After that night that I'd spoken to Jesse, I didn't hear from him much. Over the following week, I'd text an occasional hi, and he'd text one back, but I didn't feel like he wanted to have a conversation. I knew for sure that something was still bothering him, but I knew it would be too nosey to ask.

Spring was drawing near, and so were the GCSE examinations. I tried to occupy my mind with as much studying as possible, but I couldn't help it when his voice drifted into my head again, his soft laughter echoing in my ears. I wanted to talk to him. But I couldn't.

"Why don't you just start the conversation?" Katie asked me, as the four of us sat at the usual table at Milk, sugar and cocoa, where we'd agreed to meet to study. It was exactly eight days after I'd called Jesse. "Start with what's up, and see how it goes from there. What's so hard about that?"

"I don't know..." I muttered, "he just seems so off. Even during the call, which was nice, he seemed down. I don't want to push my luck with him."

Katie sighed, focusing her eyes back to the textbook on the table. "You are way too careful sometimes, Jemimah."

I slumped my shoulders, and leaned forward onto the table. I looked over at Aki and Beatrice. "What do you guys think? Am I being too careful?"

"Hard to say," Beatrice took a bite of Aki's crepe. "We weren't there when you called him."

"Try and think about other things for now," Aki suggested, "When you take your mind off it for a while, you'll come back to it with a refreshed mindset. Then you'll know what to do."

"I guess so..." I looked over at Beatrice, "Hey, why don't you give me some of that?"

"Sure."

"Um, no. It's not yours' to share, Beatrice." Aki butted in.

"Hey, guys," Katie sat up,"I was thinking something. See how the spring is almost here, and summer will be right round the corner? You know what that means, right?"

We all looked at her. "GCSEs are coming? Yeah, that's kind of been rubbed into our faces for the past few months, Katie. We have our teachers to thank for it." I said to her, glumly, dragging one of the science textbooks across the table towards me. The others turned miserably back to their books as well.

"Um no," Katie let out a loud huff, her grey eyes darting across to each of us. "Um...literally the only thing people are talking about? Prom!"

Silence.

"What? Are you guys not going?" Her shoulders slumped.

"These two," Beatrice pointed at me and Aki. "The biggest introverts on earth wouldn't go if it meant the world would end."

"Doesn't your school pair with ours for prom?" Katie asked her. "Wouldn't it be a great opportunity to hang out?"

"Long ago when I made a pact with these people, I accepted this fate. I knew I had to prepare myself for their introverted personas, and it would risk me having much of a party life. You should accept that fact too." Beatrice responded, shaking her head.

"That's not completely true," I pointed out,"We went to Amber's party."

"Yeah, when we were thirteen. And we went because Aki had to, and we were worried about him."

"You guys are gonna regret not going," Katie said to us, clearly annoyed, "Prom is a special experience."

"How would you know? You've never been to one before." Aki stated, flatly. Katie rolled her eyes.

"I bet if Jesse ever asked you to prom, you'd go." Katie muttered, and it was my turn to feel annoyed that she even brought him up again.

"Yeah, and then you guys would dance the night away and suck each other's faces like they do at the end of literally every teen romcom," Beatrice said, making smooching sounds, which then led me to hitting one of the textbooks against her shoulder. "Ow! That was rude."

I shifted my chair away from the girls, and closer to Aki, who was looking down at his textbook, reading quietly. "Hey, you've been on that page for a while," I said to him, "Do you understand it?"

"What?" He blinked and then looked up at me, adjusting his glasses. "Yeah, o-of course. Just...um...making sure I r-remember it."

"It doesn't even look like you're reading it." Beatrice scooched over to him too, resting her head against his shoulder. "You've literally been on it for the past twenty minutes," She looked at him, "Are you okay?"

"Yes. I'm fine," Aki replied. "The s-stress of exams has just gotten to m-me. These tests really mess with your head, huh?"

"You're stammering." Katie said to him.

"Get u-used to it. It happens every now and a-again."

"I thought it was only when you're nervous or upset." I raised an eyebrow.

"Well I-I can't control it, okay? Leave me alone, p-please."

We all sighed.

"It's an endurance test," Beatrice said, eventually, "Exams. We need it as a pass to the harder life of adulthood."

"Ugh, adulthood," Katie groaned, "It sounded appealing a few months ago, now it's just the opposite. See, don't you guys want to make the most of the school world? I say go to prom."

"Are you only p-prodding us, because y-you want to go?" Aki asked, causing her to shoot him a glare.

"Um, no. I have loads of other people to go with." Katie rolled her eyes. We all stared at her without a response. Her eye twitched, before she threw her arms up in exasperation. "Alright, fair enough. I don't have anyone else worth going with," She admitted, but then a small smile appeared on her lips. "But I'll be honest...I kinda like you guys. But I guess if you don't want to go, you don't have to. I'll just have to make you want to."

Just then, the bell of the cafe door tingled, and Katie's smug expression immediately fell. I instantly knew why, before I even turned around to see who had walked in. I recognised that voice way more than I'd wanted to.

"...I still need to get a prom dress, too. What do you think Reuben would like?"

"Why're you asking me? He's your boyfriend. But I swear he said he loves it when you wear sequins. So look for something like that."

Amber was chatting away to one of the other girls who I vaguely recognised but could not remember the name of. She whispered something to Amber, who's head spun around to look at our table, and her eyes landed on Katie for a split second before turning back.

I glanced back at Katie, who was now silent, with her eyebrows knitted together, and then she rose up from her chair. "I'm coming. Need to pee." She started stiffly, before heading to the girls washroom. The three of us glanced at each other.

******************************

KATIE POV

5 minutes later...

I glanced at my reflection in the girls' restroom mirror, and examined my face. My eyes weren't as puffy now. I'd managed to get rid of the evidence of tears. I sighed, before taking out my makeup bag, and searching for something to make it look less obvious that I'd been bawling like a dumb baby for the past couple of minutes. In a public bathroom. I needed to head back to the others before they got worried.

The door suddenly swung open, and I caught a whiff of a familiar Calvin Klein perfume scent, and it took everything within me to not let out another stream of tears. I did not turn, as Amber stood in front of the mirror beside me, and started fixing her curls.

We both stood quietly, as we sorted ourselves out in our reflections, but then Amber finally decided to break the silence, as I knew she would.

"I have a pair of dangle earrings that I leant you last year. You know, the green diamond ones?" She paused for me to reply, but I didn't. "I want them back, please. They aren't yours."

"Fine. I never liked them, anyway." I replied, still not looking at her, as I applied a new layer of lip gloss.

She scoffed. "Just how you never liked Jay, but only used him for the look, I presume. It's always the same with you, Katlynn."

"Excuse me?" I whipped around to turn to her, and she had a smug look on her face. I narrowed my eyes at her. "How dare you say that. You knew better than everyone else how much I loved him."

"Of course!"Amber raised her eyebrows innocently. "You loved him so much you tried to push him off the staircase." She turned to face me as well. "We all know about that. I had to watch while you constantly took advantage of him."

I clenched my fists.

"He literally treated you like gold, Katie. He is literally gorgeous. And you knew about every other girl who wanted him. And you took advantage of all of it, because you thought you'd be together forever," She snorted, "You never really loved him, did you?"

"That's not true," I snapped, my fingers digging into my palms, as my fist became tighter, "He never did anything for me. You don't know the whole story." I heard my voice trembling, and mentally cursed at my second round of potential bawling.

"Oh, please," She swung her hand bag over her shoulder, "It's always been about the image for you." She turned to leave but then paused, "Oh and, Katie...do you have a date to prom?"

I blinked back the tears and turned away from her.

"I didn't think so. I'll see you around. Don't forget the earrings." She left the restroom, and left me alone once again. I rested my palms against the edge of the sink, and took a few shaky breaths. She knew how to dig at me. After all, she'd known me for years. Jemimah wants so badly for me to talk to a grow up about this. But she didn't seem to understand that not all of us could open up like she could. There was nothing the grown ups could do. There was no point going to them. But at least I knew I wasn't alone. And I wouldn't be in this school for much longer anyway.

For just one more month...I needed to endure it.

"Strength comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn't."