Dedicated to czmmmm (aka ptxxtp) for all the pentastic fanfics that've sustained me!

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"There you are! What the hell, Ashica?" Luc whispers furiously from his not-so-inconspicuous hiding spot behind an adjacent locker when I finally stumble over to Kyllian's locker.

I just shrug and walk over to where Leandre Kyllian's standing. His eyes widen when he sees me. It's nothing unusual to me as it's exactly the reaction just about everyone other than Vica has when they see me approach them, thanks to my oh-so-amazing reputation, and Vica because I almost never show up early of late.

Leandre visibly swallows before he appears to calm down and says, "Ashica, hey!"

Leandre is such a nice person and one of my favorite people for the single reason that he at least tries to treat me like an actual person, not just some vulture or maybe the Grim reaper the way nearly everyone else does when they see me. Well, that is a highly prominent repercussion of being known as 'the Breakup Girl', I guess.

Vica's overtly happy when I show up, Luc's nice enough because of the close-knit friendship we had back in fourth grade even though we've grown apart now, and Delta's nice too. And, of course, Hart scowls at the mere sight of me.

"Hey" I reply drably, my voice inaudible to anyone over three inches away from me. Leandre makes out what I say and his face falls.

I just want to run away and maybe lie down now but my promise to Luc is keeping me here. Also the fact that the torture is nowhere near over for today. It's only started and it's already making me regret all my choices so far.

Clearing his throat, Leandre asks me, "Hey, I heard you broke up with Delta Jaxton for Nova Hart earlier. Is that true?"

When I nod in response, he nods too, probably unsure of what to say. After a minute of awkward silence and Leandre fidgeting, he breaks the silence, "So, um, did someone, you know, send you here?"

"Oh right."

Luc must be burning in his impatience by now and probably would be yelling at me to get a move on right now if Leandre hadn't stepped in just now, from what I knew of him before we became strangers ever since we fell apart.

Positioning my guitar, I strum while Leandre's face turns blank, probably unsure of what to expect.

'It's hard to look right at you baby

But here's my number, so call me maybe

Don't be scared now, you have me

And here I will be, so talk to me baby

Lee, just know that

From this day on, I won't let you down

I'm gon' right my wrongs, I'm gon' make you proud

'Cause I made my mistakes, probably more than I can count

Before you came into my life,

I missed you so bad

I missed you so bad

I missed you so so bad

So from this day on, I won't let you down

Won't let you down, won't let you down

Won't let you down, won't let you down

Never let you down, I won't let you down.'

I look up to see Leandre's face bright like a thousand-watt lamp lights it up. Reaching into my sling bag, I pull out the card and box Luc had given me and hand it over to Leandre.

"Here, Leandre," I say simply, watching his eyes widen and amusement seep into his expression.

"Ash, hon, call me Lee now," he says, curiosity writ large on his face as he opens the card and reads it. After he's done reading it, he lifts his light brown eyes to meet mine, grinning from ear to ear.

"Ash, this is all so sweet and all, but I have absolutely no idea who's sent you," Lee says, his grin now sheepish.

"He didn't write his name?" I say, Lee shaking his head in response.

"Luc," I say, internally smacking my forehead at his moment of pure stupidity and blank-mindedness.

Lee's eyes widen so much that I fear his eyelids might tear apart.

"Luc who?"

"Luc Mathis."

There are at least three Lukes here (apart from Luc, and they all sound the same), so it's understandable that he's confused. Then again-

"Oh my gosh, Ashica, thank you so much!" Lee says, pulling me into a poor impression of a bear hug and attempting to crush my shoulders. Really, it's more of a carpet hug or something of the sort. Still, I wince at the extra pressure on my already aching shoulders. Lee is too caught up in his joy that his crush finally noticed him to notice. Yup, I have definitely known that before by his behavior, even though I haven't spoken to him a lot. The only times I've ever seen him were when he would make the poorest of excuses to speak to Luc and I'd been there.

When someone clears their throat behind us, Lee steps back. I turn around to see it's an ecstatic Luc, his sea blue eyes dancing with excitement. He's smiling so much that I can't help smiling too. It's so infectious!

I step aside and pack up my guitar and pick and am about to walk away when Luc's voice stops me.

"Where do you think you're going, Ashica?"

"To give you two lovebirds some privacy," I quip.

"Hold up then," he says and asks Lee to wait, who happily obliges.

"Ashica, thank you so much!" Luc more or less squeals, having dragged me about ten lockers away.

"No problem," I say, turning around to walk away. I can't wait to get out of his sight so I can finally set free the lump in my throat and attempt to seek relief in the comfort of my tears.

He pulls me back with my forearm and spins me around.

"Ashica, you may have felt we aren't as close anymore, but you ought to know you're nothing short of my best friend even now. I regret having pushed you away, and I realize now how terrible you must've felt when I just started ignoring you."

Just when it all started getting bad, Luc made it worse by just pretending I didn't exist out of nowhere. I desperately tried to get him to, at the very least, acknowledge my presence. It suffices to say I failed miserably. I'd even given up on the idea of friends when I met Vica.

It still feels nowhere near as amazing as it felt when it was Luc, but it was enough to sustain me until a while ago when Vica started making other friends. She was still there for me but I guess she'd begun to realize how much time and effort she'd have to put in me and found it difficult. But she never stopped, and I'm so glad for that.

I never meant to mess up any of her other relationships but I somehow wound up being her only friend. I can't say I'm sorry for it but I do feel bad when I see how much she's alone. Well, I can start being a better friend to her, thanks to Luc.

"Thank you then," I tell Luc, who's stunned. Luc's stunned by my response. He'd been standing still, tensed, and expecting me to yell at him or something. It's what I would've done earlier; now, though, I'm too tired, and I've mellowed quite a lot.

Luc doesn't seem to like this though.

"For making you realize you deserve better than me?" he queries.

"No, but for making me stronger, for helping me strengthen my armor."

Luc's eyes ooze with remorse as he says, "Ashi- I- I never- I don't know what to say."

"That's okay, Mathis. You're forgiven."

"That easily?"

"I forgave you a long time ago, Luc. You did nothing wrong."

"Ashica, did I ever tell you how much I hate you?" he says, his voice fluid anger and vengeance.

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I'm so glad I finally got this posted! I had three-fourths of the chapter done but it got deleted! Luckily, I had backup.

Feel free to tell me what you think of this story! If you don't want to comment, you can PM me...

In case you're wondering from where Ashica's name came up, I'll tell you- it's a combination of my nickname for two of my friends. Her last name came up when I realized Ashica also sounds like a combination of Ashley and Jessica so I just combined it the other way and came  up with Jessley. Not what you expected, huh?

Anyways, I'll try to update as soon as I can...

Thank you for reading!

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