Backtrack

Chapter Three

CHAPTER THREE.

+ Sam's POV +

This was awkward.

Axel was staring straight forwards, hands gripping the steering wheel. I watched from the corner of my eye as his knuckles slowly tinged pink, before sighing and turning to face him.

"Thanks for the lift," I offered, my voice sounding foreign in the silence of the car.

Axel glanced at me quickly before giving the road his full attention again. "It's fine. I mean, I owed you."

I simply nodded, unsure of how to respond. I mean, yeah, the guy hit me, but I had hit on his girlfriend, pretty revoltingly, too – and as far as Axel knew, I meant every word.

"Sorry again for hitting on your girlfriend."

Axel turned to face me fully this time, his defined eyebrows creased in a frown, "can we stop with all the apologies? You shouldn't have hit on my girl, and I shouldn't have punched you in the face. We're even, let's move on."

"Well, in that case, we're not really even, since you're giving me a lift home so technically I owe you, now—"

"Shut up."

"Sorry."

"Dude!"

I suppressed a laugh as I watched his face fill with disbelief. I'm a handful, so what?

Axel shook his head as he ran a hand through his dark hair, before reaching towards the console and flicking on the radio. I immediately recognized the song as Carry On Wayward Son by Kansas, and couldn't help humming along. Despite noticing Axel glancing curiously at me, I kept singing along to the song.

So far, Oak Hill hadn't been paradise, but it definitely hadn't been a total bust. I mean, my father was MIA more often than not, I'd made a cute pixie friend at school, and I even had some insane eye candy to perv on. If we ignore the fact that said eye candy is painfully straight, then it almost sounds like the perfect new town.

My eyes glassed over as I gazed out the window, taking in the beautiful scenery. Back in LA, the entire route from my house to my school was devoid of even a single tree, resulting in an hour every day of staring at concrete. I'd say that the concrete was rushing past, but that would be a lie, because the traffic in LA was so horrific that I'd be sitting and staring at a single slab of concrete for ten minutes before inching forward to stare at another, slightly discolored, one.

But here, in Oak Hill, there was such a vast array of colors to look at as Axel drove 10 over the limit towards my house. A blend of colors flew past my window in a unique, green-tinged rainbow, and I felt the urge to roll around in the grass. Shit, I think I've been deprived of nature for too long.

All the while I was appreciating said nature, of course, I was also sneaking glances at the boy driving next to me, because let's be honest, the trees weren't the most interesting view on offer.

Before I knew it Axel was pulling into the driveway of the address I had given him. After unbuckling my seat belt and reaching towards the door handle, I was about to say, "thanks, adios, have a nice life" (or something along those lines) when I noticed that the car was turned off and Axel was, also, reaching towards his door handle.

"Um," was all I managed to stutter; what was he doing?

He sensed my confusion and grinned wickedly, "you said it yourself; you owe me. So I'm gonna come inside and help myself to a drink."

Had I still been in LA, I would've been panicking and thinking of excuses to explain his presence to my mom. But with the knowledge that my dad would be working late, and the alternative being a boring afternoon of watching Netflix by myself, I shrugged a shoulder uncaringly.

"Whatever," I said as we made our way to the front door.

Being a lawyer, my father's house was a little more than impressive. It wasn't oversized, considering he'd been living alone before I arrived, but it was well designed and looked expensive, with the sandstone arch and enormous bay windows.

Axel whistled quietly as he took the house in, but I ignored him and barged inside, dropping my backpack on the marble kitchen counter.

Axel opened his mouth, but I beat him to it.

"I know."

He blinked at me, "how do you know what I was gonna say?"

"Were you going to comment on my house?"

"Well—"

"Yep."

He scoffed as he took the glass of water I slid towards him.

"So how are you liking Oak Hill?" he asked conversationally.

I wasn't usually a fan of small talk, but if the mundane comments were coming out of Axel's mouth, then I'd work with it.

"It's okay, really different to LA but I've met some nice people."

This peaked his interest, "oh? Like who?"

I grinned as I remembered Arden and her bubbly personality. "I met one girl in my English class, I think her name was Arden."

Axel's easy grin immediately slid off his face and I could see the exact moment when his eyes closed over. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that he's heard of Arden.

"Do you know her?" I asked awkwardly.

To my surprise, Axel simply shook his head once and gulped down the last of his water. "Never heard of her. I gotta go, though. See you later... Sam, right?"

I barely managed to give him a nod before he was out the door and his black jeep was speeding away from my house.

Oh-kaaaay...

\\//\\//

It was halfway through first period when I finally managed to drag my ass to school. It was only the second day, yet somehow I already felt comfortable enough to saunter into French class late.

Madame Dubois stared hatefully at me as I entered.

"Qui êtes-vous et pourquoi êtes-vous en retard?" she slurred.

Hold on... did she just call me a retard?

"Um, pardon...?" I tried.

She simply shook her head, mumbling under her breath something that sounded like, "enfants impolis".

I slid into my seat quietly, grinning at a giggling Arden.

"I swear, you remind me so much of my ex," she managed between laughs.

"How so?" I asked curiously, leaning back on my chair leisurely.

She shrugged one shoulder and looked thoughtful, "I'm not sure. Maybe it's the way you come across with teachers, like you don't give a flying fuck what they think."

I let out a bark of laughter at that. "Your ex sounds like a great guy."

She shook her head seriously, "oh no. Oh no, oh no. He isn't. I'm sure you'll meet him eventually, this school is pretty small after all, but trust me, steer clear. In one word? Anger issues."

I couldn't stop the sinking feeling that appeared in my stomach. It felt like someone had crawled in and weighed it down with steel (ew, sorry for the visuals).

"What's his name?" I asked, attempting to sound casual and not at all terrified.

Arden rolled her eyes and opened her textbook. "Axel. What a fucking asshole." 

\\//\\//

A/N idk lol. Gif is of Daniel Sharman as Sam :)