We Won't Back Down

Chapter Eight.

Athena Elwell.

School was an absolute bore today, which is odd because Craig wasn't at school today and while it should have been peaceful...it wasn't. I sat there, wishing that stupid idiot would walk through the door with some stupid ass excuse to why he was late, but no! I went through the whole day without some snarky comment to piss me off and I was upset about it! What the hell is wrong with me!?
I got to my sister's car and saw them both standing at the car talking to Ronnie and Jacky, feeling a pang of jealousy enter my heart. Why couldn't I find nice guys like them? I mean, yeah I wasn't as pretty as them, but it just...fucking sucks.
"So we were wondering if you three ladies would like to come to our band practice tonight?" Ronnie said, holding onto Dahlia's hand and playing with her fingers.
Oh great, just another chance for me to be the fifth wheel and be around a bunch of egotisical jackasses! I thought to myself.
"And we'll feed you afterwards!" Jacky said, beaming as brightly as the sun and I could just see Sheila swooning at his smile and accent. Oh Jesus Chr...
"Hey Athena, your cell phone is ringing bro!" Sheila said, causing me to jump in shock. She had been looking over at me this entire time, she had this way of ignoring the guy she's with to be there for her friends of family.
I looked at it, the screen reading Craig Mabbit and then just shut off the phone. If he was not going to show up, I didn't have to take his calls. Why the hell was he even calling me anyway? The man hated me!
"Aren't ya gonna answer that?" Dahlia asked with curiousity evident in her eyes. I nodded and threw my stuff in the back seat of my sisters car and then sitting down in it with the door open and my legs hanging out. I was too short for my own good. Damn my gnomeness!
"I'm mad at that fucker." I stated everyone went quiet for a moment before proceeding with their plan making. The entire time Sheila kept glancing over. I just stared down at my converse and tried to ignore it. I hated it when people obsessed over me and my stupid well being. I had told them a million times over that I'll always find a way to be okay because I always have and it's the only thing I can do.
"Athena, we have a surprise for you..." Dahlia said once we were on our way to Ronnie's house. Oh perfect, something else to contribute to a horrible in paridise. I hated surprises. Actually at that moment in my life, I hated a lot of things. I blamed Mabbit. Asshole. I'm not sure what he did either, but I'm sure he was the main factor of my anguish. I'm not always such a miserable creature, I promise! It just wasn't my day...Hell it wasn't even my week!
"Yippee..." I murmured from the back slouching down in my seat and sulking. Sheila groaned.
"Oh why can't you at least try to sound excited?" Dahlia rolled her eyes.
"She's just pissy because her lover wasn't at school today." Sheila commented. I almost choked on my own spit. I began a coughing fit, practically hacking up a storm.
"W-what? Excuuuse me?" My eyes were as round as saucers.
"You heard me." She replied looked back at me locking our gazes. Dahlia giggled at my reaction. I hated them today too.
"Shut up Sheila." I growled and put my headphones in my ears, I wasn't in the mood for their bullshit and I wasn't going to listen to them go on and on about how perfect their boyfriends were. I was going to sit here and listen to Flyleaf without interuption, damnit!
We arrived a short time later to what I was assuming was Ronnie's house and I got out, following suit as we came towards the two story turquoise house. His house...was turquouise....? What type of magic was this!?
"Hey there ladies!" A oriental looking guy with black spikey hair and a thick build said and I recognized him slightly from school. Mika Horiuchi had always been one of those guys that everyone got along with, everyone but Craig's band. Them and their stupid feud. "You must be the VIPs that Radke and Vincent wouldn't shut up about!"
"Mika, can you just open the door and invite them in?!" I heard a voice call from inside the house and it caused me to giggle a little bit. "I've got corn on the cob boiling and a pizza being made, you better not make them wait!"
"Ryan, chill the fuck out you fat arse!" he called and invited us in, watching as our mouths dropped open at the vast hugeness of the house.
"It's like a mansion!" Sheila exclaimed, hypering looking everywhere and pointing out random items. I got highly distracted by the many cats that paraded themselves around the place. I was a dog person, but every time I saw a cat I would always have to follow and pet it. That took a while because I had to follow and pet at least 13 cats ...and that was just on the first floor! Oh man. What's next? 12 tigers on the second?
I was stalking this one gray and black cat and asking it what its name was when I heard a voice coming from directly behind me.
"His name is Kat the twenty-seventh... and the food is done. If you'd like...you can sit by me." I glanced over my shoulder to see a gorgeous looking guy with short jet black emo looking hair, a thin but strong build, and the most heartwarming chocolate brown eyes. I was in shock for a moment because of how close he was to me. He was practically breathing down my back. He seemed familiar and after he moved on to the kitchen I remembered that he also went to my school. Everyone always said that Ryan Seamen was a sweetheart and a real easy going guy. He always seemed like someone I could truly get along with but I was just always awkward with guys so I refrained from talking to them due to that fact.
I followed him shortly after and came up on the kitchen sink to wash my hands before touching my food. My sister Sheila had gotten me into that habit after years of living with her and her OCD about washing her hands after petting an animal. I was always a bit of a tomboy so I tended not to always be the cleanest out of the bunch. I wasn't gross or anything though, just a little more layed back about things I guess. Not lately though. I was like my whole world was all topsy turvey!
We all gathered around in the living room to eat and I took Ryan up on his offer to sit next to him. The couch kind of sank in at the middle and sloped in at and angle on the outside edges so we were kind of crunched together and trying to eat smushed against each other. To be quite honest, I did not mind. For the first time in a long time my mind was not with Craig Mabbitt. Well, other than that second.
I felt myself opening up more and more with this guy I had just met and of all the things we could be talking about, we were talking about food. What kinds of food we liked. Who liked food more. Who has ate the most what. Just everything was about food! It was only a short time after that, that I found out that he was the drummer in their band and I let out a little giggle. Being as though, I always seemed to fall for drummers in different bands I was faced with and this wasn't much different.
"So, you play guitar eh?" he asks and I look over at him shocked, feeling my face heat up and contort in confusion.
"How do you know?" I ask, not meaning to sound rude, just thoroughly shocked.
"I overheard Monte Money and Robert Oritz talking about it and how you kicked Monte's ass at guitar. I have to say that I am really impressed!" he said, just as a orange cat, which I was assuming was Kat with some crazy random number came up and stole his pizza. It had to be the funniest thing I had ever saw in my life. To see a guy, start chasing a cat and calling it all sorts of names just to get back a piece of pizza. I looked down at his plate and saw two more pieces, wondering why he was so worried.
He came back and had the pizza in his mouth and I was just wondering, how the hell he had gotten it back.
"Alrighty guys, we should move this party to the basement, so these pretty girls can see what we're made of!" Mika exclaimed and all the guys agreed. I grabbed a piece of pizza off of Ryan's plate as I follow everyone downstairs. There were billions of cats it seemed to be chilling on the stairs and shockingly, they all didn't come close to the basement door.
We sat down on the couch and they offered us something to drink, which consisted mainly of pop or alcohol. We all chose pop even though we had a feeling that Dahlia would have grabbed alcohol if it wasn't for Sheila's death glare on her. We watched them in amazement as they played us a bunch of songs they had worked on and I could proudly say that I was a straight up fan girl. Plus, watching Ryan drumming away just made me a hundred times more attracted to him.
After that, Dahlia and Sheila said goodbye and goodnight to their boyfriends and that pang in my heart appeared again. I shlumped up the stairs and past the cats, waiting on the front porch for them to come out with the keys.
"Athena?" Ryan called from inside and then opened the door. I stood up quickly and looked at him when he came out, his eyes lighting up like Christmas. "Hey you!" a huge grin spread acrossed his face.
"Hi." I said shyly, my hair covering my face, but that didn't last long because he moved the hair behind my ear.
"So thank you for coming tonight and talking to me and watching the band, it was really nice meeting you." he says, shyly and ran a hand through his hair, causing me to giggle.
"It was nice meeting you too." I stated and hugged him, which took not only him aback but me as well. He wrapped his lengthy arms around me and picked me up, twirling me slightly and made us both laugh.
"I'll see you tomorrow." he said as he sat me down and handed me a piece of paper with his number on it. I felt my face go crimson when he kissed me on the cheek before he went inside.

Now that was a perfect end to a shitty day!