throw me into the backseats of their car. My writhing had done nothing to taint Blondie's happy mood or upset disinterested looking Tattoo Boy, nor had my cursing once within the confinement of their car. That was made apparent when they began to talk to one another as if the whole fiasco back in front of the school never happened and blatantly ignored me. And so fifteen minutes later, once I felt I had fired a sufficient amount of insults about both boys and their mothers, I buckled my seatbelt and sat in silence for the entire trip to Axel's house. I continued that silence when inside.

I had no idea how they recognised who I was, but then again, if they were friends with Parker who somehow just knew where I worked then I didn't want to dwell on it.

"I told you not to touch her," Axel stressed for what felt like the billionth time since I had arrived. I was still focusing on the clear morning sky outside but I could see him pacing in my peripheral vision. "He's going to skewer us all. We'll go up in flames. We're going to become piles of ash."

"I think you need to calm down, mate." Tattoo Boy said calmly. I had learnt from listening in on their conversations that he was called Hayden Cross and that Blondie was Matthew Keller. Hayden appeared unfazed and bored about the whole thing whereas it was clear that Axel's panicking was wearing off on Matthew.

"What if he's right?" Matthew mumbled nervously. The blond looked younger than the others with his large dark eyes and thick head of hair that seemed as though it was long due a trim. "She looks kinda dead."

"Of course I'm right," Axel huffed. "You haven't seen him. He goes fucking ape shit crazy when you say a bad word about her. If you've touched her, the guy's going to explode."

For once, Axel was actually right about something. Parker did like to overreact and he no doubt would over this... yet I couldn't bring myself to talk to them and save their skins. The drag from the school doors to the car was somewhat blurry now as though my brain had found it too unpleasant to think about. It had stamped the memory with the word unbearable before locking it in the darkest recesses of my mind. However, what I did recall was screaming a lot. I knew for a fact that if people hadn't already been gossiping about me in my absence, I had just ensured it now.

"Parker's with a girl for a few days, a few weeks tops. He's been with this one for just under a month. Any day now he'll drop her so shut the fuck up and stop being a melodramatic sissy."

"You don't get it, do you?" Axel grumbled. "She doesn't like touching and he's still with her. This is why we need the fucking meeting-"

A loud bang sounded from another part of the house and I presumed it to be Axel's front door from the way he immediately sat down as if he wasn't just freaking out. I turned my head slightly to see who would enter the room, arms still hugging my knees to my chest as I sat at the window seat. I already had my suspicions so it came as no shock when a laughing Parker and Topher strolled inside.

Topher was dressed from head to toe in black, a look that he managed to pull off whilst others would appear as though they were trying to be a stereo-typical ninja or thief (minus the mask of course). Parker was dressed similarly only instead of boots he wore his dirty, faded sneakers and instead of having bare arms he sported his usual over sized bomber jacket. They both had grins on their faces which made them look annoyingly attractive as they laughed about something or other, but when they realised the bad atmosphere which had settled the laughter died on their lips and the room lapsed into silence. Parker caught sight of me and his mouth opened slightly as if he were about to say something before his brows crashed together into an infuriated scowl.

"What the fuck did you guys do to her?" He snapped, stalking over to where I sat. I didn't need to move my legs for him to have room to sit by my side seeing as I was curled up in the corner.

"I'd just like to clear up that I wasn't involved and it was all their fault." Axel declared, pointing the blame toward both Matthew and Hayden with raised hands in that universal sign of surrender. It seemed to work in his favour, Parker immediately turning his accusing glare to his other two friends. I watched as Axel's shoulders visibly slumped in relief.

"We forgot..." Matthew trailed off, looking like a deer caught in the headlights of a car. He jerked his head to get his overgrown fringe out of his eyes only for it to fall back into the exact same place. "That she, you know, doesn't like touching?"

I actually wanted to laugh. He looked so young and innocent that it baffled me as to how he'd wound up hanging out with such a group. He looked nervous as if he were about to get a lecture from his parents. It almost made me feel sorry for him. Almost.

"What?" Parker growled.

"We didn't forget, we just didn't think she'd be so fucking loud. We'll remember next time not to physically push her into our car because she'll end up kicking and screaming like a little kid. No big deal." Hayden sighed, looking well and truly bored of the topic of conversation. He snatched the cigarette out of Matthews hand (the only thing that made the blond boy look as if he fitted in with the rest of his group) and took a drag from it as if he'd just done something as harmless as stating the change in weather.

It seemed as though even the room itself held its breath as everyone awaited Parker's reaction. As soon as I saw how his body tensed, I knew he was like a coiled spring that was ready to explode with rage in an instant. The white anger that flared up in his hazel eyes was enough to see that he only had one thing on his mind: beating the living daylights out of Hayden.

Everyone moved at the same time.

Hayden coolly took the cigarette from his lips and raised his eyebrow; Matthew let out a nervous giggle before smacking a hand over his mouth to shut himself up; Topher let out a low wolf whistle and took a seat as if readying himself to watch an entertaining fight; Parker tried to lunge forwards whilst Axel hurriedly jumped in front of Hayden as if to shield him from Parker's fury.

"I think we all just need to calm down, right?" Axel chuckled awkwardly, deflecting a blow from Parker that was aimed at Hayden's head.

"Are you shitting me? I'll calm down when he apologises! Bet the fucker hasn't done that yet, has he?" Parker spat. He took a step forward resulting in Axel taking one back, practically standing on the uncaring Hayden's toes.

"Mate, just let him have his temper tantrum or he'll be whining for hours."

As soon as the words had left Hayden's mouth, I knew what would happen. I didn't want another run-in with the police because I'd been caught in the middle of a bloodbath in a house belonging to a boy I barely knew. So I did what anybody would have done, I quickly caught hold of the hem of Parker's bomber jacket and tugged him backward. He paused, turning around to face me with a frown before his gaze settled on my shaking hand.

"Don't." I said.

"Why shouldn't I? He fucking touched you!"

"Just- don't," I couldn't think of a substantial reason so I quickly added, "Please."

I watched as he began to lose his resolve, analysing my face for something unknown to me. Whatever he eventually found (panic perhaps?) finally made him give up. He plopped himself back down next to me with a defeated sigh and everyone relaxed. All except Hayden that is, who was already thoroughly at ease. He smirked.

"Dude, you're so whipped."

"Oh you are just asking to get a punch today."

"I feel like throwing fertilizer on you guys so you both grow the hell up!" I snapped and Matthew giggled. "Tell me why you've dragged me here and lets get this over and done with so I can just leave."

"We wanted you here so we could... talk." Axel said.

"Really? I thought you kidnapped me just so we could all share some ice-cream." I deadpanned.

"Do you have any ice-cream?" Matthew asked him.

I stared at them both for a second, watching the abrupt change in topic from the window seat. Parker seemed just as bemused as I was. Then Axel told us to follow him into the kitchen.

"We've come to the agreement that there's a problem." Axel said minutes later as we all sat around his large kitchen table, bowls of ice-cream in front of us.

"With what?" Parker demanded.

"With her." Hayden stated bluntly, gesturing to me with a nod of his head. I practically inhaled my spoon upon hearing his words.

"What?" I asked weakly. Parker tried to grab my hand underneath the table as if to reassure me it was okay but I shook him off and stomped on his toes. He hissed out in pain, hooking a foot around my chair leg and dragging me closer to him instead. I sent him an irritated look.

"We tend to get rid of our problems but obviously we can't do that with you." Axel began.

"By get rid of our problems, he means beat the shit out of them until they don't come back." Hayden explained offhandedly. I wasn't sure if he was trying to unnerve me or if the guy just had no consideration for anything other than himself. Whatever his reasoning, his words were certainly making me uncomfortable.

"We like you too much," Axel continued, shaking his head at Hayden with a disapproving look. "Plus, Parker would lose his shit if we did that."

"Too right I would." Parker agreed, his face stony and fists clenched.

"I don't really see the problem," Topher spoke up for the first time that morning. At the looks he received, he continued with a mouth full of ice-cream, "She's pretty to look at, I say we keep her around."

"We've talked about this Topher," Axel snapped, cutting off an angered comment from Parker. He looked distressed again. I realised that when put beside his friends, somehow the immature Axel had morphed into some kind of fatherly figure keeping everyone in order. "Our problem isn't her looks, it's what she's doing."

I couldn't deny that I was eyeing up my exits. I knew from experience that wielding a spoon as a weapon was completely useless and had next to no impact when flung at someone's face so my only solution to my terrible situation was escaping. Due to how large and luxurious Axel's house was, there were two doors leading to his kitchen, one at either end of the room. However, if I propelled myself across the wooden table we all sat at and leapt through his large open window, I figured it would be a lot quicker. As if catching onto my train of thought, Hayden sent me a look of warning. I sank back into my chair.

"What is this, an intervention?" I snorted, mixing my ice-cream nervously until it resembled a vanilla-like soup. "Do tell me gentleman, what exactly is your problem with me?"

"They think you're making Parker lose his edge," Hayden looked utterly fed-up with everyone now. "They don't believe me when I say he'll be done with you in just a matter of time, that you're only for entertainment purposes just now because he's bored."

Though the thought had entered my head more than a few times and quite frankly, I still did believe that myself, it felt different to have someone else voice it. I was more than a little shocked when I worked out that the odd feeling building up in my gut was hurt. Did I actually think of the guy as a friend? That would be a definite no. I put aside my obscure feelings as quickly as they had arrived.

There was a long stretch of silence before Parker and I suddenly exclaimed at the same time, "What?"

"Look Flora," Axel sighed. I noticed that he addressed me by my name just as Parker had asked him to, not Frigid Flora which he had called me for the past few years. "It's not that we don't like you," Hayden made a noise and everybody (myself included) simultaneously shot him a glare except for Matthew who was apparently too busy licking ice-cream from his thumb. "We're just worried about his reputation."

"Right," Parker laughed. "What the actual fuck are you guys on about? Is this some kind of joke?"

"You hang around with her all of the time now. You don't even sit next to us in classes anymore and... some people are going to notice that you, you know, have a weakness."

Parker seemed to get what Axel was trying to say as understanding dawned on his features before he began to look irritated again. I, however, was still completely confused as to what was going on.

"How the heck am I his weakness?" I huffed. "I don't get this. We're not like- dating you know?"

Excluding Parker and I, everybody laughed. "Parker doesn't date." Matthew explained in a muffled voice as he licked his bowl clean before he helped himself to Parker's virtually untouched one.

"Right, so are you going to explain why I'm his weakness then?"

"He doesn't have any targetable weaknesses, not until you showed up. Mention your name and he's ranting at us to go to hell, do anything bad to you and we get a stand-off like the scene in the living room earlier. It's like he doesn't give a shit about anything apart from you. He doesn't give a flying fuck about his mum because she-"

"Enough." Parker interrupted, slamming his hands down on the table. Axel shut up and it left me curious. Parker had somehow ended up knowing a fair amount about my own life whereas I knew little of his. In fact, for all I knew, Parker could have been an orphan on the streets that had his meals out of the local trashcan seeing as he'd mentioned nothing of his life at home. He didn't care about his mum? I wondered why. Also, what did they mean by targetable weakness? "There's nothing wrong with my rep and there's nothing wrong with me hanging out with her so you can all just fuck off." He stood from the table, chair legs squeaking loudly across the tiles. He grabbed his bowl before stalking over to the sink, throwing it in with a loud clang.

"So what are you trying to say?" I asked after a few moments of us all just staring at one another and glancing every so often at Parker who stood hunched over the sink, arms tensed up in frustration as he held onto the counter's edge.

"We think it'd be best if you... distanced yourselves. You're not good for him." Topher answered, sending me a sympathetic look.

"I'm not good for him?" I choked. "Some might say that's the other way around."

"You're making him go all soft." Topher replied as if it were obvious.

If they thought Parker was soft, I didn't want to know what they thought of me.

"And you think my absence is going to help, how?" I was starting to feel how Hayden looked. They were all beginning to irritate me. The entire situation was ludicrous. "Clearly whoever you don't want seeing us together already has which is why we're currently having this conversation, yes?" My thoughts were confirmed at the look that crossed Axel's face. Like me, he seemed to be terrible at concealing things. "So how exactly is this going to help anything now?"

"It just will, alright." Axel snapped.

"Don't talk to her like that." Parker glared at him as he came back over to sit beside me. "Come on honey, lets go."

Hayden made an audible gagging sound at the pet name but he ignored it.

"See, soft!" Topher shouted, proud to have found some evidence to back up his earlier point.

"I'm not soft you dick!"

I tried to pay no attention to them, still unsatisfied with the answer I'd been granted. "It just will? That's your reason? Wow, maybe you should run for president because this wisdom of yours is sure to enrich thousands of lives."

"That mouth on you..." Topher laughed from the other side of the table.

"Right, that's it. We're leaving." Parker stated, grabbing my hand and tugging me out of the room.

"I don't like touching." I reminded him, trying to wriggle my hand out of his gentle yet firm grip. It was severely uncomfortable but I couldn't help but notice how his touch seemed to burn a lot less than it first had. It reminded me of him touching my foot and how it hadn't been as atrocious as anticipated.

I yanked my hand out of his grasp and avoided all eye contact, trying to figure out what that meant as we left Axel's house. It should have been the least of my worries. I hadn't called in sick today because I had the intention of going to school. No doubt my no show meant that my mum had received a call informing her of my absence. That meant that when she got back from work, I was as good as dead.

"I'm sorry," Parker said as we approached his pick up truck. It was parked next to the vehicle I had been forced into and looked considerably beaten up next to the sleek convertible. At the look I sent him, he elaborated further, "For what happened upstairs."

I wasn't confused about what he'd apologised for, more for the apology itself coming from Parker's mouth. "Where is Parker Heywood and what have you done with him? Did you honestly just apologise on behalf of your dickweed friends?"

"Guess I did," He gave a half shrug as he revved his engine and I stared at him from the passenger seat in surprise. He faked a cough before trying to regain his badass façade, "But if you tell anybody I'll have to kill you. Brutally and- painfully."