We were both sitting in stony silence. I gripped the grab handle as Parker rounded a corner. "No driver today?" I asked, my voice coming out all raspy having said nothing for a good five minutes.

"I figured you wouldn't come with me if there was one." He wasn't wrong.

We stopped at the lights. Fantastic. This would further prolong this already excruciatingly long drive. "Please tell me what I did," he said suddenly.

"What do you mean?" I asked, looking away.

"The reason we've stopped being friends, why you've suddenly iced me out over the last few weeks."

"Oh...nothing."

"Then what's going on? I mean, I thought we were friends."

"We are," I replied flatly.

"Was it the photo of me and Clarissa?" He asked.

I nearly choked on my own spit. The audacity. As if that was the main reason I was so annoyed with him. "No," I half-lied. It was the fact that he'd even talk to her after what she did to me. Friends don't do that to each other.

"Then why have you been acting so weird since I got back?"

"I'm not acting weird," I retorted, crossing my arms.

The light went green. "It's green," I said.

"I'm not going until you tell me." I glanced into the rear-view mirror. There was a car behind us, and from the looks of the driver, the honking was going to get more violent soon.

"Just go!" I exclaimed.

"No." He crossed his arms. The honking intensified. Parker also glanced into the rear-view mirror. "He can honk as much as he wants. I'm not moving."

"Fine!" With that, he stepped on the accelerator and kept going, sticking his hand outside the window to give an apologetic wave to the driver behind us. "I didn't just suddenly ice you out. I mean, I don't care who your friends are, or who you wanna date, or anything like that, but if we were friends, how could you be okay with what she did to me?" My voice was breaking and I cleared my throat and feigned a yawn as the tears welled up.

"You didn't tell me..." He said, almost a whisper. "How was I meant to know?"

"How could you not know what happened? The entire school knew. All your friends knew. It was on her Instagram for crying out loud."

The GPS read out the final instruction and I let out a breath. "Thanks for the lift," I mumbled.

"I'm sorry. For everything. I'll make it up to you. Until you forgive me."

"It's fine," I said.

I went into my house and shut the door, just as the wheels of Parker's black Range Rover crunched against the gravel.

My mum wasn't home yet, things at work must've been getting busy. I was too tired to wait up and showered quickly before going to bed.

Another uneventful weekend passed, and Monday morning rolled around far too early. The sun coming in through the curtain interrupted my wedding with Chad Michael Murray. What a weird dream.

Mum had left for an early start again, but that meant I had proper breakfast. I scarfed down the bacon and eggs and finished getting ready. The clock on the wall told me I had five minutes to bolt for the bus stop. Just as I slammed the door shut and was ready to take off, I was jerked backwards. My blazer was caught in the door. I quickly unlocked the door, freed my blazer and locked it again. I was really going to be late again.

Just as I was about to break out into a sprint, I saw a black SUV and its amused driver in my driveway. I slung my backpack from the crook in my elbow onto my shoulder and rearranged my blazer. "Morning," Parker greeted. "You look like you're in a hurry," he said. "I'm here to give you a lift."

It was either be late for school or endure the ride with one of the people I least wanted to see.

"Only because I'm late," I said begrudgingly. He hadn't just pulled up when I left the house, which meant he'd been there for a while. "Are you stalking me?" I spat out.

"No."

"Since when were you outside?"

"I mean, I wanted to catch you before you left the bus, and I figured you wouldn't tell me, so I got there at seven." I was barely awake at seven.

"I hope you know that this is creepy."

"I told you I was trying to make it up to you. If you tell me when you want me to get to you, I wouldn't have to wait."

"You're thinking of making this an ongoing thing!?"

"However long it takes," he smirked.

"Fine, you're forgiven."

"I'm not convinced. What else can I do?"

I would've asked him for a million-dollar cheque but I refrained since I figured he seemed like he would've given it to me. We were approaching the school gates. There was no way I was going to be seen hopping out of Parker's car on a Monday morning. With my recent breakup with Holden and my other male-involving drama, this was a definite no.

"You can drop me here," I said once we were two hundred metres from the entrance.

"Why?" He asked.

"I understand it may be hard for you to understand but being seen getting out of your car would not be ideal for me...given recent events."

"If you insist...I'm willing to compromise," he said. He stopped and I hopped out. "I seriously hope you won't be doing this every morning though," he said, shutting the door.

Just as he drove off, it finally clicked in my brain. He was picking me up again!?

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sORRY FOR THE SUPER LATE UPDATE

life is hectic

i'm actually on end of year exam study break and ofc procrastinated and finally updated

I'm not 100% happy with these last two chapters so don't be surprised if I have a crisis and take them down and re-upload

as always, thank you for reading!! pls vote and lmk what you thought!!!!

love always, your ball of stress,

daria xoxo