Chapter One
“I hate him,” I told Selina when she got into the car. It was my week to drive to school; we switched off every other week to be even on gas.

“Why are we still even talking to him again? Has he not done enough already to you?”

“It’s his fault! It’s not like I plan on talking to the jerk! He draws me in every single frikin time!” I rant as we sit at the stoplight. I hadn’t had my coffee fill this morning either, since I was running late, so my grumpy mood probably wasn’t helping the situation. The boy just drove me insane and yet I kept going back time and time again.

“Addie, why do you let him get you all twisted up like this? Maybe you just need to seal off all contact with the boy.”

“I don’t know what more he wants. I’ve always been there for him through Page and every little problem he has had in the past two years. He has absolutely no right to treat me like this!” When the light turned green I gunned the gas and sped half way down the street before I calmed down and slowed down before giving Selina a heart attack.

“What happened this time?”

“The same thing that happens every time! He just randomly texts me ‘Hey’ out of the blue and I think that this time will be different and start up a flirty conversation and then he starts talking about some new girl he’s fascinated with and wants dating advice from me! Dating advice!” I yelled while pulling into the school parking lot. “He acts as if he’s totally oblivious of my feelings for him, but I know for a fact that Angela told him which I’m still mad about.”

“Do you want me to punch him? Or better yet, I can have Brad jump him. I mean James is just a skimpy little basketball player who wouldn’t stand a chance against Brad and his football buddies,” she said reassuringly as we got our backpacks out of the trunk and started walking towards our lockers.

“Why do I fall for his stupid little games? Why can’t I just completely ignore him?”

“Maybe you should just start fresh now?” I shrugged and got my Spanish book out of my locker and turned around just in time to see James walk by holding hands with Amanda Burn. “Oh my gosh. I’m gonna kill him for you. Where is Brad when I need him?”

“Whatever. It’s my fault for falling for his crap.”

Ding!

“I’ll see you at lunch,” I said to Selina and walked off to Spanish.


When third period rolled around I was still grumpy and extremely tired; maybe I was just a little addicted to coffee, at least I don’t have a major headache. Yet. I internally groaned when Mrs. Colus sat in her chair in the front of the class preparing for one of her extremely boring lectures. Once she got started, Matt turned around and smiled at me.

“What’s up?” he asked. He had been my best guy friend for about a year and a half and it was kind of ironic how we always had History together: my worst class. I was kind of decent at essays but everything else went in one ear and out the other. But he amazing at just about everything else in this class; he just didn’t do his work half the time. Yet, he always seemed to have enough time to criticize everything I did, whether or not he even did it. But, he was basically my best friend so there wasn’t much I could do about it.


“The sky,” I replied because I hated when people asked me that. I mean, what do they expect you to say?

“Oh yeah, I forgot you hate when I ask that. How are you? Is that better?”

“Tired, grumpy, mad, frustrated, you?”

“Well then. Sounds like you had a fun night. I’m pretty good, but I doubt that’s what you want to hear right now. Do you want to talk about it?”

“No.”

“Do you wanna hear about my night?”

“No.” He frowned then turned back around. I felt kind of bad but he was always bragging about all the dates he goes on. And at the moment I could care less about how he’s doing so awesome in the relationship area. Good for him. He didn’t turn back around for the rest of the period and I felt a pang of remorse and caught up to him after the bell rang.

“Okay, Matt I’m sorry. I’m just not in a good mood today.”

“Really? I would’ve never guessed,” he said sarcastically.

“Ha ha. So what’d you do last night?” I said as we walked to his lunch table. He set his back pack down and we walked to the lunch line.

“Went on a date.”

“Is that all you’re going to tell me?”

“I don’t know yet. I still can’t figure out if you’re really interested or just trying to make me not mad at you.”

“Ok, so don’t tell me. You’re loss,” I said with a shrug and started to look for Selina.

“Ok, ok, ok. I’ll tell you. It was this girl from Barry Goldwater. We just went to see Rango and ate at Panda Express afterward. It went really well and I think we might get somewhere.”

“Cool. You know what? I think I’m going to go to the Mexican Bar. I’ll talk to you later, bye!” I said and made a beeline for Selina.

“Can I have it?” I asked her when we sat down at our lunch table. She handed me our imaginary gun that I invented during finals last semester. I formed my index finger and thumb into a gun and pointed it at my head. It was a little inside joke she and I had made up during soccer season because I was so stressed from finals. I had never actually thought about suicide we just thought of it one day. We laughed every time while other people just gave us crazy looks which made it even funnier.

“What happened now? Did he say something? I can find Brad for you.” She said.

“Ohmygosh! Shut up about sicking Brad on him! It’s the other one this time.”

“What did Matt do now?”

“I don’t get why he’s so gosh darn sensitive about everything! I’m not in a good mood so I don’t get why it’s such a big deal when I don’t want to talk about his wonderful date last night. I swear they could be brothers!”

“Well at least you don’t like Matt. That would be even worse than James!” she said with a laugh that I would’ve been able to join in on if it had been any other day.

“They should really sell some coffee or soda in this prison. It would make it seem less like a prison and more like a high school!”

“Oh dear lord. Why didn’t you have your coffee this morning? I don’t know how I didn’t notice it before!” She said with a look of shock on her face.

“Oh come one. I’m not that bad today! And I can survive just fine without coffee!” The look she gave me said she thought otherwise, but Brad walked up and embraced her into a painstakingly long hug and kiss.

“Hey, babe,” she said with dreamy eyes. They had been dating for six months now, and they were both completely in love. It was so cute to watch them together, yet a pang of jealousy shot through me too. Not of him, of course. I would never do that to her, but of their relationship.

Selina and I were both sophomores and Brad was a junior. They had started dating in October and hardly even fought. It drove me mad, but at the same time I was extremely happy for her.

“I’m going to go get my food,” I said and Selina merely nodded and I went to wait in the Mexican Bar line.

“Adalyn!” I heard a voice that sounded like James’ say from behind. I quickly ducked under the rope that separated the Mexican Bar and the Deli sandwich lines to avoid him. All the people behind me gave me dirty looks, but there was no way James was going to catch up to me until I got my food.

Once I paid for my food I looked around the cafeteria for him but he was nowhere in sight, and it was almost impossible to miss all six feet four inches of him. Almost.

“Addie, I’ve been trying to find you all day,” he said as he stood next to me while I filled my cup up with pink lemonade at the drink dispenser.

“You didn’t seem to be trying too hard this morning,” I mumbled and turned to walk to my lunch table only to find him blocking my path.

“What? Oh, are you talking about Amanda? Oh come on, that’s nothing. You know we’re just friends.”

“No, I don’t even think we are anymore,” I said annoyed and walked around him, but he grabbed my arm. “Let me go or I will spill this all over your shirt.”

“Addie, why are you so mad? Did you not drink your coffee this morning?”

“Why the hell does everyone think I’m so dependent on that crap!” I said throwing my drink onto his shoes. His mouth dropped open and I quickly walked away to my table. I grabbed Selina’s arm and pulled her up, “Bathroom, now.”
She kissed Brad’s cheek and grabbed my arm and guided me to the bathroom. She dragged us into the handicap stall (the actual bathrooms didn’t have any doors closing them off from the rest of the world), and I let the first tears spill down my face.
“Oh, honey. Don’t cry; he’s not worth it. What happened?”
“He’s just a jerk. I dumped my drink on his shoes.” She started to laugh, and I couldn’t help but join in because of how ridiculous it sounded.
“Oh, Addie. You are so cute.” We both slid to the floor laughing until the bell rang. The best part about Brad was that he never got annoyed that Selina spent so much time with me. I don’t know how I could survive if he did.