ILYSE:

I regret coming to the fair almost as soon as we step foot near the rides, Natty is all over the place. I watch as she drags Seth from place to place and realize pretty fast that the money I had come with will be gone in an instant if I were as frivolous and carefree as Natty seemed to be.

Sure, part of me wanted to be that carefree about money but another part of me didn't like the thought of struggling until aunt B's next pay day. Life was already hard enough being poor and a teenager with a so called wealthy friend, it didn't help that I had to worry about money and spending too. One day, I was determined to be better off than I was currently.

"Come on Ilyse!" I began to shake my head, I didn't want to spend that much on a ferris wheel that only went around in circles. But as soon as Natty had her hands on me there was no escaping, no amount of protesting seemed to sink through the euphoria she was currently feeling.

"Don't worry about it, Seth and Keelan have us covered for tonight." What? That was news to me, I thought I'd be paying for myself and went to protest again. But when I turned to take money out of my purse Keelan and Seth had already paid and were handing over tickets to both Natty and I. Blushing profusely I took the ticket from Keelan, he looked about as pleased as I felt at having to pay for my ticket.

"Thanks," I murmured, it was so awkward. Clearly Keelan didn't like me and could barely stand to be around me, but the night was for Natty and Seth so I begrudgingly sat in the cart with an increasingly angry Keelan.

Our cart had barely left the ground before Keelan turned towards me, a deepening frown on his face.

"Why do you hang out with my sister? Do you ask her for money? Because clearly you have very little of it, I'm surprised you even came tonight given that I have to practically shell out for all your rides and food." Wow. My brain stalled as Keelan bit out at me, suddenly the cart was too small and far too high up for my liking.

"Wow. Uhm okay, I don't know what you've heard or where you're getting your information from but you need to shut the heck up. You don't know anything about me and I sure as heck never assumed anything about you, other than you're an a$$." I tried to keep my breathing even and myself calm but it wasn't working, the more I thought over Keelan's words the angrier I grew.

Still I wasn't going to make a scene and instead turned away from Keelan and stayed like that until our cart came down to ground level again. Signaling to the operator that I wanted out of the cart, he opened it and I was free from the stupidity that was Natty's slightly older brother.

"Hold up, you can't just walk off like that! I know a few things about you, you're poor, Nat isn't. She has no friends and is vulnerable, she's totally naive about people and sh*t that she'd make anyone a friend who was nice to her. You probably saw that and decided to befriend her." I couldn't believe what I was hearing, if I had known that Keelan was half the guy I thought he was then I really would not have agreed to this double dating thing...where had he gotten his information from anyway?

"Woah, hold up there. Hey Ilyse, you okay?" Great, just what I needed..another guy getting involved.

"Yeah, I'm okay Brock. I was just heading home," Brock put an arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer, away from Keelan.

"Come on, I'll take you home. Still being a douche Poller?" Brock threw over his shoulder before escorting me over to his car. I could hear Natty yelling from the top of the ferris wheel but didn't want to stick around and explain things, I'd let Keelan grovel his way out of all that.

"Are you sure you're okay? I can go back and give him another black eye for you." I laughed and pulled away from Brock, looking pointedly at his black eye. Brock, along with Keelan had been ordered to start the mentor program and in the few days that I'd hung out with Brock I realized he was actually a really cool guy.

"Yeah, I'm fine Brock. Tonight was just a really bad idea, come on we better get going anyway. We've got classes tomorrow." Even though summer school was a punishment for a lot of students I used it as an escape and an excuse for why I never did anything exciting over the summer break.

"Eugh, class...don't remind me. I should never have baited Keelan in the first place." I did wonder briefly why he had baited Keelan but then remembered that Brock had admitted to being attracted to him.

"He would be a good catch if he wasn't such a douche bag, you know? Yeah he's good looking but his manners suck so bad." I laughed at that too, it was the truth. Sure, Keelan had picked me up but I might as well have been invisible. Not to mention his lashing out at me just now and his fight with Brock, a better guy would have walked away but Keelan seemed to want a fight.

KEELAN:

"Keelan! What did you do? Where did Ilyse go? I swear if you made her cry I'm going to be so upset with you." I swallowed loudly, had Nat really seen Ilyse stomp off from way up there? Part of me was ashamed that I'd been caught, I'd never be ashamed for confronting a faker at their own game but for upsetting Nat on her date night I'd be upset about.

"I didn't do anything Nat! I just accused her of using you, which is looks like she was!" Nat hit me square in the arm when I said that, okay she was really angry with me. The second blow caught me on the cheek, the third in the eye and the fourth in my stomach. I was luck that Seth pulled Nat away before she kicked me in the balls.

"I can't believe you Keelan! She wasn't using me, I know she's poor...she's never once asked me for money. She's my friend because she's the only person in this world that really listens to me and I swear to god if you've driven her off I'll make your life a living hell. She's my only friend!" Shit, what had I done? All the logic in my argument with Ilyse seemed superficial as I watched large tears well up in Nat's eyes as she looked to where Ilyse had stomped off with Brock.

"The dress! You were so excited about that dress, you said it was for..." Nat cut me off with a smack to the side of my head. It stung like a mother, she'd caught me in the wrong place.

"It was for her! I brought the dress for her you idiot, that's why I was so excited. I can't believe you! You've never been this mean before, why are you being mean now?" Nat's question caught me off guard, when had I turned into such a wanker? That was the more accurate question, truth be told I'd always been a douche but I'd hidden it better.

"I want to go home now, thanks for ruining my date night." Seth too didn't look pleased with me, I gave him a steely gaze until he glanced away first and smiled smugly at still having that over him.

"Whatever Nat, stop being so childish." I stomped off towards the car, what I said made Nat irate and she continued berating me as she followed me out of the fair grounds.

My night could have been so much worse, but as it stood this was probably one of the worst nights of my life and it had all been my doing.

On the way home Nat wouldn't talk to me, she wouldn't even look at me. She stared out the passenger window the whole way, her arms folded over her chest, her jaw was clenched tight as she kept to herself. It was in that silence that I sort of began to evaluate the night, it was also in that moment I realized I had ruined Nat's first real date with the first guy to show genuine interest.

When we pulled into the driveway we both sat in the car for a little while, I turned to Nat but she still refused to look at me. "I'm really sorry Nat, I let my stupidity get the better of me and I'll do whatever I can to fix it."

At first I thought Nat hadn't heard me but when she sniffed I knew she was crying.

"Aww come on Nat, please don't cry. I'll make it up to you, I promise just please don't cry." That seemed to make it worse, Nat's shoulders began to shake and a small squeak bubbled out of her throat. I pulled her into a hug, thankful that she turned into it instead of away form it.

This was all my fault and I felt like the worst kind of idiot for it.

"Ilyse probably won't ever speak to me again and Seth probably never wants to see me again." The weight of what I'd done was really starting to sink in, I might have cost Nat two of her most important connections outside of the family and she was paying for it.

"I'll make it right Nat, I will." Was all that I could say. Seth was going to be easy but Ilyse was a whole other story...I don't know how I was going to fix that.