Chapter 5

I sit on my chair uncomfortably, fidgeting, passing a pen from hand to hand. I wince at the pain on my left cheek.

Thanks to Alex, the bruise has probably gotten worse by now.

My eyes won't behave either, they dart from the clock above my teacher's head to the door, and back to the clock again. Oblivious to whatever the teacher is saying as he drones on.

It's six minutes until the bell rings, and I can't wait to get the hell out of here.

Six more painful minutes...

And I will be storming out that door.

It's Monday

Meaning, I have detention with freaking Alex Caspian.

But today, I plan on ditching detention. I can't deal with this right now and I don't think I can even stand looking at his face, let alone working with him after what happened today.

I don't care about the consequences of not going to detention today. I'll skip it just this once.

The bell cuts the teacher off in the middle of his sentence. I hear books being slammed shut and chairs being dragged across the floor as everyone hurries to leave the room. The teacher yells amidst the chaos and reminds us of the homework that is due next week.

I storm out the door and walk as fast as I can through the hallway when suddenly someone puts a hand on my chest and stops me.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Mr. Jenkins says with a hint of annoyance in his tone.

I try to come up with an excuse.

"Right. I was just headed to the restroom before detention, sorry."

"Well, the restroom's that way smart-pants." He points through the opposite direction from where I was headed to. "I'll see you in five minutes, Charlie." He says firmly.

There's no way to escape this now. I just want to get this over with.

I head to the theater.

When I arrive to the theater, Alex is already there sitting on a stool, face scrunched up with concentration as he types furiously on his phone.

I sit on the opposite side of the theater and wait in silence.

Mr. Jenkins will be here any time soon.

The theater doors swing open as Mr. Jenkins enter. He seems to be in a hurry.

"Good to see both of you in here. Charlie, next time you try to ditch detention there will be consequences."

Alex looks at me with a blank face.

"The rules here are simple; No cellphones, no unnecessary noises, no leaving before detention ends, and most importantly, no fighting." He points at the two of us.

"Tidy this place and arrange all the instruments. I expect you both to do this every time you're here. Are we clear?"

"Yes sir." We answer.

Mr. Jenkins proceeds to leave the room and Alex goes back to his phone again.

I shake my head in disapproval.

Alex seems to notice this and puts his phone back in his pocket. "Oh stop it with your judgmental head shakes, Charlie. If it wasn't because of that scene you made earlier I wouldn't be here right now."

I scoff. "First of all, you started it and second of all, you're not the only one who doesn't want to be here right now." I say back.

He opens his mouth as if he's about to say something and closes it again.

I stand up. I pick up the music stand and start folding it.

"You're not just gonna sit there are you?" I say to Alex.

He says nothing.

I shrug and continue folding the music stands until I get to the last one and he still hasn't moved from where he was sitting.

"Thanks a lot, ass face." I say under my breath.

"What was that?" Alex asks.

"I said, THANKS A LOT ASS FACE. If you helped, we could've finished faster." I say to him.

He slightly tilts his head to the side, gives me a sarcastic smile, and flips me off. Douchebag.

As I have expected, I knew this would happen. I can't believe that I have to work with this asshole. This is such a waste of time. I'd rather be doing dishes at home than this. This is torture.

Alex stands up and topples the drum set over on purpose. "Oops, my bad. I should've looked at where I was going."

I massage my forehead and let out an exasperated sigh.

"Wow, really? I'm not touching that. Fix your own mess."

I'm slowly losing my patience.

"You think you can just boss me around?" He says, laughing a little.

I decide that it's best to ignore this. I wouldn't want to get into another fight while I'm in detention. God knows what Mr. Jenkins would make us do if we broke another rule. I don't want to make things harder than they already are.

If only this monkey would cooperate.

We've only been here for forty minutes but it feels like we've been here for hours.

I've finished most of the job already and there's nothing left to do so I decided to sit on one of the chairs and take a nap to pass time.

Alex continues to annoy me every chance he gets.

He hits the cymbals and the sound jolts me awake.

He laughs at me.

He's enjoying this. I don't want to give him the satisfaction so I ignore him and go back to sleep.

I wake to the sounds of footsteps coming in. It's Mr. Jenkins. He's back to check on us.

"Seems like you two finished everything early. You can both go now. I appreciate your efforts." He say to us.

He means MY efforts, right?

"I'm sure you two learned something important today. Don't punch each other's faces in the hallway! You two are going to be good friends after this, I guarantee that." He pats us both on our shoulders.

I guarantee that I'd rather slam my tongue on a car door than let that happen.