Invitation

I was on crunch time, the college student special, if you will.

My report was due tomorrow. I just started the project this morning after waking up in a cold sweat, having remembered it and realizing I neglected to do it for four days.

All this time, I was too busy getting Brandon’s business homework done instead of my own. He and I don’t share any similar classes, but sometimes he would ask me to help him because if he fell too far behind, he would be kicked off the football team. Seeing how he was the captain—I could see how that would sting.

But now it was getting ridiculous.

Bad enough, all of my courses for becoming a doctor are extensive and work-heavy. Now I need to pull a ten-page essay on “Why cocaine is so much worse than marijuana and their effects on the human body” out of my ass in less than ten hours. I’ve finished six pages by now, but that’s not ten, and I was running out of speaking points. So now I was researching and typing as fast as I could while listening to the low hum of the study hall. Well, that is until the peace was so rudely interrupted.

"Hey Bax, you're coming to the ski resort tonight, right?" Confused, I stopped typing my report and looked up at the blue-eyed man.

My eyes scanned him and the room beyond him for context, getting nothing.

"For what?" He was buried in his phone, seemingly ignoring me.

So I returned to typing and occasionally shot a glance at him while he made his way around the table I was sitting at, taking a seat on the table beside my laptop.

"My birthday, duh. You gotta come!" I stopped what I was doing to question him further. He just brushed his dirty blonde hair back.

"But your birthday is Monday..."

"Yeah and?" He shot me a cocky smile.

"Brandon, today is Wednesday. What about class? Mine aren’t virtual like yours.”

"So? We have straight A’s; one or two zeros won't hurt." I looked back down at my laptop, slightly annoyed, and resumed my typing.

"No. I have straight A's, you have me and Trey to pass homework to whenever you ‘don't feel like doing it’; it's annoying." He obviously didn't like that response.

I was typing away when he slapped the top of the laptop down just enough to tag my knuckles against the display and make the screen complain, making me more annoyed.

“Babe... Come on. It’s just a few days. You’ll have your laptop,” he gestured. “And I’ll be paying for everything.”

He was giving me a look and talking to me in a way that said... I’m not asking.

So, I folded... like I always do.

“Are you at least going to be doing your own homework?”

“Does it matter?” I swallowed the spike of annoyance that welled up inside my throat with every rude comment that lined up. Taking a deep breath, I calmed myself a bit.

“Yes, it matters.” I pushed his hands off of my laptop and checked the screen.

It was fine.

I made eye contact only to catch Brandon’s pure annoyance written across his face.

“Yeah. Sure. Whatever. Fine. Are you coming?”

“Gimme one good reason why I should go.”

“Babe, I’m trying to get laid on my birthday...” I stood there quietly for a moment expecting him to start laughing or say “got ya,” but it never came. I quickly brushed off my disappointment.

“... I’m still waiting for that good reason. ‘Cause like I said, my classes aren’t virtual.” Brandon slid from the table, stood beside me, and pulled me to my feet and into a very uncomfortable hug. I wasn’t even fully out from the table as he pulled me to his chest.

I was forced to shimmy into a more comfortable posture only to be crushed to his chest harder.

“Bax... baby. I can’t leave you here alone; a pretty thing like you will be swept away by the next big thing as soon as I leave campus. Come with me. Please?” All my faith in hearing a good reason disappeared with the completion of that sentence.

How charming...

“…”

“Thank you, you’re the best!” My silence was taken as a yes, and frankly, I was too exhausted to continue the verbal acrobatics it took to explain my ‘no.’

He then dropped all physical contact with me immediately. As his phone buzzed, checking his screen, he smiled and began to walk away.

I counted ten seconds before the twin idiots came bursting into the study hall, and what did Brandon do?

Hype them up

“Hey Kristen, Donny, you guys coming to my ski resort birthday party?”

“Duh.”

“Fuck yeah!”

Brandon shot a glance back at me only to receive a glare… he knows how rowdy they get and still chose to rile them up in a quiet place. He quickly ducked out of the study hall and raced off in the direction of the gym, unleashing them on the room.

As if right on cue, the idiot duo started hooting and hollering as if they were attending their personal rave, boisterously making their way over to me. Of course, the unnecessary noise made nearby students, who were trying to focus, upset.

Many just stood and left or grumbled and turned up their earbuds and headphones, but when some random kid turned in his chair and told them to ‘shut the fuck up,’ the pair halted.

Donny—an individual who wakes up and chooses violence every morning—chose to throw her large Burger King drink at him, the crappy top bursting off, and the icy beverage coated the poor man.

… Should have stayed quiet.

When he stood to confront Donny, she didn’t flinch; she just stood there waiting for the first swing, tilting her head like she was just begging him to do something—anything… she knew she was strong and loved showing that power every chance she was given.

Kristen—the silent anger and planned chaos of the two—smugly smiled and calmly came to rest on Donny's right shoulder, almost as if she was saying, “please make our day.” The angry man pulled off his soaked sweater and stormed off, leaving all of his materials and ice-covered chair for his friends at the table to scoop up and clean before rushing out after him.

Now that the altercation was over, they continued over to me, continuing their unnecessary volume as they made their way. I instinctively saved a copy of my work to the cloud under a different name and waited for them to make it to the table. I even tried my luck with locking the computer, but it was too late.

Kristen swiped the computer from me, took a seat at the table beside me, and proceeded to delete any work that was currently on the screen and then started playing computer games like she was a fucking child.

Donny pulled the backrest of the chair I was sitting on, griped a sloppy handful of my hair, forced me to slide off the chair and stumble back a bit to avoid falling to the ground. Once I was far enough out of the way, she released my hair and calmly took a seat.

I rolled my eyes as she sat down and kicked her feet up on the table; they both did this without saying a word to each other. Annoying me came like second nature to these bitches. The study hall was finally able to return to its low hum, meaning they put on that whole show just to bring attention to what they were going to do to me.

I stood there quietly, trying to swallow my anger before saying anything; it wasn’t working as quickly as I would like. Donny was balancing on the back legs of my chair, and Kristen was playing fucking Geometry Dash on my school laptop. So, needless to say, I was fuming, and of course, to everyone else, it might just look like I was taking their shit.

These two were known as ‘the twins’ on campus because of how eerily similar they looked and acted, but the catch was that they were born from two different families; hell, Kristen was older than Donny by four months. Regardless, they chose a day between their birthdays as a day to celebrate and liked to call each other “twin” or “sister.”

The only reason they tolerate me is because... they like Trey—more accurately, Kristen likes him, and Donny supports her sister. Trey had already expressed his dislike multiple times, but she still clings to the hope that he will change his mind, clearly showing that she had no plan of changing or giving up.

"Give my computer back already." I was unamused and beyond irritated.

"Who the fuck do you—” Donny stood up to confront me but was interrupted by Kristen.

"Sis, I got this.” She waved her off. “Take a seat."

She turned to face me directly, still clinging to my computer. She had broken three laptops already by dropping them on purpose or full-on throwing them out of windows.

The last time we were all in the same car with Trey and Brandon, I didn't hear Trey ask me a question, and she took it as me ignoring him, deciding it would be a good idea to throw it out of the car window on the highway!!! I watched it race downhill into the woods beside the road as we continued to speed off. So I was a bit on edge with my fourth new computer in a row.

"Look, just give it back. I don't have time for you two dumb fucks." I heard Donny clamber back to her feet—after just sitting down—and close the distance between us, loosely sandwiching me between team toxic, with her a pace or two behind. I didn't need to face her to know she was about to hit me, but I didn't flinch either; like I said, I was unamused and fuming. Lucky for both of us, the hit never came because Kristen shot her a venomous look that said, "Sit. Down." over my shoulder.

She did exactly as she was warned and returned to her seat, lifting it from the floor and settling onto it heavily, like she was told she couldn’t have a cookie.

I hate both of you.

Kristen then slowly and calmly closed the distance between us and grabbed my face, to which I slapped away. Unlike everyone else, I was not afraid of them. They are just insufferable brats with god complexes, but Donny alone is reserved and tolerable; it's Kristen that brings all the chaos and hate.

Kristen seized me by my hair and pulled, spouting some higher-than-thou bullshit that only stacked on my already bubbling anger. I swung before thinking, and God, did it feel good to connect. I had made her nose bleed first try, but I wasn’t done; I seized her by the throat and squeezed hard.

"Let me go or I'll smash the laptop," Kristen croaked out, but the fact that she could speak pissed me off more.

I wanted her to pass out.

I wanted her to learn that my patience for her insecure, high school bully bullshit was well past spent. I put both hands on her throat and squeezed; her grip on my laptop and my hair slowly slipped, but I kept squeezing.

“Let her go!”

I was seeing red at this point, and mercy sounded like a sick joke. Maybe that's why I didn't ever hear the laptop connect with the floor or why her hands clawing at my forearms and face while Donny yanked at my arms and waist didn’t register to me. I was taking all of this week's aggression out on her—which was wrong of me, I know—but right now it felt earned.

I went so far as to throw her on the ground and prepared to continue when someone grabbed me in a bear hug and spun me around; my arms were pinned to my chest, and all I could do was try to squirm and wiggle free.

"Take your sister to the hospital now." His voice sounded familiar, but I couldn't think straight enough to rationalize it.

"No, I wasn't finished." I started to wiggle harder, which forced him to squeeze me tighter.

"You are an intermediate boxer with a brown belt in judo; I don't think so." I could feel his deep voice vibrating against my back.

"Let me go!" That was when he leaned down and whispered in my ear.

"Take it down a notch, Freckles. She isn't even in the same building anymore." I heard the nickname and stopped struggling, but the rage was still very present. Eventually, he let me go when he was certain I wouldn’t vault the table and hunt them down.

"So, you still respond to Freckles, huh?" I moved forward and spun to face him.

It was my high school best friend, Trey. I answered his question with silence and a red face as I shifted from foot to foot, staring at the front door.

"Ha, look at you! You're so cute! Look at how red you are." At this point, I was flushed with rage, and now I was starting to fluster once his hands came to cup my cheeks.

I want to die.

Trey leaned in closer and stayed about two or three inches away, which made me blush worse—if that was even possible.

I yanked myself away and created distance.

"D-Don't look at me like that." I forced my gaze to the ground while he chuckled.

"Why are you stuttering…" He reached over and cupped my face again, making me look at him. He licked his lips and smirked. "I didn't even do anything yet."

"What?!"

He leaned in, and before he could threaten to close the distance between us, I was yanked away. I was going to pry away anyway, but the sudden grip on my clothes startled me. Trey stood there frozen, his hands suspended where he had my face for a few seconds before relaxing his body and using a smile to hide the twitch in his jaw.

"Am I interrupting?" Brandon's icy blue glare was piercing Trey.

I don't think he realized that he was still gripping the back of my clothes, but I stayed quiet, nonetheless.

"Cool it, B; I was just messing around," Trey sang.

Brandon roughly released me and spun me around, cupping my face and giving me a rough French kiss.

"Messing around, huh?" he scoffed and released me just as carelessly. “How about you not?”

"And you! I said I didn’t want to leave you here and be replaced by the next best thing, meaning better… not the next biggest failure.” His disgust slid to Trey before sliding back to me. “I didn't think your standards were so damn low."

He then forcefully pushed me out of the way and stormed off toward the door, where he waited, typing away on his phone.

I looked at Trey, who was shooting daggers at Brandon, and watched his jaw twitch a few times before I said anything.

"Look, Trey, I'm sor—"

"Bax, let's go!"

My eyebrows scrunched.

"Where are we going?"

"The resort! Are you slow? It's a long drive!" I shrank a bit after being screamed at in public, sparing a glance around the room and meeting several pairs of eyes. So, to avoid drawing any more attention, I quietly gathered my things and rushed over to Brandon; Trey reached the door a little after I did.

"Where are you going?" I no longer heard the footsteps behind me, so I guess I was the only one still walking. I stopped a few steps down the hall.

"I'm following you to the car so we can go to the resort…" Then Trey leaned in close and whispered obnoxiously into Brandon’s ear, "Or are you going to do your own homework?"

Brandon’s eyes narrowed, then shot to me before he sucked his teeth, grabbed me by the hand, and dragged me all the way to the car.

Well, I was way shorter than him, so his brisk walk was my jog, meaning right now I was being forced to run behind him. He had the arm my book bag wasn't on, so I couldn't put my book bag on properly. So, every eight or so steps, I would have to readjust my bag mid-stride.

Once we made it to the car, I took a second to catch my breath before reaching for the door latch; however, Brandon ripped the door open instead and threw me in the front seat and slammed the door. He then turned around, stormed to the other side of the car.

Trey opened the back driver-side door only for it to be slammed shut and his shirt front gripped. Brandon was berating him and probably whispering a string of obscenities and threats in his face because when he let go of his shirt, Trey was smiling.

Trey can be a bit of a troublemaker and likes to stir the pot when he can, and I had a feeling he wanted to. I tend to need to be his voice of reason when he starts trying to take unnecessary risks—not that he always listens.

I endured two hours of music-less silence, which at the time was amazing. I was able to get my work done, but it's been 10 minutes since I finished my ten-page essay that I started at 4 o'clock this morning.

I have to admit it was nice to not be typing, honestly, but the droning hum of the engine and the wheels on the asphalt was driving me insane. Brandon was focused on driving and was clearly still upset. I looked back at Trey. He was still smiling and listening to music through his earbuds.

I turned back around.

Besides us both taking up boxing, Trey and I were currently taking a botany class as an extracurricular. The heavy textbook pushed against my leg at every turn, so it was hard to forget. I debated it for a while, but I had four pages of work to do for that class, so if I just finished it now, I would be free until Sunday when they assigned new work.

I smiled a bit, knowing that I’d be all caught up with work. Sure, I’d need to worry about attendance, but it’s fine; I’ll just message my teacher and get that cleared up.

My gaze slid to Brandon, who was tapping his fingers to imaginary music...

I guess he’s in a better mood now.

He was possessive, but I think it's because he's scared to lose me, ya know? Everyone has their insecurities; the hard thing to get over is his short fuse. His temper always gets the best of him, which made him a little scary, but he wouldn’t ever hit me, so it’s okay.

I shook away my spiraling thoughts and smiled again. If I finished my work now, I would be able to spend some time with Mr. Grumpy. Giggling softly to myself, I began working on the botany homework.

Until I reached a hiccup.

"Hey, Trey..." I waited for a response and noticed that he was still listening to music, so I turned to flag his attention and was met with his sleeping face. I deflated in my seat...

I could just... wait.

I was three questions from being done, and I knew it would bother me all day until I got my answer. So, I sighed and braced myself. I turned and tapped his knee, yanking my hand away just in case. He just calmly opened his eyes and blinked the sleepy daze away. I froze.

That was so easy.

It was a nice change from waking up Brandon, who treats any wake-up as a rude awakening. I signed for him to pull an earbud out and watched as he did so.

"I'm stuck on question twenty-seven of our botany homework. Did you do it?" He just shook his head; I smiled.

"Can you help me?"

When I said this, he reached for his notebook and tried to hand it to me. I pushed it back politely and shook my head.

"I don't want to see it. As soon as I get it, I'll be able to do it on my own. Can you just explain it?" His smug smile stayed persistent as he stared at Brandon through the center rearview mirror… confused, I shot a look at Brandon, whose jaw was now twitching and was shooting occasional angry glances back at him.

"Did you hear that Br—"

"Just answer her!" I was startled by his sudden outburst. Trey just chuckled deeply in an “I won” sort of way, then turned to me.

"I'll give you a hint... The answer is somewhere stem down."

I repeated the hint in my head a few times before I noticed it. He was right! The passage mentioned something about the roots, which brought my attention to the nightshade and ginger plants the question referred to, knowing that I was able to quickly answer the last three questions.

"Got it, thanks!" I twisted to face him.

"No problem." He made full eye contact with me when he said it, but when he caught Brandon's gaze, a smirk tugged at his lips as he silently scoffed and returned to staring out the window.

I was now done with all my work, so I decided to take a nap and get ready to replace Brandon so he could rest up a bit too, drifting off to sleep effortlessly.