A/N: Okay so a) Wattpad has changed it's writing layout and it's flipping me out and b) it's so cold. How can it be called Autumn when it feels colder than Winter ever does. Anyway, just letting you know I will struggle to write this chapter as it is good weather in the chapter while I get feeling back in my toes. I hope you like it and yeah, happy reading lovely people who put up with my slow updates!!

Mmkay, let's do this.

***

The first thing I always did then when I arrived at school was to look for Rylie. It's not like I had much of a life outside of her at the moment. She poisoned all of my thoughts, my dreams even, and altered my way of being without realising it herself.

And now I was the most pathetic guy of the lot of us because Nate had just asked Leah out. Good on him for manning up, and good on them for finally getting their shit together but now I was the only one.

Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that Tessa and Seth shacked up as well, so now all the attention was on me and my affection for Rylie.

I saw her in the corridor, recognizing her by her thick dark hair contrasting her loose white singlet and matching her black jeans. It was simple but she still looked gorgeous.

I jogged down the busy corridor to catch up with her, thinking all the while whether I should tell her that I remember what happened when I was drunk, that I remembered what I said and what I did.

But when I saw her grunt and roll her eyes at my greeting, I figured it would be best not to further piss her off.

She almost slammed her locker closed and began to walk away, so I fell into step beside her, my combat boots clacking against the tiled floor.

"Well someone's in a bad mood," I commented, nudging her light-heartedly.

"Yeah, your presence happens to do that." She was quick, even when grumpy. Although that could quicken her sassy remarks. She pushed open the door to our maths classroom and I held it open for myself as I followed her in. The room was already buzzing with students but I ignored them and took the seat beside Rylie.

"Ooh, owch!" I exclaimed with the dramatics of a seven year old, putting my hand over my heart while pouting. "What did I do to deserve that?"

She didn't answer and she seemed annoyed with me. For a moment I was worried that she knew I remembered, but it wasn't that. I could feel that it was something else. The problem was I had no idea what it was.

I didn't get the chance to ask as Tessa waltzed into class, saving Rylie from responding at all.

"Hey guys. Did you hear that we're going to the maze this afternoon?" Tessa sat in the chair on the other side of Rylie with a huge grin, her eyes bright and excited.

Rylie shook her head no while I shrugged, leaning further forward in my chair so that I could see Tessa. I had heard brief snippets of the plans but not anything concrete.

"Okay!" She said, addressing the both of us. "Well, we're going to the maze right after school this afternoon!"

Damn, that was one very happy girl if I'd ever seen one. Quite the contrast from my girl at the moment. Well okay, she wasn't mine but I wished she was.

Rylie obviously noticed this too, surprising considering she seemed so wrapped up in her own little bubble this morning to notice anything else. I'm not saying she was self-absorbed, just that she was distracted. "Huh, Tess? Is there any reason you're so happy this morning?"

She bit her lip, trying to contain her smile. "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you that Seth asked me out! Nearly the same day as Leah and Nate! We're nearly twins!" I didn't understand why girls were always so excited about being twins with someone else. I wish someone would have explained this to me.

A cute smile lit Rylie's face as she said "Congrats," at the same time I told Tess "About time."

I was ignored but I accepted this, turning to my notebook as Tessa delved into details about how Seth asked her out, none of which particularly interested me. Not until I looked up and Tess was pouting.

"But now you're the only girl single!" Her eyes flicked to me so fast that unobservant Rylie wouldn't have noticed, so I decided to play along.

"Oh I'm sure I can fix that up." Rylie turned to me without the look of disgrace I was expecting, even when I winked at her.

She ran a hand through her hair, her big blue eyes staring at me without the doubt I thought was going to be there. "Not if you were the last guy on Earth." I hoped I was right in that I didn't hear an ounce of honesty in that. I didn't believe her words one bit, which confused me. Was she finally warming up to me?

"Oh please," I scoffed, glancing to the front of the classroom to make sure Mr. Grumpy-pants hadn't arrived yet. "You would not be able to resist."

It was her turn to scoff this time. "It'd be easier to resist," she paused, frowning as her brain ticked over. "Well, nothing."

Ha. Max 1, Rylie 0.

"Ooh, burn. I am so cut," I say sarcastically, although I'm not sure if deep down, I am joking. It does hurt a bit to know she doesn't like me back and that she could easily stay away from me if I let her.

And then Mr. Grumpy-pants walked in and silenced us all with his glare, deciding to teach us stupid, stupid maths that I couldn't focus on. I was too busy thinking about a certain blue-eyed girl to my left.

...

I didn't want to go to the maze after school. Leah had been shooting me glares all day and I only knew she was going to ask me about it here, which she did.

As soon as we set off to find the flags, she tracked me down and demanded answers.

"What the hell happened with you and Rylie on Saturday night? You can't go around being drunk and k-"

"Kissing Rylie, I know. I know I shouldn't have done that but I couldn't help it."

Leah looked up at me with her hands on her hips, a scary questioning expression on her face. "But Rylie told me that on Saturday you forgot everything that happened and-"

"I lied," I interrupted her. I couldn't let Leah go on any further. I know I messed up.

"Max," Leah's voice was warning as she leaned against the wooden wall of the maze. "What are you saying?"

I took a deep breath and frowned, tearing a hand through my hair. "I'm saying that I remember every single detail of what happened on Saturday night."

Leah's eyes widened before her lips turned into a hard line.

"I was completely drunk, sure," I allowed and began pacing back and forth. "But I knew exactly what I did. I don't know why I told her that I didn't. I just didn't want it to be awkward after the kiss and all."

"Why did you kiss her?" Leah asked, crossing her arms. She knew the answer, but from the impatient look on her face she wanted me to say it.

"Look, I don't know okay?" I sighed, running a hand through my hair again. "I just remember thinking that she was fucking gorgeous and we were in the attic at like, 3am. I remember wanting to kiss her, actually, wanting to do much more than that but obviously I didn't. I don't know. I guess I just thought, well, why not?"

Leah snorted, shaking her head at me. "You have to tell Rylie."

"No no no, I can't, Leah," I refused, shaking my head profusely. "She'll be mad and then I'll have to explain and she won't talk to me again."

And she'd know I liked her. That wouldn't turn out well, at all.

"Are you effing kidding me Max?" She huffed.

"Come on Leah," I protested before she could continue on the rant she was preparing. "You know that if I do I will have to tell her that I like her and-"

"You love her," she interrupted.

"Whatever. You know I'll have to and that won't end well for either parties. I don't want to have verbal confirmation that she doesn't like me. I'd rather live in doubt but never know. And you know she'll be pissed at me and it'll end up like the whole August-Chase-Rylie fiasco."

One of the flags are raised in the tower, followed shortly by another.

"You'd be surprised, Max," Leah said. I could see she wanted to say more but couldn't, and I respected that.

I just shrugged, not knowing what she meant and not bothering to figure it out. "Come on. Let's just get this stupid flag and get out of here."

We started to head towards the tower and ended up crawling under the maze walls to get there. We cheated but neither of us could be bothered getting their the 'right' way.

We got to the bottom and two of the levers were pulled down, meaning two people were already here. I climbed up the stairs ahead of Leah and saw Rylie and Nate in the tower, sitting opposite each other.

"Hey guys," I said, going to sit beside Rylie hesitantly. I had to figure out how to tell her, but there was a problem. As soon as I sat, she moved away from me, something she hadn't done since we first met.

Leah, who had followed me up, choked out a laugh and I frowned.

"Are you okay?" I asked Rylie. She bit her lip but didn't respond. I began to move closer to her again but Nate stopped me.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, man."

Oh shit, what did I do now?

Nate whispered in Leah's ear and told her, which led to Leah bursting out in laughter.

"What the hell is going on?" I asked, my question directed at the couple while my eyes kept flicking back to Rylie. She wasn't looking at me, or she was trying not to.

Leah looked at me with a look that told me everything, but just to rub it in she said; "I told you so."

Fuck. She knew. I was screwed.

Tessa and Seth rocked up a minute later and we escaped to the parking lot. I had to apologise and explain myself to Rylie, but she was clearly ignoring me.

"Bye guys!" She called when we were in the parking lot, looking at everyone except me.

"BYE RYLIE!" I yelled anyway as she got into her car and drove off. Then the attention came to me in this form:

"What the fuck, man?"

"You are so screwed."

"You're going to need to do some serious grovelling."

"How are you going to get yourself out of this one?"

So I groaned and said, "Shut up. I know I messed up. Leave me alone so I can figure out how to fix this." And then I left.

The next day was even worse, as it was apparent that Rylie was giving me the silent treatment. I wasn't to the grovelling stage yet but I figured I would need to at some stage, but overall the first half of my day was awful for the following reasons:

a) I missed talking to Rylie.

b) I got jealous of Rylie making up with August even though I was all for them being friends.

c) School sucked.

I figured it wouldn't get any better at lunch time but I decided to try to talk to her or more importantly, get her to talk to me. She sat almost opposite me and I had to groan when she spoke to everyone.

"You're literally talking to everyone except me?"

She didn't respond, not even with her signature eye roll. Shit, this was really bad.

Nate intervened then, smirking like an asshole. He knew how much this was affecting me. "Max, she's not going to crack. You need to figure out what you did."

"But I can't," I said, even though that wasn't true. I was just trying to figure out how she knew. More lying, I realised. Greaaaat.

"Rylie," I said after she had choked back a laugh. She looked at me for the first time today. "I can't stand it anymore. Why won't you talk to me?" I wasn't looking at anyone but her, all my attention focussed on her.

Our whole table was silent as we waited for her to think it over. And then she got angry.

"Because you're an insensitive asshole!"

I deserved that but still, that wasn't enough. So I gently took her arm and led her outside. I would have stopped if she struggled out of my grip but she didn't. I took her to the big oak tree by the oval, thankful that there was no one around.

"What the hell did I do?" I asked, failing to keep my voice normal, calm, rational.

She wasn't holding back anymore. "What the hell did you do? Hmm, let me think," she paused, putting her hand on her chin in pretense. "Well, you lied. Then told one of my best friends about it. And last but certainly not least you refused to tell me!"

Wait. "H-how?" It was the only thing confusing me. Which friend was she talking about? How did she find out? This could be worse than I thought...

"How do I know?" She asked, crossing her arms. I shouldn't have been thinking how hot she looked mad, but damn, I couldn't not. "You know, the walls to mazes aren't exactly soundproof-" fuck "-you know. If you don't want someone to hear something, you say it when, oh, I don't know. Maybe when you're not in a maze with lots of easy ways to overhear a conversation?"

Oh shit. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. How much did she hear? Did she know I liked her? Fuck fuck fuck.

"How much did you hear?" I tried to be angry to cover up the fact that I was freaking out and had a line of cuss words a mile long running through my mind.

"Enough to know that you're a lying bastard. Why would you lie about that?"

Okay. This was good. If she heard I liked her she would be undoubtedly focussing on that. I let out a sigh of relief and shook my head.

"I didn't want things to be awkward, okay? I know I should have told you but I couldn't bring myself to doing that."

"You didn't want things to be awkward?" She fired back, seeming as if she was about to turn and walk away. But she didn't. She stayed put.

"I know. I fucked up. I'm sorry," I huffed.

"Clearly!" She exclaimed, so angry that steam could be puffing out of her ears. "How do you think it was for me to have my best friend kiss me in his beautiful attic at 3am, completely intoxicated? What the hell was I supposed to think? Leah told me that drunk people do things they don't have the courage to do when they are sober, but what sense would that make with you? You're you, Max Harris, most popular guy in school. Why would someone like that not have enough courage to kiss me when he's sober? And then you said you didn't remember!"

Because he's fucking terrified of how you will react because he's in love with you and doesn't want to lose you and get his heart broken in the process!

"God dammit, Rylie!" I exclaimed, getting as angry as she was. "You know what? Yeah, I did kiss you. As you said, it was three in the morning, I was drunk and you are fucking beautiful. I kissed you. So what? No guy in their right mind wouldn't!"

She looked taken aback, her mouth hanging slightly open but I couldn't stop.

"And honestly? I wanted to avoid this whole thing. I knew you would get pissed if I told you I knew what I was doing when I kissed you so I told you I forgot everything. Build a bridge and get the fuck over it." I was puffing as if I'd just done hill sprints, trying to calm myself down before I said the next bit.

"Ry. I know I should have told you but my brain just doesn't work when it comes to you," I said honestly, wanting to wince at my vulnerability. "I am so incredibly sorry that I lied."

I know she would have hated for me to notice that her face softened a little.

"You better be." She pointed her finger up at me sternly, trying to keep the anger on her face and failing rather amusingly.

I half-smiled, trying to figure out if we were actually okay. I took it as a yes when she smiled back at me.

Then I remembered our plans. "Are you still coming over to mine after school, for the 'real' afternoon? No masks?" I asked as we made our way back to the cafeteria.

"Isn't that tomorrow?" She asked, frowning as we walked side by side. It was good to have her as a friend again, and not an enemy.

"Well yeah, but no. We had another change of plans."

"Oh?" She asked.

"Yeah. I'm actually having a birthday party on Saturday and my family are going to see our cousins while I stay at home. We're sorting out the details tomorrow night while everyone is home, and no one is home tonight. So do you want to?" This was all proposed last night when Mum had suggested I throw a party for my birthday. I didn't think it was necessary but apparently she did. So I texted the group and was pleased to find that most of them could come, but Rylie wasn't talking to me so I couldn't ask her.

"When's your birthday?" She asked, seeming annoyed that she didn't know it already.

"It's Sunday."