It was truly horrible. Disgusting. Traumatizing. I don't want to talk about it.

"Can they breathe?" I whispered in a concerned voice to Sophia.

"I hope not. Then maybe they will never do this again." It's cute but disgusting, I heard Sophia's voice in her head say.

"You like it."

"No I don't!"

"Sure."

Finally Aliya and Felix broke apart. It took them long enough, I heard Sophia think.

"I heard that!" Aliya shouted in a very offended sounding tone.

"So did I," I said, trying to back her up.

"Did I ask?" Sophia snapped back.

"Gosh, you don't have to be so me-"

"Duck!" Sophia shouted.

"Wha-" Aliya started but at the same time but Sophia pulled her down to the ground.

"What was that for?" Aliya asked harshly.

I pointed to my finger at a pegasus coming back towards us. "Look!"

Sophia screamed just as Lukas pushed her out of the way. They rolled away together with Sophia's face flushed red from shock.

"Thanks," Sophia said gratefully.

"Yeah," Lukas responded. Sophia could have exploded.

Aliya and I were watching them like hawks in the distance. Lukas was slowly moving closer, like he was about to kiss her . . . But then Sophia RUINED IT by pushing him away and saying, "Sorry, but . . . I don't really like you that way."

What was a pegasus doing here? I asked Alyia through my mind.

I don't know, she responded. But is that really important right now?

Yes! Think about it. A random pegasus just comes down from the sky and tries to kill us?

Ok, you have a point. But not now, look!

I looked where she was pointing and realized that Lukas was sitting in the grass sitting quietly. Sophia had left. I walked over to him.

"Are you ok?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah. Well, not really," he admitted.

"What happened?"

"Not important."

"Is it?"

"Fine. But keep it to yourself. Ok?"

"Ok, go ahead."

"Well, we were rolling and then . . . um . . ." he looked down.

I sat there awkwardly next to him observing the grass that was slowly getting greener as spring came. I thought about hugging him but that would feel like betrayal.

"Um, it's ok . . ." I said more awkwardly than I intended.

"It's just that I thought she-it would be us. Together."

"She . . . she just wasn't ready."

"No, she wasn't ready."

I could tell that Aliya had left. I was really hoping that she would have stayed because I'm not very good at this and some backup would really help.

"Were you ready?" I asked, trying to break the silence.

"I don't know. I know that I like her and all, but I guess I was moving too fast. I'm just jealous that Felix has a girlfriend, and I don't. He's always making fun of me for it and I just want to prove to him that there is at least one girl who likes me, but I guess he's right."

I didn't know how to respond to this. How could Sophia have known? I thought to myself. He looked at me like he wanted me to say something but I had nothing to say.

"I'm sorry" was all I could manage.

"It's not your fault."

Yeah, I know, I thought. Why would it be? He started to get up.

"Wait," I said regrettingly.

He glanced back at me. "Yeah?"

"So . . . You like her," I prompted. "Does she li—"

Suddenly I heard a sound coming from the bushes behind us.

Aliya, is that you? I thought, hoping that she could hear me.

The only response that I got was a slight shiver from Lukas.

"Are you scared?" I asked.

"Nope," he said. I rolled my eyes at how cocky he could be.

"Ok, but you don't know what it is, do you?"

"That doesn't matter right now," he said confidently.

I stepped off to the side, watching him walk carefully towards the bush where we heard the sound. I watched him move the branches with a stick he found on the ground. Once he had moved the branches, a pale face popped out. Lukas dropped the stick and I shuffled sideways to see why.

"Sophia?" He asked.