At lunch, I was sitting with all my friends along with Sam, and one of her best friends, Zoe, at our usual table in the cafeteria and chatting away when I saw  Ryan come in through the door followed by Tyler and Jace. 

I turned back to my friends and asked "Hey! Do you guys mind if I call Tyler and his friends over to sit with us?"

"Sure." Ash nodded.

"That would be great." Zoe gave a wide smile. I always knew she had a crush on Jace but I don't know why Jace was so ignorant about it. She was beautiful, with her tan skin, long dark hair, and hourglass figure. A person you could hardly go without noticing, especially when she was batting her eyes at you flirtatiously every time she spoke to you.

I waved at the three boys and motioned for them to come over. They joined another table to ours and sat down with us.

"What's up, guys?" Jace asked.

"Nothing, we were just talking about how Ash got detention for falling asleep in math class today," Neil said, laughing.

"Shut up, Neil," Ash muttered.

"That's not all, when Prof Sharma woke her up from her slumber it took her a minute or so to actually process what's happening and mumble an apology." Neil chuckled, "The whole class was looking at her when she just stared at him half asleep." Neil mimicked her and we burst out laughing.

"I'd have paid to see that." Avi chuckled.

"It was priceless," I giggled.

"And the best part..." Neil started again but Ash interrupted him by yelling, "Sam make your boyfriend shut up before I beat him up with my shoe!"

"You wouldn't, you're too sweet for that." Neil teased.

"You really are testing her though, maybe she will make an exception today," Sam said, swatting his shoulder.

"Maybe, maybe not, but I'll sure as hell bribe V into whooping your ass. And you know she will." Ash smirked.

Neil looked at me for a second and I gave him a sickly sweet smile. He shook his head and sighed. "Yeah, I know she will."

As the conversation lulled on around the table, I noticed that Tyler looked unusually quiet, he wasn't even paying any attention to us. 

As if he could feel my eyes on him, he suddenly looked up and caught my gaze. I gave him a questioning look and mouthed, "All okay?"

He just nodded giving me a small smile that didn't quite reach his eyes and looked down at his phone again.

Definitely not okay.

Tyler had always been a distant guy. Friendly but distant. It never really bothered me before, but after witnessing his breakdown last week near the woods, I couldn't ignore it anymore.

But before I could even think to say something else, Miss. Courtney Wilcox waltzed into the cafeteria and all eyes turned on her. 

People might say that she was the queen bee of our school and I'd happily agree. At least she was a hundred times better than Heather and was not using her popularity for ruining others' lives.

Everyone knew Tyler and she had a 'special something'. 

Now, before you ask me, let me tell you that I have got no clue about what's going on between them. If you ever asked Tyler about his relationship status he always firmly said that he was single.

But Courtney- the embodiment of perfection, our school cheer captain, and Tyler's childhood family friend- thought otherwise. She thought they were meant to be, and would never hesitate to lay her claim on him.

Other than me thinking that she was always too chirpy and abnormally sweet, I thought she was okay. She had been nothing but nice to me and my friends so I had no reason to hate her.

"Hey, guys! Quite a gathering today, " Courtney said, eyeing our big table. "I didn't know you guys were having a group merger." She smiled at Neil and Tyler while tucking her strawberry blond hair away from her face.

"Come on Court, you know anybody is allowed to hang out with us, but the inner party is always sacred," Neil said, returning her playful smile.

"Noted. Anyways, Tyler can you come with me for a minute, it's important," she said, looking at him.

"Yeah, sure." He nodded and got up. 

"Zoe, we are having cheer practice after lunch. But I'll be joining you guys later," Courtney informed Zoe and she gave her a thumbs up. 

"Cool, oh before I forget, " Courtney turned to look at me and Ash. "We girls should catch up soon, I haven't seen you both in a while."

"Sure thing, someday after school maybe?" Ash offered, while I just smiled and nodded my head along.

"Deal. Bye guys." She waved at us and turned to walk away.

"I'll see you guys later," Tyler said and they left. He slung an arm around her while they walked out and I couldn't help but think that maybe they really belonged together. 

At least they sure did look like it. Their social status and popularity matched, but maybe not their maturity or personality. But who was I to judge when I knew neither of them that well?

I shook my head to get my mind off their complicated relationship and focused back on the table, just when the bell went out. We all got up and gathered our things to leave.

"I should rush to the practice now, see ya!" Zoe hurried past us but shot Jace a flirty smile. "Bye, Jace!"

"Uh, bye," he mumbled, distracted by his phone and I rolled my eyes. Boys are dumb. 

"Hey, guys, what's the plan for Saturday?" Neil asked as we walked out of the cafeteria towards our next classes.

"What's on Saturday?" Ryan asked, confused.

"Oh, yes! It's his birthday. Damn! I totally forgot about it," I said, looking at Neil with wide eyes acting like I hadn't spent my entire free period with Ash, Sam, and Avi, planning his birthday while he was at the football practice.  

"Shit. Umm, how about we have a surprise trip for him?" Ash suggested in an excited tone, playing along with me. Then she looked at Ryan and Jace. "You guys should join us too." 

"Sure," Ryan answered.

"But Ash, we can't go anywhere far because we have school on Monday, and you know my mom wouldn't allow it. I can't skip classes." I pouted.

"Hey guys, I'm right here you know?" Neil spoke up, waving his hands up in the air. But we ignored him.

"Ok, no trip then. What else could we do? Sam do you have anything special planned? Or will you join us?" Avi asked her.

"Which in case you didn't get it, means I can hear you! And if you want to plan a surprise you should probably do it later," Neil said, trying to grab our attention again. 

I bit back a smile and looked away to hide my face from him.

"I haven't planned anything yet, but even if I do, I'd still love to join you guys," Sam answered.

"Unbelievable!" Neil groaned and walked away from us looking pretty pissed.

"Okay, so now that he is gone, what's the actual plan?" Jace chuckled.

"We are throwing him a surprise party at the beach house," Avi answered.

Avi's family owned a small beach house a few hours from the town. We had been there a few times during our summer vacations but never stayed back. It was a pretty cozy place, nothing fancy, but it would be ideal for a pretty epic 18th birthday party.

"That sounds fun." Ryan grinned.

"Yeah, are you calling a lot of people over?" Jace asked.

"No, not a lot of them. If we called everyone we knew it'll be a huge thing. So just the inner circle," I answered. 

It was my idea to keep it low-key, I didn't want to have people who barely even knew us come over, and then we'll just end up being the 'hosts' entertaining everyone and cleaning up the mess behind them. 

Been there. Done that.

"I'll text you guys the details along with the final plan on Friday, but make sure you guys are free all weekend," Avi said, before leaving for his class along with Ryan and Jace.

"Did your mom give you permission to stay back at the beach house on Saturday night?" Ash asked as we made our way to our History class.

"No, I still haven't asked her yet. I'll do it today. Did you?"

"No. I was hoping if your mom says okay, it will be easier to convince mine. My mom likes you."

"Of course, she likes me, what's not to like." 

"Oh, I can name a few things." Ash grinned and I punched her arm.

"I'll let you know my mom's verdict by tonight, so we can plan our stay too," I said and Ash gave me a thumbs up.

As we sat in our history class with our sir rambling on about the French revolution, my mind wandered away to the beach house. I was really looking forward to the weekend to just let go of everything and have fun. And the beach house with a party seemed like a perfect escape.