Chapter THIRTY ONE

Chapter 31

Claire walked into the lobby of the hotel, where everyone had decided to meet up. Or at least the ones who were left out.

Apparently, no one came up to knock on Lucas' door because, well, no one knew you was on the trip. They would have, if he wasn't this antisocial. And the last time Lucas bothered himself for socialising, that too with the infamous Claire Cooper, there has never been a single day where he didn't see her.

And the reason why no one woke the others was just plain simple. These guys were the ones everyone's momma told them to stay away from, and not to talk to. And yet, here was poor Lucas, surrounded by the only people his parents warned him about.

'The bully', Sean, 'the mysterious guy in leather jacket', Adam, 'the almost gothly dressed girl who's insanely rich but hangs out with the bad guys', Hailey, and the last but not the least, 'the girl who looks tremendously dangerous, and is dangerous', Claire Cooper.

Not like Lucas was labelling their character in his mind. He definitely was.

He was also amused by the fact that Sean, being the shortest of them all, still fits into the group of dread. Maybe it was the raging anger he kept evident in his eyes while he's with others except them. Or maybe he just liked jackets too. Excluding the only jackets he wore were addidas. And everything about him was addidas.

"You got a phone?" Claire asked, snapping Lucas out of his thoughts. But she wasn't talking to him, she was asking Sean. Weirdly.

"Eh, I do. Why?" He questioned warily.

"Well, we can't sit here all day long so we're going out." She replied, giving him an answer indirectly.

Lucas wanted to ask where they were headed to, but he kept quiet, because, disturbing these hungover beasts is like applying for your own murder.

And Connor... the poor boy was so hungover that he was passed out on a small couch next to Lucas.

"So?" Sean furrowed his eyebrows. "Do you not have your own?" He knew that Claire undeniably had a phone; he had seen it with his own dark brown eyes.

Claire rolled her eyes at him.

"I need your number."

Lucas watched in surprise that Claire had even asked Sean his number.

"Why?"

He felt so irritated by Sean right then, he just wanted to get up from the chair he was sitting on and grab Sean's phone and give Claire his number without further questioning.

Claire was frustrated by Sean. It was seen quite well in her eyes.

"I just told you. We're all going out and I need to make sure that whoever you're going to spend time with are safe." Claire retorted, already fed up, even though it had been just fifteen minutes since they met.

"Jesus, fine." Sean finally agreed.

Hailey and Adam entered the conversation after a few minutes passed, with Hailey carrying a bag on her shoulders and Adam just holding the room keys in his hands.

Soon Sean was ready to grab the keys and shove them into his own pocket, like a responsible roommate but was met with a scoff.

"I can't trust your tiny ass with these." Adam pulled the keys back.

"What do you mean you can't? I still have my home keys with me from a year." He answered, clearly offended.

Let's just say Adam liked playing with everyone's feelings.

"I mean, you're just a kid. You might start playing with them and never notice it until you actually lose them."

"Fuck you, I'm not a kid. I'm probably older than everyone here."

Everyone just turned around to give him a look, a look of disbelief and a small smirk made its way onto Sean's lips.

"How old are you again?" Adam bemused.

"Turned 18 in January." And the smirk couldn't get any wider. It was as if he was taking pride innit. h

He was.

Connor tore his eyes open and sat upright straight.

"Holy f-" he started, with an obnoxious tone.

"Jesus Christ Connor!" Lucas jumped in fright at the sudden outburst.

"-uck, mine's in Jan too!"

This conversation was drowning into one of the childish conversations by every second and Claire couldn't believe she was even listening to this. She had internally punched Sean, but just stood where she was in an uninterested manner.

"Can we go already?" Hailey sighed from behind Adam.

It was hilarious that no one had noticed Hailey was even here, because Adam had covered her up with his tall body frame. "I've rented a car."

"Uh, thanks." Claire simply stared, looking at Hailey.

"Let's go." She muttered, walking around Adam and Claire just followed her to the outside, hoping that others won't take long.

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Adam had decided to drive, and no wonder none objected to this. Claire would have, only if she could bother herself with the route and shit. It was just too much of hardwork.

Now they had driven all the way to the most popular destinations in San Francisco, Golden Gate bridge.

Since no one had the time to have their breakfast, they decided that a little snacks might help their hungover asses. So Lucas and Hailey stepped forward to buy them all food while Connor just tagged along.

All Lucas really wanted to do was get away from them for a little while before his social anxiety took over, but that seemed to be hard.

While he suffered with the two people in a bakery near by the bridge, Claire and Adam thought that this was the right time to take a smoke after feeling like shit the entire morning and take a slow walk on the lengthy bridge.

Claire couldn't relate with the Hangover part, but yeah.

The first few minutes went by with just silence among them, which was like something the two would do until one of them decided to start a topic to talk about.

Looking at the water beneath the bridge and just giving their legs a job to take them forward. They eventually stopped and leaned over on the huge railing on the sides of the bridge.

"Have I ever mentioned San Fran before?" Adam asked out of the blue, never looking up to meet to meet her eyes that were staring at him

"No." She shrugged.

"Well, I'll tell you now. I was born here."

Adam didn't get the kind of reaction he had expected from Claire, and he was glad because all she did was lightly hum and take a drag from the nicotine.

"You know the place quite well, then?" She asked.

"Too well." He answered with a small chuckle at the end. "I lived here for about ten years. My grandparents live here even now."

"..Who?" She raised her eyebrows at him, and knowing what she meant, Adam just gave a smile. It was like his face had suddenly lit up.

"My mom's parents. And my uncle too."

"Never told me." She nodded in agreement and just read his happy facial expressions. "Special?"

"Very."

"Anyone else?"

"Uncle's family."

"Nice." She stated and went back to staring ahead at the water.

"Do.. do you think.." Adam hesitated before asking his question. "Do you think I should visit them?"

"Why not? You've come all the way from los Angeles. I think you should." Looking at the way Adam went quiet all of a sudden, Claire knew something else was also wrong with this. So she asked, "How many years?"

"7."

Claire sighed at his words.

"7 years? Seriously?"

"It was my dad who kept me away from them." He said, keeping his voice low, almost as if he was scared. "He kept me away from my grandparents, my uncle and everyone I've ever loved."

"Adam. Visit them tomorrow. You should."

"I'm too much of a wimp to do that." He said and Claire swore that she was seeing the vulnerable side of Adam.

"Will it make things better if I come with you?"

"Maybe. But if my dad find out-"

"Shut it. I'm coming. We're going together." And in a span of seconds Claire was throwing away the cigarette straw furiously at the mention of his father. She hated him with all her guts. And the disgust in her eyes was well known to Adam.

He smiled at her, a smile she hadn't seen in a long time. This meant, that whoever she's gonna meet tomorrow were exceptional, and if she ended up screwing this, then it'll make her regret her existence.

"Guys.." A small voice spoke up from behind. "You forgot I was here."

Sean gulped.

This made both Adam and Claire groan so hard, that for a moment, Sean wanted to run for his life. But he stood there apologetically instead. They really did forget him and it wasn't his fault that he head every single thing they spoke.

"Okay this fucker is coming too." Adam deadpanned at Claire.

Before Sean could say something, others were coming over with bags of food and it probably made everyone's day.

Soooo guysss

I said wait for a double update and never made it so sorryyyy

But I did write more chapters tho.

And how about a triple update??? XD already done tbh

Comment vote and love!!!!! 😝