Chapter Two

I awoke to Amy’s fingers digging into my side.

“Get up, Brooke! We overslept,” she sounded frantic. My eyes, halfway glued shut by sleep, opened to reveal the clock. We had about ten minutes until we had to be out the door.

“Shit,” I breathed. Amy was already in my bathroom running mascara through her lashes and puckering her lips with lipstick. I sauntered into the bathroom and decided against makeup. I didn’t have the energy for that.

“I can’t believe we overslept. Did you set an alarm?” she asked.

“I thought I did,” I mumbled. I dragged a line of toothpaste on the bristles and began to brush as Amy continued to freak.

“We have to leave in five minutes. I’m going to look like trash today! How stupid, I should have set an alarm myself just to make sure we got up on time. How embarrassing! The first day of school and we’re rushing to class.”

“I don’t mind being late,” I said with the toothbrush sticking out of my mouth. “I have first period with Mr. Heiner, so I’m not too worried.”

“Well, I don’t have that luxury! Besides, I wanted to be sure to look good today.” Amy’s anxiety was a little confusing. We didn’t have the same agenda when it came to beauty; makeup and style was not my forte. Even when we were little, Amy has been the pretty one. She does my makeup and hair for every event and has no problem telling me what to wear daily. However, Amy freaking out about how she’ll look on the first day of school hasn’t happened since freshman year of high school. There was something different about today. She was devastated to not have her full time to get ready.

“Who is it?” I asked nonchalantly as I searched through my drawers for my favorite pair of jeans.

Amy froze mid-mascara stroke.

“What?”

“Who are you trying to impress?” I asked again. She hesitated, her hands frantically fidgeted over her makeup strewn along the counter.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she laughed it off.

“Yeah you do,” I slipped on my jeans and decided to wear my blue, button-up, lightweight blouse over a white tank top; my go-to casual, yet classy attire for situations like today. My normal athletic shorts and t-shirt would have to be postponed. With Amy on a rampage like today, there was no way I was getting away with wearing something so leisurely. I took the spot next to Amy in the mirror, throwing my hair into a disheveled bun. Amy remained silent.

“Are you really going to try and pretend like I’m reading you wrong?” I pushed. I had to admit, when Amy had any sort of excitement in her life, it interested me. I was not very social and I’ve never had the experience of having a boyfriend or any sort of relationship. Surfing took up too much of my time to be worried about something as trivial as a relationship.

“No,” she said. “I know you do.” She shoved her make up into her bag. When she looked back at my awaiting expression in the mirror, she sighed.

“You’re not going to like it,” she mumbled. “Are you sure you want to know?”

“What?”

Her words caught me off guard. I wasn’t going to like it? I felt like I didn’t know enough of the guys in our school to even have an opinion. She was the social one and, quite honestly, the judgmental one of the two of us. Who would she possibly be crushing on that I would have a problem with?

Unless….

“No,” I breathed, a slight chuckle of irony escaping me. “There’s no way.”

“Brooke…” Amy sighed. “He’s not what you think. He’s changed a lot! Grown-up, even,” she stressed, but I wasn’t listening. My stomach dropped and my ears pulsating. My vision turned red as I thought of Amy getting all fancied up for Sean Parker.

“Oh my god,” it took everything in me not to freak out. Sean Parker; the biggest man-whore and douche of the school, is who Amy’s interested in. “How did this even happen? Have you ever even talked to the guy?”

“Yes, of course, I have,” she snapped. “We started talking right before my trip to Africa.”

“How?” I asked without a moment’s hesitation.

“What do you mean how? He hit me up,” she said.

“So Sean Parker just ‘hits you up’ and that’s it, done deal? You’re sold?” I was trying my hardest to keep my emotions at bay, but I couldn’t help myself. I knew I was pushing my boundaries with the subject, but I cared about Amy. She’s the closest thing I had to a sibling and I would never want her to go through what every other girl has with Sean: devastating heartbreak.

“It’s not a done deal if I’m trying to look good to impress him,” Amy shot back, “and stop treating me like I’m some prostitute.” She zipped up her makeup bag with one quick yank and marched back into my bedroom to grab her change of clothes.

Maybe my word choice wasn’t the greatest, but regardless, Amy needed to realize how stupid she would look. She and I used to make fun of girls who fell for this same kind of crap and now she’s turning into one of them?

“Hang on,” I said. I could feel the lightbulb register in my brain. “You said he started talking to you before you went to Africa?”

Amy went silent as she stripped her shirt off and rummaged through her bag to find a different one. She pretended to not hear me, but I knew her better than that.

“Wasn’t he dating Georgia at that time? Not only that, but I thought Sarah also posted something about the two of them hanging out then.” My blood boiled at the thought of him doing the same routine to Amy. Sure, he’ll go out with her. Sure, he’ll kiss her, make her happy, make her feel like the only girl in the world…then, it’ll be over as soon as it started. That’s what he does. That’s who he is.

“He was broken up with Georgia by then,” Amy scoffed, slipping a frilly, pink blouse over her shoulders. “As far as Sarah goes, I asked him about that.”

“And he said?”

“He said it was purely as friends. He doesn’t have any emotional attachment to her at all.” Amy shrugged. “Now are you ready to go? We might as well just skip first period at this point.”

“Yeah, I’m ready,” I mumbled as I swung my backpack around my shoulder. I wasn’t done with this conversation, but Amy was right — it was getting late.

The car ride to school was silent. While Amy brooded about all the things I had said to her, I was brooding over my own thoughts. There was so much I wanted to say, but I could feel the tension between me and her. She didn’t want to hear it. But as her friend, it’s my duty to force her to see things that she may be too blind to see. How much can a person become attached in three or four weeks? Would it already be too late to try and prevent her from having her heartbroken?

When we got to school, the parking lot was empty, the halls were vacant and the bell had already rung. Amy tossed me an eye roll as we parted ways through the student-less hallways. Maybe Amy was right, we should have just skipped first period. A yawn escaped my mouth as my locker came into view. I hung my backpack and exchanged a few books.

I tried to situate my locker so I could shut it, balancing a few textbooks on my leg to try and make everything fit. Of course, due to my clumsiness, they dropped to the ground with an embarrassingly loud thud. I stood in front of my locker, clenching my eyes closed and praying that a teacher didn’t come out to see what was going on. When no one appeared, I let out a sigh of relief before bending to the ground to pick everything up.

Then I heard it; two faint whispers and then a giggle. My eyes scanned the hallways until they found the source of the whispers.

I didn’t believe it.

Sean Parker was there. And he wasn’t alone.

A blonde girl was leaned up against the lockers, a fair distance away from where I was, with Sean right next to her. If I’ve ever wanted to be invisible in my life, it would have been this moment. I wanted to crawl into my locker and slam the door several times on my head.

This was bad. This was really bad.

The blonde girl giggled as Sean appeared to whisper some other sweet nothing into her ear. I wanted to puke. I wanted to punch him. I wanted to burst into Amy’s class, drag her by the ear, and make her witness this. This is the guy she’s choosing to talk to. This is the guy she apparently thinks is worthy of her time and energy. The guy who’s standing several lockers down from me, flirting with another girl.

I rose to my feet and shoved my books back into my locker, causing as much of a ruckus as possible to see if it would snap the couple out of it. I may not be invisible, but no matter how much noise I made, the couple continued their flirt fest.

Wasn’t it my duty to protect my friend at all costs? I had to tell Amy about this. Better yet, I wanted to show her this.

With one glance around, I pulled out my phone and struggled to get into the camera settings.

“Ms. Adams, I sure hope you’re trying to contact a dying family member?” Mr. Keizer, the head of the biology department, questioned. I jumped, almost dropping my phone to the ground and really wishing I was invisible now.

“I was just—“ my words escaped me as I turned around to see the blonde girl had disappeared. Sean stood in front of an opened locker, fumbling around with the items inside.

Mr. Keizer waited for my response until it was clear I didn’t have one.

“You know the rules, Ms. Adams,” he said, holding his hand out. My heart sank. I’ve never gotten my phone taken away. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve gotten in trouble at school before. My fingers felt ice-cold as I handed the phone over.

“You can pick it up at the end of the school day from the office. Oh, I almost forgot,” he whipped out a small piece of paper from his pocket, filled in a couple of sections, then handed it over to me. “Your detention slip.”

“Detention?” My jaw dropped. Detention? For using my phone in the hallway?

“You know the rules.” Mr. Keizer repeated before leaving me mortified in the middle of the empty hall.

I looked at the paper slip shaking between my fingers. This couldn’t be happening. I didn’t even know where to go for detention.

“Everyone knows Mr. Keizer’s an ass,” a voice startled me out of my misery and sunk me right into further anger. “Don’t let him get to you too much.”

He was suddenly right next to me, leaning into the set of lockers to my side. I glanced over at the boy who just got me in trouble for trying to save my friend. If he hadn’t been flirting with some other girl, this could have all been avoided. I would have never felt the need to inform Amy, I would have never gotten my phone out and I would have never gotten detention. Does this go on my record?

“Too late,” I let out a frustrated sigh as I slammed my locker door shut. My pace was fast down the halls as my anger continued to fuel. Just thinking about sitting in a detention room, full of kids who do drugs, make out in the halls and talk back to teachers startled me.

“Oh, come on,” Sean continued. “I was trying to help.”

“If you want to help, maybe you should start by talking to one girl at a time,” I retorted, then instantly regretted. I said too much. He probably doesn’t even know who I am, let alone that I’m best friends with Amy.

“Excuse me?” he scoffed. I heard his footsteps stop behind me for a moment, then they caught up to me a minute later. “I don’t recognize you. Have we met at a party or something?”

I didn’t have time for this.

I stopped dead in my tracks and spun around to face him head-on. He stumbled, not prepared for my abrupt stop, then met my eyes.

I lost my words for a moment.

His eyes were like warm, sweet honey, and were completely captivating. My heart jumped into my throat as I stumbled for a way to express my frustration. His eyebrows raised into his tousled, brown curls, which he swiftly pushed out of his sight. He was…

…still a douchebag, my subconscious snapped me back to reality. I squinted my eyes, trying to gauge his expression and trying to play off how utterly and disgustingly entranced I was.

“No,” I said. “You did not meet me at a party.”

His eyes shifted to the floor for a moment, then focused back on me.

“Are you sure?”

“Positive,” I hesitated. “I don’t party.”

“Never?”

“Not once.”

He stumbled back a few steps as if this news shocked him to his core. A chuckle escaped his lips.

“How old are you?” he asked.

I opened my mouth to reply, then I stopped. Why was I even conversing with this guy? This conversation was meaningless and not worth my time and energy.

I spun around again and started my fast walk towards Mr. Heiner’s classroom. At this point, there were probably only about twenty minutes left in his class, but I needed to be away from Sean.

“Alright, fine, don’t tell me.” His voice carried through the empty halls and sent a shiver down my spine. My hands clenched into fists, but my heart jumped.

“Guess I’ll see you in detention, then,” he said one more time.

This one caught my attention.

My head spun around, but it was too late. Sean was nowhere to be seen and it left me wondering if I dreamed that last statement. I decided on the latter and opened the door to Mr. Heiner’s class.