I give myself a second to regain my composure, then leaving the hallway and heading towards the cafeteria.

I find Bryce already seated with everyone, and he appears to be deep in conversation with my brother.

I grab my food, my usual salad, before heading over to sit with my friends.

Inconveniently, the only available seat is in between Bryce and Jordan.

"Do you know an annoying ginger with crooked teeth and a pathetic attempt at a beard on his face?" Bryce asks my brother right as I sit down.

He doesn't even acknowledge me.

"Yeah. His name is Asher. He's a dick. He's on the soccer team with us and he got pissed at Charlie on the weekend thinking it was his fault that we lost our game," Daniel answers instead, and Charlie nods in agreement.

"Well perhaps you should reconsider pissing off that idiot because him and his buddies just cornered your sister in the hallway because of it," Bryce scolds, taking a large sip from his bottle of water.

My brother's face goes white. "Shit, really? I'm so sorry, Lex. I promise that it won't happen again. I'll beat their asses later," he says, and I give him a small smile, shaking my head.

"No worries. Nothing actually happened. You seem to care more than Bryce does anyway," I say, trying to be a little aggressive.

Bryce rests his hand down on the tabletop just hard enough to make a loud noise.

It causes me to jump a little in my seat, and I spin around to glare straight at him.

"What? Can't handle the truth? You know exactly why I would think that, Bryce," I say quietly, recalling how he was more concerned about my sex life than my safety.

"So you want me to be truthful, but when I tell you the truth you don't like what I have to say. Interesting, and not at all confusing," Bryce drawls sarcastically.

"We wouldn't be having this issue right now if you weren't so controlling in the first place!" I exclaim, and Bryce is now staring at me, looking annoyed that this conversation is happening in front of everyone.

"I'm not controlling. I was just expressing my feelings," Bryce lies, and I'm about to literally lash out at him before Jordan stops me.

"Can you guys shut up? Nobody wants to hear this. You two need to stop arguing all the time. It's annoyingly as hell," Jordan grumbles, and neither Bryce or I say anything in return for a moment, until a thought strikes me.

"I'm capable of defending myself. If you're going to be such a jerk to me, you can just leave me to save myself," I finally say to Bryce quietly, and he laughs out loud.

He shakes his head, shutting his eyes for a second. "Not physically. You're five feet tall and weigh literally twelve pound," he says, and I scowl at him.

"That's not true," I pout, and Bryce gives me a doubting look.

"I'm serious, guys. Stop it," Jordan says once again, and I turn to him slowly.

"Sorry everyone. Bryce is just acting like an immature jerk," I say to the table, and Bryce doesn't both to defend himself any further.

Jasmine clears her throat from where she's sitting across from us, and we all turn to see her with an innocent smile on her face.

She tilts her head to the side, causing her high ponytail of hair to swivel around her head before asking, "So is everybody going to the Valentine's Day dance?"

"Yeah. I still need to go dress shopping though. We should go this weekend," I tell her, and she beams at me, nodding her head rapidly.

"Do you have a date?" she then asks me, and I'm acutely aware of the fact that Bryce's eyes are suddenly on me, anticipating my answer.

"No, of course not," I tell her, shaking my head, and I watch her closely as her eyes dart from me to Bryce, then back to me.

"Do I have something on my face?" Bryce asks her coldly, not enjoying the attention, and her cheeks turn a deep red colour.

She shakes her head timidly at him before looking away, back towards me.

I give her a sympathetic smile and she just shrugs at me. It's a little comforting to know that Bryce is being rude to everyone and not just Jordan and I, but that doesn't make his behaviour any better.

"Are you going to go, Bryce?" Jasmine somehow asks sweetly, and I applaud her for that.

When I look to the side, I see that Bryce is texting away on his phone, not paying us any attention.

He looks up, blinks, and then answers, "Not the ideal way to spend my eighteenth birthday, that's for sure."

"Your birthday is on Valentine's Day?" Jordan asks from beside me, and Bryce leans forward so that he can look past me and towards Jordan.

"Yes. Got a problem with that?" he asks, and Jordan rolls his eyes at Bryce's shortness.

"No," he begins, shaking his head. I just find it that the guy born on Valentine's Day seems to have no love in his heart."

Ouch.

My brother lets out a low whistle, and I see that Mateo is trying hard not to burst out laughing from down the table. I give him a slight shake of my head and it seems to shut him up.

He shrugs at me and I look away from him, back to Bryce.

"Honestly, fuck you. None of you know anything about me," Bryce says, before he shoots up from his seat.

He slings his backpack over his shoulders before grabbing his tray, walking straight away from us.

He tosses the few remains of food into the trash before heading out of the cafeteria, dropping the tray by the food station.

We all watch him leave, and I resist the urge to follow after him.

Jordan's hand on my arm stops me, and I turn to look at him.

"Don't. You'll only get hurt," he tells me, and I frown at him.

"I don't know why he's in this bad of a mood," I say, and Jordan raises his eyebrows at me.

"What do you mean? He was like this most of the day yesterday too. He was a total asshole to me on the bus ride. I wanted to run screaming. Whatever you said to him really messed him up," Jordan tells me, and I find myself speechless.

"Lex?" Jasmine asks suddenly, and when I look to her, she appears as conflicted as ever.

"What's up?" I ask, doing my best to sound as at-ease as possible.

"Has he said anything that could be . . . shocking, to you since the trip?" she asks me, and I tilt my head to the side.

"No, Jasmine. He hasn't. He hasn't said anything nice at all all day either, so I don't know what you expect him to tell me," I huff, and she clasps her hands together on the table, biting down on her bottom lip.

We avoid the topic of Bryce for the rest of the lunch hour. He doesn't make an effort to show up again either, and I won't see him until last period as I have French while he has Spanish.

I later meet up with Mateo in the hallway and we end up walking to English together.

I find myself wondering the whole time how Bryce is going to act, and his behaviour seemed to really disappoint me.

He didn't talk all class.

Not at all.

For once in his life, he was completely and totally silent.

He was already sitting in his seat at our table when Mateo and I entered the room, my brother and Jasmine sitting with him.

Bryce didn't even look up when I sat down beside him, and he definitely ignored me when I cleared my throat in an attempt to catch his attention.

Class went by slower then ever. When the bell finally rang at the end of the day it sounded like a message sent from heaven, and I was eager to get as far away as possible form that awfully awkward situation.

On our way to the lockers, Jordan surprised me by asking, "You want to come over to my place, Lex?"

"Yeah, sure," I answer right as we reach our lockers.

I twist open my lock, grabbing my things from my backpack and lining them up neatly inside.

I then slam the door shut, finding Charlie directly to my right.

The sudden sight of him causes me to jump.

"Jeez! Really?" I pout, and he laughs.

"Sorry Lex. Did you see which direction Bryce went in?" my brother asks, and I shake my head at him.

I shrug, saying, "No. He kind of just disappeared, it seems."

Charlie huffs, leaning his head to the side against the lockers.

"Dammit. I need to talk to him. I'm kind of scared that he's going to go and do something really stupid," he confesses, and I give him a weak smile.

"I'm going with Jordan so I don't need a ride. I'll text you when I'm headed home," I tell my brother, and he nods, giving me a wave before spotting Jasmine and hurrying off to talk to her.

He taps her on the shoulder, and when she spins around and sees him standing there she has a huge smile on his face. It's kind of adorable, actually.

"Ready to go?" Jordan asks from behind me and I turn around to nod at him, then following him out of the building.

When we reach Jordan's car, he unlocks the doors for us and I climb into the passenger side as he gets into the driver's seat.

When he starts up the car and the radio comes to life, a Demi Lovato song immediately starts to blare through the speakers.

Jordan quickly turns the radio down but I obviously already heard his taste in music which causes me to burst out laughing.

"So the guy who gets mad at other people for singing pop songs in the car listens to pop music himself?" I question, quirking an eyebrow up at him.

He sticks his tongue out at me in response, and we both end up bursting out laughing.

"I have nothing against pop music. I just have something against Ryan's annoying ass singing," Jordan claims, turning out of the school's parking lot and into the street.

There's no traffic at all today, and so we arrive at Jordan's house right away.

He lives at the very end of a cul-de-sac in a fairly typical home; the siding is a deep grey colour and their front door is painted a bright blue.

Jordan parks his car next to another that's already in the driveway, and we grab our bags before climbing out of the vehicle and heading for the front door.

"I have no clue why my dad is home," Jordan says as he sticks his house key into the lock.

He twists the lock, and when he pushes the door open, his dog is right there waiting for us, tail wagging like crazy.

"Hi Luna!" I exclaim when I see her.

She's the cutest dog ever with her big blue eyes and silky black fur, and I bend down to pet her as soon as I take my shoes off.

Jordan shuts the door behind us, chuckling at the affection I'm showing for the animal.

"She's really annoying when you actually live with her," he tells me, and I jokingly cover Luna's floppy ears.

"Don't say that! She's adorable," I defend, and as if she could understand me, the dog looks up with her mouth open, tongue out with an almost-smile on her face.

Jordan's dad suddenly appears in the hallway, pulling a jacket on in a hurried manner.

Jordan and I get out of the way as he approaches and slips on a pair of shoes, grabbing a briefcase from by the end of the stairwell.

When he sees Jordan and I, he gives us a wave.

"Hi Lexi. Hey Jordan. I would love to chat but I'm in a rush," he says, bending down to ruffle Luna's fur.

He then opens up the door, stepping outside.

I give him a wave before he closes it, saying, "Bye, Mr. Thompson."

Jordan waves to him too, and just like that he leaves without another word.

Jordan offers me a hand and he helps to pull me up off the floor.

"You hungry?" he asks me, and I answer, "No," as I follow him into the kitchen.

Luna stands up from where she's sitting, trotting along behind us as we walk.

I decide to head straight to take a seat on the couch in the living room, and Jordan goes to the kitchen, rummaging around through one of the cupboards until he finds a bag of chips.

He rips the bag open, heading over to sit down next to me.

He drops the bag of chips on the coffee table just as the door bell rings.

He thinks for a moment before saying, "My dad probably forgot something. I don't know why he couldn't use his key," standing up from the couch and exiting the living room.

I listen closely as he walks all the way to the front door, and I hear the click of the lock, followed by the sound of a door opening.

"I need advice," Bryce says right away.

Oh no.

Of course he would show up here. That's just my luck.

The thoughts of what could happen next cause me to shoot up in my seat, panic overtaking me.

Luna jumps up onto the couch and sits down right in my lap on cue, leaning forward to try and stick her nose in the chip bag.

I push the bag away so that she can't eat any of them, and she looks back at me with sad eyes.

It's tempting to give her a chip, but I don't know if her family lets her eat human food so I pat her on the head instead.

"So you're just going to invite yourself into my house?" Jordan asks sarcastically as more footsteps sound, growing gradually louder.

I can tell that the two of them are approaching and I still have no clue what Bryce is going to say to me when he sees me.

The footsteps come to a halt. "Yes. I need advice," Bryce says, and Jordan laughs.

"You've already mentioned that, dude. About what?" Jordan asks, and there's still no footsteps.

"It's about Lexi. I fucked up. She hates me," Bryce says, and I feel my heart stop beating in my chest.

It feels like my blood's run cold and I honestly wish I could just vanish from this entire situation.

"Well I think everyone hates you right now, man. But good news, I think I can help you fix things with Lexi!" Jordan says, and then footsteps sound as they both approach the room.

The moment they step into the room, Bryce looks as if he's seen a ghost as his gaze falls to me.

"And I will be departing now," he says, turning on his heel and taking a few steps back in the direction he had just came in.

Jordan chuckles, grabbing his arm to stop him from leaving.

Luna jumps up out of my lap and off the couch, running towards Bryce.

When she reaches him she begins to scratch as his legs, and although I expected Bryce to be disgusted by the animal, he bends down and begins to scratch the dog behind her ears.

"I didn't know you had a dog," he says, before reaching for her collar. He takes a second to read the text engraved there, before commenting, "Luna. Cute name."

Jordan rolls his eyes, telling Bryce, "Come sit and chat."

He then heads over to sit back down on the sofa beside me, and Bryce reluctantly follows.

He looks at Jordan and I for a second, and then he decides to sit down in the large armchair.

Luna follows him over and jumps up into the chair, settling herself right into his lap.

I've never been more jealous of a dog before in my life.

Bryce begins to ruffle his fingers through the dog's fur, setting his tattooed arm down on the armrest of the chair.

A small blond cat suddenly comes stalking into the room, and when it sees Bryce, it jumps up onto the armrest, sitting right on Bryce's forearm.

"That's Draco. By some miracle, Luna hasn't eaten him yet," Jordan tells Bryce, and Bryce chuckles.

He smiles wide as he stares down at the two animals that have automatically taken this much of a liking towards him, and it's super sweet to watch.

"I hate how my pets seem to like you more than they like me," Jordan continues, just as Draco leaps off of Bryce's arm and situates himself beside Luna on his lap.

Bryce begins to smooth Draco's fur too, and the small cat starts purring straight away.

"So you came over here for advice about Lexi. What do you want to say to her?" Jordan asks, and I reach for his arm to get his attention.

When he looks to me I give him a warning shake of my head, and he huffs at me.

"I'm not going to speak about this right now," Bryce says firmly, and Jordan bursts out cackling.

"I can't fulfil my duties as your couple's counsellor if neither of you talk to me. Besides, Bryce, you literally showed up at my house just to talk about her," Jordan says, and Bryce's faces seems to go pale.

"I didn't expect for her to be her. If I had known, I wouldn't have shown up," Bryce says almost rudely, and I can't hide the sad look in my eyes when I turn to him.

Our gazes meet and he looks regretful. I have to bite my lip to stop a frown from forming because I can't believe that this is where we're at right now.

Never in all the years that we've known each other have we had as much tension as we do now, and though it pains me to say it, I'm starting to lose hope in us.

"Avoiding me isn't going to solve anything," I say quietly, and Bryce tilts his head to the side.

Draco leaps off of his lap and slyly strolls away from Bryce, heading out of the room and down the hallway.

Luna gets up out off his lap as well, going to lay down on the floor by the coffee table instead.

"You named your animals after Harry Potter characters?" Bryce asks Jordan, trying to steer away from my comment.

"My mom is a huge Harry Potter fan," Jordan says, and although the fact appears to be innocent, Bryce replies with, "Good to hear that she's just as much of a loser as your are."

This makes me stand up from my seat, crossing my arms.

Bryce's rudeness towards me makes a little bit of sense, but from what I can tell, Jordan has literally done nothing to Bryce to deserve these words.

This is why I ask, "So being mean to just me isn't enough for you anymore? You've got to bully Jordan now too?"

Bryce's eyes narrow at me, and his jaw clenches.

I realize that I'm still standing and I just cross my arms tighter to try and hold my ground.

He suddenly takes a sharp breath, and his confident demeanour falters.