Fire and Ice

Two Weeks Earlier.

"Is my outfit, okay?" I nervously ask Faith for the tenth time in that past three minutes.

I am wearing an adorable knee length white dress with little pink flowers on it that I covered with a matching pink sweater so that I look more put together. For shoes I chose a pair of white sneakers and for hair I decided on loose curls.

"Hanna, you look amazing" Faith responds genuinely with a small smile from my chair.

"Yeah, If Charley doesn't think so then he's blind" Bailey cuts in as she continues to read a random fashion magazine from my bed.

Charley Huntington.

Chad for short.

Chad and I have been dating for ten months.

Today is our ten-month anniversary and I made the brave decision to surprise him with baseball tickets.

He's obsessed with baseball so I wanted to give him a present to correlate.

I hear a knock on my bedroom door before it opens to reveal my mother.

"Are you ready?" She asks with a smile.

I nod my head as I nervously grab my purse and say goodbye to my friends. They return the farewell as I exit my bedroom.

I really hope that this all goes according to plan.

-

"Do you want me to pick you up later?" My mother asks me as I unbuckle my seatbelt.

I briefly glance at Charley’s house before facing her and shaking my head.

"No, I'm sure his mom will drop me off" I reply since his mom always volunteers to drive me home.

If she's not up for driving me home then I could just call one of my moms.

"Okay, call me if you need a ride back" she says with a serious tone of voice.

My moms are crazy about kidnapping.

They never let me, or my siblings, out past nine unless we are with another trusted adult.

I understand their worry though.

"I will" I reply with an appreciative smile as I exit the car.

I close the car door behind me and make my way towards their front door, making sure to walk along the stone pathway.

As I arrive in front of the main door, I knock on it three times and wait a couple of seconds before I'm met with Mrs. Huntington's excited facial expression.

"Hanna!" She exclaims with obvious happiness.

"Hello, Mrs. Huntington" I say with a smile.

She steps aside so that I can walk into their house, which I do with no protest. She quickly closes the door behind me to keep the autumn breeze out of their warm household.

"Charley is upstairs in his bedroom, would you like me to go get him for you?" She questions politely.

"No, is it okay if I go up alone?" I ask her.

She instantly shakes her head and uses her hands to usher me towards the stairs. I thank her before making my way towards my boyfriend's room.

The closer I get towards his bedroom the clearer I'm able to hear some particularly odd noises coming from it.

Could it possibly be from his video game?

He hasn't played a game in a while.

His television?

He doesn't usually watch cable.

Once I'm outside of his bedroom I'm able to one hundred percent make out the sounds from the other side.

He's watching porn.

Why would he be watching porn?

I twist his doorknob and push the door open only to immediately stop in my tracks at the sight that meets my eyes.

Oh, my goodness.

This can't be happening.

"Oh my god" I say with an appalled tone of voice.

My best friend jumps off of my boyfriend at the sound of my voice with a shocked facial expression.

No.

Please, tell me that this isn't happening.

"Hanna, this isn't what it looks like" Charley tries to defend as he stands up with an obvious tent in his pants.

I glance over at my best friend only to see her trying but failing to cover her body with his blanket, the same blanket I slept under one night when my parents and I were fighting.

"It looks like I'm being cheated on by my boyfriend and best friend" I say with a slight voice crack.

I'm not going to fight for him.

Obviously, our relationship didn't mean as much to him as it did to me.

So, I'm done.

"Oh, then it's exactly what it looks like" my best friend says.

"Shut up, Ava" Charley says to her with an annoyed tone of voice.

I sigh as I calmly hand him the baseball tickets, I have no use for them anymore.

"Happy ten-month anniversary" I say with a small reminiscent smile before retreating out of his room.

"Hanna, wait!" He calls after me but I continue to walk away.

"Just let her go, babe, she was going to find out sooner or later" Ava says to him with an annoyed tone of voice.

I can't believe I was so stupid.

How did I not see the signs?

Always texting each other whenever he and I were together at school.

Always getting jealous whenever I mentioned a milestone in our relationship.

Always having secrets.

"Hanna, is everything okay?" Mrs. Huntington asks me with a confused facial expression as I step onto the tiled flooring.

I quickly wipe my tear away and nod my head.

"Yeah" I reply with a small smile.

"Did Charley do something without consent?" She asks with obvious fear which makes me release a small chuckle I'll truly miss Mrs. Huntington and her exquisite baking skills.

"I love your son, but tonight he broke my heart" I reply honestly with no hate or malice in my tone of voice.

"Oh no, honey" she says with a worried tone of voice

"It's fine, I just wanted to tell you so that you do not assume the worst" I tell her.

She leans in and embraces me in a ginormous hug which I do not stray away from. I actually find comfort in her hugs.

As I pull away from the hug, I hear Charley yell from upstairs.

"Hanna, wait, I can explain" he pleads with a fearful tone of voice.

I give him a genuine smile before gripping the doorknob.

"Goodbye, Charley" I say before exiting the Huntington residence.

I quickly run down their pathway and towards their street. I fish my phone out of my pocket and dial my mother’s number.

As the phone starts to ring, I feel tears begin to prick my eyes before they quickly slide down my cheeks.

"Hello?" My mom answers with a shocked tone of voice.

"Mom, I made a mistake, can you please come pick me up" I ask her as I being to bail out crying, the salty tears now soaking my dress.

-

"Hanna, I know that you're extremely upset but please let me remove your makeup" Bailey pleads from the left side of my bed.

Bailey wants to be a dermatologist when she grows up so whenever someone isn't taking care of their skin, she gets extremely irritated.

I agree to let her remove my makeup so that I do not have to listen to her complain about it for an hour.

"Do you want some ice cream?" Faith asks me as she continues to gently stroke my blonde hair I look up at her from my position on my bed and nod my head. She smiles down at me before standing up and exiting my room, closing the door behind her.

While she's gone Bailey decides to start on the makeup removal process.

Honestly, I just want to sleep for the next however many years.

As soon as Bailey finishes removing my make up, I hear a knock on the door. As I look over, I notice that both of my moms are standing near the doorway with sad facial expressions.

"I'll leave you guys alone" Bailey says with a smile as she uses her thumb to comfortingly rub my shoulder.

She grabs her purse and quickly makes her way out of my room. When she's completely out of my room my parents walk in and close the door behind themselves.

They remain silent as they take a seat on either side of my body.

"He cheated on me," I answer their unasked question.

My mom has a horrified facial expression while my mother has a murderous facial expression.

The both of them look at each other and seemingly converse with just their eyes.

"He cheated on me with Ava" I add on.

Their eyes widen almost simultaneously.

"Charlotte!" My mom squeaks out with an appalled tone of voice as she smacks her shoulder.

I am so glad that I cannot hear their thoughts.

"Hanna, would you like to take a little time off school?" My mom asks me as she averts her attention away from my mother.

I nod my head not wanting to be a third party in their stare match.

They nod at my answer and give me another sad smile before placing a kiss on either side of my head.

"If you don't mind, I would like to take a nap, I'm exhausted" I say to them with a small smile.

"Okay, yell if you need anything" my mom says before exiting with my mother.

Ugh.

This day went nothing like I had hoped it would, but Ava was right.

I was bound to find out about their secrecy affairs sooner or later.

I let out a sigh as I kick my shoes off and slide underneath my blanket.

Maybe I can sleep this away.

-

Aspen's POV

"I feel so bad for her" I say as Charlotte and I descend the stairs towards the kitchen.

"So do I, but there is not much that we can do. We have to let this breakup take its toll" she responds as she leaves me at the barstools to fetch a glass of wine.

"I wish I had more experience in the breakup department so that I could give her the correct advice" I say as I take a seat and watch Charlotte pour a glass of wine.

She tenses at my words and immediately stops pouring.

"Babe, I understand where you are coming from, I really do, but not everyone deals with breakups the same way" Charlotte says before she slides me the glass of wine.

I nod my head in response and use my pointer finger to circle the rim of my glass.

"How is Amanda doing?" I ask Charlotte with a curious tone of voice.

Amanda is new to Charlotte's gang.

She lives in the house that Charlotte and I used to reside in before we decided to adopt.

She's an extremely nice woman, she even has a daughter.

Aurelia, I think.

"I actually talked to her yesterday, she said that she's settling in nice and Aurelia can't wait to begin her training" Charlotte replies.

I smile at this piece of information.

"That's wonderful! Should we visit them soon?" I ask.

She shrugs as she takes a sip of wine.

"You should call her and ask, I'm sure she wouldn't mind" Charlotte replies.

"You know, I think I will" I reply as I raise from my barstool and walk towards my cellphone.

I inwardly groan in irritation as the warning bell rings, loudly might I add.

Anyone with a perfectly working brain can tell that I don't want to be messed with.

I'm wearing a pair of grey sweatpants and a black tank top.

The easiest outfit ever.

My mothers were trying to get me to stay home but I convinced them to let me come to school.

Mainly because I've missed a bunch of work already.

I'm in the middle of fixing my bun when I hear a horrid voice behind me.

"Look what the cat dragged in" my ex-best friend says from behind me Seriously?!

My first day back and I have to deal with this?!

I slowly turn around to face my ex-friend who is surprisingly not alone.

She's practically hanging onto my ex-boyfriend.

"Cat got your tongue, sweet cheeks?" He retorts with the same wicked smirk.

Are they serious right now?

"Listen, I'd hate to stay and chat so I'm going to go" I say emotionlessly as I turn around and make my way towards my first period.

They don't give up though.

Of course, they don't, why would they?

"Aww, little miss popular isn't so popular anymore" she says with a squeaky voice.

What is she talking about?!

I'm not even popular.

Barely anyone even knows my name.

"She's just madder she never got a chance to hop on my cock" he says.

Is he serious?

His dick is so small that I had to take a second look at it!

You know what, I'm not going to say anything.

They don't deserve it.

I will not stoop down to their level.

I walk into class effectively cutting off their false remarks as I quickly make my way to my desk.

My first period is environmental science so we have lab desks instead of singular desks.

I sit at a lab desk by myself since people are too scared to come up to me.

I think it's because of my resting face.

My friends say that I have a resting bitch face when I'm bored or trying to focus on something.

My real friends.

Bailey and Faith.

I actually met them this year when I was trying to find the band room.

The late bell rings which effectively pulls me out of my thoughts.

"Okay class, today we're going to be taking notes," my science teacher says.

A majority of the class groans out which causes me to make a confused facial expression.

Why are they surprised?

We've been doing this since the first day of school.

I'm a sophomore if you didn't know.

I have a late birthday which makes me younger than most of the sophomores.

"Hanna, nice to see you could bless us with your presence today," my teacher says with a sarcastic tone.

"Can you please tell us what the atomic number is for beryllium?" She questions me.

I raise an eyebrow at her as if silently asking her if she's serious but she just continues to stare at me with an impatient look.

I shouldn't even be surprised that she'd pull this on someone who hasn't been at school in two weeks.

"The class is waiting, Hanna" she says impatiently.

Just as I'm about to tell this crazy lady that I'm not going to answer her question someone bursts through the door as if they own the place.

As soon as she opens the door she stares around the classroom with a bored expression.

She must be new; I've never seen her before.

She's wearing a black tank top that is covered by a black leather jacket. She paired that with a pair of black skinny jeans and black booties. Her midnight black hair is tied up in a high ponytail.

Wow.

She's definitely a bad girl.

That means she's bad news.

I've read about girls like her.

She could probably separate my head from my body if she so chose to.

"Excuse me, why are you late to my class?" The teacher questions as if she was actually teaching something.

"I'm new, I just moved here" she states with a tone of annoyance as if it wasn't obvious that she's new The teacher gives her a skeptical look as she holds out her hand.

The new girl walks over to her and places a pink slip in the teachers awaiting hand.

"Miss Kingsbury, take a seat next to Miss Wilder" the teacher announces as she points towards me.

The new girls’ grey eyes land on me and she nods before making her to me.

No, why me?!

She can sit next to anyone else in this classroom!

Oh god.

My sophomore year is totally and completely ruined.

"What's up, princess" she says in a mocking tone.

Is she serious, right now?

"What did you just call me?" I ask her calmly as I turn to face her.

There's no need to let my anger control me.

"A princess, it's a compliment" she says with an eye roll at my reaction.

"You hardly even know me, scratch that, you don't even know me so who are you to come in here and make fun of me" I question her with a glare.

She can have a careless attitude all she wants but it becomes a problem when she treats everyone else like they're the cause of it.

"Calm down, princess, I'm not making fun of you" she says emotionlessly as she starts to write down the notes on the board.

I don't miss the slight tug of her lip.

She finds this amusing?!

"Yes, you are and don't call me princess" I say before I turn around in my seat and start to copy the notes.

I can already tell that we will not get along.

Not that I'm complaining.

I can't help but think about something weird though.

Why is it that when she walked into class, I felt a light stirring in my chest?

-

Bailey, Faith and I are sitting at a booth in the cafeteria and guess what they can't stop talking about?

The new girl.

"Hanna, have you seen the new girl?" Bailey asks with wide blue eyes.

"Yes, I have and I wish I didn't" I state sourly as I shove another French fry in my mouth.

No, you don't.

Shut up.

"What's with the sour mood?" Faith asks me as she averts her attention away from the new girl and towards me.

"It's nothing, I just think you guys shouldn't be gushing over her" I say as I avoid their confused glances.

"Hanna, you're lying" Bailey states.

"No, I'm not" I say as I continue to avoid their eyes.

"Wait guys, she's looking over here" Faith says with an excited tone of voice.

There's no way that she's looking over here.

I slowly turn around and look in the direction where Bailey and Faith are looking.

As soon as the new girls’ eyes connect with mine, she smirks which causes me to roll my eyes back at her as I turn around in my seat.

"Wait a minute, she's looking at Hanna" Bailey says with just as much excitement.

"Will you guys just shut up about her" I say as I shove three fries in my mouth.

"Shh, she's coming over here" Faith says which makes my eyes widen.

I swear to all the gods above.

If this girl comes over here, so help me god.

"Hey, princess" the familiar voice says.

Seriously?!

I thought we were friends, dude.

I slowly turn to face her and give her the best smile that I can muster up.

"Please, go away" I request.

"Not a chance" she says thoroughly amused by my reaction.

"Princess?" Bailey asks with a suggestive tone as Faith wiggles her eyebrows suggestively.

"Nothing’s going on between her and I" I say with wide eyes.

I don't need anything being said about her and I's 'relationship'.

Her and I don't even like each other.

Plus, we don't even know each other's name.

"Wow, princess, so us being lab partners means nothing to you?" She questions with fake sadness as she places a hand over her heart.

"Nothing at all" I say emotionlessly.

I glare at her as if silently telling her to go away but she just continues to stare at with with obvious amusement.

"Would you like to join us?" Faith asks as she motions towards the seat beside me that's currently holding my backpack Really, Faith?!

"I don't know, I wouldn't want to intrude" she says.

Please don't intrude.

"No, please intrude" Bailey encourages.

What is wrong with these two?!

"Okay, if you insist" she says as she grabs my backpack and sits down before gently placing it in her lap.

"You two are dead to me" I mutter to both Bailey and Faith but they don't hear me as they continue to stare at the new girl.

I seriously need to get her name.

Wait, no I don't because that'll make it seem like I care.

And I don't care.

Right?!

"If you don't mind me asking, what's your name?" Bailey asks her.

"My name is Aurelia" she says with a bright smile.

Aurelia Kingsbury.

Her name sounds so expensive.

But I can't deny how beautiful it sounds.

"Thank you, princess" she replies to me with a small smirk.

Oh god.

She heard that.

I can't believe I said that.

I feel my cheeks quickly become warm as I awkwardly look down at my intertwined hands.

"Ex-Excuse me" I say quietly as I slide out of the booth and quickly make my way towards the door.

I don't know where I'm going.

I just know that I need to get out of here.

I aimlessly wander the hallway until I'm stopped by my ex-boyfriend.

Who shall remain nameless?

"Wow, so you're stalking me now?" He questions with a tone of disbelief and slight amusement.

I roll my eyes at him as I cross my arms.

"Leave me alone" I say as I go to walk around him only to have him block my path.

"You just can't get enough of me, huh?" He questions with amusement as his eyes rake my body up and down.

"Sorry, babe, I'm with your best friend now," he says with a shrug.

"Oops I mean ex-best friend" he says with fake sadness.

"Move" is all I say as I go to step around him only for him to block my way, again.

"Why, are you trying to run away from your problems again?" He questions.

He's one to talk.

"I'll tell you one more time, get out of my way" I say as I bump past him only for him to roughly grab my upper arm and yank me back so that I'm standing in front of him.

"You can't run away from this, Hanna" he says with an evil smirk.

I start to worry a little as his grip on my arm never falters.

I reach my free hand up to pry his hand off of my upper arm only to fail.

Instead, he tightens his grip around my arm and uses his other hand to violently yank my hand away from previous one.

Ouch.

I start to feel a throbbing in my arm as well as my wrist.

"Let go of me" I say as I yank to try and get out of his grip His eyes continue to roam my body sinisterly as if he's planning on doing something bad to me.

"No, I think we still have some unsolved business" he says in a low voice.

"Get off of me" I say.

"She said to get off of her" the familiar voice says.

It happened so quickly that if you blinked you might've missed it.

Aurelia's fist connected with my ex-boyfriends nose so hard that it threw him off his balance.

He takes a few steps back and reaches up to grab his nose.

"What was that for?" He yells out with a tone of frustration.

"Stay away from her" Aurelia demands with a hard tone.

I turn to face her only for my breath to get caught in my throat.

She looks so powerful.

Her black hair isn't in a ponytail anymore but instead lazily parted to the side as it flows around her face and down her shoulders.

Her grey eyes are a smokey grey, as if she's trying to calm a fire inside of her.

Her facial features are hard as she stands there watching my idiot of an ex try to stop his bloody nose, incorrectly might I add.

I think she broke his nose.

"You'll pay for this, Kingsbury" he says with a glare before throwing me a disgusted look and stomping off.

Aurelia quickly turns to face me but continues to remain emotionless as she examines me for any injuries.

"How is your wrist?" She asks after she's done examining my arm.

I move my wrist back and forth only feeling a dull pain.

"It's fine," I reply.

She nods her head.

"Thank you for helping me" I say.

She deserves it.

Without her who knows what would've happened to me.

"You're welcome, princess" she replies with a slight smirk.

"Really, we're back to this?!" I question her.

"Fine, what's your name?" She asks genuinely.

I raise an eyebrow at her.

I feel like this is a trick.

"What?" She asks "Is this a trick?" I ask her with no hesitation.

"Really, what trick could I possibly pull right now?" She asks she with crossed arms.

I guess she's right.

"My name is Hanna" I decide to tell her as I give in.

"Hanna Wilder" she says my name which causes my body to feel tingly all over.

Whoa.

What was that?

I stand up straighter to try and hide this feeling.

My ex-boyfriend never made me feel like that.

"Pretty name" she says as she tucks a strand of her black hair behind her ear.

Her eyes never stray away from mine as she does so.

This girl is dangerous.

I've never met anyone like her.

Much less seen.

I need to get out of here.

"Thank you for your help, but I have to go" I say as I make my way towards the double doors "Hanna" she calls out to me.

"Yeah?" I ask her as I turn back around to face her.

"You forgot your backpack" she says as she slips my backpack off her back and holds it out for me to grab.

I blush with embarrassment as I awkwardly make my way towards her and grab my bag.

Our fingers gently graze against each other which makes my breath hitch.

That's so weird.

My hand begins to feel tingly and my knees start to feel weak.

"Thanks" I say as I grab the bag and place it over my shoulder before making my way towards to double doors.

So many things happen today.

My ex-boyfriend and ex-best friend started dating.

A new girl came to our school.

Bailey and Faith were practically bowing down at the girl's feet.

My ex-boyfriend almost tried something with me.

And finally, the new girl and I may be on the road to acquaintances.

I think I need a nap.