Unexpected

Chapter-8

The Next morning as Theo has breakfast she knows the ripostes to all of Pattie jokes and remarks, she knows Pattie has no right to laugh at her about such matters; actually she has no right to laugh at her period. She knows all about how it’s her choice whether she wants to have s*x and at what age and with whom and no boy should change that. Because suddenly it feels like it’s more than just her crush on Hayden, suddenly she feels bullied and that’s something she hasn’t felt a lot in her life especially with badass best friends and three rock stars of brothers.

Whether she wants to lose her virginity at 14 or 40 is her choice, and that decision doesn’t make her any less of a woman than the others, and whether she wants it to be a random shag or the love of her life that is Hayden is also her choice. And most importantly Pattie f*****g O’ Donnel has no say in her love life or s*x life to open her bloody mouth.

And with all these thoughts her anger is pumped and it’s with that new found emery of all that extra adrenaline that she faces the next day of school.

A normal kind of banter flows in the car mainly between the twins and her as they beg her to let them copy her homework and she is adamant on the decision that she won’t be allowing it even on their death bed and they are vividly describing all various ways to get back at her for such treason. She still doesn’t know if her brothers had heard any part of that conversation, even if they did they didn’t say anything and nothing weird or strange had happened other than the uncanny amount of nuggies and bro hugs she had been receiving throughout the past day.

As the car pulls up at her school parking lot she soon feels her pumped energy slowly draining away at the prospect of facing Pattie again and continuing that horrible one sided conversation, she literally has nothing to add to it, she has never even pictured Hayden that way even though she had been dreaming about him for ages. And by that point she is pretty sure Pattie clearly has no intention to let go of Hayden either, her motives kind of was stated clear by the way she was moaning that day at the bleachers.

As soon as she is out of the car she is faced with Hayden and suddenly she feels like hiding back in the car until school is over, it’s not Hayden-doing what Hayden does to her normally, it’s more of the aftereffects of all the things Pattie said the past day and everything resurfacing to her mind at the sight of Hayden causing her cheeks to flame up and her hands to drop her bag.

She quickly crouches down and picks up her rucksack, taking more time than necessary to grab the thing and using it as an excuse to not face Hayden. She wonders why Hayden is present there waiting for her so early in the morning, does he want to go to a party again, does he want Pattie and her to bond so he can save his daddy’s ass, does he want her to join a cult with Pattie and face her wrath for the rest of her ungodly life?. It’s obvious none of her thoughts are going in a very accurate way, which usually happens when in 8 foot radius within Hayden. But this time every feeling seems intensified by 10 and she honestly don’t know how to deal with it, embarrassment and comfortableness flooding into her body just at the thought of facing Hayden.

Theo slowly picks up her bag and reemerges from her wonderful position behind the car door staring at the floor to see Hayden deep in a conversation with Destin, then she realizes Hayden was waiting for Destin and not her, and quickly enough feels stupid for forgetting that he is Des’s best friend as much as he is her ‘not’ boyfriend.

She hated all of them.

Theo quickly walks away with a curt smile towards Ron. Usually she waits by the main gate for Damien before they walked to their first class together and if they had time they would meet up with Eva or one of the others but Damien is usually- always late, his sleep way more important than his studies. But that day she felt like finding Eva instead, she didn’t know why, maybe the aftereffects of the past days embarrassment hadn’t worn off on her yet. But she feels as though she needs to be in the presence of her best friend and she heads into the school in hope of finding her i***t.

Her i***t is easy enough to find, Eva is standing in front of her locker some book open wide in front of her as she tries to do some last minute mugging up for some exam she probably hadn’t even studied for. Theo would usually roll her eyes at the sight and tease Eva on it and distract from her precious 5 minute studies.

But instead today she just walks up behind her and put her arms around Eva’s waist and holds her close, Eva is surprised at first with the initial flinch ready to ward of any moron who would touch the perfection that is Eva, but soon realizes its Theo and eases into it without a word.

“What’s with the sneak hug attacks?. Usually I am the spontaneous one?” she asks after a few seconds turning to her with a warm smile, which looks suspicious yet calming. Something Only Eva can manage.

“Just felt like it. How is the family doing? How was uncle Krupwanksi, or was crapowanski, Kurpiskanwi, Krapwanskuiw - what?” Theo says trying to pronounce Eva’s Norwegian relatives name correctly just to get more confused and twisted with her tongue.

“You know what, don’t even try. That’s not even close, even I can’t pronounce his name, I am just so glad my mom decided to take my dad’s last name” she says, her voice surprisingly gentle and Theo laughs. It’s enough to ease her into her normal routine, she doesn’t feel uncomfortable or hyperaware of anything at that moment. And if Pattie came along Theo could give zero f***s with Eva by her side, and at that second she isn’t worried about anything and she cherishes that, secretly so grateful for Eva and what just her presence does to her. She wonders if she would ever voice it out to her, but by the way Eva takes hold of her hands and holds her close when she breaks the hug tells her than she already knows.

“How was it anyway?. Big family reunion right?” she asks again, noticing Eva’s smile slowly flattering at the tired and sleepless look on Theo. Eva is not the type of person to give you your space and let you come to them when you are ready, she will maim you are torture you until you tell her what exactly Is wrong and Theo doesn’t feel in the mood to be tortured by Eva. The best defense she has got is to change the subject without the taller girl (by like 3 inches) knowing about it.

Luckily enough, Eva bites

“Well let’s just say that I am eternally grateful that the weekend is here and I am spending the next few days at yours. You know what I actually can’t wait for today to be over, Supernatural marathon at Damien’s and warm, comfortable sleep with you. And comparing it to last night that sounds a lot like heaven?” Eva says making her smile again.

Theo hadn’t even noticed it was the last day of the week. Luckily they don’t need much preparation for weekend sleepovers or anything, it’s a very common occurrence that one of them will be at the others house in weekends and they have enough of each other’s cloths in the others house to facilitate it.

Eva does her magical being awesome/ badass thing and quickly lends her excitement to Theo about the evening supernatural marathon, Theo quickly forgetting all about Pattie and Hayden and spiking herself up for going to Damien’s that evening.

Like seriously, Pattie can’t even come close to her when she has Eva, Thank god for kickass best friends…

***************

The evening comes slower than expected, and all 6 of them, Theo, Ryan, Pete, Eva, Roxie and Damien are very much relived to head out to Damien’s house and finally just relax after a hectic week.

Theo has spent the day trying to avoid both Pattie and Hayden at all costs, Pattie because she is genuinely afraid of what will come next if they ever meet again and Hayden because she can’t actually stand next to him and not do anything stupid like run in front of moving car, or jump off a building out of clear comfortableness and mortification when it’s not even his fault to begin with.

She knows her new found ability to turn red at his sight and not look him in the eyes has a lot to do with the vivid descriptions Pattie oh so generously provided her. It’s that after that horrendous experience she feels as though something has shifted within her. She doesn’t ‘not’ like Hayden any less, she checked multiple times and her mind was still determined on writing poetry about the way he laughs, and it’s not that all the s*x information has given her incompatible s****l tension. She would have noticed that too, but she genuinely just feels blushy and different and she is very much afraid Hayden will catch on.

So yeah, she steers clears of both of them and for once fate was on her side and she didn’t even see them around school that day. Well until fate decided to f**k off saying it has better things to do and she is forced to face Hayden again. She always hated fate anyway, he was a two timing jerk, she could never trust that asshole.

She really hadn’t expected it, honestly. She was just talking to Destin about her transportation arrangement to and from Damien’s house, further describing to her brother deeply about how Damien had offered to drive both her and Eva back home. But Destin being Destin had decided to be a clearly unnecessary headache and further question her on Damien and his criminal records (which he doesn’t have).

It’s not that they are overprotective per se; even Eva is with her for god’s sake. Ron and Tyler had quickly gotten off her back when she told them the arrangement because they have met Damien But Destin was yet to actually be introduced to Damien even though they shared a car together for a whole 10 minute drive but Destin was busy beating his high score on flappy bird to pay much attention. So yeah, Destin doesn’t know Damien as well as the others and he was just rechecking the plans for about like 20 times.

“For god’s sake he is my best friend not a mass murderer” Theo says with a very much exaggerated sigh as she rolls her eyes for the millionth time and refuse to look up at Destin.

“Who’s a mass murderer?” came the unholy voice, and Theo is a bit busy with being annoyed at Destin and improving her exaggerating skills that she doesn’t actually notice the voice.

“Damien” she says absent mindedly not even thinking about what she is talking about, to who she is talking about.

“I totally agree” Hayden says the exact same time Destin lets out a loud “AH-HA”

She feels the sudden embarrassment, but she contains it and forces herself to face Hayden because whatever happens she can’t ignore Hayden. No matter how much she wanted to, it would hurt her more than it would do well and she is glad when she is able to stand her ground and look at Hayden in the eye without thinking of any of Pattie’s words.

“I didn’t mean that-Oh-Whatever. I’ll be home by 11 and Damien is driving me home, end of deal and now shut up and f**k off” she says showing off her annoyance to conceal all her other feelings

She is just about to retreat and go back to where Roxie and Ryan are waiting for her in an intense battle of thumb fight. She is missing out on so much being there and she wants nothing to do with the both of them at the moment.

“I could pick you up” Hayden says and it’s out of pure surprise at the words that she turns around and looks at Hayden.

He is standing with an arm around Destin in the same ‘I don’t give a f**k’ fashion, but something in his face changes for just a second and Theo doesn’t have the patience to figure it out.

“You don’t even know what we are talking about” Theo points out.

“Destin, what is our dear so wonderful sister talking about?” he turns to Destin and asks and Theo tries not to let the disappointment seep into her heart at the word ‘sister’, she has never hated a word as much as she hates that completely redundant word sister, who the f**k even invented it?. People should just refer to ’sisters’ as the female human organism who shared my mother womb before or after I did, or something long and annoying similar to that so morons like Hayden don’t use it that carelessly.

Destin just gives a bored smile before explaining her plans for the night, all in less than 15 seconds too.

“Cool, yeah I am staying at yours anyway, and before you ask, no, it’s not a party, just us shooting some good old gory zombies. I could pick you and Eva up. It’s no biggie besides I haven’t gotten to drive my car much other than to and from school and that’s boring, I would love a night drive” Hayden says in the same look.

“You don’t even know where Damien’s house is” Theo points out. The one time they did pick Damien up was from a nearby road way rather than go all the way to his house (cause of Hayden’s prissy impatience)

“There is a thing called address doofis” he says like he is talking to a child. Theo feels the need to say something back in the same tone, just to keep this light banter going and relish whatever satisfaction she gets in actually talking to him. But then she is reminded of other facts.

“I thought you couldn’t stand Damien or Eva for that matter. Why the sudden change of mind?” she questions again and at that he actually does look a little deflated.

“I told you, I fancy a late night drive” he says and before Theo can retort back with another question Destin is asking it for her.

“You don’t fancy anything Bro. You can’t get off the couch unless I push you off late at night. And you want to go for a drive?” Destin asks and Theo beams at her brother who had basically took the words right out of her.

He looks a bit like a dear caught in the headlights and is about to say something back when Roxie calls out to her telling Eva is starting to lose her s**t waiting for her.

“I don’t think Eva being trapped in a constricted space with you is going to end well. I’ll stick to Damien thanks” Theo says in a rush shaking her head physically as if to clear head from all the confusion.

She hears something about Theo actually taking driving lessons and getting a car herself but she is already running towards the others and Roxie jumps on top of her demanding a piggy back ride for waiting this long for her to actually listen to what they were saying. And as soon as she sees the others, leaning against Damien’s car she don’t really pay it all much mind before everybody is running towards her and tackling her in a mess of giggles and bad puns…

At that moment Theo has only one thing on her mind, f**k everything else, this is what matters….