chapterfour

you drive me crazy; not in the good way

 

    parkluna

 

“I’m going to kill him, honest,” Audrey promised, shoving the door open to my room. Krystal looked up from her phone, the look on her face suggesting that this wasn’t anything new to her.

 

“Audrey,” I started helplessly while Krystal simply said, “You always say that.” Audrey grumpily climbed onto my bed, lower lip sticking out childishly. I sat next to her on the bed, nudging her gently. “Come on, Audrey. Don’t be mad.”

 

A knock on the doorframe made all of us look up, Ailee poking her head in. “Got room for two more, by any chance?” she asked, eyes twinkling. “Rumor has it Mark almost died again.”

 

Amber followed after Ailee, grinning and shutting the door behind her. “Not that Henry’s the best source, but you know,” she shrugged, taking residence curled up next to Krystal. Ailee lay back comfortably at the foot of my bed, closing her eyes.

 

“Henry’s a wimp,” Audrey muttered. “He took off before I even started fighting with Mark.”

 

Amber snickered. “How charming.”

 

Ailee sat up, cracking an eye open at Amber. “Guess we know who’ll be wearing the pants in that relationship,” she said, and Amber, to her credit, managed not to turn pink at the comment, though she still looked embarrassed.

 

“It’s not a thing,” she insisted, and Krystal whacked her with a pillow, rolling her eyes.

 

“You’re not a thing,” she muttered, and Amber elbowed her, whining.

 

“That doesn’t make sense, Krys.”

 

“You don’t make sense.”

 

“That’s…” Amber faltered, and we giggled. “...kind of true.”

 

    -- -- --

 

“Ew, ew, ew,” Audrey squirmed, covering her ears and shaking her head back and forth. “I do not want to hear the dirty details about you and Eric, ew, please, spare me.”

 

Krystal smirked and Ailee had the decency to blush a little bit, smacking Audrey with a pillow, her lower lip caught between her teeth. “Who else am I gonna gossip about Eric to, huh? Want me to talk about you and Kris instead? I know you got it bad, girl, don’t lie to me!”

 

“Na na na, can’t hear you~” Audrey fidgeted about, sticking her tongue out at Ailee while Krystal laughed, leaning comfortably on Amber.

 

“Dude, even I see it,” Amber said, pointing at Audrey, a wicked grin on her face. “I don’t know why people want you and Mark together, it’s so obvious that you and Kris have a thing going on.”

 

“What, and you and Henry aren’t obvious?” Krystal arched an eyebrow just as Audrey shrieked, “Me and Mark?!”

 

I coughed out a laugh, grabbing her by the waist before she could leap off the bed and maybe break something. “Why is that such a surprise? It’s the ones that always bicker that are cutest together, you know? Because deep down inside...they know they love each other.”

 

I put on the most sappy, dreamy look on my face, and burst out laughing when Audrey threw me a disgusted look. “Luna,” she complained. “Luna, no. Luna, please. Please no.”

 

Ailee snickered. “Mark and Audrey, sitting in a tree…”

 

“I’m gonna kill you, I swear.”

 

    -- -- --

 

    marktuan

 

“Yooo, that showdown though,” Jackson said, mouth hanging slightly ajar. Jackson had been peering out of our room at the end of the hall when he’d heard the commotion between me and Audrey, jumping on me as soon as I’d reached our room. He crawled onto my bed and at this point, I couldn’t be bothered to remind him about personal space, considering I was three hundred percent positive it didn’t exist in Jackson’s dictionary.

 

“What in the world are you going on about,” I said, rubbing my eyes, pretending to be sleepy. “Dude, I think this bed is only supposed to fit one.”

 

“Shut up, you’re just a fatass, this bed is humongous so stop pulling things outta your ,” he shoved my shoulder lightly. “And don’t try to change the subject. You really pissed her off this time, dude.”

 

“You know that game where we see who can not talk for the longest amount of time? We should play that game,” I suggested, and Jackson shoved my shoulder again, whining.  

 

“Mark! Come on, dude,” he whined. “Details. Come on. What’d you do this time?”

 

I glared at him. “Why do you assume it’s my fault?”

 

He shrugged, stretching his legs out. “Isn’t it always?”

 

I stared at him. He cracked a grin. “Kidding. But really, what’d you do? This time it has to be your fault, ‘cause she was hella pissed.”

 

I leaned my head back on the headboard, closing my eyes. “She overreacted. She thinks I’m trying to pull the same thing Jay pulled on her, on Luna.”

 

Jackson quieted, and I opened my eyes to look at him. He looked back at me, tilting his head slightly. “Are you?” he asked quietly, and I scoffed disbelievingly, throwing him a look.

 

“Are you serious?”

 

“You’ve literally never shown this much actual interest in a female outside of Audrey, Mark, are you sure you aren’t using Luna just to mess with Audrey? How is that any different than what Jay did? He used her for the summer, then dumped her when she stopped being entertaining.” Jackson’s expression was serious, and I pushed my tongue against my inner cheek, annoyed.

 

“I’m not using her,” I said firmly. “I’m being friendly because she’s becoming a part of our friend group. Do you honestly think so lowly of me?”

 

Jackson stared at me for a few moments, then sighed deeply. “I’m sorry, man. Jay just...ed us all up, y’know?”

 

I thought of Audrey, and closed my eyes again, taking a deep breath. “I know.”

 

-- -- --

 

Jay Park.

 

The name was near forbidden. We didn’t talk about him, didn’t talk about the one boy who managed to hurt one of us - deeply. Audrey and I never got along, sure, but we didn’t hurt each other. We bickered. There was a difference.

 

But Jay was something else. He wormed his way into our lives, grinning charmingly, and managed to knock down all of Audrey’s tough walls. Kris had been wary; Audrey had been enamoured.

 

I sighed, sinking into the bed. Jackson had since gone back to his side of the room, snoring lightly, tired from the day’s worth of fun and excitement. I stared up at the ceiling, laying an arm over my forehead, recalling the happy smile that flashed across Audrey’s face whenever she so much as thought of Jay. She was just sixteen then, and he was nineteen and Bad News

 

I never pegged Audrey as the type to fall quickly, but Jay managed to get her to do it. And just as quickly as she had fallen, she’d been broken.

 

The Audrey in my head’s smile slid off her face, replaced by someone who looked confused and hurt. And in an instant, she was replaced by someone with a hardened look, someone who looked okay, but wasn’t.

 

I groaned, rolling over. She was so frustrating, so - so stupid. How was it that a girl like her, one of the smartest kids in our grade, with still enough time in her day to bother me to the ends of the world and back, how was it that she could be dumb enough to fall for a guy like Jay Park?

 

How did she manage to go around and get herself hurt like that? She made people worry, that way. She made all of us worry, when she simply smiled brightly at us and told us she was okay, going back to normal in almost an instant. Being annoying as ever.

 

Who was she, to go around being like that?

 

I sighed.

 

Stupid.

 

 

---

 

author’snotes;

see, mark doesn’t hate audrey.. that much.

^^ hehe

also sorry for making jay the bad guy D:

comments are always appreciated!