woke up an hour before my alarm went off, "Bad Things" blasting from the speaker.

It took me two hours to go to sleep, I couldn't stop thinking about yesterday. 100% was spent thinking about Asher and Laurel and 1000% was consumed with worrying about Roan. Specifically why he kissed me in the first place.

It wasn't that I liked him, but more that he liked me. Despite everything, I considered him one of my best friends. I could tell him anything and he'd listen, even if he looked like he could care less.

But I wanted to make Asher jealous, not get with Roan.

"Lia! You're going to be late!" Dad called from downstairs and I finally swung my legs over and got out of bed.

School, blah, blah, blah, everything was going by normally.

Then I got to bio, where we were doing a lab with "dangerous" chemicals. And guess what happened? That's right, Roan and I almost blew up the whole school. Again.

"It wasn't my fault, I told him he was putting in too much acid." I told Ms. Weatherly, our teacher. She looked like she was done with us, since it wasn't the first time we'd done something bad. She hated us and I didn't blame her.

"Oh, it's always my fault." Roan spoke up.

"Regardless, both of you will have to stay to clean all of this up." There were chemicals everywhere, the floor a total mess.

"Okay." Both of us agreed, even though it wasn't really my fault.

"You're lucky neither of you got hurt. Get to work, I'll get the mop. Start with washing the lab benches down with the special soap." She instructed impatiently and then left briefly.

"Nice going," I mumbled, watching as Roan got a sponge and started to wash the tables.

"Just get to work."

After the bio incident, I walked to English with a late pass.

"Sorry, I almost blew up the school a second time this year." I told Mr. Hudson and the class snickered.

"I didn't ask why but okay,"

I took my seat and tapped Stella on the shoulder infront of me.

"What'd I miss?"

"Nothing. He was just going over the reading." For some reason, she sounded off. Usually she was bubbly and talkative but today she just sounded solemn and somber.

"Something wrong?"

She whispered back, "We broke up. Actually, I can't even call it that because we were never dating." She said bitterly and I didn't know what to think.

"Welcome to the single ladies club, where we sing campfire songs and eat pizza." I tried to cheer her up but she just faced forward, eyes drowning in her phone.

I wanted to tell her it was a good thing but it looked like she didn't want to talk.

It was kind of boring without us gossiping in the back.

Lunch was much more interesting.

Stella's ex walked up to our table and sat down next to Taylor. Thank God Stella was in the bathroom or else it would've been World War III.

"Hey, Taylor, I need help with the psych homework." Jesse asked kindly but all I wanted to do was throw my soda at him. He couldn't act like he didn't hurt our best friend and sit to talk to us.

"Sure," Taylor nodded while sipping her orange juice.

"I don't get this."

"Okay, let's see," Taylor looked at his notebook and read, "'Jesse had two tickets to the Chainsmokers concert on Saturday but didn't know what to do with the second ticket. Then he thought of his friend Taylor and thought he would ask her if she didn't have any plans. What were the odds that she would say yes?'"

Jesse took out the tickets as Taylor finished reading, "So, what do you say?"

"That's more like a math question than a psych one." It also made no sense.

Nicole and I stayed silent, trying to eat our food quietly. Say no if you know what's good for you.

"So?"

I heard Taylor's heart skip a beat.

"Yeah, that sounds fun."

He smiled and stood up with his notebook in his hand, "Alright, I'll pick you up at six."

Nicole and I just stared at her.

"What?"

"You just agreed to go on a date with Jesse." Nicole shook her head.

"We're going as friends."

I snorted, "Does he know that?"

"Ohmygod, did I just agree to go on a date with Jesse?"

"Yeah, we just told you that."

"Do you think Stella would mind?" She asked nervously, as she should be. Taylor was going out with her best friend's ex-boyfriend. Very treacherous waters.

Coincidently, in that same moment, Stella came back from the bathroom and sat down at our table.

Her eyes were red, a telltale sign that she'd been crying. We were dead quiet.

"Why is everyone acting like somebody died?" She asked, taking out a piece of gum.

I could say the same to you.

.•*•.

"Wait, Jesse asked Taylor out? And Stella was cool with it?" Roan asked as we walked around the Square.

I sipped my coffee, "She doesn't know. Yet."

"Aren't you going to tell her?"

"She's going through a rough time right now, it's not the best time to hear that your best friend is going out on a date with your ex." Of course Jesse had to pick the Chainsmokers concert, Taylor loved the Chainsmokers. She couldn't say no.

"But why did Taylor say yes? I thought he dumped Stella? Sounds like a shitty thing to do."

"He did," But I guess Taylor didn't really care about that, "Maybe they're actually really close."

I doubted it but there had to be a reason Jesse would ask Taylor. He hadn't shown any interest in her before. . .

We kept walking down the sidewalk, enjoying the cool weather.

"By the way, I forgive you for almost blowing up the school."

"Let's just say it was both of our faults." He shrugged.

"It's not like we did it on purpose. Right?" I asked him and he shrugged, so I elbowed him in the abdomen, "Right?"

"Blow up the school and take a few weeks off? Nope." He smiled and I rolled my eyes. Roan would do anything to get out of school.

I laughed, "I really hope you're joking because you'd get in so much-"

Oh. No.

"What?" Roan asked, wondering why I'd suddenly gone mute. Then he looked farther down the sidewalk and clenched his jaw.

Asher and Laurel were kissing.

It felt like my heart was ripped out of my chest.

I hated PDA like every other person but I just couldn't even look at them. When Asher rejected me but wanted to be friends, I was crushed. God it hurt.

But it didn't hurt as much as this.

I pivoted on my heel and ran around the corner, clutching my chest.

"It feels like my heart is being ripped out of my chest."

When I saw them at the carnival, I didn't want to believe it.

Why would he reject me but say yes to another girl? Was it just me?

"Why? You two were never together in the first place." He sounded kind of bitter.

I whipped my head around, "Have you ever loved someone so much it physically hurt to see them with someone else? Have you ever loved someone so much you would do anything for them? Have you ever loved anybody?"

It wasn't like Asher and I were strangers. We were pretty good friends, I felt like I could talk to him about anything. And I was pretty confident he liked me back. Well, that turned out to be a bust.

Roan just looked at me, not breaking eye contact.

"Alright, let's go."

"Go where?" We couldn't go anywhere, we walked down here.

"To my house."

.•*•.

His house was pretty big compared to mine, with three floors, a huge deck, and a garage that held up to four cars. The outside was painted white but the inside was painted blue. All of the rooms were clean and didn't have a lot of crap in it. It was almost hard to believe people lived here. My house had a thousand times more crap in it than his, you couldn't walk a few feet without tripping on junk.

"Who else lives with you?" The house looked untouched, everything meticulously organized to fit where it belonged.

"Just my ser- housekeeper." He was about to say servant, the spoiled prince.

"What about your parents?"

"They live somewhere else."

"Wait, why don't they live with you?" I'd never heard of that before.

"Well," He looked kind of sheepish, "For my last birthday, they bought me a house so I could have some space."

"I don't know any kid whose parents bought them their own house for their seventeenth birthday." His parents were awesome.

I walked around the spacious kitchen and dining room, which was very fancy by the way.

"You could throw some major kick-ass parties here." I whistled, looking up at the stairs.

"I don't like people in my space." Then why did he invite me here?

It must've been lonely living all alone.

I walked into the den, which had a couch, TV, computer, books, stack of DVDs and in the corner, an acoustic guitar.

"Do you play the guitar?" I was surprised, I didn't know Roan was into music.

"Yeah," He said as if it were nothing.

"Play something!" I suggested excitedly but he shook his head.

"I haven't played in a while-"

"Roan, just play something. I don't care what it is." I offered him his guitar and waited for him to take it. With an exasperated sigh, he took it and sat down on the couch. I sat down next to him, wondering if he could actually play or if he was just bluffing.

Well, when he started strumming, I couldn't believe my ears.

It sounded flawless, his fingers moved gracefully over the strings as he changed chords effortlessly.

He was playing "I Won't Give Up", a song I sometimes liked to sing out loud. I didn't know he paid attention to my horrible singing.

It was over too soon and he placed his guitar back on its stand.

I clapped, "That was beautiful. How'd you know how to play that song?"

"It wasn't that hard, I just listened to the song over and over."

"Not my beautiful singing?" I teased.

"Well, that too, even though you were very off-key."

"Thank you, I try." I smiled, happy he'd let me hear him play.

Roan's guitar-playing ability almost made me forget about my incurable heartbreak.