Chapter 15- "Only The Good Die Young"

Eye of the Tiger - Survivor

"Who was the fifth President of The United States?"

"James Monroe."

"Who wrote the Scarlett Letter?"

" Nathaniel Hawthorne."

"Top Five Countires according to nominal Gross Domestic Product?"

"The United States of America, China, Japan, Germany and France."

"List The Beatle's twenty US number ones."

"By release date, song title or number of weeks at number one?"

Karla looked up and smiled, "Damn, Super Spencer is back and better than ever."

I smirked out of cockiness, "And he's going to obliterate these last few exams."

She chuckled, "That's my boy." she closed the book, shutting the flash cards in between one of the pages and began to pack her bag.

I frowned as I watched her and rested (rougher than I intended) a hand on top of her as to stop her from continuing, "What are you doing?"

She looked around the library before staring back at me, "Spence, we've been here since three."

I slipped my hand from on top of hers and quickly looked at my watch, "It's only slightly after five, Karly."

She blinked, "Yes and we've done nothing but talk about dead presidents and the mind-fuck that is biology." She sighed, "can we at least take a five minute break."

It was my turn to blankly stare and blink, "Karla, I have As in all of my classes, I'm sure I aced all my other tests and this is the first term that I have a clear shot at a 4. GPA. I plan to make these last three tests my bitch."

"And you will."

I snorted, "I almost tripped up on that Diffusion-Osmosis question."

She huffed. "But you didn't."

"Yeah, but I took eleven seconds to answer it." I paused, "Eleven, Karla, eleven!"

"Spence, you're doing it again."

I narrowed my eyes, "Doing what?"

"You're letting these exams turn you into a monster."

I scoffed, "Stop exaggerating."

"For God's sake Spencer, they sound alarms when you come down the hall and everyone screams and runs for their lives."

I rolled my eyes, "Whatever."

She followed suit with her brown pair, "Look, I'm going home and going try to get some sleep."

"Amateur." I mumbled and let her pack her things up before half-heartedly waving a goodbye as she left.

I spent the next thirty minutes in the Biology book and before I could switch to American History, someone cleared their throat. The overpowering feeling to roll my eyes made it clear who it was – even if I didn't hear the voice.

"What do you want Mathew." I blurted out, keeping my eyes down on the lines in the book – even if I wasn't actually reading anymore.

He chuckled lightly, "How do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Make things sound like statements rather than questions?"

I finally looked up to meet his amused chocolate eyes and curly brown hair "You wanted something, Mathew."

"You did it again."

"Is there any chance of you dropping dead right now and leaving me alone?" I asked. He wanted a question.

He held up his hands in defense and took an unwelcomed seat across from me, "No questions, just wanted to scope out the competition." he gave me a lopsided smile. "Besides, only the good die young."

"I'm hardly competition for you and why are you still here anyway?"

"Don't sell yourself short, Spencer." He said with a smirk, "I may have been the number one student in our grade level according to Grade Point Average for the last two years but you've been climbing the ladder and now look at you, you're at thirteen." He laughed but it sounded more mocking than anything, "and I'm here to take the French final tonight at eight."

I raised a brow, "And you're here already?"

He shrugged, "l'oiseau tôt attrape le ver, no?"

I rolled my eyes, "Show off."

He laughed heartily, "It's the only thing I know how to do."

"Why are you here?"

He blinked out of confusion, "Didn't I just answer that?"

"I meant why are you here...sitting with me."

He got quiet for a second before shrugging, "Your eyes were moving so quickly across the page and you looked like you were going to spontaneously combust at any second so I thought I'd come over and get you to focus on something more worth your while."

I snorted, amused, "And that's you?"

"Hey," he playfully hummed out of fake hurt, "that can bruise a fella's ego."

I chuckled, "You're distracting me, Mathew." I laughed again, "Go away, please."

"Don't pretend as if you don't enjoy my company number thirteen."

"Yes, I did." I said and he took that and foolishly ran with it.

He clumsily licked his lips and leaned back in the chair and after a few humorous failed attempts to look sexy and cool, he finally got the both of his black boot covered feet on the table and his hands to support the back his head. "You think I'm sexy, don't you?"

"Well, I said I did enjoy you're company; operative word been did and unfortunately for you, I don't find cocky-geeky-chic sexy at all." I muttered, only half kidding.

I swiped his legs off the table but ensuring that he didn't fall (like I hoped he would) he immediately leaned forward and barely caught the edge of the table before taking a tumble backwards onto the carpeted (but hard) floor of the library.

He growled at me, "What is stopping me from pressing attempted homicide charges on you right now?"

I rolled my eyes comically, "Oh please, Mathew. That fall would have barely scraped your elbows."

He scoffed through laughter, "So, what exams do you have tonight?"

I sighed. Obviously Mathew wasn't going to go away anytime soon so I placed my pen on whatever page I was on and closed the book before answering him, "None. I just can't go home to study."

He nodded, "I'm guessing too many distractions and by too many distractions I meant people and by people I meant one person and by one person I meant Ethan."

I blinked at how correct he was but I couldn't let him have it, "That's not of your business."

"And that means I'm right." He smirked.

"Look, shouldn't you be studying for your French finals or something?"

He placed a hand under his chin and started to massage little stub of hair that was barely there and pretended as if he was deep in thought, "Why not practice now?"

I blinked in confusion, "What do you me-"

"Aimez-vous ethan?"

I huffed as sassily as possible and was prepared to answer him in English but I'd rather play his stupid game than give him the satisfaction of boosting his already overinflated ego by leading him to believe that I either couldn't speak French or that he was in anyway shape or form more advanced than I was.

"Ce n'est pas de vos affaires." I responded.

"Pourquoi vous cacher de lui, alors?" he asked.

"Il me distrait"

He smirked, "Ah, vous voulez étudier l'histoire, mais il veut étudier spencer."

I rolled my eyes; he was right but I'd be damned if I admitted it "Vous posez trop de questions."

He shrugged with a deep chuckle, "Je suis un gars curieux."

"La curiosité a tué le poisson."

"Chat"

I narrowed my eyes, "What?"

"It's chat, you said poisson, which means fish, not cat. I'm guessing that year in Paris all those years ago didn't really pay off did it?"

I clenched my jaw, "You flustered me by asking those personal questions."

He smiled, "Spencer Haynes doesn't do flustered. Besides, if you love Ethan then it should have been something that you should be screaming from the top if mountains, not getting flustered over."

I narrowed my eyes on him, "Are you suggesting something?"

He stared blankly for a second before shaking his head while laughing, "Nope. It was just an observation." He smiled and stood, "I like you Spencer."

"Not interested."

He gave me a look, "I meant like you as a friend."

"Definitely not interested."

He laughed and shrugged, "Yeah, I know." He smiled again and grabbed his bag from the off of the floor near his feet, "C'est la vie, Spencer." He turned around to exit but halted and spun to meet my eyes again, "Oh, and if you are nominated for JP King, you've got my vote."

"Not that I would need it, but thanks."

He snorted, "Who's the cocky one here again?"

I shrugged him off and reopened my book, hopefully to signal to him that the conversation had ended. He took it and surprisingly without another breath, he left.

Mathew and I always had a weird relationship. The tension between us growing up was palpable and everyone felt it. It started in elementary school when we competed to be head boy; a title held by the leading male prefect. He boasted a 4. GPA and was an expert in Spanish. Or as expert as a fifth grader could get; bottom line, the kid could say car in Spanish and roll that 'r' in 'carro' like a (Spanish?) god.

Little did we know, Mathew was half Dominican.

He won and that stuck with me. I got the upper hand at the seventh grade science fare when my anatomically correct alligator stole the show and showed up his hardly correct crocodile. After that, it was an all-out war. He won the science fair in ninth grade, I won in tenth and stole it again in eleventh this past March. It wasn't until he said something about my mom and Ethan had socked him clean in the jaw that I had officially ended it.

Ever since then, we've had the strangest of relationships; not cool enough to be friends but not nearly as bitter to be enemies anymore. And so, we settled for a simple teasing of one another's accomplishments. Turns out, I would be the second best in that relationship because his GPA kept him at the top of the heap while mine dropped enough to barely be on his radar. Whether any of that was a blessing or a curse is still left to be decided.

"Spencer?" I looked up again, ready to bark at the person who dared to distract me but, when my eyes rose, the annoyance fled when I met her soft eyes. Her dark hair and height may have changed but her brightly colored eyes was hard to misplace. Her hands curled into one another and her fingers were dancing nervously. She swallowed harshly and spoke again, "Spencer Haynes?"

I closed my book slowly, keeping my eyes on her and stood even slower, "Suzy?" I mumbled, in shock and awe.

A small smile etched itself onto her pink lips and she nodded. "Yeah, it's me."

I exhaled with eyes still agape, "When..." I said but it was hardly audible, "When did you get back?"

"About a month or two ago?"

"Why didn't you tell me you went here?"

She shook her head, "Technically I don't." she laughed, "I'll be attending this fall for senior year, I'm just here to read a little."

"Then why didn't you tell me you were back? Do you still live in the same house next door?"

She shook her head again, "Nah, I live closer to the town limits now with my aunt and uncle."

I frowned, "Why? What happened to Mr. and Mrs. Fun?" I asked, calling her parents by the nickname I created, oh so long ago.

Her jovial smile faltered but she did her best to not let me see through the obvious cracks, "They're going through a little rough patch right now. My dad is back in town as well but I decided staying with him without my mom there didn't feel right."

I frowned, "I'm so sorry, Suzy." I tried to smile, "I wish we met under better circumstances."

She smiled, "Yeah, but hey, I've got tickets to a Taylor Swift concert this summer and I was wondering if my old best friend would like to catch up?"

I gaped again, "Oh my God, you have Swifty tickets?" I stopped her from answering, "I don't care, yes. I'm going so if this is one of your lies, you better be prepared for a major ass-whuppin."

She laughed and scoffed almost at the same time, "You're just going to see Taylor Swift."

"Uh, duh." I retorted in all honesty before I added, "And because I want to know why you're a brunette and not a blonde now."

She nodded with a short, cute giggle, "And I want to know when since Spencer had great taste in men."

I scoffed, "Ethan Littman is hardly a man."

She cocked her head, "Then why are you with him?"

"I never said I wanted a man. I'm not the one with the affinity for older guys."

She scoffed, "He was only thirteen and I didn't like-like him!"

"We were nine and oh please, you turned to into sillier putty than our Play-Doh every time Jesse "The Sexy" was outside on his bad boy bike with those bad boy training wheels." I chided playfully.

"You're exaggerating." She bit back as a nostalgic look overcame her facial expression and started fanning herself, "He was hot though. His abs were incredible; what ever happened to him?"

I deadpanned, "He was thirteen, those weren't abs, it was his ribcage and he's been to fat camp so many times they've named several violations concerning smuggling food onto camp grounds after him." I retorted dryly.

One of her eyes twitched, "That's disturbing and you're so mean."

"Meh." I shrugged.

She laughed before her eyes lit up, "You want to go to the park and stare up at clouds like we used to?"

"Suzy, it's almost dark out, I have a bajillion things left to study."

She rolled her eyes, "Stop making excuses and pack your things, Haynes. We're going to the park to catch up."

There wasn't any real way to stop Suzy from doing what she wanted. I knew better than to play the 'yes-no' game with her so, I just left and followed behind her in my car. We arrived at the park soon after and walked along the stony pathway with the ice-cream we bought and just chatting about random things.

"So, Ethan is your best friend."

"Correct."

"You kissed him in some old house."

"You're right."

"You both figured out you had feelings and went on some blissful date where he accidnetly hit some guy in the nutsack."

"Yup."

"And now you've been dating for over a month and you're probably going to be nominated as the first ever Prom Kings of JP."

"When did everyone decide calling Junior Prom, 'JP' was the right way to go?"

She huffed louldy, "Take the stick out of your ass."

"I have, it's just been replaced by something a little but more," I thought, "pleasing."

She nearly choked on the spoonful of ice-cream; quickly swallowing it, she coughed and laughed at the same time, "You and him?"

I nodded a jubilant – slightly embarrassed – response to which she found it okay to punch me hard on the forearm for.

"That hurt!" I boomed and return the same blow to her arm.

She growled, "Hey! You can't hit a girl!"

"Oh please, Suzy." I retorted, rolling my eyes. "We both know you hate being thought of as weaker than men."

She puffed out her chest. "You're damn right I do." She pounded on it, not necessarily looking as if she cared to any degree if her fist smacked special cargo.

We giggled together the rest of the way up the walkway until we got sidetracked by someone on the other side of the park who was storming away in such an angry fashion that he was attracting a significant attention.

"The back of that guy's head looks familiar." Suzy muttered from the side of me, watching the same spectacle that I was.

I narrowed my eyes, "You know... it does." I mumbled more so to myself. "He looks exactly like Ethan from behind."

"Maybe it's him."

"Nah." I answered her, "Ethan is "studying" with his friends at his place." My eyes scrolled back up the opposite way the tempered boy was walking and I came to bench with another boy seated there with his hands sitting delicately in his laps and his head bowed. "He looks rather familiar too." I absentmindedly blurted out. "His hair is curly just like..." my eyes widened, "Austin."

"Who?" Suzy questioned but I just waved her off and started to walk through the grass towards the glum boy. "Hey, where are you going?!" she yelled from the other side but I kept on walking until I was directly in front of him.

He must have seen my jeans because he looked up and immediately scoffed. "You come to rub it in?" he spat.

"You know, I was feeling sympathy for you as I crossed the grass, but not that I know you've probably had a boyfriend the entire you were trying to pursue me, I think I am." I smirked, standing with my hands latched on my waist. "You deserve it."

He blinked, "I was never trying to pursue you, Spencer."

I blinked and cocked my head, "So all of that flirting, punching my boyfriend and trying to split us up was just a part of your sick game you did for fun?" I hissed, "What kind of human being are you to do something that sick?"

He lowered his head in supposed guilt, "You don't know anything."

I scoffed, "I know enough, Austin. Enough to know that you are scum." I barked, "You sicken me, you disgust me, you-"

"Dated your boyfriend."

"You're a bigger ass than I thought if you think I'm believing that."

He shook his head, "You don't have to believe anything, Spencer." He muttered softly, "Ethan and I dated in the spring of this year."

"Liar." I quickly retorted, keeping a firm grip on my waist.

"I was the mystery person he dated."

I stumbled on that one. I never ever told Austin about that. "Ethan must have told Piper that he was keeping her a secret and you found out."

He shook his head, "I came up with it."

I closed my eyes and pinched my nose, "So, wait. You and Ethan dated in the spring of this year. That would mean he's been lying to me for months." I turned around to face Suzy – who was patiently leaning against a tree and watching from afar. "I'll make him sorry he was born." I growled and was about to march away until one of Austin's cold hands wrapped around my arm, pulled me back and spun me around.

"It's not his fault, Spencer. I convinced him that being gay was wrong and then we broke up." He stopped himself, "I shouldn't be telling you this; it's not my place to."

"You're damn right it isn't." I barked and took out my phone and dialed his number, waiting impatiently until he finally answered with a nervous 'hello'.

"We need to talk."