Quick note: I hate doing these things before a chapter because no one's going to read them, but I think this is important. A lot of people hate swear-words, and although I'm not one of them, I understand why. This chapter has a lot of very colourful words, and it's like a shit storm, so I figured I should just give a heads up in case I have a reader(s) who don't like it when characters swear too much. Except for that, enjoy:)

You know you're in a mess when you find yourself sitting in a dirty car beside a guy you met a week ago, trying to get him to tell you his address so that you can get him home, with the car stopping every few metres because it has almost no fuel, oh and your driving skills are rusty because you haven't been driving for a long time.

When we'd started off at the park, Ethan had confidently lead me through a couple of turns and roads I'd never been on before, so I automatically assumed that he knew where we were going.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. We ended up in a strange neighbourhood, with weirdly shaped mud and brick houses and cows walking about in the street for no reason at all. Added to that was the fact that we had no fuel and it was a little past eight in the night, so no one was willing to open up their doors and help us out.

Our adventure didn't even end there.

We actually managed to get out of that place when we found a gas station close to where we were stranded, and drove out of that neighbourhood only to drive straight into a shadier one.

And the street was so shady that I even saw some tattooed guy waking around, holding a knife in one hand and a gun in another. The guy's appearance frightened me so much that I almost drove the car over him. Imagine my luck when I came out of the encounter only with a couple of very extreme words thrown at me.

It was by pure luck that we reached the park again with our bodies in one piece.

It was a little before midnight, and I'd already told mom that I would be spending the night at Shirley's place (okay, I lied) and we were back at the park (where we started) when Ethan's high wore off a little, and he slowly took note of our situation.

This time, when he told me his address, we reached a cheap-looking, run-down apartment with its plaster coming off just down the road within five minutes of leaving the park.

"This is your place?" I asked him, hoping against hope that it was; and cursing myself for going on a wild-goose-chase while the goose was right next to my face.

"Yeah. You are good at driving." He said.

"Thanks?" I didn't know why or how he felt the need to compliment my driving skills, but I would rather take a compliment from his than wrong directions which led me into streets with gun-holding scary people.

Still looking partially drunk and definitely sleepy, he stepped right out of the car and disappeared into the building before I could say anything else.

"You're welcome." I muttered, slightly bitter about not getting the thank you I most definitely deserved.

Then I realized how bad my situation was. Mom thought I was at Shirley's place, Shirley was out of town, it was a one in the morning, and I was in Ethan's stinky car. I didn't have a place to go, and I had training in four hours, which I couldn't even skip because Horry would stuff a rag down my throat and murder me if I did.

You're an idiot.

Didn't I know that?

I sighed and looked around at my surroundings. I was parked just outside Ethan's apartment, there were a bunch of similar apartments around me, the road was empty and dark and judging by the lack of panicked screams coming from the apartment Ethan had stepped into, he was in the right one.

Ethan's car seemed to be the only good option for the night.

There was else I could do, knocking at my door at this time would definitely make my mom suspicious, driving to Shirley's place would make her parents reconsider letting Shirley hang out with me and I couldn't even ask Ethan to let me sleep on his couch or something because he was gone!

I hit the steering wheel in frustration. Stupid Ethan and his idiotic stupidity. Would it have killed him to not ruin my life? I didn't want to sleep in his car - not only because the seats were unnaturally hard, but because the place was stinky. This was all his fault. He was the one going to college, shouldn't he be the responsible one?

I groaned and covered my face. What do I do now?

Letting myself fall over the steering wheel, I cursed Ethan over and over again. But then I realized this wasn't his fault, it was mine. So I cursed myself over and over again.

Not long after, tiredness won over my disgust at the state of the car, and I fell asleep in the front seat with the windows slightly open to let the air in while making sure no one could steal anything through the window.

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"What the fuck!?"

I rubbed my face and turned away from the noise, wishing whoever it was would go away. My neck felt strange and my sleeping position was a lot different from what I was used to, but there was no way I was going to get up.

Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap

"Emmaline. What the fuck are you doing in my car?"

Making love to it, what do you think? I ignored him and covered my ears.

"Emmaline! Get out of my car right now!" He shouted again. I probably would've continued ignoring him if only he hadn't started tapping on the window - the sound was too annoying for me to ignore.

So I sat up on the seat and rubbed my eyes. Ethan stood outside the car, looking no different from yesterday, except the dazed expression was gone to be replaced by a lot of anger. It was scary how the very grey eyes which had been so full of confusion yesterday were now filled with anger.

I contemplated ignoring him again, but the hand he had put against the window threatened to make that annoying tap-tap sound again - a sound which I didn't and wouldn't enjoy hearing at any time of the day, especially early in the morning with a headache.

"Are you getting out or not?"

I opened the door and stepped out, wishing his seats were softer because my back and butt felt stiff and cracked when I moved. According to my phone, it was a five in the morning, which meant that I had enough time to go home and change before meeting Horry for Death 101. Also according to my phone, Shirley and Tyler and a bunch of people had called me up for no reason at all. Was I caught in my lie? Normally I was such a good liar!

"Can you explain the meaning of this? Why the fuck were you sleeping in my car?" Ethan said, looking genuinely pissed off.

I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and looked at him properly to figure out why he was so mad. He didn't look any different from yesterday, messy hair, angry grey eyes, dark clothes and tired face.

"I'm talking to you! What were you doing in my car?" He snapped.

My temper reached its breaking point; he was acting like I was dying to sleep in his stinky car with its ridiculously hard seats. "Making love to it, what do you think?" I snapped.

He looked taken aback by my words, but recovered quickly. "Don't get smart with me! You're the one sleeping in my car! I have the right to know what you're doing here!"

I took a deep breath to control the flood of anger that I wanted to release on him. "Yeah? Well, in that case, you should have no fucking problem explaining why you decided to get high and make me drive you home, should you?"

Realization took over his face as he remembered a little of what had happened last night and he opened his mouth to say something, but it was too late. I was too angry. "Next time you want to get so stoned that you can't tell the difference between your right leg and your left, you should do it in your own fucking house if you don't want strangers sleeping in your precious fucking car!" My head was pounding like a jackhammer, enhancing my anger and frustration with the situation - along with the fact that the phone calls I had received meant that Mom had somehow caught me in my lie, so I had a lot of explaining to do.

He was too stunned by my anger to say anything else, and I didn't even want to hear him say anything else. Turning around like a superhero female, I started sprinting as fast as I could. The scene would've been more awesome if only I wasn't running home because I was scared of Mom.

I reached home in record time, and entered it carefully, then found out that the entire house was empty. Mom and Dad weren't anywhere. Hoping against hope that they were at work and not trying to have me thrown in jail for doing what I did last night, I took a quick shower because I was wearing the same clothes from yesterday, then almost ran to the school to get there in time. Now, all I had to do was hope that I hadn't been caught in my lie last night.

"Someone's on time." Horry commented as I walked through the school gates and into the ground. I was too mad to even reply. Sleeping for exactly four hours last night didn't make me very happy or friendly.

"All right kids. Wilson, stop yawning. Everyone, warm up! We'll be doing weights." Horry announced once everyone had arrived.

Part of me was relieved because weights meant there would be no running, but another part of me was unhappy because weights meant having to spend time with Victor. Weight training, according to Horry, always required constant care, and that could be achieved only if someone else was watching you while you do it. Since Horry couldn't simultaneously watch twelve teenagers, he normally paired everyone with their classmates. Mine was Victor. I didn't know if I had the energy to deal with him.

Right after I finished Horry's warm up routine, we were all paired off with our classmates and given one corner of the gym. The idea of giving everyone a partner was to help reduce the number of mistakes and injuries by having two people concentrate on one person's workout.

"You look very cranky. Don't tell me someone refused to go out on a date with you again last night. Trust me Em, one day, you'll find a guy who can bear you. You just need to hold on.... until you're 95." Five minutes into picking up weights, and Victor was already pissing me off.

We stood in the school gym, facing each other like the enemies we were as we took turns in picking up the weights.

I pulled and pushed the weight up and down, feeling my biceps burn in response to the weight. Once I was done with the correct number of repetitions, I dropped the dumbbells on the floor.

"Please fuck off. I'm not in the mood to deal with you right now." I told him politely.

He frowned and picked the dumbbells up. "That's what I wanted to ask you actually. Do you have something against me?"

I shrugged and closed my eyes, too tired to say anything else.

"I can never get a conversation out of you. You always cut me off with some smart ass reply. Just like yesterday. It's like you come here with a plan to say something offensive to me."

I yawned. My head was pounding, my eyes were barely open. "I don't need a plan. If you really want to know, I was diagnosed with this Filtering Bullshit Syndrome. So whenever I come across anything that is remotely useless, I tend to push it away with my 'smart ass replies'."

He rolled his eyes. "Seriously? Are we going down that road again?"

"Maybe."

He huffed. "Is it because you're sexually frustrated and don't have anyone to take it out on? If that's the case, you should come out with me tonight babe, and I'll show you a good time." His smirk showed that he was very proud of his comeback. And the way he glanced at my chest suggestively showed that he really believed what he said was true.

I looked around to make sure Horry wasn't anywhere close by because if he heard this conversation, he would make it a point to kill me. "I would kick you in the nuts, but I'm afraid there's nothing there. Incidentally, that's also why you might not be able to do anything about my 'sexual frustration', as you call it."

It was genuinely shocking that he had a reply to that. "You won't know unless you try. How about you and me in the bathroom stall, hm? I promise, you won't have any regrets but knowing that this is a once in a life time thing."

I blinked to push away my sleep. "Do you want a punch in the face?"

"Getting physical now, are we? Cat got your tongue, huh?"

"No. Your stupidity did."

And before he could reply to that, I snatched the dumbbells from his hands and started pulling them up just as Horry made his way towards us. How ever mad Victor was, he didn't have the guts to say shit with Horry around, which meant that I was spared from having to murder him and go to jail.

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I stood in the dirty school shower, washing my sweaty hair while simultaneously trying to keep my eyelids open. I'd successfully hit my head against the shower wall three times, run straight into a group of girls and disgusted them with my 'yucky, gross, sweat smell' - which only made me want to take my shirt off and rub it on their faces to see what else they would say - almost called 911 while trying to unlock my phone, left the towel outside the shower and had to sneak out just in underwear because I'd already stripped off my clothes by the time I'd realized my towel was outside and fallen into a poor junior's lap while attempting to walk straight and made him blush like a tomato; all because of Ethan and his stupidity. And mine, of course. I was sleepy and cranky.

I was really looking forward to sleeping in class.

I came out of the shower without much incident, or I thought I did until I heard someone say : "Is there a good reason you're wearing your pants the other way?"

I sighed and glanced at my pants. "No. Not really. I'm just so sleepy today." I yawned for the effect.

"You're always sleepy, Em."

I blinked in surprise and turned around to come face-to-face with the sister of the subject of the stories I was feeding Ethan everyday - Sarah McCarthy. She stepped outside a shower stall, her bright, unnaturally red lips in a smile, definitely unnaturally red hair fluffed up, wearing heels that gave her an artificial height (I had no idea why she was wearing heels in the shower place, it wasn't my idea). It was no wonder that people in my school thought 'Sarah' was synonymous with 'fake'. The girl didn't have a single thing that was natural, except her brother Aiden McCarthy. Which was a pity because now I was feeling awkward. I didn't dislike her or anything, although I normally avoided her because she was a drama queen. She was nice enough, but very melodramatic. And added to that was the fact that I was spinning fake tales of love between her brother amd me, it was enough to make me want to never see her again.

"I know. When you're a genius like me, sleeping isn't really an option." I replied.

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever. I just thought I'd wish you happy birthday."

I frowned. Happy birthday? Why was she wishing- oh!

"Don't tell me you don't remember!"

I smiled sheepishly, suddenly remembering all the phone calls I'd received today. Tyler had even called me yesterday to let me know that he wouldn't be able to make it because his Mother was sick and he wanted to take care of her. He probably felt very guilty and thought I was ignoring him for disappointing me.

Well, shit.

"It's your eighteenth birthday, Em! What the hell! I was expecting you to remember this at least! Even though you forgot mine!"

"Yeah." I rubbed my face. Eighteen. Eighteen. Eighteen. Eighteen. I'd been so excited for this, now I hadn't even remembered what Friday signified except for a lack of sleep and three huge bumps decorating my fore head - all of which was courtesy of dear Mr. Grumpy and his idiocy.

"You did forget it, didn't you? How the hell did you manage?"

I gave her a quick grin. "Told you. Geniuses like me don't care about materialistic things." Then I walked right out of that place because it was starting to feel awkward - for obvious reasons.

I walked through the school halls in a daze. I was eighteen, and didn't even know it until Sarah reminded me - moreover, I was too sleepy to even feel excited. What the hell was I thinking when I spent almost six hours driving Ethan around into unknown places? What the hell was wrong with me?

The school buzzer rang, pulling me out of my thoughts and making my pounding head, well, pound harder. I groaned and clutched my head as kids started running in their hurry to get to class. I was shoved here and there until I found myself standing at the edge of a long staircase, I tried taking a step back, but the group of kids behind me had other ideas - more specifically, their idea was to push me and fly their all the way to the end. Before I could find balance, I was rolling down the steps, banging my already hurting head everywhere and trying to stop my downward journey in the most undignified way possible. Needless to say, I only succeeded after I reached the end - with the added benefit of a stinging pain in my ankle, and more dizziness.

I could hear the crowd laughing, but I was too busy cursing out Ethan - this was the second time I just fell down some stairs after I met him. And I wasn't even drunk.

Finally I got sick of the laughter and snapped - not because I was ashamed (this wasn't the first time I'd made at utter fool of myself in school), but because my head was hurting. "Unless you want your heads stuffed down a toilet, I suggest you guys stop laughing."

The reaction was hilariously quick, silence fell over the room as someone reached out to help me up. Sure, I didn't have many friends, but I was known for keeping my promises and people tried not to poke me too much - they knew I was fun as long as I wasn't.

And that, people, is how I found myself sitting in the nurse's care with a messed up ankle before school started.

"You're going to have to rest your ankle for a week." Molly, our school nurse, said. She was a women in her forties, with the kindest smile and largest heart on earth. She was also the only one who knew how much I loved writing.

"Just a week? Damn. I got lucky." The last time I'd hurt my knee, I ended up resting for three whole months.

She grinned, taking a couple of pills out of a bottle. "I know. I was kinda of expecting you to come this week. It's been so long, girl." Grabbing a bottle of water, she handed it to me. "Just take these, the pain will go away in some time. You can get back to class then."

I gulped down the pills and smiled at her. "Yeah. I think I lasted three months." Molly and I were good friends, mostly because she was very sweet and I visited her every month with a new injury - it was no surprise that she was expecting me to come.

"So, what's new?" She asked, smiling broadly. She said she liked talking to me, and always made it a point to spend an hour with me every time I came here.

I shrugged. "Well, if you really want to know, I turned eighteen today and Sarah had to remind me."

Her eyes widened. "You forgot your own birthday?"

I laughed. "Maybe."

"It's no wonder I love having you around! You're so amusing. How did you manage?"

I shrugged again mysteriously. "I'll tell you if you do me a favour."

Her eyes twinkled with amusement. "You're always doing this! What do you want this time, naughty girl?"

"I barely slept last night. Do you think you could let me sleep here for a couple of hours?"

"But you have school! You can't just sleep here!" She pretended to be horrified, although she knew there wasn't any point in sending me to class because I would end up sleeping there instead. And this wasn't the first time she was breaking rules for me.

I rolled my eyes. "Thanks Molly. Wake me up when school's over." Then I promptly fell on the bed.

"You're gonna be in so much trouble if I wasn't here."

I smiled. "I know."

"I still want to know why you're so sleepy."

"Okay. I'll tell you when I wake up."

"Oh. And happy birthday Em."

"Thanks."

I think she brushed my hair back or something, but I was too passed out to notice.

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I woke up around lunchtime, with most of my headache gone and crusty eyes. Molly was nowhere to be seen, so I took that time to call Tyler, Shirley, the parents and a bunch of my family members who wanted to wish me a happy birthday. The whole process took me half an hour, with Tyler taking up twenty minutes to apologize continuously until I told him I wasn't mad at him in any way.

By the time I was done with the phone calls, Molly came back inside holding a chocolate cake in her arms. A HUGE chocolate cake.

I found myself smiling like an idiot when I saw her. "Is that for me?" My inner child, which was the only thing I had inside, was jumping up and down at the amount of chocolate on the cake.

She laughed, placing the cake on the bed. "Yeah. I knew you were excited for your birthday, so I figured I should butter you up before I force you to tell me how you managed to forget."

"Butter me up with a cake. You know me so well."

Needless to say, my love for Molly increased by tenfold that day.

We ate the cake together while the rest of my classmates went through boring classes - which was such an awesome birthday gift that I stopped feeling grumpy. Molly started pestering me again, so I told her the entire story. All the way, from Ethan, my writing and Aiden. Once I was done, she was laughing like a mad women.

"I cannot believe you did that! You actually drove a practice stranger around this town in the dead of the night, one day before your birthday, in your boxing clothes. You never stop entertaining me! Oh my God Em! I can't remember the last time I laughed so much!"

I just shrugged and took another piece of the delicious cake. "It's what I do. The world would be a boring place if I wasn't around."

She let out another laugh. "Oh yes. It would."

There were just one or two pieces left by the time we were talking and school was almost at the end, Molly packed up the last of the cake and gave it to me.

"In case you want to give it to that Ethan kid. Sounds like he needs some cheering up." She said.

I rolled my eyes. "Cheering up my ass. You have no idea how mad I am! First he gets high, then he throws me out of his car! If it were up to me, I'd shove this cake up his ass, but I don't think the cake would want that!"

She wrinkled her nose. "That's not very nice Em, I don't like it when you swear."

"I know." Molly absolutely hated it when I swore or spoke vulgarly, she always said that I should be better than all the teenagers who swore to look 'cool'.

"Anyway. Do you want me to drop you at the park? I don't want you to wall around too much." She asked.

My eyes widened. "You'll do that for me?"

She smirked. "Why not? After all, you did provide movie-worthy entertainment for free."

"Not for free. It did cost you a cake. Thank you so much for that, by the way. You have no idea how much it means to me that you got it."

She winked. "Oh, I think I do. You're not the only one who loves cake."

Molly dropped me off at the park, all the while grinning widely. When I thanked her for the ride, she said: "No, I should thank you for today. Being a school nurse gets kind of boring, and having you over lessens the boredom a lot. Thanks Em."

It was then that I decided I should visit Molly a little more, even if it included an undue injury.

I just smiled awkwardly and blushed, mostly because a sincere compliment couldn't elicit a proper comeback from me.

I watched her leave, then hopped (which would've been a challenge if only Horry wasn't a sadist who made me hop up the school stairs along with every other athlete every time he felt like it) up the stairs of the cafe, wondering if Ethan would turn up - if he did, he was going to get a mouthful of colourful words from me.

I entered the cafe, almost a 100% sure that he wasn't going to be there, but surprise-surprise, he was back in our usual seat, staring at the entrance expectantly. He was looking beaten, dark circles under his eyes, pale face, messy hair and a deep frown which cleared up the moment I entered the cafe, and changed to relief.

We stared at each other for an entirety of two seconds, with his eyes filled with guilt and relief holding mine, then I turned away and hobbled over to another table. I could hear him let out a frustrated sigh when I sat down on another table far away from his.

I opened my books and stared straight ahead at nothing, refusing to acknowledge or look at him. I wanted him to bend his pride and come over to me and apologize for giving me the shittiest birthday ever (not that he knew it was my birthday, but still).

Moments later, he made his way through the maze of chairs and tables and sat down in front of me.

He didn't look any better from up-close than he did from afar - tired face, slumping shoulders, spiky, messy hair - classic Ethan.

"Hey." He spoke first.

I didn't say anything. But inside, I was still burning with anger. Words of every colour were trying to force themselves out of my mouth.

He leaned forward, eyes full of guilt. "I know you're mad at me. I made a stupid mistake today, and it won't happen again. I wasn't thinking straight. I shouldn't have overreacted. I'm sorry."

I rolled my eyes and turned away from his gaze.

He sighed again. "Can we not fight about this? I'm really really sorry, okay? It was my mistake. I should've put a little more thought before getting mad at you this morning. It won't happen again."

His words, meant to placate me, only pissed me off more. I narrowed my eyes at him, considering the pros and cons of unleashing all my anger at him in a flood and shouting my head off at his idiocy, then decided to give him another chance to piss me off before I let it all out.

"There's no point in glaring at me like that. I told you I'm sorry and I know it was my mistake."

He lost his last chance.

So I let the flood out. "Mistake? You're calling THAT a mistake? That's like saying the World War 2 was a whoopsie-daisy! It wasn't a whoopsie-fucking -daisy, it was a fucking disaster! Just like last night, when you decided that it would be a good idea to get completely stoned OUTSIDE of your fucking apartment, then just walk around for no reason at all. What the fuck were you even thinking? Look, I don't have anything against your stupid habits, you have your own reasons for them, but that doesn't mean you can do whatever the fuck you want! You're a fucking adult Ethan, act like it! You could've died yesterday and I would've died along with you for following your galactic stupidity!"

"I-"

He opened his mouth to respond, but I was on fire! There was nothing that could stop me!

"And it doesn't stop there! Do you know I spent most of last night driving you around unknown streets, hoping your place would turn up somewhere? Hours and hours, and what do I get in return for that? You waking me up rudely and telling me to get the fuck out of your stinky, precious car!"

He frowned. "My ca-"

"And do you know what happens next? I practically run all the way home, change my clothes, run to school, with my head hurting because I barely got any sleep, then find out that it's my eighteenth birthday! I forgot my own birthday because of you! Not any birthday, the one that is a milestone for a lot of teenagers to lose their virginities on! And then I fall down the fucking stairs because, again, my head is hurting and I can barely think straight, and twist my ankle! Now I can't even walk around! And do you know what my only form of transport is? That's right, my legs!"

Silence. Utter silence. The guy standing at the counter was looking startled, unaware of coffee flowing out of the mug he was holding and onto the floor. The only other customer, an elderly man sitting a few seats away looked ready to have a heart attack, but I didn't have eyes for them. I was solely focused on Ethan, and his dumbstruck face. There was so much shock on his face that if I didn't know better, I would've thought he had been electrocuted. The spiky hair didn't help the case.

He leaned forward and stretched his colourful arms on the table, with an apologetic expression on his face which pretty much melted my heart and anger - and how could it not? He looked like a puppy who'd been told that he couldn't have a bone - a tattooed, badass, spiky-haired, irresponsible, conclusion-jumping, capable-of-being-a-model-and-can't-because-addicted-to-drugs puppy, but a puppy nonetheless. The fact that his stormy eyes resembled a sad, rainy day didn't help.

I bit down on my lip, already regretting the out-flow of aggressiveness. Lifting my hand up, I pointed at the coffee guy who was still letting it overflow and mess up the entire store and said: "The cup's full. I don't know about you, but I don't think a floor looking like poop is a very attractive feature for a coffee shop."

Unfortunately, my words of wisdom didn't help the coffee guy. They startled him so much that he jumped up, let the coffee cup fall on the ground, then fell headlong on the floor while trying to save the cup.

I winced at the loud crashes coming from behind the counter, the elderly man was already standing up to make sure the poor man wasn't dead, throwing a fearful glare my way.

I would've helped, but the man behind the counter stood up soon enough, with coffee all over his clothes and hair. I got another glare from him, for which I gave him a smile - because, why not?

Then I looked back at Ethan. He gave me one of his rare smiles, the kind that lit up even his tired face. "You're so entertaining, you know that?"

My eyebrow shot up. "That's not the ideal apology, especially because you're not the first one to say that."

Somehow, for some incomprehensible reason, his smile widened. "I know. And I'm really sorry Emmaline. Yesterday was a bad day for me, but I wanted to make it here. I should've just stayed home."

"It's okay. I guess."

He rubbed his face, tiredness coming over his smile. "I don't remember everything that happened yesterday."

That was my cue to tell him everything that had happened yesterday without yelling at him. So I did.

By the time I was done filling him in on our escapades, his eyebrows had disappeared into his hair.

"You drove me the entire night to try and get me home?"

"Yeah. Pretty much."

"I didn't even know you could drive."

I grinned at him. "My parents offered to buy a car for me, but then I decided that it would be too hard to maintain. Walking is easier, but yeah, I can drive."

"And you fell down the stairs and broke your ankle because...?"

"I told you. I barely slept last night, and Sarah, Aiden's sister had just told me that it was my birthday, I was in such a daze that a bunch of kids practically pushed me down the stairs - and I was too tired to figure out what was happening."

He sighed and rubbed his face again. "I'm so sorry about everything. It was such a bad day for me, and something came up - I just wanted to take a hit, but got carried away."

He looked so ashamed of himself that I couldn't even hold on to my anger - how ever screwed up my ankle was. "Why was it a bad day?" I intentionally softened my words - it was more than obvious that yesterday had been something worth noting.

He leaned back, his smile almost gone. "We'll talk about it later - when I'm ready. I don't want to get into that now. Let's talk about something else. Today is your birthday?"

I nodded sadly. "And Aiden's sister had to remind me."

His smile came back on and his eyes twinkled. "You said you don't like her, or something, right?"

I shook my head, returning his smile with one of my own. "It's not like that. I just avoid her, along with my old friends - you know, the ones who walk around the school like they own it."

"And why do you avoid them?"

I smirked at his curiosity. "That's a story for another time."

"Okay. You're eighteen now?"

I nodded.

"I can see why your ankle is a problem. It's going to be hard partying with a bad ankle."

"No. Not really. There's no party. My dear Mother already ordered me to get home for dinner. And even if I want to party, I don't have many friends." I shrugged.

He looked amused. "Trust me, you'll have more than enough friends if you just tell them there's alcohol. I can't remember the last time a bunch of high school kids turned down an invite to get drunk and hook up."

I couldn't help but laugh at his opinion on high school parties because I completely agreed with it - a bunch of horny kids getting drunk and sleeping with strangers and regretting it in the morning pretty much summed up parties. "Well, I don't have alcohol, and I don't particularly enjoy having a puke-filled house. And I don't think my parents will either, so I'll pass."

He relaxed after I said that. "Good. That means I didn't ruin everything. Do you have any plans for today before dinner?"

"I wanted to go for a movie, but..." I trailed off, glancing at my ankle. "I don't think I can walk."

He pursed his lips. "Why don't you have a friend pick you up?"

"I told you. I don't have many friends. And the ones I have are not in this city - one is in Minnesota, and the other is in New York."

"Well, why don't you ask some other friends to pick you up?"

"I don't have other friends, Ethan. I was planning to go alone, but that I can't do that now." I glanced at my ankle again.

He folded his arms over his chest, guilt crossing his face. "You're guilt-tripping me, aren't you?"

I widened my eyes and tried to make my face look innocent. "Who? Me? No! I would never do that! I'm just saying, I really wanted to watch that movie for a long time, and if I don't watch it today, I'm never going to be able to because I still have my finals coming up and can't watch it next week. I won't be able to watch it after exams either, the movie will be gone by then."

He narrowed his eyes at me. "I think this is another talent of yours: Guilt-tripping. You're very good at that. But there's no way I'm driving you around so that you can watch a movie."

I slumped in my seat, making a dejected face. "I never told you to do that. I guess I'll just start hopping home now, maybe I'll reach time for dinner. I also might have a lot of explaining to do to my parents because they thought I spent the night at a friend's place."

His face turned to stone. "There's no way - you know what? I hate you. I'm only doing this once, and because I wasn't very nice to you after you helped me home last night."

I smiled widely. "I didn't tell you to drive me anywhere."

He snorted and stood up, pulling out his car keys from his pocket. "Not directly. But it wouldn't have been more obvious if you held up a neon pink sign ordering me to take you for a movie. And try not to remind me too much of this day because I have a feeling I'm going to regret taking out a psychotic, blonde kid."

Author's note: I have a couple of people telling me that I should reduce the chapter's size. Was this too long? If it was, please let me know, I'll try and do something about it :)

Also, please comment and let me know what you think, feedback really means a lot to me.

Thanks for reading:)

(I'm so exhausted)

I was going to make this longer, but I already crossed 6000 words, so I just cut it short :)

Cyan