'victoria!' the teacher yelled at me

'um yes, mr benzer?' I eagerly replied,

i was half asleep in class and not paying attention to anything he said,

because yesterday after we bought the dress, I stayed at richie's for a couple of hours and ended up eating dinner there and staying until 10:00, 3 hours after the curfew

the curfew didn't really matter anymore, as there hadn't been any murders in the past two years, but the rule was still there and the adults and children still obeyed it

not all, though

i heard rumours that patrick hockstetter, a member of the bowers gang, lurks around at night looking for hookups

but i've never seen him do it with my own eyes so I don't 100% believe it;

but it seems realistic for someone from the bowers gang to do, though

it ended up with mrs tozier driving me home at 11:00pm, but dropping me off one block away from my house so steve wouldn't see her car

when I arrived at the house, steve had gone to bed and I had to crawl through the window silently

so I went to bed at around midnight last night and had to get up at 5:00am to explain to steve where I had been, at least he believed my lies

'miss harrington, I know who your brother is; heck I even had him in my class when he was your age. so, cut the bullshit and answer my question; what is 20 percent of 2000?'

with some quick thinking and my calculator,'400'

'correct, class dismissed' he said as everyone got up

it was the last class, but he dismissed almost an hour too early

i had to wait for richie after class, and certainly didn't want to wait outside in the snow

but why would he dismiss us so early? I looked up at the clock and realised he only dismissed us ten minutes early

i must've slept through the entire lesson,

at least I only got caught once, and didn't even really get in trouble

with a sigh, I packed up my things and walked out into the now empty hallways of the school

when I finally got to the bike racks outside of school, there was five minutes until the bell rang

okay, five minutes aren't so bad,

i thought to myself, that was until I saw patrick hockstetter come over to me with his lighter in his hand and a creepy smirk on his face

'what'cha doing out here all alone, baby doll?' he was a few feet away from me

'buzz off, patrick. i'm not your 'baby doll'.' I rolled my eyes at his presence, obviously annoyed with him

'oh baby doll, you know you love me' he smirked

'shut up and leave me alone. i'm tired of your stupid bullshit'

'i'm afraid that can't and won't happen; where's your lord and saviour now? where's bitchy richie?'

i crossed my arms around my chest, avoiding eye contact

'he's not a bitch, you are'

'defending him! I see how this is,'

i turned to him,'how what is?!'

'oh, you wouldn't get it anyways. after all you're just a harrington'

i had had enough,'what the hell can I do to get you to go away from me?!'

he smirked provocatively,'tell me his biggest weakness' he demanded

'what? why?'

'no questions, just tell me or i'll drag you down to the forest and you'll never see daylight again'

'me' I whispered and mumbled at the same time

'what did you say?' he came closer to me

'me, i'm his biggest weakness!' I only said that so he would hurt me, and not richie

i know richie's biggest weakness, we talked about it in september,

we had set out a tent in his backyard with blankets and snacks,

it was around 3 am and we were looking at the stars;

'victoria, what's your biggest fear?'

i looked at him, his attention still solely focused on the stars above,'losing you, richie. my biggest fear is losing you. how about you, what's your biggest fear?'

'not to sound heartless or trying to show off, but I don't really have any fears'

'how about your biggest weakness?'

'probably someone taking away something I care deeply for, like you, or my mom'

'richie, the last thing you are is heartless'

'so, you're his biggest weakness?' what I said hadn't been completely false, just maybe a little bended truth

'mhm' I answered

'I don't buy it, tell me the truth'

suddenly, I could feel an arm draped around my shoulder and sudden movement, forcing me to walk away from patrick

it was richie, I smiled at his presence while inhaling his cologne

'fuck off, patrick! and don't ever get near my hot stuff again!' richie yelled at patrick

we got on richie's bike as he started to bike off, before patrick was completely out of sight, we could hear him yell at the top of his lungs,'YOU'RE BOTH MESSED UP!'

we laughed it off as richie biked down towards the quarry

i held on to him as we finally arrived there, dropping our backpacks on the ground

'look, rich, it's all frozen!' I said to him, it looked so cool

'wow, so interesting' he said sarcastically

we sat down on a bench, overlooking the small body of frozen water

'hey, victoria; what happened between you and patrick back there?' richie asked me

i lied to him, but only to protect him,'oh, he just asked me where you were'

there you go bending the truth again, victoria! way to go... not

'oh, and you're not messed up. neither of us are'

he continued quickly,'and if we are, let's be messed up together'

he draped his arm around my shoulder and I rested my head on his shoulder

'yeah, richie. let's be messed up together' I agreed, sighing at the fact of how cold it was

at least the snowball is this week, that's something to look forward to

and spending time with richie, of course