Everyone gathered around the table to discuss the trip, but there was one seat short. In a kind gesture, Ashlyn's mother offered her seat to Y/N instead. Y/N initially refused, as it is common for people to decline such offers. However, the woman insisted and was firm in her decision to give up her seat.

"It's okay, I can just stand," Y/N reassured her. However, the woman was persistent in offering the seat, so Y/N didn't argue any further. They were just being nice to their guest. "Um, thank you, miss," Y/N said as she then took the seat, sitting beside the empty seat that belonged to Ashlyn.

"Why did I have to get dragged in this mess?" She pondered, feeling a twinge of regret. The girl reflected on her decision not to accompany Aiden on his mission to convince Ashlyn to go on the field trip.

FLASHBACK

"Come on, it will be fun!" The blonde boy in front of her, named Aiden, kept annoyingly pestering Y/N to come along. He had been doing this for a while now.

Y/N is surprised that she hasn't lost her temper with the stranger who unexpectedly showed up at her house and invaded her personal space. It's only been since she met this boy, and his recent actions have pushed her to the edge. She has tried to be polite and subtly hint that she wants him to leave, but it seems like he is determined to make a difference in her life, even if they both don't realize it. At this moment, he is really starting to annoy her.

"Aiden, can you please pick up on the hint already?" Y/N muttered quietly as she gazed at him. "I just met you and that girl today! I hardly know anything about either of you, and now you're already asking me to go to her house to convince her to join the trip. I don't understand why you're so insistent on inviting me instead of her."

"Pretty much, yeah."

At this moment, she simply wanted to question him about this absurd situation. She wondered why it mattered if she attended the meeting. Why was he so concerned about whether Ashlyn went or not?

If she did, great for her, but Y/N couldn't comprehend why she had to be part of it. Was it because she sat next to Ashlyn on the bus, or because she was associated with him?

She truly had no clue.

"Do you realize that this is just a group project? This is just a group project, you know? If she doesn't want to come, let her be. You can't force someone to go somewhere they don't want to, like you're trying to do to me," she said with a slight frown. "She already told you she doesn't want to go, and you need to accept that.

Aiden said with a slight smirk, "So you were listening, that explains why I caught you by the door."

Y/N sighed, not bothering to explain her reason for hiding from him. "Why do you want me to come when we just met? Do you have attachment issues or something?" She then waited for a response from the blond, placing a hand on her hip, but the answer she received was far from logical.

He paused, placing a hand on his neck and avoiding eye contact as he searched for a response. "I'm not sure," he said. "But I do know that I have fun when I'm with you!" He shrugged, a smile appearing on his face.

Y/N was taken aback by what he just said. 'So, you're saying that harassing me is fun for you?' Her eye twitched slightly as she thought this. "Are you serious? How can you enjoy someone's company when you've just met them?" Y/N stared at him, noticing a smile on the blonde's face as he stood there without answering the girl's question.

This situation was really starting to annoy her. Y/N shook her head, feeling frustrated. 'This conversation isn't going anywhere. I need to take action. Should I just leave and not go?'

She had every right to walk away, so why hadn't she done it yet?

Y/N took a deep breath, trying to calm her racing thoughts. She knew she deserved better than to be stuck in a pointless conversation that was only serving to frustrate her further.

She glanced back and saw the family still waiting for them. Aiden's parents were busy on an important call, while Ben stood there with a neutral expression. Y/N really just wanted to go back inside, grab her sketchbook, and relax on her bed. Drawing always helped her deal with her inner struggles and brought her peace. She felt the urge to leave, but Aiden kept bothering her, making it hard to make a decision.

She was getting really annoyed and felt like yelling at him to stop, but her kind nature prevented her from doing so because she didn't want to attract attention from others. This guy was really causing her to act on her emotions. He seemed like a smiling maniac. She couldn't understand why she was wasting her time talking to him instead of his parents, who would surely have a better understanding. When she looked at Aiden, she saw a smile on his face. He was staring at her, unaware of the frustration building up inside her. She started to wonder if he even understood the concept of personal space.

She sighed, crossed her arms, and felt tired and annoyed that he didn't understand her. "I'm leaving. I've been here long enough to know you won't get it," she said to Aiden. "Please leave. I'll see you at school." With that, she walked away, leaving the blonde standing there watching her go.

Aiden stood there, his head slightly tilted, as if trying to process what had just happened. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Y/N stopped in her tracks a short distance away from him, not quite close but near the pavement. She realized that avoiding the situation wasn't going to help her in any way. If she continued to avoid him, he would probably just keep bothering her, especially since they went to the same school. Y/N sighed and groaned before finally deciding to face the situation.

Aiden saw her from a distance as she raised her head, lowered it, and then turned around to walk back to him. She stopped in front of him, and they stood there awkwardly as he pushed out his lips slightly, clearly surprised by this sudden change.

Y/N softly groans, placing a hand on her face before sliding it down as she then rubbed her brink of her nose while rasing her head. "If I come to this dinner, will you leave me alone when we're on the trip?"

It took him a moment to understand, but then his surprised expression turned into a big smile that lit up his face. "Of course," he said, tilting his head slightly and smiling with his eyes closed.

'I'm probably going to regret this later."

If only she knew that this will only cause more harm than good. This small change will definitely alter her life permanently, bringing mystery and drama that she will have to uncover on her own.

'God, please be merciful to me.'

FLASHBACK END

Currently, she feels regret for being here. They are all seated around the table. Ashlyn returned to the table a few minutes ago and sat in silence, avoiding eye contact with Y/N who was sitting beside her. The parents began discussing while the kids remained silent, observing the adults talking.

"Sorry for coming on short notice." Aiden's father, Daniel, said, "Aiden told us Ben, him, this lady here, Y/N, who is Aiden's guest, and your daughter, have been 'Fast Friends', and so we wanted to come over and introduce ourselves-" The man then noticed that two of Ashlyn's parents seemed to be in distress. "Oh my, are you two alright?"

Y/N looked at the two parents with a confused expression. Even she could tell that this was a bit of an overreaction. Ashlyn's parents, Mike and Emma, were behaving almost dramatically, which worried Aiden's father.

"Y-yeah, sorry."

"Don't mind us, carry on."

"I was just saying that we're happy to see Aiden and Benny fitting in. We move around a lot so Aiden's always been homeschooled and even for Ben, it's been a while since he's gone to public school."

"Oh, that's exciting. Are you guys having a good time?" Mike said with smile.

Y/N rolled her eyes and placed her hand on the table. She looked at Aiden briefly before looking away. She thought to herself, "If I wanted to sit in silence, I would have stayed home." She then groaned quietly and shifted her gaze to Ashlyn. Ashlyn could feel Y/N's eyes on her but avoided making eye contact and pretended not to notice. She then turned away.

Y/N had no idea why Aiden wanted to bring her along. She didn't know what Ashlyn thought either. She had just met these two today and now she was being dragged into this mess. This wasn't benefiting her at all. If she had been at home, she could have been doing something more productive.

"Yep! Especially with the field trip." Aiden made his intentions clear to the redhead. "I thought it would be fun for Ashlyn to come along too..."

"What field trip?" Emma questioned.

"Oh, you don't know? The kids have this group history project about Savannah."

"Oh right, Ash was talking about that earlier."

"Their teacher also planned a field trip to Savannah for the project. It'll be an overnight trip, though."

The parents were talking about the field trip while the kids listened and looked at each other. Ashlyn was mostly focused on Aiden, who smiled at her the whole time. Ben sat quietly, eating his food and occasionally noticing Y/N looking bored at the table. After some time, Ben and Aiden's family was prepared to leave. They waved goodbye to Banners and started to depart. But just before they could go, Aiden stopped and handed something to Ashlyn's parents.

"Here." In his hand, he held a permission slip for the field trip on Monday. "In case you decide you want to go. It was nice meeting you, Mrs. and Mr. Banner." He waved goodbye before catching up with Y/N.



Aiden's parents decided to go home, but Aiden himself had different plans. Ben also came along out of curiosity. The enthusiastic blonde hurried to the girl's side with a smile on his face, almost making it unnecessary for the girl to ask. However, Y/N didn't even look at the blonde. All she wanted was peace and quiet on the way home, but knowing Aiden wouldn't provide that just made her frustrated. Unfortunately, she couldn't express herself at that moment because she was already too tired to do so. She would probably snap in these types of situations, but she kept herself composed and waited to see how things would unfold.

"So, how was it?" Aiden asked the H/C girl, who was having trouble keeping her eyes open.

She looked his way, seeing what appeared to be an innocent smile showcasing on his face. "Aiden, you should know that I only came so I can be at peace when on the field trip."

"Hmm, I think that went into success don't you think."

"Do you mean you? You pretty much forced her to join."

"You came on your own free will."

"Yeah, it's either me going to this stupid meet-up, or I'd have to hear you-" She paused from saying it aloud, "annoy me the whole trip."

He raised a brow, "Me what?"

She groaned. "You are so persistent. Someone's going to tell you that, either in the most straight-up way or the rudest way when it comes to your actions."

"I'm not that difficult to be around," Aiden said with a smile, noticing the annoyance in Y/N's eyes due to his persistence.

Y/N turned her head forward, focusing on her house up ahead. She felt overwhelmed. Seeing this, she decided to pick up the pace because she desperately wanted to be at peace. However, as she reached to open the door, she heard a knock on the door beside her. Startled, her eyes widened as she jerked back slightly, surprised to see the Clarks, with Aiden's hands on the door showing he was the one who knocked.

"What are you doing? Go home!" Y/N exclaimed.

"Can't I greet my classmate's family that I'm going to be working with?" Aiden replied.

"That's not necessary," her sentence was cut short when she felt her hand being pulled forward, her hand still on the doorknob as she saw her dad with an almost confused look with the door open. However, he smiled upon seeing it was Y/N. Instantly, he took notice of the two boys in her presence. "Dad, sorry. They were, um...," she never wanted this to happen. She didn't want her dad to meet them.

"Hi, I'm Aiden, Y/N's fellow classmate," he greeted with a polite smile. "And also my cousin Ben. We just moved here a few weeks back and we're your neighbors." Ben waved as Aiden did the talking.

"Hello," D/N waved to the tall boy, his gaze now glancing down at the girl. "Where were you? Did you not see my calls?"

"Calls?" Y/N didn't understand and saw four missed calls. "Oh... Well, I just had my phone on silent. I was helping a... classmate with something," she smiled awkwardly, her nervousness evident in her tone.

"She was helping me with something," Aiden confirmed. It was quite difficult for her to hear, as what he said wasn't entirely accurate. She didn't play a significant role in convincing Ashlyn; she was more like a supportive companion, at least from her perspective.

"You could have at least texted, I got worried," D/N said, slightly disappointed. Seeing the look on his daughter's face made him think. He was just worried. However, he patted her head, reassuring her and smiled a bit, thinking it might have just slipped her mind, glancing at her, wondering if there's more to it. "So, he's your friend?"

"No."

"Yep."

There was a difference in their responses that caught D/N off guard, leading to confusion as he processed it. He saw Y/N's adamant expression change to an unexpected look of surprise. They both turned their heads towards each other and said the same thing simultaneously. There was a brief moment of pure silence. D/N had a questioning expression on his face, surprised at how quickly they both answered at the same time.

He chuckled and said, "Well, either way, I appreciate you walking her home. I don't know what I could do to thank you."

D/N was completely oblivious to the situation, not realizing it was different from Y/N's experience, where they practically joined her, specifically Aiden. However, as she was about to correct him, it was the other way around.

"It's nothing, we're just glad to be the ones to bring her back safely," Aiden replied while Ben nodded in agreement. "But, I was actually thinking we could..."

Y/N felt a wave of panic as she anticipated what he was going to say. She knew he might suggest that she invite their classmates inside, so she quickly jumped into the conversation, saying, "Well dad, they… probably have things to work on." She was trying to use this as an excuse to avoid inviting them in.

Her dad responded, "That's a shame, I was actually hoping you'd want to come inside. I have cookies and tea ready, freshly made."

Aiden agreed, saying, "That sounds good- Sure."

Y/N panicked and desperately tried to signal to her dad that she didn't want them to come in. She felt like they were practically strangers, having only met them that day in class. She didn't want to make things awkward for herself. She looked at Aiden, silently pleading for him to leave. Aiden noticed Y/N's expression and, though he kept smiling, he seemed to be considering something.

He then looked at Y/N's dad and said, "Maybe another time."

D/N didn't mind and agreed. Y/N sighed, wondering why Aiden had suddenly changed his mind. "Did he did that to test me?" She thought.

"Well, thank you both again. I'm glad to know Y/N is making friends," he said with a soft smile, extending his hand to shake hands with the two boys.

Ben also held out his hand in front of Y/N, causing confusion as she hesitated. She noticed her dad's glance and assumed he wanted a handshake too. Despite knowing they would see each other again, it felt embarrassing. She reluctantly shook Ben's hand and then Aiden's.

"See you on the field, N/N," Aiden smiled.

D/N looked at Y/N with bright eyes, expressing hope that she would enjoy the field trip with them. "I hope so too," they waved goodbye before heading home.

On the way, Ben, the brown-haired boy, kept staring at his palm. He squeezed his hands together, feeling a faint blush on his face from the warmth of her touch. The contrast between her small hand and his big hand left a lingering feeling of warmth.

"Soft..."

After seeing them off, Y/N left without saying a word and sought comfort in the softness of her bed. She lay face down, taking off her sweater, her thoughts clouded with the strange and awkward events of the day. Aiden seemed too comfortable around people, while Ben was mostly quiet. Y/N huffed out a breath, unsure of what to do when the field trip time came. She then took out her phone and started texting Aiden.

Y/N -

Please, leave me alone.

This was totally such a great start for her.

"I'm tired..."