I went back to school on Monday, and spent almost every single free moment trying to get a pestering Megan to shut up. She would not stop asking me how the date went. I had planned on telling her anyway, but I decided to withhold it for a while since her anxiety was hilarious.

"Come on! You've left me in the dark for more than a day. I'm your best friend."

"Relax. It went great."

She squealed and gave me a hug. "Meg!" I yelled.

"Right. Forgot the no touch rule. But still, yay!"

I rolled my eyes and pulled my gym bag out of my locker. "What are you so excited about?" a voice asked from behind me. I turned around and saw it was Ezra. He smiled and put his arm around Megan's shoulder's, giving her a sloppy kiss on the cheek. "This one went on a date on Saturday." She told him.

"Shut up. Seriously?"

I scoffed. "Why is that so shocking?" Ezra shrugged awkwardly. "I don't know. You just never seemed interested dating."

"Well yeah. I've been really focused on basketball and school, and-" I stopped. Both of them looked at me in confusion. "And what?"

"Nothing. I've got to get to practice. Bye!" With that, I ran off. Yeesh, I almost told them about my job. I turned down the corridor towards the gym, when I ran smack bang into the last person I wanted to see.

Shawn Hunter was standing there, but he wasn't alone. I hadn't seen him since he awkwardly left my house that night. He was making out with some girl; one I had never seen before. Wow, does this guy have any limits? I thought he was still trying to make things right with Kayla, yet here he was kissing a random girl. I mean, now that he was single there was nothing against it, but the dude should have some shame.

Normally, I would have ignored them but they were literally standing in my way. I cleared my throat and they jumped apart.

"Excuse me." I muttered and brushed past them, bumping Shawn in the shoulder as I did so, to make a point. He looked shocked, but didn't say anything as I ran past him. Just as I was about to enter the gym, I was dragged from behind by my hand and pulled into the janitor's closet, the door slamming behind me.

I was just about ready to punch that person in the face, when I realised it was Brad. He held a finger over his lips, signalling me to stay quiet.

"What the hell Brad-?"

"Shhh."

He put his head to the door so he could see through the crack. I pressed my face against it too, to see what he was looking at. Shawn randomly came running up the corridor, stopping in front of the gym. He looked around for a second and then sighed, walking back down the hallway. I turned back up to look at Brad and he smiled. "You want to thank me now?"

"Um, thanks?"

"I figured you wouldn't want to talk to him."

"Oh. Anyway, uh... bye!"

I pulled open the door and ran out, walking into the gym. How freaking random was that? Had Brad been following me or something? Wow, I really hope he doesn't have a crush on me or something after what happened at that party.

Practice was insanely hard that day. Coach was making us work extra hard with the peak of the season coming up. We had a match tomorrow, so we wouldn't be training. They usually say don't train the day before, but I don't know.

As I walked out of the locker rooms, I couldn't help but feel like someone was staring at me. It was this weird feeling, that made the hairs at the back of my neck stand up. I look around and saw an idle person on the bleachers, looking straight at me with pure hate.

Kayla.

What on earth does she want now?

She started walking right towards me with pure malice. I stared at her, confused. I looked at Stacy next to me, but she seemed just as confused as I was.

Kayla got right up in my face and muttered- "How dare you?"

"Uh, how dare I what?"

"After everything that happened with Shawn, and you telling me he was cheating on me, you go and make out with him yourself?"

I gaped at her. "What? I have no idea what you're talking about."

"I saw it! I was about to go to cheerleading practice when I found Shawn making out with some girl. I couldn't see her face, but as I ran off to practice, I saw you running out of that corridor out of breath. I should have known."

"Known what? That wasn't me, I swear!"

"Likely story. The only reason you even told me about Shawn and that bitch was because you wanted to break us up. Because you're in love with him."

I stared at her for a second, completely in shock. Then I burst out laughing. Like really really loud.

"Ha! What? Me in love with Shawn? Oh my god, that's hilarious!"

Now it was Kayla's turn to look confused. "What's so funny?"

"Haha! I was not kissing Shawn! That was some other girl. I was literally on the way to practice, just like you. I also hate Shawn Hunter just as much as you do. Not that it's any of your business, but I'm also seeing someone else."

She stopped, narrowing her eyes at me like she wasn't fully convinced. "Whatever Peirce. You better watch it." Then she stormed off.

I was still laughing after that. What on earth gave Kayla that idea? Somebody clearly still had feelings for that jerk. That girl has got to start making better decisions. I mean, Shawn Hunter? Come on.

"So..." Stacy said, interrupting my thoughts. "Who are you seeing?"

"Aw, come on!"

After being thoroughly bugged by her as well, I told her his name. Luckily, she didn't act all overexcited like Megan, but simply grinned. "Good for you girl. Are you coming to the team hang tonight? It'll be good for us to get a little loose before the match."

"Right. Is the boys team also coming?"

"Yeah."

"Ugh. But fine, I'll be there."

"Great. See you!"

The rest of the afternoon was pretty slow. I actually ended up texting Asher for a bit and it was fun. We just played random games over text like Never have I ever and Would you rather and stuff. We got to know more about each other that way. After a few hours it was seven, so I headed out to the team hang. It was going to be a campfire apparently, but I didn't have any marshmallows or crackers at home so I came empty handed. There was plenty of food already though.

"Hey Alex! About time. Come over!" Olivia called out. I smiled and walked over to where five of the girls were sitting. The other four were busy flirting with the boys. Tracy was even sitting on Andrew's lap, curling her hair. I rolled my eyes.

Tyler arrived five minutes later, and we got a can of coke together from the table. "So, Ezra told me something very interesting today."

I groaned. "Seriously? You too? This is like the fourth time I'm being pestered about this today." Tyler laughed, holding his hands up in surrender. "Relax, I'm not going to tease you. At least tell me his name."

"Fine. It's Asher."

"Huh. Is he in our school?"

"Nope."

Before he could ask anything else, one of the guys called out our names so we went over to them.

"All right, can somebody help me make these smores? Cause I've literally burned three of them." Brad complained. Stacy went over to help him out and the rest of us sat down.

"How come you aren't drinking?" I asked Tyler.

"I'm not drinking before such a big game. Unlike the stupid captain over there."

I glanced over to where he gestured and saw Shawn laughing loudly, already on his third bottle of beer. I hadn't bothered looking at him since I got here, the annoying twat. I ignored him and turned back to listen to what Tracy was saying.

"Cool it with the drinks guys, if the Coaches see us playing with a hangover tomorrow, we are so screwed. I was thinking we'd play some team games, to encourage the team spirit. Hm, how about the captains?"

I blinked at her. "Um, sure?"

After that we played Charades, Pictionary, and someone even brought Taboo. Like a fun game night, eating smores by the campfire. It was actually really fun by the end of it. Our team beat Shawn's team in most of the games, so that was awesome.

Half the team was already drunk despite Tracy's words, so the other half helped them get home. Stacy had had quite a bit to drink as well, so Tyler and I let her ride in the car.

Once I reached home, before I could even step inside the house by phone buzzed with a text from Shawn, asking me to meet him at the roof. Great. Why did drunken Shawn have some weird thing for me?

I ignored it at first, but realised that I shouldn't leave a drunk guy on a literal roof. He could die. Sighing, I turned around and walked back to the school.

"What the hell do you want now? I accepted your apology; can we just go back to leading different lives?"

"We haven't worked on the project."

Holy shit. I had totally forgotten about the English project with all the craziness that's been going on. Not to mention, the fact that Shawn was my partner. "Couldn't you have just texted me that? But, you're right, I'm sorry I totally forgot. We can work on it after the match, okay?"

"Okay."

He turned back to face the sky, his body dangling dangerously close to the edge. I walked over and pulled him back gently so he wouldn't fall down. He seemed a different kind of drunk today. Not the confident sloppy kind, but there was some sort of sadness around him. "Shawn? Are you okay?"

He shook his head suddenly, like he'd just woken up to some sort of realization. He walked towards the door. "Yeah, I'm fine. I'll... be going now." Then he stupidly stumbled down the stairs.

Uh oh. I should probably follow him to make sure he doesn't do something dumb. No wait correction, something even more dumb than usual.

He walked down the street somewhat normally, going god knows where. Atleast he wasn't driving, I guess.

I followed him for another five minutes, expecting him to go to his house, but he took another route entirely. Maybe he was going to a friend's house? But he took another unexpected turn away from any houses and walked through a dim gate. It looked really spooky, but I followed him inside. It appeared to be a garden.

No, crap it was a graveyard.

He stumbled past some bushes and headstones, until he finally kneeled down in front of one of them. He pulled out something from his jacket pocket and placed it on the grave. It appeared to be a flower of some kind, but I couldn't make out from the distance.

He didn't move for another two minutes, until I realized he was sobbing. I stood there in utter shock. I had never heard him cry before.

"Hey mom." He spoke, his voice cracking. "It's been more than a year since you left us now, and... I'm sorry."

I felt like I should leave, like I was invading something private, but for some reason my feet remained rooted to the ground. It was also really creepy being here at night so seeing another alive human being gave some sort of comfort.

"I should have made you prouder. I should have helped you more... now I'm stuck with emotionally and physically abusive dad. I'm scared. I'm always alone and it sucks. You were there for me all the time, and I only wish I could have done the same for you. But don't worry, I'm going to get into Stanford just like you and give you a reason to be proud of me. I promise."

Oh my god.