Dante called me that night. And the night after that. And the night after that. He called from various places, with music and people in the background. Places I would never go, and had never even heard of. I loved cradling the phone between my ear and my shoulder as I painted my nails on the bathroom floor, or sat on my bed, or did a million boring things that Dante made exciting. I would soak up the excitement of wherever he was, and listen to his crazy stories. He gave me a new kind of life. A life where the most important thing to me was staying awake until he called, a life where my whole day would be ruined if he skipped biology.

Biology became my favorite class, and the best part of school. The boys in there became my support system. Blake eventually softened and began to show me more respect. Bryce, who was Blake’s cousin, could always make me laugh. Andres was the one who was getting constantly kicked out of class for back talking the teacher. And Dante was there for me, ready with a shoulder for me to cry on, or a joke to make me forget what a bad day I was having.
I never walked down the always alone, from that point on. Either I had Blake and Bryce competing for my attention, or Dante introducing me to all of his friends. Rosa and Kate became like my sisters, and we spent hours on the phone every night. My grades were slipping, but I didn’t care. Why did I need good grades? All that mattered to me were my friends, and Dante.

“Alright, class. Today we are going down to the computer lab. Get a partner, and head down to N212.” My biology teacher ordered.

Dante reached over and grabbed my hand. He raised his eyebrow at me, and I nodded. We were partners. He pulled me out of my seat and looked at me for a few seconds.

“Whoa! What’s going on here? Are you guys dating?” said Blake, coming up behind Dante.

Dante blushed, realizing that he was still holding on to my hand. He quickly dropped it and busied himself getting his binder.

“Nah, we’re not. Dante knows I’m out of his league.” I teased, and all the guys laughed. We exited the classroom, and began making out way down to the lab. The guys pounded on classroom windows, flipped off people they didn’t like, and Bryce gave me a piggy back ride.

Once we got there, I ended up sandwiched in between Blake and Dante. I logged on to the computer quickly, and began to go to the site that was on the handout our teacher had given us.


“What are you doing?” Dante laughed, and snatched the paper from my hand. “Are you actually going to do this work?” Dante never did any of his work… ever. That’s probably why he had a 3% in the class.

“Ummm, yeah. I don’t wanna fail biology.” I said, trying to get my paper back.

“Aww, that’s Savannah all right. My little good girl” He said, wrapping his arms around me, trying to pull me onto his lap.

I laughed and pushed him away. By now I had grown used to the guys, and it didn’t phase me when they did stuff like trying to get me to sit on their laps.

“I’m not your anything, Dante.” I told him, half-jokingly

“Oooh! You just got burned, bro!” Bryce said, punching Dante on the shoulder.

Dante mimicking me, in a high girly voice, “I’m not your anything” He glanced and me and grinned, “Shut up.”

I laughed and hugged him. “You know you love me.” I said

“Maybe I do’ he replied, turning to smile at me. All at once I was aware of how close we were. His face grew serious for a moment and he reached over to brush my hair away from my face. Then the usual mischief returned to his eyes, and he laughed. He turned back to his computer, and asked without looking at me, “So what are you doing tonight?”

I was happy to report that I actually had plans, “I’m going to a football game with Kate and Rosa.”

He looked at me, “Cool.”

“Yeah. You should go, too.” I said, as I reached over and grabbed his livestrong bracelet. I slid it onto me wrist, and paused to look at it.

“Nah. Those girls hate me” He reached over, and tried to take his bracelet back. I dodged his hand and giggled.

“They do not!”

“Well even if I wanted to go I couldn’t.” He stated, giving up on getting his bracelet back, “My girlfriend wants me to go to her house tonight.”

“Oh.” I said, disappointed.

“Sorry. It’s not like I want to go to her house. I’d rather be with you.” He said, trying to get me to look him in the eye, but I wouldn’t make eye contact. He always said he wanted to be with me, but if he really wanted to, then why didn’t he just break up with her?

“I don’t think you do want to be with me Dante. I think that what you say about not caring about your girlfriend is BS.”

“What? I care about her, she’s just annoying…” He said, a shocked looked on his face.

“Maybe she seems annoying to you, but it’s probably because she likes you so much. She’s your girlfriend and you should be respectful of her, and not talk to me the way you do.”

I stood up and grabbed my bag.

“Bye. Call me tonight if you have to.” I said.

I made my way up to the front of the room and gave the teacher an excuse on why I was leaving class an hour and 20 minutes early, then slipped out the door. At first I walked the halls, hoping to run into Rosa or Kate, but I ended up sitting halfway up the side staircase. There was a landing there, which was made to make the stairs less crowded, but there was a also a huge window that stretched to the full height of the school. I sat looking out the window, towards the parking lot. Not the most scenic view, but it gave me a sense of calm. I lay my cheek against the glass, and closed my eyes. I told myself to forget about Dante. He had a girlfriend and it wasn’t right that we were getting so attached to each other. Maybe I should go after another guy…. Hmm, Dante said that Blake like me…. and Bryce seemed to like me, too. I resolved that I would forget about Dante, and move on to other guys.

Almost as if they could read my mind, I heard Bryce’s and Blake’s voices echoing down the hallway. I opened my eyes quickly, and pulled out my phone so I could act like I was doing more than just sitting by myself in an empty hallway.

“Why’d she leave, bro?” I heard Blake ask Bryce.

“I don’t know. I think it’s because of Dante.” Bryce replied.

“Do you think she likes him?”

“Maybe. He’s always talking about how they talk on the phone all the time, and how hot she is, and stuff.”

“If she does like him, it’s not fair. He already has a girlfriend!”

Bryce was about to agree with him, when they rounded the corner and saw me sitting by the window.

“Uh… Savannah, hi!” Bryce said, surprised that they had found me.

“Heyyyy guys.” I said, giving them a smile that I usually reserved for Dante. “You’re just the people I wanted to see.”

“Uh..” They said, not really sure how to respond. Usually they were the ones giving me special smiles, and telling me that they were glad to see me.

I stood up and flipped my hair behind my shoulders, and said “So, what are you guys up to?”

Blake seemed to snap out of it, and say “Oh, Dante wanted us to find you”

“Why?” I said suspiciously.

“We don’t know. Ask him.’

“Nah. I’m going home.”

“Oh… But you’re going to the game tonight, right?” Bryce asked.

“Of course”

“Uh, well, do you maybe wanna meet up there?” He said nervously.

“Yeah, I do.” I said brightly.

“Sweet, uh we’ll see you there.” Bryce said.


“Yeah…. see ya later.” Blake added, and walked away.

Bryce came over and hugged me, and shyly blurted out, “I’m looking forward to seeing you without Dante around tonight.”

“Me, too.” I replied sweetly.

Little did I know that my plans were about to get a whole lot more complicated than I had expected.