I did not wake up on time the next morning.

By the time I finally got up, I had ten minutes left to get to school. I leaped out of bed, taking a shower in record time, throwing on jeans and a top and running downstairs.

My mom was in the kitchen, and looked surprised when she saw me. "Alex? I thought you already left for school?"

"No! Crap I'm late!"

I grabbed a breakfast bar, gave my mom a hug and ran out of there like my ass was on fire. I had told Megan not to pick me up today and that I would take the subway. Clearly, that was a stupid thing to do.

I managed to get a ticket on the next ride just in time. After that of course, was the painful wait.

When we finally reached the stop next to the school, I rushed there as fast as I could but I was still fifteen minutes late to the first class.

As I ran down the hallway to English, I realised I wasn't the only one late today. Shawn was coming from the other direction, not as frantic as me, but certainly worried he was late. We almost ran into each other in front of the door.

"You're late too?"

"Clearly."

We burst through the door at the same time, startling everyone in the room. Mr. Jones did not look impressed, his hand paused from writing on the board. He was pretty chill compared to the other teachers, but he still wasn't someone to be messed with.

"Mr. Hunter. Ms. Peirce. What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm so sorry Mr. Jones, I was-"

"You know what, I don't care. Get to your seats."

We shuffled to our seats and he continued teaching the class, everyone resuming writing their notes, but still whispering and shooting glances at me.

Once class was over, Andrew walked over to me just before I was about to leave. "Hey Alex!"

"Oh, hey Andrew! What's up?"

"What were you doing with Shawn in the morning? You guys didn't... uh you know?"

It took me a whole minute to get what he was trying to say, and when I did, I looked at him like he was crazy. "God no! We both just ended up being late today. I met him in the hall."

Andrew seemed convinced by that. I mean he should be, its not like I was lying anyway. He walked off to go talk to Shawn himself, the two of them were buddies after all. I rolled my eyes at the strange encounter and walked back to my locker where I found Megan waiting for me.

"You were late again, weren't you?'

"How the hell do you do that?"

She laughed. "Mystical powers." When I gave her a look, she sighed and told me. "I talked to a girl in your class. She also told me something else very interesting." She smirked when she said that.

"Ugh, seriously? I did not come here with Shawn. I met him in the hallway."

"I never said anything about Shawn." She said smugly. My eyes widened. "Gah, Andrew already asked me. Yeesh, you people read into everything way too much. Anyway, how was class?" I asked her, in an attempt to change the conversation from this weird subject. Megan let it go.

"Hm, I wouldn't know. I skipped it."

"Really? Alone?"

"Uh... no."

Now it was my turn to smirk. "You were with Ezra, weren't you?"

She blushed and busied herself in her locker. "Maybe."

I burst out laughing. "You totally were! Can you shut up and tell me everything already, I know you're going to anyway."

She sighed and slammed her locker door shut. "Fine. He asked me to be his girlfriend."

I squealed like a little kid right then and there so loudly, that people turned around and stared. "And? What did you say?"

"I said yes."

"Whoo hoo! Finally!" I gave her a bone crushing hug, and just then, Ezra himself walked over along with Tyler who was grinning just like me.

"He told you?"

"Yep."

We both did a little happy dance while those two rolled their eyes and blushed. It was adorable.

"Wow, am I the only single idiot here now?" I asked.

"Looks like it."

"This mushiness is going to be hell."

After teasing those two a little more, Tyler and I walked to math class. One of the worst subjects on the planet. Chemistry was my absolute weakness, but math was pretty annoying too. I literally found physics ten times easier. Atleast I had practice today to look forward to.

The day passed by in its usual boringness. Then basketball practice, and then off to Megan's house for our weekly study session. Except, it was a little different since Ezra showed up out of nowhere.

"Uh, hey Ezra. What are you doing here?" I asked in confusion. He glanced at Megan not so discreetly, blushing and looking at the ground. "Um, I thought I was supposed to come here, but apparently there was a confusion..."

"I cancelled because I forgot Alex was coming you idiot." Megan hushed, and then pushed him out the door hastily, whispering something to him.

Once she finally turned around, I stared at her, arms folded and a smug smile on my face. "Really Meg? How stupid do you think I am?"

"Uh..."

"Looks like your relationship has progressed to booty calls huh? When the hell did you guys sleep together?"

She looked around panicking, and dragged me upstairs to her room, slamming the door shut. "My sisters are at home! How loud are you?"

"Apparently not as loud as you one night." I smirked, although I had no idea if that was true or not.

"Ugh, fine. We... got together after the date."

"After one date? Yeesh, you are whipped."

"We have math to do. Shut up."

I laughed and took out my books, shaking my head. Holy shit, all my friends were...doing it. Ugh, I have never felt more single. Not that I was interested in dating anyone, but hormones, I guess. I was a teenager after all. Wow, I sound like a forty-year-old.

"So, how was he?" I asked smugly. Don't judge me, any girl would ask. She didn't answer at first, her face tomato red. I was not sure if that was a good thing or not.

"He's...good. Like really good."

I put my hand over my ears and gagged like a little kid. "Ew! Meg I don't want to hear that!"

"What? But you're the one who-"

"Ha! Who would have thought Ezra had it in him?"

She hit me with her textbook on my shoulder. I was still laughing. "Just stop me when I reach the right length, if you know what I mean."

I put my hands out in front of me, slowly increasing the gap between them. Megan groaned and stuffed her face into her pillow, totally ignoring me and trying to study.

We studied for another twenty minutes, but it was pretty clear than Megan's mind was somewhere else. Or rather, someone else. I gave up and slammed my book shut. "You're way too distracted. Relax, we'll do it tomorrow."

"Huh? Okay, cool bye."

Then she pulled out her phone, totally ignoring me. God, I hope this was just a new relationship phase or I was doomed. Just as I went out the back door, I realised that I'd left my textbook in her room. I went back up to get it, opening the door to quite a sight.

Ezra was already in there, its like he was standing outside, waiting for me to leave. He and Megan were already on the bed, their lips glued together and pulling each other's clothes off. While that was straight up disgusting, the interesting part was that Ezra was on top of Megan, although I totally expected it to be the other way around. I closed my eyes.

"Seriously guys?! Ezra, were you hiding in the closet or something?"

He and Megan scrambled off the bed, and luckily, they both pretty much had all their clothes on. Ezra was shirtless however, and I did not expect to see that he had a toned chest. I'd never seen him without a shirt, since he was very shy, but the guy seriously had nothing to be shy about. Looks like Megan had chosen wisely after all. I liked him, but definitely not the way she did. He was like a brother to me.

"Ugh, why do I always accidentally walk in on people doing it?"

"Alex! What are you doing here?" Megan whimpered.

"I forgot my textbook, which... seems to be on the floor now."

The two of them blushed ever harder as I bent down to pick it up. I didn't say anything, and just left there laughing, closing the door behind me. Since when did my friends become so weird? Actually, I think they were always that weird.

As I walked down the street, I saw Shawn and some other girl from our school running around the pavement, clearly drunk. Ugh, seriously?

I was about to turn around and walk away until they both simultaneously fell on top of each other, rolling onto the pavement without a care in the world. Lucky for them, no one else was around, but it was still pathetic to see.

Then they started kissing.

Right then and there.

"Gross!" I muttered to myself, turning myself away from the very public display of whatever the heck they were doing. Wait a minute, doesn't he have a girlfriend?

Not so willingly, I turned back around and saw that the girl he was with was definitely not Kayla. Wow, way to go Shawn Hunter, cheater extraordinaire. Should I tell Kayla about this? Or even better... I could finally get my revenge on Shawn. But were we friends now? Didn't we call a truce? Gosh, this is confusing.

I took out my phone and snapped a picture of it anyway, just in case. I had no clue what I was going to do with it, but its safe to have ammunition. I started to get this strange feeling that someone was watching me, so I turned to my right. I got another surprise when I saw Brad standing behind a bush, looking straight ahead at Shawn and the girl with a disgusted look on his face. Then he turned towards me and our eyes locked.

Uh oh.

At first, he looked horrified to see me, like I'd just caught him doing something wrong. Then he smiled and waved me over.

I hesitated, but went over anyway. No harm is seeing what the heck he's doing. Although it was awkward, since we hadn't really spoken to each other since that weird kiss at Veronica's Halloween party.

"Alex! What are you doing here?"

"I was on my way home. What are you doing here?"

He shrugged. "I was going to go get a coffee until I saw those two stumbling down the street and I dived into the bushes."

"Cool. Aren't you guys really good friends though? Why not talk to him? He's clearly making a drunken mistake."

"Um, not really."

"What does that mean?"

"He's cheated on Kayla before, with like three other girls. He was sober then."

I gaped at him. Shawn was a worse person that I thought. "And you support that?"

"Best friends support each other."

"Not for that shit. You're also friends with Kayla, did you think about her?"

He opened his mouth to say something, but no sound came out. I didn't say anything else and gave him a small wave and walked off. No point wasting my time talking to such a weird dude. I admit, Kayla wasn't exactly my favourite person on the planet, but no one deserved to be cheated on. It was the dirtiest play in the book. Revolting.

When I got back home, I texted Veronica asking for Kayla's number. She was confused as to why I wanted it, but she gave it anyway. Then I sent her a text. She completely seen zoned it. I sighed and decided to call her. Or was this something that was supposed to be told in person? Too late now.

"Hello?"

"Hey Kayla, its Alex."

"What the hell do you want? Why do you keep hounding me?"

I brushed past that weird comment and continued. "I really think you should know something about your boyfriend... I saw him cheating on you. I know we don't really get along but I felt like you should know."

She was silent for a second until she burst out laughing. "How desperate are you? Trying to break me and Shawnie apart? You've got a crush on him or something? This is hilarious."

"I'm not jealous Kayla, I'm serious. If you don't believe me, take a look at the picture I just sent you."

"Fine."

She was quiet as she scuffled with her phone, looking at the picture I sent. Then there was dead silence. "Kayla?" I asked.

The line went dead.

Oh, shit.