I Can Taste the Failure on Your Lips

They listened intensively, taking in every detail.

"THAT WAS YOU!?" Oliver yelled, rolling back and falling over, laughing. Tom looked at his brother and shook his head.

"So it was you that posted the pictures of our principle around school?" Tom questioned me. I nodded and stuck a chip in my mouth, munching on it. "Why?" he half laughed, smiling at me.

"Because, I wanted to rebel." I exclaimed simply. I had no real reason to do what I did, I had nothing to rebel on my parents with, but at the moment I had a camera, our principal was picking his nose in the hall. I snapped the photo and printed dozens of copies with "WATCH OUT" scribbled under the image.

"How did they catch you?" Oliver asked after his fit of giggles died down.

"They saw me on the school camera." I stated.

"Did you intentionally get caught?" They asked at the same time and I just nodded. I was given a warning, considering "I was an excellent student and have never caused trouble before, but this would be my first and only warning!" Stupid school. I wanted trouble, but no.

My parents were not thrilled with me, I knew they wouldn’t. When the school explained why I was receiving only a warning, my parents question why they didn't see how they weren't worried about my grades.

"You daughter has perfectly average grades Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins." Mr. Preston exclaimed. I sat low in my chair, embarrassed at my parents for bringing this up.

"Exactly! Average! She should be exceeding the 'Average' mark!" My mother exclaimed, basically outraged. I wanted to be invisible.

"Okay, well we have excellent tutor programs, we can see if she needs any." Mr. Preston offered.

"Excellent." My mother smiled tightly and stood, slinging her purse on her shoulder, bringing my father with her. "Alexandria, we will talk about this at home." My mother announced and walked out swiftly.

"Mr. Preston, be good Alex." My father said looking down at me, and followed my mother out of the room. After they left Mr. Preston turned too me and smirked.

"Did you rebel because of them?" He questioned and I nodded slowly. "I understand, and I am not going to push you into a tutor, your grades are great. You should be a tutor, but next time you rebel, please leave me out." Mr. Preston said, standing and moving to the door. I stood and slung my bag over my shoulder, leaving the room and heading to class, grabbing a tardy note from the front desk lady.

That day when I got back from school I heard everything. "You always do this!" and "Why can't you act right? We raised you the right way!" But in my mind all I could say was "I'm sorry if I don't live in perfect image of you!" because I didn't.

"Alex?" I heard my name called. I glanced up and saw Oliver and Tom looking at me.

"What?" I questioned.

"Are you okay? You zoned out for a minute." Tom said looking at me and I simply nodded. A yawn escaped my mouth and I tried covering it with my hand, but my eyes watered, and I gave up.

"Tired?" Oliver asked me and I nodded again. "You can sleep on my bed, I can sleep on the pull out couch." he explained and stood throwing cushions off the couch and pulling on the bars under them. "TOM! Help me!" he struggled. I laughed slightly as both boys pulled with all their weight and finally pulled the bed out.

"Man...Well I'm off to bed, goodnight!" he waved and made his way up stairs.

"Do you have a bathroom?" I asked grabbing clothes out of my bag and looking around.

"Yeah, right through there." Oliver pointed and grabbed two blankets and started throwing them on the plain mattress. I stepped inside his little bathroom and sat my clothes on the sink. Looking at myself in the mirror I was shocked to see myself. I didn't feel like myself.

I was a runaway.

And I didn't plan on going back.

I shook my head and quickly changed into my shorts and long t-shirt. Another yawn escaped my lips and I turned out the light stepping back into the room. Oliver was lying on the pull-out couch with different blanket around him. I laughed as he layed on them, looking like he was a king of blankets.

"What?" Oliver questioned looking over at me.

"Nothing." I said as I climbed on his bed and tossed my clothes on my bag. Oliver stood and walked over to his light, noticing that he only had on a white t-shirt and his boxers, covered with super heroes. I giggled silently and layed down, pulling the blanket up to my chin. My eyes closed slowly and I entered my own world.

-*-

My heart jumped with excitement as I felt the whole bed jump. I gasped and felt someone Jumping on the bed and stepping on my foot. "Damn!" I yelled, pushing the person off the bed and holding my foot as it throbbed with pain.

"What the hell Oli!" A deep voice exclaimed standing next to the bed, I couldn't see in front of my hand, considering it was a basement. "Oli Wake up!" the person yelled jumping on the bed again, stepping on my other foot.

"Fuck! I screamed and pushed them off again. "I am NOT Oliver!" I yelled standing and feeling the wall for a switch. Once I found it I flipped the light on and looked at the boy who injured my feet.

"Oh....damn. Sorry!" they said looking rather guilty.

"You should be." I mumbled and walked over to the bed, examining my foot, watching a deep purple bruise form.

"Oli! Oli! Oli!" The boy yelled jumping on the couch mattress sending Oliver all over the bed.

"WHAT!" He yelled and looked up at the person. "Matt, you whore, get away from me. And turn the damn Lights off!" he yelled as he threw a pillow over his face.

"That wasn't me that was your girlfriend!" He laughed jumping off the bed waltzing over to me. "Matt." He stated and held out his hand. I looked at it and took his hand lightly.

"Alex." I said and went back to looking at my foot.

"Sorry about your foot, I will go get ice!" he smiled and disappeared up the stairs.

"Is he gone?" I heard muffled under a pillow.

"For now." I answered.

"Good, lock the door." he smiled sitting up with a pillow over his head, his hair pointing in all different directions. "I’m sorry about him...he is...weird." Oliver shook his head and sat us stretching his arms over his head.

"Who's weird?" Matt asked holding a bag of ice.

"Were you going to dump that on me?" Oliver asked.

"No! But I'll keep that in mind. But! This is for Alex." he said handing me the bag.

"Thanks." I accepted the bag, laying it over the bruise.

"What did you do!?" Oliver asked standing and coming over to where I was sitting. "Matt!" Oliver looked over at the boy.

"I apologized! I didn't know it was her in your bed! You keep it so damn dark in here." Matt responded and at down next to me. Oliver shook his head and left to the bathroom. "I really am sorry." he said smiling a goofy grin at me.

I couldn't help but laugh and nodded. "It’s okay; I pushed you off the bed twice." I laughed.

"That's right!" Matt smiled.

After a few minutes Oliver came out of the bathroom with tight pants squeezing his legs and a shirt hanging on his body. He slipped on some shoes and looked at me and Matt. "You all coming?" He asked.

"Where are we going?" I asked confused.

"The waffle house!" Matt smiled standing. "Go get dressed or we will leave you." Matt said seriously. I nodded and grabbed some clothes and heading to the bathroom. I pulled my pants on and pulled a clean shirt over my head. My hair looked like a birds nest. Simple as that.

I wet my fingers and ran it through the strands quickly, trying to hold it down. I stepped out of the bathroom and shut the light off, grabbing my jacket and pulling it around my shoulders. I hung my purse around my shoulders and looked up at the boys waiting for me. "Ready?" I asked.

"Wow. I have never seen a girl get ready that fast." Matt said looking at me shocked. I shook my head at him and followed them up the stairs. Oliver flipped the light switch making the room go dark and we all entered a hallway.

"Oliver, where are you go-" A woman stopped in the hall way and stared at me. "Alex?" She asked, looking puzzled at me.

"Mrs. Sykes?" I asked. Oliver looked from her to me.

"You know my mom?" He asked.