Song of the chapter - Enjoy the Silence by Depeche Mode

➡️I've made the potentially earth shattering decision to just go ahead and spell out the curse words. Sorry if that offends you, but the * were starting to get on my nerves⬅️

Leaning against my car and looking out over the parking lot, I watched for the asshat to show up. Matt was seriously pissing me off with his I'm not really an asshole act. I mean, what loser at this school didn't already know he was a complete asshole?

Or maybe they didn't. Seriously, these idiots needed to open their effing eyes. Figuring out this d-bag was like watching my mom's soap operas. No plot and shity acting. Why wasn't   more of the student body clued in to him. It made no sense at all.

Fuck it. Why waste my time trying to understand it. I was already wasting my time watching out for the douche's every move. I wasn't fooled by the fact he hadn't done anything to the little mouse yet. Honestly, it was just a matter of time before he struck back at her.

He had been the one to dump her, but I had a strong feeling it was a preemptive strike. His behavior had changed over the weekend, he saw it coming and didn't want to let her have the control. Guys like him never change and his image is more important than anything else.

As I was standing in the lot, waiting for the jerk, I saw him round the corner of the main building with some of his crew and that empty headed blond that's always hanging on him. They were all laughing about something, and that girl was rubbing her hand up and down his arm, trying to get his attention. I had to hand it to him, he really played his part well, always looking like the perfect jock. He was almost as good at his act as I was at mine.

He was scanning the lot for something as he walked toward his car, when his eyes fell on me, locking in place. His previously casual smirk became a menacing glare immediately. Damn, the ass was trying to let me know his true feelings for me. Well, it was nice to know he cared.

We kept the face off going for a few seconds, me not daring to look away and him not willing to. He continued to glare as he unlocked his door and climbed into his car, never once losing eye contact. That's talent.

I stood, watching, as he peeled out of the lot, leaving a trail of rubber in his wake. Now, that was a perfectly good waste of some quality tires. There's no way I would treat a good low profile tread that badly.

He was headed in the opposite direction of Amber's house, same as the day before, so I decided to go straight to Nico's. I really had no desire to watch that fucker anymore.

April and Amber would probably get there ahead of me, which I preferred. I hated this detective shit but the alternative was not an option. No one deserved Matt's version of dating.

As I pulled up to Nico's house, I was surprised that April's Mustang was no where to be found. If there was a problem she would have texted me or Nico, so there really wasn't a reason to panic. But I did. Just a little.

"Nico!" I called to him as I walked toward the garage, his usual afternoon location.

"Back here! Where else would I be?"

Fucker.

"Where's April? She should be here by now." I demanded as I entered said garage. Nico was bent over the hood of the piece-of-shit Camero we'd been working on for the past few weeks. He looked up at me with an eyebrow raised.

"Well, someone's awfully over protective. Worried about your girl?"

Asshole.

"Drop it. Where are they." I was not feeding into his suggestions. Ever since Amber took off from there the day before, Nico had been giving me hell about her.

"Relax" he said as he went back to inspecting the carburetor, "they stopped for FroYo. Be here in a few minutes"

I could hear the laughter in his voice. He wasn't gonna let it go.

Without looking up at me, he started in on me, again. "You look rested. Get a good nights sleep last night?"

Of course I had. First good nights sleep since the whole thing started. But admitting that would start a whole new shitstorm of teasing. So I ignored it. Silence on the subject was my best bet.

"Did you get it running today." Yeah, I changed the subject. Who effing cared.

"Almost got her to turn over. I think it needs new plugs." He continued to mess with the inner workings of the car as he spoke. "Did you see the dick today?"

And back to the mouse's situation.

"Yeah. Took off with his posse and that blond girl, Courtney. She must be his next victim." She was clueless enough to let it happen, too.

"You gonna save her, or is Amber the only special case?" Now he was smirking again.

"Eff you."

Nico laughed, "got it." He put his hands up in surrender, but I knew him well enough to realize it was far from over. I'd be hearing about this until... Shit he might never stop.

"Bitch! We're here!"

April's mating call rung out loud and clear as she and Amber headed into the garage. I turned their direction to see they indeed had stopped for yogurt, both having the evidence still in their grasp. But my breath caught in my throat as I realized Amber had been crying. Her eyes were red and puffy. I had never seen her look so upset, not even during one of Matt's tirades behind the cafeteria.

I was gonna kill that fucker if he laid a hand on her.

"What'd he do!" I blurted out before thinking. All three pairs of eyes shot in my direction. April and Nico had knowing looks, almost smiles. Amber just looked shocked.

"Nothing. Doll just needed a little refreshment. We worked it out, it's all good now, don't you worry." April stepped over to me and smacked my cheek on the last word. I flinched away from her.

"So how did everything go today? Any rumors that need crushing?" Nico inquired.

"Nope." April stated casually as she leaned against Nico's tool case. "Strangely enough all was quiet from him and his crew. We had...other issues to work out. But like I said, it's fine now." She glanced over to Amber who held her gaze and smiled.

It was small, but it put me at ease to see that she did seem okay. I needed to get a hold of myself. I would seriously never hear the end of it if I didn't. I already wasn't going to hear the end of most of what'd been happening.

Damn Nico.

"Hey, big boy, wanna bite of my yogurt?" April cooed to him.

"Oh my god, you two!" I said as I shook my head. "Could you save it for when I'm not here?"

"You're always here, G. If I waited for you to leave, I'd never stop waiting!" April shot back at me. And to put further emphasis on her point, she walked over to Nico and made a big show of spoon feeding him some of her strawberry crap. I almost gagged when he looked at her with lust in his eyes.

"You two are embarrassing. I'm stepping outside. Let me know when the show is over." I shoved my hands in my pockets and started for the open garage door. But as I passed Amber, I figured she'd want out of there too.

"You want to wait outside too?"

Her eyes widened but she nodded her head and followed me out the door. I knew I was walking right into more harassment from Nico and April, but what else could I do?

"So how was your day, really?" I asked. I had to admit, her tear stained cheeks had me curious.

"Strange" she answered with a sigh. "All this time I stayed with him because I was afraid of what he would do if we broke up. And then the whole elaborate plan, the secrecy...it all seems like we did it for nothing. He dumped me, tired of everything I guess. And then he acted like he didn't even know me today." She just shook her head but I didn't sense more tears, thank goodness. Crying girls were not my thing.

"I wouldn't get too comfortable. I'm sure we haven't heard the last from him yet. And I don't think he ended things because he was tired of you. I really think he did it because he figured out you were going to."

She looked up at me, surprised by my revelation. Her hair was a mess from the wind, she had a little chocolate on her top lip from the yogurt, and her eyes had a raccoon like appearance from her tears. But she looked beauti-

Holy shit! I needed to quit letting Nico's suggestions get into my head!

Suddenly I was very aware that my hood was down. I almost never pulled it down around anyone but my family. Somehow I hadn't noticed until that moment that it wasn't hiding me.

I looked away and took a step back. "Well, that's my impression anyway. He's too cocky to let you have any control."

Amber was still looking at me. I could feel her gaze on my face. Normally that meant the person staring was checking out my scar, but I knew she wasn't doing that. Amber had never once looked at it, not any of the times I was speaking face to face with her. Not even that day behind the cafeteria.

"Maybe you're right." She said after looking down at her empty yogurt cup. "So much has changed because of dating him. I was all prepared to have a boring, normal senior year. This has been anything but normal. And now I would do anything for boring."

Without putting any thought into my actions, I stepped forward and took her empty cup. Trash in hand, I turned away from her to toss it behind the garage, where the trash cans were kept. As I went back over to where Amber stood, I glanced at her to find her watching me with a strange look on her face. Confused or irritated, I couldn't be sure.

"Oh, were you done with that?" I guess I should have asked first. But manners weren't really my thing.

"What? Oh, yeah" she shook her head "no, that's fine. That's not..." she looked down again, clearly uncomfortable. I was used to it. Most people were pretty uncomfortable around me, but it was something I worked for.

"Well, what then. You obviously had something on your mind" I realized, too late, that my tone sounded pretty harsh. It just came too naturally to be always on my guard around people. I couldn't just turn it off.

"Um...I guess I was wondering..." she stopped again, nervously shifting her feet back and forth and twisting a lock of hair around her finger.

I decided to just wait her out. Standing there, not saying anything, couldn't possibly make things more awkward than they already were.

Finally she looked up at me, a new determination in her eyes, "why are you even doing all of this? Why me?" She asked with more force than I was expecting from such a little mouse.

"I don't know..." I couldn't tell her the real reason. I wasn't willing to let her into that part of my life. "I guess I just got tired of guys like him getting away with whatever they wanted. You hear the rumors, about Nico, about everyone. It's just time to end it."

Most of that was true. But the biggest reason was not for her to know.

She looked at me a long time, probably trying to decide if that was a good enough excuse for the hell I was about to put myself through. Because I'm sure she knew what I knew, this was just the beginning. But something in her eyes told me there was more she wanted to know. More, but she wouldn't ask it yet.

That's what I was worried about.

"Hey! You two done in there yet?" I called to April and Nico. I needed someone else for Amber to hang with after that whole exchange.

"Yeah, come on back in. As if we would have sex in a garage...with you two standing right outside!" April yelled back.

She certainly didn't sugar coat things.

Amber followed me back into the garage to find April sitting on the work bench and Nico with his head back under the hood. Fully clothed, thank god.

"Were you expecting a show?" April laughed with her left eyebrow raised. "I may not be shy but I'm not an exhibitionist. There are some things I keep to myself, G." Her legs were crossed and one foot was casually swinging up and down. She was the picture of confidence.

"Not much" Nico snorted from behind the hood. April glared at him, but it seemed playful rather than fierce.

"Speak for yourself, Mr. let's-make-out-in-the-grocery-store."

Nico just laughed, "I didn't hear you complaining at the time."

Those two really made me sick. "Isn't it time to get Amber home?" I pointed out to April.

"You know, I'm not a little kid. You don't have to babysit me like this." Amber interjected, sounding irritated, kind of like a little kid, actually.

"Are you sick of our company already?" April joked, "cause I have a feeling you're one of us for the long haul." April glanced over to me, that fucking smirk back on her face. I glared at her and looked away.

Once again, without even looking up at the rest of us, Nico chimed in, "it's probably fine now. Garrett can take you home, Amber."

Shit.

Amber looked over at me, just as I looked her way, with her eyebrows up, clearly freaked out by the idea. I wasn't too excited either, to be honest.

"Whatever." I said to no one in particular. So much for getting someone else for her to hang with. Seemed like I was it. Then I looked at Amber, right in the eyes, "come on, let's get out of here."

She gathered her things without protest and went over to April, hugging the toughest female at Jefferson. That was a first.

"Thanks for this afternoon, April."

"Any time, Doll. See ya tomorrow. Don't forget what we talked about, got it?" April gave her a look of authority. No one would think twice about following her orders.

"Yeah, I got it. See ya."

I had no idea what that whole exchange was about, but I had a feeling I would be finding out sooner than later. And I wasn't sure I even wanted to know.

^^^^^
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A/N so my 500 words per day writing goal worked out well this week. I'm planning on getting ahead for Matt's installment of part 4.

But before his part, you'll get to see Day One, my #WattpadBlockParty post, going live on February 12. You'll get to see Garrett, Amber and Matt on their first day of school, senior year.

Plus I've got some giveaways so check the raffle copter link too!

Depeche Mode's Enjoy the Silence seemed fitting for Garrett here. His silence on so many topics is holding him back...think on that a while.

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]