"Hey..."

My lips press into a thin smile, "Hey, Jace."

"You haven't been taking my calls," he sighs.

I close my locker and lean against it as I face him. "I can't say I've been in the mood to talk with you."

"Heather," Jace says pleadingly, "we were just starting to get back to being us again, do we really have to start all over?"

"...are you seriously asking me that?"

"Okay," he takes a deep breath, "the Alison thing was out of line, I'll admit, but I had nothing to do with it. I knew about it after Ethan showed us the pictures, but it was already too late, I swear."

"When you decided to look at the pictures and even keep one instead of telling me, your girlfriend, is when you became the problem too, Jace."

"I will apologize a million times if I have to...to you and Alison. It was wrong and I wish I could take it all back— stop it from happening in the first place, if possible."

"But you can't...and I'm really getting tired of talking about this."

"Babe-" Jace starts to say before he is interrupted by Audrey's presence.

"Is he bothering you, Heath?"

"He was just leaving," I speak directly to him.

"I'm sorry, okay?" He says lowly, walking off, reluctant to break eye contact.

"Hm," Audrey sighs, "I almost pity him."

"Yeah, well," I shrug, "I guess I feel worse for Alison."

"She's on a two-day spa retreat. Got her heartbroken on Saturday and by Sunday afternoon she was in Arizona."

"How is she feeling?"

"You can ask her when she gets back tomorrow," Audrey says nonchalantly. "Until then, it's just you and me." She takes out her pager, "Katherine is hosting the launch of her new makeup line at my place tonight, but you can still come over."

"Oh? Okay."

"There probably won't be that many guests. Not even my father can convince people she's a proper businesswoman. She tried this same thing with handbags last year, remember?"

I almost began to nod, but my eyes looked past her when she spoke.

A tall boy in a wore down leather jacket stole my attention, only because I've come to associate him with someone else. Others crossed the hall, and with their passing, I then saw Leo...

My gaze lingered as he came closer, his eyes met mine and I smiled a bit, expecting his usual small gesture of acknowledgment in return, but instead, I got nothing.

"...so, you'll call me and let me know?" Audrey questions.

"Huh?" I say in confusion.

"...if you're coming over..."

"Right!" I laugh awkwardly, "I'll call."

"Perfect," she smirked, "see you at lunch, hon."

I nod and let her walk away since her class is a considerable distance from where we're standing.

I never actually stopped sitting at the same table as Audrey and Alison, I simply changed seats and sat at the end with other people like Tony Milligan. However, I am never the one to try and rekindle with people, not without good reason. Audrey, though, always ends fights the same way...by playing nice and pretending there never was one.

Through it all, I learned that I can live without her.

"Friday then," I hear as I approach the door of my physics class.

"Thanks, man," Leo smiled at his friend, "nothing too crazy, though. It's Zach..." he trails off when he notices me walking up.

"Can I...talk to you?" I spoke hesitantly, feeling anxious at the way they both looked at me. "Please?" I added. Leo nodded indifferently before sending his friend away. I watched as he left, heading toward the stairs but not going up them.

"So?" Leo asked, an unreadable expression across his face.

"Did I do something wrong?"

"What?" He tilts his head.

"You seem upset with me, is all," I shrug.

"No," Leo denies before laughing a little, "looks like you have your clique back so I figured you didn't need me anymore."

"We're still friends," I reassure.

He chuckled again, "friends," he says with air quotation marks.

I scoff as he walks into the classroom.

"Take your seats," Ms. Chang announces, "the bell is about to ring."

I narrow my eyes at Leo, but he smirks and looks away.

I glance over at my usual table and then at Leo before proceeding to the back of the class where he sits and taking the empty spot next to him.

"Uh-" he sends me an amused expression, "what are you doing?"

"Being your friend."

"I don't want to be friends, go away," Leo says in amusement. "Your other boyfriend is getting upset." He nods toward Tony who is glaring back at us.

I pretend not to notice and turn back to face Leo, "You don't want to be friends," I ask rhetorically, "Fine, we'll be best friends."

"What are you trying to prove, Blakely?"

"We'll see," I say slyly.

"Well, when you-"

"Excuse me, Mr. Rylin is there something you'd like to share with the class?" Ms. Chang says sternly and only then do we realize class had already begun.

"...no, I was just-"

"Asking me a question regarding the homework. My apologies, it won't happen again, Ms. Chang," I answer for him.

"Very well...I'm assuming you two are working together on the project, then." She nods and turns to the board.

"Project?" I say lowly in confusion.

"Shit..." Leo whispers and points to the big, chalk letters that state: I groan and put my head down as she passes the rubrics down the rows. "So," he smirks, "are you gonna come by later or what?"

"Zach-" I hear my name called in the hallway. "Zachary, come here," Val says before popping her bubblegum.

I walk up to her while she's standing with Cherry and a few other girls I don't know.

"Yeah?"

"Your party Friday night— Danny said I can only bring one friend, but obviously Cherry is already invited, so...I can bring someone else, right?"

"Um..." I look down and fiddle with my hands. "Maybe you should ask Leo. The party is his idea, you know?" I can't be the one to invite or uninvite Cherry, but I know Leo won't be thrilled to see her there.

"But it's your birthday," Cherry raises an eyebrow.

"Yeah..." I say awkwardly. "I still think you should talk to Leo."

"Zach," Val huffs.

"It might be too crowded for other people...and Cherry."

She sighs in disappointment, "Just Cherry, then."

"Right...Cherry..." I press my lips into a thin line.

"Look at him." Snickering fills the hall and I turn to see Drew McAvoy walking with the rest of the guys who mess with me. "Just one of the girls, aren't you, Zach?"

"Piss off," I scoff at them.

Drew stops to face me, "What was that, faggot?"

"I said-"

"He said to fuck off."

I didn't need to look up to see who the voice belonged to. So, when Drew turned to face him, I kept my head down.

"You're defending him now, Evan?" Drew chuckled. "What are you...like him or something? A jock and a fag?"

Evan stepped up to him so that they were face to face, inches away from each other, "You want to say that again?"

A crowd began to form around them and I could hardly see at that point.

"Excuse me, gentlemen," one of the underclassmen teachers began sifting through the students, "do we have a problem here or are we going to get to class?" She held a stern look and her hands on her hips.

Drew laughed again, backing away from Evan.

"Leave him alone, McAvoy. I mean it." Evan says as he walks in the opposite direction.

I sigh and shrug in defeat. He does this but doesn't bother talking to me, or looking at me, or admitting that I exist?

"What the hell was that, Zach?" Val grabs me.

"I don't know," I pull away, "but don't tell Danny."

"Mr. Trevor..." Harry knocked at my door, "your supper is getting cold."

"I'm not hungry."

"But, sir, you haven't eaten-"

"Harry!" I shout in frustration.

I hear silence on the other side for a moment before he speaks again, "your father and I are beginning to worry."

I scoff through laughter, "you're a terrible liar, Harry."

"Are you not feeling well, Mr. Trevor?" I don't respond. "You can always come and talk to me. It's no burden."

"I don't want to talk," I say too quietly for him to hear.

"Erm...Jace Kendal called earlier, something about Heather pushing him away because of you and you needing to fix it if you want Alison back."

I rolled my eyes, "Prick."

Jace doesn't want Heather per se. He has just gotten so used to dating her, that he feels like she has stamped on her forehead. He doesn't like knowing that she can be with someone else now, even if he can too.

That's not love, it's possessiveness.

"Mr. Trevor?"

"If he calls again, tell him to deal with it himself." Alison wants nothing to do with me.

"And the bit about Ms. Alison?" Harry urges me to continue.

"Nothing. Nothing about her."

"Are you sure?"

"Harry!"

"Hey! Why do I only have one beer left?" Danny complains and looks around at all of us while we just laugh. "I said one each-"

"Danny," I cut him off, "there were 6 beers, 4 friends, and 1 you."

"So?"

"So, you've never been good at math," I laugh and take his last beer from out of the box.

"You need to quit smoking, man," AJ Myles, Danny's friend, comments. "It's killing brain cells."

"Oh, yeah? Well, remember that the next time you try and buy from me, okay?" Danny says in response.

"It's funny, your math is perfect then," AJ responds and we all laugh again.

"You know what? Shut up," Danny shakes his head and snatches the beer back from me.

"I didn't say it," I continue laughing as I put my hands up in surrender.

"Whoa..." one of the other guys breathes out in awe, causing us to follow his eyes to where a fancy black Mercedes is pulling up in front of my building.

I asked her to not come in a limo anymore because it drew attention...but everything about her draws attention.

The driver opens the back door and Heather steps out looking like a million bucks...literally.

"Hey," she smiles as her eyes nervously scan over everyone I'm with.

"Jesus, Heather," I sigh, "you're asking to get mugged." I walk up to her while taking off my flannel so I can put it over her shoulders.

"Oh?" She furrows her eyebrows and puts her arms through the sleeves.

"Guys, this is Heather, Heather this is the guys," I quickly introduce her so that we can get by without the comments she got the first time she came faced with my friends in the neighborhood.

"Hi," her voice said softly.

Their eyes raked down her and they whispered to each other, only one or two nodding in greeting.

"I'll catch you guys later, alright?" I grab Heather's hand and lead her up the stairs.

"Nice one, Leo," AJ snickered, "boning daughter Warbucks."

"Don't," I snapped and Danny nudged him, gesturing that it wasn't okay to say anything else.

"What?" AJ laughed.

I shook my head and held the door for Heather to walk into the apartment building.

"I'm-" I shake my head, "sorry about that. They're dumb, I'm sorry."

Heather laughed, "it's fine, honestly. I didn't think twice about it." She spoke nonchalantly as she made her way into my house.

I'm more concerned with them making her uncomfortable than anything else. I don't want her to think I lie about what really happens here.

"So-" I start to say but turn to see that Heather has already disappeared into my room. "Okay?" I think to myself and follow in her footsteps only to find her laying across my bed, flipping through a textbook. My flannel is loose on her, it reaches her mid-thigh. With her laying on her stomach, it covers the dress she has on underneath making it seem like she's got on nothing but my shirt and see through stockings.

It's something so simple, a girl in my bed, wearing my clothes...but it's Heather and for some reason that makes it different.

"We don't have to do anything more than picking a topic tonight," she says, taking me out of my thoughts.

"Uh- yeah," I nod, "cool," I sit on the chair by my desk.

"Yeah?" Heather pats the spot next to her on my bed, "then come here." I do so reluctantly, and Heather looked up from her book, "do you have any suggestions?"

"Maybe we can do the project on that thing you taught me...where something can be on the opposite side of the galaxy and still affect its pair."

She gasps, "quantum entanglement, right. That's a good idea." Heather sits up to face me, her eyes staring into mine, "How should we do it?"

"...what?"

"I was thinking we could use each other as a demonstration, something that will impress Ms. Chang," she explains. "We can become the particles that affect each other."

She takes my hands in hers, and my face heats up a bit. I feel like a girl.

"Sure, why not," I look away from her.

"If you don't want to, it's okay, I was just-"

"Do you want some water or something? I'll get us drinks." I stand up quickly and rush out of the room.

Fucking hell, she probably thinks I'm on drugs. I sigh and lean against the kitchen counters. "This is only temporary," I say to myself. If I say it enough, it will come true...God, I hope it comes true.

I grab the cold (unasked for) water out of the refrigerator and try to gather up the courage to go back in my room and pretend Heather doesn't suddenly make me feel weird. Not weird like 'uneasy,' but weird like...I want to hold her hand again but don't?

"Okay, I've got soda too, but you don't seem to care too much for— Zach, what the hell?" I furrow my eyebrows in confusion when I see him sitting with Heather on my bed.

"He came from there," she points toward the window.

"You let him in?" I try to refrain from laughing.

"Well...yes, I guess I did," she says lowly.

"I came to tell you something. Danny said you were here, he didn't tell me she was," Zach explains.

"Her name is Heather."

Zach is one of the only people I never talked about her with. Though, I know he'd get it...

"Hi," he smiles and reaches out to shake her hand.

She laughs lightly and accepts his gesture, "it's nice to meet you."

"Is that Leo's?" He motions toward the plaid button-down.

"Oh, I forgot," Heather glances over at me, "your shirt," she starts to take it off.

"Keep it," I stop her. "It looks better on you anyway."

Zach snickers, "aw."

"What is it, Zach? We're in the middle of a project."

"Um— I can come back," he suggests.

"Just tell me."

"Well..." he looks over at Heather and then back at me, "so, Cherry kind of invited herself to the party on Friday, and I tried to stop her...but I didn't want to make anyone mad. I told them you were in charge...them as in Val and Cherry, but they didn't listen," Zach rambles on. "Also, the party is at Jordan's house, and Val doesn't like Jordan's girlfriend, and Val and Cherry both don't like you...it's all bad. Maybe I don't need a birthday party. Evan won't even...it doesn't matter," he finally takes a breath.

"What happened with Evan?" I disregard everything else he's said.

"It's nothing. I don't know," he shakes his head.

"We'll talk about that later, then," I say sternly. "Now, get back home, it's late. And don't worry about the girls, they won't be a problem."

Zach nods grudgingly, "bye, Heather."

"Goodnight, Zach," She smiles and waves at him, causing him to smile back. "Happy birthday," Heather adds before he's all the way out the fire escape.

"It's Friday," he replies. "You should come."

"You're sweet," She smiles again, and I scoff. "He is."

"Sure he is," I jokingly roll my eyes.

"Zach..." she ponders his name, "he was the boy in the van when you took me home that night." I nod. "You're protective of him," she speaks kind of slyly, "It's cute."

"Whatever," I look down, feeling my face start to heat up again! Since when does she make me so rosy. "He's right, though...you should come to the party."