Trainwreck (3 page)

Chapter 4

His words affected Sadie more than she was willing to say. She forced her eyes to glance up, hoping the tears that had formed would cease from falling. Her face was flaming, and only got hotter when she realized that everybody had watched their exchange. Suddenly, her hurt transformed into anger, and her brow furrowed as she followed Asher over to where he was.

"Just because you're a jackass doesn't mean you can just treat people like that!" Sadie exclaimed at him, her eyes narrowing into his.

"Isn't that exactly what a jackass is?" Asher retorted, standing up. He was a good head taller than she was, but his height hadn't intimidated her in the least. "And what about you, princess? Who the hell do you think you are when you didn't even notice that I'm in your Marine Bio class!? So stop pretending that you care because it doesn't look good on you."

"Well, maybe I'd notice if you actually showed up once in a while," Sadie retorted, her eyes focused on him. Asher took a step forward and she forced herself to stay put.

"Like that would matter," Asher said, rolling his eyes. "Girls like you don't hang out with guys like me. Girls like Paulina screw guys like me because rich girls like that want to slum it up every once in a while. Girls like Roxy screw guys like me because they want to feel better about themselves. But girls like you, good girls like you, barely even look my way."

His voice had increased with every word and he continued to walk toward her. His eyes had grown completely black, much like Roxy's, and Sadie could feel him fume with anger. Asher raised his hands in exasperation, causing Sadie to flinch. Seeing this, Asher paused and studied her intently. Any anger he had for her seemed to completely dissipate.

When Sadie realized how her body had reacted, her breath caught and she had to take a step back. A few tears rolled down both of her cheeks, but she quickly wiped them away and tried to compose herself. Without even looking at Asher, she headed back down the stairs and took a seat in her chair. However, Asher watched her the entire way down.

"I don't know why you even bother," Edward muttered under his breath.

Within fifteen minutes, Asher had taken his usual seat behind Sadie, but instead of finding something to maintain his focus such as setting something inanimate on fire, his attention was firmly on the back of Sadie's head. She could feel him staring.

The room was silent now. Anthony had recently taken his seat and was now reading some sort of textbook though it looked as though he had fallen asleep on it. Paulina was also sleeping, using her Luis Vuitton bag as a pillow. Roxy and Edward were both the same; Roxy was slumped forward, her oversized bag in front of her to block her face if Stewey entered while Edward was leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed over his chest. Sadie was made a somewhat comfortable pillow out of her forearms, and the majority of her hair covered the majority of her face. Asher was sprawled out across three chairs, his body completely hidden from view.

"
Wake up
!"
Stewey Stewey expected the slouching students to snap to attention, but nobody moved. This set him off a bit, and he bit the inside of his bottom lip to keep his patience. Instead, he tried a different tactic. "Who has to go to the restroom?"


Every hand shot up into the sky.

"Are you going to clean your face?" Sadie asked as she fell into step with Asher, who was purposefully walking slowly, and falling behind his classmates. Her hands were stuffed into her jean pockets, and her eyes would still not look into his. In fact, she positioned her hair so that it covered the profile of her face.

"Nope," Asher said, as though he didn't give a shit one way or the other.

Sadie rolled her eyes and sped up her pace until she reached the pair of restrooms. She didn't actually have to go to the restroom, but she wanted to get up and out of that room. Instead, as Roxy and Paulina headed into the stalls, she ran the faucet and splashed cold water on her warm cheeks, hoping to wipe away any trace of tears that might have stained her cheeks. She glanced up at the mirror, and took a deep breath, studying herself for a moment. Her face looked a little better, if a bit pale, and her forest green eyes were slightly red. Her long, golden hair fell into her face, but she didn't bother brushing it out of the way. She was wearing a black, Slytherin jacket over a somewhat loose Spaghetti Cat T-shirt she had gotten after seeing comedian Joel McHale live a few months ago. She also had on dark blue, formfitting jeans that hung comfortably on her hipbones, with a Batman belt and a pair of old, worn converses. She wasn't exactly the most fashionable person that went to Uni; that honor went to Paulina undoubtedly. However, her clothing was comfortable and she liked her style, so she didn't exactly care.

When she stepped out of the restroom, the boys were all waiting, as well as a very agitated Vice Principle Stewey. Her eyes quickly skimmed Asher's face and a tiny smirk touched her lips when she realized that he had wiped away any remnants of his fight with Edward. He caught her eye and then rolled his as he began to head back to the library without the appearance of Paulina and Roxy.

Once everyone had finished, Stewey made sure everyone was in their seats before heading back to his office across the back entrance of the library. Sadie glanced over at the clock and was surprised to see that it was
9:31am
. Huh. She pulled out her book once again and started to read, hoping time would continue to fly. Maybe fly wasn't the correct word; move. That was better.

"I... uh, I don't think we're allowed to be texting right now, Paulina. What if Stewey came in and-"

"Why are you talking to me? Who are you, my parents? At least here, I can finally feel like I control my life, so do everyone a favor and shut the hell up."

"God Paulina," came Asher's voice from behind Sadie, "were you always such a bitch?"

"Shut up, Asher," Paulina replied, swiveling around to face him. "Just because you live here doesn't make you the boss."

Sadie was staring intently at Anthony, and before she knew it, she pushed her seat back, stood up, and walked over to him. "Hi," she said and stuck out her hand while shoving her free one awkwardly in her pocket. "I'm Sadie. I think we had Algebra 2 together last year, right?"

Anthony looked up at her suspiciously. "Uh, yeah, yeah we did," he said and gave her a little smile. He placed his hand in hers, and the two shook. His hand was sort of clammy while hers was cool, and she gave him a reassuring smile. "I'm Anthony."

"The only reason you're being nice to him, Sadie," Roxy said from over her script, "is because you feel sorry for him."

"If I felt sorry for anyone," Sadie said, narrowing her eyes in the other girls' direction and releasing her hand from Anthony's, "it would be the two of you. You and Paulina think you're better than everyone else and treat people like shit, but if you asked anyone in this school, I highly doubt anyone would save you over themselves."

"It's not my fault the whole school looks up to me," Paulina said, narrowing her eyes.

"Yeah, and it's not my fault everyone wants to be me," Roxy put in.

"Trust me Roxy, I don't want to be you," Sadie said. "I am actually quite pleased with the fact that I'm not in every single school play. And I would never want to be Paulina. I would never want to be as fake as her hair."

"Now I know why Sadie doesn't have any friends," Roxy stated, her eyes turning even darker than before. "It's because she is such a bitch."

"Well, it's not like she has no friends, you know?" Anthony stumbled nervously over his words, causing everyone to look at him. "I mean, I... I would be her friend, I mean. Well, I guess I'm her friend."

"Who would want you as their friend?" Paulina pointed out skeptically.

"Better than being friends with you," Sadie said, meeting the girl's eyes with her own. She fixated her gaze back down towards Anthony and nodded. "I'd be your friend too," she told him and gave him a small smile before heading back to her seat and sitting down.

The minutes continued to tick away. The room was once again silent, save for the obnoxious noises Asher continued to make, as well as sniffs, coughs, and stomachs rumbling. When it was
11:30am
sharp, Stewey walked in.

"You have an hour for lunch," he told the group.

"Excuse me, sir?" Paulina asked with a raised hand. "Would it be possible if I get something to drink from the vending machine?"

"Yeah, I didn't bring any lunch," Roxy said. "Maybe I could get some food...?"

"Why wouldn't you bring any lunch?" Asher asked, leaning back in his chair, balancing it on two legs once again.

Roxy turned around to glare at him. "I thought it would be provided," she replied.

Asher let a smile of disbelief cross his features before he started laughing. Sadie bit her lip and looked away, but even she couldn't keep the smile off of her face.

Chapter 5

"All right,
all right
," Stewey intervened, giving Asher a glare. "You." He pointed to Edward and then gestured for him to stand next to him. "And... you." He pointed at Paulina and did the same thing. "Collect money from the others."

Sadie handed Edward a couple of bucks, requesting a water rather than any other sort of food and drink. Once Roxy and Anthony handed the two their money, Stewey took Paulina and Edward out the library.

"You wanna go somewhere?" Asher asked Sadie when the door shut, tossing his head back and surveying the girl in front of him studiously. 

"Where would we go?" she asked him dryly, arching a brow.

"To my locker," he said, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. He stood then and looked at her expectantly.

Sadie glanced at Anthony and Roxy, who were both watching the exchange rather curiously. Anthony shook his head no, but Sadie was still unsure, chewing her bottom lip. She then looked back at Asher, who was grinning mischievously as though he knew the answer even before she did.

"Fine," came her curt reply.

He nodded, causing his hair to fall back into his face, and led Sadie out the back entrance of the library rather than the main entrance.

"How long do you think they'll be away?" Sadie asked, crossing her arms over her chest, following Asher as her eyes darted back and forth.

Asher shrugged nonchalantly. "I dunno," he replied, and then glanced down at her with that grin of his. "You've never really broken the rules, have you princess?" he asked her, his brows perked with the knowledge but wanting to hear her say it anyways. She opened her mouth to refute his claim, but decided against it, and looked away. Asher's grin deepened, knowing that he was right. "In fact, I bet you've never been here before. This is your first detention, isn't it?" Sadie just gave him a look, and he nodded. "So, what'd you do to get one?"

"Why do you care?" she asked him, her eyes focused on the tips of her shoes.

Again came the shrug of nonchalance. "Just trying to make conversation, I guess," he said, making a left and heading into the three hundred building. "I started a small fire in my physics class."

"That was you?" Sadie asked him, lifting her head to look at his profile. "I was writing an essay when the alarm went off, and we had to leave." She paused for a moment before asking, "Why'd you do that?"

"I was bored," was his reply. He stopped at a locker before looking over at Sadie expectantly. When he had opened the door and she still hadn't commented on anything, he gave a sigh of impatience. "Well?"