I was walking to my car with Adam when Grace ran up to me and hugged me from behind, putting her small hands over my eyes.

        "Guess who!"

        "I really hope it's Grace, or else I might cry," I said, mostly joking.

        Luckily, she went on her tip toes and planted a kiss on my cheek. "Good guess, babe."

        I wondered if she could feel my cheeks heat up under her lips. She'd done it many times since our first date, but I still got butterflies whenever she came close. I smiled at her, hoping the redness in my cheeks would die down. "What are you doing here? I thought your mum picks you up from school," I asked.

        "She's not here yet, so I decided I'd come see if you were still here," she explained before gesturing to Adam and lowering her voice. "Who's that?"

        I looked over at Adam, who was standing awkwardly to the side. We had plans to go over to my house, as my dad was away on business and my mum was also at work, so he couldn't leave until I left. I'd never seen him look uncomfortable like that, but it made my stomach churn and that weird feeling pop up into my chest. I tried to take a deep breath, but it didn't go away.

        "That's Adam."

        "Oh," her blinding smile fell for not even a second, but I noticed, and immediately I started to wonder what I did to hurt her. I didn't get very far before she spoke again. "Can we talk for a minute? Alone?"

        I nodded, glancing quickly over to Adam with an apologetic smile. He gave me a tight lipped smile and said, "I'll wait by the car."

        I mumbled a quick "cheers" before turning back to Grace, thinking the worst. She didn't even give me a chance to ask what was wrong before she spoke up.

        "I thought you weren't talking to him anymore." She stated, her arms crossed tightly around her chest.

        "Oh. Well-"

        "Did you lie to me?"

        "What? No. Grace, I-"

        "Have you been talking to him this whole time and didn't tell me? What happened to him being dangerous?"

        "See, here's the thing-"

        "You're breaking up with me, aren't you?"

        "What the fuck?" I blurted out. I was mostly perplexed at that point, but there was still a bit of frustration deep down. "Of course not. We just started talking again last night."

        She sniffed. "Oh," she mumbled, staring at the pavement, "okay."

        "I talked to him about what you said, and he told me it was all just a rumour. He explained everything to me and I trust him, so you don't have to worry anymore. Isn't that great?" I explained in an attempt to cheer her up, even though I was still very much confused.

        With her eyes still on the ground, she shrugged, but only a very tiny bit.

        I furrowed my brows and wondered if she just didn't hear me. "Isn't that great?" I repeated, a little louder this time.

        "No it isn't, Eli. Okay?" She let out, her amber eyes shooting up from the ground and starting into mine.

        I took a step back, my eyes narrowing as a suspicion dawned on me. Usually I wouldn't really trust myself , but this time, I was pretty convincing. "Why did you think I was gonna break up with you?"

        She sucked in her teeth and raised an eyebrow. "No reason."

        "Who told you those things about Adam?"

        "My friend."

        "What was her name?"

        She hesitated, her confident façade cracking as she thought back to our conversation weeks prior. "Um..."

        "Grace," I began, my voice sounding eerily calm even to my ears, "do you even remember what you told me Adam did?"

        She looked up at me with wide, panicked eyes and opened her mouth to tell me an answer, but closed it quickly when she realised she didn't have one.

        I shook my head and frowned. "You made it up."

        "No I didn't," she shot back defensively, although her worried expression said otherwise.

        "Why would you do that? Because of you, I didn't talk to my good mate for nearly three weeks! I made him feel like shit," I told her, my voice still calm despite my quickening breathes.

        "I-I-I... I don't know."

        "Yes you do."

        "Eli-"

        "Tell me," I cut her off, my jaw clenched and my expression stone cold.

        She sighed and took a step towards me. "I'm sorry, babe. I really am. You were just hanging out with him so much and I was just-"

        "Jealous?" She said nothing, which was enough confirmation for me to continue. "He's my friend, Grace... my best mate. Of course I'm gonna hang out with him a lot. If you wanted me to go out with you more, you could've told me."

        "I-I know. I'm sorry," she said, grabbing me hand. She sounded so genuine it was almost sad, but that didn't stop my from ripping my hand from hers and running it through my hair. I was frustrated by her, but I was also angry that I'd never realised how much she wanted to be around me, and how I never did anything about it.

        I shook my head and closed my eyes. "Leave me alone for now, yeah?"

        "Eli-"

        "Please, Grace. Let me be," I snapped back. I didn't give her time to respond as I jogged back to the car and hopped inside, ignoring Adam when he asked me what was wrong. He didn't need to know what she did, and he didn't need to know that I ignored him for weeks because of a stupid lie.

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So I'm gonna upload more frequently because TBH I don't really care about schedules and I kinda just want this story out there. Woo!

Yikes. What a sticky situation. I kinda feel bad writing this because I sorta felt it. Have you ever been lied to and when you find out the truth your heart just sorta sunk? That's what I felt like when I wrote this eek

Anyway thanks so much for reading!!

~Teddy