I wasn't a morning person by all means. You'd barely get me up early unless you'd say the house was on fire. But even then, I'd somehow still be asleep.

But today was different.

Luckily, I was up early and not laying in bed,

where I'd be left to wake up to such a wretched

sound. My alarm. I barely slept in and when I did, it was till the late hours of the day.

Pressing stop on the running machine, I wrapped a towel around my neck and wiped the beads of sweat from my face. I quickly switched off the tv and filled up my water bottle, drinking the whole contents within seconds.

I was fuckinh thirsty.

It was still a little dark outside and I woke up early, wanting to hit the gym before tryouts later. I already knew I would get on the team but it was still worth training for. I had to be at my best.

"Mr Willis." The calm voice of my personal assistant, aka the lady I had grown up with for basically my whole life, knocked on the door. Mother was always away working and I had always been by myself since Father was out and about running errands. They both thought it would be a responsible idea to get someone to watch over me since they couldn't fucking do it themselves.

I originally thought it was a fuckery of an idea but I had actually grown to enjoy it. I enjoyed her company.

"You can come in, Julie!" I called and she swung open the door, popping her head through. She was a very pristine woman who was caring. We had often had long chats - well her wanting me to open up - but I wondered if that was my parents doing and not hers. Wanting to pry information out of me just because they couldn't do it themselves.

I had come to learn Julie had a family of her own, yet she had always been over here. I sometimes felt bad for her and her family, but she had said that was how work was - so I had come to live with it.

I had to come to live with it.

"Good morning Mr Willis." She nodded her head and I snorted.

"You know you can call me Theo, Julie. I'm not Father." I told her and she nodded her head slowly. "Right." She said in response and stepped further into the room, looking behind her.

I gave her a sceptical look. "Is everything alright, Julie?" I asked her and she turned back to me with a wary smile.

"Of course, sorry, I still haven't quite woken up." She patted her heart. "I just want to let you know that your Father has gone out and will be back later on. He said he has something important to talk to you about."

I walked across the room and pressed the remote to open up the blinds. I stepped forwards and saw him getting into his car. "What's he doing this time?"

She stayed quiet for a few seconds and I looked over at her. "Oh, he's gone to the, er, office." Her face tinted red and she fidgeted slightly. "Right, remember you have school in an hour. You know your parents won't be happy if you're late." Then she abruptly left.

Um, alright then. That was short and sweet.

My forehead creased in a questioning frown. That was not like Julie to be so abrupt. I shook my head to dismiss a niggly feeling. I was sure she had a lot going on.

I wondered what Stephanie was up to now. I wondered what today would be like since everyone probably knew and heard what happened last night.

I fitted in some time to do some final crunches before heading to the shower.

6:47am.

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Pulling my car up into the parking lot, I couldn't help but notice a group of freshman girls stood where I normally parked, giggling and glancing towards me. I scoffed to myself. Then I could feel a small smirk slipping onto my face.

I grabbed my bags and wondered inside, aiming to find my friends somewhere. I normally met them hanging out on the green outside.

I combed a hand through my hair and turned to head outside to the field but just as I was about to push the doors open, someone came out and bumped straight into my chest.

"Ouch!" They yelped quietly to themself and I quickly stepped back and began to apologise. Then I looked down and saw their eyes widen in recognition.

"Sorry." A girl said. Willow.

Her features seemed to soften as she saw me. Probably because of last night. If she remembered any of it, that was. She looked hungover.

She shuffled on her feet under my stare, not saying anything and I could sense the awkwardness that was radiating off of her.

"The party," I started and she perked up, "It didn't mean anything I said, or shit, I was just helping you out. You were super drunk."

Yeah because that didn't make you sound like a dick.

Fucking hell.

I watched as her expression changed, dropping and I silently hoped she would turn somewhat happy again. "Oh, right! Yeah! I was just about to say thank you for helping me out, a-and also I'm sorry." She scratched her neck, awkwardly chucking.

I raised my brows. She was sorry? "Why are you sorry?"

She shrugged, gulping and taking a long second before replying, "I don't really know."

"I wanted to help you." I stated, "But whatever I said, I was drunk too." I stated again.

What were you trying to prove?

Dumbass.

"Oh, okay." She stumbled on her words and shuffled on her feet. "Well, I, I guess I should leave then."

"Yeah, see you." I said and finally pushed the doors open.

I spotted Stephanie right away. She didn't look sad but she didn't seem pleased to see me either. As soon as she saw me looking over at her, she spun around and walked off, her friends following on behind her.

I watched as she swayed her hips until she disappeared into the other door of the building. She was ignoring me and I weirdly felt happy at that idea. I usually didn't care on what other people thought of me, but this time, I did. I didn't want everyone to turn on me like before.

"Sup, man." Marcus said as soon as he saw me walking over. He jumped off the bench and slapped my back. "We all heard about you and Stephanie, sorry dude."

I shrugged and smirked. "It's alright. Things happen." I shrugged.

Marcus sat back down next to his girlfriend Laura and I sat down next to Cody who's eyes were wide so I chuckled and nudged his arm. "Got sent a dick pic?" I joked. I joked!

"Yeah, actually. How did you know?"

I coughed and raked my hand through my hair - a common habit. I shrugged. Thinking that was the only way to get round this now awkward conversation I got myself into. "S'just a guess."

"A pretty good one at that. Want to see?" He offered, slowly tilting his phone to show me some gross ass dick that I didn't want to see.

"No thanks man, I have one myself." I slapped his back but he just shrugged and continued to stare hopelessly at the picture. I took out my phone to see a couple missed messages for Father.

He had something important to talk to me about. Wonder what that could be.

I switched off my phone again, blatantly ignoring the messages for a reason, and shoved my phone away into my trouser pocket.

"So how are you doing?" Marcus asked and leant forward as he popped his head out from behind Cody.

"I feel fine. Don't worry about me." I shrugged. I didn't actually feel burdened by the fact it was now over between me and Stephanie, I actually felt the opposite.

"That's good, man. I just wanted to ask because everyone now knows and I'm sure you already know how people can be. If anyone says anything, we'll deal with them." I felt taken aback by Marcus' words. I had never had these type of friends where it didn't just revolve around popularity and image. It felt...unnervingly reassuring.

"Thanks." I said and Marcus nodded, a genuine smile on his face. "You ready for tryouts today?"

I nodded and put my elbows onto my thighs and leant forward, hands clasped tightly. "Yes. I did some training this morning."

"You did? Fuck. I should've." Marcus sighed into his hands and Laura kissed his cheek. He soon warmed into the touch and kissed her lips.

I grimaced at that, not because I didn't enjoy kissing, I did, and I was good at it. But it just took me back to last night with Stephanie.

A sudden loud laugh made my head snap up.

It sounded angelic and harmonising. Mellow but like a soft melody that flew to my ears and gently caressed them.

I searched the field, scouting to find who it was. Then my eyes caught onto the person. She had blonde long hair - that was just about everything I saw since her back was facing towards me. Then she turned around, eyes twinkling as she laughed at something that one of her friends was pointing at.

Willow.

For whatever reason I was looking at her, I couldn't help but find myself thinking she had a great smile.

But why was I looking at her?

Of all girls that were sat in this field, walking the streets, I found my eyes attracted towards her. Almost like a magnet. I couldn't pull my eyes away and I hated myself for it. She was Callum's sister.

I had to keep reminding myself because I always seem to forget.

Fucking feelings. They were messy.

But one thing that I wasn't going to ruin was my friendship between Callum. He seemed to be a nice dude.

I forced my eyes away from Willow and picked up my stuff just as the bell went.

"See you at lunch?" Marcus asked and Cody went with him, and so did Laura.

"Yeah, see you." I nodded my head and went inside.

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Entering the cafeteria to grab some lunch, I spotted Callum speaking to Marcus in line. "What's up guys."

"Hey, Man. We were just talking about tryouts later. You ready?" Callum swung his arm around my shoulder and diverted us to the front of the queue.

I nodded my head. "Ready." I replied in a confident tone and Callum patted me on the back, grabbing a whole stack full of food for himself.

"Did you play in your last school?"

"Yeah, I did."

"You should be just fine then." Callum said and we all made our way over to the table where everyone else was. Callum took a seat next Jackson, Marcus took a seat beside his girlfriend, Laura, and I. I took a seat beside an empty one where Stephanie would usually sit.

I couldn't see her here or anywhere apart from this morning. Usually she'd be hanging around us, clinging on to me like hot glue. But she wasn't now.

I took a bite of my sandwich and groaned in delight. Holy shitting fuck this tasted good. Certainly better than the cheap shit they sold in my last school.

"Hi." I heard someone say at the front of the table.

"Looks like she's here for you, man." Marcus said as he elbowed my side. I looked up to see a small girl with brown hair and brown eyes staring at me.

She continued to stare at me and the whole table was silent as they watched this unravel, "Yeah, hello?"

She squealed and I heard chuckling beside me, "I'm so happy you noticed me." She said and held out her hand, "I'm Christie."

I stared down at her hand and wiped my hand down on my jeans before shaking her hand. "It's nice to meet you, Christie." What the fuck was she here for? "Sorry, what exactly do you want?"

She seemed to gasp and looked around the table, "I'm sorry to interrupt your lunch, I just thought since-"

"You thought since me and Stephanie aren't together that you could ask me out and I'd say yeah?" I clicked my tongue against the inside of my cheek and scratched my neck.

"Well, yeah?"

I snorted and went back to eating, "I'm not looking for a girlfriend so tell the rest of your friends who keep staring at me to kindly fuck off." I spat and looked at her dead in the eye, "Thanks."

She stammered on the spot before racing back over to her group of friends. I watched as they looked away from me in shame.

I didn't feel sorry for what I said. I couldn't go anywhere in the school without having people like them talk about me.

It was fucking annoying.

"They won't leave you alone. Want us to say something?" Marcus asked, glancing at me.

"Baby, I'm sure he's got it covered." Laura interjected, kissing his cheek.

Marcus looked somewhat relieved for his girlfriends input, but I could tell he was still wary of not helping in some way. "I'm sure he does. But listen man, I'll do anything you ask me to."

I gave him a weird look, "Are you in love with me?" Then he spat out his drink...all over the table.

"If he is, we'll be having words." Laura said pointedly then laughing at how flustered Marcus looked.

"Yeah, yeah. You're very funny guys. Real, funny." He rolled his eyes and Laura high-fived me.

"Just joking, we know we love you." Laura grabbed his head and planted a big kiss.

"Some more than others, if you get what I mean." I said and winked at Marcus. But Marcus just shoved me away by my chest making me drop a wedge onto the floor. "Asswipe."

"Dickhead."

"Dickhead? That's such a basic insult." I retorted and narrowed my eyes at him.

"No it's not." Marcus sputtered, hand coming to whack my side when Laura caught his hand, "Marcus, you know what I say about hitting people just because they annoy you." She fainted and I gave a weird look towards Marcus. But he wasn't looking, he was nodding along to what she was saying as if she actually had rules on hitting people.

What the fuck?

"She's got to be joking, right?" I asked Marcus but he didn't at all look like he was finding this funny.

"She's not." Josh interjected.

What the fuck had I walked myself into?

In the next second Marcus and Laura were making out and I felt like every bite from my sandwich was going to come back up again.

"I'm going to take this as a time to leave." I said, standing up and taking my tray over to the bin, emptying out everything I had left.

"Where are you going, man?" Callum asked and I coughed and cleared my throat.

"I'll be back soon." Was all I said, ignoring the strange and confused looks that were coming from my friends.

I walked into the corridor and made my way down several more, stopping at the wooden door. Then it opened, "Good afternoon Mr Willis. It's a pleasure to see you again."