A Long Way Gone(A Before You Exit Fanfic)

*Ali's POV*

Oh. My. Gosh. This was the longest class I had ever had. I glanced up at the clock to see that it was only 2:59pm. School ended at 3:20pm. Why did this always happen? At least it's Friday, I told myself.  I was sitting in English and I just wanted the day to end. I swear it could not have gotten any longer. My friends and I were planning to go to the park for a bit and just have fun. I couldn't wait to just get out of school, but it obviously wanted to torture me and slow the time down.

After staring at the clock for what must have been a lot longer than it really was, the bell rang. I grabbed my books and my phone and was the first one out the door. I raced down the hall to my locker, wanting to get out of the school ASAP. I spun the dial on the lock, but messed up the first time I tried my combination. Then the second, and the third. Finally on the forth try, I got my locker open, grabbed my bag and shoved my books inside. I slammed my locker shut just as one of my best friends, Courtney, ran up.

"Hey, Ali," she said as she approached.

"Hey, Court!" I glanced behind her and saw the rest of our group of friends, who just happened to be the members of the band, Before You Exit. Yes, Before You Exit. One of the bands who was finally starting to become known to the entire human population. Riley, who was 16, had his almost black hair pushed to one side, as usual. Connor, Riley's older brother, was 18 and had his light golden-brown hair covered by a grey beanie. Their two other friends, Braiden and Thomas, who were also 18, were following close behind.

"You guys ready to head over to the park?" Connor asked.

"Ready as I'll ever be," Courtney replied.

"All set," I answered. We turned and headed for the front doors of our high school. As I stepped into the fresh, early May breeze, I thought to myself that this couldn't be a better day to go to the park with my best friends. I inhaled and exhaled deeply, trying to take it all in. I loved spring. I loved the smells, the sights, everything.

"Hey Ali, Court," Connor started, snapping me out of my thoughts. "Me and the others were talking the other day and we decided it was time you came to see one of our practices."

"Sure! That sounds great," I exclaimed.

"Yeah! Definitely," Courtney chimed in. I had never seen one of their band practices before and the thought of finally getting to made me excited.

"Great! How does tomorrow at 9am sound?"

"Works for me," I replied.

"Tomorrow?" Courtney thought for a moment. "Yeah, I'm free tomorrow."

"So it's settled then," Connor said. We continued on our way to the park in silence, which was surprising since most of us were the chatty type. There was no sidewalk, so we had to walk single file at the side of the road. Riley was in front, followed by Thomas, then Braiden, Courtney, and Connor, with me taking up the end. I kept looking at the back of Connor's head. I've known him and the others since I was 5. Now I was 17 and we were as close as best friends could ever be. Connor knew everything about me and I knew everything about him. I told him all my secrets, well, almost all. There was one huge secret that I hadn't told anyone yet. Not even Courtney.

I don't know why, but ever since 8th grade, I've had a huge crush on him. I think it was the way he smiled his million dollor smile at me, or maybe it was the way his eyes sparkled everytime I saw him, or...

No Ali. Not this again. I scolded myseld. Connor is like an older brother to you, and your not supposed to crush on older brothers. I could not start that again. If I kept that up, then soon enough he would find out, and I wasn't sure if he felt the same way. I wasn't even sure I wanted to know. What if he didn't and thought I was creepy and started to avoid me? I did not want that to happen. I'll just keep my mouth shut and stop dreaming about something that will probably never be mine, and definitely stop my mind from wandering off to him. If I didn't, the others may catch on and who knows what they'd do?

"Race you guys the rest of the way," Riley called as he took off at a sprint.

"Hey! No fair," Thomas yelled, dashing after him. "You were a head of us all!" Connor, Braiden, Courtney, and I darted a look at each other.

"I guess we better go after them," Braiden said after a moment.

"Yeah, we probably should." Courtney glanced past him. "I can't even see them anymore." She was right. Riley and Thomas were already out of sight.

We all turned and jogged after them. When we reached the park, we saw what I expected we'd see. Riley was running around the baseball field with Thomas close at his heels. It looked as though Riley had a ball in His arms, but I couldn't tell from a distance. We watched for a while, laughing when Thomas tripped and fell, but got right back up and continued running after Riley. After another minute or so, we joined their fun, Connor and I helping Riley, and Braiden and Courtney helping Thomas. This went on for about ten more minutes before we flopped down on the grass, exausted from running so much.

I looked at the time on my phone. It was nearly 5 o'clock. "I've gotta go guys. My mom wants me home soon."

"Yeah, we better head home too, Ri," Connor said as he stood up.

"Same here," the others agreed.

"Bye guys! See ya tomorrow," I called back, and we parted ways.

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Thanks so much for reading! I know this chapter isn't too long and seems kinda boring, but I have some great ideas for this story! It may take a few chapters to get to some of them, or it may not.Keep coming back if you like what you read! Or don't, whichever you chose to do. Once again, thanks for reading and comment what you think of it!

- Nicky :)