"know it's for the better" - phoebe bridgers

"expelled!?!" I practically shout at her, Amelia is as pale as a ghost next to me.

"a car will arrive to take you to your hometown at 5:30 this evening" she says glancing at the clock on the wall which shows the time as it is a little past 4:30am,

"don't be late"

she says before excusing us from her office.

the secretary gives us a look of pity as we walk past her desk, once we are back in the long hallway I stop walking and turn to Amelia,

"hey, you know it's going to be okay, right?" she doesn't say anything.

"say you know that" I repeat, she clears her throats and says, "I know that".

but I see the hesitation in her eyes, "come on, let's go pack up our stuff" I say leading her to the staircase that leads up to our dorm room.

the upstairs halls are quiet, the other girls must've gone back to bed already.

we finally make it to our room and I see our roommate, Elizabeth sitting up in bed.

she is looking at us with a curious expression on her face, "what happened?" she asks, I sigh as Amelia trudges over to her bed and begins to pack.

at that Elizabeth raises an eyebrow.

"okay is someone going to tell me what's going on?"

"we got expelled"

Amelia says, her voice cracking as the words slip out of her mouth, Elizabeth slides out of bed and her feet land on the floor with a thump.

"your joking" she says looking at Amelia, but Amelia only looks back down at her bag and continues to pack.

"oh my god" she lets out in a small breath, "your not joking".

her voice contains both confusion and sadness.

"not joking" I say pulling my suitcase of out my closet.

as I pack I fill Elizabeth in on what happened, she smiles when I mention the adventure we had, and I swear I see a tear roll down her cheek when she asks what we're going to do.

I don't have an answer for her, not a good one at least.

It's 8:12 am by the time me and Amelia are both done packing, Elizabeth went downstairs for breakfast about half an hour ago however we decided we weren't hungry.

packing up your life from the past two and a half years really takes away your appetite.

"we should go get our final grades" Amelia says, I'm surprised by her words since she hasn't made a single sound for over an hour.

I nod my head in agreement and we both head downstairs to face our teachers, Amelia's history teacher has her final grade so we separate as I head towards the math classroom.

Mrs. Stilinski, who I'm sure by now has heard the news. was easy to talk to, she said a few words to me about how much she and this school will miss me before handing me an envelope holding my grades for all my classes.

I don't open it and once I'm back in my dorm I just shove it into my bag.

I'm up there alone in complete utter silence for over an hour before I decide to turn on some music.

I fish around in my bag for my AirPods, feeling my fingers touch them I pull out my hand,

but I must've accidentally grabbed something else as well for here in my palm sits a Polaroid that was taken on Valentine's Day back in February.

it's of me and Scott, in the photo he has his face burried in my shoulder as I'm laughing.

I still remember what I was laughing at, Scott had- my thoughts pause as I realize I never told Scott what had happened.

I pick up my phone from beside me and open messages.

he is the first person to pop up as he's my only pinned person, I click on our conversation and read his latest texts to me.

praying for you, it will be okay love, I love you so much.

confused, I look up to what I had texted him.

hey, things aren't looking too good here, I may not have my phone for a while, I love you 💕

I start to draft a new text to him,

me and Amelia got expelled

but I delete it right away, this needs to be something he hears me say, not text.

he picks up the phone on the first ring,

"Malia" he says sounding out of breathe,

"I'm here" I say,

"oh my god you're okay, you had me so worried" I smile at his soft words,

"um something happened" I say into the phone,

my voice cracks.

he hears it.

"what happened, are you hurt??" I don't say anything trying to think of how to put this,

"baby please answer me" he says through the phone,

I pull myself together and tell him what happened.

"I never liked her" he says referring to Mrs. Alfresco, "are you sure your going to be okay love?" he asks for the hundredth time,

"yeah I'll be fine" I pause, "hey Scott?" my words come out so quiet that I'm not sure he heard me, but he answers,

"yes?"

he asks with a hint of concern in his voice, "can I stay with you?" I ask,

I really don't want to have to live with my half sister and her other half sister who she apparently moved in with.

"my dad is in California searching for a job right now and he won't be home for three weeks, you are always welcome here love, when he gets back I swear to it that I will not let him near you"

I smile, grateful for this boy whom God brought into my life right when I needed him.

his dad is an abusive asshole who I've never liked, he once touched me in a way nobody but Scott should've touched me,

and I know what he does to Scott, he hits him and Scott will never try and fight back.

he has never believed in violence and I wish in this case he did.

"thank you Scott, I love you"

"I love you too"

he says and I can practically hear him smiling through the phone.

we hang up and I put my air pods in and turn on my playlist.

the first song that comes on is I think he knows by taylor swift,

I close my eyes and lay back down on the mattress that was once my bed.

I stay laying like that and listening to more music as it plays various artists like, Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande, Ed Sheeran, The Lumineers, Cigarettes After Sex, ColdPlay, and more.

I pause my music when I hear the faint sound of someone saying my name.

"oh my god finally, I was beginning to think
I would have to rip those out of your ears" Amelia says, Elizabeth is next to her carrying some of my luggage.

"the cars here"

we make our way downstairs to find everyone standing by the doors, and I mean everyone.

even billy the janitor who is the only guy permitted on school grounds. him and April hooked up a few times and it looks like they still are by the way her body is positioned next to his.

"girls we came to say goodbye" Mrs. Alfresco says in the most bitchy voice I've heard her use.

me and Amelia make our way around the group hugging people and wiping away a few tears from those who started crying.

"oh Mrs. Alfresco, why do they have to go?" Janie wines after hugging me,

Mrs. Alfresco gives her a look so deadly that she immediately shuts up and stops crying.

Elizabeth puts down my luggage to hug me,

"call me" she whispers into my ear, "I will" I say pulling away from the hug to let Amelia hug her,

billy runs over and grabs both mine and Amelia's bags and suitcases and begins to walk them out to the car that is waiting for us outside.

I wave one final goodbye before grabbing ahold of Amelia's hand and walking out of the building.

Mrs. Alfresco follows us and so does Elizabeth.

the driver opens the door for us and Amelia slides in first, I begin to climb in but then stop and turn around to face Mrs. Alfresco,

"goodbye Mrs. Alfredo" I say, "don't loose your bitchy sauce"I say before climbing in and completely and shutting the door.

we drive away as I see Elizabeth laughing at my comment and Mrs. Alfresco looking taken aback.

I smile as we drive away because even though I'm leaving a chapter of my life behind, I'm also beginning a new one, and with my bestfriend.

I squeeze Amelia's hand and she smiles over at me,

"you ready?" she asks me,

"ready" I say.

the drive is long, I don't know how Scott and Brandon managed to do it as much as they do, which I guess was really only around twice a month.

it's a nine hour drive that we spent sleeping, reading, talking to the driver and watching tv on my phone while me and Amelia share AirPods.

me and her met when I still lived with Avery and our mom, me and Amelia were both 9 years old while Avery was 10, we just clicked, ever since then we've been inseparable.

she met Brandon as soon as I started dating Scott since the two of them have been bestfriends since forever.

she and Brandon only started dating a year ago however.

I'm excited for mine and Scott's relationship to finally not be long distance.

we met the summer before 9th grade and the summer my mom died, so I went away to boarding school and have been there since.

but not anymore I think as we pass the sign welcoming us to New Castle Connecticut,

"I'll be dropping you at New Castle Diner like you asked" Our driver, Tom is his name, says from the front seat.

I nod and say thank you before texting the group chat with me, Amelia, Scott and Brandon in it, to let the two boys know that we are almost there.

we pull up to the diner about ten minutes later.

it doesn't look like a nice diner so I wonder why Scott picked it.

Tom helps us unload our luggage and we thank him for everything, before carrying out luggage into the diner.

the first thing I see is Scott and Brandon sitting in a booth waiting for us, we walk over to them and they don't notice us until I clear my throat very loudly.

Scott looks up at me and his face lights up, he quickly slides out of the booth and takes my stuff from me, kisses me on the cheek, and tells me he'll be right back.

he hurry's outside to presumably load my stuff into his car, Brandon follows him loading Amelia's stuff up too since they're staying with us until Scott's dad gets home.

Me and Amelia slide into the booth and words start spilling out of us.

"I remember when we met" I say,

"I was with Avery getting ice cream and you were sitting alone so I went over and sat next to you, and I said"

"what flavor did you get" Amelia finishes for me.

I laugh at the memory.

"it's crazy how much has happened since then"

I say referring to my moms death, her dad leaving, the both of us falling in love with a set of bestfriends, her sisters death, us going to boarding school, and now getting kicked out.

"yeah it is cra-" she starts but is cut off by Brandon picking her up and throwing her over his shoulder.

she squeals and the people at the table behind us give them weird looks but they don't care.

Scott grabs my hands and pulls me out of the booth before scooping me into his arms.

"I am so happy your here" he says looking into my eyes.

"I wish it were under different circumstances though" he says,

"I don't"

to that he raises an eyebrow.

"I'm going to miss Avalon but now I get to be here with you, forever"

he grins, "and ever".

we all settle into the booth and start talking,

"where are you two going to go when Scott's dad gets back?" I ask,

"I'm going back to live with my mom" Amelia says, "and I'm going back to my house" Brandon says,

"can you believe summer starts in less than a month?" Scott says in disbelief.

"you two will be going off to college in the fall" I tease, "don't remind me" Brandon says resting his head down on the table.

Amelia runs her fingers through his hair trying to cheer him up,

"you still want to go to ECSU right?" I ask looking over at Scott, ECSU stands for Eastern Connecticut State University.

"right" Scott says grinning, unlike Brandon he is more then excited to go to college, and he chose a school nearby so he could stay near me,

"I already applied" he says as his smile widens, butterflies, that's what I get when he smiles, and that's what I'm getting right now,

"have you toured yet?" I ask him,

"no, but speaking of that, I am going to see it the first week of June and wanted you to come with me" I grin,

"I wouldn't miss it for the world"

we finally break away from our conversation and join Brandon and Amelia in looking at the menu.

"what are you getting?" Scott whispers in my ear, I turn my head to him and we are so close that my lips a brushing against his, he smirks as I say,

"waffles with whipped cream and strawberries" he smiles against my lips and says, "same".

I pull away when I hear someone clear their throat, I look over at Brandon and Amelia but it doesn't seem to be them, they seem to be looking up at someone and talking to this someone.

I look up to where there gaze is and my breath hitches, she works here? why is she working here...I knew money was tight but I didn't realize it was tight enough to make her work in a hole in the wall diner.

"hey Malia" she says, I blink and then reply, "hi Avery".

A/N:
I actually really like this chapter, so I hope you guys love it, lmk your thoughts xx and don't be a ghost reader, I love reading your comments 💕