You'd Better Hide the Bullets

Monday rolled around a lot quicker than I thought it would. For spending the whole weekend alone I thought it'd drag in but it didn't. Due to the events of Friday night I decided to decline the offer Mike made me to go to dinner. Clearly something happened with me and Vic that made him be in my room let alone sleep in my bed. So avoiding that situation became my number one priority. Mike did think I was being strange for cancelling but he understood.

I walked into the lunchroom and walked over to my table, I noticed Mike wasn't there and it was kinda odd. Glancing over to Vic's table I noticed that they weren't there either. Strange. "Hey Scarlett." Pete greeted me. Patrick looked up from his phone and nodded to me.

Lewis and Amber weren't in today, something about ditching the whole day to go to LA for some concert. "What's up?" I asked, pulling a sandwich out of my bag.

"Ah nothing much, been a quiet day without the gang." Patrick said without looking up from his device.

"I know what you mean, I'm gonna text Mike and see what happened." I told them as I took a bite of my ham sandwich. After I finished the bite I pulled my phone out and then wrote a quick text to Mike.

"Maybe he's with his brother?" Pete suggested.

"Yeah but why wouldn't he say anything and also why aren't they at their table, they're always there." Patrick finally looked up. It looks like Patrick has puffy eyes, as if he hasn't slept in a long time

. "You alright Patrick?" I questioned him. He looked up and nodded slowly.

"Just been having some trouble at home." He sighed. I could tell there was more to it so I decided to drop it. I'll ask him round to my house after school maybe.

-

I walked into the auditorium where we were meeting Mr Haynes for our practice. The recital was in 3 days time and I'm just not exactly thrilled about it. I haven't told my mom or dad about it because I honestly don't want them to see me up there. I did invite Kiera though.

The piano was sitting in the middle of the stage, enticing me so I walked over to it and began playing a few different things. Suddenly the door of the auditorium opened and then slammed shut. I stopped playing piano and noticed Vic storm down the stairs and then climb onto the stage. He threw his bag down and then sat on the ground.

"I wanna hold 'em like they do Texas please." I began singing as I played on the piano. "Fold 'em, let 'em, hit me, raise it, baby, stay with me." I continued. "Love game intuition play the cards with spades to start and after he's been hooked I'll play the one that's on his heart." Vic looked over to me and raised an eyebrow. "Oh, oh, oh, oh, ohhhh, oh-oh-e-oh-oh-oh. I'll get him hot, show him what I've got. Oh, oh, oh, oh, ohhhh, oh-oh-e-oh-oh-oh, I'll get him hot, show him what I've got. Can't read my, can't read my, no he can't read my poker face." My fingers danced over the keys as I watched Vic stare me out.

The door opened and Mr Haynes walked out onto the stage. "Sounds good Scarlett." He told me. I got up from the piano and stood at the other side. Vic got up and walked over to stand next to me. "You guys ready?" He asked us, opening his piano scores.

He began playing the intro. "I hear the ticking of the clock, I'm lying here the room's pitch dark. I wonder where you are tonight, no answer on the telephone And the night goes by so very slow, oh I hope that it won't end though, alone." I looked at Vic, he didn't seem very interested in the song at all. "Till now I always got by on my own."

"I never really cared until I met you, and now it chills me to the bone." We both sang at the same time.

"How do I get you alone." I sang loudly, feeling kinda awkward about the whole thing.

"How do I get you alone." Vic sung softly, looking towards me.

"You don't know how long I have wanted, to touch your lips and hold you tight, oh. You don't know how long I have waited and I was going to tell you tonight." Vic looked at me then away. He actually seemed a little off, like dorm thing was bothering him.

"But the secret is still my own and my love for you is still unknown, alone." I sung out. Mr Haynes gave me a nod of approval.

"Till now I always got by on my own I never really cared until-" Vic suddenly stopped singing and just stormed off.

"Vic where are you going?" Mr Haynes called after Vic. "This isn't Glee, you can't just storm off when you're not happy." He shouted after him.

"I'm sorry about him." I told Mr Haynes. He just looked at me with confusion.

"Go get him Scarlett, tell him he's gotta stop being immature and just get over whatever he's pissed off about." He told me. I nodded and ran off in the direction Vic went.

I got out into the hallway and noticed him walking down. "Vic!" I screamed after him.

He stopped and slowly turned around. "What?" He asked. I ran up to him and stopped about a metre away.

"What was that?" I asked shaking my head. Vic rolled his eyes and began to turn away. "Stop being childish!" I screamed after him.

"You know what Scarlett, I am childish." He turned to me. "But I'd rather be childish and immature than be you." He walked right up to me. "The sad thing is for a slight second I was willing to just forget everything, to let us be friends. But no, I can't do it. You have no idea what's going on in that fucking head of yours." He pointed to my head. "You walk around here as if you're a fucking queen because you stood up to me, big fucking deal. The really hilarious thing in all of this was for one second, one tiny second I was starting to really like you, guess it's time to learn my lesson huh." He spat at me and then walked away.

I stood there deflated, completely and utterly lost. So he liked me? That's why he was in my room on Friday night. I walked back to the auditorium and told Mr Haynes that Vic was gone. He dismissed me and thanked me for my efforts.

-

"So he likes you?" Patrick asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Liked." I corrected. "He probably hates me again so I'm preparing myself for the hate again." I threw myself backwards onto my bed dramatically.

"It's okay, not the worst thing that could happen. Hey wanna go to the comic book store and just chill?" Patrick suggested. I thought for a moment and nodded.

"Let's go." I jumped off my bed and we left my house.

We arrived at the comic book store and went inside. Patrick ran off to find the newest Walking Dead comic. I decided to check out the Batman section.

I walked over to the comics and began browsing through them. Stupidly I wasn't watching where I was going because I walked into someone. "Sorry." I said apologetically, looking up at the figure. It was a guy with longish brown hair, huge eyebrows and a pretty amazing smile.

"Hey don't sweat it." He told me, putting his hands on my shoulders to steady me. "Just make sure you don't fall over by walking into strangers." He smiled. His smile was out of this world. Like insanely beautiful.

"I'm Scarlett, by the way." I grinned up at him.

"Alex." He said proudly. "I haven't seen you around here." He said, looking around. "The guy you came with on the other hand, here almost every week." He laughed.

"Yeah I just moved here a few weeks ago, that's my friend. Do you work here?" I asked. He nodded slightly and then smiled, again.

"He's a good guy, good taste in comics. Hey do you wanna go out for coffee sometime? And I mean like a date." He was so confident but not in a cocky way, not like Vic.

"Sure, I'd love to." I couldn't help but feel myself blush.

"How about tomorrow around 5 at the Starbucks around the corner?" He suggested.

"That'd be great. Do you want my number?" I asked him. He nodded and handed me his IPhone. I made a new contact and added me number. "Text me later yeah?" I told him. He nodded and walked off to continue working.

Patrick walked over to me and smiled. "Someone has a date." He sung to me. I rolled my eyes and walked off to look at more comics.

Notes