I walked through the hallway to waste time. I always ask to go to the bathroom to escape Mr. Brown's horribly boring history lecture. It's not like I'm going to need to know what the Ancient Egyptians lineage was in my day-to-day life anyway.

After meandering around the first floor for as long as I possibly can without it being suspicious, I head back to the classroom.

When I return, the lights aren't off and the middle-aged, balding man isn't putting the class to sleep anymore. On the contrary, it's quite the opposite. Everyone is chattering and grouped up, sitting in little pods. Wow, I leave for five minutes and miss the most ineresting thing we've done all year.

I walk up to Mr. Brown's desk to get the scoop on what has taken place since my departure to the restrooms.

"Ah, Mr. Styles, you're back. You missed my explanation, but basically, we're going to be doing a group project on an aspect of Ancient Egyptian culture. Will and Jesse have been so kind as to invite you to their group. I'll let them explain the rest of the project to you."

Group project, fuck. I don't work well with others. And I have no clue who "Will" or "Jesse" is. I don't bother learning who my classmates are.

"Who?" I ask.

"Will and Jesse."

"Well, yeah. Who are they?" I snap back. We're a month and a half into the school year. He should know by now I don't really give a fuck about many people.

"Will and Jesse." He said, annunciating each syllable as if he couldn't believe my attitude, and pointing to a girl and guy sitting with their desks pushed together in the corner of the room. I walk over to them, pulling a desk up to theirs effortlessly.

I force a smile onto my face. If I have to work with them on this we might as well try to be cordial. Even though we're nothing alike. Two totally different social groups.

"Hi." I say. Maybe Paisley is rubbing off on me with this whole 'be nice' thing.

"Hey, Harry." The girl, Jesse, obviously, says. The boy, Will, obviously, just gives me a curt nod of adknowledgement.

"So what are we doing for this project?"

"We're going to do a presentation on the Egyptian view on the afterlife." The boy said.

"Alright. Like pyramids and stuff?" I was really trying to be nice. Really.

"Well yeah, those are their tombs for the Pharoahs." Jesse said. We all just sat silent for a moment. I sure didn't know what to say or do to get started.

"Maybe we should start by brainstorming aspects of their religion and then breaking down which parts each of us want to research." Will suggested. Maybe I got lucky and got put into a group with some smart kids.

"Okay." Jesse and I said in unison. Will pulled out a piece of paper and began to jot stuff down.

"So, what Harry said about the pyramids, we'll need stuff about Osiris, the weighing of the heart, the tombs of the people..." Him and Jesse bantered back and forth, thinking of different topics. I kind of felt bad that I couldn't really contribute much. But hey, I did give them the pyramid thing.

"Sorry, I don't really retain information that well." I said, relaying the fact that I really haven't helped at all.

"It's fine." Jesse said warmly.

After that, Mr. Brown dismissed our group to the library so we could start doing our research. We were walking down the vacant halls when Jesse spoke up.

"Oh, hey Will, how'd you do on that psych test?" She asked eagerly.

And then it all hit me at once. This was Paisley's Will. The one she had a 'study group' with last week. In fact, I now realize that it was a study group to study for this very test they were talking about.

"You're in that class with Paisley, right?" I interjected.

"Oh, yeah. I am!" Will said.

"Oh cool." Now I didn't know what to say. I'm never usually this awkward.

"Yeah, we both did really well on the test. She's a smarty pants, that one." Will said with a chuckle. And the way he said it made my head go a little dizzy and my blood rush a little faster, but those were things that I definitely don't want to admit to and feelings I definitely need to push away.

"Oh believe me, I know."

We got to the library and got situated at computers. Will split up the topics and gave me mine to research. I had the weighing of the heart in the afterlife. I was supposed to be gathering information for our presentation, but the whole time, my mind was racing because I had just met Paisley's Will. And my god, he was exactly like her.

* * * * * * *

I walked out to my car, the sound of the fucking bell still ringing in my ears. Did they have to make it such an annoying tone?

Meeting this Will guy was quite the interesting experience. I don't quite like him particularly. And I'm not quite sure why.

You know exactly why. And freaking Jiminy Cricket was in my head now. The annoying little bug that wants 'your conscience to be your guide,' was saying things in my head that I know are true, but sure as hell don't want to admit to myself.

But now that it's brought up, I can't push it to the back of my head. I don't like Will because Paisley likes Will and Will likes Paisley and I have a problem with that. Paisley is my...friend. And I like how close we've become. And I like spending time with her. And now Paisley and Will are going to start hanging out together.

This wouldn't have made me so upset a couple months ago. In fact, a couple months ago I didn't even give a shit about myself. But the accident changed me, as hard as it is to admit. Nobody's really said anything, but I can tell they all think it. Even I myself have noticed a difference. And I like it. And I have my friendship with Paisley to thank for it.

And maybe I'm being childish here, fearing losing a friendship because she's getting close with someone else. But I can't help it. Paisley is one of the only true friends I've had. And my thoughts were like a tangled web, so tangled that it was making my head hurt thinking about it.

I was dodging some maniac drivers in the school parking lot when a familiar voice called out my name.

"Harry." I looked over to see, speak of the devil, Paisley walking towards me. I was giving her a ride home, like always.

"Hey." I said.

"Hey." She said, catching up with me.

"How was your day?" She asked.

"Fine. You?" I asked.

"Great. I got an A- on my Psych test." She smile proudly.

"I'm so proud of you." I said mockingly. She knew I was kidding. She never got less than a B on a test, so getting all excited was a bit dramatic.

"Thanks." She smirked, going along with it.

We got to the car and got in. Forever and Always by Parachute poured out through the speakers as out of the parking lot, both of us in silence. It wasn't ever an awkard silence with Paisley. I think we both had the same feeling towards the 'penny for your thoughts' attitude, and didn't really like people invading our private conversations with ourselves.

We were halfway home when I decided to bring it up.

"So... I met Will today." Her eyes lit up in surprise, and another emotion that my mind repressed immediately, before I could register it.

"You did? When?"

"He's in my Ancient History class. We're actually working on a group project together?"

"Really? You just now realized you have a class with him, Harry?" She said incredulously, but she was laughing at the same time.

"Is that really a surprise to you. You're one of the only people I actually know the name of."

"Oh my gosh, Harry. I can't believe you."

"Really? You know me well enough to know that I give a fuck about very few people."

"Alright. Well, I refuse to actually believe that, but what'd you think?"

"Of Will?"

"Yeah." What did I think of him? Or what did I want her to think I thought of him?

"He was alright. Kind of boring, honestly." I could see her visibly shrink a little. And then I felt guilty. "He was cool though." I said, trying to make up for it.

"Yeah?" Her small voice echoed out.

"Yeah, I mean, we talked about our project only really, so that was what was boring."

"You should really get to know him. He's really genuine, and smart, and kind, and funny-"

"I get it." My tone was cold and I really didn't mean for it to be, but I really didn't want to hear anything more about this guy.

Luckily, we were almost to her house, because things got awkward really fast after that.

"Well thanks for driving me home, Harry."

"Anytime. You know that." My voice was softer now.

"Have a good weekend." She said, getting out of the car and holding the door, smiling at me. How was it that she could never get mad. I just want her to get mad and yell at me because I'm such a dick to her, but she just smiles and brushes it off.

"Uh--have fun on your date." I managed to get out. God, she was really doing things to me.

"Thanks." She then closed the door and walked up her driveway, disappearing through the front door.

I just dropped my head to the steering wheel because this was all so goddamn confusing.

* * * * * * *

Awww poor Harry ☹

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Macy xx