I was expecting to return to school Monday morning with a huge smile on my face once I saw Noah.

However, it was quite the opposite. When I saw Noah, my smile faltered. Everything in my body went ice cold when the scene in front of me unfolded before my very own eyes.

My mouth flew open in stun when I saw Callum and Noah swinging their fists at each other. Because it was still early, only a few students surrounded them as they fought. Cell phones recorded the fight, some kids were encouraging the fight, and Paige was desperately trying to pull Callum off of Noah without getting hurt.

“You fucking asshole!” Noah yelled at him, punching Callum in the face repeatedly.

Callum tried his best to regain dominance over this fight. “Fuck you.”

I felt like my eyes were deceiving me. I couldn’t believe that Noah and Callum – who were a lot like brothers – were going at each other in a fist fight. Whatever they were fighting about, I knew I had to stop it before one of them gets severely hurt.

I rushed over and pushed a few students out of the way. Grabbing onto Noah’s arm, I tried to pull him off of Callum. Callum accidently swung at me, punching me in the arm. I groaned in pain, causing Noah to get up and comply with my orders.

My eyes flew to the blood dripping from his nose and his disheveled hair and clothes. Noah looked enraged. Callum eventually stood up next to Paige. He looked at me apologetically, but never got the chance to voice his apology.

“Dude, what the fuck! You hurt Emma!” Noah yelled at him, pushing me behind him.

“Noah, it was an accident – “ I started.

“I didn’t mean to hurt you, Ems. I’m sorry,” Callum said to me before turning back to Noah with anger.

Noah shook his head vigorously. His whole body seemed to shake as he lost control of his anger. “Don’t fucking talk to her!”

I placed my hands on his shoulders. “Noah, calm down.”

“What? No! I won’t calm down! How can you choose his side?”

“I’m not choosing his side!” I cried. “I don’t even know what the hell is going on!”

“He’s a backstabbing bitch who fucking lied to me!” Noah shouted, sounding as if he was about to cry. His hands tugged at his hair angrily.

“What is going on here?” a school authority bellowed as he ran down the hallway towards us. A few of the scared students coward away. The school authority eyed us in annoyance and took Noah and Callum by the collar. “Let’s go. All of you! Even you two, girls! Everybody, get to class or you will all be given detention for skipping!”

The school authority led us to the office. Principal Leroy was in a meeting with a few parents who were concerned over the weird meat served at lunch yesterday that was more green than the moss on a tree. Callum and Noah sat as far away as possible from each other, refusing to look or talk to each other.

Usually, I’d be scared to be in the principal’s office because I was a goody two shoes. I should’ve been mad at least because I didn’t play any part in the fight and I was facing the consequences of it. However, all I could think about was my curiosity.

I was curious as to why they fought and why Noah called him a liar.

“What happened?” I whispered, low enough so that Callum and Paige didn’t hear our conversation.

Noah fidgeted in his chair, glaring at Callum as he spoke loudly. “The fucker has a video of the night Nick was killed on his phone and didn’t show it to me until today.”

“What?” I gasped, feeling my blood turn ice cold.  

My eyes snapped towards Callum, not knowing what to say. I tried to ignore the bothered feeling I got when I saw Paige roll her eyes. What exactly were those two hiding?

“Shut up, Noah. I was scared okay?”

“Scared? Bull shit! I endured a lot of crap because of this stupid mystery that has been haunting me! And you didn’t want to help me out because you were scared?”

“Kyle and I could’ve gotten in trouble,” Callum snapped, gripping the arms of his chair. “The video is useless anyways. It doesn’t help you either way.”

Noah inhaled sharply. “At least I would’ve known who was there! I can’t believe you fucking lied to me. All this time, I believed I was the only one that night!”

Before Callum could reply, I stood up and outstretched my hand. “Give me your phone. I want to see it.”

“What? Ems, no – “ Callum said in bewilderment, shaking his head.

 “I want to see it,” I replied slowly, emphasizing each word through clenched teeth.

Callum’s eyes narrowed. “No!”

“Give me your phone. Now.”

Callum exhaled frustratingly and placed his phone in my hands reluctantly. I scrolled through his videos until I came up to the familiar date of Nick’s death. With trembling fingers, I clicked play.

A few of the light towers were on, dimly lighting our football field. Stars sprinkled across the dark canvas. Judging by the feedback of the sound, the wind was strong that night. Laughter and slurring were heard as two familiar boys walked in front of the camera.

Nick and Noah had their arms slung across each other with sloppy smiles on their handsome faces. Nick was skinny compared to Noah, but was equally as handsome. They laughed at something behind the camera and laughed harder when Nick burped.

“All right, girls,” I heard Callum say behind the camera in a gruff voice, mocking their baseball coach. “What is this? This ain’t ballerina class!”

Nick and Noah laughed again and twirled around like ballerinas when the song “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” started playing. Callum laughed too, the camera slightly shaking.

“Hey bro, look at this!” Noah yelled gleefully and did an embarrassing dance move. I would’ve laughed if this moment wasn’t serious. The three erupted into laughter again.

“Hey, this is my jam!” someone yelled. He sounded drunk too.

The camera moved from Nick and Noah to two boys who hopped over the gate of the football field. One guy, who looked a whole lot like Jesse O’Neil, fell when he attempted to climb over the gate. He stayed on the floor and fell asleep. The other one with curly brown hair, who was a stranger to my eyes, stole the money from his wallet. Everyone laughed again.

Noah and Nick staggered into the picture and jumped on the guy with the curly brown hair. “Kyle! We missed you!”

Kyle pushed Noah and Nick off drunkenly and looked at Callum behind the camera. “Hey, brother! Mom said, ha – ha, we already broke her rules! Dad’s going to kill us!” Kyle looked at something behind. “Yes! The man is here!”

“Yay! Did you bring the stuff?” Callum asked before the video ended.

I stared at the black screen of the phone, trying to make sense of what I just saw. It made me wonder who came at the end of the video. I also came up with the scary realization that this was the same place Nick was killed and all of those boys were there. Were they drugged too? Or did they leave before it happened? Most importantly, that Kyle person was his brother? How?

Callum took his phone out of my hands and eyed me curiously.

“Look, I didn’t hurt Nick. I can promise you that,” Callum started.

Noah laughed bitterly. “And how do I know you aren’t lying? You lied to me about that video!”

“I didn’t lie to you about the video! I just kept it from you!”

“Why did you hide it from me? How do I know you’re not hiding something now?”

“I don’t know anything, Noah. Trust me.”

“Trust you?” Noah scoffed, sitting back in his chair. “Do you know who killed Nick or not?”

Callum narrowed his eyes. “I don’t! I was drugged like you! Do you want to see my blood test that morning? It has the same results as yours. I even woke up the next morning behind a stranger’s backyard!”

“What about Kyle, huh?”

“He won’t say a word. Please try to understand that I was protecting my brother,” Callum sighed.

“I wished I could still be doing that,” Noah spat, his eyes watering.

“Estásdelirando! It’s not his fault so fuck off!” Paige finally said, getting angry herself.

I’m not sure why this made me angry, but it did. Paige should’ve understood that Noah was going to be angry with Callum after hiding something this big. I narrowed my eyes at her and folded my arms across my chest.

“He wasn’t blaming Callum.” I said coldly.

“Oh,” Paige scoffed. “Stop pretending that this is your business too. You should stay out of it. Stop snooping into other people’s lives.”

My eyebrows hitched upwards. “And you get to be involved in it?”

Paige rolled her eyes. “Do you see me pushing my way into people’s lives the way you do? Gosh, Emma, you’re as pathetic as a fish out of water. Do you not see that?”

“That’s not true – “ Noah started.

My eyes began to water at my best friend’s revelation. “So that’s how you really see me?”

“Yes,” Paige cried. “Gosh, I’ve been dying to say this to you, but you’re too busy sucking face with the asshole over there to listen to your friends.”

“Okay, wow!” I said, raising my voice involuntarily. “I never pegged you for a hypocrite, Paige. Leon and I never see you anymore because you’re too busy pleasing the man whore.”

 “I’m not playing her!” Callum snapped.

Noah rolled his eyes. “Shut up. She’s not talking to you.”

Soon, every single one of us erupted into argument. I was hurt, but I couldn’t stop mouthing off to Paige. Whatever each of us had to say to the other, there was a comment in return.

I ignored Callum and Noah’s argument and focused on my own with Paige.

“So you think I’m a prostitute now?” Paige laughed bitterly.

I rolled my eyes. “When you stop using your body to get guys, then maybe I’ll be convinced.”

“Your jealousy is hilarious.”

“I’m not jealous, sweetheart.”

“You’ve always been jealous of me! You’ve been jealous of my looks and the guys I go out with!”

“Those guys have been asses! Why would I be jealous of that?”

“You’re going out with an ass right now.”

My eyes narrowed as I straightened my posture. “At least I’m not going out with a guy who had more sex than Hugh Hefner.”

“Callum’s a sweetheart, unlike the one who treats you like his bitch.”

“If you were actually around now-a-days, you’ll realize that he’s a nice guy!”

“I don’t see anything nice about a guy who’s bound to leave you soon.”

“Stop pretending you know everything.”

I couldn’t believe I was having an argument with my best friend. Sure, we had small fights here and there. However, it wasn’t this huge. And I couldn’t believe we were fighting because we were defending our boyfriends.

Out of all the things to fight about, I couldn’t believe it was about boys – something we often laughed about when Chelsea broke up with one of her posse for stealing each other’s men.

However, I couldn’t help but get so angry. All the emotions I’ve been holding in for the month that she had been absent from my life because she had Callum was now exploding out of my mouth. I couldn’t control it. She couldn’t either.

We continued to bicker, arguing about every small flaw we could find about each other based on our friendship. On the side, Callum and Noah argued as well. The student assistant working behind the front desk was desperately trying to shut us up. The parents who exited the room eyed us in disapproval.

But we didn’t care. All we cared about was getting back at whatever the other said.

“Shit, bro! I’ve been here all the time and you’re going to be a bitch about something this small?” Callum yelled.

Noah laughed bitterly. “I’m glad you fucking think my brother’s death was something ‘small’!”

“¿Qué clase demejor amigoes usted?”

“Did you go stupid? If you want me to reply, speak to me in English!” I argued at Paige.

“Of course your brother’s death wasn’t – “

“You want to know what I said, huh? Too bad you – “

“What is going on here?” Principal Leroy yelled in his Chinese accent, scratching his bald head. His eyebrows drew together in anger as he stepped in the middle of our argument with condemnation. “I am disappointed in all of you!”

Principal Leroy wasn’t so harsh on our punishment once again because Callum and Paige were great students, I was as innocent as a flower in a meadow, and Noah hasn’t been into trouble in months. However, Principal Leroy was still disappointed that ‘such great students got involved in violent activities.’ Our punishment was simple. Detention for the remainder of the week.

We silently agreed to his punishment, seeing that we had no choice and were thankful for something that mild. Although Principal Leroy made us apologize to each other, we didn’t mean it. Deep down inside, we were still boiling with anger at each other.

We were dismissed and sadly, we didn’t spare a glance at each other as we walked away from our best friends.