AUGUST

Grayson didn't look very happy the rest of the time we were eating. I kept sneaking glances at him, noticing his eyes narrowed straight ahead at nothing in particular. Usually, whenever he does this, it's because he's contemplating something a bit harder than he should.

I turned to Alex who looked at me at the same time. He reeled in his lips, nodding in Grayson's direction. I frowned, shaking my head but was given a wide-eyed look in return. I was always the one to smooth things over between the three of us, so naturally, Alex would think I was the go-to person for this moment.

Rolling my eyes, I sighed. My finger flicked a short fry away from me before facing my moody friend. "Arrrrrre... you okay?" I asked and could see from the corner of my eyes, Alex slap a hand to his face.

"Do I look okay to you, Falene?" Grayson questioned, raising his brows as he turned to look at me.

Swallowing hard, I shrugged. I mumbled, "Sorry... I was just checking to see if you were okay."

"Well don't! I'm fucking fine! It's just that fucking asshole ruining my day! Who does he think he is coming over here demanding shit of me?!" Grayson snapped, glaring in the direction of the seniors. His fist curled on top of the table as he turned away from us.

I tilted my head, shrugging a shoulder about what he was going to do.

Grayson grinned, shifting his blue eyes to me. "I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to shove it in that asshole's face when I'm the one his sister falls for! And I can do it, too. I've done it to other fucking girls in this school I've gotten with, and she'll be no different!"

I sat back a little, chewing the corner of lip. I frowned at the table before looking at Alex. His features softened as he stared at me, dropping his gaze a moment later. I knew he did that because I shared with him about Grayson and I sleeping together, and now that our friend was making it known that he was so good at toying around with other girls' feelings... I happened to be one of them.

I know it's stupid that I've been in love with Grayson Whitmore since I was eight years old. And before you say anything, he wasn't always like he is now. He used to be a sweet boy before the thrill of conquering girls came into perspective for him when we were in the eighth grade.

He liked girls before, sure, but Grayson would tease them the way boys normally would: chasing them around the playground, passing notes in class with scribbled, 'I like you. Do you like me?' on them, and what not. But then Mitzy Fitzgerald moved to our school.

She was a year older than the rest of us, eighth graders, since she was held back a year. Needless to say, Mitzy was a bad apple and she was definitely a bad influence on Grayson when she befriended him. She took his virginity maybe a week and a half after convincing him that if Grayson wanted to be taken seriously by other girls that he'd have to know what he was doing with them.

After sleeping with Mitzy, Grayson was never the same. He started skipping classes to hang out with Mitzy before they were caught and taken to the principal's office. Then, of course, there was the smoking behind the school, sneaking alcohol into the locker rooms, and all the fights they started.

Alex and I, at the time, were afraid we had lost our best friend for good. Grayson wouldn't hang out with us when he said he would because Mitzy suddenly became a priority. Everything was about her.

With Alex and I worrying about our friend, Alex invited me over to sit on his front porch and talked about what to do about Grayson. I shrugged a shoulder, toeing a small rock on the walking path in front of us, and Alex mumbled that he wasn't sure if there was any way for Grayson to come back from being Mitzified.

I frowned, glancing at him for that horrible play on words.

Alex grinned, nudging me. "Oh, come on! That was so good!" before he got me to smile and roll my eyes.

When we grew quiet again, I told Alex that it was possible that we could get the old Grayson back if maybe we found a way to help him. Like, if we talked to him—an intervention of sorts. But then Alex turned to me after thinking my words over and frowned, "Falene... I don't think Grayson will ever be the same again. And I think we will have to just accept that."

It really hurt to hear that especially because I know he and Grayson were so close at one point. They knew each other since they were four years old. I only came into the picture a few years later when I got put in a group with Alex and Grayson for a project in the third grade. They didn't like me at first because, I mean, I wasn't a boy. But then that day at recess, the boys played dodgeball and I wanted to play. Though Alex was a little hesitant to let me join, Grayson tossed me the ball and grinned that if I could get one of the boys on the other side out then I could play with them.

I had played dodgeball at my old school and it was so much fun but I was the only girl back then that played. So when I got not just one but two boys out without being tagged, Grayson and Alex both raised their brows and looked at one another. Then they both raised their hands and shouted in unison, "Dibs on the new girl!" And we'd been friends ever since.

Having been so close with one another, I hated the thought that my best friend wasn't going to be the same smiley, goofy boy I knew and loved so much. It put a giant hole in my heart. The Grayson we knew was gone, and in his place was this other version who got a taste of the wild side and loved it.

I think the day that Grayson and Mitzy had a huge blow out in the middle of the mall during the summer before freshman year, was a Hail Mary to Alex and me. We had been sitting at a table in the food court eating a Subway sandwich, and had a full visual of the mentioned couple standing by the fountain yelling at each other. There were a few spectators around watching them too.

Mitzy was shouting at Grayson about something to do with another girl in the class, and Grayson just crossed his arms shrugging back that it was none of her business. That's when she slapped him. Alex and I went wide-eyed as Grayson's jaw tightened before he drew back his arm and his fist shot forward punching Mitzy right in the nose.

I jumped up so fast my chair toppled backward. Alex ran around the table and grabbed me by the arm, shoving me forward as he ordered me to get Grayson out of the mall.

"What?!" I asked wide-eyed.

"Falene! Get him to my house! Get him out of here! Now!"

I scrambled to rush over at Grayson approaching a bloody-nosed Mitzy screaming her head off. When I could see the security guards running our way, I started to panic and turned to Grayson, grabbing his arm. At first, he resisted; trying to pull his arm out of my grasp but then turned to actually look at me and he froze because he recognized me.

I swallowed, yelling at him that we had to get him out of the mall and shoved him in the direction of the exit. I kept a good hold on his wrist as we weaved our way to the exit. I looked behind me every so often to make sure the guards weren't close behind. But I couldn't see them at all.

Once outside, I paused, looking from one side to the other before tugging Grayson to the left to get to the street light. Though the light was red for us, I took note that there weren't any cars coming from either side of the street and pulled Grayson along to run across. I made sure we ran all the way to Alex's house, looking behind me so often to make sure we weren't being followed.

My house appeared to be vacant at the moment since both my parents' cars were absent in the driveway. And my sister most likely was at her best friend's house. Knowing we were in the clear, I released Grayson and let out a long heavy sigh while walking over to my porch steps and sat down to catch my breath.

With my head tucked in between my knees, I almost forgot that Grayson was there until he spoke.

"Why'd you do that?"

I looked up, blinking a few times as he narrowed his blue eyes at me.

"What?" was my response, though I heard what he said.

Grayson repeated with a nod, "Why'd you do that? Help me out like that?"

My eyes dropped from his, looking down at the pavement then back up to him. He raised his brows, after shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans, shrugging his shoulders. "I haven't spoken to you in months. Why would you help me back there?"

I honestly didn't know what to say. More because I was told to help him while I was trying to recover from the shock of him having punched someone in the face. But not just anyone, a girl.

I swallowed, shrugging a shoulder as I mumbled that Alex and I had seen what he did to Mitzy.

Grayson raised a brow, craning his neck forward. "Alex was there?"

Shrugging, I nodded before looking behind him as I heard the pit-pat of sneakers coming down the sidewalk. Grayson turned around, frowning as Alex cut across his front lawn and stopped in front of us. He had to bend forward with his hands on his knees to catch his breath before tilting his head to the side at me and grinned. "Good job," he commended.

I smiled my thanks, asking where he was.

Alex straightened, sighing that he had been helping Mitzy get away from the crowd. He explained he helped her out the back way to the mall, hiding in a few stores before they could actually get outside. He mentioned that Mitzy angrily questioned why Alex was helping her when he didn't even know her. Then Alex made the bloody-nosed girl a proposition; if she didn't turn Grayson in then Alex would give her anything she wanted. It sounded like a lame proposition at the time, but now that I think about it... it worked.

Alex had explained that after some grueling pondering minutes, Mitzy stated that she would agree to not turning in Grayson, but that Alex had to bring her a bottle of Vodka first come Monday morning.

I raised my brows, leaning my head forward. "And you agreed to that?"

He nodded, grinning a bit as he straightened.

"Alex, where are you going to get a bottle of Vodka? You're thirteen!"

"Hey, my dad has a liquor cabinet, okay? And he has so many bottles of Vodka, there's no way he'll notice that one went missing." Shrugging a shoulder, Alex grinned a bit wider. "Besides, come Monday morning, if Mitzy tries to break our deal, I plan on letting her in on me knowing about the pocket knife she used to pop Mr. Bailey's tires with."

I frowned, tilting my head. "How do you know that?"

"Pictures, my dear Falene. Pictures. Our generation's technology is so helpful in catching criminals. We just have to know how to use it."

"But..." I lowered a brow, tilting my head to the side again. "What makes you think she'd care about that?"

Alex smiled, chuckling, "She will when she realizes that bringing a weapon to school will get her expelled. According to her school record that I so happen to take a sneak look at while the secretary was away from her desk."

He furthered explained how he had originally gone into the front office to pick up a folder for one of his teachers and it just so happened that the secretary was putting together some paperwork into student files sitting openly on her desk.

"I caught sight of Mitzy's name and how large her file was, so I snuck around the desk and rummaged through it. That's when I saw that there had been a discussion of expelling her the next time she was to be called into the office for disciplinary measures."

Stunned, I whispered, "Wow..."

"Yeah... but that's not the best part."

"What is?"

Alex glanced between me and Grayson, who had been quiet this whole time, and grinned, "Her next stop is juvy."

The realization Mitzy could be sent to juvenile hall was scary. She was a bad kid, and having to spend time in a place like that—with other or worse versions of her—was pretty frightening.

Alex turned to Grayson who narrowed his eyes at each of us. We both froze, unsure if maybe we did wrong by helping him out. However, his blue eyes switched back and forth between us before he repeated why we had helped him when Grayson had been ignoring us for so long.

Alex gave a lopsided grin, shrugging a shoulder. "Because, Grayson... you're my best friend. Even if you hadn't been acting like it, I wasn't going to let all the years of friendship we had just go like that."

Grayson's eyes widened a second then his gaze fell to the pavement. He sighed heavily, mumbling out, "Well... thanks. I don't know how else to thank you both."

We all grinned at one another for the remainder of the five-minute silence that carried on before Grayson ran his fingers through the front of his hair and winced, "I... I should head home. I need to ice my hand."

Alex and I nodded, watching him glance at us with a small 'thanks' again and then turned away to head home. It wasn't until after he was well out of sight that Alex looked at me. There was a small grin on his face and I could feel mine too. That was the moment we both realized that just for a second—a minuscule moment—there was a glimmer of the old Grayson back.

I shoved my food away from me, no longer hungry though I had eaten most of it anyway, and crossed my arms in front of me. I could feel Alex staring at me while Grayson was still going off on his tangent.

It was really depressing to know that I had been just like every other freshman and sophomore girl, even some of the girls in my junior class, who had fallen for Grayson Whitmore and it meant nothing to him. I've known him the longest. Why I thought I could change him was beyond me. Perhaps it had to do with me getting so tipsy that one night and being the one to suggest to Grayson that we fool around without any attachments. Why did I think that would make him want to be with me because he liked me more than a friend?

Now I had this sophomore girl getting in my way of helping Grayson realize that I could be good for him. This girl must have been a conversation he shared with Alex all the time since the pigs were always playing that stupid game every year of who finishes their three lays before the other.

The boys had told me about it once, but never mentioned it again because of the chauvinistic lecture I had given them about it. They just rolled their eyes, nodding compliantly before one of them mumbled to the other, "Why do I tell her these things again?"

And then the other replied, "Because you're a dumb ass."

Now it was Junior year of high school, and already the boys were picking out their next prey. Except... this sophomore sounded like a game changer. From what I was hearing, this girl was going to be Grayson's only target; and that before the end of the year, he was going to have her fall in love with him. Then break her heart after Grayson slept with her.

I side glanced Grayson, watching the way his blue eyes glared over at the senior table across the cafeteria. My own gaze dropped to the table, pursing my mouth to the side as my finger tapped rhythmically. My mind started working like clockwork; analyzing the possible outcomes this game of Grayson's could have.

I scrunched my nose, shaking my head a little as I thought about the one thing I could do that would possibly save this girl from Grayson. But first, I was going to need to find out who this special sophomore was. Then... then I was going to become her friend. It was the only way I could think of keeping her from falling in love with Grayson. But I think deep down inside, it was my jealousy poking so hard at her taking my best friend away from me.