Frazer: Where are you? Sent at 2:35pm

The text blinked on my screen as I laid on my bed, curled in a ball, my face red and raw as the tears had finally run dry.

I didn't know what to say back. Because surely he knew what his song would have done to me. Surely he knew there'd be a storm to calm after telling the girl who was unrequitedly in love with him that he's falling for someone else. And in front of the whole school.

I didn't want to lessen his guilt right now.

I didn't want to be his friend peppering him with praise for his performance.

I just wanted to sit in my misery as it washed over me in waves.

I had planned to ignore him.

But when a few minutes passed with me leaving him on read, he clearly couldn't handle the silence.

My phone lit up, his caller ID filling my screen, and his stupid song that I had set as my ringtone amplified through my room.

At once, I slammed my finger on the end call button.

But not long after, it started to ring again.

After denying his call once more, my shaky fingers fashioned a reply in an attempt to quell the questions.

Me: I went home. I feel sick. Sent at 2:40pm.

Frazer: Sick? Can I get you anything? Do anything? Sent at 2:41pm

Me: I'll be fine after some rest. Sent at 2:42pm

Frazer: Okay. I hope you feel better soon. Sent at 2:42pm

I thought that was the end of it—that the fire had been put out for now. But after a few minutes passed... Ping!

Frazer: Did you hear the song or did you go home before it? Sent at 2:50pm

A sigh escaped me, and the tirade of tears that I thought were over started to well in my eyes again.

Me: I heard enough. Sent at 2:52pm

Frazer: And? What did you think? Sent at 2:54pm

At a time like this, all he cares about is praise...

Sniffling, I gave him what he needed to hear, then powered off my phone, only seeing his reply later that evening when I finally found the courage to turn it back on.

Me: It was good. Sent at 2:56pm

Frazer: Thanks, Em. Sent at 3:20pm

◁ㅤ ❚❚ ㅤ▷

Frazer: Want to hang today? Sent at 8:32am

Frazer: Don't tell me you're still asleep? Sent at 10:20am

Frazer: Please tell me you haven't been kidnapped or abducted by aliens. Sent at 2:17pm

Frazer: Em? Sent at 7:44pm

Frazer: If your silence continues longer, I'm going to assume you're ignoring me. Sent at 9:16am

His messages rolled in over the weekend, each piercing me like a knife. I didn't understand how he could think I could go on like he didn't just snap my heart in two. Moreover, I couldn't comprehend how he still had time for me. Did the girl he confessed to not like him back?

The weekend dragged for an eternity, each second feeling like an hour. Even though last weekend I didn't see him, this time felt different.

Perhaps because there was nothing left to hope for.

When Monday finally came, a cloud also hung over our houses.

I exited my home that morning, and Frazer was waiting by his car, expression expectant.

Yet I couldn't do it. I couldn't force a smile and play the friend.

Which was why I walked to the end of my driveway, and, instead of turning left to his house, I took a right and headed to the bus stop.

He didn't call out after me. Though the sounds of his car starting up and driving away weren't lost on my ears.

◁ㅤ ❚❚ ㅤ▷

School also passed in the same slow drag, with English being unbearable as we took seats on opposite sides of the room.

The distance from the past two weeks was like child's play compared to the absence of him.

I wondered if, when my heart finally healed, we would be able to be friends once more? Or would the wound in our friendship only widen as the silence ticked on, forever severing what remained until the few weeks of us become a distant memory.

By the fourth session though, the ache of Frazer's absence had turned me numb. Nothing hurt anymore. Nothing sparkled either.

I felt as though I had become a vessel lost at sea, steering aimlessly through an endless ocean.

Surely this world was round though; if it was, I'd reach land sometime. I just had to keep wading through the waters, hoping the stars would guide me somewhere.

Though rather than life handing me stars, they sent a storm my way—in the form of Kevin Rodgers. He barrelled into our shared maths classroom a few minutes late, ignoring the protests of the teacher who fumed and threatened to contact home if Kevin came late once more.

Then adding fuel to the fire was Caleb sauntering in—though much more quietly—after him.

Normally we'd share a glance, perhaps a nod, on rare days a smile, and then they'd take their seats elsewhere in the room.

Yet this time they shuffled right up to me.

I wondered if they had intended to berate me—to tell me off for ignoring Frazer and his continuous olive branches.

But they didn't say anything.

Caleb merely glanced at my book to copy down the title he had missed, and Kevin swung back in his chair, refusing to open his book or get out a pen as the teacher instructed.

Though, for Kevin, he played somewhat nice—he let the teacher finish walking us through the formula and direct us to independent practice before he decided to cause ruckus.

And what a ruckus he created.

"Emiliaaaaa," he sang.

"What do you want?" I grumbled.

"Wow. You're in a mood."

Though I didn't play back into his banter.

So he went on. "Well... I just wanted to say..." Then, to my dismay, he sang, "You look good today. No, you look beautiful. You're a—"

I slammed my book shut and all but shouted at him, "Would you shut up?"

Gaining myself a few glances from people nearby, even the teacher came to my aid. "Keep it down, Kevin. People are trying to study."

"Sure, sir," he responded, before turning to me and grumbling quietly, "I'm just singing your song."

I scoffed. "My song. Sure."

"What do you—"

"Did Frazer not tell you who the song was actually about?"

This time even Caleb paused in his work, taking a moment to share a glance with Kevin.

"Who do you think it's about?" Kevin then asked.

"Whomever he kept staring at in that group of girls he was fixated on."

Then there was more silence.

Caleb still refused to write, and Kevin, for once, seemed speechless.

Shaking my head and hating that the stinging sensation I thought had passed was quickly returning to my eyes, I opened my book once more and tried to focus on the maths equation.

Though then he whispered, "What exactly did Frazer say to you?"

"We haven't really spoken since Friday," I ruefully admitted.

"So he never actually told you who the song was about?"

"I don't need to hear him say it to my face."

"No wonder he's been grumpy and avoiding us all day... I think you should talk with him, Em."

"I think you should butt out of it."

"I'm only trying to—"

"Rub salt into my wound?"

"No. Help."

My head snapped up. "Then why do you think it's about me, huh? And how do you explain him staring at some other girl the whole time?"

"I'm... not sure about the girl thing. And the other I can't comment on. It's really something you should hear from him."

"And what? Get rejected to my face? For a third time?" I met his gaze, barely caring that the tears were spilling out now. "Feel even more pitiful when he spells it out to me that I'll never be more than a friend?"

Kevin pressed his lips together, eyes studying me for a few moments as he seemed to think through his words for once. Then he said, "Can you please at least ask him who his best friend is?"

"No," I muttered. "I'm done with him."

"Do you like him?"

I didn't respond.

"Em?"

"Leave me alone."

"Not until you—"

"I don't owe you an explanation for anything."

He exhaled a deep breath, as if trying to calm himself. And, for a moment, I thought it was over. I thought I had won the battle. Until, "There's something 'bout the way, you look at me."

"Stop."

"That makes me act just so insensibly."

"Kevin, please stop."

"Answer my question and I'll stop. Your gold gaze makes it hard for me to think."

"Why are you doing this?"

"That my mind and my mouth become unsynced."

"Please stop." I banged my head on the desk, clamping my hands over my ears as I tried to drown him out.

Yet the lyrics kept breaking through... Forcing me to lift my head though was the second verse.

"You say you love my voice but could you love me too?"

And this time Caleb chimed in. "That night I could feel the chemistry brew," he sang in duet.

"Our hearts were in our eyes, but you don't recall. The confessions I breathed, I had told you all. You couldn't help but stutter. You couldn't help but stumble. The next day you apologised and I realised you couldn't remember when I said—"

"Yes, I like him."

Caleb and Kevin halted just as they were about to burst into the chorus again.

"Are those really the lyrics?"

"As I said," Kevin replied, "I think you should talk to him."

"Did he tell you it's about me?""

"I cannot confirm nor deny whether I know who it's about. Though I do know the lyrics. Every single word. We performed it that many times..."

"What if it's not about me though, Kevin? I can't handle him telling me to my face that he doesn't like me."

"You don't have to go that far. Just ask him 'Who is your best friend?'. If he says someone else, you can walk away and never speak to the tosser again. Then maybe you and I can go on a date or something."

My cheeks flushed a little at his last comment, because it was definitely unexpected. Nonetheless, I ignored it, dismissing it as a joke before I replied with, "And if I don't ask him?"

"Then I will serenade you with this song with every chance I get."

I deadpanned at him.

"Every chance."

I glared.

"At the top of my lungs."

"Why do you hate me?"

"I don't. I just want you and Frazer to be happy."

His vague words of encouragement had the hope brewing that this really was a big miscommunication. Yet I hated that he wouldn't give me anything concrete to cling to. That there was still the 'what if' he was just assuming this all because Frazer and I were close.

So I muttered back, "I'll think about it."

◁ㅤ ❚❚ ㅤ▷

Though my ambiguous comment wasn't enough for Kevin, apparently. Because the moment class ended and we forwarded out to the portracks, he started to belt out again, "You look good tonight. No, you look beautiful. You're a shining star—"

"Geez, Kevin. I said I'd think—"

"When you're in a room all I see is you! You are all I need! You're everything to—"

"Stop!" I bellowed before spinning on my heel and trying to storm away.

Yet he kept going. Close behind me, he sang and sang until we'd reached the front of the school.

Kevin was winning. I was desperate for the torture to end. I was determined to put this all behind me, even if it meant putting my heart into the incinerator. Which was why, as Kevin warbled words, my gaze hopelessly scanned the car park for his vehicle, praying he hadn't taken off yet so that I could end this misery.

And then I spotted him.

Sitting in his white, 2012, Holden Sedan, his head lifted as I stormed across the asphalt.

Dodging traffic, I wound around the chunks of metal on mission to him, not stopping until I was by the drivers' side.

Brows furrowed in confusion, he wound down the window and said, "Em?"

"Kevin won't stop singing your stupid song unless I ask you something," I explained.

"Stupid? I thought you said—"

"Who's your best friend?"

Whatever comment he had before became lost as his face instead became confuddled. He looked at me like I had grown another head. Or perhaps that I was a lizard person.

And the seconds endlessly ticked on, my bus coming around the corner. "Can you be quick? I don't want to miss my—"

"Who do you think is my best friend?"

I grimaced. My hands shot to my face, pulling at my skin as my mind screamed, Why do these boys keep responding to my questions with questions of their own? Instead of demanding an answer though, I played along. "Whoever it was you kept staring so intently at."

"I was staring at someone?" he responded with.

And those words flickered a sense of life back into my heart. "Yes. A group of girls. The whole time you stared at them."

His face was expressionless for a few more moments until, Thunk. His head collided with the steering wheel. "Can you please get in the car, Em?" his muffled voice said into the plastic.

"Can't you just answer?"

"I will, but not here." His head lifted. "Please get in so we can talk alone."

I considered for a moment retreating to my bus. Though when I glanced back at the school, Kevin was still standing there. Watching. Waiting.

Deciding the torment of Frazer was better than Kevin, I rounded his vehicle and climbed in, reluctant to face whatever was to come.