as he tried sneaking back into his room. his roommate, charlie dalton, flicked the light on almost immediately.

"where were you?" he asked, a smirk on his face.

"i was out." knox shrugged, avoiding eye contact with charlie.

"knox." his smirk faded. his face turned serious, he was curious what his best friend wasn't telling him.

"with amélie laurent. happy?" knox sat on his bed, glaring at charlie.

"doesn't neil like her?" charlie asked, chuckling.

"he shouldn't be upset, we're only friends." knox shrugged, pulling his covers over himself.

"yeah, okay. what's up with you?"

"nothing. i'm tired." he replied quickly, leaning to turn off the light. he was very tired. his head was filled with thoughts of chris, and of how hurt neil would be if he found out that him and amélie met secretly.

——————-

the next morning, all the boys gathered outside early before class started for their first meeting in a week.

"why did we have to start so early?" cameron whined. all the boys were all slouched over, except for neil, who looked very chipper.

"i couldn't wait." neil shrugged, a wide grin on his face. he looked so much happier than everyone had seen him since that night with amé.

"i'm exhausted." knox yawned, rubbing his eyes. he looked more tired than anyone there.

"yeah, because you got home so late." charlie scoffed, grinning.

"where were you last night?" meeks grinned, elbowing pitts.

"nowhere. on a bike ride." knox hesitated. he felt bad for lying to his friends, but he didn't want to fight with neil over a girl.

"knox, don't lie. he was out with amélie." charlie lightly shoved a red faced knox.

"what?" everyone else gasped, grins on there faces as they began huddling around knox asking questions. everyone except for neil, who's smile faded.

"what happened? did you talk about neil?"

"a bit." knox shrugged, glancing at neil.

"let's not talk about this now. we have to do our meeting before breakfast." neil gulped. everyone went back to normal, but knox couldn't shake off this guilty feeling.

after their meeting, knox approached neil.

"i'm sorry. i didn't know you were upset because of her." knox blabbered, leaving neil stunned. he wondered if amélie had told knox what happened.

neil quickly picked up his thoughts, and chuckled. "knox, it's ok. you guys are just friends, right?" he attempted to smile, but it just didn't seem like a smile.

"yeah, of course. i've had my eye out for chris noel since i had dinner at the danburry's." knox nodded quickly. neil began turning away, before knox stopped him.

"it's just, i need to tell you something." he said quietly. this was the part he felt the worse about.

"what is it?" neil asked, turning back to face knox.

"i told her about cindy." he whispered, putting a hand on neil's arm.

"oh." neil gulped, shaking knox's hand off him.

"she seemed upset." he couldn't stop replaying the image of amélie's pale face as she heard the words "cindy simone".

"i have to go. sorry, knox." neil's voice shook as he began walking away.

"but neil-" knox called out.

neil turned around. "what?" he asked, practically shouting.

"call her." knox's idea came out as a small whisper.

"what?" neil asked again.

"call her." knox said louder.

"it's no use."

"she talks about you, you know. a lot."

neil shook his head and began walking away, back into the school. he had a feeling knox was just making excuses to make him feel better. he knew who he could ask.

after classes, neil rushed to get to the phone before charlie could. he struggled to remember the number he was dialing, but got the answer he wanted.

"hello?" marianne eagerly answered.

"hi, is marianne dubois?"

"this is she. is this charlie dalton?"

"neil perry." neil replied. he could hear the drop in her voice.

"oh. do you want me to get amélie?"

"no- no." he quickly said.

"what do you need?" marianne sighed.

"it's just- does she like me?"

"neil.." mari said, trailing off and trying to think about this giant question he had asked her. "i think she does. what i understood from what she told me, is that last night she had lots of stuff on her mind regarding her mom and the- kiss, caught her off guard."

neil stayed silent.

"she's upset, i'd imagine just as much as you are." she softly said. yelling for marianne could be heard in the background. "one second!"

"if you're going to try talking to her, just keep that in mind. don't hurt her." marianne cautioned, quickly hanging up the phone.

"never would i want to do that in my entire life." neil whispered to himself, putting the phone back onto the hook and dashing back to his room.