FicWad

Once upon a time I had welcomed the sound of the phone ringing, due to my lack of a life, but now the sound of the phone ringing was incessant and irritating because I knew who it was and I knew why they were calling. Perhaps I knew who was calling because of a little gadget called 'Caller ID' but that's beside the point.

Needless to say, I hadn't seen Peter Wentz in two weeks. Until the day of my trial when PJ, Peter, Jeffers and I came up before a judge in a real courtroom I had not seen him. The room looked nothing like I expected it to.

We were found guilty of criminal trespassing though we were punished lightly. I think that Community Service was not a light punishment. We weren't even doing service in our own community, it was another community that was a good forty-five minutes drive from Winnetka.

So it was early December and my friends (cough) and I were tidying up the side of a motorway. The amount of litter was appalling. I myself had never littered on the road whilst in the car, or at least not intentionally, due to my father's warnings when I was a mere child of four that if I were to litter I would be prosecuted and sent to jail without trial. That was every child's nightmare.

I noticed or rather briefly acknowledged (because I wasn't staring or watching intently or anything like that might imply that his actions irritated me) the fact that Peter was chatting to a girl whilst he worked. They were sweeping soggy autumn leaves into a large pile as they talked and laughed. They were laughing a lot.

Another thing that I noticed briefly acknowledged whilst I was staring at Peter casually glancing around was that Peter's new lady friend was really, really, really pretty. She looked something like Jessica Alba. My heart sank and I pulled my gaze away from the two. The last thing I needed was to be made unhappy. I was doing freakin' Community Service!

"You're being obsessive," PJ said as he passed me. "He only kissed you once."

"Twice," I snapped.

In the past two weeks I had become a recluse, taking to my bedroom and playing my music loud and saying that I had a cold. Rarely did I answer the phone, knowing who it was most of the time. And even if it wasn't him I didn't answer it because whoever I was about to talk to would only try and persuade me to come to a party.

During the time that I had spent alone I thought mostly about Peter, sometimes even drifting into a fantasy world where he hadn't walked away. My sister said it was because of my lack of experience with boys that had driven me to become obsessed with Peter.

And it was true, I did lack experience with boys. All throughout high school I had only ever hung out with boys, avoiding girls because they were too bitchy. Most of the boys I knew were my friends and just that. The other ones I knew were assholes and I basically ended up beating them to a bloody pulp whenever they approached me. Guys never saw me as the girlfriend type.

But eventually, one by one my friends disappeared. I softened a little and made some female friends. I softened even more to the point where having a boyfriend seemed like a plausible idea and it didn't gross me out that I found many of my male friends attractive. Sadly, it was too late. Most of the boys I knew had girlfriends.

Of course, I'd kissed boys and had sex with them (I was eighteen for God's sake) but I had never actually been a girlfriend. Mainly because I had been a horrible little girl in high school and that made guys hate me or like me, never love me. Wow, I sure put the 'ho' in horrible back in my teen days.

"Look at them!" Jeffers muttered angrily. "She's obviously a prostitute and he's just got money to spare. Bloody asswipe."

"Er..."

"No! I do not like him!"

"I didn't say anything," I raised my hands defensively. I glanced over at Peter again.

"Just a little resentful..."

"Because...?"

"That asshole cheated on me back in my junior high days... but he was in high school and I really should've expected it..." She continued to mutter cynically to herself.

"Your grudge against him dates back to junior high?" My eyebrows rose. "Wait. You knew Peter in junior high?"

"Shut up. Your reason for hating Patrick Stumph is totally implausible!" She shot me a glare and all the questions I was ready to ask her dissipated. "And he's still the same jackass now that he was then."

"Peter's not a jackass," I frowned.

"Oh yeah? So if he's as great as you think he is, why did he kiss you when he had a girlfriend who he had been dating for seven months? And if he's not a jackass then why is he flirting with that girl over there when he has now been dating his girlfriend for seven and a half months? Why did he cheat on me when I was in junior high? And why does he always wear that smirk that shows that he thinks he is superior to everyone else?"

"It's not a smirk, it's a smile! And you're just bitter because he dumped you!" I hissed at her.

"Only someone as delusional and in love as you could think that his smirk is a smile. And for the record, you only like him so much because you thought you had a chance with him. That would make him what...? Oh yes, you're first boyfriend!" Jeffers moved away from me, her ash blonde hair flying out behind her.

Tears welled up in my eyes. I picked up my half-full bag of rubbish that I had collected with intentions of taking it to the bin. The bin was located quite a ways into the forest that lined the motorway because there was another group of community service workers that were clearing up the forest and only one bin. I began the walk to the bin, thinking about what Jeffers had just said.

Maybe she was right. Maybe...

"Hey, Charley," a familiar voice said from behind me.

I turned to see Peter no more than an inch from my face. I inhaled sharply and attempted to take a step back but his hand slid around my waist, preventing me from doing so.

"I'm sorry about that kiss..." He sighed. "Forgive me?"

"Of course," my voice faltered noticeably but from his facial expression I couldn't tell if Peter had taken any notice. I pulled away and continued on my journey to the bin. Perhaps men just weren't for me.



Author's Note: Be happy because there are two new chapters after this one. I'm posting so much because, as some of you may know, I am going on holiday to Portugal for two weeks and will be unable to post for that time period.

Now please RATE and REVIEW because if you do, I will love you. (Heh, that rhymes!)