He stood there, frozen on his spot as he tried to get his thoughts together. He felt like a douche now for forcing her to take her scarf off. She never wore scarfs at school because the school code doesn't allow the students to wear scarfs with the school uniforms.

His A was Ashton Rose. The sarcastic, hilarious girl he'd been talking to for the past few months. The girl he'd grown to like so much that he could actually love her. But she was also the girl his so called friends had made fun of, called names and tormented and he just kept standing there like with his head down pretending about not seeing anything happening in front of him like a fucking bystander.

He was so confused at that moment. He couldn't decide whether to kick himself, hug Ashton or beg for her pardon for every single time he didn't do anything to stop his friends. He felt so guilty that he couldn't even find it in himself to move or utter a single word.

Ashton still had her eyes closed praying in her mind about only one thing that she didn't want to lose Kevin's friendship. She knew that Kevin would never want to be with her and she didn't mind that one bit because she never thought of herself as someone who deserved love. The taunts and bullying from her peers made her actually believe that just because her face was not pretty, she shouldn't be loved. Just because her left cheek was burnt from acid, she didn't deserve a normal guy.

As Kevin kept battling with his thoughts, a voice came out of nowhere and things only went downhill from there.

"Holyshit!" a voice said and Kevin turned to look in the direction of the voice. The moment his eyes fell upon his so called friends he cursed under his breath and wished that the earth would open up and swallow him whole. He couldn't comprehend what or why his friends were there in the first place.

Upon hearing the voice, A opened her eyes and saw Kevin looking on her left. She furrowed her eyebrows and followed his gaze. Her face paled and sweat formed on her forehead. Her mouth suddenly felt very dry.

One of the guys pointed and her and asked Kevin. "Dude, this is the girl you like?" he spat the word this like it was poison.

"We expected you to have a better taste, Kevin. I'm disappointed." Another guy joined in.

The head bitch of their group came forward and stopped a good distance away from Ashton as if she came anywhere near her then she would get infected. "Is this what you do in this coffee shop, huh? Trapping hot guys by using your sweet talks since you can't get a guy because of your ugly face?"

Tears started welling up in Ashton's eyes and she felt a painful squeeze on her heart as she felt betrayed. Betrayed by the guy she potentially liked, the guy she actually thought was her friend.

She turned her gaze towards Kevin and asked. "You called them here, didn't you? DIDN'T YOU, KEVIN?"

Kevin was too shocked by his group's appearance. He was so lost in his own thoughts that Ashton's voice seemed to be coming from the other end of the tunnel. He was frozen on his spot. He couldn't move neither could he utter a single word.

Ashton took his silence as his confirmation and cursed herself for ever trusting him, for ever letting her guards down.

She shook her head and said. "I was so wrong to have thought that you were any better than your friends. You are equally bad as them, if not worse. You don't take part in their bullying but you don't stop them either. You just stand there like a fucking bystander who is oh-so-helpless! But you know what? Bystanders aren't helpless, they choose to be helpless! You chose to be this way!"

When she still didn't get a reply, she took a step back from him and said. "Have a good life, Kevin. I hope you're proud of yourself. Goodbye!"

And with that, she turned on her heels and made a run for the front door ignoring all the stares she was getting.

Char came out of the 'staff only' room with music blasting in her ears from her earphones since she didn't want to eavesdrop on the lovebirds' conversation.

But she didn't expect to see a teary eyed A dashing out of the café with everyone staring at her. She instantly took out her earphones and called for A but she got no reply. She tried chasing her but she lost A in the crowd of people surrounding them. She concluded that it was Kevin's reaction which made her friend cry.

With bubbling anger in her chest, she marched back towards Kevin and without a second thought, slapped him across the cheek, hard. "You filthy, arrogant douchebag! How dare you do that to that to my friend? You are the biggest asshole I've ever met! I feel like such a horrible friend for ever trusting you to take care of my friend."

Kevin's hand flew to his cheek and he finally came out of his shocked state. He tuned out Char's cursing and dashed towards the café's entrance, making way through the crowd of people.

The moment he reached outside the café, his eyes started searching every direction for the brunette. When he spotted her, his hope went down the drain. She got in a cab and the cab whizzed past him before he could even call out her name.

His knees gave in and he fell on his knees on the pavement, feeling helpless. Ashton's words coming back to him, repeating themselves in his mind, over and over again.

"You're equally bad as them, if not worse."

"You chose to be this way!"

"I hope you're proud of yourself."

He couldn't believe he'd lost her, just like that. He just-

He paused his train of thoughts when he felt someone put a hand on his shoulder. He looked above to see one of the guys from the football team standing there and pure hatred surged through him.

"Dude, lets get going. She would never dare to do something like that ever again. What was she even thinking? Like she could actually have someone like you? Man-" that guy didn't get to complete his sentence because rage took over Kevin's body and he punched him in the jaw.

The guy fell on the ground clutching his jaw. Kevin saw only red and didn't waste a second before pinning the guy on the ground.

"Who the hell told you about her? Speak up, you asshole!" he asked the guy but didn't give him a chance to speak because he kept punching him again and again.

Seeing that their friend would end up in the hospital, a guy from the group finally spoke up. "Nobody told us! We just overheard your conversation with Dylan in the locker room so we decided to come here."

On hearing that, Kevin stopped in his actions and got up, ready to attack the guy who spoke but this time, two other guys held him back and his friends took this opportunity to escape.

Kevin freed himself from the guys holding him back and glared at them as he marched towards his car and slammed the door shut after him. He pressed the gas pedal and drove to his house.