"Good morning, Princess," Zeke smiles as I get into his car.

Zoey had a dentist appointment this morning so Zeke agreed to drive me to school.

"Don't drive fast," I sigh and put my seatbelt on.

"I see you're very cheery this morning."

I look at him blankly, "It's Monday."

He nods, understandingly, "Right."

Then he starts driving in his crazy way with the music so loud I think I might be deaf or dead after this.

I let out a breath when he pulls into a parking spot at school.

It's over.

Getting out of the car, I pull my bag on my shoulder and start towards the school entrance.

Zeke catches up, "Are you trying to run away from me without saying goodbye? I'm wounded."

"Sorry, I just want to get as far away from that thing as possible."

"You mean Jared? He's so friendly, how could you say such a thing?"

"Who's Jared?" We walk into school and I head to my locker, Zeke coming with me.

"My car, of course."

"You name your car?"

"Yeah, he's my best friend."

I laugh and open my locker, Zeke waits for me.

"So, have you smoked yet?"

"No."

I narrow my eyes at him, "Show me what's in your pockets."

He pulls out the contents in the pockets of his hoodie. All that's there is chewing gum and keys, and his yang necklace.

"Your pants."

"Check that yourself," he smirks.

I just give him a look, which he responds by rolling his eyes and reaching into one of his pockets and pulling out the inside fabric.

"Nothing there," he smiles.

"Other one."

His smile drops.

"Zeke."

He sighs and reaches in and pulls out a lighter.

"I wasn't gonna use it," he says quickly.

"Then why do you have it?"

"It's just a habit. I always bring one everywhere I go."

I place my hand out in front of me and he puts it in the palm of my hand. "Good boy." I throw it into my locker. I'll get rid of it later.

"You're wearing your necklace," he looks at my chest where my yin necklace is hanging.

"And you're not wearing yours."

"I have it in my pocket."

"You need to wear it."

He shakes his head, "No way. You're the only one who can know about my sappiness."

"Aren't I lucky?" I shut my locker and start walking to my next class. I like to get there early.

"Luckier than you think."

+++

I'm behind on work.

Me, Marnie Jones, is behind on work.

I've been so distracted with my new social life that i've not had time to study.

This is a disaster.

"I'm going to die," I lean on the lunch table and rub my temples.

"It's okay, breathe, Marnie, breathe," Zoey tries to calm me down.

"I don't see what the big deal is," Cole says as he eats.

I look up at him slowly, "How can you not see the big deal? Oh god, i'm gonna fail my exams, aren't I? I'm not gonna get into Stanford. I'm going to die."

"Jesus, nerd," Zeke laughs.

"This is no time for laughter!"

He raises his hands in surrender, "Sorry."

"I think I'm gonna be sick," I stand up, "I'll be back in a sec," then I rush out of the cafeteria and to the bathroom.

I look in the mirror and take deep breaths. It's okay, I can just study all night.

No, I can't mess up my sleep routine, and I need to babysit tonight.

Crap crap crapety crap.

"Look who it is," Aubrey struts into the bathroom.

Oh God.

"Did I not make myself clear when I told you to stay away from Mason?"

I ignore her and sigh. Can't she see i'm busy stressing about my life problems?

"Everyone saw you and him last week. All cuddly after lunch. I could feel the desperation coming off of you."

"So?"

"So, you should stay the hell away. You're messing things up with us."

"He doesn't want you anymore, Aubrey," I snap, surprising myself, "You cheated on him."

"Sounds like you're jealous of me and Zeke."

"What fucking part of that sounded like I was jealous of Zeke and you?"

Holy crap.

I just swore.

What is happening to me?

"Everyone knows you like him."

"Really? Because I didn't even know that."

"Shut up. You're obviously only with Mason to make him jealous. Well news flash, freak. He's not interested in you. He likes blondes, like me," She flicks her hair.

"You can think whatever you want," I sigh and walk past her, but she grabs my arm.

"This is your last chance. Stay back."

I pull out of her grip and walk out.

Today has been great so far.

I decide to spend the rest of lunchtime studying in the library, so I make my way towards my locker to get some books.

"Marnie?"

"What?" I snap and slam my locker.

When I turn around, Mason is there, startled.

I sigh, "Sorry, I'm just stressed."

"It's fine," he clears his throat, "I just saw Aubrey follow you out of the cafeteria. I was worried-"

"Yeah, its fine though. I don't care about what she thinks," I run a hand through my hair.

"What did she say?"

"Just some stupid stuff, like how you guys are gonna get back together so I need to stay away from you."

Mason screws up his face, opening his mouth to say something but then closing it again. Instead, he hits his hand off of the lockers.

"What the fuck is wrong with her? How dare she."

"Don't worry, Mason, seriously. I don't care what she says."

"I care. Why can't she just leave you alone?"

"I can handle myself, you know."

"I know," he sighs and takes my hand. He glances behind me for a second, then looks back at me before crashing his lips into mine.

Taken aback by his action, I pull away. I'm not really in the mood to do this right now.

Mason stares behind me, so I turn around to see what he's looking at.

Zeke.

Hurt flashes across his dark eyes, his lips parted. My heart breaks as I watch him, suddenly so vulnerable. It's worse than the look he had when he saw his Dad. Much worse.

The hurt disappears and he covers it up with his I don't care face. Then he walks away.

I turn back to Mason, "You saw him," I accuse.

He looks at the ground, guilty.

"Zeke!" I run down the corridor towards him.

Damn, he walks fast.

"Zeke!" I yell again.

He comes to a sudden stop and looks at me, his eyes cold, "What?"

"Are you mad?"

"No. Why would I be?"

"I don't know. Because you don't like him."

He laughs, making me wince. "I don't fucking care who you date, Marnie."

Marnie.

He only calls me that when he's mad or high.

All I do is nod. And this time when he walks away, I let him.

+++

When I get back from babysitting a little boy who lives two doors down from me, I go straight to studying.

After a couple of hours, my head is pounding. I've barely even been able to concentrate because of what happened with Zeke. Mason has called a couple of times, but I ignored him. I don't have time to talk to him.

I am about to throw my phone against the wall when it rings again, but stop myself when I see it's Zoey calling.

"I can't talk right now, Zoe."

"Are you drowning yourself in homework?"

"I'm just trying to get things back on track."

"Don't stress yourself out too much. When's the last time you ate?"

"I don't know. Lunch I guess."

"You didn't eat lunch, remember?"

"Oh, right. Well breakfast then."

"Marnie Jones, go get food right now."

"I can't-"

"Marnie I will come over there and shove food down your throat."

I groan, "Fine."

"Good."

"Have you talked to Zeke?"

I have already told her about what happened with Zeke at lunch and she said he had left to come see if I was okay, and that he didn't come back.

"No. Have you called him?"

"Nope."

"Are you going to?"

"Should I? What if he's still mad?"

"He'll get over it. Unless he's jealous."

"He's not jealous."

"How do you know that?"

"I just know. He'd never like me that way."

"Then why'd he react that way at the beach?"

"I don't know. He was probably shocked at my sudden confidence. Look, I need to go."

"Okay, talk to ya later."

I hang up the phone, then scroll to Zeke's contact. I hesitantly click the call button and hold the phone to my ear.

It rings twice before going to voicemail. He declined it.

Oh god, I shouldn't have called him. Why did I do that?

It's fine, he'll get over it. He'll be fine by tomorrow.

+++

Boy, was I wrong.

Zeke's been avoiding me all day. I even said hi to him when he walked past my locker. All he did was look at me and keep walking, his expression stone cold.

"Are you still mad at me?"

I shut my locker with a sigh. "No, Mason. Zeke's pissed at me, but it's fine. He had to find out at some point."

"Okay, but you still seem mad."

"I'm not, I promise. I'm just tired."

He takes my hand, "So now that he knows, do you still want to keep this private?"

"I didn't want to keep this a secret just because of Zeke."

"Okay, but you said it yourself. They need to find out at some point."

I think for a moment. He's right.

"Fine," I sigh.

He smiles and we walk through the cafeteria doors, hand in hand.

People notice straight away. Some girls point at us, staring in awe.

Oh God.

My cheeks heat up, my body feels uneasy.

I'm going to die.

We stand in the lunch line and my eyes avert to our table.

Zeke, Isaac, Cole and Zoey are all staring at us, just like most of the other people.

I meet eyes with Zeke and he looks away. Isaac says something to him, which he responds by shaking his head and saying something.

"You and the druggy chick?" A voice says from in front of us.

I snap my head round and find some of the guys from the soccer team standing there; Mason's friends.

"Druggy chick?" I furrow my eyebrows at Rory, who said it.

"Yeah. You start hanging out with them," he nods his head towards our table, "You get classed as a druggy."

"Well i'm not. And neither are they."

Some of the guys laugh.

"What's funny?"

"Either you're just defending them, or you do not know them at all," the guy next to Rory says.

I look at Mason. He's staying quiet, looking around and pretending not to listen.

"What are you talking about?"

"They're total cokeheads. Especially Zeke. Dude is on that shit at every party," Rory replies.

"I heard he deals," someone else says who I don't know the name of.

"He wouldn't do that," I snap. "You don't know him at all. He doesn't even smoke anymore." I'm suddenly very angry.

How could they say things like this? Sure, they make some bad decisions. But they're not bad people. They're nicer than most of the people i've spoken to at this school. And they're definitely nicer than these jerks.

"Woah, calm down, girl," Rory laughs.

"That's enough, guys," Mason cuts in.

I decide not to respond to them anymore and move up in the line and get a sandwich. Mason and I say bye and I sit down next to Cole at our table.

"Well, that was exciting," Cole smirks.

"More like extremely embarrassing," I sigh and bite into my sandwich.

"So you guys are together? Like for real?" Isaac asks.

I nod and look at Zeke; he hasn't looked up from his food since I sat down. I want to ask him why he's acting this way, and why he's still so mad.

"I'm happy for you," Isaac smiles.

Zeke scoffs.

"What's your problem?" Zoey asks.

He looks up at her, surprised. "I don't have a problem."

"Please, you've been acting weird since you found out about her and Mason. Do you have a crush on Marnie or something?"

He slams his fist on the table, making me and Cole both jump in our seats.

"No, I do not have a fucking crush on her. How could I? She's a fucking nerd," he turns to me, "No offence," his voice is harsh, as if I'm the one who just said those things about him.

At least he spoke to me.

"Zeke," Isaac warns.

"No, screw you guys," Zeke stands up –his chair making a loud noise as he pushes it back – and walks out of the cafeteria.

+++

zeeeke my child 😩

merry christmas everyone!! are you having a good day so far? 🎄🎄❤️

tell me what you thought about this chapter, I luvvv reading your comments

- e