UNEDITED

Breathe in. breathe out.

Breathe in Breath ou-achooo.

My cold had started acting up and I had sneezed at least five times in the last two minutes.

Yay life.

I look at my phone trying to send the most impersonal text possible.

To Jak(e)ass

Ashley is coming to pick you up.

That's impersonal enough.

I had quickly texted Ashley to come pick Jake up from school after the fight scene Jake had started. I just hope that Jake sucks up his ego long enough to go home.

No one really knows what the fight started for, thats a secret only Jake and Kevin seem to know and Kevin was not in the best shape to say anything and Jake had disappeared off the face of the Earth.

Good riddiance.

"Hello Earth to Clara." Samantha says making me looking up.

"What?" I ask her kind of startled.

" That." She says in a disgusted tone looking at Jeremy and Rebecca next to her in the cafeteria where of course the topic everyone was talking about was the fight.

The fight that lasted about 10 minutes had made enough gossip to last for 10 days.

She says it softly so that only I can hear because clearly she doesn't want them hear after her fight with Rebecca she had became much more careful.

"I don't know what to wear to winter ball."Rebecca says,"I do have a pretty dress but Im not sure it will match."

"Babe you will look good in whatever you know it." Jeremy replies giving her a genuine smile.

My heart sinks at the choice of their topic. The Winterball. I remember when Jake asked me...

You know what screw it I am done thinking about Jake the guy can go with Ashley or lie dying in a corner of the street see if I gave a damn and I doubt he really meant it when he asked me.

"So you did come to see the fight in the end." Samantha says in a desperate attempt to make conversation and drown out theirs.

Just remembering about the fight makes me think about Jake and that makes me want to puke.

"Yeah." I say trying to sound light,"I mean who could resist seeing Jake getting his ass kicked."

Samantha rolled her eyes.

"Oh please you looked like you were about to faint during the fight." Samantha says smirking.

Shit people noticed that? And I wasn't going to faint I just felt slightly queasy.

"I'm sick." I say not completely lying or telling the truth,"And I don't like blood very much."

"Yeah yeah sure why not." Samantha said,"You don't like blood very much when it is coming from Jake and lets not even mention the eye contact crap you did. For a moment I thought you weren't selling the fake dating thing."

"Eye contact?" I ask sort of confused.

Samantha smirks.

"You know exactly what I am talking about." Samantha says.

"When did you become Rebecca?" I ask.

"When she started to completely ignore us." She said looking at Rebecca who was completely oblivious to our conversation.

"Whatever I don't like Jake." I say,"Never have. Never will."

"Who are you trying to convince?" Samantha said raising an eyebrow,"Me or yourself?"

I simply roll my eyes.

By the time the lunch bell rings Samantha and me have just had enough of Jeremy and Rebecca. I don't know what game Jeremy is playing or what love potion Rebecca put in his food but they are so cheesy that I want to kill myself.

I just hope Jeremy doesn't break Rebecca's heart because if he does I will kill him and Samantha will happily help.

For different reasons though.

I reach my chemistry class slightly late but the teacher hadn't arrived yet so I slid into my seat next to Alec completely ignoring Jake's empty seat next to me.

"Where is Jake?" Alec whispered.

I shrug.

"It's Jake," I respond,"And I doubt we would really like to find out."

"Well, your boyfriend is forever indebted to me cause I saved his sorry ass." Alec cracks a grin just before our teacher walks in.

"Okay class today we are doing a practical." She says and briefly glances at me and the pained expression on my face,"This is a very complicated one and we are dealing with concentrated acids so precision is everything."

I tune off because I know for a fact that I am going nowhere near this experiment because knowing me I would probably end up screwing up. Big time.

Instead I go back to my favourite pass time: To stare shamelessly at Alec as subtly as possible.

Alec is listening intently to the teacher is the definition of cute. His blonde hair is completely messy and his green eyes are completely focused on the teacher.

Why god? Why? Its not fair to make people this perfect.

The one thing that had always drawn me about him was how nice he was. Besides the fact that Alec was ectremely easy on the eyes.I mean he did have his major share of faults.

I mean dating all the girls the parties and the of course at times the drinking. But Alec is still one of the nicest people I have met.

When his mom died who was the only thing close to a motherly figure in my life I almost found it my duty to start caring for him.

Eventually I fell for him. Hard. Or maybe I always had but I just never understood it until later.

Until Natalie came.

Natalie had come to town soon after Alec's mom died. She wasn't always the confident blonde she was but in fact a shy sweet girl who had braces.

Natalie became my friend almost immediately and that meant she became Alec's friend.

One day when we were thirteen Natalie had looked at me straight in the face and asked me if I liked Alec and though I had never come to think about it I realised that in reality I actually did.

A lot.

And from then on the pining began. Nothing had really changed between Alec and I. I still was the clumsy one who kept on tripping and falling and he was always the one helping me up. But the difference was my heart raced whenever he did.

He was kind, sweet, funny and I had known him forever. He was my best friend too and frankly It didn't get any better.

During the summer I spent in camp with Jake, I became a completely different person than who I usually was but I became the quiet,pushover girl again when I came back.

When I came back things had drastically changed. Natalie had grown out of her awkwardness and had transformed into the next thing after my sister while Alec had grown hot.

Like really really hot.

Which is when the girls came after him. He always denied them which gave me a bit of hope that my feelings were reciprocated by him.

Our last year in middle school consisted of Natalie changing to queen and Alec into the king while I still remained the quiet girl who no one noticed.

When Natalie came to high school she had transformed completely she became meaner and bitchier and worse than ever.

But Nick's party. Thats when everything changed. I didn't remember much of that night to be honest no matter how hard I tried.

After that my high school life became hell on Earth. Alec started dating Natalie shattering my heart (gosh I sound dramatic) and Natalie found every single way to make sure I felt horrible.

But small miracles did occur when Alec dumped Natalie and I became friends with Samantha and Rebecca.

And then came Alec's relationship with my sister and the very thought of it made me want to puke. Of course they broke up eventually thank god for that because I honestly didn't know how long I would be able to take seeing my sisters tongue down his throat.

I just puked in my mouth.

Then of course came his playboy phase. Girls, parties and drinking. It was one of the things I liked least about him but it was the only time where things felt like the old times when he depended on me.

Which was plain pathetic.

I have no idea why he had started dating Natalie again and I was scared to know the answer really.

"Clara?" Alec's voice calls out breaking me out from my reverie.

"Huh?" I say stupidly.

"Can you slowly spray the gas into the solution slowly?" he says.

I take in my surroundings trying to process what I had missed out. Alec was adjusting his lab coat and glasses something I had worn before the experiment had started. He was pointed at the spray bottle that lay next to the blue solution in the flask.

I nod and pick the can cautiously. I should have probably listened to what exactly the liquid was and how much of a chance I had of going to the Emergency Room if I have a mishap with it.

I picked up the spray can at the back of mind distinctly remembering that we had to be very careful not to spray excess.

Shit what was the right amount again?

I was about to put down the spray and ask Alec no way in hell I was going to do it but before I could I sneezed.

Almost immediately I sprayed out almost half the bottle and managed to drop the flask onto the floor which shattered.

I looked up at horror at Alec and was about to say something like it was nice knowing you or I was sorry that we were going to die a painful death because of me.

Instead I laughed.

I'm not talking about like the normal giggle I mean full on laughing clutching my stomach and Alec was doing exactly the same.

In fact everyone around us had started to laugh too which make me laugh harder. I felt light headed and slightly dizzy and very confused.

But I still was laughing my head off.

"Oh my god." Alec said laughing,"I never thought laughing gas would be so effective."

I nod still giggling and laughing,"I know right we should and spray it all over your girlfriends face. She could do with a look on her face that doesn't look like she doesn't want to kill someone."

Holy Shit. I just said that but Alec still continued to laugh.

"I know and your boyfriend should literally inhale this stuff on a regular basis," he says and I nod the mention of Jake not pissing me off.

"Everyone out." Mrs Yetern said giggling slightly.

"I am sorry ." I say my mind terrified but I was physically laughing.

By the time we left the Lab everyone was laughing and giggling holding their stomachs.

I felt pretty light headed and dizzy but I found everything funny.

"I am getting screwed." I tell Alec my laughing slowly decreasing.

He gives a slight chuckle and says,"I know."

"Clara!" I hear Mrs Yetern call out and the effects of the laughing gas has completely worn off.

" I am so ss-sorry." I say.

Mrs Yetern simply sighs,"I know you don't do this on purpose Clara but honestly despite you're impeccable theory you will fail in practicals."

"B-But." I stumble.

I cannot fail. This is not happening to me. I have never gotten a below a B in my life.

"Alec you on the other hand are doing just fine and your theory is improving leaps and bounds." She says but I am too dazed to catch what she says.

I. CANNOT. FAIL.

Thats all that goes through my head and by the time I break out of my thoughts ready to beg Mrs Yetern to revaluate she says,"Fine Alec if you say so. If you can get her to do her final practicals on her own without her breaking so much as a test tube she I will revaluate."

Alec nods and smiles and she walks of muttering something about just how clumsy a person can get.

"W Wh-What just happened." I stammer still thinking of the large F that would probably taint my report.

"She has given you another chance but that means no mishaps in the lab." Alec says.

"Oh so basically she wants me to bunk every time there is a practical period?" I say," That I can do."

Alec chuckles.

"You will be fine." He says,"Trust me by the time finals come you will never know what the word clumsy means."

"Clearly you don't know me." I say.

"I do Clara." He says,"More so than you think."

I blush slightly at that. I mean what is that supposed to mean?

"Well, best of luck teaching me how not to trip over my own feet." I say.

He simply laughs.

"Challenge accepted." He says in Barney Stinson style and I crack a smile.

I laugh just as Mrs Yetern calls out,"Class you are dismissed. This will be a free period as it will take time to clear the gas."

Three-Fourth of the class turn towards me and look like they would kiss me any moment.

Umm Alec, feel free to do so.

Alec disappears into the crowd as they all disperse and I decide to walk towards my locker knowing that Natalie would definitely not be there.

My phone pings and I take it out to see who sent me a message.

It was Samantha.

'Do you need a ride after school?'

I quickly reply back saying Yes.

I see another unread message from Jake sent about an hour back.

Thank You.

I read the message twice and thrice trying to figure out what he meant. In the end I just figured he thanked me for calling Ashley or maybe he just sent it to the wrong person.

Must be that.

I quickly dump my books in my locker and see how much time there was for the class to be dismissed. It was a good 15 minutes.

My eyes dart to my phone.

Clara don't do it.

But I call anyway.

"Hi Ashley?" I say when she picks up the phone.

"Hi Clara." Ashley says her voice sounding distant through the receiver.

"Did um he uuh come home with you?" I say doing my best to sound casual.

"Oh yeah." She says,"The idiot is in his room right now and refuses to take any meds for his fever I did give him some soup which he gobbled in like 2 minutes so basically he is acting like a huge hypocrite."

"Oh." I say unable to think of anything else.

"Clara do you think perhaps you could tell me why Jake has so many bruises?" She says sounding slightly angry.

If I told Ashley the truth Jake would get screwed for sure and since he hasn't told her himself I had no right to tell.

I give my standard answer,"It's Jake. Who knows what he does."

Ashley chuckles lightly.

"Well, I hope you come home soon and force the meds down his throat." Ashley says laughing,"Threaten to break up with him unless he does."

If only.

I give a fake laugh and say,"Ok."

I am about to say bye but before I can Ashley quickly says,"Hey Clara would you mind being a bridesmaid at my wedding?"

My mouth almost hangs open. I had never been to wedding in my life and now I was going to two and being a bridesmaid. How did I get so popular all of a sudden?

"It's okay if you don't want to-"

"No, I would be honoured to be one actually." I say surprising myself.

I can almost hear her huge smile on the phone.

"Thank you." She says,"I'll go over the details with you later. And don't worry,Jake will be fine."

She cuts the phone and I stand in my place kind of frozen as to what happened.

Despite myself I smile and shake my head as I start to think to myself how genuinely I like Ashley and Nathan together.

They were complete polar opposites yet they were perfect. Despite talking to Nathan for literally 2 minutes only a blind person would not notice how deeply infatuated he was with Ashley.

I honestly wish I had someone like that.

Ugh Clara you sound like one of those helpless people in a teen fiction novel who seriously just ran out of clichèd sayings.

I simply shake my head and head to the library hoping the bell rings fast.

____________________________

"So you broke up with him." I said as I sat in Samantha's car who told me about her recent relationship failure.

"Well I just don't think we match very well." She says.

I control an urge to roll my eyes. With Samantha this wasn't a very unusual thing really. It happened every time and what Rebecca had said was completely true. Samantha literally threw guys away like toys.

She never went very far with them according to my knowledge and as far as I knew Jeremy was the only guy she had ever done it with.

"I thought you really liked him." I say,"I mean you were stuck with him in a closet in the bowling alley."

"With you and Alec." She says blushing slightly.

"But still you get my point." I say as she pulls out of the parking lot," I thought you liked him."

"I did but it wasn't enough." She says,"I think I just have to go off guys for a while."

"You do know you say that every time right?" I say.

"Well, this time I plan to follow it." Samantha says,"In fact this year I am going stag to the winter ball while you and Rebecca smooch of your dates."

"I am not going to the winter ball." I say.

She raises an eyebrow and asks,"Why?"

I sigh.

"Well, for starters you have to dance and dancing combined with a dress that I haven't bought yet and heels equals to a surefire invitation to my funeral." I say and then add quietly,"Plus I don't think I have a date."

That makes Samantha's head do a 90 degree turn to look at me.

"So you aren't putting up the charade of fake dating anymore?" She asks.

I rub my temples.

"I don't know." I say,"I doubt its even fooling anyone and Jake and I hate each others guts. So whats the point."

Samantha laughed dryly and it had no humour in it.

"Alec turns red as a tomato every time he sees the two of you two together." She says.

"No he doesnt." I say blushing slightly.

"He does trust me. He literally bores holes at the back of your heads whenever you are not looking." Samantha says,"You might not have noticed it but the rest of the school most definitely has especially Natalie."

I smirk at that thinking about her warning. My mind briefly wonders if I should take it seriously but I am almost 100 percent convinced that I won't. I have more or less had it with Natalie and her I am the queen of the world attitude.

Its time I actually grow a spine.

"Even if you don't have a date you can come with me."Samantha says,"It will honestly be hilarious to see Natalie loose her homecoming crown to you. I have heard a lot of people are voting for you."

I roll my eyes.

"But unfortunately your chances are slim despite all the drama lately." Samantha says,"She was campaigning today I saw the posters and almost laughed my head off. She was also giving free cupcakes and if she hadn't given me a the bitch stare and given me one then I would probably vote for her too."

I laugh.

"So would I." I say,"But she probably would have poisoned mine."

"True that." Samantha says with a chuckle,"But not to worry I will avenge your death."

I laugh.

"So are you tell me what is going on with Jake?" She says softly.

Samantha is the kind of girl who will probably be the realist one when it comes to guy problems. If a person dumps someone instead of bitching about the guy she will tell you honestly why he broke up with you and improve. Rebecca on the other hand the believer of true love and fairytales would be the kind of girl who would straight go to the guy and shout at him for at least an hour with a lot of expletives.

My friends were both very different from each other yet very similar. They were both confident, didn't care what people thought about them and expressed themselves. Me on the other hand I was the spineless nerd who was the definition of clumsy and unfashionable.