The weekend passes by really fast. I hang out at home on Sunday, catching up on homework and avoiding my mom's pleas to join one of her fitness classes. My dad and I end up going out for pizza because she won't leave us alone.

On Monday, Ethan gives me a ride to school in his car. I didn't expect it but it means I leave the house later than usual and still get to school with way too much time to spare and someone to hang out with for once. He parks in Josh's spot but when I tell him, he laughs in my face.

"How's Ella?" He asks me, brushing his hair out of his face.

I shrug. "Well, we talked yesterday and she was fine." I say. "She apologised for leaving so abruptly."

"Is she on her period? She seems like she's on her period." He rubs his chin. "I mean, I'm not judging if she is, but is she like... I mean... am I putting my foot in my mouth? You should tell me to shut up."

"Shut up, Ethan." I say.

"Gladly."

We sit at a bench, talking idly about classes. His phone rings suddenly and he sighs when he sees the caller ID.

"I've gotta take this." He tells me. "I'll be back in a few."

I nod and he stands up, putting the phone to his ear and walking away. For a few moments, I watch him and he looks a little stressed but I can't hear what he's saying so I decide to forget about it. Someone taps me on my shoulder and surprisingly, it's Jessica.

"Hey, Alisa." She says and stretches her arms out.

"Jessica?" I blink at her, dumbfounded. Slowly, she puts her arms down and I understand that she wanted a hug... but I don't know why. "Uh, sorry, I'm just a little surprised you're here. What's up?"

She sits down beside me and then unveils a very extra necklace that I'm sure I recognise. "I was at Joshy's house last night and we found this under his bed. Be a dear and give it to Ella would you?"

She dangles it in front of me, making it reflect the sunlight right into my eyes. To avoid being blinded, I take it from her and place it on the table where it can't hurt anyone. "Oh uh... why don't you give it to her yourself?"

Jessica smirks. "I don't think that'd be wise if I'm honest. Well – is that Ethan?!"

I look up and Ethan's coming over with a very annoyed look on his face. He spots Jessica and immediately opens his arms out for a hug which she returns with a grin. They talk for a little bit before she waves at me and walks off. He sits down across from me and sighs loudly, staring at his phone screen with a crease between his brows.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

He looks up at me, startled. "Oh, nothing." I give him a pointed look and once again he sighs. "My girlfriend's mad at me."

"What? What did you do?"

He hangs his head. "Remember when we all took a photo yesterday and I had my arm around your shoulder because you were falling off the seat?"

It takes me way too long to put two and two together. "Is she jealous? Of me?"

He shrugs. "Well, you're a pretty – you're a girl and I don't know, maybe she thinks something will happen?"

"But I don't even like you that much?" He puts a hand to his heart. "Oh stop it you know what I mean."

"She didn't like us hanging out, proposed we take a break. I told her we'll talk later."

I bite my bottom lip. "She sounds delightful."

Ethan actually laughs at this. "Trust me, Nicole's great but things have been really rocky since junior prom. We broke up once before getting back together in the summer before I came."

"Oh." I bite my bottom lip. "So... her name's Nicole? How long have you been together?"

He raises his eyebrow. "Almost a year and half... why?"

"Can't I ask you about her?"

"You just said you don't like me that much."

"I was just being honest!"

He laughs again. "Alisa, I don't know what I'm gonna do with you."

I shrug. "Nothing, probably. Anyway, is she pretty?"

"Well, not as pretty as me but yeah." I reach into my bag and get a pen which I throw at his head. He catches it in time. "Thanks for the pen,"

"You're gonna have to give that back to me."

Ethan snorts and focuses his eyes on something behind me. "Hey Ella!" He waves and I turn around. She heads over to our direction and she smiles at us blandly before taking a seat next to me. She immediately spots the necklace on the table and gasps.

"Where'd you get this? I've been looking for it everywhere!"

I almost tell her that Jessica gave it to me but I figure that'll upset her. So instead I just shrug. "Found it on my room floor and thought it was yours."

Surprisingly, she grins at me. "Thanks Alisa. This was Josh's first gift to me."

I smile at her then look away, feeling bad for lying but also relieved because she at least won't be upset this early in the morning. The three of us chat a while before the bell rings and we head to homeroom.

Janet comes in, late per usual and spends the period attempting to eat several granola bars without Mr Winter catching her. Of course she succeeds – after three years of high school, she's become sort of a pro at this. Ella and Ethan get into a deep discussion about relationships and it's great because she cheers up for once. Today seems like it's starting off to be a good day.

Ella, Janet and I hang out in the courtyard at break. It's nice being just the three of us again and it's almost like last year, when we all didn't have a care in the world.

"Girls, I went on a date yesterday." Janet drops the bomb as we're discussing the prep work for our literature class. I stop mid-sentence and Ella almost falls off the table.

"WHAT?!" She screeches and sits up. "With who?!"

Janet's cheeks go pink. "Anthony... he took me to this Greek restaurant."

I gasp and she grins at me. "How was it?"

"Oh it was so pretty, Alisa. The food was so good and they did this great souvlaki with –"

"I meant the date?"

"Oh." She slaps her forehead. "It was amazing. He kissed me and told me he thought I was funny and cute."

I put two hands on my heart and coo. "You guys are adorable! Aren't they, Ella?"

She nods and smiles at us. "Must be nice being in love."

Janet clears her throat and a fleeting expression passes through her face. "I wouldn't say love but he wants to take me for ice cream tomorrow!"

"You love ice cream!" I wave my hands in the air and she squeals. The conversation shifts towards her date until Jessica wanders on over to us with a bright smile on her face.

"Hey girls!" She says, smiling. She puts her hand on my shoulder and squeezes it, somewhat friendlily despite the fact Ella's glaring at her and we don't know why she's here.

"What do you want?" Ella snaps.

She just smiles back. "Well, I was going to invite you to sit with us at lunch today."

"Why?" I ask, completely baffled.

"Oh Alisa!" She laughs. "We were besties, we should really go back to that. Besides, Ethan's sitting with us, he told me so this morning."

Janet and I share a look. "We'll pass, thanks. Tell Ethan we said hi, I guess." I say, sighing. Jessica pouts but doesn't say anything else. She pointedly looks at Ella as she waves a goodbye and leaves.

"That was so weird."

I shake my head. "I know right. She spoke to me this morning as well and I didn't know what to do."

"Spoke to you? About what?" Ella asks, a little too interested.

I shrug, thinking up a lie quickly. "Oh, you know... drama."

"Drama?" I nod look away from her. "Okay, whatever. I think I might take her up on that invitation though."

"What? You hate Jessica, she stole your boyfriend and kissed him in front of you, you can't sit with her!" Janet exclaims a little too loudly. Ella's cheeks go bright red and she glares at her.

"Tell the whole world, would you?" She snaps and snatches her bag from the table. "I'm going to class early, I'll see you two later."

Ella walks away without giving us a second glance. Janet and I share a look.

"To think," She sighs. "Today was going uber well!"

At lunch, I spy her sitting with Jessica. She's across from Josh which looks really uncomfortable for her but she's smiling. Janet and I sit at another table together, talking about our PE class later among other things. We make eye contact at one point but it's only brief since she looks away from me.

As for Ethan, I don't really see him outside class. Whenever I do see him, he still has the same slightly worried expression on his face. Even though I'd like to make sure he's okay, I feel a little awkward asking him about his talk with his girlfriend. So I don't ask.

The day passes by pretty fast. After the bell rings, I say goodbye to Janet (who's getting a ride with Anthony) and head on over to the auditorium. Sarah's drawing a garden set on some cardboard so I pick up a pencil and head on over to help her.

"Oh hey Alisa!" She waves at me, grinning. "How was your weekend?"

"Not too bad, how was yours?"

"My brother tried to teach me how to surf."

"How'd that go?"

"Horribly, I am not built for physical activity! Never again!" Sarah throws her hands in the air dramatically and I laugh. "Hey, is Ethan coming today?"

I shrug. "He's a bit down today. I don't think so."

She eyes me up carefully. "Are the two of you friends now or something? Last week when I asked you that you told me that you couldn't care less about him."

"Things changed over the weekend." I say lightly. "Hey, this is for Much Ado, right?" Sarah stares at me for a while. "What?"

"Nothing. This is for the elementary school's production of the princess and the pea, they wanted extra help."

I nod and look up, seeing Mrs Apendale walk in. She grins at us working and goes to busy herself with some freshmen. The two of us work for about fifteen minutes until the doors open and Ethan comes in. He heads straight on over to us and sits down on the edge of the stage, staring wistfully at the ceiling.

"Hey? Earth to Ethan?" Sarah waves in his face. He looks at her, a little startled. "Are you there?"

"Yeah, hey. I was just thinking." He shakes his head. "How are you guys doing?"

"Good!" She says. I just put my thumbs up and then continue drawing shrubbery.

The two of them launch into a conversation that I chip into a few times. Ethan ends up helping us out too and his mood seems to change from a little melancholy to his normal pretty upbeat self. I didn't miss him teasing me all day but I take it just for now because it was weird having a quiet Ethan around.

"Well! My brother's got me so I'll see you guys tomorrow?" Sarah says when we're leaving. She leans in and gives me a hug. I say goodbye and watch her head over to where her brother's car is parked.

Ethan nudges my shoulder with his elbow. "Hey, 'Leese, would you like a ride home?" He asks. I spot Sarah winking at me obviously from behind him and almost roll my eyes at what she's suggesting.

"Sure," I shrug and stick my tongue out at her retreating figure but she just lets out a silent laugh. The two of us head on over to where his car's parked, still in Josh's spot and I get into the passenger's side.

The journey home isn't long but it's pretty awkward. Ethan doesn't say anything to me and just turns on his radio, blocking out any chance of a conversation. To be honest, I wouldn't know what to say to him anyway. When we stop outside my house, I linger in the car, wondering what to do.

"Er, thanks for the ride." I say, slinging my bag over my shoulder.

He sends me a half grin. "No big deal."

I fidget for a moment before taking a deep breath. "Ethan, are you okay?"

He raises his eyebrow. "I'm good. Why?"

I shrug. "You know, that whole thing with your girlfriend this morning... I didn't know what to say to you."

"Oh," He looks away from me and rubs the back of his head. "Yeah, um, we broke up during lunch."

"Oh. Ooh, I'm sorry."

"Yeah. It's not a big deal." He stare straight out of his window, avoiding eye contact with me. "Thanks for asking though."

"It's okay I guess." I play with the ends of my hair for a few seconds before releasing a breath and opening the car door. "Well, I'm gonna go... I'll see you later."

He nods and takes grip of the steering wheel. I wave at him and he gives me a wan smile before I get out of his car once and for all.

I'm halfway up the path to my door when Ethan honks his horn. So I turn back and he's leaning out of the other side of the window.

"Hey, Alisa?" He says.

"What's up?"

"Do you... wanna hang out? We can go walk around the mall and try to forget about things or something."

I look back at my house and think about all the stuff I've gotta do tonight. I have a ton of homework and I'd probably have to save my dad from trying out one of my mom's new yoga routines. Not to mention I need to check in on Ella and see if she's cool. The whole lunch thing was weird to me but I just want to see if she's okay.

So of course I clear my throat and shrug. "Sure."