Perhaps we should try and stop spending so much time alone together.

His words have been ringing in my head for the past month.

I suppose he got what he wanted seeing as we have barely spoken to each other this whole time.

It's December now, and we're in our final week of school before winter break. There's snow on the ground and it's impossible to go outside and not freeze unless you're wearing a heavy jacket. School has been pretty bland and boring the past week, and now that we only have three days left before a whole two weeks of vacation, everybody, including the teachers, just want to go home.

I had flown into New York for three nights a couple weekends ago, and I auditioned for my top choices as for universities, all of which were conveniently in the city.

It's a long shot being Canadian and auditioning for American schools, but I'm super grateful that my parents let me travel to audition in person. I have auditions in the New Year for schools here as well, but I have every theatre kid's dream of living in New York City and performing on Broadway.

My mother flew in to the city with me, insisting that I shouldn't go alone. My dad has to practically beg me to try my best to keep things friendly between us before we left, and I didn't even argue with him recalling the deal I made with Bryce.

We didn't get into a single argument all weekend by some miracle, and my auditions went really well to my belief.

This led to the one conversation alone Bryce and I have had since what he told me after school that day.

We were on our way to voice class, and Camila wasn't there that day so we had been walking alone. Just as we were about to walk into the main hallway, Bryce has grabbed my hand and pulled me off to the side.

"How was your weekend with your mom?" he asks me quietly, keeping a stable distance of about six inches from my face. His fingers are still intertwined with mine, and I look down at where our hands meet.

"It was good. We didn't fight at all," I answer him shyly.

This makes him smile, and his eyes light up a little when he taps me on the nose with his free hand.

"I'm glad to hear that," he grins, and I give him a timid nod.

We stand there awkwardly for a few more seconds before Bryce clears his throat, taking a step back away from me.

He drops my hand, then sticking his hands in his pockets. His tattoos are on show, and based on the angle his arms are at I caught a glimpse of his wrist.

"Is that a new tattoo?" I ask, and his eyes widen a little at me.

"Yeah, it is. I'm surprised you noticed," he tells me, raising his hand up to inspect the script written on his wrist.

Though it blends in perfectly with the other designs, I noticed that this line of Arabic writing was new.

"What does it say?" I question him, and he smiles a little as he continues to examine the tattoo.

He drops his hand to his side, looking up so that his eyes meet mine once again.

"Nothing important. I'm sure you'll find out someday," he answers vaguely, before turning around and gesturing for me to follow him.

"Come on. We have class," he tells me, and I follow him without another word.

I find myself smiling at the memory which seems so distant despite it only being two weeks ago.

Time is just flying by so fast that it's hard to keep track. I'm beyond excited to graduate and go to university, but that doesn't mean that the reality of it all doesn't sink in every once in awhile; I'll probably never see most of these people ever again.

This is why you stopped yourself from getting into a relationship, Lexi, I remind myself, then being broke from my daydream by a hand tapping my shoulder.

"Hurry up, Lex. We have an assembly all afternoon apparently," Charlie tells me, grabbing my garbage for me and walking over to toss in in a trash can.

I sigh, getting up from my seat and slinging it over my shoulder before following him and Mateo out the door.

Mateo hasn't really been speaking to me either this past little while. I just assumed that he must he stressed about school like we all have been.

"What assembly is going to take the whole afternoon?" I question my brother as we make a left, heading towards the auditorium.

He shrugs at me as we join the line of students filing into the auditorium.

"What's all this shit about?" Bryce asks me as he joins us, followed by Jordan, Jasmine, Daniel, and Ryan.

"I don't know," I answer as we take our seats. The auditorium is almost already full, so we end up seated together in the back row.

I end up seated in between Bryce and Charlie near the end of the row. Bryce is texting on his phone and when I look over his shoulder to see what he's doing I find him scrolling through his own Instagram page.

He's forced to tuck his phone away when the presentation seems to be beginning.

There's a man and a woman, both looking like they must be in their mid-thirties. They introduce themselves briefly before the principal then takes the microphone from them.

"Now, I understand that what we will be discussing today is a very sensitive topic and we welcome students to leave the room if they feel the need to at any time. I'm now going to request everyone to please shut off their phones so our presenters can start," he tells the audience, and all the chatter from the overly energetic teenagers dies down.

"Hello, everyone," the woman begins to say as as the principal exits the stage, leaving her and the other man alone on stage.

"I understand that what we may be speaking about today could seem irrelevant to all of you, but it does happen more often than you think," she continues, then going on to introducing the organization they work for.

That's when the title of their presentation finally hits me.

Preventing Sex Trafficking in Teens and Youth.

You've got to be kidding me.

I literally feel my whole body tense, and that's when Charlie leans in to my ear.

"You can leave, Lex. It's probably best. You don't have to force yourself to sit through this," he tells me, and I gulp hard, shaking my head at him.

"I'll be fine. I need to get over it anyway," I say aloud, more to myself than to him.

And even though I'm doing a fine job at ignoring all the words that are coming out of their mouthes about how high the rate of teenagers who are kidnapped and sold into trafficking in our province is, I'm helpless as far as preventing the flashbacks goes.

"Please. Just let me go home," I sob, and the woman rolls her eyes at me.

Her hair is a tangled mess and it's bleached to a brassy blonde, her roots far overgrown.

She then holds out her hand in front of me as if she's expecting me to place something in it, but I don't know what she expects, so I just stand there, crying and shaking all over.

"Give me your phone," she barks, and I stumble away from her, shaking my head furiously.

"I don't have it with me. I was going to get it before you—"

She slaps me right across the face, cutting me off.

I crumble to a heap on the ground, clutching the side of my face. It stings where she hit me, and the tears start falling even harder.

"You stupid little bitch," she spits. "Give me your damn phone."

"I'm serious, I don't have it. Please just let me go home," I continue to plea, and then she bends down, hitting me again.

I end up choking on a sob, causing me to cough madly, and when that quiets down I just end up crying again.

The woman lets out a frustrated huff before walking out of the room, slamming the door shut right in my face, leaving me alone in the tiny dark room.

I hear the click of a lock, and when I try to rattle the handle the door doesn't open.

There's only one small window in the room, and there are bars blocking off the glass, making it impossible for me to open it up and attempt to climb out.

I reach for the light switch on the wall, but when I switch it on, the overhead light doesn't turn on, making me realize that there are no lightbulbs in the light fixture.

I lean back against the wall, giving up on any hope.

Why did this have to happen to me?

It's not fair. I'm a good person, at least I think I am. I just want to go home and go to sleep in my own bed.

There must be a reason that they brought me here, and I have an awful feeling that it's going to have to do with sex. What else would they need a fourteen year old girl for?

"She's whiny as fuck. It's a shame that Chad has that one needy client. Apparently he wants a young virgin by Thursday, so we might as well keep this one. Besides, it's not like we can just let her go. There's no way she would keep her mouth shut," the same woman says, and her voice is followed by the deep sound of a man chuckling.

"What if she's not a virgin? I'm assuming the client is probably picky about that shit or else Chad would've just sent over one of the bitches we picked up last month," the man says, and I hear the woman let out a groan as if she's annoyed by his stupidity.

There's then a quick series of knocks before the woman yells, "Are you a virgin or not?"

When I don't respond to her, she let's out another one of those agitated puffs, and she begins to speak to the man in the other room again.

"Whatever. If Chad doesn't want her you can have your way with her I guess," she says, and the man laughs.

"Lexi? What's wrong?" Charlie asks me, and I turn to him, tears in my eyes.

I'm terrified that if I open my mouth to reply to him that I'll just end up sobbing, so without a second thought I quickly get up from my seat.

I take a few steps before I feel a firm grip on my arm, and when I turn around I find Bryce staring at me with wide eyes.

It only takes one tug of my arm away for him to let go, and I take that freedom to run out of the auditorium, fleeing down one of the side hallways.

I end up collapsing on to one of the benches near the building's front door, immediately curling up into a ball and burying my face into my knees.

I'm crying furiously, alone, for many minutes until I decide that I need to get out of this building and get home.

Knowing that Charlie would probably be glad to ditch school and drive me home early, I'm about to reach for my phone before I realize that it's in my backpack, which in my haste, I conveniently left in the auditorium.

Dammit. Lexi, I think, dropping my face into my hands and just letting the tears flow.

The sound of heavy footsteps approaching me echoes through the otherwise silent hallway, and I nearly die a little inside at the thought of having to face someone right now. I'm sure my exit from the presentation caused a commotion, even though I was at the back of the room so I didn't have to run past anybody really.

Nonetheless, I'm sure that some people caught the crazy senior who is apparently overly sensitive to the topic of sex trafficking.

"Blossom? What's wrong?" the person asks, and when I look up to find Bryce taking quick steps towards me I start crying even harder.

He's carrying both of our backpacks, and when he approaches the bench I'm sitting on, he drops the bags to the ground before taking a seat on the bench right beside me.

"Bryce," I whisper through tears, and he moves closer to me, opening his arms and pulling me tight to his chest.

I wrap my arms around him, crying in to the crook of his neck as he strokes my hair softly.

"What happened?" he asks me quietly, and I pull away from him to look him in the eye.

His brows are furrowed and he raises a hand to cradle the side of my face, brushing his thumbs against my cheeks.

I need to tell him. After all he's done for me, he deserves to know.

I take a deep breath in as Bryce wipes away some of the tears pouring down my face.

"It's a long story but it may be good to get it all off my chest," I start, and Bryce opens his mouth to say something, but I stop him with a shake of my head.

"A few days after my fourteenth birthday, I was over at Jasmine's house for a sleepover. My parents were busy that night and had plans to attend to right after they had dropped me off, and Jasmine's parents were out that night too. So when I realized that I had forgotten my phone at home, I figured that I could just deal with the ten minute walk and go grab it myself.

"It was kind of cold out that night and I really didn't want to be walking alone, so I took a shortcut down a street into a section of the neighbourhood that I wasn't very familiar with. I was minding my own business when I noticed that there was a car following me, so I began to walk faster but I obviously couldn't be quicker than a car."

When I look up I find that Bryce is still listening to me intently, his eyes wide and sincere.

His lips are parted slightly and he wipes another tear that escaped as I recognize that the worst part of the story is just about to be told.

"The car eventually stopped behind me and a man and woman stepped out of the vehicle. They walked up to me and grabbed me before I could even have the window of opportunity to run away. They were too strong and I couldn't fight back, and I ended up in the back of their car.

"They drove me somewhere a few minutes away, and they dragged me into a small house in a neighbourhood that I didn't recognize. I of course didn't have my phone with me, so it's not like I could call help or anything. They shoved me into a room and I was locked in there overnight, and in the morning another man showed up. He came to look at me and then decided that he didn't want me for some reason. They talked about what to do with me for awhile, but Jasmine must have called the police right after she noticed I was gone because that second night, the police arrived.

"Apparently the boy that lived next door saw them drag me inside, so when he heard I was missing he told his mom and they called the police. His name is Oliver, and he's a year older than us. He graduated last year but he did go to our school."

I have to take a break from talking to breathe, but I'm feeling the weight grow lighter and lighter which just encourages me to finish the story.

It's too late to stop talking now, and I fully trust Bryce to keep this quiet for me so there's really no reason for me to suddenly stop now.

"It turns out that they worked for a much larger sex trafficking ring. I'm so freaking lucky that nothing happened to me, and it's a damn miracle that I got out untouched. But based on the way they were talking while I was there . . . I was going to be next. I would've been forced to do terrible things with creepy people way older than me, and it was going to happen to me. I still don't understand how I—"

I suddenly can't contain the tears any longer and I'm sobbing uncontrollably once again which makes Bryce pull me back to his chest.

"Shh, baby. It's okay. I'm here. You'll be okay," he says to me, but I shake my head.

"I should finish telling y—"

"I already know," he tells me, cutting me off.

"Wait, what?" I ask, totally incredulous as of to how he came across the information.

I try to pull away from his chest but he keeps me drawn close, and his arms feel so safe that I don't bother fighting it.

"I read an article online. Your name was protected because you're a minor but when I asked my parents about it they told me it was you. Your mom had called my parents to tell them, and when I asked about it they didn't bother lying to me. I know the whole story all the way down to the legal repercussions. You don't have to explain any more to me," he informs me, and my jaw drops a little at his words.

"So you've known this whole time?" I ask him, and he nods at me, rubbing small circles against my back.

"Yeah. I've always know. When we were at Ryan's place and you had that nightmare, I figured that it was about this. Was I right?" he asks me, and I sigh against his neck.

"Yes," I answer quietly, and he nods slightly.

His hold around me slacks a little bit, and I lean back a bit in my seat, putting a few inches of distance between our bodies.

Bryce then leans forward to plant a gentle kiss on my forehead, and I feel a shiver rake through my entire body.

I'm certainly upset that Bryce has known about this all this time, but I guess there was never a need to talk about it before now and he was just being considerate by not bringing the uncomfortable topic up.

"It really hurt when you told me that we needed to stop spending time together," I blurt out, and Bryce pulls his face farther away to stare at me.

His eyes suddenly turn sad and he let's out a soft sigh as he brushes a thumb across my lips. I can nearly hear my heart beating, when he does this, and I feel suddenly cold when he draws his hand away.

"I'm sorry. I just know that you don't want to get attached to anyone at all, so I thought that this would be best," he explains to me, but I'm really not standing for his ridiculous logic.

We could still be friends, but he won't even let that happen which is driving my insane. I really missed our moments together like this, but it seems that we haven't gotten any over the past little while.

"That doesn't mean that I haven't missed you these past weeks," I retort, and just like that he stands up from his seat.

I honestly expect him to be mad at me or something, but instead he offers me his hand. I take it and he pulls me up too before slinging both our bags over his shoulders and relinking our fingers.

"I could carry that, you know," I offer, and Bryce smiles a little.

"So can I," he counters, before guiding me directly for the entrance to the school.

When I turn to him to ask where we're going, he answers me before I even say the questions aloud.

"I'm going to take you home. The assembly is going to go until nearly the end of the day, and there'll be early dismissal afterwards anyway so you won't miss class at all," he tells me, and I give him a grateful smile.

"All right. Thank you so much, Bryce," I tell him, and he gives me a bright smile.

"No problem, Blossom. Anything for you."

We hold hands all the way as we walk out of the building and down the steps.