03

He jogged over to me and opened his car door for me, slyly grinning. « Angel. »

He got in the car as well and started the drive to Westwood. He tapped his hands to the beat of the music on the radio, singing loudly and bobbing his head.

I laughed along with him at his silliness. « Your so stupid. » I laughed nudging him lightly.

« Lighten up, Angel. You’re so tight. » He squirmed his brows playfully to his dirty comment.

I shook my head and weakly laughed. « Can I ask you a question ? » I asked looking out the window, watching houses go by quickly.

« If I can ask you one. » He replied.

I rolled my eyes. « Fine, What’s with the different pet names. »

He glanced over and smirked with a wink. « Angel fits you. Even though your first name is fucking hot, I want to go give my girl cute nicknames. »

« Whatever, what’s your question ? »

He stopped the car at a red light, hitting the brakes hard making me jerk forward — he didn’t even flinch. He turned to face me with a serious grimace on his face, he lifted his hand to my cheek and I felt him wipe the dried tear stain off my cheek. « Why have you been crying. »

Maddox’s POV

Her eyes. They weren’t as bright as they use to be. The brown honey orbs looked dull and red. Like she had cried. Which is exactly what it was unless she smoked and is high as shit. But she didn’t smell like weed.

« What ? » She laughed breathlessly. « Crying ? That’s absurd, I did no such thing. »

I rolled my eyes irritatedly and when I saw the light abruptly turn green, my tatted hands gripped the wheel hard and took off. « Angel, your eyes are stained with redness and you’ve got tear stains on your face. »

She cursed and pulled the mirror down so she could check. She quickly rubbed the dried tear stain away and tensely leaned back in the seat. « It’s nothing. My parents came home and got in a fight. »

I furrowed my brows and looked over at her confused. « That fast ? »

« What’s fast ? » She cluelessly asked.

Rolling my eyes again, I sent her a glare. « Passion, don’t play dumb. I’m talking about your parent’s business trip. » I growl.

« Oh ! Yeah ! That was f-fast. They got discharged back early because something went wrong. » She smiled widely at me before turning back towards the window.

She seemed out of it.

« Okay… » I mutter as I focus my attention on the road. Every time I looked over at her she just had her face glued to whatever was outside the window. She looked like she was in deep, profound, thought.

Once we arrived at school, I parked and turned towards her. Right when she was about to open the door my finger flicked the lock button. She groaned and turned back to me with an annoyed look. « What are you doing, Maddox. »

In the short time in knowing her, she hadn’t called me by my first name like everyone else. She always said Stone, but when my name passed through her parted lips, it made me freeze. It was the way she said it that made me want to listen intently.

« Why are you acting like this ? Did I do something ? » I question seriously.

She laughed and shook her head, her hair flowing in the movement. « No, you didn’t. You’re just asking too many questions. Now open the door or we’ll be late. »

I knew damn well something was up. Even if I wasn’t close with her, I knew shit well she didn’t care about school, especially Mr. Stewart’s class. She always skipped or came late, it was like she was avoiding him.

But instead of fighting it, I sighed and unlocked the door. « I’ll see you after school ? »

She nodded. « Yea. »

After watching her walk off and join her small friend group, I got out of my car with my backpack and headed towards my usual spot. Theodore, Hunter, Cameron, and Cassidy we’re all sitting at the round table outside of the cafeteria smoking.

Cassidy spotted me and gave me a stink eye before alerting the others of my arrival. « Look who it is ! Maddox decided to join us after his latest and poorest conquest. » She snorted tipping the cigarette in the ashtray.

« Don’t be sour blondie. Your just jealous because whoever got him last night, had him and you didn’t. » Hunter chuckled earning a playful smack from a chuckling Cameron.

I shook my head at their ignorance.

Cassidy scoffed bitterly. « I’m not even jealous. That black bitch couldn’t compare to me. »

I rolled my eyes before narrowing them at Cassidy. « Don’t call her out of her name, bitch. »

The group let out some childish ooh’s and Cassidy just pouted her over glossed lips and glared. « Why so defensive Maddox. She was just a lay like all the others. »

« By others, you mean yourself as well ? And I didn’t fuck her, we talked. »

Cameron laughed obnoxiously as he flipped his black hair back, his ring-filled fingers running through his black mane. « Whoa, whoa ! Maddox Grant Stone didn’t fuck a girl that he took home ? »

I scoffed and threw up my middle finger that had a single silver ring, my eyes fell over to the nearby clock that read ; 8 :28.

Why did I hang out with these idiots ?

I didn’t know why but I felt different after talking to Passion. I felt like I wasn’t my usual self. Normally I’d have the urge to fucking make-out with Cassidy when I got to school but after Passion…I can’t help but compare the two. How different and better Passion is versus Cassidy.

The bell rings loudly, alerting people who weren’t in class — that we were late. I swore as I fastened my hand around the strap of my backpack. My feet dragged me into school and down the long halls of hell, not bothering to stop at my locker, I walked to Mr. Stewart’s class.

I saw the horrid English class in view and said a mini prayer before barging into the boring class. All eyes were on my tattooed figure including Mr. Stewart’.

« I knew we were missing a delinquent. » He muttered rolling his eyes behind his glasses as he turned back to the podium and scribbling shit down.

To be an adult, Mr. Stewart was inexperienced and acted like my age. He was twenty-eight and pretty good-looking for a guy who dealt with headache-bestowing teenagers. He had all sorts of girls chasing after him, even the happily married teachers. And Mr. Leavon who was proudly and openly gay.

But other than his looks, at the end of the day, he was still a huge dick that I hated.

I rolled my eyes and connected them to the last seat in the back of Passion’s row. I smiled when I saw her and made my way down her row, my hip lightly nudging her which earned me a playful glare.