"Tell me everything," Amanda says as we walk to school.  "And I mean everything.  What he did, what he looked at, where he stood.  Just fill me up."

I begin to tell her the entire story of what happened, causing my cheeks to turn a redder shade than usual.

"I can't believe you!" Amanda says throwing her arm around my shoulder.  "You're finally going to get yourself a man, wait, mans," she says wiggling her eyebrows referring to both Noah and Ethan.

"Shut up," I say pushing her gently to the side.

"You just don't want to admit the obvious, babe."

"Fine, I'll admit it.  It's completely obvious that they are players and once they get bored of me, they will leave." I say.

She doesn't respond because it's the truth.  Throughout my past 3 years at our high school, I have overheard so many conversations about how much one of these boys have hurt them.  I've been hurt once before and I sure as hell am not going to make the same dumb mistake twice.

_______

"I have a preposition," Amanda starts as we sit in our usual seat on the benches outside.

I nod at her and take a bite out of my sandwich.

"I was thinking-"

"Go on," I say without patience.

I look over at Amanda and her eyes are wide and looking at someone or something behind me.  I turn my head around and see Noah walking in our direction and my eyes flicker to the table he usually sits in for some reason and I catch eyes with Ethan who was rocking a stone cold face.  He was in another dimension as usual so I immediately turn back to Amanda.

"Please tell me he isn't walking towards us," I say closing my eyes, my face scrunched up in hope.

"He's definatly not coming to us.  He's coming to you," she says immediately looking away as Noah sits next to me.  He takes out his food and starts eating.

"May I help you?" I say after a good minute of him munching on his salad.

"Did you forget about me or something?  Why didn't you come over last night?" He questions.

I laugh at myself and at his ignorance.  My mind drifts off to the eventful night and I smile.  "Yeah, sorry about that.  I realized I had a lot of other things to do," I lied.

"Nah, it's all good," he says.  He turns his back on me and lays on my lap, his feet stretched out on the rest of the bench.  "So tell me, what is your favorite color," he says out of the blue.

Amanda gets up and walks to another table and sits there, socializing with people we occasionally see in the hallways.

I laugh but play along.  "Grey."  He nods his head and looks up at me.

"Your turn," he says.

"So tell me," I mimick.  "Is this just an excuse for you to be able to talk about yourself?"

"Maybe," he says truthfully.  "What is your favorite finger?"

"Are you serious?" I question as I search for any amusement in his eyes but I find none.  "Fine, I like my pinky finger because it is short, like me, and the nail on my pinky is always the best one when I paint them."

He smirks, "you are so weird, you know that?"

I scoff, "wow, says the guy who just asked me what my favorite finger was."

"Touché," he says looking at the sky.  I take this as a moment to examine his face.  His nose, his cheekbones, his unusual but cute red ears.  My eyes move up to his light brown hair.  I don't know how it is even possible for one to know how soft hair is just by looking at it but I do.  My hand instinctively reached for it and I was right.  I combed my fingers through it, adrenaline coursing through my arms.

"Do you wish you were pulling on it in bed?" he says, one eyebrow slightly raised.

"Way to ruin the moment," I roll my eyes and mess up his hair as he gets up from my lap, the heat quickly leaving my thighs.

"So... It was a moment," he states.

"Don't push it."

He runs his hand through his hair, ruffling it a bit making me jealous because after all of that, his hair still looked gorgeous bringing the need to touch his hair back again.

"We should really go," he says running back to his table to grab his bag before coming back to me.  I look around and realize that almost nobody is here anymore, not even E- not even Amanda.

We accompany each other as we walk to history, the hallways so empty that my light footsteps echo through it.  When he opens the door, all eyes are on him.  I come through the door right behind him, and I feel like I might faint.  Almost immediately, there were murmurs and gasps that made me nauseous. I take my seat and I notice eyes are still on me but the only pair of eyes I was interested on were Ethan's.

Normally I could read people.  With Ethan, I couldn't tell what he was thinking and something in me really wanted to know what.  He always shook his right leg up and down, sometimes at a slow pace and sometimes at a rapid one.  He wouldn't touch his hair, instead, he would twist the ring around his left middle finger around.  He occasionally would slump so low in his seat, his head would touch the chair.  He would rest his chin on his left hand, his fingers on the hand playing with his cheek.  I notice so much but I never understood the meaning of anything he did.  Maybe there was no meaning but I still want to know him and talk to him.  He was a mystery.

"Class dismissed," Mrs. Hemlock said, putting her textbook back on his desk and she exits the classroom like she is already ready to retire as the whole class follows behind her.

A figure hovers over my body as I pack my bag and I turn around quickly, my hair slapping its heaving chest.

Ethan.

I just stand there star struck and my feet turn to jello.  My hand grabs his arm for balance which catches him off guard.  His eyes quickly move from my hand and back to me. He doesn't give me any boyish smirk, instead, his face is completely emotionless.  He slowly leans in to my face and this time I'm ready.  I don't back out and my neck pushes my head forward.  I could sense it and I know he could too. The adrenaline and the magnetism pulls me closer. My eyes droop closed but the rush of cold air wakes me. When I opened my eyes, all I could see was his back rushing to leave the room, confusion written all over my face.  I slip a backpack strap over my shoulder.

"So, tonight?"  The voice startled me because I thought nobody else was in the room.  My face turns red as I turn to Noah.

"Don't bail on me this time, Levin."  He can tell that I was embarrassed with what he just witnessed so he pretends to zip his mouth shut and he throws away the key.

I smile while biting my lip as he walks out of the classroom.

"I knew it.  Right when I saw both of them walk out of the room," Amanda says walking into the room and we walk out together.

"Okay, uhm, changing the subject," I said already feeling uncomfortable. "What were you talking about in lunch?"

"I think I like Ethan," she blurts out.  When she says his name I almost walk into a wall.  "Before you kill yourself," she says redirecting me into a hallway and not to a wall, "it's all good though, right?  Because you obviously like Noah and Ethan is his friend.  We can go on double dates and stuff," she says getting excited.

Somehow her words shoot daggers into my heart and I think I know why but my fragile heart is telling me to ignore it.  Ethan is heartless and Noah, he tries to get to know you.

"Yeah, definitely," I say sighing.

She squeels jumping up and down as I reach my locker.  I don't know what she was excited about.  Doesn't she know their reputation?  I tell her my plans for going shopping for new tops and I see a pissed Ryan standing near the doors.

Reality strikes and my mouth makes an O shape.  I run up to Ryan in pity, "I swear I forgot our plans.  I am so sorry."

His serious face slowly turns into a smile and he laughs.  "Your face is so cute."

"That isn't funny, I was actually scared.  Rain check?"

"Tonight?" he says hopeful.

"I can't, maybe some other time.  This week is just hectic," I say not wanting to tell him I'm going shopping.

"Oh no, I totally understand," he says shoving his fingers in his pockets and looks away thinking about something.  He opens his mouth slightly and closes it, pressing his lips into a thin line.

Amanda and I rush towards her car.  Of course, Amanda is the first to talk.  She spits out a syllable.  I quickly reply, "nope," as I hear groaning from behind.  I turn back with furrowed eyebrows and see Ryan running towards me. 

"Jules. He's not good for you," he says, his body so close to mine.  "You can't go to his house."  Suddenly becoming repulsed by him, I take steps away from him. "You can't be with him."  I don't even know which one of them used this magic on you but they are planning to hurt you.  You are no different from any of the other girls they've tried to scar."

My eyebrows furrow and I scoff, "Okay, I don't even want to know how you got that information," I say disgusted.  "I am not your doll.  You can't tell me what to do with my life, specifically who to hang out with."

This new Juliet is really starting to rub off on me.

"The whole group are just tools," he says putting his hands on my shoulders.  "Listen to me, they don't deserve you," he begs.

"I'm no different, huh?  That's great to know that my best friend thinks of me like that, a weak and fragile person."  My whole life I have been bossed around by people who think they have some authority over me and now Ryan is becoming that person.  I'm sick and tired of that bullshit.

I laugh unbelievably, "and who the hell are you to tell me that?  If they don't deserve me who does?"

A sort of confidence rushes over me, a new feeling that I could definitely get used to.

"Nobody, Jules. But... There is one person who might come close enough," he says looking into my eyes.  The tone of his voice raises on the word 'enough' since he was unsure of my reaction.  He comes closer and reaches a hand on the side of my arm.

I move away from his touch and I already know who he is talking about.  I roll my eyes and get into the car next to Amanda, slamming the door loudly.

As we get out of the parking lot I look out the side mirror and see Ryan looking at the car as it drove away, slightly shaking his head but he had a smile.  A smile that spoke 100 words, he knew he was right and I knew he was right but I don't tell myself that.  I tell myself that it's a project and that I don't like anyone.

"All boys can suck my ass," I say under my breath.  Amanda laughs and nods her head in agreement.

In the silent car ride I think about the small snippets of words Ryan said since I forgot almost half of the conversation.

I turn the radio on and turn up the volume.  The words of Harry Styles replace my thoughts putting me in a zone of happiness.

I am so going to regret this later on.