I had lied.

When I had watched her turn and walk away from me, I had felt as if she was slipping through my fingers, again. It's been three days since I last saw her for I did not go to school at all, the guilt was still sitting in my stomach as if it was there to remind me of what I had done. The thought of her face from that night haunted me for the past three nights as I was always tossing and turning in bed, wanting to remove that image from my mind but couldn't.

"Dude, take that cig out of your mouth," Marco said as we both dangled our legs from my roof.

It was a Thursday morning and Marco had insisted on coming over even though I had told him I didn't need him. Marco only knew of what had happened between Thea and me because of Aubree, assuming that Thea must've told her or Aubree must've forced it out of her. The sun was burning the back of my head yet it didn't seem to faze me at all whereas Marco kept changing his seating positions.

"I didn't light it up yet," I replied bluntly.

"You will soon," Marco sighed. "You haven't smoked ever since Thea arrived, I don't expect you to do it now."

I've known Marco since middle school. Typical boys, he hated me for talking to this girl he had a major crush on and thought that I was going to get in the way but when he confronted me about it almost a month later, I threw a punch at him in the face which he thought he deserved. I told him to knock out of it and that she was just a flirt but he wouldn't believe it till he saw it. A week later after the confrontation, Marco had seen the girl with both of her arms linked with a freshman and that had torn Marco apart even though he didn't know what love was really about. That night, I had invited him over to my place to hang out and surprisingly, he had accepted my offer and that was when we had found out that we had so much in common. It wasn't long till Aubree got involved with him and I knew that she was the one for him, as cheesy as it sounded.

For the past two hours, Marco was trying to convince me to talk things out with Thea, to tell her that I didn't mean what I had said. But I only told him that it was for the best. I maintained a bad reputation and I didn't want it to have an effect on Thea's life, as sweet as that sounds, I really didn't.

"I never knew you would let her go this soon," Marco said after a minute of silence which had me shrug.

"Dickworth ruined it," I simply replied before jumping off the roof and onto a soft mat that was laid out by Marco before he climbed the roof.

I started making my way towards my car casually but before I could even unlock my car, Aubree's red Porsche drove into my driveway, her eyes trained on me as she got out of the car and angrily stormed towards me. It's been days since I heard from Aubree for she wouldn't speak to me at all for what I had done to Thea. I had received the intel on Marco who said it so casually, I thought we were having a cup of tea together.

"You're supposed to be at school or your mom will kill you," I informed her bluntly as I leaned against my car, waiting for her to stand in front of me and stomp her foot like she always does whilst Marco watched from the roof.

"I don't give a damn about what my mom thinks at this moment," Aubree narrowed her eyes at me as she stood in front of me and crossed her arms.

"What do you want?" I asked, taking the cig out of my mouth and dumping it back into my pocket.

"I should be asking you that," Aubree said, ignoring my question as she sighed heavily. "Guess who was friendly chatting with Thea on Facebook?"

I raised an eyebrow at the stupid question. "Her friends?"

"Do you count Derek as her friend?" she questioned back as a smirk was beginning to form on her lips.

I narrowed my eyebrows and immediately stood up at the jerk's name. I clenched my fists as I watched Marco jumped off the roof, landing perfectly on the mat before walking towards us with his hands in his pockets. I shrugged off the urge of wanting to go to Thea and hug the crap out of her and tell her to stay and that I was sorry but we all knew that that won't happen.

"I don't care," I answered as I watched her smirk falter. "She can do whatever she wants. Marco, want to help me look for a chick tonight?"

Marco stared at me with disbelief before kissing Aubree on the forehead and nodded. "If it helps you get your mind off of her."

"Oh, so you think about her?" Aubree asked again as if she was challenging me.

"Lay off Aubree," I answered, not feeling any sympathy of what I had just said to her.

Aubree sighed heavily and walked towards her Porsche. The next words that escaped her mouth were the words that I would've never wanted to hear but the words I knew and that I did deserve to hear, "you don't deserve her. She deserves better." And with that, Marco and I watched the red Porsche reverse out of my driveway, watching the car zoom down the street. Marco didn't say anything but slipped into the passenger seat, knowing that he wasn't siding with anyone here. 

But the words that Aubree had just said to me, aimed at my heart like a knife but I knew not to let it bother me.

Thea made everything difficult for me, even though she didn't know it.