Not About Angels ➳ A TBNRFrags/PrestonPlayz Fanfiction

Pounding ➳ Chapter 24

Preston's POV

1:45pm

So far through the day, my mind has been blank. I've been living it robotically, time passing with ease. I find myself in the Chem classroom, in a different seat than usual. I'm seated at the very back of the classroom, staring at Ms. Michaels who was lecturing about a new science topic. As my eyes begin to flutter close from exhaustion, something occurs to me.

Where is Nick?

I haven't talked to her all day-only stared at her. But she would never look back at my glances. She was clearly avoiding me, so I put her to the back of my mind. But on any other day, she would be seated two rows ahead in this classroom. All I see is Joey and Meg at the lab bench, their backs to me.

Why am I worrying about Nick? I know I'll never get the chance with her... so why am I trying?

It's that feeling. That feeling. The one you can't prevent; the one you always think too overly dramatic about. The one where... you can't. Whatever that means; I don't understand it.

"Hey, man," a familiarly masculine voice says from beside me. I look up and match his tone with his face: Aiden. His expression was ice cold and stone hard, as if he wanted to rip my throat out.

I don't respond. Everybody seemed to be in their own groups, probably working on a project or prepping for a lab. Aiden was leaning on my sleek table, his knuckles turning visibly white from the tension.

"Remember what I told you?" He asks coldly. I shift my head downwards slightly and slowly as a sign of comrehension. He scoffs.

"I expect you to obey." He mutters and walks off back to his table, his hands shoved in his jeans pockets. Looking up, I see Joey staring at Aiden as he passes with concerned eyes. I pretend to be preoccupied as I see her head turn towards me, studying my actions. But she soon turns back to conversing with Meg; seeming completely oblivious, which I would've expected her to be. As far as I know, she has no idea of the events from thr dance. I mean, there's no doubt in my mind that she's hurt about certain situations from Meg or Nick. But you can never be too sure.

Before I know it, I find myself removing my body from my stool with uneasiness. I trek to Joey's table, where the two girls sit side by side, chatting away cheerfully. I try to keep a low profile, staying down low to balance for my height. I snap my fingers to get their attention.

"Guys," I whisper, scared that my voice will be too loud. Joey turns her head to my direction calmly, but at the sight of me, Meg physically tenses.

"Hey," Joey says nonchalantly. I guess Nick nor Meg never told her. Meg nods in greeting.

"Do you guys know where Nick is?" I ask.

"Home." Meg answers too quickly. Her voice sounded unnatural, like it was out of tune.

"Um..." I stall, confusion penetrating my voice, "why?

"Why do you care?" Meg coldly shoots. I open my mouth to say something-what that might be, I don't know-when her hazel eyes flicker sideways, looking past me. She stares with a blank face, before speaking again. I am tempted to turn my head to match her previous gaze, but that would be too obvious.

"Sorry," she mumbles embarrasingly, "she had a major headache so she went home at lunch." She fiddles with her papers. Her voice is still slightly off.

"Oh," I nod, "okay." I turn around, swiveling on my left heel. While turning, I catch a glimpse of what Meg was looking at. All I see is Kat and Lacie had at work, exchanging speaking roles now and then. What was Meg looking at? As far as I know, she and her friends hate Kat.

...Weird.

-

Nicola's POV

2:36pm

I vaguely remember opening my eyes to the cafeteria. People were surrounding me, and I could tell I was in a sitting position.

My head felt like it being stabbed with one thousand knives.

I had gone to the administration office and they sent me home; one of the counselors offered to drive because neither of my parents were available at the time. After being dropped off, I somehow made it to my bed.

I was out within seconds.

Now I'm waking up, needing to go to the bathroom, like every other time. Along with the minor headache I still wield, I feel off, like I'm a bottle cap that wasn't screwed on properly. I shuffle to the bathroom, turning on the lights that didn't differentiate much from the outer atmosphere.

My headaches are still unknown; what caused them? It seemed out of the blue, and I don't recall ever getting one quite that bad.

Afterwards, I look in the toilet and it hits me.

My head hurt because my lack of blood.

I'm on my freaking period.

Freaking great.

That would probably explain why I snapped at everyone earlier, saying I was fine.

But still, I've never gotten a headache that bad for this reason... as a matter of fact, I've only ever gotten a headache for this once or twice before. And I remember they weren't for nothing... but I can't remember.

The prior events other than the final on in the cafeteria are quite vague; I only remember the basic layout, not too many details. Though I do recall making eye contact with Preston earlier. His eyes were filled with ignorance.

The class I would be having right now is Chemistry. I should text Joey or Meg to see what we did, in about an hour. In the meantime... I better go take some Advil to calm my head.

As I take out the bottle of pills from the medicine cabinet in the kitchen, I reach past my sleep medication. I never took it before I passed out, but I didn't have any nightmares. Maybe I was right; it's only a chance I'll have those dreams. Or maybe my brain was too tired and in pain to actually formulate scenes in my sleep. Unlikely, considering I know nothing about the brain.

I pop a pill and down it with water. It goes down with my first try. I toss the bottle back into the cupboard, needing to stand on my toes. I'm considered tall to my relative family-cousins, aunts, uncles-but I'm short to everybody else because the generation is taller than average. I'm considered shorter. 5'5.

After thinking about which game I should play in the meantime, I finally pull out a classic: Little Big Planet 2. The game came out years ago, but I never mustered up enough courage or money to go out and buy the latest installments in the series. And besides, this game isn't all that bad. I've personally never owned any Call of Duty games; first person shooters aren't on the top of my list. I'm quite bad at them, to be honest. I like third-person, like Uncharted.

Of course, I got bored after half an hour. It's really no fun if you don't have someone beside you playing as well. My sackboy is lonely, and I don't want to have to update my Play Station to go online.

I take out the disk and insert GTAV.

Now this game is fun.

-

Preston's POV

3:20pm

I'm about to leave the classroom when I see something very peculiar out of the corner of my eye.

Kat and Meg.

Talking to eachother.

Laughing with eachother.

Like old friends.

-

Continue in Chapter 25...

[A/N sorry this is very, very late; I was on the plane ride back home! Don't worry, I'm still posting the next one later today :) ]