(1) Talk Me Down: An All Time Low Fanfiction Romance

Chapter 63: One-Thousand Times

        Rian picked me up as the sun was slowly rising. It was a cold morning, and through the trees and surrounding houses I could see the clouds tuning shades of pink and orange. I used to like the mornings, but every time I woke up I could only think about the horrible day I was sure to have.

        This morning was slightly better than the last two with the sight of Rian's car in the front of my house. I smiled to myself as I saw him through the window, leaning close to the radio, messing around with the buttons. I walked quickly to the car and pulled open the passenger door, gaining Rian's attention as I slid into the seat.

        "Good morning," He grinned, leaning over the middle to kiss me. The fingers of his right hand twisted gently through my hair, holding my lips against his for a few long moments.

        "Morning," I said half-heartedly. It'd taken a little whlie for me to make my mind shut off so I could fall asleep last night and this morning, practically the last thing I wanted to do was get out of bed.

        "I hope you're still not thinking about school yesterday," Rian frowned, driving slowly out of my driveway.

        "It's not just that," I sighed. "Charlotte was here when you left last night."

        "Really?" Rian wondered, and I could see his eyebrows raise slightly as I watched him drive. I leaned my elbow in the corner between the window and the car door, placing my hand against the back of my neck. "What did she want?"

        "To tell me about the conversation you had with Veronica," I said, causing Rian to face me momentarily, our eyes meeting.

        "I didn't mention it yesterday because I didn't want you thinking about them anymore."

        "Oh, I'm not mad or anything," I laughed lightly. "Thanks for sticking up for me, again, but I just don't get why she would come over. After what Veronica did, after her just standing there and watching. I didn't think she'd ever try to apologize to me."

        "She apologized?" Rian interrupted, and I nodded, biting my lip. I was still fighting over the choice I made to tell her we were okay.

        We weren't friends, and we probably never would be again, but we weren't enemies, and what Charlotte had done, or hadn't done, was nothing compared to Veronica's actions.

        "I think we're okay, or as okay as we can be," I sighed, looking up at the school as we pulled into the parking lot. I chewed on the inside of my lip, watching the people going into the building. I saw Alex's car and Alex leaning up against it with a blonde girl wo was throwing herself over him and Jack. Rian pulled into the empty spot that was next to them, and reached to push the door open, but stopped when I hadn't moved.

        "You okay?" he asked, and I nodded once, slowly. "Are you sure about that?" he questioned, and I turned to him, breathing deeply. I was about to say something when my door opened behind me and Jack stuck his head into the car next to me.

        "Kare-bear, heard you had a rough week without us. I knew you'd miss me," He winked, kissing my cheek, and I chuckled, watching Jack's grun widen as I actually seemed happy.

        "You guys wanna sit in the car all day or what?" I heard Alex call out, and I twisted my neck around to try and see him. When I saw his face, my eyes immediately drifted to the made-up face of the last girl I wanted to see Alex with. Jessica's eyes met mine for only a moment, but in that moment, they narrowed noticeably, and I wanted to stay in Rian's car even more than I had before.

        "That's a good idea," Jack muttered beside me, and then ducked out of the car to talk to Alex. I started to unbuckle my seatbelt, swinging my legs outside of the car when Jack appeared in front of me again.

        "How do you feel about missing school?" he beamed, and snaked his arms under my knees to turn my legs back into the car. He shut the door and then disappeared to his own car. He shut the door and thn disappeared to his own car. Alex and Jessica were in Alex's car, pulling away, and Rian was back in the drivers' seat, turning the car back on.

        "Rian," I started. "What are we doing? I can't skip school," I panicked, turning around to watch the school as we pulled out of the parking lot between Alex and Jack.

        "Relax, it'll be fun. You wouldn't want to be in school anyway," he said, glancing at me and smiling warmly. He might have been right that I didn't want to be in school, it was one of the last places I wanted to be as long as I had to deal with Veronica, but I couldn't skip school. My parents would be furious if I skipped to do God-knows-what with a bunch of guys, no matter how much they liked Rian.

        "But we're obviously going to get in trouble," I pressed, frowning at him, and he chuckled, sticking out his hand to take mine.

        "Don't worry so much, Kara. Today will probably be just what you need, but it won't be fun if all you think about is getting in trouble.

        "But..." I started to say and Rian shook his head, making me stop even though he hadn't said anything.

        "Do you really want to go back to school, and sit in class all day with people who believe Veronica over the truth? Or would you rather hang out with us and most likely have a really great time? Something that'll be one-thousand times better than sitting at school?"

        "One-thousand? Are you sure?" I questioned, teasing him with a soft smile.

        "One-thousand percent sure," he joked, slowing down to park behind Jack's car. I got out with him, feeling the cold temperature engulf me, freezing my nose and drying out my lips. The wind made it feel even worse, but Rian was standing next to me suddenly, surrounding one of my hands with his own. Today might not turn out to be one-thousand times better than sitting in school, because I could only imagine how my parents would react if they found out, but it would probably still be a whole lot better.