Completely against each other's will, Seth and I agreed to meet up at his place tomorrow after school to work on the project. I wanted to do it today but apparently, he has had enough of me for one day and after hearing him say that I decided it was probably best if I didn't have to spend more time with him. 

As always for the last five minutes of the lesson the teacher allows us to go on our phones to do research for our activity or in this case project, not unexpectedly I look over and found Seth playing some sort of game instead of doing anything that could help us. Fuming with anger I do the one thing that I'm actually allowed to do to help combat it because all the other things I want to do are illegal.  I go to my contacts list and change his contact name from 'Seth' to 'Demon from Hell' because I'm one hundred per cent convinced that is what he is. I know it's minuscule when you compare it to what he did to me but it's the best I can do... legally. So after I give myself a small amount of satisfaction I head over to Google and do some research that will help us tomorrow when we start working on the skit because one of us has to.

As always, Seth is the first person to rush out of the class when the bell rings and I can see a few people in the class shake their heads at this. It relieves me to know that I'm not the only person here who can't stand him, but seeing the number of girls in the class who are the ones doing it makes me wonder if perhaps I'm not the first person he's played. At least with me, he didn't go very far.

"I can't believe you got partnered with him." The boy who sits next to me shakes his head and gives me a look filled with so much regret it honestly scares me. 

"I'd literally rather be partnered with Satan," I say. 

"Aren't you already?" he asks with a chuckle and I can't help but smile at the joke. 

"Good point." 

"Well anyway, good luck," he says and gave me a curt wave as he left the class.

"Bye." I wave back. 

Pushing into the crowd in the hallway I start making my way to my next class while silently praying that my day won't get any worse. I don't even know why I bothered doing this because as I reach the door to my next class I spot Toby leaning against the doorframe waiting for me. Or at least that's what I assume because he is not in this class.  His brown eyes scan the crowd and when they finally land on me an awkward smile forms on his lips. I squint my eyes into a glare which I know is successful because his smile disappears and he starts nervously rubbing the back of his neck. 

"Hey, Vega," he mumbles as I get closer to him. 

"Well, at least one of you seems sorry for what you were doing with me," I snap at him while pointing at his hand which was still rubbing the back of his neck. 

"Of course, I'm sorry for what I did or was going to do to you. I'll admit it I can be a real prick at times... okay most of the time but seeing how much I hurt you and realizing that things could have gotten a lot worse made me feel bad." 

"Let me guess that's never happened before so I should use that as an excuse to forgive you," I snap at him while rolling my eyes.

"Yeah, I guess that's what I want." He smirks.

"You're unbelievable," I scoff and as I try to push past him to get into my class he grabs my arms and pulls me back.

"That was a joke okay, I don't expect you to forgive me so soon."

"You should change that statement to you don't expect me to forgive you... ever."

"Okay, I think you're being a bit overdramatic."

I've heard people say they've gotten so angry that they see the colour red and up until this point I thought they were just making it up so that they would have a more poetic way of saying they were angry. It turns out that all those people were speaking cold hard facts.

Looking up at Toby with his stupid blond hair, those stupid brown eyes and that stupid smirk tugging at his damn lips, I swear for a second the colour red flashed before my eyes.

"Overdramatic! I'm being overdramatic. You... you the arrogant, selfish bastard who treated me like some sort of plaything. Who was only nice to me so that you could have sex with me. You say I'm being overdramatic. You were fully prepared to take my virginity to win a competition, so believe me when I tell you that my reaction right now is completely appropriate," I growl, making sure to keep my voice as low as possible so that the few students left wondering the halls don't hear me. 

"I literally just apologized for that," he scoffs and I have to hold myself back so that I don't reach over and claw his eyes out with my nails.

"No, you're not you're just pretending so that you can get on my good side just so you can sleep with me later down the line," I hiss.

He sighs and shakes his head.

"That's not at all why I'm apologizing. I'm doing it because I really am sorry and I'll spend the rest of the year proving it to you if that's what you want," he says, his voice laced with pure desperation that almost makes me feel bad for him.

Silence settles over us as I ponder his suggestion. On the one hand, having that sort of control over a person sounds horrible. Making them do things purely to win my forgiveness is not how I was raised, but then I remember this is Toby we're talking about and all my problems with it turn to dust and float away.

"I can't forgive you,"

Despair starts to shine in his eyes and he powers his head in defeat.

"Yet, I can't forgive you yet. Just give me some space for now, I'm not saying we'll become best friends or anything but maybe I'll start to tolerate your existence for the rest of this year," I add with a shrug.

"Thank God," he sighs with relief while brushing his fingertips through his blond locks making them spread out in all different directions.

"Can I go to my class now?" I ask with some urgency seeing that I'm five minutes late and the teacher has started the lesson.

"Oh, yeah sorry," he mumbles and steps aside to let me walk past him.

As I enter the class I can feel his presence is still behind me and I know he's watching me with his keen eyes, but I don't dare give him any satisfaction by turning around.

Come lunchtime the cafeteria is buzzing with excitement with the cheerleaders running around handling out flyers for the start of the season football match. All those girls in their shamelessly short skirts, and waving those blue pom poms hop from table to table practically shoving the over-glittered pieces of paper into everybody's hands.

But some of the students aren't sharing in on the fun, one of them being Nicci who like a few other people who went to the party last night is nursing a hangover.

"My head is killing me," she groans, her head slumped against the table and fingers massaging the base of her neck going round and round in long circular motions. 

"I told you not to drink the tequila Nics. Trust me I've been there," Jade sighs, her head patently also feeling like a bunch of tiny men are hitting it with hammers from the inside.

It's moments like this that truly make me appreciate the fact that I don't drink and make me even more pleased with the pledge I made for myself to never drink. Because as fun as being drunk sometimes looks this hangover business sucks.

"Well next time I'll pay more attention to your warnings," Nicci quickly snaps at Jade without ever moving her head from its current position.

Both Kim and I, who were the only ones in the group not affected by a hangover, do our best to stop ourselves from laughing but we can't prevent the contagious smiles from forming.

From the corner of my eye, I see one of the cheerleaders heading toward us and unfortunately, it's Carla who chose to come spread her cheer at our table.

"Hi, ladies are you gonna come show your support at the game this Friday? It's the first game of the season and we want as many students to attend as possible to show how much we care for our team and the school," she repeats the same lines she's told four other tables with that same fake smile she's given pretty much everyone else.

But unlike everyone else, she doesn't hand us the flyers and instead slams them onto the table which startles Nicci.

"Bitch you better walk away before I smash your head against this table," Jade growls at her.

Carla scoffs and rolls her little doe-like eyes.

"What's the matter Jade you don't want to come to show your support, that's fine I suppose since it would require you to crawl out from your fortress of solace."

"Her what?" Kim asks.

"You know that stupid thing Superman lives in or whatever."

"Okay first of all it's the Fortress of Solitude you uncultured swine," I snap at her. "And secondly we don't want to come to the game because then we'll have to see you and your plastic surgery-looking face."

I watch as a wave of emotions flashes on Carla's face, ranging from sadness to pure rage before finally settling on an unbothered expression but even then it's too late and I can tell that my words did get to her a bit much as hers had done after that first time we met in that shopping mall.

"Oh look, the new girl has finally found her voice, too bad it took getting played by two guys to do it,"

The proud smile I had instantly dropped and a part of me wanted to crawl into myself.

"And you're going to find my fist connecting with your face if you don't back the fuck off right now," Jade says and without even uttering a single word back at us Carla turns around and walks over to the next table and starts her routine all over again.

"What did she mean by that?" Kim asks.

"By what?" I really tried to pretend like I didn't know what she was going to refer to.

The three of them look between each other, all of them holding the same worried expression.

"What did she mean by you getting played by two guys?" Kim asks her hand hovering near mine ready at any moment to hold it in a comforting way.

Even though there is a part of me that's highly embarrassed by what happened I don't see that as enough of an excuse not to tell my friends so I take a deep breath to help push away some of the tears that want to spill out and tell them what happened.

Their expressions morph from worry, to sadness and eventually by the end of the story settle on pure anger.

Kim and Nicci at least try to not show it as much and both give me a hug to try and comfort me, Jade as usual isn't hiding her feelings and mutters a whole strong of curses at both Toby and Seth under her breath.

"How the hell did Carla know about it though?" Nicci asks.

"Probably because it happened in the middle of a God damn party those fucking...perverted... self-centred motherfucking—" As Jade continues to ramble on a slew of more and more cuss words and disses (some of which I can't understand because she switched from English to another language altogether) the air around me begins to feel cold.

It's as if winter suddenly broke into the school and was turning the slightly warm air into that crisp morning air that cuts your lungs as you breathe in. At first, I thought it was just me who was feeling this way but out of the corner of my eyes I notice a few students at the nearby tables who all start to pull their coats together again them.

I also notice that three people, in particular, are looking right at Jade, and it's the three people in this school that I currently hate more than anything on the planet.

"Jade, calm down girl," Kim whispers, placing her hands on top of Jade's curled fists. 

As Jade stops talking and takes a few deep breaths not only do I see her calming down but the coldness in the air retreats back to wherever it came from.

"Maybe we should talk about something else I mean what happened it's not a huge deal I'll be over it in about a week." I shrug, every word coming out of my mouth tastes bitter because all nothing but lies.

I never let things go so easy, I know that a week, a month, a year down the line I'll be replaying what happened over and over again in my messed up little mind because that's just the kind of person I am.

"Maybe we should I think Jade's head is about to explode," Kim chuckles.

And I completely see what she means as I look over at Jade who looks like she's in labour, her face blotchy and red and doing that Lamaze breathing technique.

"We can talk about how bad my head hurts," Nicci suggests through a loud groan as if she suddenly remembered she had a hangover.

"Seriously not again," Kim sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose with her fingers.

Looking between the three of them, Jade trying not to burst like a volcano, Nicci moaning and groaning in pain so much you'd think her appendix was about to burst and Kim simply trying to stop herself from strangling Nicci to death I do the one thing I haven't done for a long time.

I burst out laughing in public with not a care in the world as to who sees me.

During the last lesson of the day my mom sent me a text message saying that she and my dad would be home by the time I got back from school.

Normally that wouldn't stand out to me as there had been times in the past that they had done that, only this time things were a lot different, mainly because they would have an old friend of theirs with them.

Apparently, this friend was going to stay over for dinner and I had to (and I'm serious about this next part) wear a dress that she had left in my room.

It was a highly strange request of hers. My parents have had friends over for dinner in the past and when they did I would wear my best jeans and a nice shirt and that would be just fine.

They had never asked me to wear a dress before. Not even when my father's boss came to dinner was I told to wear a dress. I won't argue with them about it, if they want me to wear the dress I'll wear the bloody dress.

All of this made me highly curious about who this friend was.

I rounded the corner that turned into my street and as always I put a quick jog in for the last little distance to my house.

As I expected my parent's car was parked in the driveway along with another one that I didn't recognize.

I enter the house and head into the kitchen where I hear some commotion going on.

"Hello," I say with a smile as I walk into the kitchen which I thought was going to contain three people but it only turned out to be my mom who was slaving away at the stove and surrounded by all of our best dishes and cookware.

"Hello, sweetie, how was school?" she asks despite sounding like she's completely out of breath.

"It was fine," I rely. "Where's Dad and this friend of yours?" I ask looking around at the empty space around us.

"Oh, they're in my office," she says as she moves to one of the cutting boards and starts dicing up peppers for what looks to be the creamy chicken pasta she makes whenever someone special comes over.

"Why?"

I pick up an apple from the fruit basket and slowly bite into it as I wait for her to answer.

"They wanted to discuss something important and needed a private space to do it so I let them use my office. Now go do your homework so you can get ready for dinner, the dress is lying on your bed," she commands me all while never lifting her concentration away from the green peppers in front of her.

As I head up to my room I try to look into my mom's study just to catch a glimpse of this friend. Sadly though the door is closed and with that little failure resting on me I rush to my room where I'm greeted by a knee-length and short-sleeved green dress.

I pick it up by the hanger it's resting on and stare at it for a few seconds before I hang it on the hook behind my door so that my bed is free not only for me to jump onto it but to do the little bit of homework I was given.

Staring long and hard into the mirror my mind dances between how good I look in this dress and all the questions I have mostly pertaining as to why I have to wear it instead of those comfy yet stylish jeans I adore so much. 

Aside from the dress I put on a pair of heels that my mom also laid out for me as well as some simple jewellery. I don't put on any make-up and don't do much to my hair aside from brushing it and leaving it hanging loose.

As I walk down the stairs I hear a deep and slightly familiar voice speak to my dad. 

"It was so nice of you to invite me, Tim." the mystery man says in a British accent.

And just like that, I know exactly who is with my father in that living room.

I follow the sound of his voice to the living room where I spot him and my dad sitting on the sofa.

Even though I knew it was him I still gasp when I see him and how much he had changed since yesterday. His blond hair which was long yesterday had been freshly cut, a strong and muscular cologne wafted from him (I know this because my dad would never wear something like that) and he was dressed up in a suit that looks brand new.

"Anything for an old friend," my dad says.

Just like the man he's dressed up in a suit and also appears to have gotten a haircut since last I saw him this morning.

"Yeah, it's always nice to have good company over and I just say to look wonderful this evening." My mom smiles at the man... Chris his name is Chris and hands him a glass of red wine which he gladly takes.

Fitting in with this dressed-up theme my mom seems to have taken out the purple dress she had bought a few months ago but still hasn't worn. Her hair is tied up in a neat bun which is held together by her fake diamond hair clip. Don't even get me started on the amount of gold that's dripping from her ears, neck and wrists.

Chris takes a sip of the wine before saying with a slight chuckle, "Please if anyone looks amazing it's you."

"Let me guess I'm just average," I say announcing my presence to all of them.

Chris eagerly turns to look at me and his mouth opens ever so slightly in surprise as he looks me up and down. The twinkle that I saw in his eyes yesterday when he saw me for the first time returns and once again and once again he's looking at me as if he's known me for a thousand years. 

"You might just be the most beautiful girl I've ever seen." He smiles at me flashing his pearly white teeth.

"Easy tiger I'm still a minor," I chuckle as I walk in and take a seat next to my mom.

"Vega, be nice," my dad hisses at me through clenched teeth.

"It's alright, Tim. That kind of sarcastic attitude is something I quite enjoy. It reminds me of someone I used to know," he says without taking his eyes off of me.

"We should get to the table we don't want that food to get cold," my mom says and I'm grateful she did because the intensity this man was looking at me with was starting to freak me out.

We all follow her to the dining room and take our seats, my mom and dad at the end and Chris and I on the sides facing each other.

The middle of the table is lined with our cutlery as well as two baskets of bread rolls and the big dish which contains the pasta.

We each take a turn dishing up big spoonfuls and before we dig in we join hands and say a quick prayer.

"So, Vega, how was school today?" my dad asks me.

"It was fine. I got my first project for the year. My English teacher wants us to write a skit that will help spread awareness of a current global issue."

"You don't sound excited about it," Chris says.

"It's not because of the project, it's my partner who sucks," I sigh.

Chris chuckles and takes another sip of his still fairly full glass of wine.

"Are they one of those people who doesn't put in a lot of effort?" he asks.

I take a bite out of one of the bread rolls and nod my head." You could say that," I say after I swallow my food.

"And the party last night how did that go?" my dad asks.

The rest of the roll that I was going to eat drops from my hand as I'm forced to think about last night... again.

"It... um... it wasn't much of my scene," I say through a forced smile and pick up the roll I dropped.

Like any mom on the planet, mine can see the amount of pain I'm in so like any good parent she steers the conversation away from me. 

"So, Chris, what brings you to Los Angeles?"

"I'm looking for someone, an ex-fiance as a matter of fact." He laughs at the last part and I can see why. Travelling all the way to a new city to see an ex seems very excessive.

At least that's what I and all my zero expertise think.

"Why would you want to contact an ex-fiance?" I ask shoving another forkful of the pasta into my mouth.

Using one of the many napkins my mom laid out on the table he wiped the corners of his mouth removing some of the cream that was left there by the noodles before he answers my question.

"Well, we separated on some nasty terms, a week before our wedding I found her with another man which as you can imagine broke me. I was very angry at her for a while but now that some time has passed I want to reach out to her and try and get her back," he explains, his eyes remaining fixed on mine the entire time.

"Why would you want her back?" I ask even more intrigued by his story.

"Because even though she cheated on me, I still love her. I'll admit the marriage had some arrangement put into it by our families but I still think we could have worked out and I'd like to see if I'm right about that."

"She must be a very special girl," I laugh.

"You have no idea," he says with a smile.

"How long ago did this break-up happen?" my mom asks him.

He smirks. "Honesty it feels like a thousand years ago."

As soon as Chris the hopeless romantic who I think is going to get his heart ripped out by his ex-fiance left I rushed up to my room and got dressed in my comfy, fluffy PJ's.

A soft tap comes from my door and even before I open it I know it's my mom who no doubt wants to pick up the conversation from this morning. 

"Do you still want to talk?" she asks calmly as soon as the door is fully open.

I nod and gently takes me by the hand she leads me over to my bed but makes sure she closes the door before doing so.

Together we flop onto the bed and she pulls me tightly against her, her arms wrapping around me like a cocoon trying to protect me from any further damage.

"So tell me what happened at that party?"

That one simple sentence is more than enough to break down the massive barrier I had been struggling to hold up all day. Sobs erupt from my body, the louder ones getting caught in my throat and a river of tears streams from each of my eyes staining my face in their dampness.

"Boys are jerks," I cry into her chest.

"Tell me something I don't know," she laughs while running strands of my hair through her thin fingers. 

"The guy I went to the party with and another guy I've been talking to at school have been competing against each other to see which one of them will get me to sleep with them first," I sob.

"Oh, honey," my mom sighs and her arms squeeze around me a little tighter.

Pushing her away from me I look up into her eyes that were filled with so much heartache I feared even she might burst I tears.

"Why did that have to happen to me?"

Pouting her lips she pulls me back against her and rocks both of our bodies side to side in a slow and calming way.

"We might never know why boys do the stupid things they do or how they choose their victims. But all you need to know is that it's not your fault."

"Do... you... want... to... know... what's... worse?" I ask through a series of hiccups.

"What?"

"My partner for that English project I talked about at dinner, it's the guy who took me to the party."

Pressing her hands against my cheeks she turns my head so that I'm looking at her eyes.

"Well, there's nothing you can do about that but I know you're strong enough to get through this. You always have been, it didn't matter what life threw at you or how hard it knocked you down you always got back up." 

A warm smile formed on her lips and even though the last few tears were making their way down my face I managed to smile back at her.

"Thanks, Mom." 

"You're welcome, honey." She leans forward and kisses my forehead. "Anyway, new topic what did you think of Chris?"

I'm a little taken aback by the question, neither of my parents had ever asked me what I thought of one of their friends before and I didn't want to offend them so I kept my answer short and sort of sweet.

"Um... I think he is very... unique." I laugh at the words I used to describe him, knowing that there were a few far better ones I could have out in its place. 

"That is one word," she chuckles. 

"How did you guys meet him?" I ask.

"It's nothing special he's just an old friend of your dad's."

I raise my eyebrows at her.

"Please, he doesn't look old enough to be friends with Dad," I scoff.

Silence washes over us as my mom starts to bite at her lower lip and looks around as if she's fishing for an answer I might accept. If she were anyone else I might point them out for trying to lie to me but she's my mom and she's never done that to me before. Our relationship had been built on one main thing and that was honesty, no matter how brutal it was.

"Your dad was friends with Chris's father who passed away a little while ago. That's how he knows him."

I'd never had an earth-shattering moment but I suppose right now as I look into the eyes of my mother who just lied to me would be considered one.

"Thanks for the talk, Mom, but I'm getting tired," I say through a fake yawn.

Even though I have a few more questions about Chris I doubt I'll be able to ask them now running off the fact that I now know that my mother has lied to me.

"Okay. Good night, honey."

"Goodnight."

As she leaves my room I twist my body toward my bedside table and turn off the lamp that was illuminating my room. And as I close my eyes and drift to sleep I think long and hard about the crazy day I had.