For a whole week, Lydia hadn't come to school. When I asked her other teachers if they knew why they said she had sent an email saying that she wasn't going to be there. She sent it to every teacher besides me.

I shouldn't rush to conclusions. It could be her mom punishing her or trying to keep us apart after what Victoria told her. But, it could also be Lydia being mad at me for what she didn't understand.

It seemed like I was a clingy, annoying boyfriend for the number of times I texted and called her. I stopped now just in case her mom had her phone. I was so wrapped up in trying to contact her, that I forgot that was a possibility.

Honestly, I'd become paranoid. I wondered what was running through her head. Why didn't she tell me that Victoria had come to her house and said all that shit?

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It was the Monday of the last week of school and my stomach was in knots. Mr. Hudson's face was the last thing I wanted to see. I considered skipping his class. I had never skipped a class in my life, but it was my senior year and the last week of school. No one was going to care. I knew Chloe would be down to just go get food instead.

She had come over to my house early so she could try to calm me down. It worked, but I still knew in the back of my mind that I was most likely going to see him.

I knew I needed to see him. Even if I didn't talk to him. I just needed some closure I guess. But, maybe I should wait until tomorrow.

When Chloe stopped at a red light, she turned to me from the driver's seat and I asked, "Wanna skip his class?"

"Sure," Chloe said with a smile. "But, you do need to see him before Friday."

"I know."

"Can't he see on his roster if you've gone to other class periods?"

"Yes. So he'll know I'm avoiding him. But I don't care."

"You know what?"

I propped my leg up on my seat and turned to look at her. "What?"

She shot me one of her classic Chloe smiles. "I'm glad that you're coming back to school. Classes have been so boring without you."

"I thought I made them more boring."

"Nah. You're cool or whatever," she flicked a hand and flashed a sarcastic smile.

I smiled and looked back down at my phone.

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She's here! She's here. I need to keep cool. I checked my roster to see if she had gone to any other class periods and she had gone to three so far. What if she leaves early or tries to skip the class? Okay, in my free period I'll call her from her class.

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I had called her out of her fifth period, AP Statistics, and made the excuse she needed to take an important test for my class.

I heard a knock on the door and quickly got up from my desk. When I opened the door, Lydia was staring down at the floor. Her face held... disappointment.

"Come in," I said.

"I'd rather not," she wouldn't meet my eyes. I wanted to see those enchanting brown eyes light up again.

"What were you planning to do when you came to my class period?"

"Skip it." I pulled her inside and closed the door. "How may I help you?"

"Why won't you answer my texts or calls?"

"Because I don't want to," she finally looked up at me. I could hear the annoyance in her voice. It was written all over her face as well. Hard to miss.

"Look, I know what it looked like, but I swear it's not. I hate that she made you feel that way..."

"Then why did you kiss her?" Her expression morphed from anger to sadness. "It didn't seem like you were in a hurry to let go."

"No. It's not like that. She was threatening to release the videos or call the police unless I agreed not to go through with the divorce and vowed to stop seeing you. In the moment, I was just doing what she wanted to make sure that she wouldn't release them. She kissed me and I didn't want to upset her. I fixed the whole situation now though. The video is gone now and so is Victoria. For good this time. I would never do anything to hurt you, Lydia. I thought you knew that."

"I mean when I see you kissing her what else am I supposed to think?"

"You're right. You're completely right." I paused, "So, do you forgive me?" It took her a couple of seconds before she slowly nodded. I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding in. Now for the really hard part. "And about what you said..."

"I don't want to talk about it. Can we forget it ever happened? I already know what you're going to say and you don't need to affirm it. You're just gonna say 'I'm a dumb kid and 'I'll get over it.' So, I'll do just that. I'll get over it." She turned around to head to the door.

"I was going to say that I have feelings for you too." She paused. She just stood there, not moving. This was again one of those moments where I wish I knew what was going on in her head. "I- I honestly thought I made it pretty obvious."

She turned around. Her face was unreadable. "Okay."

"That's it?"

"I don't know what to say. A guy that I've liked has never told me they like me back."

"Are you serious? Boys in all of my other classes are always talking about you."

"They're talking about 'smashing' me," she made finger quotations. "There's a difference. Anyway, I don't know where to go from here."

"Neither do I. This is a difficult situation." She nodded slowly. "Where do you wanna go?"

"I don't know. I like the relationship we have already and want to progress it, but taking it public would be difficult. Everything would make this difficult. But, I mean- I am going to college, so how would this even work?"

"How about this? We have a whole summer before you go off to college. We can just spend it together and see where things go."

She nodded. "Fine."

I remembered something. "What about your mom?"

"Oh. She... I don't know. She's fine I guess."

"Really?"

"She was mad at first but she's somewhat over it I suppose."

"I wish my mom was as chill as yours when I was your age."

She smiled. "But me and Chloe are moving together out of state for school at the end of summer. Whatever this is," she said pointing between the two of us, "realistically wouldn't work long distance."

"Then we'll make the most of it for the summer."

"Deal."

I knew I wasn't going to want this summer to end.