"Hey, what happened last night?" Eli asked me before school. I was wearing a hoodie and skinny jeans and I wasn't in the mood for anyone.

"Oh gee I don't know. Chase decided to raid my house to make out with my sister and yell at me, only enough for me to run up stairs and find out that my sister's pissed off at me because she thinks I care more about him than her," I answered.

"Alicia, you gotta understand. He was mad—"

"I don't care!" I interrupted with stress. I didn't mean to yell, but that's what it came out as. I sighed in place of an apology and then walked to my locker.

"Hey—"

"I'm not in the mood," I told Riley. I grabbed my journals and books and shut my locker. With a flash to his silver eyes, I left him, but ran into something...or someone. Their arms wrapped around my waist.

"Hey—"

"Get away from me," I ordered before I pushed Wes off of me and into the lockers. Like I said, I wasn't in the mood for anyone. I walked to math class early and just sat in my seat and did the remaining amount of homework from last night. The bell rang and people filed in and took their seat. The Group came in, but I only looked to Eli—since he was closest—and gave him an apologetic look. As for the others, I didn't give a single glance.

***

"What happened and who are you pissed at?" Jasmine asked as I sat at the empty lunch table with my arms crossed.

"Eli didn't tell you?" I asked, rolling my eyes up to her. She sat in the seat next to me.

"I don't want Eli telling me anything. You're my best friend. I want to hear it from you," she said, sweetly.

"Zoey is pissed at me for some reason and so is Chase," I explained in a sigh.

"Why?"

"I don't know!" I responded. Jasmine sighed and sat back.

"Well have you tried to talk to them?"

"I tried all night and this morning for Jasmine, but I couldn't care less about Chase," I answered.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why haven't you tried Chase?" she clarified.

"Because he's the douche that yelled at me, so why the hell should I try to talk to him when he told me to leave him alone?" I responded.

"Oh..."

"Yeah. Oh..." I mocked.

"Hey?" I heard a voice greet. I looked up to see Riley and remembered how I was unintentionally ignoring him all day because of the Zoey and Chase situation.

"Hi," I said faintly. He sighed of relief and smiled briefly. That was before the boys decided to walk by and hit his shoulder.

"Come on Jasmine," Eli said nicely. She flashed me a look before standing up to join him. "You can come too, if you want..."

"And sit with Chase? No thanks," I said, glaring at him, as he sat at his exclusive table with Mason and Wes. Eli shrugged and grabbed Jasmine's hand before walking away.

"If you want, I can leave you alone..." Riley suggested.

"Unfortunately, I'd like that," I muttered before standing up and walking outside. I watched as Zoey was walking through the corridor with a bag of food...and Micah behind her. I immediately walked over to her as she laughed and talked with him.

"Zoey," I scolded before grabbing her arm and dragging her away. "I thought we agreed that you'd be staying away from that jerk."

"He noticed I was sad and mad so he took me out to eat," she reasoned.

"Sad and mad about what?"

"Chase," she answered, firmly before walking around me. I stormed off and went right back into the cafeteria, only to slap my hands down right in front of Chase at his exclusive little table.

"Do us both a favor and stay away from my sister and me," I said to him.

"What'd he do? Yell at you and Zoey?" Mason asked. "That's nothing. So calm down."

"Nothing?" I asked. "Thanks to this idiot, my sister is back hanging with her stupid ex boyfriend that cheated on her a few months ago!"

"She'll live," Mason assumed, narrowing his eyes.

"She's back with Micah?" Jasmine asked. She smacked Chase's shoulder, but he wasn't fazed. "You idiot!"

All this time, Chase stayed quiet and didn't look at me or anyone else, just the table beneath him.

"You're really being an ass," I found myself to say aloud to Chase. He still didn't move. "Fine then. F*ck you."

I left the table and walked into the halls and someone turned me around. With the familiar cool touch, I recognized it as Riley before I took him in a hug around his waist. After a second of realizing what I was doing, he squeezed his arms over my shoulders and leaned his head on mine. Suddenly, he was pulled away from me and slammed into the nearest locker.

"This is your fault," I heard Eli of all people hiss down to Riley. What?

Eli flashed to my eyes, but then left us in the hallway as the bell rang. Without a single word, Riley turned and punched the locker with his fists in anger. He left down the hallway. I noticed that the locker he hit had a dent in its rusting metal.

***

"Jasmine and Zoey told me that you were mad at school today. Wanna talk about it?" my mom said as she came in my room and sat on my bed. As I closed out my document on the computer, I turned to her.

"I was not mad," I insisted. I got up and walked over to my bed. "It's everyone else around me that is! Except for Jasmine of course..."

"How so?"

"Chase is pissed about something. Zoey is pissed at me. Chase, Wes, Mason, and Eli are pissed at Riley for some reason. Riley's pissed at them about something," I ranted. "And I'm just pissed at Chase for yelling at me and acting like a jerk, Zoey for being a bit—...I mean a witch and freaking Micah for being Micah!"

My mom gave me a concerned look.

"I think that you should just talk to each of them—"

"I don't want to talk to any of them, but Zoey. And I barely want to do that, considering that she probably hates me," I interrupted.

"If she hates you, she wouldn't have been concerned about you," my mom reminded before rising up from my bed and leaving the room. I thought about what she said and then someone knocked lightly on my door. I looked up to see Zoey. She walked in and sat on my bed. Simultaneously, we laid down on either pillows on my bed and sighed.

"You know I can never hate you, right?" she started.

"Yeah..." I sighed. Doubt it. "Then why were you mad at me?"

She laughed once. What...?

"It's stupid," she warned. I shrugged. "I was starting to think that when you followed Chase, you cared more about him then me."

"Zoey," I said. "You're my sister."

"I know, I know," she dismissed in a laugh. She calmed herself down. "Thanks for getting mad about me hanging out with Micah. That means you care."

"Well considering how he treated you, hell yeah I'm gonna get mad," I replied. "Why did you even go out with him?"

"In general or today?"

"Both," I answered. "But I guess today is more of a concern." She kept quiet and I turned my head to see her biting my lip. That means she has something to say and right as I started to say her name, she rambled it off.

"I started to hang out with Micah again," she informed. I smacked her arm.

"Zoey!"

"I'm sorry!" she shouted. "But please don't tell Chase."

"Ha. No chance of that. F*cking jerk..." I commented even though I told him at lunch.

"Look. Don't be mad at him," Zoey said. "He meant well."

"Yeah. He meant well when he devoured you and then yelled at me," I said, sarcastically.

"Lili..." she said, warningly. That stupid nickname!

"WHAT."

"Don't be mad at Chase."

"Too bad," I stated.

"You know he's your friend—"

"Friend my ass," I commented.

"You know you care about him..."

"The feeling isn't mutual," I mumbled, sitting up.

"You know you want to talk to him..."

"Not really," I sang.

"Well too bad. I called him over here."

"WHAT?!" I yelled. As I freaked out, Zoey fled from my room. UGH. I stayed facing down on my bed with my pillow over my head.

"Please don't suffocate yourself," I heard a muffled deep voice say before the pillow was taken from me. I sat up and looked up, glumly at him. He cupped my chin with his index finger and thumb to raise my gaze at him. His eyes were a rich brown.

"You. Are. A. Jerk," I first said.

"I know and I'm sorry," he apologized.

"And now you have my sister hanging out with..." I stopped myself because even though I mentioned Micah at lunch, I didn't need to keep bringing it up.

"I already know she's hanging out with Micah," Chase informed.

"And that's your fault," I accused.

"My fault? It was her mistake," he whispered down to me.

"What mistake?" He gave me a look.

"Alicia, your sister cheated on me..."

WHAT?! I blinked. She cheated with the person that cheated on her? I couldn't believe how naïve she was.

"It's no big deal," Chase shrugged.

"'No big deal'?" I repeated, yet exaggerated. "Unless...you cheated too...?"

"No," he just stated with a frown.

"If you know, then why are you still with her?" I asked him.

"To make her happy," he shrugged. What? "To make her...not feel guilty I guess. I just want her happy."

"You love her," I accused.

"No. I don't. Not by far," he responded, calmly. I think he even laughed pathetically.

"You must. There's no other reason you would stay with her...and that's saying something seeing as I'm her sister," I replied. Zoey was a handful. I couldn't understand why anyone would voluntarily stay with her if they weren't all in. I had seen enough instances where they weren't compatible so what were his intentions?

"Let's just say I have an ulterior motive..." he said in a single laugh. I looked up to him and he looked up at me with a nice smirk. His eyes were still a rich brown. What was that supposed to mean? Ulterior motive. "Why do you want me to break up with her?"

"I never said to break up with her," I recalled.

"But I can tell that you want us to end it," he notified.

"Because I care about both of you. And I don't want you to be with someone just to make her happy if you're not happy..." I muttered. "But I also just don't want you to..."

"Why not?"

"Maybe she actually cares about you and vice versa. And maybe being with you, Micah would feel threatened enough to keep his distance," I started. "And...if you break up, how do I know if she'll even want you and me to stay friends?"

"I'm still going to be your best friend no matter what," he whispered down to me. "No matter who denies our friendship, or if we get into any petty fights we get into...you can guarantee that I'll be here for you."

"And what if I decide that I don't want to be your friend anymore?" I bluffed.

"I'll still be around...begging profusely for your forgiveness," he laughed.

"Mmh..." that was nice.

"But you wouldn't do that for me," he assumed.

"Bold assumption."

"Well I have Grayson who you'd want to see and that's not really possible without me," he reminded. "And I'd tell our dog to not like you."

"You can't do that," I said, sticking my tongue out.

"Roanoke," he greeted my puppy in the corner. "Bark at Lili, please."

As he said, Roanoke barked. How the hell...!?

"Don't call me Lili!" I yelled at him.

"Fine...Ali," he changed.

"Where'd you even come up with that from?" I asked in a laugh. He joined me. "Seriously, who else calls me that behind my back?"

"No one," he answered with a smile. He looked down. "That's why I call you that."

His eyes flashed up to mine. Without giving me enough time to process that, he got up and started to leave my room. Roanoke started to bark and Chase turned on his heels to face my puppy.

"You can take him if you want," I shrugged. "And bring him back tomorrow..."

"Maybe," he said as he picked up Roanoke and walked out of the room. I wondered if I'd see my puppy again.