Chapter 3: That's What I Go to School For

Honk! Honk!

"Madden, are you awake? You're going to be late! Ashford's waiting for you!"

I groaned. The combination of Mom yelling at me and Ashford's horn honking was not what I wanted to wake up to. I just want to go back to sleep in my warm bed and not have to deal with cross country practice, but no. Life had to suck.

I moved my arms to try and stretched when I hit something warm. Blinking I rolled over to see what I had hit. I lied there, staring straight into storm grey eyes. It took me a second to realize that I had hit Grey's chest when I stretched. 'Wait...what's he doin' in my bed?'

I did the first thing that came to my head. I screamed and knocked him out of my bed with a kick aimed at his stomach. He landed on the ground with a loud thud as I pulled my covers closer to myself. Something about him staring at me made me really uncomfortable. It must be because of his eyes. Either way, knowing that he was in my bed made my skin crawl.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" I demanded as he got on his knees and looked at me.

"I was sleeping," he responded, rubbing his head. "Why'd you hit me?"

"Because you were in my bed, you perv!" I snarled, glaring at him. "I thought I told you to sleep on the floor, not in my bed." I flinched when I heard Ashford's horn again. Growling, I grabbed my cell phone and quickly sent him a text before closing her phone with a loud snap. "What're you looking at me for?" I demanded. Grey merely shrugged. "Get out, I need to change."

Grey blinked and stared at me for a full minute before he finally got up and left the room. Once the door was closed I heaved a large sigh and rushed around, gathering my clothes. Once I got them on I quickly ran a brush through my hair. I then scrambled around the room, grabbing my school books and shoved them into my backpack.

"You don't have time to eat," Mom commented as I dashed into the kitchen. "This wouldn't have happened if you got up earlier."

"I wouldn't have stayed up if noises weren't coming from your room," I shot back, pulling my hair back into a ponytail.

"Madds, I don't want to hear it," she sighed as she put down her coffee cup. "About Grey, I called the police to see if he was called in missing last night. No one said anything, but the police will stay by the phone in case anyone calls. I think it's best that he stays here, though. I was going to suggest sending him to school with you." She must've noticed the horrified look on my face because she added, "But I'm not going to. I'd like to take him to a doctor and see if they could help provide any information about his family or where he's from."

"Good. Keep him away from me." I rolled my eyes when I heard Ashford honking again. "Ugh. I'll see you after school, Mom." I quickly kissed her cheek and ran out of the kitchen, out the front door and to Ashford's convertible.

I threw my backpack into the backseat and jumped into the passenger side. "Took ya long enough. I'm surprised your neighbors didn't complain about my honking," Ashford commented as he pulled away from the driveway and started down the road. His light brown, almost red, hair blew into his eyes. He brushed his hair out of his face a couple of times before his hair finally stayed out of his face. "What's been going on?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," I sighed.

"Try me."

"Last night Mom sent me out to get my medicine so she could go God knows what with Rick. When I was going back to my car I found this guy lying unconscious in the alley. I called Mom and she said to bring him home to take a look at him."

"I'm sure that's all she wanted to do." I didn't even have to look at him to know that he has a teasing smile on his face.

"My mom may have a weird taste in guys, but she's not going to go for someone my age, please." I rolled my eyes and he chuckled. "Anyway, I had to use smelling salts to wake him up. The next thing I knew I was against the wall and his hand was around my neck as he tried to kill me." I glanced over at Ashford, waiting for a remark but he stayed silent so I continued. "So, Mom explained to him where he was and said she'd take him home in the morning. So, the idiot woke me up at three AM claiming that he couldn't sleep so I said that he could sleep on the floor of my room, only 'cause I wanted to go back to sleep myself and I was too tired to chew him out. Next morning, he's in my bed staring at me."

"Wait, what?" Ashford stopped at the red light before looking at me. "Don't tell me you-"

"Don't even joke, you know I wouldn't do that, especially with someone I don't know," I said as I punched him on the arm. "The guy freaks me out. He just stares at stuff and he doesn't say anything unless you pry information out of him. The police say that no one called in for him being missing."

"What if...his parents don't care that he's gone?" Ashford asked slowly, studying my face. I honestly never thought of that. The world is a messed up place lately. Now it wasn't surprising to hear about parents who killed their kids on the news. It was sad, but not as surprising anymore. Anyone who would intentionally kill their children I would like to slap them in the face, but jail time is probably doing more for them than I ever would. "They could be abusive or neglectful parents and they could be happy that he's gone. He could be happy that he's away from his parents."

"Thanks for making me feel like the bad guy," I muttered with an eye roll.

"I didn't mean to do that and you know it. I'm just trying to get you to look at the big picture of the situation."

The rest of the ride to school was silent, except for the music pouring out of the stereo. I reclined my seat and stared up at the brilliant blue sky. I loved the shade of the sky when there were no clouds; it's like an ocean blue color, like you see in the Caribbean, not like the pale blue color you see all of the time. Something about clear blue sky instantly relaxed me.

We finally pulled up into the school parking lot and I jumped out of the car, stretching my legs. I turned and waved to Caden and Liam who were standing by the solitary tree on school's campus. Ashford held my bag out to me and I took it before we crossed the parking lot and the lawn to reach out friends.

"Wow. You look like you had a fight with a tornado. What's up?" was the first thing Liam said once we were in earshot. He wasn't one to sugar coat anything, he tells it like it is and that's what I liked about him.

Sighing, I relayed the story to Liam and Caden. They listened intently as I explained how I found Grey all the way up to our encounter this morning. Liam snickered while Caden gave me a sympathetic look. "What's he going to do today?"

"Probably go to the doctor," I replied. "Mom wants a second opinion on her assessment of him. I guess after that she's going to try and find his family."

"Can we please stop talking about him? That's why I was actually happy to get to school, so I could be away from him."

"I don't see why you're so upset about your situation," Caden said slowly. "You helped a guy out, what's so bad about that?"

"The fact that he could've killed me once he woke up? The fact that he could've done something to me in my sleep? Take your pick," I responded.

"I don't see a problem. I mean, a guy was able to get in bed with you without having to worry about getting his balls chopped off," Liam said with a shrug. I glared at him as he laughed a little. I raised an eyebrow and he took off running into the school as Ashford and Caden laughed.

Sorry it's taken me so long to update my stories. I'm finally on summer break so I'll update more. The next chapter will give you a better look at Grey. Please read and review.

~Crystal