1. The "It" Boy

"Beep beep... beep beep... beep beep!"
My hand slammed down on the stop button on my alarm clock. I groaned and rolled over again, pulling my covers over my head and attempting to go back to sleep again. I was always grumpy and tired in the mornings that weren't on weekends. The reason I had to get up so early was obvious; school, hell, torture... whatever you'd like to call it. When I opened my eyes again and looked at the time on my alarm clock, I almost had a heart attack. 7:20 Am. I had ten minutes before my bus left.
I dragged myself from my bed and peeked out of the closed blinds that were covering my window. It was sunny and looked warm. There was barely any wind either. I smiled to myself as I got dressed into my school uniform. I folded up the sleeves of my polo shirt because they were too long and annoying, slipped on my black shorts and put my black high-top converse on. I did a rubbish job at straightening my shoulder-length blonde hair, but it looked better than it would've had I just brushed and left it. I put on a little black eye liner and some mascara before I checked my timetable and cursed. I always had the worst subjects on Mondays. I took out the books I had left in my school bag from the Friday before and stuffed in my English, Advanced Maths, Ancient History, Music and Art books before zipping it up quickly and running down the stairs.
"Bye Mum!" I yelled as I reached the front door.
"You're not having breakfast?" She called back as I opened the door. I heard the bus turning onto my street.
"No time!" I told her.
"Have a good day honey!"
"I'll try," I muttered as I closed to door behind me and ran to the bus stop just as the bus got there.
I clambered on the bus and found my best friend, Emily, and sat in the seat next to her. Emily's brown hair which was dip-dyed purple was pulled back into a pony tail, though her side fringe was still left out, covering her left eye completely. She looked at me with her brown eyes and shook her head in mock disappointment.
"You were lucky." She commented as the bus pulled away from the curb and started driving to school.
"I know," I laughed, catching my breath. I didn't think I had ever run so fast in my life!
"I don't think the driver would've appreciated it if you were late two weeks in a row, Absidy." She pointed out.
"True." I nodded. "I would've had to walk to school."
"Fun," Emily laughed.
"Oh, definitely!" I said sarcastically as the bus stopped at the last stop before school.
"Absidy Tate, sarcastic as usual, I see." A voice said from above us.
I looked up, even though I knew who it was already. A boy with brown messy hair, relatively pale skin, green eyes and no freckles who was pretty tall stood in front of me. If I didn't hate him with a fiery passion, I'd probably think he was hot.
"Alexander Parker, what a wonderful surprise." I rolled my eyes and unzipped my bag. I rummaged through it and pulled out my iPod before putting in my headphones and turning it on.
Alex sat in the seat in front of us, resting his arms on the back of the seat and his chin on his arms. "I know I'm wonderful, Absidy. You don't need to tell me."
"You're a jerk."
He looked down at my iPod that I held in my hand and noticed how I was purposely covering the screen.
"What is it today?" He asked, referring to what I was listening to. "Screamo? Hard rock? Soft rock? Punk rock? Or even, god forbid," he paused, "not rock?"
"No, actually." I said. "It’s a new genre. It’s called How-To-Kill-Alex-Parker Rock."
"Sounds cool," He commented. "Care if I have a listen?"
"Yes actually, I do. It’s an iPod, not an usPod." I snapped as the bus pulled in at the school's bus bay. I stood up and walked off the bus, Emily following me, before he could answer.
Emily fell in step beside me as the walkway widened. "Will you two ever stop flirting and just go out?"
"Me? And Alex? You're kidding right?" I asked.
She shook her head. "He's totally into you."
"Well I'm not into him!" I told her stubbornly.
"Ok! Ok!" She laughed and pulled her phone out as her message tone went off.
"Who is it?" I asked.
"Just James." She smiled. James was Emily's boyfriend. He went to a private school in our town, but they had been dating for about a year and a half.
"What does he want?"
"He wants to go to the movies tomorrow night. He wants you to come too." She told me.
"Me? Why would he want me to go?" I asked in perplexity.
"I don't know... maybe so you don't feel left out? Don't ask me." She said.
"Tell him I'll go if he brings a friend." I thought about this for a moment. "A hot friend."
"Ok," Emily laughed and typed what I said into her phone before sending it to James. His reply was almost instantaneous.
"He says he'll see what he can do." She told me.
"Good." I smiled as the bell went.
"I'll see you later!" She yelled as she ran off in the opposite direction to me. She had physics first every Monday, so she was heading to the science labs.
I turned and walked towards my music classroom. I was dreading this class for once though; I had my guitar assessment, and all I could think about was how bad it would be if I screwed up. Another reason to dread music was the fact that Alex was in it and none of my friends were. Even though Alex was in all my classes, this one was the worst. I sat down in my usual seat and shoved my bag under the desk as Alex walked in and sat beside me because all the other seats were taken.
"Why can't you go bully someone out of their seat to save me the torture of sitting next to you for just one lesson?" I asked him.
He shook his head. "Can't do, Absidy. Haven't you heard bullying is bad?"
"You finally got the memo, huh?" I snapped back.
"Quiet down everyone!" Mr Jackson yelled above the class. "Come on, quiet! Sam, get off the drum set or I'll give you detention!"
The class settled down and Mr Jackson sat behind his desk. "You all know what today is, right?" He asked us.
When no one answered, he just continued. "Its assessment day! Exciting, right?"
Still no answers.
"Ok then! Let's get straight into it! Let's see..." He looked for something on his laptop before continuing. "Sam! Since you're so enthusiastic, you can go first for your assessment. I'm hoping you know your piece."
Sam, one of Alex's friends who had blonde hair and soft hazel eyes, stood up and nodded before returning to the stool behind the drum kit and playing his assessment piece. Name after name got called out and everyone played their pieces. There was some that made little mistakes, some that made big ones, some that forgot their assessment piece in the middle of a bar, and only one person that got it one hundred per cent right. Alex.
He returned to his seat next to me after playing his assessment piece flawlessly on the piano and winked at me. "Good luck."
"Not like I'll need it." I told him as Mr Jackson called my name. Cocky, I know, but I wasn't about to let him get to me.
I walked up to the front of the class and played the assessment piece that Mr Jackson had given me to learn for this very moment; Are You Gonna Go My Way by Lenny Kravitz. The song was actually really easy to play, even though it sounded difficult. I managed to get through the whole song without missing a beat even though I had to play it on one of the school's nylon string acoustic guitars, which made it harder to distinguish bends and force harmonics. I let out a breath I never realised I had been holding and walked back to my seat next to Alex.
"Damn, girl." He winked at me as the bell went to signal second period.
I rolled my eyes and grabbed my bag before stalking out of the classroom and to the computer lab that my Ancient History class had been booked in to for that lesson.

2. The "Emo" Boy

I got to the computer lab for ancient history and spotted Emily and our friend, Stacy, already logged on to computers with a spare one between them. Good. I thought. Now Alex can't sit next to me. I smiled and sat between my friends and logged on to the computer.

"What's got you so happy?" Emily asked as Alex walked into the room. "You and Alex finally declared your love for each other?"

Stacy snickered beside her.

"No." I snapped. "I'm happy because now I'm sitting between the two of you, there's no way he can sit next to me."

In the corner of my eye I saw a hurt look flash across his face before he quickly composed himself and walked over to me.

"You did pretty good in your music assessment back there," He commented.

"Really?" I asked sarcastically. "I thought one hundred percent was a terrible mark!"

"You only got one hundred percent because I wished you luck before-hand." He winked.

"Stop trying to steal all the glory, Alex. Like I said earlier; I didn't need it." I snapped.

"Mr Parker, chatting with Miss Tate again are we?" Mr Mathers asked, looking around the classroom before his eyes landed on Alex, who nodded. "If Miss Tate here didn't hate you so much, I'd think something was going on between you two."

"He wishes." I muttered.

"I bet he does." Mr Mathers chuckled before turning back to Alex. "But for now, Mr Parker, you need to stop chatting up my female students and start work on your assignment, seeing as you haven't even started it."

"Yes, sir." Alex said quickly and looked around for a spare computer. There was one next to Emily and one next to his friend Mike. Thankfully, he chose the seat next to Mike. I supposed he didn't want anymore attention from Mr Mathers than that he was already getting.

I opened the web browser and searched up my topic, which was the Aztecs, looking for good websites when my school email account opened itself up in another window. I had a message from Emily.

James wants to go to the movies tonight rather than tomorrow night because something's come up. Is that ok with you? I mean, it's not like you're gonna be the third wheel or anything, because he also said he got a friend to agree to come along.

I read through the email quickly and replied.

Yeah that'll be fine. When do I need to be there?

I hit send and clicked back into my other window for my research as Mr Mathers walked behind us. I clicked onto some random website about the Aztecs and scrolled down slowly, pretending to read the information. When he had gone, I heard Emily typing frantically and found an email in my inbox almost instantly.

The movie starts at 7:30.

I typed my reply almost as quickly as she had hers.

What movie are we gonna be seeing?

In the corner of my eye I saw Emily take out her phone and text someone. Probably James. She waited for him to reply before emailing me back.

James says that he's picking and that its a surprise.

I gave her a strange look but she didn't seem to notice.

If he chooses something stupid I'm ditching you guys. No matter how hot his friend is.

She laughed under her breath.

Hey, its your choice, my friend. Maybe he'll choose something good.

It was my turn to laugh under my breath this time.

I highly doubt that.

She gave me a death glare but didn't answer to my email. Then again, her glare was answer enough. I continued my research on the Aztecs and managed to finish my assignment just before the bell rang. Emily, Stacy and I quickly logged off our computers and hurried out of the classroom so we wouldn't get hounded by Alex and his friends. This was how it was everyday, we were always running out of every classroom we ever went in before lunch breaks so we couldn't get held up by some idiot popular boy who had a major crush on me. Sure, he was hot, but I hated him with a passion so he didn't even have that to use against me.

We were almost at our small oak tree we sat under when I tripped over a tree root which I hadn't seen in my hurry to get away from the classroom before Alex got to me. Emily and Stacy must've not noticed because they kept on running. Someone walked across my path as I fell to the ground, and I ended up unintentionally dragging them down with me. I cried out as I hit my head on another tree root that refused to stay in the ground where it belonged, and the root I had originally tripped over grazed my knee. I sat up slowly, my hand held up to my forehead as if to stop it spinning.

"I'm so sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going..."

"I'm sorry! I'm so clumsy. I'm always falling over stuff."

We spoke at the same time. I looked up at the boy who I had accidentally dragged to the floor with me and thought that maybe if I would've caught a glimpse of him before I fell, I would've fell on purpose just if it meant he would catch me. He had messy black hair which fell over his bright blue eyes, prominent cheek bones and no acne. He was looking me over too.

"It wasn't your fault, trust me. I fall over everything." I told him, leaning over to pick up my iPod that had flew out of my hand when I fell, but he beat me to it. He pressed the middle button and looked at the song.

"You listen to My Chemical Romance?" He asked curiously.

"Yeah, what's wrong with that?" I asked him.

"Nothing! They're basically my favourite band." He said, handing my iPod back to me.

"Well in that case, I love them - they saved my life and I want to be Ray Toro when I grow up." I told him, dragging myself up off the ground.

"You're gonna have to do something about your hair then." He pointed out as he did the same.

I thought about this for a moment. "I wanna be Ray Toro with straighter and thinner hair when I grow up, then."

He laughed a little, then his gaze travelled down to my knee. "Hey, you're bleeding,"

I followed his gaze. "I'll live."

"Are you sure? I could take you to the office if you'd like."

"I'll be fine!" I reassured him. "Grazed knees stopped hurting in primary school. Besides, you don't even know my name and you already want to play doctors and nurses."

He gave me a questioning look, as if he didn't want to be rude and ask straight out what my name was.

"Its Absidy." I told him with a smile.

"Jeremy." He returned my smile.

"Nice to meet you, Jeremy." I said, holding out my hand.

"You too," He shook it.

"I guess I'll see you round, then?"

"If you look hard enough." He said cheekily before running off. He turned back when he was about two metres away and smiled at me again before he turned and met up with his friends again, and I walked up to the little oak tree, and Emily and Stacy.

"Who's that hottie?" Emily asked excitedly.

"No one," I muttered, smiling to myself.

"Well 'no one' seems to be pretty into you!" Stacy pointed out, nudging me in the shoulder.

I laughed and looked over to where Jeremy stood with his friends. He caught my gaze and smiled before turning away. I saw one of his friends punch him in the arm, nod in my direction and start laughing with him.

Then I saw Alex.

Alex Parker, the most popular boy in school who could have any girl he wanted, looked absolutely heartbroken after seeing me, one of the most hated girls in school, with another boy.

3. Unacceptable Elevators

The rest of the day was uneventful. Alex never came up to me in any of my lessons or at second break. I found it strange actually. For a second I started to worry about him and wonder what had made him so distant, but I pushed that thought out of my head because worrying about him meant I actually cared about his feelings.

After school I went home and did my homework as usual, had dinner with my parents which was awkward as ever, before I ran back upstairs to get ready to go to the movies with Emily, James, and this mystery hottie James had picked out for me. If he wasn't good looking I'd have to have a good talk with James afterwards. I was just reapplying mascara since I hadn't done that since this morning before school, when Emily pulled up in front of my house and her car horn blared out. I grabbed my bag which had my wallet and phone in and ran down the stairs and out the front door before my parents could say I wasn't allowed to go out.

"Ready?" Emily asked me as I fastened my seatbelt.

"You bet." I laughed. "If this 'friend' of his isn't hot, I'll have to shoot James."

"Shoot James, I shoot you." She said.

"Shoot me and I'll come back and haunt you."

"That's a bit mean." She muttered.

"So is shooting me!"

"So is shooting James!"

"Hey! It'll be his fault for bringing along an ugly friend!" I told her.

"What if his friend is hot?" She asked.

"Then I won't shoot him, duh." I said cheekily as Emily pulled into a parking spot right next to the front of the cinema.

"Are you sure this isn't disabled parking, Em?"

"Yeah! Ichecked first, idiot." She told me.

"Ok! Ok! I'm only making sure you don't get a parking ticket!"

"I won't, trust me."

We got out of the car and walked into the cinema to find James waiting in line for the tickets. We skipped through and stood with him, which got us some dirty looks from other people in the line but we didn't really care.

"Hello gorgeous," He smiled, wrapping his arms around Emily's waist and kissing her lightly on the lips.

She smiled back. "How's school?"

"Boring as ever," He laughed. "Still no boyfriend, Absidy?"

"Actually, yes! He's lovely!" I told him, getting an odd look from Emily.

"Really? Can't wait to meet this guy." James said.

"Me either!" I smirked.

"...Still no boyfriend, then." He guessed.

"We'll just have to wait and see until your friend gets here." I laughed.

"He'll be here soon." He promised me as we walked into cinema 3 where the movie was being showed.

"He better be, I'm only here because I was told I wouldn't be the third wheel!"

"You won't be," James laughed, showing me the tickets. "They gave us four tickets but we'll be seperated."

"So if this friend of yours doesn't turn up I'll be a loner." I stated.

"He'll come, Absidy."

"Fine! I guess I'll have to trust you then."

"You will." He smiled and gave me my ticket. Emily and I walked in together and she sat in the seat next to me until James came in, who was waiting outside for his friend with their tickets. The lights dimmed while James was still outside, so Emily ran over to their seats to make sure no one took them and never ended up coming back. The movie had just started when my "date" joined me.

"Have a good afternoon, Absidy?"

I turned around to see Alex Parker walking down the stairs and sit next to me.

"You can't be serious." I said. "You're James' friend?"

He smiled and shrugged.

"Looks like you'll be watching this movie by yourself then." I muttered, standing up and walking out of the dark room into the second floor lobby.

"Come watch the movie, Absidy." Alex said as he fell in step with me. "Just as friends."

"Nothing with you is ever just as friends, Alex."

"Come on, Absidy. It'll be fun." He tried convincing me again.

"I didn't want to watch the movie anyway. James is never good at choosing." I told him.

"What do you wanna do then?" He asked me in earnest.

"Go home." I snapped.

"Emily gave you a lift, right?"

I nodded.

"So you have no way of getting home. Unless I drop you there, that is."

I groaned. "I suppose I have no choice, right?"

He smiled. "Right. Come on."

He went to grab my hand but I jerked away. He brushed it off and we walked over to the elevator and waited for it to get to our level before hopping in.

I pressed the ground floor button and the elevator started to move downwards.

"This is the first and last time I'm being seen in public with you outside of school." I told him.

"I don't doubt that for a second." He winked.

The elevator shuddered and stopped, but the doors didn't open and something clattered above us. The light in the elvator went out next. I looked at Alex in the dim light, who had a perplexed look on his face, then to the doors and pressed the button to open them. They still didn't work.

"You've got to be kidding me." I said under my breath.

"What?"

"It looks like we're stuck." I announced.

"You're kidding."

"Do I look like I'm joking, Alex? Does it look like I want to be stuck in here? With you of all people?" I snapped.

He looked at the floor.

I sighed and sat down at the wall opposite him.

"I'm sorry." I muttered. "That was mean."

"You don't have to apologise. Haven't you heard 'treat others how you want to be treated'?"

"Are you implying that your an asshole to me because I hate you?" I asked sceptically.

He shook his head slightly. "I'm an asshole to you so you're allowed to be a bitch to me." He said. "It's only fair."

"You act like you hate me all the time... or you just like winding me up." I said slowly. "Emily doesn't think you hate me, though."

"What does Emily think?" He asked, sitting down against the wall.

"Emily has this utterly stupid theory that you like me." I rolled my eyes.

"Well I don't hate you if that's what she means." He pointed out.

I shook my head. "She thinks that you like like me."

He went quiet. I wondered what that was supposed to mean.

"Why didn't you talk to me after ancient history?" I asked him, giving in and showing that I was partially worried; he usually talked to me every period and fought with Emily and Stacy to get the seat next to me... but he hadn't after lunch. The only thing I could think of that had happened was when I bumped into Jeremy - literally. Was it possible that he was jealous of something that didn't even exist?

In the dim light I saw him lean his head back against the wall in defeat. He ignored my question.

"Look at me, Alex." I said sharply.

He did.

"Why didn't you talk to me today after ancient history?"

"You have a boyfriend. I respect that. And as long as your happy, even if its not with me - hell, even if its with someone I hate like him... than I can live with that, Absidy. But if he hurts you, I swear to god..." He trailed off at the end, not finishing his sentence.

I laughed slightly under my breath. "Today was the first time I've seen Jeremy Taylor in my life, Alex. I tripped over and he fell with me. That's all. Nothing happened."

"He likes you though. I can tell by the way he looks at you."

"Well I don't like him."

"That's what you always said about me." He whispered sadly.

I didn't have an answer to that. This was a new side of Alex - one I had never seen before.

One I might actually like.

"I like this side of you." I said quietly after a while.

He closed his eyes and leant his head back against the wall again.

"That doesn't change the fact that under any other circumstance you hate me. Or the fact that Jeremy likes you. Not only that, but he has every little thing in common with you, and I have nothing. Nothing at all!" He said quickly.

"Why do you care so much? So what if someone else likes me and has everything in common with me? So what if you don't? So what if you're the most popular guy in school? I can date who I want. I can't change who I am, and neither can you." I told him sharply.

"You don't understand, do you?" He burst out.

His outburst took me by surprise and I didn't answer.

He shook his head. "Of course you don't." He said quietly. "You think I want to be the most popular guy in school? You think I want to have pathetic little girls running around trying to get my attention every second of the day? You think I want to have nothing in common with you?"

I looked at the ground.

"I hate being the popular guy. I hate those girls who are always trying to get my attention." He told me. "...The girl I like doesn't even have to try. We may have nothing in common, but I don't care. She's all I want... and all I can't have. She's the most beautiful girl in the world."

I was quiet for a while.

"Then why are you telling me this? Tell her. She deserves to know." I said finally.

He laughed humourlessly. "You still don't get it, do you?"

I looked at him in perplexity.

"That girl is you, Absidy."

And then the doors opened. Thank god I didn't have to put up with him any longer. Especially now he turned our conversation awkward.

"I'll see you at school." I told him as I walked away.

"Absidy!" He called out.

I didn't want to turn around. I wanted to keep walking and pretend that we had never had that conversation. But I turned around anyway.

"I thought you wanted a lift home?" He asked me from across the lobby.

"I'll walk." I told him. He called out my name again, but this time I didn't look back.

4. Wasted Chances, Bad Romances

"Where the hell did you guys disappear to?!" Was the first thing I heard when I got on the bus the next morning.
"I walked out as soon as James' friend got there." I said simply.
"I'm guessing he wasn't attractive then? Hey, I saw Alex Parker there tonight. I bet he would've been jealous seeing you with James' friend whether he was attractive or not. Especially after your little episode with that hottie at lunch."
"Emily,"
"Yes?" She paused.
"James' friend was Alex Parker." I told her.
"What?!"
"That was exactly what I thought."
"And exactly why you walked out as soon as he got there." She finished my sentence for me.
"He followed me though."
"He wouldn't just let you leave, Absidy." She said.
"I said I wanted to go home and he said he'd give me a lift."
"What happened girl? Something happened. I can tell by the tone of your voice. What did he do in the car?" She asked.
"I didn't even get in his car."
"Why not?" She complained. "He has a Dodge Viper!"
"The elevator broke down." I told her.
"Sucks for the people inside," She laughed.
"That was us."
"You're kidding!"
"Nope."
"Jesus Christ. Tell that to all the sluts at school. You were stuck in an elevator with Alex Parker." She giggled.
"It wasn't very fun. It was more awkward." I muttered.
"How was it awkward? Did he confess his love for you?" She teased.
I didn't answer. She had guessed it right out. After a while it clicked in her head why I wasn't answering.
Her eyes widened. "He did?!"
I sighed. "Yes. And he said all this other stuff too. He said something like he hated being popular and hates the sluts who always try to get his attention. Then he goes 'the girl I like doesn't even have to try, blah blah blah, she's the most beautiful girl in the world but I have nothing in common with her, blah blah blah."
"He thinks you're beautiful? That's so cute!" Emily squealed.
I took a page out of Alex's book and ignored her comment. "Then I told him to tell her because she deserves to know, and he's just like, 'you are that girl, Absidy.' Then the doors opened and I told him I'd just walk home."
"He told you he likes you and thinks you're beautiful and you ignored him?!"
"Pretty much." I said.
"And you walked home? In the rain?"
"No, silly! I caught a bus at Clayton Avenue!" I said, rolling my eyes.
"I didn't think you'd walk home." She laughed.
I looked up as the bus rolled to a stop and Alex was outside at his bus stop.
"Shit! He's coming!" I whispered, grabbing my iPod and playing some random song as soon as I put the headphones in. I knew he'd try to talk to me after last night.
Emily was laughing at me when he walked on the bus. He didn't even walk past, though... didn't even look at me. Not even from the corner of his eye. He sat two rows in front us across the aisle.
"Looks like someone's ignoring you," Emily said in a sing-song voice.
I elbowed her and took out my headphones. "Shut up! Why would he be ignoring me?"
"I thought you'd be happy about that..?" She asked carefully.
"Of course I'm not! ...I mean, am..." I faltered. Alex had never had this type of affect on me before, but me saying that definitely got his attention. His head snapped up and he looked in my direction before looking down at the floor again when I corrected myself. He must've been listening to our conversation.
"I'm confused." Emily told me.
"I mean, I'm perfectly fine with him ignoring me, I just wanna know why." I snapped.
"It may have something to do with him-" I covered her mouth with my hand before she could say anything else because nearly everyone on the bus excluding Alex was staring at us. By the time she stopped struggling with me, everyone had turned back around.
"What?" She asked. "Don't you want anyone knowing what happened?"
I thought about this for a moment. I didn't want everyone knowing, and I had a feeling that Alex didn't either. People would know something had happened though, because he wasn't sitting near us, but I didn't want to give them details.
"I don't think Alex would appreciate it if you went around telling everyone he likes me. Or that he actually got rejected for once in his life." Or anything else he said whilst we were stuck in that stupid elevator. I finished in my head. In the corner of my eye I saw Alex turn around for a fraction of a second and look at me. It looked almost as if he was smiling.
"Why is everything suddenly about Alex?" Emily asked suspiciously. "Did something else happen that you're not telling me about?"
"No! Nothing happened!" I reassured her. "But seriously, if this gets out, I'll have an army of murderous popular bitches trying to kill me for 'stealing their unofficial boyfriend'."
"True," Emily laughed.
People started standing up and walking off the bus before I even realised it had stopped. Emily and I walked off just as the bell went.
"Come on, then!" She called out to me. I had paused at the door of the bus, my eyes following Alex as he walked up the school's driveway; he turned to look back before he saw me looking and stopped. I rolled my eyes and walked off to class with Emily.
***
I sat in advanced maths in the horrible seating plan our teacher had put us in. I was sat in the front corner of the classroom right next to Alex. Luckily the door was right in front of Alex's desk. And the teacher new how much I hated Alex and said if I needed some space I could leave the classroom whenever I wanted.
Before class he always wrote a note for me to leave the classroom and put it on my desk so I wouldn't get done for truancy, in case I ever needed it. I had never used it yet, no matter how much Alex annoyed me. I couldn't let him win. I wouldn't give in and show he was annoying me, or affecting me whatsoever.
Behind us was his friend, Sam, and his ex-girlfriend, Breanna. I got death stares from Breanna every lesson... I had to admit, it was a little creepy.
I leant back in my seat, Breanna glaring daggers at my back as usual. Mr Stewart had his back turned to us and was filling the board with numbers and symbols I couldn't concentrate on, but was meant to be copying down. He droned on about how to do the work in immense detail, even though all of us knew how to do it already. My phone buzzed in my pocket and I pulled it out, hiding it under my desk even though Mr Stewart's back was turned. It was from Emily, who sat in the back corner behind me with a boy called Brad.
The tension's rising over there, huh? ;)
That's an understatement. I replied before putting my phone away again as Mr Stewart told us to open our text books and do exercises in our books.
I sighed and pulled mine out because Alex had lost his at the beginning of the year and we had to share. I turned to the right page and started the first question. I had just finished my work when I snapped. Alex hadn't spoken to me all lesson. Sam and Breanna were talking behind us, and the rest of the class were in some kind of discussion. We were the only silent people in the class. There was ten minutes left before second period, so I threw my books and pencil case into my back, sat back and looked at him.
"What, so you're just gonna ignore me for the rest of your life, then? Great decision, Alex."
He was quiet for a moment longer. I don't think he expected me to say anything to him.
He shrugged, finally. "I thought it was what you wanted, Absidy."
"You... you can't just say something like that to me and expect me not to react!" I defended myself.
"And here comes the 'I'm not like other girls' speech..." He muttered under his breath.
I slapped him hard on the arm. That's gonna bruise. I thought.
"Doesn't last night mean anything to you?" I snapped.
"Well clearly it doesn't mean anything to you, so no." He snapped back.
"You are so frustrating!" I told him, trying not to yell. "I was this close to giving you a chance, Alex. But, hey, you screwed that up too, didn't you?"
He looked at me with a shocked look on my face.
"Exactly. Don't ever think you know what means something to me, Alex. Because you obviously don't." I snapped, tears springing to my eyes, before grabbing my bag and truancy note before running from the classroom, getting stares from 28 pairs of eyes as I left.

5. Directions For Ditching

I ran through the hallways and out of the building. I didn't know where I was running to, I just ran. I wasn't leaving the school; I just needed to get away from Alex. I hoped that Mr Stewart wouldn't let him come running after me. I hoped he wouldn't let anyone.
I stopped running and found myself sitting behind the old music classroom that no one used anymore. I was finally alone. I dropped my bag beside me and hugged my knees to my chest as tears rolled down my face. I didn't know why, and I didn't like to admit it, but I was crying. Why are boys so frustrating? I wondered in my head.
I don't know how long I sat there, crying silently, but after a while my tears slowed down a little, but they didn't stop. I needed to talk to someone, but I couldn't talk to Emily or Stacy. I wondered who would sit and listen to me cry about something they probably didn't even care about, then I remembered how Jeremy had slipped me that little piece of paper with his number on whilst handing me back my iPod the day before. Luckily, it was still in the front pocket of my bag.
I pulled out my phone, ignoring all the messages from Emily and Stacy, and texted him. It was probably a stupid idea, but I did it anyway.
Hey, it's Absidy. Could you meet me behind the old music classroom? I need someone to talk to, and you were the only person I could think of. Don't ask. I'll explain when you get here.
His reply was, surprisingly, almost instant.
I'm coming. See you in a minute.
It surprised me that he actually agreed to come. Especially half way through second period. Him meeting me meant somehow sneaking out of class and ditching, yet he was still coming. It was nice to know someone other than Emily or Stacy cared about me that much.
"Absidy?"
I turned to the sound of Jeremy's voice and gave him a small smile when I spotted him.
"What happened?" He asked hurriedly, ditching his bag, sitting next to me on the ground and wrapping his arm around my shoulder when he saw that I was crying.
I leant my head on his shoulder and sighed. "Alex Parker happened."
"He's an asshole." Jeremy told me.
"I agree." I said between tears.
"Do you want me to go punch him? Maybe it'll fix his face." He joked.
I shook my head.
"You're right. Not even that would fix a face like his."
I laughed a little and looked up at him.
"How did you get out of class?" I asked.
"I had agriculture. We were at the farm and our teacher had disappeared so I just walked off. My friends are covering for me." He told me.
"You didn't have to come, you know." I said quietly.
"Of course I did. You needed someone to talk to." He brushed my hair out of my face and moved so he could look me in the eyes.
"But you only met me yesterday. And then I fell over you." I pointed out.
"So? I can't just leave you out here crying all by yourself."
"I'll live."
He smiled. "You said that yesterday about a grazed knee. Somehow I think a broken heart is different."
I gave him a strange look. "I never told you I had a broken heart."
"Well broken hearts are Alex Parker's forte, are they not?" Jeremy asked, raising his eyebrows. "That's all he ever does."
I nodded.
He moved to sit next to me and put his arm around my shoulders. "So what did he do to you?"
I sighed and told him. I told him everything, even the things I had left out whilst telling Emily.
He whistled. "If I were you I would've slapped his face, not his arm."
"I would've, but we were in the middle of class, Jeremy." I laughed. I had stopped crying by then.
"You wanna ditch?" He asked suddenly.
"You mean the rest of the day?" I asked, and he nodded.
"Well, it's better than staying here and having to face Alex in every class, hey?" I laughed.
"Sure is." He agreed. "Where do you wanna go?"
"Anywhere." I said. "Anywhere where Alex Parker isn't."
He laughed and grabbed his bag off the ground before standing up and offering me his hand. I smiled and grabbed my own bag before taking it and letting him help me to my feet.
"So we're just gonna walk into town and hang around there all day?" I asked him.
"Of course not!" He said. "We can drive, silly!"
"Not if your car is in the parking lot! Someone will see us!"
"My car's around the back." He assured me. "We'll be fine, come on."
We walked down to the back of the school and up to the four foot high wooden fence that was there to stop us getting out. I paled when I realised we had to climb over it. The last time I climbed a fence I fell and broke my wrist, so as you could guess, I wasn’t so enthusiastic about having to climb this one.
“What’s wrong?” Jeremy asked as I stopped.
I didn’t answer, I just looked at the fence and he figured it out.
“Don’t worry, you won’t fall.”
“The last time I climbed a fence I fell and broke my wrist.” I told him.
“Come on, Abby!” He pleaded. “I’ll climb over first so I can catch you if you need it.”
No one had ever called me ‘Abby’ before. I guess no one had really thought hard enough to give me a nickname, yet Jeremy had called me it without even thinking.
I sighed. “Go on then.”
He climbed over the fence quickly and when I heard his feet hit the ground on the other side I followed suit, but a little slower.
That was until I heard someone behind me yell, “Hey! Where do you think you’re going, girly?”
I turned around and cursed – it was the deputy principal.
“Come on, Absidy!” Jeremy called. I nearly called him crazy for speaking out but then I realised he didn’t want me getting in trouble on my own if I didn’t get over before the deputy got to me.
I climbed as the fence as quickly as I could and jumped down the other side when I reached the top, slipping slightly on the pebbles scattered over the ground. Jeremy helped me regain my balance before he grabbed my hand and we ran. We ran faster than I had the day before to get to the bus stop in time, and found shelter at a little park three streets away from the school and collapsed on the swings to catch our breath.
I started laughing – I couldn’t help it. Jeremy joined in too and slipped off his swing which made me laugh even harder. It looked like it hurt but he didn’t seem to care – he was still laughing along with me. After a while he paused.
“What exactly are we laughing about?” He asked me.
I stopped. “I have no clue.”
We were quiet for a while after that.
“So,” I muttered. “What do we do now?”
“Do you have a change of clothes?” He asked.
“In my bag? No. I didn’t think I’d be ditching school.” I told him.
“Is anyone at your place? If we’re in our uniform whilst ditching we’re bound to get caught.”
“Not unless Mum or Dad have gone home sick.” I said.
He gave me a questioning look.
“Which I highly doubt.” I assured him.
“Come on,” He said, standing up. “Give me directions to your place and you can get a change of clothes and we can go into town or something.”
“Ok, give me directions to your car.” I joked.
He just rolled his eyes and motioned for me to follow him.

6. Awkward Ice Cream

“And turn left at those lights and it’s second on the right.”
Jeremy slammed the break on as the lights turned quickly from green to red and scowled. “Trust me to be the only one to hit a red light.”
I looked behind us and he was right – we were the only people waiting. “They altered these lights a couple of weeks ago.” I told him. “Now they tend to only let one or two cars go through at once. It’s stupid.”
“Why do they do that? Do they have some kind of mental problem?” Jeremy joked.
“Not that I know of, they probably just thought ‘hey, let’s make the lights let only two people through at once! That way people will get where they want to faster!’ Or something like that because everyone on the council is old and stupid.” I said as the lights changed and he parked across the road from my house.
“This it?” He asked me.
“Yep.” I nodded. “I’ll be right back, I promise.”
“Ok, I’ll wait here.” He smiled.
I smiled back and hopped out of the car. There were no cars in the driveway which was good because it meant no one was home. I crossed the road and unlocked the door with the spare key from the key safe next to the door. I looked around the empty house – it was actually quiet for once; no news playing on the TV, no loud music coming from my bedroom, and no clattering about in the kitchen. I walked up the stairs and into my room, closing the door behind me. I wanted something that I could wear under my school shirt so that when I got on the bus you wouldn’t be able to tell I had ditched. I didn’t have to change my shorts; they didn’t have the school logo on them or anything. I rummaged through my draws and pulled out my red You Me At Six singlet which had ‘stay with me’ written across the front of it in swirly writing. Perfect.
I had just got it on when I got a call from Jeremy.
“You might wanna get out of there.” He told me. “Fast.”
“Why?”
“A car just pulled into your driveway.”
“You serious?” I asked him, but it sounded like more of a squeak. I looked out my window and sure enough, there was a car in the driveway. I saw Jeremy in his car across the road with his phone in his hand. I thought about waving but didn’t.
“They’re walking up to the front door now so you can’t get out that way. I think it’s your mum.” He replied.
“How the hell am I meant to get out without using the front door?” I asked incredulously.
“The back door?”
“Downstairs and makes a loud squeaking noise when you open it.” I told him.
He cursed. “Your bedroom window?” He asked carefully.
“My room’s on the second floor!” I squeaked, hearing the front door open and close.
“You wanna get caught ditching? By your Mum?”
I sighed. “I hate you, Jeremy Taylor.”
I hung up before he had the chance to reply.
“Hello?” My mum’s voice called from the bottom of the stairs.
I didn’t answer. Instead I looked around for a place to hide. There wasn’t many places in my small room, so I had to resort to hiding under my bed like a three year old. I heard Mum start walking up the stairs and I shuffled further under so my back was against the wall and I quietly dragged one of the boxes under my bed in front of me, but left a gap so I could still see.
She poked her head inside my door and I held my breath. She looked around and spotted something. She walked into my room muttering about me leaving stuff everywhere and wondering why it got lost or broken. She moved something off my desk and put it in my wardrobe before walking out again. I let out my breath and shuffled out from under my bed as I heard her put the kettle on and the TV started blaring out.
I opened my window and looked out of it. Shit. I thought. Two storey drop. It didn’t look very fun at all. I shoved my school shirt in my bag and dropped it out of the window before sitting myself on the window sill, my legs hanging outside. I took a deep breath and pushed myself off. I didn’t think; thinking would make me stop myself from doing it. I would’ve chickened out and somehow got downstairs without Mum seeing me and climbed out of a first floor window.
I felt the wind against my face as I fell, thankful that my hair was blocking my view or I would’ve probably had a heart attack. As I hit the floor, a sharp pain flared in my ankle and it took all I had not to cry out. I limped over to my bag and slung it over my shoulder before walking two blocks down the street and signalling Jeremy to drive over to me.
“You ok?” He asked me as I got in the car after limping around to the passenger side.
“Yeah,” I smiled. “Think I twisted my ankle though.”
“That’s not really ok, Abby.”
“Hey, I’ll live!” I defended myself. “It’s not everyday I jump out of second storey windows, you know.”
He laughed. “You sure you’re ok?”
“Yes! I’m sure!” I reassured him.
“If you say so…”
“I do!” I laughed. “Come on, I know this really cool ice cream place on Market Street and right now I really feel like ice cream.”
He laughed. “Everyone knows the ice cream place on Market Street.”
“I know. It just sounded cooler the way I said it.” I pointed out.
“Since when have you been one to act cool?” He asked as he pulled away from the curb and started driving into town.
“Since never.”
“Then why start now?”
“Just because something sounds cool in my mind, doesn’t mean it is in other people’s.” I told him. “Like the popular kids’ minds for instance.”
“You mean popular kids like Alex?” He inquired.
“I suppose,” I sighed.
“I’m sorry.” He said. “I should’ve known better than to bring him up.”
“No, it’s ok.” I told him. He was quiet for a while.
“Do you want the radio on?” He asked.
“The radio? Nothing good’s on the radio.” I pointed out.
“True.” He laughed. “Go in the glove compartment. There’s some CDs in there. You can choose.”
“Fair enough,” I smiled. “As long as there’s no mainstream.”
“You expect me to have mainstream?” He asked incredulously.
I laughed.
“No way. Killjoy all the way, girl.” He said, referring to the My Chemical Romance fan club.
“There are bands I like that aren’t My Chem.” I told him as I opened the glove compartment and pulled out the CDs he had mentioned.
“Same with me.”
I looked through the CDs and read the titles aloud. “Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge by MCR, Cardiology by Good Charlotte, Dirty Work by All Time Low – you listen to All Time Low?”
“Yep.” He said, popping the ‘p’.
I smiled and continued. “Mayday Parade’s self titled, D.R.U.G.S by Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows – good band,” I put in, “The Black Parade Is Dead by MCR, Anywhere But Here by Mayday Parade, What Are You So Scared Of by Tonight Alive, Punk Goes Pop volume 4, and Soundwave 2010.”
“Anything you like? Other than My Chemical Romance of course,” He winked.
“All of them.” I smiled. “Especially The Black Parade Is Dead, though. ‘Cancer’ live in Mexico is absolutely amazing.”
“I like the live version of House of Wolves.” He told me.
“All the live versions are amazing.” I said, putting all the CDs back in the glove compartment but one; Mayday Parade’s ‘Anywhere But Here’.
“Mayday Parade?” He asked.
I nodded. “Yep. ‘The Silence’ was the first song of theirs I heard.”
I put the CD in and skipped to that song. It only got to the second line of the chorus before we got to the ice cream parlour.
“Oh.” I muttered.
“Do we have to stay in the car until this song finished?” He asked me, trying not to laugh.
“Nope. I want ice cream.” I told him, hopping out of the car. Surprisingly my ankle didn’t hurt anymore. Maybe it was just a jolt. I thought to myself.
Jeremy rolled his eyes and got out of the car too, and we walked into the ice cream parlour. We walked up to the counter and a little old lady was working. We told her what we wanted and she decided to keep up small talk while she served us our ice cream.
“So how long have you to cuties been together?” She asked us innocently.
Jeremy and I looked at each other awkwardly. “I, uh, we aren’t… dating,” We said together.
“Just friends then?” She asked, brushing off the awkwardness she had unintentionally caused.
We nodded as she handed us our ice creams.
“Five twenty, thanks,” She smiled as we handed over our money.
“Have a lovely afternoon!” She called out to us as we walked out of the store.
“You too,” I called back.
“Where do you want to go now?” Jeremy asked me when we were outside.
“The park? The one down the road.” I suggested.
“Sure,” He smiled.
When we reached the park we sat on the swings, swinging slightly back and forth. Whether he was doing it intentionally or not, I wasn’t sure, but it was a habit of mine. We sat in silence for a while, but it wasn’t an awkward silence. It was the kind of silence where you were just thankful to have company but weren’t entirely sure what to say.
“Why do you hate Alex so much?” I asked Jeremy hesitantly.
He thought about this for a moment before replying. “He’s just a dick head, you know? All he wants is popularity.”
Alex’s words from the previous night ran through my mind like a broken record. ‘Do you think I want to be the most popular guy in school?’
“What if he didn’t want to be popular?” I wondered aloud.
“He wouldn’t be popular then, would he?” Jeremy said casually.
“I don’t know,” I thought about this. “I mean, all the girls think he’s attractive, and he’s never an asshole to them, and I suppose everyone likes him…”
“Do you think he’s attractive, Abby?”
I was taken aback at Jeremy’s question. “Me? No way.” I made a gagging sound.
He laughed. “Well if you don’t think he’s attractive than not ‘all the girls’ think he’s attractive.”
“True,” I smiled. We were quiet again for a while.
“Why do you call me Abby?” I asked him.
“What? Don’t you like it?” He wondered.
“No! I do! It’s fine! I don’t mind you calling me that, I was just wondering…” I told him.
“I don’t know,” He laughed. “I just do, I suppose.”
“No one’s ever really thought of giving me a nickname.” I told him. “I think it’s cute.”
“I think you’re cute.” He said quickly before going red in the cheeks and covering his mouth.
I thought about what Alex had said about Jeremy the night before but just laughed it off.
“Come on,” I said, jumping off my swing, and wincing a little because my ankle had started hurting again. I hoped he didn’t notice. “Where to now? Your choice.”
He jumped off his swing too.
“To the car!” He announced dorkishly before running off.
I didn’t really have a choice but to follow him.

7. Conversations in a Cave

“Where are we going?” I asked Jeremy as he swerved between cars on the freeway.
He turned up the radio, which was now playing My Chemical Romance.
“What?” He yelled over the music. “I can’t hear you; you’ll have to speak up!”
“Where are we going?” I yelled back.
“I’m not telling!” He told me, taking his eyes off the road to look at me and smile when he said it.
“Can we turn the music down now you’ve finished ignoring me?” I asked him.
“Of course not! Music is best listened to loud!” He replied.
“Not when my ear drums are about to burst!” I called.
“But that’s the best part! I’d rather go deaf listening to My Chemical Romance than anything else!” He told me.
“I suppose it is better than whatever crap they play on the radio.” I laughed.
“Exactly!” He yelled, his hand going for the volume on the radio.
“If you’re gonna turn that up, I’m seriously gonna kill you, my friend.” I yelled back.
That’s exactly what he did.
I gave him my signature death stare and went to turn it down, but he slapped my hand away.
“Hey!”
He just smiled at me.
I went to turn it down again. He grabbed my wrist and held it against my waist. His move made the car swerve from the middle of the road and back.
“No.” He told me jokingly.
“Yes!” I yelled over the music as he turned it up even further. I somehow scrambled out of his grip, making him slip, which also made the car swerve again.
I squealed as he scrambled to get the car straight again and he caught my wrist again.
“If we crash,” Jeremy called, “and I die, it’s all your fault.”
“If we crash and I die,” I told him, “Tell my mum I love her!”
He laughed and turned his attention back to the road.
Taking advantage of this, I reached forward to turn the music down, wondering what on earth the people behind us were thinking; weird emo kids in the car in front blaring My Chemical Romance and swerving all over the road.
In the corner of his eye, Jeremy must’ve noticed because he turned to me, unable to keep that cute smirk of his off his face, and grabbed my wrist again. I somehow managed to turn the radio off before he did. This time the car only swerved one way because his other hand slipped off the wheel. I gasped as the car wheel slammed into the curb next to us and it stalled. Jeremy and I just looked at each other for what felt like hours.
“You know,” I began, “We could’ve died all because–”
I couldn’t finish my sentence. Before either of us knew what was happening, his lips were pressed against mine and my arms around his neck. Our lips moved in sync as he wrapped his arms around my waist. I fiddled with the hair at the nape of his neck as his tongue explored the inside of my mouth, searching for a partner. I wondered how I could’ve even thought about dating Alex when Jeremy was here, right in front of my nose. I felt him smile against my lips and jumped when My Chemical Romance came on incredibly loud. I pulled back quickly.
“You can’t just almost kill me, then kiss me and expect everything to be ok!” I yelled over the music.
“That’s just the way I work, Abby!” He called back, putting the car in drive and driving away from the curb.
“Now you’ve nearly killed us both, will you tell me where we’re going?” I asked him, turning down the music. I was surprised he actually let me.
“Nope.”
“Please?” I asked.
“Nope.”
“Please, Jeremy?” I asked again, giving him puppy-dog-eyes.
He looked at me and smiled. “Nope.”
“Asshole.” I muttered.
“Hey, now.” He said sternly. “My name’s not Alex Parker.”
I laughed. “Of course not. It’s Jeremy…” I trailed off and realised that I didn’t even know what his last name was. Well. That’s a start.
“Taylor.”
“What?” I was taken aback.
“Jeremy Taylor.” He told me, laughing at my confused face. “You didn’t know my last name. It’s Taylor.”
“Do you even know mine?” I wondered aloud.
“Um… Webster?”
“Nope.”
“Evans?”
“Nope.”
“Smith?”
“Oh, totally.”
“Stewart?”
“You’re hopeless, Mr Taylor.”
“Not really, Miss Tate.” He winked.
I gaped at him.
He laughed. “Come on, Abby. Did you seriously expect me not to know your last name?”
“Well, I didn’t know yours!” I complained.
“But you’re Absidy Tate, the only girl in history to reject Alex Parker!” He laughed.
“He’s never officially asked me out.” I pointed out.
“He’s always been making moves on you though, and you’ve always ignored him.”
“That’s not technically rejecting him.” I said.
“According to all the sluts at school it is.”
I laughed. “Well, they’re sluts! What would they know about getting asked out, anyway?”
Jeremy laughed with me and pulled into a parking spot near the beach.
“The beach? We came all this way and nearly died to go to the beach?” I asked in astonishment as I got out of the car.
“Nope.”
“Then why are we at the beach?” I asked stupidly as he met me near the bonnet.
“Come on.” He smiled, taking my hand. “Follow me.”
“I suppose I don’t have much choice, do I?”
“Of course not.” He winked, putting his arm across my shoulders while he was still holding my hand. I leant my head on his shoulder as we walked along the beach. We walked around the bay until the beach ended and there was just rocks. I stopped walking.
“Come on, Abby,” He smiled down at me. “I won’t let you fall.”
I sighed as he took his arm from around my shoulders, still holding my hand. He guided me up and over rocks until we reached a small cave. On the floor of the cave there was a picnic blanket, some old candles and a book. Jeremy led me over to the blanket and we sat down.
“How do you know about this place?” I asked him in awe.
“My Dad used to take me here all the time before he… died,” Jeremy said slowly.
“I’m sorry,” I gushed.
“Don’t worry about it,” He said, giving me a little smile. “You didn’t know.”
He put his arm around my shoulders again and I leant my head against his. We sat there for a while just staring out of the cave at the sea.
“You know,” I said, looking up at him from where I was sitting, “We could’ve slipped on those rocks and I could’ve died.”
He mumbled an answer which I didn’t quite catch, but it sounded something like, “I’ll always be there to catch you when you fall.”
I didn’t even let my feelings for Alex get in the way of that moment. We sat silently staring out to sea together until it was time to leave. Not an awkward silence, a comfortable one – one where you’re happy to just have company.

8. Interrogations and Confessions

“Are you sure you want to take the bus home?” Jeremy asked for the hundredth time as he parked his car near school in the same place it had been this morning.
I pulled my school shirt out of my bag and threw it over my head, smoothing out some of the creases. “Yes, Jeremy, I’m sure. I’ve got to face him one day.”
“But, now?” He asked.
“Yes!” I told him. “But you should come too. To the bus bay I mean. So it won’t just be me randomly turning up after ditching.”
He looked at me and seemed to realise that he didn’t really have a choice. “Fine,”
I smiled at him and he put his own school shirt on.
“Let’s go,” I said, grabbing my bag and getting out of the car. The school bell had just rang so there were a lot of people at the bus bay which was good because Jeremy and I could walk up without being noticed. He grabbed his bag and followed me through the body of people eager to get home. I had just reached the middle of the crowd when I heard the teacher call out my bus.
“Bus 237 is here! Please make your way to the third bus in line!”
I turned around to look at Jeremy. “That’s my bus,” I told him and he nodded. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Go on then,” He smiled.
I had got about three steps away from him before he called me again.
“Abby!”
I turned around and smiled before pushing my way back through the crowd to him. I didn’t really care how many people were watching us at that moment; a lot of people had turned around when he called me ‘Abby’. When we got to each other I stood on my tip-toes and pressed my lips to his. I heard people around us muttering but I didn’t really pay attention to what they were saying until…
“Last call for bus 237! Please make your way to the bus or find another way home.”
I broke away and he leant his forehead against mine. “I have to go.”
He closed his eyes and smiled. “I know.”
I gave him a quick peck on the lips before running off. Then I stopped and turned to look at him.
“I’ll call you!” I yelled.
He nodded and walked away to his car as I ran the rest of the way to my bus. I jumped up the steps and gave the driver my money.
“Sorry!” I gushed, catching my breath.
“Don’t worry about it.” He said, shocking me. “You weren’t late the past two days. I knew you’d start again soon.”
I laughed as I hurried down the isle and took my seat next to Emily. I threw my bag down on the floor and saw Alex staring at me. He was sitting across the isle from us, but he had the window seat. Emily had the school newsletter in her lap and when I sat down, she rolled it up and started hitting me with it.
“Where. Have. You. Been?” She asked, hitting me with the newsletter for every word.
I panicked. What would I tell her? Definitely not that I ditched with Jeremy while Alex was sitting one seat away from us and most likely listening to out conversation. “I… I went for a walk,”
“All day? Tell me the truth, Absidy.” She said sternly. It was weird having her call me my full name. I had gotten used to being called ‘Abby’ after spending all day with Jeremy.
“I walked to the shops and got ice cream.”
“So you stayed at the ice cream store all day?” She asked, still not convinced.
“No! I went into work and asked if I could do anything.” I said. “Maili never turned up for work so they said I could work her shift and she could work mine tomorrow afternoon.”
This convinced her. I had no clue what I was gonna do tomorrow afternoon when I actually had to work.
“I was worried sick!” She complained. “So was Stacy! Then again, so was another certain someone,”
She looked over to Alex, who had turned around and was looking out of the window.
“He’s an asshole.” I mumbled under my breath.
“I think he heard you.” Emily giggled a little.
“That’s why I said it.” I told her.
We were quiet for a while.
“Well,” She said, “You certainly made an impression.”
“What sort of impression?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.
“You should’ve seen his face when you walked out.” She laughed. “Oh! You should’ve seen Breanna’s face when you walked out,”
I laughed too. “I would’ve liked to have seen that!”
“She looked like she wanted to kill you.” Emily laughed.
“I’d like to see her try,” I said with a sly smile as the bus stopped and Alex hoped off.
When the bus drove away from the bus stop, Emily’s face went serious.
“Ok girlie, now tell me where you’ve been all day.”
I cursed under my breath.
“You didn’t honestly think I’d believe that, did you?” She asked.
I gave her an apologetic look. “Do you think Alex believed it?”
Emily narrowed her eyes as she assessed the situation. “If you don’t want Alex to know what you’ve been up to, you ditched.”
“It’s pretty obvious I ditched, even with my other story.” I pointed out.
“But you don’t want Alex to know, and now you’re acting suspicious. You know what this means?”
I shook my head innocently.
“Someone was with you.” She guessed, giving me a look that basically told me not to lie to her.
“Fine!” I said exasperatedly. “I was with someone.”
She perked up at this. “Oh! Who was it? Was it a guy? Did anything happen? Details, girl!”
I sighed and Emily’s eyes widened.
“It was a guy!” She gasped. “Ok. What’s his name?”
I didn’t answer.
“Absidy,” She said sternly.
“Jeremy.”
She looked taken aback at the fact that I actually answered her. “Who’s that? I don’t know anyone called Jeremy.”
I laughed. “You know that guy from yesterday?”
She gave me a blank look.
“The one I fell over?”
Her eyes widened and she hit me with her newsletter again. “You’ve been out with him all day and didn’t tell me?!”
I nodded as the bus pulled over at our bus stop. Thank god! I was saved! Or so I thought. I grabbed my bag, slinging it over my shoulder and ran off the bus. Emily was almost as fast as me. She grabbed my wrist when we were both off the bus and spun me around.
“Don’t think you’re getting away with not telling me!” She told me.
“I’m guessing you’re coming over then?”
“Did you even have to ask?”

9. Causing a Scene

That was the last time I ever refused to tell Emily something. I nearly got murdered, I swear. We had told my mum that we were doing a project together so she’d let Emily come over without me letting her know before-hand. Emily had stayed and had dinner with us which was good; I didn’t have to put up with the awkwardness of eating dinner with my parents in silence like normal. I had just shut the door behind Emily after she left when Mum started talking.
“Did you girls finish your assignment?” She asked me.
“We’re pretty close,” I lied. “She might have to come over again tomorrow afternoon or something, but we got through most of the stuff really quickly.”
“That’s good, honey,” Mum smiled. “Let her know she’s allowed over whenever,”
I smiled. No more making up excuses the next time I went off with Jeremy and had to tell Emily after school. “Ok, thanks Mum,”
“Don’t worry about it,” She said, “Going anywhere tonight?”
I shrugged. “Not that I know of,”
“Just let me know if something comes up last minute. Your Father’s working his night shift tonight, and if you have no homework, I don’t have a problem with you staying out late.” She told me.
I nodded and gave her a short hug before running up to my room.
I sat on my bed and wondered what the hell was going on with me. All this time I had hated Alex. Why had I told him I was thinking about giving him a chance? Rephrase: why was I thinking about giving him a chance in the first place? All he’d ever done was be a jerk to me. Until that night at the movies, anyway. If he hates being popular so much, why doesn’t he show it? Why doesn’t he stop trying to be popular? Why did he tell me all this, of all people? A little voice in the back of my head told me that it was because he liked me. But why did he like me?
Why did I care, today on the bus, what he would think if I told Emily straight out that I had ditched school with Jeremy, and how he called me cute at the park, how we nearly died when he wouldn’t turn the radio down because his hand slipped off the steering wheel, how he kissed me to ‘make up for it’, and took me to the cave that only he knew about? Why do I care what Alex thinks, period? Since when have I cared what Alex thinks? Or rather, since when have I cared about Alex in general?
Then there was Jeremy. I got butterflies in my stomach just thinking about him. I wondered how he could have such an affect on me, this boy I’d met a day ago but felt like I had known him for years. I felt like I had known him as long as I had known Alex; since kindergarten. To be honest, I had known him since the beginning of high school, but I never knew his name and we had never talked before. I never really payed attention to him. Was it possible that he had liked me the whole time? But with Jeremy, it felt like something was missing. I just couldn't figure out what.
My heart told me to stay with Jeremy, ignoring the fact that I had only known him for two days because it felt right. But my head told me to leave Jeremy and date Alex, because I had known him longer. After what he had told me when we were stuck in the elevator at the movies, though, I wondered if I knew him at all.
***
I got on the bus the next morning and took my seat next to Emily as per usual. When we reached Alex's stop, he sat two rows in front of us across the aisle again like he had done the day before. This annoyed me for some reason.
"I'll be right back," I said to Emily, stopping her mid-sentence before grabbing my bag and sitting in the empty seat next to Alex.
"So that's all you think about yesterday?" I snapped at him.
He ignored me.
This annoyed me even more. "What? No 'I'm sorry for making you feel that way, Absidy' or 'Absidy! Come back! I need you in my life!' or another one of your pathetic, meaningless apologies or pleas?" I asked, my voice raised.
He turned to look out of the window rather than down at his feet, still ignoring me.
That was it. I knew exactly how to break him then, if he refused to acknowledge my existence. "Or was that whole conversation about me being the most beautiful girl in the world and how you like me when we were stuck in that stupid elevator just an act?"
By now, the whole bus had shut up and was staring at us. Tell everyone Alex Parker's secret? Check.
He turned around to face me now, the tone of his voice matching mine. "And how do I know that all you said in maths yesterday wasn't just some stupid act?"
"For your information, Mr Perfect, it wasn't!" I snapped.
"Don't try lying to me, Absidy-" He started, but we were interrupted by the bus driver's voice over the bus's loud speaker.
"Sorry to interrupt what may be worthy of being on Home & Away or Neighbours, but you two are causing such a racket that by law I must kick you off my bus."
"You're kidding me!" I called up to the front.
"Nope," The driver said, pulling over and opening the door. "Off you two get. Continue this little argument of yours somewhere other than my bus."
I gave Alex a death stare before grabbing my bag and walking off the bus. We both knew he had to follow me or he'd never get his bus pass back and would have to walk 6km to school every morning. When the bus drove off, I turned back to him.
"You asshole! I don't know why I trust a word you say when you don't trust a word of mine." I snapped.
"It's not like I'm the one who told someone they were gonna give them a chance and then ditched for the rest of the day with some guy that she fell over the day before!"
I felt like he'd slapped me. It looked like it felt as if he slapped himself too - as if the words weren't supposed to come out of his mouth.
"How did you know about that?" I asked incredulously.
"Think about it, Absidy."
I did. I remembered the bright red Dodge viper we drove next to on the freeway while Jeremy had the radio up too loud, and realised that it was the same one we parked next to at the beach. It was also the same one that Alex owned.
"You followed me?!"
"I wanted to see if you were okay!" He almost yelled. "Though you seemed fine with emo boy."
"That gave you no right to follow me!" I shoved his chest. "And for your information, we're just friends, idiot."
"Sure," Alex said. "That's also why you kissed him at the bus bay. And why you kissed him in the car when he nearly killed you with his reckless driving."
"He kissed me in the car." I said simply.
"Yet you kissed him back!" Alex pointed out. "And you never said anything about the bus bay. You kissed him at the bus bay too, unless you've forgotten already."
"Fine!" I yelled. "Yes, I kissed him. But what does it matter to you? Sure, I said I was thinking of giving you a chance, but I never said that we were together. I never said that chance was you being my boyfriend. I never said we were exclusive, and at that time, you didn't even care!"
"I always care!" He yelled back.
"Well you've got a great way of showing it, brainiac." I snapped. "Now if you don't mind, I'm going to school before I miss out on anymore of my education, no thanks to you."
I walked off, leaving him staring after me with a shocked look on his face.

***

Emily grinned at me as I took my seat next to her in English later that morning.
“Quite a scene you two caused back there.” She commented.
“He didn’t want me to cause a scene.” I told her. “So that’s exactly what I did.”
Emily looked confused. “He’s the most popular guy in school. Causing scenes is his forte! Why would he not want you to cause one?”
“Purely because I’m involved. He didn’t want the entire school knowing that he likes me. He’d get picked on and de-throned if they knew.” I explained.
“You caused a scene to get him ‘de-throned’?” She asked incredulously.
I shook my head and smiled slyly. “I caused a scene to make his life a living hell.”

10. The Queen Bee

That day at lunch I got the surprise of my life. Alex’s ex-girlfriend, Breanna Whittaker, came up to me, Emily and Stacy at lunch, and (this was the shocking part), she was smiling at me. She ran over and hugged me, kissing me on each cheek like we were old friends. Her ‘minions’ as I called them all did the same. They did this to Emily and Stacy as well.
“Absidy!” Breanna called happily, “I haven’t spoken to you for so long!”
There’s a reason for that. I thought sourly. On the outside, I smiled back at her. Alex would hate it if I decided to become best friends with her. So that’s exactly what I would do.
“Breanna!” I copied her tone of voice. “So nice to see you!”
I gave Emily and Stacy a sharp look and, thank god, they understood my silent message: just go along with it. They greeted Breanna and her friends in a similar fashion; thankfully they were great at acting.
“Why don’t you three come and sit with us?” Breanna asked, pointing to an arrangement of four or five picnic tables where all the popular kids sat.
“I’m not su—” I started to say.
“Come on, Absidy,” She nearly begged. “There’s more sun, more people, more boys…”
I sighed dramatically. “Yet the downside still counteracts all of those amazing factors.”
“What’s that?” Casey – the new girl who had started at school a couple days before and had been adopted by Breanna – asked earnestly.
“More Alex.” I told them, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Breanna’s eyes widened. “Absidy!”
“Yes?” I asked, confused.
“That’s exactly why you should come and sit with us!” She exclaimed.
All of us, including her minions gave her a perplexed look.
She sighed and explained. “The one thing that would annoy Alex as much as he annoys Absidy would be Absidy becoming one of us. He mainly likes her because she’s different. If she started not being different, or merely acting the same as everyone else, he’d stop liking her, and bam! Absidy is rid of Alex the annoying asshole.”
Emily’s eyes lit up now. “You know what else would push Alex off the cliff we’d create by doing this?”
We all stared at her in earnest, waiting for her to answer our unspoken question.
“Seeing Absidy with another boy.” Emily finished.
“But who would date Absidy purely to piss off Alex?” One of Breanna’s minions – Nora, I thought her name was – asked. I pretended not to be offended by her tone which, in short, implied that no one would want to go out with me, period.
“I have an idea,” Stacy smiled slyly, looking across the quad.
We followed her eyes. She was looking at Jeremy, or ‘emo boy’ as Alex called him.
“Stacy, you’re a genius!” Breanna jumped up and down, clapping happily.
“You know what’s even better about the boy being Jeremy?” I asked the girls.
They looked at me expectantly.
“Alex hates him with a passion.”
The girls cheered and dragged me over to the popular kids’ seat. If you had told me a week before that in a week I’d be getting taken to sit at the popular kids’ table without me kicking and screaming, I would’ve probably told you that you needed to be sent to a mental institute right away. It was then when I realised how quickly things could change.
There were about 14 of us spread out across the five tables. Four of the tables were put around one in the centre in a make-shift rectangle. The table in the middle was a place of power, like the back seat of a bus, perhaps. It was where the most popular girl or the ‘Queen Bee’ sat. I wondered how long it would take me to remember all these girls’ names. I supposed that if I were going to be one of them, I should probably at least learn their names and get to know them a little. I was just about to stand up and walk over to Jeremy and drag him over to sit with me when Breanna started speaking, stopping all the other individual conversations the girls had been having.
“Girls, I just got the greatest idea.” She announced. “I think that not only should Absidy act like one of us, but that she should also be Queen Bee.”
Everyone stared at her, put out. She wanted to give up her title just to get Alex off my back? And straight into her waiting arms, I realised. So there was something in this for her after all.
“Are you sure?” I asked her carefully.
“Do you want Alex off your back or what?”
I nodded.
“Then it’s official!”
The other girls mimicked her enthusiasm and dragged me from the bench where I had been sitting to the table in the middle; the seat of power. I watched Jeremy as his eyes travelled over to where Emily, Stacy and I usually sat. A confused look flashed across his face when he realised that we weren’t there.
Breanna followed my gaze and smirked at me. “Let’s get your boyfriend over here and see what damage he can help us do.” She said, “Alex should be out of his detention any minute now.”
Alex had gotten a ten minute detention from our English teacher for being late to class and having the nerve to disrupt it as well. In those ten minutes, this whole idea of Breanna’s had come together.
I had a question for her before I trusted her any further. “Breanna,”
“Yes?”
“No offense or anything,” I began, “But what’s in this for you?”
Breanna’s eyes narrowed and it took all my willpower not to flinch. “Alex is an asshole, Absidy. He doesn’t deserve this popularity he has. His popularity is the only think that keeps him going. He revels in it. He doesn’t deserve to be happy or have everything he wants. Right now, what he wants is to maintain his popularity but have you at the same time. If I can strip that away from him, even if it means losing my position as Queen Bee, I will stop at nothing until I do it. I want to make his life a living hell, once and for all.”
I closed my eyes. “Then we aren’t too different.” I told her.
“I know,” She said.
We were silent for a while. My eyes travelled around the quad. I didn’t know what I was looking for, but I spotted Jeremy again, and this time, he spotted me. In the corner of my eye I saw Alex walk out of the detention room.
I looked down at Breanna. “Ready to start World War III?” I asked.
“You bet I am.”

11. Storeroom Shenanigans

I waited until Alex had seen me sitting with the girls, standing in the middle of the quad with a perplexed look on his face, before I skipped over to Jeremy. I rested my arms on his shoulder and leant my chin on my arms.
“Hey there,” I smiled.
“Why are you sitting with them?” He whispered.
“A little something called ‘Making Alex Parker’s Life a Living Hell’,” I smirked.
“I’m guessing by the tone of voice you’re using that you want me to go and sit over there with you to piss him off even more.” He mused.
“Yep,”
“And why would I do that, Abby?” He asked, touching my nose.
“Because you’re lovely.”
“Destroying someone’s life is lovely? You’re gonna have to try harder than that,” He teased.
“Because I’m there?”
“Tempting… But no.” He smirked.
I pretended to look offended. “Because…” I stopped. I looked around and saw Alex death staring Jeremy. An idea popped into my head.
I kissed him. I heard squeals and clapping from where Emily, Stacy, Breanna and the other girls were sitting, and wolf-whistles from Jeremy’s friends, but I ignored them. Without realising it, I had my arms wrapped around Jeremy’s neck and he was kissing me back. I smiled against his lips and pulled away.
“How about now?” I smirked.
“Do you even have to ask?”
I smiled again and took his hand, lacing his fingers through mine before dragging him away from his seat. We were halfway to my new seat when he stopped me.
“Did you kiss me purely because Alex was death staring me?” He asked seriously.
I turned and looked him in the eye. “I kissed you because I like you a little more than I should.”
His eyes widened. “Seriously?”
I kissed him lightly on the lips. “Seriously.”
Then I continued dragging him to the popular kids’ seat.
Breanna ran up to me, clapping and jumping up and down. “Did you see Alex’s face when you kissed Jeremy?!”
“Uh, no, I was too busy kissing Jeremy to look at Alex,” I pointed out.
“Good point,” She laughed. “But he looked so pissed off, it was hilarious!”
“Did someone take a photo?” I laughed.
“Damn,” She cursed jokingly.
“Remember that for next time,” I joked.
“There’s gonna be a next time, huh?” Jeremy asked, smiling.
“What kind of couple doesn’t kiss?” Breanna asked.
Jeremy thought about this for a minute. “None that I know of,”
“Exactly,” She laughed. “Anyway, I’m Breanna, and I’m guessing you’re Jeremy.” She held out her hand and he shook it.
“That’s me,” He smiled.
“I’m guessing he’s on board?” Breanna asked me.
“Yep,” I smiled. “Though he did take a bit of convincing,”
Jeremy blushed slightly. “But now I’m thoroughly convinced.”

***

I was walking to geography alone after lunch break – surprisingly, none of the other girls were in the class – when someone grabbed my arm and dragged me into a store room just off the hallway and shut the door behind me.
“Why are you hanging out with them?” Alex asked exasperatedly as the door closed. The only light coming into the room came from the tiny crack beneath the door and we were squashed so close together by the shelves on every side of us that I could feel his breath on my face.
“You made me jump you asshole!” I gasped, catching my breath. “I thought I was getting raped or something! Not that I’d put it past you but it’d be pretty hard in this tiny store room.”
“Are you avoiding my question?”
“Well you’re clearly avoiding me.” I pointed out.
“If I were avoiding you would I be locked in a store room with you right now?” He asked.
He had a point. I just hoped he was kidding about the locked part, because this store room was the type that you could only lock and unlock from the outside. So if it was locked, we would have been screwed.
“Fine, but why do you care who I hang out with?” I snapped.
“I care about you getting involved with my crazy ex-girlfriend!”
I sighed. “Just because you have some schoolboy crush on me does not give you permission to control who I do or don’t hang out with.”
“Really?” He asked, “Even if I’m saving you from getting left drunk in some side street somewhere because you actually thought you could trust Breanna?”
I slapped him. Across the face this time, like Jeremy had told me to the day before. “You honestly think I’d let myself get into a situation like that?!”
“Well, obviously; you’re already in a situation like that! Do you honestly think Breanna wants to be your best friend just so she can knock me off the social ladder?”
“Hey, whoever said that I trust Breanna?” I pressed.
He looked at the ground in the darkness.
“Exactly,” I snapped. “You need to stop assuming things about me.”
In the small space I somehow turned around and grabbed the door handle.
“Maybe next time you talk to me you would’ve gotten over yourself.” I tried turning the handle, but it was stuck. I tried again and it still wouldn’t budge. I cursed.
“What now?” Alex asked sarcastically. “Changed your mind? Are you suddenly in love with me again or are you still caught up with emo boy?”
“Stop being a dick head, Alex.” I snapped. “Being the smart person you are, you locked us in here.”
Alex’s eyes widened in the dim light. “Maybe the handle’s just stuck…”
“Maybe we’re just stuck.” I mimicked his tone of voice.
He ignored my comment and reached behind me to try the door handle himself, his hand slightly touching the small of my back as he did so. I felt my breath catch in the back of my throat. Alex gasped too and snatched his hand back.
“Sorry,” He muttered.
“So we’re stuck?” I asked grudgingly.
Alex nodded grimly, though we both knew he didn’t end up trying the door handle.
I sat down on the floor and leant against the shelves opposite the door and Alex sat down next to me.
“I thought you said you weren’t interested in emo boy,” He said quietly.
“So did I,” I murmured.
“Are you?”
I sighed. “I don’t know, Alex.”
“Oh,” He laughed humourlessly. “Because that explains why you kissed him four times in the past two days.”
I elbowed him in the ribs. “I kissed him a lunch break because Breanna told me to get your attention.”
“Does he know that?”
I stared down at my hands in my lap.
“I’m guessing that’s a no.”
“Shut up, Alex.”
We were silent for a while after that.
“Absidy?”
I sighed and leant my head back against the shelf. “Yes, Alex.”
“Can I try something?”
“That depends what it is you want to try,” I muttered.
“You won’t approve,” He said quietly. “But you should at least let me try.”
“What do I get in return?” I challenged.
“I’ll leave you alone.”
My eyes widened. “Seriously?”
He nodded stiffly. It was obvious from his face that it was hard for him to agree to that.
“Ok,” I said quietly.
Slowly, he reached out his hand and caressed my cheek. My heart leapt out of my chest and I chastised it in my head, hoping he couldn’t feel my heart beating. When he slowly took his hand away, it left warm tingles on my cheek in its place. He tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear so he could see me properly in the dim light. Then slowly, ever so slowly, he leant his face towards mine, pausing slightly when our lips were barely a millimetre away, and I realised he was giving me a chance to tell him to stop. When I didn’t do anything to stop him, he closed the small space between us.
First it was just a light peck that shot electricity through my body. He must have felt it too because he decided against leaving it at that. He brought his lips back to mine and I swear I felt my heart stop. Slowly and carefully, my lips moved in sync with his. Just as slowly as he had caressed my cheek, I wrapped my arms around his neck. At the same time his hands held onto my waist, making me gasp where his fingertips touched the bare skin of my back where my shirt and jumper had ridden up from me wrapping my arms around his neck. He held me as if I were a century-old china doll that could break at any second, or as if he were dreaming and if he held me too tightly he’d wake up and I’d be gone. After what seemed like hours, I pulled back.
“Absidy…” Alex whispered.
Just the sound of his voice would have made me want to kiss him again, but the fact that he said my name made my mind go haywire. I found my lips pressed against his as quick as a magnet would jump to metal. Since I was the one who kissed him that time and he knew he had permission, the kiss was faster this time; more desperate… more passionate. I pushed myself closer to him and the hand he was using to steady himself slipped on the carpeted floor. He gasped as his back hit the shelf behind him and on the shelf above that something fell over and we found ourselves being covered in glitter.
He gripped my waist tighter that time, and as our lips moved, I felt him playing with the hem of my school jumper. Even though I had kissed him, he was still asking for permission. I took my arms from around his neck and pulled my jumper over my head and tugged my arms out of the sleeves before returning my lips to his. Instead of putting my arms back around his neck where they had been before, I found myself undoing the buttons down the front of his school shirt. He gasped against my lips when he realised what I was doing.
“Absidy, I don’t think–” He started to say.
“I don’t care,”
Alex’s eyes widened and he brought his lips back to mine, even more urgent than before. He shrugged his school shirt off his shoulders and was left wearing a plain white t-shirt. Just as I started fumbling around with the hem of his undershirt, I heard footsteps coming towards the store room. Alex must have heard them too because in a matter of seconds we had sprung apart and he had his school shirt back on and was standing up. I hastily grabbed my jumper, throwing it over my head, and stood up with him.
Only seconds after I had stood up, the store room door opened and Mr Stewart stood in the doorway. I spoke before he could say anything.
“Mr Stewart, thank goodness! My friend locked Alex and I in here as a practical joke and we’ve been stuck in here all period!” I said dramatically.
Just as I finished speaking, the bell for second break went off and I squeezed past Mr Stewart and out of the tiny store room, glad to have some fresh air.
“Thanks again, Mr Stewart!” I called as I ran down the stairs, pulling my hair out of its pony tail and shaking it around my shoulders, hopefully getting out most of the glitter as I went.

12. Intense Interrogations

I got to the group of tables before any of the other girls even got out of their classrooms, thankfully. I lay down on top of the table, resting my head on top of my folded arms, the wind blowing my hair around me.
“Hey,” Someone said softly as they sat near me on the table. It was Jeremy. I could’ve done without talking to him at that moment, but I didn’t really have much of a choice.
“Hey,” I replied, not moving or rolling over to look at him. I barely trusted my voice, let alone my face. If I looked at him, he’d instantly know something was wrong. For once, I cursed how he was able to read me like an open book.
“What’s wrong?” He asked curiously.
“Just tired,” I lied.
“You should go to sleep at night then,” He joked.
“Sleep is for the weak!” I mumbled, sitting up, hoping he got my Bring Me the Horizon reference. If he did, he ignored it. The wind caught my hair and he grabbed a strand.
“How’d you get glitter in your hair?” He asked curiously. “You just had geography, not art.”
My heart skipped a beat. “I don’t know,” I said simply. “I didn’t even know it was there.”
“Did you see any weirdos throwing glitter down the stairwell?” He asked.
“No,” I said in perplexity.
“It was just an idea!” He said, putting his hands up in surrender.
I laughed and hid my face in my hands, hoping he didn’t notice I was acting strangely.
“Well,” he started, “I have to go and talk to Mr Howard, but I’ll be back soon.”
“Do you have a detention, Mr Taylor?” I teased.
He rolled his eyes at me. “Stay sparkly.” He winked before walking off.
When he was gone, the girls pounced on me.
“Where on earth did you go? Because you most certainly weren’t in geography – I was a complete loner!” Emily complained at me.
“I’m sorry!” I exclaimed. “I was feeling sick so I went to have a lie down in the sick bay.”
“What was it, AIDS?” Stacy snickered.
“You’d know all about that, wouldn’t you, Stacy?” I smirked.
Emily twirled a strand of my hair around her finger, and I cursed internally, knowing exactly what she’d say next.
“What? Does the sick bay now stuff their pillows with glitter?” She asked pointedly.
“No,” I scoffed.
Before she could reply, Casey ran up to us and almost fell onto the bench.
“Oh my god,” She breathed. “Did you guys see Alex just run out of the geography block a couple of minutes ago? He looked really attractive, I swear, I nearly couldn’t breathe! I mean, his hair was all ruffled up and his shirt was buttoned up wrong and he had glitter in his hair… I wonder how that—”
She stopped. She had just noticed the glitter in my hair. One by one, it slowly clicked in each of the girls’ heads. When I looked at Breanna, she looked like she was about ready to murder the entire school.
Meanwhile, all the girls were having a rushed screaming conversation and all I could get from it was my name and Alex’s. Nora turned to me.
“Hey, Abby, wasn’t your hair up in a ponytail before you went to geography?” She asked me. She must have heard Jeremy call me Abby before. To be honest, I liked Abby much more than I liked Dee, and Breanna didn’t look too impressed that no one was using the nickname for me that she came up with.
“Yeah…” I said slowly. “But… it was annoying me, so I took it down.”
Emily looked at my face, regarding me with scrutiny. “I think you mean Alex took it down for you because he likes it hot.” She smirked.
I sighed. I knew I wouldn’t be able to get away with lying to them anymore. “Actually, I took my hair down myself after I ran out of that stupid store room he accidentally locked us in for the entire period, in a desperate attempt to get all of the glitter out of my hair.”
“He locked you in a store room?”
“You were locked in a store room with Alex Parker?”
“The whole period?”
“He wanted to talk to me. He asked me why I was hanging out with you guys. I slapped him on the face and tried to leave but the door was locked from the outside and we couldn’t get out. We were waiting for someone, like a teacher or something, to come and unlock the door to get something, and… he kissed me.”
“Well,” Breanna almost growled. “That is a bit of a predicament.”
All the other girls ignored her. They were too busy screaming about what I had told them. I heard a million questions being screamed at me from every direction, but couldn’t make out any of them. I looked at Emily in earnest.
“Everybody shut up!” She yelled over the noise. She continued when the girls were quiet. “Now, one at a time. Casey, you can start.”
All eyes suddenly turned to Casey expectantly.
“Did you kiss him back?” She asked, a huge smile on her face.
My eyes widened; I didn’t know whether to answer truthfully or not with Breanna there. “Uh…”
“Now girls, a lesson for you; in Absidy language, that means ‘yes but I don’t particularly want to admit it.’” Stacy smirked.
I blushed and looked at the floor. Once again, the girls started screaming.
“Roll up! Roll Up! Who’s next in line to interrogate Abby Tate?” Emily laughed.
A girl with long, wavy black hair stepped forward. I was pretty sure her name was Rachel. “Is he a good kisser?”
I racked my brain for an answer. I didn’t have one. “No comment.”
The girls laughed and Nora stepped forward. “How did you guys get glitter in your hair?”
“Uh, well,” I started, “We were sitting on the floor of the store room when he kissed me and I kinda pushed him backwards and he hit his head on the bottom shelf. There must’ve been glitter on one of the shelves that was higher up because I heard something fall over and the next thing I knew, we were getting covered in glitter.”
A girl called Kaitlin stepped forward next. “Who unlocked the store room and let you guys out?”
“Mr Stewart.” I laughed. “My maths teacher who knows how much I hate Alex.”
Next was a girl called Sam with long, brown straight hair. “What did Mr Stewart say when he opened the door?”
I laughed again. “I don’t actually know – I didn’t really stick around, but I told him one of my friends had locked us in there as like, a prank, or something.”
“Did he catch you two kissing?” The next girl, whose name I couldn’t remember, asked me.
“Luckily, no. He didn’t.”
Now it was Stacy’s turn. “Why did you kiss him if you hate him?”
“I… Uh…” I honestly had no answer to that one. “Pass.”
Stacy laughed loudly and moved off.
“Did you like kissing him?” Emily asked with a smirk on her face.
“Maybe?” I answered, though it sounded more like a question.
Finally it was Breanna’s turn. “I thought you were dating Jeremy?”
Every person in the group shut up when Breanna said that. Most of them looked incredibly guilty for saying that they were all probably used to ruining someone’s life. Yet they seemed to care quite a bit about Jeremy’s feelings.
“It’s not really… official,” I pointed out. “But you all have to promise me that none of you will speak a word of this to him. Ever.”
Everybody mumbled promises and agreements.
“What are we agreeing on, girls?” Jeremy walked up to our group, clearly having finished his detention.
“Just how lovely we all think you are,” I smiled, standing on my tip-toes and kissing him on the cheek.
“Why thank you,” He winked.
“No need to get cocky, Mr Taylor,” I smirked.
“Since when have I been the cocky one in this relationship?” He scoffed.
I punched him in the arm and turned back around to face the girls for a fraction of a second, my expression telling them all one thing; Jeremy considered our relationship official.
Shit.

13. The Real Absidy

“Absidy! Wait up!”
I cursed aloud. Normally when I hopped off the bus after school, I was free from Alex. Not this time, though. I had wondered why he hadn’t got off at his stop. I turned around and glared daggers at him. “What?” I snapped.
“I need to talk to you, Abby.”
Him using my nickname made my heart flutter, but I ignored it. “There’s only a limited number of people in the world who can call me that, Alex, and I hate to break it to you, but you’re not one of them.”
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Absidy…”
“I thought you were going to leave me alone.” I said, cutting him off, taking a step closer to him. “Wasn’t that our deal for me letting you kiss me today?”
“That was before you kissed me back!” He said, taking a step closer to me so that we were almost touching. I could feel that spark I got when he touched me even though there was about half a centimetre between us, and it took all of my free will to ignore it and pay attention to how angry I was at him rather than how close we were.
“What’s wrong, Alex? Not used to girls kissing you back?” I snapped. “Oh wait, you’ve kissed nearly every girl in school, haven’t you?”
“Yeah! You included so you can’t say shit!” He snapped back, shoving me backwards slightly then closing the space between us again.
“Yeah, well, I’m sorry, but kissing the weird emo chick isn’t gonna do much on your reputation, no matter what it does to your ego.” I said, narrowing my eyes at him.
“‘The weird emo chick’? Seriously, Absidy? You can’t see it, can you? They made you Queen Bee. And you know what? You’re acting like one. You’re turning into one of them, Absidy, even if you can’t see it. You’re a hypocrite!” He nearly yelled.
“I would never let myself turn into one of those sluts!” I told him.
“Says the girl who’s kissed two different guys in one day!”
I slapped him, just like I had earlier that day, and quickly took a few steps back in case he retaliated. I didn’t think he would, but after all the fights I’d seen him get in over Breanna, I knew he had killer reflexes.
He grasped his cheek where I hit him and gasped in pain. But then he smiled and looked somewhat relieved. “There she is,”
My anger melted away into confusion and I looked behind me to see who he was talking about, but no one was there. “Who?”
“You.”
“Me?” I asked, perplexed. “I was here all along!”
“I mean you. Not the girl Breanna’s turning you into.” He said, walking up to me and taking my hands in his. “The girl I fell in love with.”
I was about to argue back when he kissed me for the second time that day, and once again, I kissed him back, no matter how much I hated myself for doing it. He gripped my waist softly and I took my hands from where he had left them on his chest to around his neck. It was the same as the first time he kissed me – like he was afraid I would disappear any second – except this time we weren’t locked in a tiny, dark store room, we were out in the open, on the sidewalk of my street in broad daylight. I cursed against his lips and broke his grip on my waist.
“What?” He asked, concerned.
“I can’t do this, Alex.” I said simply.
“Why not?” He asked, but he didn’t try to kiss me again.
It was a real blow when I realised that’s exactly what Jeremy would tried to do. For a fraction of a second I wondered if I had made the wrong decision.
“I’m with Jeremy, Alex; I have a boyfriend!” I reminded him.
“And I have an English test tomorrow.” He told me.
I stopped. “And why does that matter?”
“I’m sorry, I thought we were listing things we could cheat on.” He smirked.
I slapped him again, on the same cheek.
“This was a mistake.” I said, shaking my head.
“Slapping me?” He asked hopefully.
“No! Kissing you!” I said, pushing him backwards, making him stumble.
“Oh come on, Absidy, I was kidding around.” He insisted.
I laughed humourlessly. “I knew it!” I exclaimed. “All this time you were just screwing me round, weren’t you? I can’t believe I was stupid enough to believe you actually liked me for a second.”
“Absidy, just let me—”
“Explain? Why don’t you explain to me why the hell I should trust a word that comes out of your mouth.” I snapped.
He opened his mouth as if to say something, but decided better of it and closed it again.
“Yeah,” I replied. “That’s what I thought.”
I turned around quickly and walked off. I knew that if I stayed there looking at the expression on his face any longer, I’d end up doing something I’d regret. Like kissing him again. Or apologising. I decided neither of those things were ever gonna happen. Not after that. There was no way in hell.

***

The next day at lunch, after two incredibly boring and uneventful classes, everyone I walked past was screaming about something, but I couldn’t figure out what because too many people were screaming at once. When I reached the girls, they stopped screaming immediately. I wondered if it was because they were screaming about me, or because of my newly found monarchy.
“What’s everyone screaming about?” I asked sceptically.
Nora was practically jumping up and down in excitement. “The P&C just announced that they’re throwing a masquerade ball here tomorrow after school for charity!”
“Seriously? That’s what everyone’s screaming about?” I asked, slightly disappointed.
“Well, there is gonna be a draw for King and Queen judged by the teachers.” Stacy put in.
“But if it’s a masquerade ball, they’re not gonna know who anyone is.” I pointed out.
“It’s a costume masquerade ball, silly.” Sam smirked. “Cause tomorrow also just happens to be Halloween, and half the P&C wanted it to be a Halloween disco, while the other wanted it to be a masquerade ball, so they decided to mix both ideas together.”
“So, you have to dress up,” I started, “and you can dress up as anything, but you have to wear a mask?”
The girls nodded.
“That’s actually pretty cool.” I commented.
“Exactly!” Kaitlin exclaimed. “But there’s another rule; you’re not allowed to tell anyone what you’re going as.”
“What’s the point of that?” I asked. “No one will know who you are!”
“That’s the whole point, stupid.” Emily smirked.
“But we all know that Abby’s going as Sleeping Beauty.” Someone from behind me said.
I turned around for a fraction of a second before being swept up into someone’s arms. I squealed as my feet left the ground but opened my eyes to see Jeremy staring down at me. He sat on the table and set me down softly on his lap.
“Why Sleeping Beauty?” I asked, confused.
“Because you’re always sleeping when I call you, and you’re beautiful.” He pointed out.
I blushed. “So you’re going as Prince Phillip?”
“I can’t tell you, I’m afraid.” He smirked. “It’s against the rules.”
“Fine.” I snapped playfully. “I’m not telling you what I’m going as.”
“We’ll just have to find each other then, won’t we?” He said, touching my nose.
“Shouldn’t be too hard,” I smiled, pressing my lips against his, when I heard a voice I could have done without hearing at that moment. Except, for once, the voice wasn’t asking for me.
“Casey?” Alex’s voice rung out over the group, shushing everyone instantly.
Everyone turned to look at Casey.
“I’m over here,” She stuttered. I wondered if she had even spoken to Alex before.
“I was wondering if you’d go to the dance with me tomorrow night?” He asked her. “I want to thank you for helping me yesterday afternoon.”
“You don’t have to, you were upset and needed someone to talk to.” She paused. “Well, looking back on it now, you were actually more distraught, but you don’t have to worry about thanking me.”
“Yes I do!” He insisted. “Just let me take you to the dance.”
She sighed in defeat, but she didn’t look at all defeated. She looked more… ecstatic. “Fine.”
“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” Alex chanted before kissing Casey on the cheek.
Casey looked like she was about to faint, and didn’t dare try to speak, but Alex ignored it.
“I’ll be the one in the mask!” He winked.
“That’s definitely gonna make him stand out,” Jeremy whispered in my ear.
I laughed. “Will I find you?” I asked flirtatiously, well aware of the fact that Alex was still there.
“If you look hard enough.” He smirked.
I smiled, remembering he said the exact same thing to me the day we met when I asked if I would see him around. “Good job I have great eyesight then, isn’t it?”
“Definitely,” Jeremy smiled and kissed me. I kissed him back and could feel Alex’s death stare at the back of my head. I hated the fact that when I kissed Jeremy, there was no spark like there was with Alex, but I was determined to make Alex think there was one.
I decided I’d show Alex that two can play that game.

14. Problems With Princes

Emily and I drove through our town to get to school the next night, every house decorated in a different way, but there were none that I even partially considered scary. Little kids ran away from teenagers dressed in scary costumes, their high pitched squeals piercing the usually silent dark night. Taking her eyes off the road, Emily looked at me with envy.
“Seriously? Why can’t I look as amazing as you?” She pouted, her mask slipping as she spoke. It was black and covered in gold swirling patterns, and only covered her eyes and nose. I had never seen anything like it. She wore a yellow and black striped silk skirt, black fishnets, black Doc Martens with yellow laces, a tight yellow singlet, little sparkly wings and black and yellow antennas. A bumble bee.
“Me?” I asked. “Look at you! You’re the cutest bumble bee I’ve ever seen!”
“But look at you! Why didn’t I think of Cinderella?” She moaned.
“It was my Mum’s idea.” I told her. “It was a joke she made because I had to be home by midnight.”
“I love your Mum,” Emily laughed.
“She made the dress and everything,” I said, pulling at the silky blue material, the petticoat underneath rustling. “I didn’t pay a cent for my costume. She had the mask in the attic. Said it was vintage or something.”
“As long as when it’s midnight you don’t suddenly turn into a servant girl.” Emily joked.
“Well, by midnight, my hair will probably be a total mess.” I smirked. “That good enough for you?”
“I can cope with that.” She laughed, pulling into a car parking spot next to the school hall.
“Well then,” I announced, “let the fun begin.”
Emily squealed with excitement and hopped out of the car. I quickly followed suit. I knew that some time that night I’d probably lose her in the crowd but I didn’t want to lose her straight away because then I’d walk in looking like a loner in a big fancy ball gown.
I walked through the doors of the school hall and nearly gasped in shock. The place had been transformed beyond recognition – from an indoor basketball court to a beautiful venue for the Halloween Masquerade Ball it was hosting. Lengths of Brightly coloured silks draped from the roof in arcs, hiding the usual wooden rafters and creating an Aladdin’s-Cave-like illusion. Lights flickered through the cloth, casting eerie shadows across the hall, giving it an even bigger sense of mystery. The large room was filled with people, some dancing, some standing off to the side, some taking advantage of the all-you-can-eat free buffet, and others were standing in the middle of the dance floor just happily conversing with one another.
Not only was the hall transformed beyond recognition, but the people occupying the space were too. Some of the girls wore dresses that I’d hate to know the price of, others wore very little at all, and some were dressed simply like Emily. All the guys wore the randomest costumes I had ever seen. I was pretty sure I spotted Spider-Man somewhere in the crowd. Everyone was wearing a mask of some sort, whether it covered half their face or all of it. All in all, I couldn’t recall having seen anything as beautiful or as mesmerising as the scene unfolding in front of me at that very moment.
“I really don’t wanna be here,” I moaned to Emily. “I don’t know which one’s Alex.”
“Why does that matter? You don’t know which one’s Jeremy either.” Emily pointed out.
“I don’t know which one’s Alex, meaning I don’t know who to run away from.” I told her.
She laughed. “Come on, we need to get you a drink.”
“Emily, this is a school dance. Meaning no alcohol.” I reminded her.
“Chill out,” She sighed, “I never implied anything about alcohol. I just said we need to get you a drink to get away from the door because we look like idiots.”
“I don’t wanna go in, there’s enough people staring at me already.” I complained.
“Well aren’t you a little social butterfly?” Emily said sarcastically. “Come on!”
“Please?” I asked.
“Nope.” She said, grabbing my wrist and dragging me away from the door. As she lead me deeper into the dance floor, more people turned to stare as I walked past. I thought about covering my face, then I remembered that I had a mask on so no one knew who I was anyway. Still, I looked down at the floor to hide my already hidden face, a blonde curl falling out of place, and followed Emily away.
“Don’t hide, silly,” She chided. “Head up, shoulders back. A princess doesn’t slouch.”
“This one does.” I mumbled.
“Oh, stop being such a killjoy,” She complained.
“I really hate not knowing who anyone is.” I sighed. “What if I kiss someone I think is Jeremy and it turns out to be Alex?”
“Or even worse,” Emily laughed, “what happens if you kiss someone you think is Alex and it turns out to be Jeremy?”
I groaned. “Please don’t wish that on me! Jeremy thinks I hate Alex!”
“So does everyone else,” She pointed out. “Does this mean you don’t?”
“No. Well, yes. I mean…” I groaned again. “I don’t know!”
“Is there something you’re not telling me?” Emily asked sceptically.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “He kissed me again.”
Her eyes widened. “When?”
“After school, the day he got off the bus at our stop.” I told her.
“Two days ago? He kissed you again two days ago and you didn’t tell me until now?” She exclaimed.
I clamped my hand down on her mouth. People had started staring again, and that time it wasn’t because of what I was wearing. “Keep your voice down!”
She pulled my hand off her face. “We’ll talk more about this tomorrow. Meet me at the square, 10am.”
“Why, where are you going now?” I asked her.
“I just found James, so I’ll see you later.” She smiled to herself before making her way through the crowd of dancers and leaving me alone.
I sighed, moving off to the side of the hall and leaning against the wall. It was going to be a long night. Song after song played, my eyes following Emily and James as they danced. I hoped she’d invite me over to dance with them too, but she probably thought I’d run off with my own Prince Charming already.
“A girl dressed like that shouldn’t be hiding herself away in the corner if you ask me.” Someone said.
I looked up and saw a boy dressed in what I guessed to be a Prince Charming costume. I smiled slightly to myself. We matched. It wasn’t Jeremy or Alex; this boy had spiky blonde hair. A plain black mask covered his eyes. I couldn’t make out if they were grey or blue because of the school’s cheap strobe lights bouncing off every reflective surface of the room.
“I don’t usually come to these things.” I told him. “I usually stay clear of things that involve any type of social contact.”
He laughed. “You’d think if you wanted to be ignored, you’d come as something a little less conspicuous than Cinderella. Like a bumble bee for instance.” He pointed over to Emily.
“That sassy little bumble bee just happens to be my best friend,” I laughed. “But my costume was my Mum’s idea of a joke because I have to be home by midnight.”
“Do you dance?” He asked me.
“Not usually, but I suppose I could make an exception for Prince Charming.” I joked.
He bowed dramatically and held his hand out. “Then, may I have this dance?”
“Of course you may!” I laughed, taking his hand and letting him drag me into the middle of the dance floor.
“Here’s a slow one for all you couples out there!” The DJ called over the loud-speaker.
I laughed. “You have impeccable timing.”
“So it seems,” Prince Charming winked.
I closed my eyes and smiled as Terrible Things by Mayday Parade started playing. “And apparently this DJ has impeccable music taste.”
Prince Charming smiled. “You listen to Mayday Parade?”
“They’re one of my favourite bands!” I replied.
“Well, then you also have impeccable music taste,” He smirked.
“So do you, it seems.” I smiled back as we swayed to the music. We were quiet for a while. I rested my head on his shoulder as we danced.
“You know something?” I asked him.
“I know a lot of things,” Prince Charming joked. “Though I’m not quite sure if I know what you’re referring to.”
I smiled and shook my head. “When I came here tonight, I hated the fact that you didn’t know who anyone is.” I said. “Now I’m kind of glad. If everyone had known who I was, I wouldn’t be dancing with you right now because I have two guys that happen to be head over heels in love with me.”
“Is that your way of telling me I have competition?” He asked.
I shook my head again. “It’s my way of saying I’m glad I met you here tonight. Even though I don’t know your name.”
“I’m glad I met you here tonight too, Cinderella.” He smiled.
I placed my hand on his cheek and looked into his grey eyes. “Who are you?”
He closed his eyes and smiled, leaning into my hand.
He opened his mouth to say something when our principal started speaking over the music. “Hello everyone, it’s everyone’s favourite time of night! It’s time to announce our Halloween Masquerade King and Queen!”
Everyone in the hall cheered.
“Oh how wonderful.” I said sarcastically.
“How ‘bout we just laugh at the winners,” Prince Charming smirked.
“Sounds good to me,” I laughed.
“Tonight’s King and Queen are…” The principal paused, opening the envelope. “…Cinderella and Prince Charming!”
I cursed.
“Did he just say what I think he said?” Prince Charming asked. People were turning around and giving us death stares because we weren’t already up on the stage accepting our awards.
“Yep.” I said, popping the “p”.
“So much for avoiding social contact,” He joked, taking my hand and dragging me through the crowd of people to the stage. “It’s almost like you’re a magnet for unwanted attention.”
“Tell me about it,”
When we got up on stage, the Principal gave us our crowns (they were cheap and plastic – I didn’t see the point when you could get one for a dollar from a dollar shop). We didn’t know if he wanted us to make a speech or not, so we kind of just ran back down to the dance floor, trying to avoid as much social contact as possible.
We ran all the way to the very back corner of the hall before stopping to catch our breath. Though, catching your breath is quite hard when you’re too busy laughing. We leaned against the back wall, gasping for breath, but eventually we both ended up slipping don the wall and sitting on the floor. It was only when I had got my breath back enough so the room wasn’t spinning that I realised how close we were.
I gave Prince Charming a little smile and looked down, my fringe hiding my face. He put his finger under my chin and made me look had him. He brushed my cheek softly with his hand and leant his forehead against mine.
“Tonight,” He said, his eyes closed, “has been one of the best nights of my life.”
I closed my eyes and smiled. I didn’t bother saying anything; I just closed the space between us and kissed him softly. I sighed as I realised that even with my Prince Charming, there was no spark like there was with Alex.
I sat back, and noticed something in the corner of my eye. Alex.
“I’m sorry,” I told Prince Charming, “but I really have to go.”
Not waiting around for his reply, I started running over to Alex when I noticed something else. A boy that was obviously Jeremy, in his cute little Prince Phillip costume (I seemed to have picked the wrong Prince), kissing a girl that was quite obviously Casey. It suddenly made sense why Alex was standing on his own. When I turned around to look for Alex again, he was walking out of the hall. I followed him, leaving enough space between us to make it look like I wasn’t. For all anyone knew, I could simply be getting some air.
I followed Alex out of the school grounds, but lost him a couple of blocks away from the school. I searched frantically, looking over fences, down back roads and alleyways, but he was nowhere to be found. That was until I heard a yell that was unmistakeably Alex.
That was when I ran. I found him lying on the sidewalk a couple of streets away from where I had been. My eyes widened when I saw him lying there and I ran over and crouched by his side. There was a cut on his right arm from the inside of his elbow to his wrist and slash marks across his chest. Not a pretty sight if you ask me, but I wasn’t exactly going to leave him there for dead.
“Alex,” I said, pulling off my mask.
He smiled up at me despite himself. “Hey there, Abby, great way to ruin your dress.”
I shook my head. “The dress doesn’t matter. Come on, we’ve gotta get you to a hospital.”
He shook his head frantically. “Not the hospital.”
“Why not?”
“My Dad,” He breathed, “He works there, and he’d want to lead a full investigation into who did this to me, when I know exactly who did it. And frankly, I deserved it too.”
“Who—?” I stopped myself. I realised it was probably better not to ask. “Come on, I’ll take you back to my house. I told my Mum not to wait up for me.”
“My house is closer,” He pointed out.
“I don’t care, I don’t want to be dragged into your rape dungeon.” I snapped. “Come on, I sure hope you can walk.”

15. Doctors & Nurses

“So, are you gonna tell me who did this to you?” I asked Alex in a whisper as I wrapped a bandage around his chest to cover the three slash marks. I had already cleaned and bandaged the cut on his arm. Thank god my Mum made me take that first aid course, I thought.
After dragging him all the way to my house, making sure Mum was sound asleep, changing out of my bloodied dress and putting it straight into wash, Alex now sat on my bed as I played Florence Nightingale. I had to admit; I much preferred Cinderella.
Alex winced and shook his head.
“Seriously?” I asked exasperatedly. “If it wasn’t for me, you’d still be dying out on the street. I think I deserve to know.”
Alex seemed to think about this for a while. “How did you even find me?”
“I… Uh…” I wracked my brain for a suitable lie but came up with nothing. I sighed. “I saw Jeremy and Casey kissing tonight. And I saw you standing off to the side, so I went to go and talk to you. I don’t know what I was going to say, I mean, I could’ve made fun of you because your girlfriend was kissing someone who wasn’t you, but it just so happened that she was kissing my boyfriend so…”
Alex raised his eyebrow at me.
“Anyway, I went to go and talk to you but you walked outside, so I followed you. I lost you a couple of streets away from the school, but then I heard you scream and I—” I stopped. No. I wasn’t admitting that. Not to him. Not even to myself.
“What?” He asked carefully.
I shook my head.
“What?” He repeated when I didn’t answer. “What is it?”
I shook my head again, got up from my seat on the bed and walked away, leaning my head against my bedroom wall.
“Talk to me, Abby.” Alex nearly begged.
I turned around to face him, but didn’t walk back over. Even in the dimly lit room – the only light we had coming from my little green lava lamp – worry was still clear on his face. I leant my head back against the wall and stared at the roof; I refused to make eye contact with him.
“I… I was… scared, Alex. I was so worried. When I saw you lying there… I…” I struggled for words. “I was so scared that you were already dead. I was scared that I’d not gotten to you in time or that you lying there bleeding to death would be the last time I’d see you… I was scared to death, Alex; I don’t think you understand…” I stopped and shook my head before sinking down to the floor and burying my head in my hands.
It was only after Alex had stumbled over to me, dragged me back onto my bed and wrapped his arms around me tightly that I realised I was crying.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered in my ear softly, “for scaring you, Abby.”
“I know,” I said between tears. I didn’t even fully understand why I was crying, but the tears wouldn’t stop coming. Noticing the time in the corner of my eye, I shifted so I was lying down, and I felt Alex lie down next to me.
“Abby?” Alex said ever so softly.
“Yes?” I whispered back.
“I want you to know something.” He told me.
“What?” I asked.
“I love you.”
Those three words stopped me in my tracks, and I came up with no reply. We were quiet for such a long time that I thought he fell asleep.
“I love you too,” I whispered, barely louder than a breath.
“I know,” Alex replied, making me jump slightly.
“But I can’t, Alex.” I told him. “I have a boyfriend.”
“And I had an English test yesterday.” He whispered back, and I could hear the smirk in his voice.
That was all he said. He didn’t push me to go out with him. He didn’t push me to kiss him or anything else. I imagined had I been in the same situation with Jeremy, he would have. Once again, I wondered if I had made the right decision, and if it was too late to change my mind about it. I pushed the thought out of my mind, determined to enjoy that precious moment with Alex while it lasted.
I smiled to myself and closed my eyes as I felt him wrap his arms around my waist and pull me closer to him.
I fell asleep almost instantly.
It was the best night sleep I’d had in months.

***

When I woke up the next morning, someone was banging around downstairs really loudly, and I thought it was my Mum because behind closed lids I could see the red haze of sunlight creeping through my closed curtains. I huddled deeper into my blankets, trying to fall asleep again. Under the covers, Alex had one arm still around my waist, and with the other he was holding my hand. I smiled to myself as I felt myself begin to slip back into unconsciousness.
That was when the person that had been banging around downstairs decided to bound up the stairs and throw open my bedroom door.
“Abby! I said to meet me at the square at 10 so we could talk about Alex kissing you for the second time! It is now 11:30! If I don’t get a valid reason, I swear—”
It was Emily. I cursed internally then realised that it being Emily was better than it being my Mum. She had stopped mid-sentence and stood in my bedroom doorway with an incredibly perplexed look on her face.
Alex and I jumped apart so quickly that he bashed his head on the wall next to my bed. It was an awkward manoeuvre to say the least, because he had his arm around my waist and was still holding my hand. Emily’s eyes travelled down to the place where my hand sat on the mattress, with Alex’s fingers entwined through mine. Then they travelled up Alex’s bandaged arm and across to his bandaged chest.
When she got over her shock, she pulled out my chair from under my desk and sat down on it with her arms crossed over her chest.
“Explain.” Was all she said.
I looked from Emily to Alex and back. “Uh…”
Alex jumped off the bed and pulled his shirt back over his head. “I think it’s time for me to go,” he said, making a break for the door.
Emily got there first and pushed him back onto the bed. He winced as she pushed on his chest and didn’t try to leave again.
“No, you’re staying, pretty boy.” Emily said sternly.
“What’s your problem?” I asked her. “A couple of weeks ago you were complaining because Alex and I weren’t dating.”
“Yeah, except now you and Alex can’t be dating because he has a girlfriend and you have a boyfriend, in case you’ve forgotten.” Emily pointed out.
“Alex and I aren’t dating!” I told her. “Plus, my so called ‘boyfriend’ and his so called ‘girlfriend’ were kissing each other last night at the masked ball.”
“Ok, we’ll get onto Jeremy and Casey later, but first explain to me why the hell Alex Parker was sleeping in your bed last night.” Emily ordered.
“You know, I’m still here,” Alex said.
Emily and I ignored him.
“Last night at the masked ball, I needed some air, so I went for a walk. I never realised how long I’d walked for, but eventually I found Alex practically half dead on the sidewalk.” I said, telling her the short version of the story. “And that’s why Alex Parker was sleeping in my bed last night.”
“So you saved him?” She asked exasperatedly. “A week ago when I complained that the two of you weren’t dating, I’m pretty sure you said you wanted him dead—”
I smacked my hand over Emily’s mouth and turned to Alex. “Excuse us,” I told him.
He nodded in reply.
I dragged Emily out of the bedroom and shut the door behind us.
“What?” She grumbled when I took my hand away from her mouth. “He knows you hate him!”
“Well… I… Uh…” I mumbled, staring at the floor and shifting my feet awkwardly.
He eyes widened. “You don’t hate him?”
I shook my head, still looking at the floor.
“Did you kiss him again?” She asked.
I shook my head.
Her eyes widened. “You didn’t kiss him? You were playing Nurse Nancy, and you didn’t kiss him?” She asked exasperatedly.
“Of course not! I’d never take advantage of him that way!” I told her. “And keep your voice down, he’s right behind that door.”
“He’s not right behind that door.” Emily said. “He may be in that room but I doubt he’s right behind that door.”
I rolled my eyes and opened the door, knowing he’d be there. He made a sound resembling a squeak as the door handle dug into his stomach, but other than that, he did nothing but stand there with a guilty look on his face.”
“Now,” Emily sighed, walking back into the room and once again taking a seat at my desk, facing Alex and I on the bed. “What’s your plan? Because you’ll be needing one.”
 

16. A Deadly Decision

"A plan?" I asked Emily exasperatedly. "Why would we need a plan?"
"Well if you and Alex are going out you--"
"Alex and I are not going out!" I reminded her.
"But you just said that you didn't hate him--"
"But I never said that I was in love with him!" I pointed out.
"Uh, Abby, I'm pretty sure--" Alex started to say.
I turned around and faced him. "I was an emotional wreck last night, no thanks to you! Do you honestly believe anything I said?"
I didn't know why, but I was suddenly angry with everything. More to the point, I was angry with myself. I had gotten myself into a huge mess, and I wasn't quite ready to face the consequences. So I decided to go with my head rather than my heart.
A hurt look flashed across his face, but he composed himself quickly. "I take it that's my invitation to leave,"
I sighed. "For once, I'm glad that you can read me like an open book."
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and walked out of my bedroom.
I collapsed on my bed as soon as I heard the front door close.
"What was that?" Emily asked carefully.
"I can't do it, Emily. Too many people will get hurt." I told her.
"Abby, do you love Alex?" She asked me.
I nodded against my pillow.
"And does he make you happy?"
I nodded again.
"Do you love Jeremy?" She asked carefully.
The question took me by surprise. I didn't answer.
"I'll take that as a no..." Emily muttered. "Does Jeremy make you happy?"
"Not as much as Alex," I mumbled into my pillow.
Emily got up from her seat at my desk and sat next to me on my bed. "Just do what makes you happy, Abby. Screw everybody else."
I sighed. "I'm starting to think that this isn't just about me anymore."

***

I slept all day Sunday, easily convincing my Mum that I was sick after walking home from the Halloween disco on Friday night. The next morning, I was unable to convince her that I was fine, and she insisted on driving me to school. I went willingly; it got me out of any awkward situations with Alex on the bus.
After English first period had been spent watching Macbeth, and Ancient History second period spent making awkward eye contact with Alex, I practically ran to our tables at lunch and collapsed into my seat, resting my head in my hands. Thankfully, Emily was the first of the girls to reach me.
"Hey," she said softly, taking my hands away from my face. "Don't stress about things, ok? Alex just needs some time to cool off. And by the looks of things, you need some time to figure things out too. So maybe it's best that he's leaving you alone."
"I don't need some time to figure things out," I snapped back, getting up from the bench. "I need things to go back to the way they were before Alex Parker decided he was freaking in love with me!"
"Abby..." Emily started, clearly concerned.
I was about to snap something back at her like the fact that before all this, I never had a nickname, when someone yelled out from behind me.
"Hey! Abby!"
I turned around to see Jeremy running towards me. I narrowed my eyes slightly and turned back around without replying. I looked at Emily, the look on my face begging her for answers, but she just shrugged.
"Abby?" Jeremy said carefully as he got closer, putting his hand on my shoulder.
I shrugged it off and ignored him. Was he seriously that naive?
He grabbed my hand next. "What... What did I do?"
I turned around and faced him. "Oh, I don't know, maybe you should go and ask Casey over there." I nodded in Casey's direction.
"Casey?" He said in perplexity.
I rolled my eyes. "The fact that you don't even know..." I sighed. "I thought you were different, Jeremy. But I guess you're as bad as Alex Parker himself."
His brows stitched together. "Just tell me what I did wrong, Abby." He practically begged. "Just tell me and I can fix it, I promise."
"Oh, so you can fix the fact that you were making out with Alex's girlfriend nearly all of Friday night?" I snapped. By now all the girls had gathered around to see when was going on.
That stopped Jeremy in his tracks. He looked at Casey but she shrugged. "I-I... Uh... You...Weren't... Uh..."
"Meant to find out?" I finished his sentence for him.
He looked down at the ground and shifted his feet awkwardly.
"Yeah, well, it's pretty hard not to notice when the two of you were practically eating each other's faces off in the middle of the dance floor." I pointed out.
He didn't even look up from the ground.
Emily decided to step in then. "Jeremy Taylor, I hereby sentence you to banishment from Queen Bee and Co. Fraternising with anyone in Queen Bee and Co that is not your girlfriend is quite clearly against the rules, so now I take it on myself, on behalf of everyone here, to ask you to -- actually no, to order you to leave before you create any more drama which I ensure you, you do not wish to be involved in whatsoever."
"I'm so, so, so sorry, Absidy." He told me.
Emily took it on herself, once again, to answer for me. "I highly doubt that."
Jeremy sighed and nodded before walking off to his friends, his shoulders slumped.
Once again, I took my seat at the table and covered my face with my hands, tears pouring down my face without my permission. I hated crying in public. I hated crying in front of people, period. I saw it as a sign of weakness. And in that moment, I felt that I couldn't afford to be weak.
Before I hid my face, I caught Alex's eyes across the quad. For half a second he looked confused, but then he must have figured it out. I had broken up with Jeremy. Alex's eyes suddenly lit up, but the light quickly vanished when he realised how upset I was. He took a step towards the group, but he seemed to think better of it, and he stayed where he was with the rest of the jocks.
Breanna stepped forward next. "I now speak for the Queen Bee, as right now she is rather unable to speak for herself. Casey Foster, the first rule of sisterhood is to never, and I repeat, never fraternise with a sister's boyfriend. Or ex-boyfriend for that matter. To make this case worse, you already had a boyfriend of your own!"
Casey actually looked afraid of Breanna and the rest of us in that moment.
Breanna continued after a short pause. "Punishment for this offense?" She looked around the group of girls, and every one of them nodded, agreeing that Casey's punishment should be carried out. "Expulsion from Queen Bee and Co." Breanna finished.
Tears appeared in Casey's eyes, but, unlike Jeremy, she admitted that the "punishment" was fair, and she grabbed her backpack and walked away without another word.
I looked back over at Alex, my apology clear in my eyes (or so I hoped, anyway), and he gave me a small smile before walking over to "Queen Bee and Co".
When the girls noticed him getting closer, they formed a line in front of me. Emily and Stacy stayed by my side with questioning looks on their faces. They wanted to know if I could handle seeing Alex at that moment. They didn't realise that I invited him over.
I got up from my seat at the table and walked around the girls to Alex. I grabbed his hand and took him across the quad to the tree where Emily, Stacy and I used to sit. We sat down at the base of the tree, and before I knew it, I was crying even more. He stroked my hair and held my hand as I cried into his chest, oblivious to the fact that our entire grade was probably watching us in complete perplexity.
"I'm so sorry, Alex," I mumbled.
"What for?"
"For what I said on Saturday morning."
"Don't worry about it, Abby." He told me.
"I can't help it, ok?" I replied. "I was confused and I was angry at myself for getting into such a huge mess and I didn't know what to do,"
"Hey," Alex put his finger under my chin and made me look at him. "It's ok, Abby."
"Really?" I asked.
He nodded. "Really."
Before I knew it, my lips had found his and we were kissing like I had wanted to kiss him for days.
In front of the whole student population on the quad.
But in that moment, I really didn't care.

17. An Unwanted Truth

As I walked to my maths class with Alex's fingers entwined through mine, it was safe to say our entire grade was thoroughly confused. Every corner we turned there was a new bout of staring and whispering, and on my account, I thought I did well not to turn around and yell at them all. Alex smiled down at me.

"Don't let them get to you, Abby," He told me. "They're just a little confused."

"They're not the only ones." I sighed.

"Hey," He said softly, stopping me to the side of the hallway so we weren't in anyone's way and caressing my cheek. "What's wrong?"

I sighed again. "I don't know… I just thought… I was surprised at how indifferent Jeremy was when I told him I knew about him and Casey."

"Don't worry about Jeremy," He smiled. "I won't let him hurt you. I won't let anyone hurt you, Abby."

I smiled back. "I know." I stood on my tip-toes and kissed him on the lips softly.

"Come on," He took my hand once more and led me towards the maths classroom.

We walked in and took our seats in the front corner of the room, still followed by stares and whispers. They were really staring to get annoying. People started going out nearly every day in our grade; I just wished they would shut up about Alex and I. I guessed I would be pretty confused if I were them too, though. A week ago, Alex and I practically hated one another. Then we were suddenly in love with one another and making out in the middle of the quad. It was practically scandalous.

"They're all loving this, aren't they?" I asked Alex, talking about the other kids in our grade, while we waited for our maths teacher to come into the room.

"Of course they are." He replied. "We're the most exciting thing that's happened around here since Breanna and I broke up."

"Oh, so nothing's exciting unless you're involved, right?" I smirked.

"I dunno, you tell me." He winked.

I shook my head mockingly. "You're so full of yourself."

He raised his eyebrows. "Whatever happened to self confidence in guys being attractive?"

"It's attractive until they're completely egotistical." I smirked.

Alex mocked shock and placed his hand over his heart. "My ego is significantly wounded."

"Well, you know how good I am at playing Doctors and Nurses." I joked.

"Tell me about it," He said quietly, leaning forward, his gaze lingering over my lips.

I smirked.

He leant closer until our lips were less than a millimetre apart. "Thank you, Absidy."

I could feel his breath on my face. "What for?" I asked breathlessly.

"Saving my life." He said simply, before closing the small space between us.

I smiled against his lips and pulled back slightly. "Not now." I told him.

"When?" He asked cheekily.

"Maybe later," I smirked, leaning my forehead against his. "If you're lucky."

Someone in the doorway cleared their throat. Alex and I jumped apart immediately, and we looked up to see Mr Stewart giving the two of us a quizzical look.

"That may just be the strangest thing I have ever seen." He mumbled.

I looked from Alex, to Mr Stewart and back. After all the remarks we'd had already it had gotten to the point where we couldn't hold it in any longer and we burst out into uncontrollable laughter.


***


After what was an incredibly awkward maths lesson, and a science lesson that was pretty much the same, Alex and I collapsed onto the "Queen Bee" table in fits of laughter. The other girls slowly joined us one by one, all of them but Emily and Stacy still looked significantly confused at the turn of events. One thing I did notice was the fact that Breanna stayed away. And that was perfectly fine with me.

When we got our breath back after laughing it all away, Alex was the first to speak.

"I have to go and see Mrs Jardine, but I'll be back soon, ok?" He told me.

I smirked. "What's wrong? Got a detention?"

He shook his head. "I just need to talk to her."

"About what?" I pressed.

"Just an assignment, don't worry." He promised.

"I could just tell you how to do it, silly. You don't need to see her." I smiled, grabbing his hand before he could walk off.

"Don't worry about it, Abby. You just do yours, ok?" He said.

I sighed in defeat. "Ok,"

He bent over carefully and kissed me softly on the forehead. "I'll be back soon, ok?"

I closed my eyes and smiled. "Ok."

I watched him walk away.

"He's so not going to see Mrs Jardine." Emily said, appearing at my shoulder.

"Not looking that nervous, he's not." Stacy added.

I sighed. "I was just thinking the same thing."

"We should go and check it out." Emily and Stacy said together.

"If you two are following him, I'm coming too." I told them sternly.

"Come on then!" Stacy urged.

I groaned and stood up from my place on the bench. Emily and Stacy linked arms with me and dragged me in the direction Alex went in. We didn’t have to go very far before we found him. He was talking to Jeremy in the teachers' car park behind the bike shed.

"Ooooh, this looks interesting." Stacy joked.

"Shut up!" I snapped in a whisper. I wanted to hear what they were saying.

"--Didn't pay you to break her heart! Or to kiss my girlfriend! I payed you to break up with her!" Alex was saying.

"Yeah, well," Jeremy started. "You're Alex Parker, and I don't trust you."

"So you took advantage of that and hooked up with Casey, and broke Abby's heart?"

Even just seeing the back of his head, I could tell that Alex was incredibly pissed off.

"Well, it certainly looks that way, doesn't it?" Jeremy smirked. "Besides, Casey was better than -- Absidy?!"

I had leant around the car just a little too much, and Jeremy had spotted me. I cursed internally and either Emily or Stacy grabbed the back of my shirt to pull me backwards, but my legs slipped out from underneath me, propelling me backwards into them. Things would have been fine, except the girls couldn't keep their mouths shut and screamed when we all fell on one another in a domino effect. I cursed aloud as I heard footsteps coming towards the car.

"Abby?" I heard Alex's voice as he came around the back of the car.

I stood up just as he came into view. "Is that true?" I asked sternly, "All that I heard, is that true?"

"Yes, Abby, but you don't understand, that's not the whole story, please--" He started to say.

"There's not much that you could add to the story, Alex. It won't make it any less bad." I told him.

"Abby, I promise, I've done nothing wrong!" He said.

"No, you just payed my boyfriend to break up with me so you could date me instead, correct?" I snapped.

"Well, yes, but--"

"No buts." I said sternly.

He looked at the ground.

"The sad thing is, I thought I could trust you." I sighed. Tears pricked at the back of my eyes, but I blinked them away. I wouldn't cry over him. At least, not in front of him.

"You can trust me, Abby!" He insisted.

"Prove it." I snapped, turning around and pulling Emily and Stacy off the ground before walking away.

18. Alex's Explanation

I managed to ignore him for a week after I found out. Somehow. But I only managed a week. And frankly, that wasn't even my fault; he was the one who came up to me. I guess he knew that no matter how much I wanted to, I wasn't going to be the first one to talk. And when he finally did talk to me, he followed me home again, getting off the bus at my stop rather than his.

"Abby!" He yelled out as he hopped off the bus behind me. I cursed in my head; I didn't want a repeat of last time.

"What?" I snapped, turning around and facing him.

"De ja vu, huh?" He asked awkwardly, shrugging.

"If you say so," I mumbled, just as awkwardly as he had. It was obvious to us both that the other had no clue what to say. It was also obvious that we both had something we wanted to say very much.

"Uh," he shifted his weight, "I heard about you winning that science award,"

"Well, they announced it in front of the whole school, so…" I muttered, looking down at my feet.

"You have a point," He laughed awkwardly. "But, yeah, that was… that was good."

"Yeah," I laughed, still looking down.

"Absidy?" He started. "There's something I want you to know."

"And that is?" I asked, still not looking at him. I knew my eyes would give me away. He could read me like an open book.

"The truth." He said simply.

I looked up at him then and sighed. "Come on, we can talk at my place."


***


"So…" I muttered awkwardly as we walked through the front door.

I heard the back door slide open. "Absidy? Is that you?"

It was my Mum. I cursed; I forgot she finished work early on Wednesdays. In all honesty, I had forgotten what day it was.

"Get down!" I whispered to Alex, motioning for him to hide behind the couch.

Wide-eyed, he did as I said.

"Yeah, Mum, it's me," I called out. "I'm not feeling very well so I'm just gonna go and lie down, ok?"

"Ok, honey, hope you feel better soon," She said, poking her head around the corner and smiling at me before disappearing again. Thankfully, Alex waited until the back door slid shut again to stand up.

"That was clo--" He started to say as the back door opened again. His eyes widened again and he was on the floor in a fraction of a second.

Mum walked around the corner again. "Oh and Absidy? Your brother called. He's coming home from college for your birthday and said he should be here by 5:30, and we'd like to go out for dinner so wear something nice. Said he didn't want to miss his baby sister's seventeenth. Oh! And there's some paracetamol in the cupboard if you need any."

I smiled awkwardly. Jake was coming home from college for my birthday? I cursed internally, wanting to tell Mum to call him and tell him not to bother. I didn't really want my brother home at that moment. Instead, I said simply, "Ok, thanks Mum."

She gave me a small smile and retreated back to her beloved garden.
Alex jumped up from his hiding place behind the sofa, and all the blood seemed to have disappeared from his face. "You have an older brother?" He asked frantically.
I nodded.
"And you didn't think it was a good idea to warn me that you had an older brother in his twenties before I decided to sneak around your house without your parents' permission?" He asked.
I rolled my eyes. "Go. Upstairs. Quickly, before Mum decides she wants to talk to me some more. You have half an hour before he gets home."
"No pressure," He smirked.
"Come on, Parker. You've got no time to waste." I smiled, before running up the stairs and throwing my school bag in the corner before collapsing on my bed.
Alex followed me into the room quickly and shut the door behind him. "How much trouble will you get in if your Mum finds me in here?"
"You'll just have to hope she doesn't so we won't find out." I told him, smirking. I pointed to the end of my bed. "Sit."
He dropped his bag on the floor next to mine and sat on the bed.
"You know have twenty-three minutes." I pointed out to him.
He sighed. "Ok, well, first of all... I never planned on you finding out,"
I raised my eyebrows. "That much was obvious."
"No, no - I didn't mean it like that. But you have to trust me, Abby; when I say I've done nothing wrong, I mean it." He told me. "I'd never do anything to hurt you."
I nodded.
"You see, I never planned on you finding out because I knew how much it would hurt you finding out. And even now, I still don't want to tell you, even if it means you'd never trust me again." He said slowly.
"I need to know, Alex." I insisted, leaning forward and touching his arm.
"I know," he sighed. "Ok, so you know the first day you met Jeremy? When you fell over each other?"
"When I tripped over a tree root and accidentally dragged him down with me, yes."
Alex closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "What if I told you that you meeting him wasn't an accident?"
"What are you saying?" I asked in perplexity.
"Well, him and his friends found out that I liked you," he started, "and they wanted something off me. Money. They thought the easiest way to get to me, would be through you."
I sat cross-legged on my bed, playing with my wrist bands. It was a habit of mine; I did it when I didn't know what to say, or how to react.
Alex must have picked up on it a while ago, because his eyes flicked to my wrist bands then back to my face before he continued. "So they came up with the idea to have Jeremy go out with you, purely just so I couldn't. They thought their plan was working until the first time I kissed you. They noticed the glitter in your hair, and the glitter in mine, and how we came from the same place, and put two and two together.
"Then there was the first time I followed you home off the bus. I didn't realise until afterwards, but one of his friends gets off at your stop too. I don't know what he saw, but I think it was then that they realised there was going to be a problem. They thought they had an advantage in the fact that you hated me. They hadn't accounted for what would happen if you started..." he gave me a strange look, "...feeling differently towards me. Then there was the Halloween Ball--"
My eyes widened in realisation. "They were the ones who beat you up!"
He nodded. "And at the same time, Jeremy took advantage of Casey. I thought that they'd leave you alone if I started dating someone else. If I convinced them I didn't like you any more. It was that night when you brought me back here and fixed me up that I realised I couldn't let them do that to you - or Casey - anymore. So as soon as I got home on Saturday morning, I called Jeremy and sorted things out."
We were both quiet for what felt like hours.
"How much did you pay them?" I asked slowly.
"Five grand." He said quickly.
Shock coloured my features and I didn't even try to compose myself. "You payed them five grand to leave me alone?!"
He nodded.
"Why?" I asked, moving closer to him.
"Because I'd do anything for you, Abby." He said simply.
Before I could even think of a response to that, I was kissing him. I wrapped my arms around his neck and tangled my hands in his hair like I had been wanting to do all week. He wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me closer to him as our lips moved in sync, when--
"I'M HOME!" A voice yelled from the hallway, my bedroom door bursting open.
When the scene Jake was seeing processed in his mind, he stopped in his tracks, standing awkwardly in the middle of my room. I looked over at Alex and had to stop myself from laughing as all the blood drained from his face while he took in my older brother. I pursed my lips and turned to face Jake.
"Jake! Welcome home!" I said awkwardly.
He flashed me a smile before his face turned serious again, looking at Alex. "Who's this?"
"Uh, Jake, this is Alex." I mumbled. "My boyfriend."

19. Meeting The Family

“Uh, hi, I’m Alex,” Alex said awkwardly, clambering off the bed and holding out his hand.
In my head, I cringed. This was the one situation I was hoping to avoid. Well, this and my parents walking in.
“I’m Jake,” My brother replied, sounding somewhat sceptical.
“Nice to finally meet you,” Alex flashed Jake his charming smile. “I’ve heard so much about you.”
“Really?” Jake raised his eyebrows. “Like what?”
I took it on myself to save Alex from the fact that I never actually mentioned Jake before. “Did you seriously just come home because you didn’t want to miss my birthday, Jake?”
Jake looked offended. “What? Don’t you want me here?”
“Of course I do!” I defended myself. “I was just wondering. I mean, my birthday can’t be the only reason you came home.”
“Well,” he sighed, “Mum said you were acting… weird. Said it might be a good idea if I came home and kept an eye on you for a while.”
I gave him a perplexed look.
“Actually,” he stuttered, “her exact words were something like ‘strangely more confident’ and ‘not so anxious to go to school’ and ‘somewhat carefree’.”
“Why would she have a problem with Absidy being more confident in herself?” Alex asked.
“I dunno,” Jake shrugged. “I guess what she really wanted to know was why.”
“Does there have to be a reason?” I asked.
“Maybe not, but it looks like I found the reason earlier than I thought I would.” Jake said, looking at Alex.
I shook my head. “No. No. He’s not the reason.”
“Then what is?” Jake asked.
“It’s a long story,” I sighed.
“Not to mention incredibly complicated,” Alex put in.
“And confusing.” I finished.
“I’m a twenty-four year old male,” Jake pointed out. “You can’t expect me not to understand long, complicated, and confusing situations. I’ve been through more than enough of them.”
I looked over to Alex. I was just about to turn around and explain the whole situation to Jake when two sets of footsteps bounded up the stairs together and Mum and Dad appeared in my bedroom doorway, stopping in their tracks just as Jake had. I was just thankful they hadn’t walked in on the same scene that Jake had.
The four of us stayed still and silent for what felt like hours. I nearly gave a sigh of relief when my mum broke the awkward silence.
“You feeling better, Absidy?” She asked.
I was thankful that her first question wasn’t about Alex, but that also meant that I would still have to give an answer to who he was, because I knew it was the only answer she would actually want.
“Yeah, Mum, I think I’ll be fine to go out for dinner with you guys tonight.” I said, before motioning to Alex. “This is my, uh, boyfriend, Alex. He came over to see how I was doing.”
Mum raised her eyebrows. “Boyfriend?”
I nodded.
“How long has this been going on for, Absidy?” My Dad asked in such a serious tone, it was scary.
“Uh,” I looked at Alex, trying to think of technically, just how long ‘this’ had been going on. “…About three weeks?”
“How many times has he been over here without permission?” Dad asked.
“Twice.” I told him. Well, that was actually the truth.
“How many times have you been over to his?”
“I haven’t, Dad; I don’t even know where he lives.”
Alex raised his eyebrows. “You don’t know where I live?”
“Well, not exactly. I know like, the street and stuff because you catch my bus, but that’s it.” I explained.
“So you seriously don’t know where I live?” He asked incredulously.
“No, I don’t!” I laughed.
“Well,” Jake muttered under his breath. “That’s a great start to a relationship.”
“Actually,” Dad smirked, “it’s kind of reassuring.”
I gave a sigh of relief when Dad said that, but managed to hide it behind a laugh.
Dad walked over to my bed and held his hand out to Alex. “I’m Steve,”
“Alex,” Alex replied happily, “but I guess you already figured that out.”
“So you’re the one who makes Absidy feel ten times more confident and not worry about getting bullied at school anymore, huh?” Mum asked, a smile on her face.
I felt myself blush and looked down, hiding behind my hair.
“Well, uh, I suppose so,” Alex smirked, moving my hair out of the way so he could see my face.
I batted his hand away and continued to hide behind my hair until I felt the blush fade away.
“I saw that, little sister!” Jake announced loudly in triumph.
“Saw what?” I asked, looking up at him innocently.
He smirked. “You were blushing!”
I shook my head. “Trick of the light.”
He narrowed his eyes mockingly. “Sure it was,”
“Oh, stop bickering, will you?” Mum snapped. “We have company,”
Jake smirked again, still narrowing his eyes at me. “Well, my future brother-in-law needs to get used to me and Absidy bickering, I reckon.”
I looked from Jake to Alex and back, trying my best to compose myself as I noticed Alex was in fact blushing that time.
“Only if you live that long,” I told Jake cheekily.
“So, Alex,” Dad interrupted, “would you like to come out to dinner with us tonight?”
My eyes widened at the invitation.
“Sure, I’d love to.” Alex smiled.
“You really don’t have to,” I told him after my parents and Jake had left us alone.
“Of course I do,” He smiled. “I’d be a bad boyfriend if I didn’t go out to dinner with your parents.”
“Oh, so you care about what people think of you, now?” I smirked.
“Only if they mean a lot to you.”
For the second time that afternoon, I kissed him. Only that time, I didn’t care who walked in.

20. No More Slipping Away

I scowled at my reflection in the mirror, looking down at myself. Everything was perfect – absolutely perfect! – Except my hair, which refused to straighten. Instead it preferred to stay as an uncontrollable, wavy haystack. I sighed in frustration, hoping it hadn’t looked like that all day, and put away the straightener, pulling out the curler instead. I had wanted to straighten my hair for dinner, seeing as it had been wavy all day, but I guessed I would just have to make it just that little wavier than it already had been.
After burning myself multiple times and reapplying a little eyeliner that had smudged away at school, I packed my things away, placing them neatly back under the bathroom sink and looked at my reflection once more. Something was still missing. I looked down at my dress – white silk covered in black lace with a black bow under the bust – and frantically brushed the creases out of the skirt before looking back up at my reflection. Realising what was missing, I ran out of the bathroom, across the hallway before bounding into my bedroom. I searched frantically through my dresser, before running back into the bathroom, trying my hardest not to slip over.
Facing the mirror once more, I gathered my now curly blonde locks to one side, slipping the slide in place so it would stay. Once again, I regarded my reflection intently. That time I smiled.
“Come on, Absidy! The restaurant will be closed before we get there if you take much longer!” I heard Dad call.
“Next time don’t spend so much time snogging your boyfriend!” I heard Jake call.
I also heard him cry out in pain as he finished his sentence. I smiled to myself before making my way out of the bathroom. I made my way down the stairs, thanking myself for deciding to wear my knee-high black Doc Martens instead of the high heels Mum had suggested.
Alex stood up as soon as he saw me, his eyes wide. I noticed Mum looking at him with a smug look on her face; I would talk to her about that later. Then wasn’t the time to be chastising her for making fun of Alex. It seemed so surreal, calling him my boyfriend. Sure, it had only been made official that afternoon, but a week before we had gone out for about half a day, and the whole school called him my boyfriend. But, at that moment, it felt more… real.
I smiled when I saw the look he was giving me and looked down, hiding behind my hair for the hundredth time that day. He smirked and walked over to me, taking my hand and leading me down the last couple of stairs.
“You shouldn’t hide,” He whispered in my ear. “You look beautiful, Abby.”
I smiled again and hid my face from him. “You don’t look too bad yourself,”
“Of course you’d say that,” He kissed my cheek lightly.
“Come on, you two!” Jake called from the front door. “You can have all night to make out, after we’ve gone to dinner, though.”
“Just a second, Jake!” I called back.
Alex moved so he was facing me head on and took my hands in his. “You are honestly the most beautiful girl I have seen in my life.”
I blushed and looked down.
He put his hand against my cheek and made me look at him. “You’re so beautiful, Abby. You need to know that.”
“I know,” I said in a small voice. “I just don’t necessarily believe it.”
He gave me a small smile, leaning his forehead against mine. “I can help you believe it.”
I smiled.
“You have a habit of slipping away from me, Absidy.” He said, his voice no louder than a whisper. “I really wish you wouldn’t,”
“I won’t be slipping away any more.” I told him, my gaze wandering to his lips.
“But if you do?” He asked.
“You’ll be there to catch me,” I pointed out.
He closed his eyes and smiled. “Point taken,”
After one last kiss, we made our way out to the car.

21. Disastrous Dinner Dates

After an awkward fifteen minute drive, I hopped out of the car and met Alex at the boot. His hair was slightly ruffled from driving with the windows down, sticking up in every direction, yet also managing to stay the way he always had it – the messy, out-of-bed look. He was playing around with the zipper on his jacket and moving his feet on the ground uneasily.
I smiled at him and took is outstretched hand. “You’ll be fine, Alex. They already love you,”
He flashed me back a small smile. “Just because they love me already doesn’t stop me freaking out that I’m somehow going to screw this up,”
I led him from the back of the car, following my parents and Jake. “What? It’s not like this is the first time you’ve gone out to dinner with your girlfriend’s family.”
His pace slowed down slightly and he looked me in the eyes before looking away and staring at the floor as we walked.
I gripped his hand tighter, forcing him to stop walking, and turned him to face me. “Are you trying to say you’ve actually never gone out to dinner with your girlfriend’s family before?”
He broke his gaze into my eyes and looked down at the floor again, mumbling something completely incoherent.
I smirked, ducking down so I was in his line of sight. “Seriously?”
“Seriously,” He mumbled.
“Alexander Parker, the school’s ‘Ladies’ Man’, has never had dinner with a girl’s family before.”
He shook his head.
I smirked again. “Come on, Parker. Time you had dinner with your girlfriend’s family – there’s a first time for everything.”
***
“So Alex,” My Dad started to say around a mouthful of food. “What do you plan on doing when you get out of school?”
Alex looked at me awkwardly. It took all of my free will not to smirk. What could I say? Frankly, I found it hilarious that he’d never gone out to dinner with his girlfriends and their families. Wasn’t that a normal person thing to do? Then again, Alex Parker wasn’t someone I’d call normal.
I gave him a slight nod, as if insisting he answered Dad’s question.
“Uh, I’m interested in biology,” Alex muttered. “I was thinking about becoming a doctor. But I’m interested in music too,”
Dad smiled and nodded in understanding. “Interested in science and music. I see why Absidy likes you.”
“Dad!” I scoffed.
“What?” He asked innocently.
I shook my head and turned my attention back to my food when a waitress came over and I heard a voice I could have done without hearing in that moment.
“How is everyone? Can I get you anything else? More drinks? Anyone finished with their meals?”
I looked up and made eye contact with Breanna. I cursed in my head.
“Oh, hi Absidy! Alex. Out for dinner to meet the parents? He never did that with me.” She said in her annoying, fake voice.
“You never really introduced me to your parents, Breanna.” He pointed out.
“So?” She asked innocently. “You could’ve introduced yourself.”
“Trust me when I say, I tried.”
“I don’t remember you trying.” She snapped.
“If you don’t mind me asking,” Jake butted in, “but who are you?”
Breanna looked Jake up and down. “If you don’t mind me asking,” She smirked, “the same question could apply to you.”
“I’m Jake. Jake Tate. Absidy’s older brother. And I think you should back off her boyfriend, missy.” He said coolly.
“Absidy!” Breanna turned to me in surprise. “You never told me you had an older brother!”
I raised my eyebrows. “You never asked.”
“Oh, but I should’ve!” Breanna practically swooned. “He’s gorgeous!”
“He is also 24 and has a girlfriend,” Jake pointed out.
Breanna’s smile faded. “Oh, well that’s significantly depressing.”
Mum sighed in exasperation. “Look, we aren’t needing your services right now, so we’d like to get back to our meal, thank you very much.”
Breanna’s face transformed itself into an obviously fake smile. “Of course Mrs Tate, sorry for disturbing your evening. I babble too much, I know – I’m terrible for it! Just give one of the staff a yell if you need anything.”
“Don’t worry, we will.” Mum said sarcastically.
“That’s good,” Breanna said, “enjoy your evening! Absidy, Alex.” She nodded to us then disappeared off through the swarm of tables and customers.
Mum and Dad looked at each other and sighed.
“This place will definitely be getting a complaint about her.” Mum said simply.
Alex and I took one look at each other and burst out laughing. Breanna would finally get what she deserved.

Epilogue - A Birthday Wish

Alex and I were in my backyard, soaking in the warm spring sun. His fingers were laced through mine and we lay side by side in my Dad’s excellent job of his freshly cut grass. The sun shined from directly above us, so I guessed it was around midday, and picturesque white fluffy clouds were floating through the sky. Because it was spring, the plants filling my backyard had started getting buds, some even blossoming earlier than they usually would.

All the colours that spring seemed to look a whole lot brighter than I remembered them being the year before. The contrast of the bright blue of the sky, the almost neon green of the grass and the purples and reds of the blooming flowers, the scene the colours created, was practically mesmerising.

Alex moved next to me, lying on his side and looking down at me. “What are you thinking?” He asked casually.

“I’m thinking,” I sighed happily, “that I’m the luckiest girl in the world.”

He laughed. “Come on, what are you really thinking?”

“Well, I was thinking about how pretty everything looks in the springtime. All the colours look ten times as bright; we get the first bit of warmth since autumn…” I trailed off, staring into the distance.

He smiled down at me. “You putting it that way makes it sound wonderful.”

“It is wonderful.” I pointed out.

“I never really noticed before,” He said simply. “But when I’m with you… everything seems to have so much more meaning.”

I blushed and looked down.

“Hey,” he said, taking my other hand and pulling me up into a sitting position. “I got you something.”

“You didn’t have to,” I reminded him. “I said I didn’t want presents.”

“But it’s your birthday.” He pointed out. “And I’m your boyfriend. It’s not my fault that I feel a strong obligation to get you a present, even though you told me not to.”

A smile made its way across my face. “Go on then, what is it?”

He took a small velvet box out of his back pocket and handed it to me.

Very carefully, I opened it to find a thin silver chain with a charm on it. The charm was a silver love heart locket with blue crystals pressed into it. They looked like sapphires, but I didn’t want to think that he spent that much money on me just for a birthday present.

“Alex, it’s beautiful!” I told him happily.

He reached over and opened the locket. Inside was a picture of Alex and I on one side, and on the other side, something was engraved. I read it aloud.

“‘Today, I love you more than yesterday, but less than tomorrow.’” I smiled at him.

He nodded, a smile on his face too. “Here,” He said, taking it out of the box. I moved my wavy blonde hair to one side, and he put it on for me.

When I turned around, he leant over and planted a soft kiss on my lips. “Happy birthday, Abby,” he said simply, and we went back to soaking in the sun and admiring the spring time.

For once in my life, everything was good.

And Alex promised me it would stay that way.

Imprint

Text: Sian Webster
Images: Sian Webster
Publication Date: 12-10-2012

All Rights Reserved

Dedication:
To Sam, Layne, Jess, Taylor and Mikayla for being the greatest best friends I could ask for, And to Matt, for believing in me when I couldn't believe in myself.