"What the fuck are you doing? It's the weekend," Ethan snorted from behind me whilst peeking over my shoulder like a toddler. "Are you seriously learning trigonometry? Give it a break, Kairo. You're even tiring my brain out."

"No, I made a deal with Alexander," I grumbled. "I have to do my part as well."

"Why are you even so keen on making him get back into the football team?" he questioned, plopping down onto my bed. "Not trying to be mean but it's not really something you should meddle in. It feels like you're forcing him to get back into it. But, seeing that he agreed to it, he might have wanted someone to force him to get back into it anyway."

"I don't know," I said with a heavy sigh. "I know it's none of my business, I don't know why I'm doing this either. But I already made a deal with him, it's too late to back out now."

"Is it because you think he's going to leak your love letters out to the school or something? Is that it?" he inquired, glancing over at me. "Whatever, it doesn't really matter. But if he really seems like he doesn't want to get into football again, you should cut off the deal."

"I'll keep that in mind, thanks," I said with a small grin. "You're really worried about him, huh?"

"I guess," he shrugged. "I never really knew him personally but I'm sure he was a nice kid. Damn, the boys gave him such a hard time on the team after we caught him making out with the captain's sister. I would have left the team as well had I been in his shoes."

I didn't know what to say to that, so I stayed silent. Ethan proceeded, "I can tell he still has a passion for football. Maybe you're doing him a favour, who knows? Only time will tell."

I let out a quiet hum in response before leaning back against my chair with a heavy sigh, "Hey. Can you help me out with this equation?"

"Me? Hah, do I look like I'm good at Math?" he snorted. "Just give it a break, you look like a walrus that's been left out in the sun for too long."

"And you look like Wally from Where's Wally but you don't see me complaining," I shot back, pointing at his red and white striped shirt and blue jeans. 

"Oh shut up," he chortled. "You should ask Alexander for his phone number the next time you see him at school. That way you can ask him in case you have any doubts."

"Yeah, or I could just ask him on Instagram right now," I hummed. "Do you know his username?"

"He doesn't have Instagram," he stated in response.

"Huh, that's strange," I commented. "And how come you said that the two of you aren't close but you know so much about him?"

"He's the type of guy who doesn't know how to keep his private life to himself," he began, pursing his lips as if he were recollecting the memories. "None of us on the team were really friends with him, but whenever we asked him a question about himself, he'd tell us his entire life-story. That's why he prefers staying silent, I guess - because he doesn't want to give away too much about himself. He might think that people will take advantage of him."

I felt my heart sting at the thought of that. Alexander had way more to him than what met the eye - and for whatever reason there was, that intrigued me even further. 

"I wanna befriend him," I blurted out before I could stop myself. "He seems like a nice guy, and I feel bad for him."

"Wow, no way," Ethan began with a grin. "You've changed, Kairo. Is this character development?"

"Oh shut up," I groaned with a subtle grin, throwing a pen over at him which whacked him right on his forehead. He began to rub his forehead with a pained hiss, "That wasn't very cash money of you."

I ignored what he had said and turned to face him completely, "So, do you think I should do it?"

"Befriend Alexander? Sure, go right ahead," he started. "But just make sure that you don't hurt him. I'm pretty sure he's still sensitive from everything that went down last year, he probably has a lot of trust issues too."

"I don't blame him, people tend to take advantage of others a lot more often these days," I sighed. "And the people who have a hard time keeping their emotions to themselves often fall victim to those kind of jerks."

"Mhm, and it ends up making them feel like it's their fault for not being able to bottle up their feelings," he sighed. "Alexander is like a rubber band, in a way. He's flexible enough to adapt to change or torment, but I know he's eventually going to snap."

"I never really thought he had so much going on in his life," I confessed. 

"If you do end up becoming his friend then take good care of him, okay?"

"I will, I promise."