*Hazel's Pov*
"What do you mean there's a goat running around the diner singing Taylor Swift??" Asher was on the phone with his boss while the boys and I died of laughter in the background.
"Sir, it's really late. I can't go to work right now. I can help you in the morning?" Asher pulled his ear away from the phone when a bunch of muffled yelling came out of it.
"Okay. Okay, fine. You can stop yelling, I'm coming." He said reluctantly.
He took his keys out of his pocket and walked towards his car. The boys and I looked at each other, not knowing what to do.
Asher got in the driver's side and turned on the ignition. Before he could drive away, I hollered for him to wait.
"Let's go, too." I said to the boys before slipping into the passenger side.
"I'm coming, too." The door to the back seat opened and the boys all piled in. They had to go a bit squished because there were only three seats.
"Aren't your... parents gonna be worried about where you are?" Asher asked me with knitted eyebrows.
I waved him off. "Nah. My mom never notices cause I'm always in my room. My 'dad' went to go get groceries, so I'll be fine." He nodded and put his foot on the gas.
~~~~~~~
Asher turned off the car, interrupting me from singing to 1979 by The Smashing Pumpkins.
"Hey!" I yelled.
He rolled his eyes but I saw a small grin on his face. We all got out of the car and stood in front of Sunset Sally's Diner.
"How do we find a singing goat and what do we do once we find it?" Asher mumbled to himself, stroking his non-existent beard.
I shrugged and walked into the diner with everyone else following me. We spent a few minutes just searching behind booths and counters. A few customers left after hearing us call out to a goat. We whistled to it-well the guys did cause I can't whistle.
Then, I got an idea. I tapped Asher and whispered it into his ear.
"I am not doing that."
I rolled my eyes. "I can't do it alone. You and the boys have to help me."
Connor popped up in front of me. "Sure, I'm up with that. But we're not 'boys', we're men."
I nodded and rolled my eyes. "Yeah, whatever. Let's just do this."
We stood, huddled together. After counting to three, we started belting out the lyrics to 'You Belong With Me' by Taylor Swift.
You might be wondering why we were doing this. Simple. That was the song the goat learned, so we were singing it to catch the goat's attention. If he heard us, he'd either come to us, or he'd sing along and we'd follow his voice to go to him.
We got to the chorus.
"If you can see that I'm the one who understands you
Been here all along so why can't you see
You, you belong with me
You belong with me"
We were about to start singing the second verse when the goat came running out of the boy's bathroom with toilet paper wrapped around his horns. He sang along with us.
I turned to the guys with a grin. "Told ya it would work. Now get the goat!"
We all squatted and opened our arms wide in an attempt to catch it.
"Come here ya little goat!"
~~~~~~~
We all lied on the floor with bruises on our limbs while groaning. Our hair were all messes and our clothes were ripped.
I looked at the goat sitting on a dead Asher's lap, licking ice cream out of a bowl. That was the only thing that got the goat to calm down.
The cashier was a blonde woman, probably in her mid-twenties. She looked at us as if we were insane, but didn't care enough to do anything.
I slowly got up and clutched my stomach in pain. That goat landed a few really good kicks on me.
I motioned for the guys to get up. "Come on." One by one, everyone slowly lifted themselves off the floor. Asher was still dead, though.
"Come on, Asher." When he didn't answer, I sighed. I grabbed his hand and pulled him up, staggering when he distributed most of his weight onto me.
"Just leave me here to die. I'll never forget you. I'll never let go." He moaned.
"You're being dramatic." I told him.
We were about to walk out of the diner when someone unexpected walked in. My dad.
I didn't want him to see me there, so I pulled Asher with me and ducked inside a booth. The boys looked confused, but followed, sitting across from us.
"What is your dad doing here?" Asher asked cautiously.
"I don't know." I mumbled.
I sat backwards in my seat and peeked over to see what my dad was doing there. He went up to the cashier that was looking at us moments ago and casually leaned on the cash register. We were pretty close, so I could hear what he said.
"Hey, Claire." I could hear the smirk in his voice.
The cashier, or Claire twirled her hair in her finger. "Hey, Richard."
Asher turned to me with wild eyes. "Your dad's name is Richard?? Dear fucking cheese!! His mom must've hated him." He winced when I slapped him on the shoulder and told him to shut up.
"So, Clary, what you been up to?" My dad hooked his thumb through his belt loop and used his other hand to push his dark hair out of his eyes.
Okay, some would probably find that hot... if it wasn't a forty something year old man that was obviously an alcoholic. Also the fact that he was my dad made it even more disgusting. But Claire just giggled.
"Not much, Richie. I got acrylics with that money you lent me." I lifted my head a bit more to see her long purple weapons. They were beautiful in a scary way. Like, I wanted to look at them but I knew I'd get stabbed in the eye.
"I gave you that money for food, though." My dad scratched his neck in confusion.
Claire looked like she spilled 'not mean to be spilled' beans. "Aw shit, that's right. I'm sorry it was just so tempting." She pouted and even though I could only see my dad's back, I could feel the smirk again.
"It's alright. Anything for you, Clary." He then leaned over the counter to snake his arm around her waist and... and kiss her.
I stiffened in surprise before trying to jump out of the booth to give him a piece of my mind, but Asher held me back. I was going to scream but he clamped his hand over my mouth, so it came out muffled.
How could my dad cheat? Ever since he got back-which was maybe a week ago-him and my mom were of course a thing again. So this meant he was an unfaithful little piece of crap. I wanted to throw up and cry.
I turned in the seat and slumped down. Crossing my arms, I huffed out a breath and mumbled about how much of a jerk he was.
I looked up at the guys across from me to see they all had matching faces of shock.
"Y-Your dad just kissed another woman!! What's gonna happen to your parents now??" Connor asked. Despite him always being quite the jokester, he actually looked really concerned.
"The same thing that happened three years ago." I mumbled. It took everything in me to keep the tears at bay in my glistening eyes.
They all looked even more confused so I thought it would make sense to tell them.
~~~~~~~
"Oh gosh, Hazel. We're so sorry."
"That's rough."
"That douchebag."
"Do you need a hug?"
I waved them off. I just finished telling them the story of my crappy father that left for Alisha three years ago. "It's fine. I'm fine, really." Well as fine as you can be after finding out your dad is cheating.
Let me tell you how surprised I was when Asher put his arm around me and gave me a comforting rub on the back. It made me feel a bit... flustered.
I zoned out for a few seconds until I heard the chime of the bell on the door. The bell chimed whenever someone was leaving or entering.
I jolted up in my seat to peer over the booth. My dad had just left. I muttered a clean curse under my breath and sighed.
I stood up and put my hands on my hips. "I'm coming back tomorrow for further investigation. Maybe there's a mistake. Maybe she had snake venom in her mouth and he had to take it out! Or maybe she passed out and he had to do CPR! Or maybe she said something stupid and he punched her in the face... softly... with his mouth. Or... O-Or maybe he really is just cheating." The last part I whispered as I looked down at my feet.
The boys all shuffled out of the booth and gave me a big group hug. And that's when the tears came out. And so did the SpongeBob references.
~~~~~~~
"Waiter! Waiterrr!!!"
She came up to me with an annoyed face. "What?'
"Hit me with another ice cream sundae!!" I said in a drugged voice with tears rolling down my eyes.
"Ma'am, you've already had nine."
"So? I'm a paying customer and that's all that matters! Are you judging your customers?" I narrowed my eyes at her.
"No Ma'am. Sorry Ma'am. I'll go get your sundae Ma'am." She said in a monotone voice as she went to the back.
I felt drunk...on ice cream sundaes.
When the waiter came back out and placed the ice cream sundae in front of me, I immediately inhaled it.
I looked up at the boys to see their matching faces of horror.
When the waiter brought me another ice cream sundae, I took a spoonful, and then pointed the spoon at them. "You guys don't understand how important it is that a girl gets her ice cream sundaes." I took a few more spoons and pointed it back at them again. They flinched as if I would stab them with my spoon.
Instead, I stabbed them with my eyes. "You know, men are worthless pigs! Wait, but pigs are cute... Men are worthless rats!"
They all nodded with scared expressions.
I sighed. "What am I saying? That's pretty sexist..." They all looked relieved that I didn't consider all men to be that way.
"Barney was a pretty great dude." I finished.
Their mouths all hung open and shock. "The big purple di-"
"He's not just a big purple dinosaur!" I cut them off. "He is an inspiration! A saint! The greatest man to ever live! Of course along with Bob Ross, Mr. Rogers, and Steve Irwin." I choked on a sob.
They eagerly nodded in agreement.
I sighed as I looked down at my eleventh empty bowl. "I'm kinda full. I think we should go now." We'd been there for a few hours.
We found the singing goat at ten-thirty, maybe. My dad was found out to be a huge jerk at about ten thirty-five. I ate eleven ice cream sundaes from eleven o' clock to twelve o' clock. So, it was midnight now.
The boys all got up and cheered as they stretched. We were finally going home. I just appreciated the fact that they stayed here with me all those hours when they could've left.
"Come on, boy." Connor said as he pulled the goat by the green leash we put on him. Also, we agreed to name him Bob. Connor volunteered to keep him cause he apparently had a goat pen.
I tried getting out of the booth, but my knees buckled and I fell back in the seat. "I ate too muchhhhh! I can't get up!" I sobbed as I lay down in the seat and stopped for two seconds to look at the writing under the table before sobbing again. It was so inappropriate!!
I heard a collection of groans and sighs. Suddenly, I felt myself being lifted off of the seat and being thrown over a shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
"Eli, this is just going to hurt my stomach more." I groaned as I felt the pressure of my stomach on his shoulder. Suddenly, I was tossed to Liam, then to Conner, then to Ian. It was like a freaking game of hot potato. Finally, I was thrown in Asher's arms and stayed in Asher's arms, bridal style.
"Ooh, ooh! Can I have a piggy back ride?" I asked with hopeful yet wet eyes.
He rolled his eyes but I could see the small smile as he nodded.
I got down from his arms and jumped on his back. He stumbled a bit from the impact, but quickly regained his balance. He had a strong hold on me.
Before we left, Liam made sure to put a twenty dollar tip at the table and pay for the ice cream sundaes at the cash register. I told him I could pay but he insisted. Rich people. I was so thankful for them sometimes... Sometimes.
Asher set me down in the passenger seat and everyone else got in the back. One by one, we dropped them off at their houses until it was only Asher and I.
He handed me his phone and tried to smile at me. Given the current situation, I could only give him one back, half-heartedly. On the way home, we listened in silence to Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol.
I think Asher could tell I only played it because I was feeling extra low-spirited. But it was also just a really good song! Though, it was pretty sad.
He turned off the ignition when we got home. He turned to me with knitted eyebrows. "Are you gonna be okay?"
I mustered up a doubtful look. "I hope so." We looked at each other for a few seconds before he got out of the car and ran to my side. He opened the door and helped me out.
"Hehe, you really did eat a lot of ice cream sundaes." He said as he put his arm under mine to help me walk. I laughed and nodded in agreement.
We made it to the front door. "Thanks, Asher."
"No problem. I don't mind helping you walk in your ice cream drunken state." He grinned.
"No, I mean for everything. For giving me the best apology ever. For comforting me. For being an amazing friend. Thank you."
He smiled as his tall figure leaned over me and he stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Yeah, of course. You're a pretty great friend, too."
I looked into his piercing blue eyes as he looked into my brown ones.
Then the door opened to reveal Cameron. "Hazel, Asher, whatcha guys doing there?" He said with a fake smile and dangerous eyes.
"Oh, I was just dropping her off." Asher smiled and waved goodbye as he walked over to his house. He gave me a secretive look that told me 'good luck'.
"Why so late?" Cameron asked.
"Long story. We had to find a singing goat in the diner and-"
He stopped me with his hand. "I'd love to hear that story, but I need my beauty sleep." He slung his arm over my shoulder and we went inside.
When I got into bed and turned off the light, I sighed and rubbed my eyes. What was I going to do about my dad? Was I supposed to tell my family? Ugh, I didn't know what to do...
I tried my best to let the thought leave my mind as I drifted off to sleep...
A/N: Hey guys! What do ya think? Her dad is a cheating scumbag you say? I think so, too. Poor her. She just made up with Asher but her dad is still being a jerk. Besides that, would did you think? I hope you liked this chapter! Make sure to follow if you want notifications for when I post a chapter or make an announcement! Please keep reading and vote! Thank you!! By me lovelies!!!â¤â¤â¤
---Your author, Gen