"I can't believe that you two have gone all week without speaking. You seriously didn't even wish him 'happy birthday' today? He turned eighteen. That's pretty big," Jasmine comments, releasing a strand of my hair from where she's holding it around the barrel of a curling wand.

She begged me to let her put my hair up, but after I refused, she told me that I had to at least let her curl it.

She already looks like a goddess. Her hair is up in a messy fishtail braid, and she's already wearing her silver dress paired with higher heels than I've ever seen on her feet.

My brother can't take his eyes off of her, even as him and Jordan are sitting on the edge of the bathtub, immersed in conversation.

Jasmine finishes up my hair, a huge smile on her face as she flips all the curls back behind my shoulders. She unplugs the curling wand before grabbing a hair comb from the countertop, brushing it through my long locks before clapping her hands together in excitement.

My makeup is already done, and as badly as Jasmine wanted to do it for me, I knew that she would go way over the top, which is why I just did it myself.

Taking a firm hold of my hand, Jasmine drags me back out into the bedroom.

"Boys! Get your asses out here!" Jasmine calls to my brother and Jordan, both of whom appear out of the bathroom a few moments later, heading to take a seat on the bench at the foot of my bed.

I walk across the room to grab my dress from the closet, pausing when my eyes fall on Bryce's sweater which I still haven't returned.

He must've noticed by now and is just avoiding bringing it up, but I'm not mad about that as it means that I can be a total creep and wear it whenever I'm missing him.

I pull my red dress off the hanger, heading back into the room with the article of clothing in my hands.

"Want to pick out a pair of shoes for me?" I ask Jasmine as I head to the bathroom to change, and she squeals, nodding and rushing into my closet just as I shut the bathroom door behind me.

I just wore jeans and a T-shirt to school today, and so I change out of those and into the dress.

I'm able to get the zipper about halfway up before I turn to look at myself in the mirror.

I really do like how I look right now. I smooth the skirt of the dress down, turning to the side to check myself out for a moment before beaming at my reflection.

It's insane how much this dress seems to do for my confidence, and I'm thrilled that Jasmine picked it out for me even if she only wanted to please Bryce.

When I emerge back into the bedroom, shutting the lights off behind me, Jordan is standing and staring at something on top of my desk.

I walk up behind him, tapping him in the back and asking, "Can you zip my dress up?"

He nods at me, walking around behind me and finishing closing the zipper with one quick movement.

Him no longer in the way, I can now see that he was examining my cherry blossom necklace.

I honestly haven't worn it ever since Bryce and I's chat on the university field trip, and it makes me feel a little bit guilty.

Although it's just one simple piece of jewelry, it means so much to me, and I hate that I feel uncomfortable wearing it now.

I pick up the necklace, holding it in the open palm of my hand for a minute before Jordan reaches over my shoulder to take it from me.

He brushes all my hair over one shoulder, and silently he clasps the necklace around my neck for me.

"Consider it a birthday present to him. I'm sure he'll be thrilled to see you wearing it," Jordan tells me, and I turn around, smiling at him.

I feel tears threatening to leave my eyes, but desperate to leave my makeup intact, I shake the feeling off.

"Thank you," I whisper instead, and he nods at me, giving my shoulder a squeeze as he walks back over to sit with my brother.

"You look beautiful, Lex. Mom and Dad are going to freak out," Charlie compliments, and I smile at him.

"Thanks," I say, just as Jasmine returns from my closet.

She sets down a pair of strappy nude heels by my feet, and I thank her as I walk to my closet, dropping my dirty clothes in my laundry bin before stepping back into the room.

I slip my feet into the heels before heading over to my dresser to grab my phone.

"Ready to head out?" I ask, checking the time. It's just past eight, meaning that the dance has started up already.

All three of my friends nod before they all follow me out the door, Jasmine being gracious enough to shut off the lights behind her. We head down the stairs together, Charlie and Jordan putting their shoes on before I call out to my parents, who are sitting in the living room right now.

"We're heading out!" I say, and after a few seconds I hear two sets of footsteps heading towards us.

My mom and dad appear, hand in hand as they walk all the way to the foyer to bid us farewell.

"You kids all look great. Have fun tonight," my mom says, leaning against my dad for support.

He then wraps his arm around her waist, kissing her on the top of the head even though there are four teenagers standing in front of them who really don't want to see that.

"Thanks, Mrs. Brooks!" Jasmine grins, latching herself onto Charlie's arm. His whole body goes stiff for a minute as soon as she does this, and Jordan and I eye each other as we both seem to notice how awkward he always is around her.

"You kids better be home by midnight. See you then," my dad says to Charlie and I, and we nod to him, all of us heading out the door with one final wave.

Charlie agreed to drive us, and so we all pile into his car. Jasmine calls shotgun, and Charlie blushes at how badly she seems to want to be close to him.

Jordan and I laugh once again, climbing into the backseat without a word.

"Can I plug my phone in to the speakers, Charlie?" Jasmine asks my brother sweetly, resting one of her hands on his thigh.

He nearly jumps out of his seat at this, and I'm momentarily terrified that he's going to crash the car even though we haven't even left our street left.

"Yep," Charlie replies, gulping hard, and Jasmine smiles at him, pulling her hand away.

He finally relaxes, pulling out of the driveway and onto the street.

Charlie keeps his eyes focused on the road the whole time, avoiding any conversation with us. Jasmine plugs her phone in and begins to scroll though her music until she finds a song that pleases her as she presses play and turns up the volume loud.

It's some rap song that I've never heard before, but Charlie seems to know all the words as he sings along to it, accompanying Jasmine.

"This could be you and your man, but you're both lying to yourselves," Jordan leans over to whisper into my ear, and I slap him in the arm in response.

"Don't start with this, Jordan. It's over between us," I tell him, but he shakes me head as he leans back in his seat.

"That's a lie," Jordan respond vaguely, and he doesn't give me any more information as he turns away from me to stare out of the window at all of the trees passing by.

The whole car ride is spent with Charlie and Jasmine screaming songs I've never heard of as I sit silently, regretting every single interaction I've had with Bryce over the past four months.

I find myself wondering where we would be if we hadn't kissed on my thirteenth birthday.

There's no doubt in my mind that if I had had my first kiss with another boy, it would've been far easier to ignore all my pent up feelings for Bryce.

If he hadn't had showed up here that day in October with his charming smile and that darn enchanting look in his eyes, I have no doubt in my mind that I wouldn't have fallen so hard.

What would my life be like if I had never met him?

Even just these past few months, he's helped me to grow so much more confident.

I've mended my relationship with my mom, something I thought could never, ever be done.

He managed to convince me to try though, and it paid off. It really did.

Now I feel like I'm going to cry again.

But the truth is that I could never do any of this without him.

I'm undoubtedly happier when I'm around him, and no matter where life may take us, I always want Bryce by my side.

When we pull into the school's parking lot, Charlie ends up having to park in the back of the lot, and the moment we step out of the car, the loud music blaring from the gym can be heard even from where we're standing.

As soon as Charlie locks the car, Jasmine grabs his hand, hurrying him along to the entrance to the dance.

Jordan and I just watch them go for a minute before he links his arm through mine.

We walk slowly towards the loud sound of music, and before we're even in earshot of anyone else, I blurt out the words, "I want Bryce back, Jordan."

Jordan halts, looking down at me for a second.

He bites on his lower lip before nodding his head sympathetically.

"I know you do, Lexi. Let's go find him, okay? I'm sure that he's here by now," he tells me, and I give him a weak smile as he picks up the pace, keeping his arm linked with mine all the way until we reach the front door.

We're right at the back of the line to give our tickets just as Bryce and Camila walk into the hallway together.

Camila looks pretty, wearing a long and flowing pink dress. Her hair is in a high ponytail, but my eyes aren't on her because instead, I'm fixated on Bryce.

He's just wearing black dress pants, black dress shoes, and a button up black shirt, but I'm still transfixed.

The sleeves of his shirt are rolled up to his elbows, and the top three or four buttons of his shirt are undone.

I shouldn't be surprised that they came here together; Bryce tears my heart to shreds time after time, so what's new anymore?

"Shit," Bryce says under his breath the moment he sees me, and at first I think it's because he's frustrated that he got caught.

I soon realize this is wrong though, because his eyes are raking my body up and down in a way that sends butterflies straight to my stomach.

He bites down hard on his bottom lip, shaking his head back and forth as if he's trying to convince himself that he's imagining things.

"You look gorgeous, Lexi," Camila compliments, and I smile at her.

I'm about to return the compliment, but when I look to Bryce, I see that he's rapidly nodding his head in agreement with her.

Although he doesn't actually verbalized what he's thinking, his eyes are still on me, particularly on my necklace.

Thank God for Jordan.

"You look really beautiful too, Camila," I tell her, and she smiles at me.

We both seem to notice that Bryce is totally zoned out, staring at my face now. His eyes are shamelessly on my lips, and I'm scared that I'm going to pass out from all the nerves his gaze is causing me.

Camila elbows Bryce in the arm, and he snaps back to reality.

It takes a second for the past few moments to catch up with him, but when he realizes what he's done, he runs his fingers threw his hair anxiously.

I'm a little sad that I'm pulled away from the moment by Jordan, seeing as it's our turn to hand out tickets to the teachers collecting them.

We walk into the gymnasium right after without waiting for Bryce, and I literally almost have a heart attack when I see what's happening.

I can tell that I'll develop a headache soon from both the blaring pop music and the flashing strobe lights. People are already grinding on each other despite the fact that there are teachers chaperoning around every corner, and I'm grateful for Jordan who pulls me off to the side along one of the walls, all the way towards the back of the gym.

There, we find Charlie, Jasmine, Daniel, Ryan, and Mateo sitting down on a bench, some of them sipping from red solo cups as they all chat.

"There's definitely beer in this punch," Jasmine giggles, and Charlie nods in agreement with her.

I'm now hoping that he doesn't drink too much of it, knowing that it's probably not a great idea for us to leave Jordan to be in charge to drive everybody home.

"Where's the birthday boy?" Mateo asks Jordan and I when we arrive, and on cue Bryce appears behind us.

He takes another step forward so that he's standing beside me, but we don't even look at one another.

"You ditched your date?" Jordan asks Bryce, who snaps his head around to look over me and towards Jordan.

His eyes narrow straight away but Jordan holds his ground, both of them suddenly being interrupted by Jasmine asking, "Who's your date, Bryce?"

Bryce flinches at the mention of him having a date once again.

"He's talking about Camila, but we didn't come here together. We just met up in the parking lot," he practically spits, and I accidentally let some words slip.

"Sure you didn't," I comment quietly, and I instantly clamp my hand over my mouth in regret.

"What was that, Miss Brooks?" Bryce asks, taking a step closer towards me.

It forces me to tilt my chin up higher to meet his eyes, and I feel my bottom lip quiver as I stare at him.

"Damn. This is the first time they've spoken to each other in two weeks," I hear my brother comment, and we both consciously take a step apart from one another, breaking eye contact and pretending as if the small exchange never even happened.