MONDAY CREEPS UP on me as usual and this time, unlike other time I really despise the day and don't want to go through it. The rest of Saturday was made better by Tyler. After I beat him in the horse race, he doesn't leave my side as we work around the farm. I ride Psalm again, up and down the field under sundown.

Sunday was okay mainly because of Finn. He came over and yanked me off my bed. I didn't dive into details about Ian and I, I just told him we had a disagreement and I didn't want to talk about it. He was okay with that and forced me into diving in a marathon of Game of Thrones. Now Monday was here and I had people to distract me from myself but the difference is, I also have Ian.

I lingered outside the school building, whiling away time until I knew that Ian must have stopped by his locker and went away on his merry way. Its days like this that I'm grateful we have no class together.

"You won't believe what went down on Saturday?" Jamie sings resting her back on the locker next to Ian's.

"Please stop talking." Christine says pressing her fingers to her head.

Jamie huffs, "You can seriously still be having a hangover up until now, from Saturday?"

"I am. I swear I'm not kidding. I am." Christine insists.

"You're some freak then."

"No more cheap beer for me." Christine groans.

"What does that mean? Champagne things now?"

"Hell yeah." Christine says smiling and Jamie laughs. I manage a smile at them as I shut my locker and stand up.

"What went down on Saturday?" I slowly asks hugging my bag closely.

"You mean beside the epic beer pong?" Jamie asks smiling. I roll my eyes. "Well, Lionel Chase was caught kissing... a boy."

I blink, I so did not expect that.

"And that's not all." Jamie says her eyes twinkling.

"What else?" Christine asks, sounding tired. I'm guessing she has heard this a lot.

"The boy he kissed turns out to be some sophomore kid. And right after, Aiden Macer beats the kid to pulp."

"What?" I ask shocked. "Why would he do that?"

Jamie shrugs, a morbid smile on her face. "Our 'golden boy' is a freaking homophobe. Who would have guessed?!"

I roll my eyes, "don't sound so excited about that."

"How can I not? This is juicy news. A stain on our perfect prince's robe."

I start walking ahead, not exactly rejoicing about the fact that Jamie has dirt on Aiden. We may be on the outs now but once upon a time, we were good friends. "Aiden's not like that. And why would he be, Lionel's his friend."

"Which makes it all the more juicy. And are we forgetting the fact that Lionel Chase is gay? The Lionel? Brute of the populars?" Jamie says then tosses her head back and start.

"Stop it Jamie." I snap coming to an abrupt stop.

"What's got your panties in a twist?" She asks confused and I sigh.

"Nothing. Just stop enjoying this so much." I finish and just then I look up and I see Ian Maurice walking down the hallway. He has his uniform on with an open black coat over it. His hair is tied up in a knot and he has earplugs on, his signature frown on his face.

My eyes remain on him, watching his perfect walk and occasional bounce. Just when I think I've gotten enough of staring and longing, he looks up and our eyes lock. I can see his ocean storm eyes all the way from here, I stop breathing and we keep our eyes locked. I don't know how many seconds go by but Ian doesn't look away, I do. I turn around and continue walking.

I hear Jamie say behind me, "What's wrong with her?"

"Your Galaxy buddy. Who else?" Christine supplies.

Its not until I've stepped foot inside my class that I release a breath and start breathing again. I didn't even realize I was holding in my breath for that long. I'll be fine... eventually.

**

"I could sense the sexual tension all the way from where I was sat." Finn says resting his ass next to mine on the bleachers.

I sigh, looking away from Ian and angling myself so I'm lying down and resting my head on Finn's thighs. "There's no sexual tension."

"Oh yeah?" He asks his long fingers finding their way into my hair, "Then why do you two keep staring at each other?"

"I'm staring at him because I think that if I look long enough, I'll finally get tired of him or I'll see some big flaw that I haven't noticed before and it'll make him less attractive." I confess.

"And also because you can't help it."

I sigh again, I've been doing a lot of that lately. "That too."

"How did Shakespeare put it. Love is a fume of sighs?"

"Huh?"

Finn smiles, "Nothing. Why do you think Ian keeps looking at you?"

"I don't know." Another sigh, "Maybe he's just humoring me. Because let's face it, I'm pathetic."

"Or maybe he can't look away to." Finn says and I pop my eye open to look at him.

"You think so?"

"I know so, Anna. He wants you just as much as you do."

I glare at Finn head, "don't give me false hope. He fucking kicked me out of his house."

"Us guys are simple and complicated creatures. Maybe he was overwhelmed with whatever you guys were arguing about and his first thought and mood or reaction was anger, violence. Because let's face it, there's no way a guy like him hasn't faced or isn't facing anger issues. His go to look is a scary frown for God's sake." Finn says gesturing at Ian.

I turn to look and this time he's still relaxed on the wall, a frown on his face, arms crossed as he kicked the floor. "He's amazing Finn." I blurt. "There's no one like him. I don't think it's possible to unlike someone like him. The thought of that itself is disheartening."

"Then do something about it, go say sorry."

I turn back up to face the gym ceiling. "No. He kicked me out. If he wants me back, he should come to me."

"Your pride. His pride. Both of you prides would be the death of you."

I sigh again. "Why are you doing this again? I thought you aren't a fan of us together, him being mysterious and all."

"You just says and I quote, 'there's no one like him'. If you really think so, then you're screwed to no return. And I'm the only one who can help."

I smile and put my arm around his neck, "I'm in love with you. Love me back?"

Finn groans, unwinding my hand from around him. "Unfortunately, you're almost taller than me and that's a big turn off. I prefer towering over the girls I fuck."

I slap his head, "So your kink, turn on, fetish, blah blah, is short girls?"

"Essentially."

"You're an idiot."

"I'm not the first and wouldn't be the last."

"In a bid to change topics," I start. "Did you know Chase liked boys?"

Finn tsks, "I had my suspicions."

"What's this about Aiden beating up a sophomore?"

He frowns, "I don't know. Can we not talk about that?"

"Fine, keep massaging my scalp please." I request.

Finn obliges, "So, Ian?"

"No, so Jade?"

Ugh, of all days the gym teacher had to leave us on our lonesome, it had to be today.

**

My hands keep fumbling with my phone. I open up the text app, start writing something, delete it, then toss it back to the bed and then start playing with my fingers. I've decided that I'm not going to give up on Ian and now I'm trying to figure out how exactly I'm going to that. I'm in too deep. I can't get him out of my bed and I can't stop sulking and being all depressed. I like him too much and this kind of feelings –onces as strong as this – are rare - Finn's words. Jamie and Christine seem to think it's for the best but Finn thinks otherwise and honestly I'm with Finn on this one.

Everything feels right with him. How can something that is 'wrong' feel so right?

I groan like an animal and fall back on my bed, burying my head into a pillow. I need to think about how I'm going to do this. If I'm going to do this. Then I hear my door open up.

"Ellie for the third time, I said I'm fine." I grumbled into the pillow, reaching for one and blindly throwing it in what I'm guessing is her direction.

"No, you're not. But that doesn't matter anymore, I was sent." Her tiny voice says bugging my existence.

"By who? Tell mum I'm stuck on a project."

"Its not mum and you want me to lie?" She gasps exaggeratedly.

I groan, sitting up on my bed and fixing her a look. "Like you haven't lied before. And its not a lie, I'm trying to sleep, that's a project."

Ellie rolls her eyes, "Well, this is urgent."

"What is?"

She smiles and produces a rock from behind her, on it was a white paper held together with a band. I eye it with narrowed eyes.

"What's that?"

"A note."

I gulp. "From who?"

Ellie smiles knowing she now has my attention. She jumps up the bed. "From a guy I saw pacing out your window."

"Huh?"

"So I was wishing upon the first star I saw and then I saw this guy pacing outside. I was alarmed at first but then I recognized him as your boyfriend so I went outside to see him."

"What? You went outside?" I ask in disbelief looking up her tiny frame. "Ellie do you have any idea how dangerous that was?"

"I went with Zoe." She says pouting. "She would have protected me and I wouldn't have gone if I didn't recognize him. I'm not stupid."

I roll my eyes, "nevertheless, don't do that again and I don't have a boyfriend."

"You don't? Then who's Ian?"

So it was him.

"An ex friend." I say and she squeezes up her face in confusion. "Forget all that, what did you do outside."

"Ian said he wanted to talk to you but was afraid you'd chop his head off. So he gave me a note to give you." She hands me the rock. "Please don't chop his head off, I like him."

"Go to bed Missy." I say shooing her off.

"Fine, say goodnight to him for me." She says before leaving the room.

I remove the band holding the paper to the rock, wondering why he put a rock when he's just going to hand it over to Ellie. The note was crumpled up and the cursive writing on it looked like it was written in a rush.

can you please come out? we need (scratched out) we should talk.

I roll my eyes at the note. Really? He obviously needs lessons on love/apology notes 101. I read the note over and I just know that I'm going to go out. I jump off my bed, opening my window to look out but I don't see Ian. Is he gone? Did he think I won't come out? Have I wasted too much time?

Instead of thinking about things that won't do me any good, I grab my robe and wear around my body, over my shirt and plaid pajama shorts. I release my hair from it's pony and run my fingers through it. Then I leave my room, carefully going downstairs. Before going out the door, my stomach grumbles and I groan, going back into the kitchen. I rummage my storage of junk and eventually walk out the house with a pack of Pop Tarts s'mores.

I didn't need to look for Ian because he's relaxing on the wall of the building, his arms crossed in front of him. I gulp, even without seeing his face, he looks so tall and drinkable. I move, my flops making a noise on the hardwood floor and Ian looks up, blinking his eyes at me. I stay frozen at a spot and I just look at him.

"Hey." He breathes out, not breaking eye contact.

"Hey." I echo, taking in a large gulp of air. I walk further and step down the porch, standing in front of him. I raise the note. "I got your note."

Even with the darkness and poorly lit environment, I can still see the red on his cheeks. His hand goes up to his neck.

"Yeah, sorry about that. I should've texted."

"No, its okay. I like old fashion notes any day." I reply and Ian nods. "Plus, my sister got to go on an adventure. Smooth you know."

Ian smiles and I can't help but smile to. He gestures out with his hand. "I brought a truck. It's parked behind the trees."

"Who's truck?"

"Rick's."

Oh, I nod. Rick, not dad's. I gesture with my hand. "Shall we, then?"

"Of course."

"I missed you."

I blink in surprise but then it wasn't me who said that. I look at Ian and he's literally forcing himself to keep looking ahead. I smile.

"Me too."

----------------------------------------------------------

The talk - next.

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