"Azari, you need to tell me what happened!" Lana was practically begging while I refused to come out of the bathroom stall.

"This was the most humiliating thing that has ever happened to me," I was crying. Ugly crying. Sniffling and wiping my nose with the back of my cardigan sleeve.

"Would you please come out, Azari! We could talk to Mr. Duvell and explain it to him."

I shook my head vigorously forgetting for a moment that Lana couldn't see me. "NO!"

Lana groaned from the other side of the door to the bathroom stall. "Azari, you need to stop being so stubborn and let me help you."

"No, Lana," I cried. "What could you possibly do to fix this?"

"Tell Jay to admit to Mr. Duvell that you weren't involved in any of that R rated kind of stuff."

I took a deep breath and sighed. Lana was right and for the very first time in my life, I agreed to do what she asked of me.

But when we couldn't find Jay that day, we talked to Jenny instead.

"No," she said firmly crossing her arms in her cheerleading uniform. "She is the reason we're in this mess."

"B-but I.." I stuttered, trying to grasp my words. How could she think that? "I was the one who was trying to help!"

"Yeah, well you made it worse." she flinched and I noticed Lana's face turn red with anger. Uh-oh.

"Blaming Azari for your ceaseless thirst for dick, huh Jenny?" Lana shot at her and I swear for a minute I though Jenny was going to punch her.

I quickly pulled Lana away from Jenny, "We can just talk to Jay instead."

Jenny stomped off muttering 'bitch' under her breath.

"This is stupid. Mr. Duvell should have atleast listened to you instead of just giving you detention for the next three months."

Holding back my tears, I nodded slowly. He had signed us up as volunteers to help organize everything for the Winter Formal. Well, not exactly volunteers when you had no joy in doing that type of stuff. The scary part for me was to tell my parents I had to stay back at school everyday for two to three hours because I had detention. Telling them the reason was just close to impossible, and they were not even going to believe that I had no involvement with the popular kids whatsoever. I mean, look at me.

Lana shook her head. "I have to be home soon and help my mom with some stuff. You going to be okay?"

Her hand was comforting on my shoulder and I nodded biting the inside of my cheek keeping my tears from flowing. I shrugged her hand off and didn't give a reply.

After Lana took off, I decided to gain courage and talk to Mr. Duvell to listen to me just once. I had never gotten in trouble before so maybe he could reconsider.

I sneaked into the music room before I went to the principal's office. What no one knew was I dreamt of being a singer, even though I really couldn't sing that well. It doesn't hurt anyone to dream right?

To my relief, it was empty and I saw a few of the instruments immaculately placed on one side of the room with the chairs and tables pushed to the other. I set my bag down to walk towards the instruments, maybe grab a guitar when I heard a tap.

I stopped dead, regretting ever coming in here. Particularly, I had shut the door behind me so no one would come checking in on me, and it was still shut. I shivered thinking what if someone was in here with me, waiting to pounce. Azari, you got to stop reading all these dramatic stories on wattpad, I thought to myself.

I noticed a head peeking from behind one of the tables and for some reason I wanted to see who it was, hiding behind in a closed room. Guess I really hadn't learned my lesson.

"Parker?" I blurted out when I saw his familiar face but what was surprising was not him sitting there aloof.

He looked up at me, his brown eyes watering. Or maybe they were tears.

"What do you want Azari?" He said rudely, wiping his face on the sleeve of his jacket. I didn't know whether to be astounded by the fact that he was crying or that Jay Parker actually knew my name. Though, I wasn't exactly happy with either.

He seemed flustered with me standing at the top of his head, just staring awkwardly. "What's wrong?" I managed to mutter out, realizing that maybe I should just turn around and leave. But I needed to talk to him. I was already on my way to Mr. Duvell and maybe he could help me with what I needed if I just showed that I was concerned. Way to be selfish, Azari.

"Like you care," Jay sniffled and let out a scoff his head laying low. Reluctantly, I sat down maintaining a good distance so that he wouldn't think I was throwing myself at him on anything.

"Actually, I do." I said firmly. For a moment, I was flabbergasted at my confidence. Either I really wanted to get out of detention, or I genuinely wanted to know what would make someone like him cry alone.

"I'm dumb," he replied looking at me again. I could tell he was struggling whether to confide in me or not and it was depressing to know that he was here alone, even though he had a girlfriend who should have been here for him.

"Why?"

"I got kicked off the football team," he sniffed and let out a laugh, clearly laughing at himself.

It was the first time I had seen him so upclose and realized why every girl was always so smitten by him. His face was extremely handsome undoubtedly, and his eyes were showed so much emotion even though it was evident he tried to hide it all away with his usual smirks. And in this moment, he was vulnerable.

"I got told if I get into trouble again, I can kiss my college scholarship goodbye," he continued looking away from me. "My grades aren't good enough to get me into a good college so I had to rely on my football skills."

I bit my lower lip not knowing what to reply.

He shook his head. "Eh, you probably don't give a flying fuck."

"B-b-but I..." why the hell was I struggling to find the right words to say.

"Nobody gets it. Not even Jenny."

Oh, so she knew. How in the world was I gonna convince him to talk to Mr. Duvell with me. He clearly already had and now he was here weeping away in misery. I hated that our principal was known to be unreasonable.

"I can help you get your grades up," I blurted out. Maybe if I offered to help him, he could do the same for me.

Jay looked at me like I had just asked him to donate a kidney. "You can't be serious?"

I shrugged, my heart racing hoping that he wouldn't turn it down.

He chuckled in amusement. "You're not the first girl to try and get close to me with that offer."

I cringed. Holy snack, no wonder Lana always said he was way over himself.

"Excuse me?" I said defensively. "I don't like you like that. I jus-"

Jay moved closer to me, bringing his face close to mine. My heart stopped and I died then and there on the floor of our school's music room. Just kidding, it felt like it though.

"Oh yeaah?" There was a hint of amusement in his voice, low and crispy. My body was frozen and I didn't like it at all. I didn't like that I could feel his warm breath on my face, and I didn't like that I could see the beautiful golden streaks in his eyes and the fact that they looked exhausted.

I gawked at him awkwardly, not daring to make a move or a sound. Maybe if I stayed really still he would eventually back away.

"Sorry," he muttered sitting back down.

"I like someone else." I added quickly, breathless.

He shrugged. "So you're going to help me how?"

"I could tutor you. And in turn you could help me."

"I am sorry, I am not going to fulfil your sexual fantasies." He rolled his eyes and I flushed in embarrassment. Is that what girls normally asked from him in return?

"I just want you to talk to our principal and tell him to dismiss me from detention," I said softly feeling stupid for even asking him what was wrong. I should have walked away instantly.

"Oh," he facepalmed. "That's all?"

I nodded as I watched his lips quirk up into a small smile.

"Okay, I'll talk to him."

"Great, thanks!" I said quickly getting up to my feet before this could have gotten anymore awkward.

"Hey Azari!" I heard him call out behind me as I made my way towards the door. "You tell anyone about this and I'll tell the whole school you secretly touch yourself looking at my pictures."

I gasped and frowned at his smug grin. "You wouldn't!" What a dick. "I wasn't even planning to."

"I know." He smiled and I couldn't help but roll my eyes. If he thought that I was going to be attracted to him because he was a dick, he couldn't be more wrong.

"Thanks though. You aren't that bad," he said finally and that was the nicest thing he had managed to say to me in all of the years I had known he existed.

"Too bad I can't say the same thing about you," I replied softly and heard him chuckle while I walked out the room.

Overwhelmed, I let out a breath. That went well.

And as if things couldn't get any worse, I saw Travis making his way towards from across the hall. His face twisted into a frown, like he demanded an explanation for something.

I quickly turned in the other direction pretending to have not seen him but unfortunately he had to call out my name. And my feet didn't stop moving until he called out my name again.

When I jerked my head around, I watched him see Jay come out the music room and his jaw dropped open. Oh crap. This looked bad. He had seen me come out of there and I knew what this seemed like.

What the fuck was even happening? This was all because of one stupid mistake I had made and now I didn't seem to stop. Travis looked at me angrily from afar and just turned the other way. Great! Just Great.