'good morning, richie boo' I heard my mom say as she opened the door to my room and turned on the lights

'morning' I answered her while rubbing my eyes and getting up

she left the room and then I got up and walked over to my dresser to find clothes for the day

it was monday

i hate mondays, but at least I get to see victoria again today

once I was dressed, I went into my bathroom and brushed my teeth and hair and then went out into the kitchen for breakfast

my mom had made cereal for me and then she went back to her room to get ready herself

once I was done with the breakfast, I said goodbye to her and then grabbed my backpack and was about to leave the house when I heard the phone ring

i walked back over to the kitchen and picked up. it was eddie,'hey richie'

'hey eddie spaghetti, what's up'

'well, victoria is sick so she's not coming to school today and want you to pick up her homework for her. steve called me and asked, but since you have more classes with her, I figured it would be better for you to get it and drop it off'

'okay, see you at school' I answered and hung up

damn it, now I don't have anything to look forward to for school

i went back outside the house to my bike and biked to school

when I got there, I could see that I was five minutes late

'fuck' I said as I got off of my bike and ran inside the school to my biology class

the door was closed, so I opened it and then the whole class turned their heads at me

'you're late, mr tozier' the teacher said

'i'm so sorry, it won't happen again' I apologised as I sat down at the table me and victoria are assigned at

she wasn't here, so I was sitting alone

'well, as I was saying... we have a new student in the class' the teacher said as a girl with red hair and freckles walked up to the front

she looked mad, but she was still pretty

gorgeous almost

'this is maxine,'

she looked at him,'max'

'excuse me?'

'nobody calls me maxine, call me max' she ordered him

ooh, sassy

me likey

'well, since the only open place is next to mr tozier, you can sit there and he'll be your partner for the rest of the semester' she came over to me and I smiled

she rolled her eyes at me as the teacher started to take attendance

throughout the class, me and max became really close

i felt something between us

'so, max, do you want to hang out after school?' I asked her

'where?' she asked me

'somewhere private' I said and winked at her

then I felt a pencil hit my back and I turned around to see it was eds that threw it

i walked over to him, since he was on the other side of the class and the teacher had left to get something

'why'd you throw that?'

'because, what do you think you're doing?!' he was pissed

'i'm scoring max' I answered smugly

'what about victoria?!'

'yes, I know eddie. i'm gonna give her the homework, don't be so worried' I patted him on the back and went back to max

'so, max, I was thinking we could go to the meadows. there are never any people there, so we'll be all alone and can do whatever we want'

she smirked and agreed to it

me and max were sitting on our jackets in the middle of the meadow, not saying anything to each other

there was tension, and not the bad kind

the romantic kind

'so, richie, what do you want to do now?' she asked me

'swap spit with you' I winked

'alright, but before we do, I have to ask you something..'

'go for it'

'do you have a fling with a girl called victoria, or are dating her? because some little guy from our biology class told me to stay away from you.. I think his name was something like teddie or ted..'

'of course not'

we smashed our lips together and started making out

ring, ring, ring

finally someone picked up,'hello this is the kaspbrak household, how can I help you?'

it was eddie

'it's me, victoria'

'oh hey! why are you calling?' I could hear the smile in his voice

'well you never came with the homework, so'

'didn't richie come with it? I told him to do it since he has more classes with you'

'no, he didn't come'

'oh, I'll come over and give you the homework and notes, and maybe we can go outside and take a walk for ice cream or something'

'okay, eds. see you then' I hung up

eddie was the only one other than steve who knew why I stayed home

yesterday afternoon, some official people from the school came by the house and asked to come in

steve didn't let them and asked why they were here

the reason why they were was because one of the students' parents had reported my bruise as domestic violence to the police and they had to check the home

i wasn't home then, since I was out with bill and eds

so, they told steve they'd talk to me at school

so that's why I stayed home

i went back to my room and waited for eddie

once eddie came and helped me with the homework, we decided to walk to the meadows since no one was ever there

we left the house and started walking

first, we went to the ice cream parlour for a few minutes,

but none of us had enough money for ice cream, so we just got strawberry milkshakes instead

after about twenty minutes of walking, we got there and started going through the field into the middle of it

the middle of the field was where me and eddie would always go and talk about our problems to eachother

it was almost better than therapy

after another five minutes of walking, we were almost there

'eds, do you hear that? I think there's people there'

his facial expression changed from happy to extremely worried and almost angry

'it's probably some weirdos, so let's go'

'eddie, the only weirdos here are us. and besides, it's probably just bill and stanley; let's go'

i grabbed his wrist and started walking

we walked for about two minutes when we saw them

them as in richie and some redhead making out

'excuse you?!' I yelled after him

both of their lips disconnected and richie shot up and walked over to me,

'victoria, it's not what you think!'

'so you weren't out just making out with her?!'

'well, maybe a little bit but i-'

'I DON'T WANT YOUR STUPID EXCUSES!' I screamed after him while closing my eyes

as I opened them richie said,'victoria, baby. we can work this out'

'I AM SICK AND TIRED OF WORKING THIS FUCKERY OUT! THIS ISN'T WORKING!!'

he had a worried expression on his face,'what isn't working?'

'THIS!' I pointed between us,'US! WE AREN'T WORKING! you keep on hurting me and I keep letting you back in my life when in reality I never should have let you in!'

'what are you saying, baby?' he tried holding my hand but I pulled away

'don't call me baby. we're over. well, whatever we had is over. so fuck you and don't try to apologise. I never want to talk to you again'

he looked crushed,'no' he whispered

but then I poured my milkshake all over his black curls and glasses, covering his head completely in the pink goo

i turned around and flipped him off after, and then walked back home with eddie

as we finally reached the end of the meadow, richie came running after and caught up with us

he was out of breath and panting,'please- victoria- give- me- another- chance- you- mean- so- much- to- me-'

i turned around and looked at him with no expression as I saw his sad and heartbroken face,'well, richie...

you mean nothing to me' I turned back around as the tears started to form in my eyes

it was the right thing to do, no matter how much it hurt

me and eddie started walking again,

but this time richie didn't come after us

he just stood there

his heart was breaking right in front of my eyes,

but little did he know was that my heart was breaking too

he just couldn't see it

we got to my house after about thirty minutes and I could see that steve had gotten home

i was still tearing up, eddie looked at me,'do you want me to come with you?'

i shook my head and said bye to him

when he was out of my sight, I walked into the house

'hey-' steve saw the look on my face

'what happened?' he said with empathy spread all over his face

i didn't say anything as he came over and hugged me

i hugged back,'it's over. it's all over' I whispered

i hugged him tighter, sobbing into his chest

'victoria, please don't cry'

'but I can't stop, steve. he meant the world to me!' I said between sobs

'he? who's he?' normally steve would've been mad, wanting to get revenge on whoever had hurt me,

but now, he was sympathetic

'r-r-richie'

'well, i'm going to make sure he's never going to hurt you again, vic'

'please do' I whispered

my sobs had slowed down as I pulled away from his arms

'steve, it's almost 7, and i'm really really tired; is it okay if I go to bed?' I asked him

'of course, and the officials came and talked to me today; the case dropped, so if you want to go to school tomorrow you can, but you don't have to if you don't want to'

'i'll go, goodnight'

once I walked back into my room, I shut the door and turned off the lights and then went to bed

i walked into school, not seeing anyone I knew

why did I come here?

this is so stupid, but it's too late now

and speaking of late, I only have two minutes to get to class

i quickly ran to the class right as mr. brown was closing the door

'i'm sorry i'm late' I mumbled as I scanned the room for my seat, but someone else was sitting in it

it was the girl from yesterday, she was sitting in my spot, next to my richie

but he's not mine anymore, so I just sat next to eddie,

who was nicely placed across the room from the both of them

'alright class, keep on working on your projects with your partners while I go out and help the students who need tutoring'

right after he left, richie walked over to us

'vic, can we talk' he vulnerably asked me

i didn't look him in the eye and was focused on the paper that eddie had laid on the table,

'no,' I said sternly

'this is hurting me. not talking to you, not being able to see your face'

'well it's hurting me too. but what you've been doing to me is horrible, so go look at that other girls face' I whispered

'alright' he said and walked away back to her

i turned my head and looked at them, they were happy

he kissed her

he

he, as in richie

kissed

he put his soft lips on hers

her

the same girl with whom he made out with the day before

tears swelled my eyes up and I ran out of the class

i ran out to the girls' bathroom and locked myself in one of the small stalls and silently cried the whole class through