"You seriously think they're going to buy that?" I asked Clara, she was sitting in front of her massive vanity, carefully lining her lips. She had chosen a bright red lipstick, and I have to admit it complimented her.

"It's believable." She muttered, not her taking her eyes off her own reflection.

"Is it?" I asked her. "Why are we even doing this, anyways?"

That caused her to turn around and look at me. "Why are we going to watch two hot guys punch other hot guys?"

"We might be watching them get punched." I mumbled, rolling my eyes. All we knew is that they were boxers. We had no idea if they were good or not. "What's changed since the other day? When you were intent on going to dinner with them. You said you didn't want to risk it?"

"It's all a game, Lilly. They want to pretend like they still have us, but they don't. We just have to play their game with them. If they want us to go to dinner with them, whatever, fine. If that's what it takes, that's what it takes. But, I'm not going to sacrifice my senior year because they think they can threaten us."

It was then that I realized Clara was fighting with herself. All of her differing answers to our problem, her changing opinions. She realized the gravity of our situation one minute, and the next minute she was pretending everything was fine. It's what Clara did best, after all. I wished I could do the same, but I couldn't.

"I don't know, Clara. I really don't know." I told her honestly.

Clara was about to answer, but my phone ringing stopped her. I felt my skin begin to crawl as I saw Jesse's name flashing on the screen. I took a breath before I answered it, trying to calm myself.

"Hey." I answered, trying to make my voice sound even, like I had nothing to hide.

That on its own was a joke. I only had things to hide. There was a body in my backyard and everything I did was just another shovel of dirt on top of it, trying to hide the evidence.

"So you're ditching me because you and Clara have to babysit?" Jesse asked immediately, skipping over any form of greeting.

"Yeah..." I said, and I could only hope the way my voice sounded was believable. Jesse had the ability to zoom in on every single aspect of me, whether it be the slight shake in my tone, or the way I slowed the singular word down.

"Who do you have to babysit?" He asked me sharply. He made no efforts to hide the fact that he was pissed.

"My mom's coworker's daughter." I said quickly, repeating what Clara had told me to say.

"Is this about money, Lilly? I know you don't have any but seriously, babysitting? You could have just asked me for cash." Jesse told me, making me grit my teeth. Even if I needed money, I'd never ask him. He'd just dangle the fact I needed something from him over my head, never letting me forget it.

"It's not about money. It's just a favour." I said quietly, praying again that my voice didn't betray me.

"Fine. You know what? Fine, it's whatever." Jesse basically cut me off. "Just make sure you text me, okay?"

"Yeah, okay. I will when I have time." I told him, feeling the unease begin to melt away at the promise of ending our conversation.

"No. That's not what I said." Jesse said sternly.

I wanted to sigh, but I made sure I didn't. "Okay."

Jesse didn't say anything else before he hung up the phone, but that was okay with me. I looked back to Clara, who had an excited smile plastered on her face.

"See?" Clara said smugly, "I told you everything was going to be okay."

"I just don't know why we're risking it." I told her. I really didn't. Sure, I didn't want to be around Jesse, it was the last thing I wanted to do, but I wasn't feeling good about lying to them like this. If there was one thing I've come to realize about lies, they're easy to be found out. Lies are like a seed that has fallen into perfectly good dirt, it's trying to grow. It's begging to peak through the surface and let everyone see it.

"They're not going to find out. Besides... Samuel is hot. Hot enough to risk it." Clara mused before turning back to the mirror.

I felt my face pale as I turned her words over in my head. Sure, if Brett found out, he might get a little mad. Jesse on the other hand, well... I definitely didn't want to find out.

"You think every guy is hot." I told her, shaking my head at her. Clara didn't have a type, that much I knew. She could find attractive qualities in anyone.

"Are you really going to sit there, look at me in the face and tell me that you don't think Roman is hot?" She said as she made eye contact with me through the mirror.

I felt a blush tinge my cheeks as Roman's face popped into my mind. "That's not what we're talking about."

"Okay, Lilly, sure it's not." Clara laughed at me.

"Besides, there's no point. Everyone thinks we're dating Brett and Jesse, so it's not like anything could happen, right?" I asked her, genuinely curious.

"Lilly... that's your problem, babe. You can never look at guys as just having fun. As soon as you find a guy you're slightly interested in, you commit to him. Just like you did with Jesse." Clara stopped to give me a long look, peering at me from under her eyelashes. "Just because we hang out with these boys, it doesn't mean we have to marry them."

I pursed my lips as I took in her words. She was right, of course. I've never been able to just have one night stands, even when that was my intent. I ignored her annoyingly correct insight into my behaviour. "Do you really think your parents would let you marry a guy like Samuel, anyways?"

"Shut the fuck up." Clara said, though she began to laugh at my joke. "They definitely wouldn't."

It didn't take long to finish getting ready, and I couldn't deny the fact that even though the possible consequences of our actions were running though my mind, I was excited.

This is what I had been asking for, isn't it? Somewhere different, with different people and different things. I just hated that the experience was plagued by Jesse. Although, I think I was staring to realize that he would plague anything I ever tried to touch.

Clara blasted music on the way there. Her dad had gotten her a rental while her car was being fixed, and I couldn't help but feel my jealousy ooze out at the ease that Clara's life seem to hold. Sometimes it felt like she had no obstacles in her way, nothing holding her back. Besides her own actions, I suppose.

The calm voice on the GPS guided us into the dark parking lot of a large building. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't this. Though there were tons of cars in the parking lot, there wasn't a single person around. I figured it would be packed, crowded with people. Clara parked the car, and when she was finished she sat up straight in her seat, taking in our surroundings.

"You know I think I just figured out the reason these two are so insistent on talking to us." I told her, gesturing towards the empty concrete.

"What? Why?" Clara asked me, clearly not seeing where I was going with this.

"To rob us. Or, you rather. It's the perfectly plan, really. Luring us out to this sketchy building, they're probably waiting with ski masks behind one of these cars."

Clara stared at me for a second, her eyebrows lowering. "You are so fucking intent on ruining this for me, aren't you?"

"Kind of." I shrugged.

"Come on." Clara said, getting out of the car and slamming the door behind her. I followed her, not letting a gap fall between us. Though I was joking about the boys robbing us, I still wasn't completely comfortable with this location.

As we got closer and closer to the door, I started to hear the faint echos of yelling voices. My curiosity peaked as Clara pushed on the heavy metal door, because I knew I had never been in a place like this before. As we walked inside, the first thing I noticed was the smell of sweat. There was a small roped ring in the centre of the room, and I instantly recognized one of the two boys inside. Samuel was dancing around the small space, the red gloves he had on raised in front of his face.

I heard Clara gasp from beside me as she noticed it was him, and she grabbed my hand. As she began leading me closer to the ring, I noticed the way the people who filled the crowd looked different. They didn't look like the people we hung around with, they had lit cigarettes and tattoos. And by the way they were staring at Clara and I as we walked past them, they thought we looked different too.

As we reached the side of the ring, just in time to see Samual land a perfect punch to the face of his opponent, I looked towards my best friend.

"You know this is a bad idea, right? We're making a bad choice." I told her, having to raise my voice over the loud cheers that were surrounding us.

"I know." Clara said to me, but she wasn't looking at me. She was looking up at Samuel, her eyes shining with the taste of danger that he was laying on her tastebuds. "We might as well have a night filled with bad choices, then."