Never Say Goodnight

The rest of my classes were nothing more than average. Thankfully, I would only have those classes for one semester. I wasn't really worried about most of the. My literature class and history would be a breeze, but were bound to be a little boring. The only thing that concerned me was chemistry. I'd seen my older brother struggle with it the year before, and I wasn't even a little bit interested.

"They really couldn't have given us one other class together?" Collin complained as we walked out to the parking lot. "I mean, choir barely even counts because we don't even get to sit together."

I just laughed and shook my head at him. "I know. Ridiculous, isn't it?"

"Truly. Can you at least come over to my house later? We haven't had the chance to hang out in a couple of weeks."

"I'll ask my mom when I get home," I said. "I don't know why it would be a problem. God knows we never have any plans."

"Okay. Just text me or something and let me know."

I told him I would and we separated to get in our cars. I was just about to reverse out of my parking space when a blue streak caught my attention. My eyes followed it as it crossed the lot and got into a shiny black car in the teachers' section. I chewed my lip and wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans, feeling oddly unsettled about seeing Josh Ramsay twice in one day. Something about it didn't make sense to me, but I couldn't figure out what.



"Hey, Mom," I said as I walked through the door. I set my purse on the table and headed for the fridge.

"Hi, Ashton," she replied, kissing the side of my head as she passed me. She was hurrying around the kitchen, and I assumed she was preparing dinner. "How was your first day of school?"

"It was alright. Is it okay if I hang out with Collin tonight?"

"Well, Danielle called and asked if you could babysit tonight."

I groaned and closed the refrigerator door after coming up with nothing but a handful of grapes. What my mom had said was basically code for 'your sister called and you're babysitting tonight.' It wasn't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, but ever since I'd turned thirteen, the babysitting torch had been past to me and I was left with my sister's four year old nightmare every time she and her husband worked nights, or just decided they wanted to go out.

"Can't Adam do it for once?" I asked, just as I had every time I'd had to babysit over the last two years.

"Oh, come on now Ashton," Mom said with a grin. "It's not like that. We all love your brother, but bless him the boy would lose his head if it wasn't attached. Besides, you know you love hanging out with your niece."

I rolled my eyes, not even wanting to comment. To be fair, I obviously loved my niece. I just didn't love children all that much in general. "What time does she need me there?"

"Five. Dinner should be done before then."

I just nodded and then headed for the stairs, pulling my phone out to tell Collin what was going on. My sister had no problem with him coming to her house while I was there, but my mom wasn't okay with it at all, so it was our little secret. She was never able to understand that he was just my friend and nothing more.

I was so busy staring at my phone that I almost ran into my brother, who was coming out of the hall bathroom and heading to his room.

"Whoa, careful Squirt," Adam smirked, using the name he'd called me for as long as I could remember. "You know, you're supposed to look in front of you when you walk, not at the ground."

"Oh, shut up. I was looking down because I had to tell Collin we can't hang out, because I have to babysit for our darling sister again. Which wouldn't be a problem if you would do it every once in awhile."

"Oops," he shrugged. "Sorry, I have a party to go to tonight."

He pointed to his bedroom window, which he would undoubtedly be sneaking out of once our parents were in their room for the night. Beside it, I saw his book of Shakespeare's plays that he'd begged Mom for a few years ago. He'd had her convinced that it was something that really interested him, but I knew that he used it to hide his cigarettes and God knows what else.

"Thanks for the help," I grumbled, walking off to my room.



I hadn't even opened my sister's front door all the way before I heard my name being squealed by my niece. I saw her running at me full force and had just enough time to get the door closed before she jumped into my arms, making me stumble.

"Hi, Alice," I muttered, carefully placing her back on the floor.

"Ashton! Thank God you're here," my sister said as she entered the room, still trying to shove an earring in her ear. "I'm already running late. Is Collin coming here tonight?''

"Yeah, probably. That still okay?"

"Of course," she answered. "We probably won't be home until after eleven. I get off at ten thirty so I should be here first. There's some chicken nuggets in the freezer for Alice. She'll probably be hungry around six but you and Collin can help yourselves to anything in the kitchen. Okay, I seriously have to go. You're a doll, Ash."

She kissed my cheek and kissed her daughter on the head before dashing out the front door. She hadn't even reached her car before Alice stood up and began running around the house.

Collin showed up about twenty minutes after me. By that point, I'd already given up on trying to catch the little demon and had thrown a bunch of toys on the floor, hoping one of them would catch her eye and calm her down. She was coloring when Collin came through the door.

I ended up making all of the chicken nuggets because as soon as I pulled the bag from the freezer, Collin said he wouldn't mind having a few. I made Alice a plate and she went back to coloring while she ate. Collin made his own and we sat together on the couch.

"How are you feeling about choir so far?" he asked.

"I'm pretty excited," I answered. "I think this will be our best year."

"Yeah. It's gonna be intense though. The seniors in there are already acting all big and bad. Probably just because they didn't make it into senior choir, but still. I already picked out the ones we're gonna have to watch out for."

"Who?" I asked.

"Pretty much all of the seniors, to be honest. Specifically those two blonde girls that sit up front, and that guy Daniel. He sits next to me, and he's such a dick."

I looked to the side to see if Alice had picked up on Collin's bad word, but she didn't even seem to notice.

"What about this whole assistant director thing?"

I rolled my eyes. "I have no idea. Something about that guy makes me feel weird. And the way everyone is all over him is so annoying."

"Yeah, but he's pretty cool," Collin said, causing me to raise an eyebrow. "From what I've heard, he still acts like a college kid. Parties and music and stuff. Of course, I heard Daniel saying that to the other seniors, so it might be false."

Great, After only the first day of junior year, Collin had been converted. I could just imagine him, dying his hair and adding a blue streak. That, of course, made me think of the original blue streak.

And that made my stomach turn.