I jump on to the hood of my car seeing that whatever theory we come up with, we are still meeting a dead end.

"I swear that is all I remember. I asked Dawn to be my girlfriend and she said yes and were about to kiss when we heard punches and angry cries from a distance. So we both went to see what it was. You know the rest," Dylan shrugs, absentmindedly pulls Dawn to his chest by her waist.

Yep, they are officially a thing!

"So that was when the girls got emotional and decided to have drinks?" Jay asks once again.

"Don't pin it on us, we already told you that it was all of us who got emotional!" Sophia objectifies and I look at her wide eyed.

She snapped!

Sophia is never the one to raise her tone in public, especially at the ones she is not much close with. Maybe she is as much irritated as we all are. I won't blame her.

"Okay, okay, we all celebrated," Jay agrees reluctantly, "but didn't we decide to stay sober and have fun? I remember Kevin and me challenging Emma. Where did that go wrong?"

"No idea," Kevin sighs.

I see my chance and jump in again, just to poke Jonah's ego, "But I do very much remember that Jonah flir—"

"Will you stop bringing that up once in every 5 minutes?! I already regret the night so much and you do not have the right to make me feel miserable about it." Jonah snaps at me in pure venom.

I find it even more hilarious than the last 5 minutes but I decide to shut my mouth and opt for silence.

He was drunk out of his mind that night, and he stumbled upon us and showered me with compliments and was flirting with me all the night. And I did not deny even a second because golden chances like that comes once in never, so I grabbed it, snatched it, locked it and threw the key away.

"That still doesn't explain how we ended up in jail!" Kevin brings us back to the main topic.

Natasha rests her body to the side of the car and lets out a whistle, "It's like another part of Hangover franchise."

"At least nobody is lost or kidnapped here." Zach comments.

"Hey, I have another alternative!" Mason clicks his fingers in thought and we all look at him in hope to magically solve the mystery of the night. "Why don't we just leave it in the past and move on?"

Okay, he snapped as well!

And I clearly know why he is doing that!

"He is right," Dawn pipes in. "Let's just forget about it, what good will we get from thinking about that day all over again?"

"Umm....the fact that I finally found the invisible strength to ask you out and you immediately said yes?" Dylan cocks his head to the side in a teasing way for which Dawn leans into him to kiss him on the lips and I immediately look away.

"So it is settled!" I hop down and wear my bag pack over my shoulder, "let's just move on!"

In return, I get affirmative answers and nods, and say our goodbyes but Jay stops us the next second.

"Does this mean.....we all are friends now?" He lets it out hesitantly.

"Like...a gang?" I ask him, unsure.

"I guess we are," Kevin answers with equal hesitancy.

"And it is not going to be awkward, right?" Natasha speaks out the thought that is running in everyone else's minds.

For that.....we need to see about it.

_________________

It is awkward!!!

So freaking much!

After the usual History class I share with Sophia and Mason, the three of us enter the cafeteria to go to our usual table and see that it is occupied with extra new people. Jay and his friends had also joined with us, seeing that ours is a pretty huge enough to accommodate ten people. But it was very much awkward, seeing that we did not know each other much and one squad cannot understand the conversation that another squad is having. We only discuss about the few classes we have and the homework we all share along with a few assignments and that was it.

Also, students in the cafeteria throw curious glances at our table, very much intrigued by the new change in the seating area.

Nothing much more.

Luckily, the four of them left the table slowly, each giving some excuse to leave. Intentional or unintentional, we didn't care seeing that they too feel the same way.

After they leave, all the six of us realise that we all felt the thick tension hanging in the air and still need time to get used to new people.

"Why didn't you leave with Dylan?" Sophia asks Dawn.

"I wanted to, but he very well knows the importance of you all in my life so he said that he'll meet me after school," Dawn smiles.

"Well...if you want to...you can leave you know!" I tell her without meeting her eye. "You both just started dating so obviously you want to be with your new boyfriend. So..."

Dawn chuckles, "It's fine, Em. I want to stay right here."

Afterwards, the topic is somehow shifted to the party once again, but this time it is something very new.

"You taped me where I was busy embarrassing myself?!" I shriek in horror as Kevin shows me the videotape where I was hastily giving a speech to a crowd about how singles rule the world.

Sometimes, I do wish if I had the courage that Drunk Emma has.

"You allowed me to make an utter fool all by myself where you are supposed to save my ass?!" I try to wring his neck but Zach pulls me by my waist to stop. I try to break free but he is freakishly strong and all the while I am struggling, Kevin laughs his ass off, adding more petroleum to the already rage of fire building inside me.

I stop struggling so that Zach can release me by himself. When he does that, I immediately snatch the phone away from Kevin to delete it—at least from a digital memory— but Kevin's words stop me.

"Don't you dare think that it is the only copy I own. You should know better that I made more copies of it." Oh how I want to do anything in this world to wipe off that smug smile on his face!

"Why? Why? Why would you do that?" I beg him.

"I already told you, Emma. You can have much more fun staying sober in a party and watch the drunkards make a joke of themselves."

I sigh and swipe right and come across another video, the thumbnail as Mason holding a mike. I press play and realise that my speech was a hundred times better. Mason is sloppily singing off to Ed Sheeran's, Galway Girl, and spitting some incoherent words instead of the real ones and fighting off some another guy saying that they are the words for the rap. That was when the fight broke where immediately all the boys jumped in to defend Mason and fight off the other guys.

Boys, I tell you! They just need a mere excuse to involve in a fight.

After scanning through some another seventy two pictures and eighteen videos and give the phone back to Kevin, I strongly vow myself to never ever drink again.

Oh hell, who am I kidding, of course I am going to break it. So I renew my vow and decide not to exceed the limit.

"I am serious, Kev. We all got lucky that night. All of us were hammered and were out of our senses. What would've happened if we killed someone that night? Of course we are young and we are entitled to be crazy, but not stupid. We are not stupid enough to not know to drive when drunk. We seriously had those lucky stars shining very brightly for all of us." I voice out my fears to my group.

"Nobody is disagreeing with you, honey," Sophia hugs me from the side. "He is just telling us to not think about it anymore. Instead we need to think how fortunate we were that night and committed much lesser sin than killing."

"As insane as it sounds, jail isn't too bad. Now there is something that I can strike it off from my bucket list," Zach grins sheepishly.

"Since when did you have a bucket list?" Mason asks.

"Since forever."

The bell rings, signalling to hurry up our asses to our respective classrooms. While walking off, I pull Mason with me and enter into an empty classroom.

"Whoa whoa, are you trying to take advantage of an innocent man?" He crosses his arms over his chest in a defensive mode. "If you want me so bad, at least —"

"Shut up, will you?! I am trying to be serious here!" I shush him in irritation.

His mode switches immediately in a serious one. "Whoa, I didn't know that. But whatever it is, can it wait? We have a class now and I really don't want to be late."

I give him a deadpan stare. "Are you forgetting something? We have Calculus now and it also has a back door from which we can sneak in if we are late and the teacher is obviously going to be fifteen minutes late which gives us enough time to talk about."

His eyebrows raised and eyes wide, he answers me, "Okay, what is it that you want to talk about?"

I bite my inner cheek and play with my rings in contemplation whether to ask him or not. I may or may not be wrong, but I've seen it; my eyes did not lie.

"Em, you are scaring me, what is it?" Mason asks, now worried.

"Okay, here it goes," I rub my palms on the sides of my jeans before I speak. "I...I don't know if I am right or wrong and please don't take this in a wrong way and know that I will still support you no matter what."

"Just get to the point!" Mason snaps, impatiently.

It's now or never. "I...I saw you kiss...kiss a guy at the party."

I observe his facial expressions very carefully. At first he has a blank expression on his face, not understanding what I am hesitating about and when I let it out in the open, just for a second, a split second, I see it. I see his expressions which clearly says that he is caught— he looks terrified, but very immediately he covers it up with a laugh.

"We really did some pretty crazy stuff that night, Emma Demma. I was drunk as shit and in that haze I may have kissed a guy," he shrugs it off as if it is not a big deal.

"But no, Mason. I've seen it, and damn hell it wasn't a mistake!" I stand my ground.

Startled, he calmly replies, "Are you forgetting that you were under the influence of alcohol as well? It is a known fact that our eyes play tricks on us during the consumption." He takes my hand into his and starts me pulling towards the door, "We really need to go now."

Furious, I release my hand from his grip and walk much faster than him to reach the class. I hear Mason sigh behind me at my immaturity but I could care less. He doesn't know that I was sober enough to know that my eyes weren't playing tricks on me. No matter what he says, I will still say that him kissing a guy wasn't unintentional. I am not mad at him for doing such thing; I will still love and support him no matter who he is. I am only mad at him because he isn't admitting it. Not to me, but to himself.

Then I stop my insults as it suddenly washes upon me and mentally face-palm myself a hundred times.

It is hard for him. I bet that he doesn't even know what is happening to him. Or maybe he does, but whatever it is, he is struggling inside and doesn't know what to do about it and whom to talk about. At this age where we stress a lot whether it is worth it to wake up in the morning and drag ourselves to the dreadful classes or sleep in the day, coming to terms with your sexuality is really a big struggle.

We reach the class just in time as the teacher enters. Instead of whispering it to him, I text him.

Me: If time is all you need, then I will be waiting patiently for you and be there by your side. No matter what 💞💞

From the corner of my eye, I see him take the phone out of his pocket and read it. And a few seconds later, my phone beeps in my palm and read the reply.

Mason 😈❤️: I know that🙂💝

________________

"So how is the assignment coming up, boys and girls?" Mr.Trudin asks us as he settles after taking our attendance.

"Awesome!"

"Lame!"

"Dead end!"

"We have an assignment?"

Everyone, including our English teacher laughs at one of the overused jokes commented by the class clown.

"Funny," Mr. Trudin jokes, "and I hope that it really is a joke," he tells him seriously.

Jay whispers beside me, "How is ours going by the way?"

Yep, our beloved teacher requested the students to sit next to each other assigned partners, thinking that it will make our work a tad bit easier. In all honesty, I don't even care what the reason is, until and unless I get all the luxuries of happiness with Jay sitting by my side.

"Pretty well!" I whisper back.

He gives me a deadpan look.

"Optimism is the only option we have in our hands, my dear friend!" I tell Jay and we go back to listen to Mr. Trudin.

"On the other hand, I am going to cut you some slack by telling you that I am reducing it down from 70% to 57%."

He raises the dead spirits of every student present in the class by notching it down for us. Full of relief and contentment is shown in everyone's faces when the process the news. I look at Jay and he looks at me with the same pleased emotion we all feel and I turn at Dawn and Kevin to share our happiness and Jay simultaneously sharing it with Jonah.

"It was a bit harsh on my part to allot the marks in that way and I also realised that this assignment is a bit hard as well where I didn't particularly describe what you all have to present in the paper."

"Our teacher is the best!" A girl shouts and we all bang our desks continuously in agreement.

"And also, I am going to extend the due date from February to March third week. You can submit your assignments on any date which is present in that week."

Rounds of applause and cheers are resounded in the class.

Mr.Trudin raises his hand to silence down the commotion and continues, "In exchange of that, I am going to give you some topics every once in a while on which you can work on regarding your paper." He raises up from his chair and walks to the front of the classroom to address us. "Emotions versus Emojis!"

In the midst of the students groans, our teacher chuckles, "Judged me too soon, eh?"

After he silences us down, he speaks further, "They always say to speak it out loud with the other person instead of discussing it through text messages. Because when you text someone about something, you cannot really decipher the tone behind it, which in turn leads to unnecessary quarrels. And let's be honest here, how many of you lied your way through the emoticons?"

More than half of the class raise their hands, including all the five of us. Even Mr. Trudin participates in this small game and I smile in delight. It is nice to know that they are not ashamed to reveal themselves to the truth. They know they've done it and they are accepting it.

"Good, good, you are honest to yourselves," he compliments us. "Now I want you to do a page about this in your paper. Since we are talking about emotions here, let's bring this into the equation as well!" He finishes with all too enthusiasm, hoping that we will join in as well, but he drops seeing our broody faces.

"You really are plotting to kill me, eh?" For that, the entire class nods in agreement. "Oh c'mon, what teacher is not sadist. Everyone has got their own skills," he winks and restores the order into the kingdom again by asking us to take out our textbooks.

After the bell rings and students vacate the classroom, Jay and I go to Mr. Trudin's desk to clear a few doubts. "Excuse me, sir!"

He looks up from his glasses in question. "Ah, Mr. Evans, Ms. Adams, how is your assignment coming up?"

"Actually, we are here to talk about it," Jay speaks.

Mr. Trudin is not like those male teachers that we have in our school with bald heads and beer bellies. He is quite the looker— very much into his early thirties, but still got the charming look in his face(although girls always get upset every time they see the gold band on his ring finger). But what makes him even more younger is the way his eyes sparkle when he starts teaching his subject. The love he has for Literature is proved each and every day that he teaches us and the reason why I love to attend this class, every time hoping that I will become one like him someday.

"And what is it?" Mr. Trudin encourages us.

"It is just that," I start, "we don't really know what to specifically write about. You just asked us to write about 'emotions' and that was it."

"And I am sure that this is the problem other students are facing as well," Jay backs me up.

Our teacher smiles and puts down his glasses on the desk and crosses his arms. "You are not the only students who came to me with this question. I know that I wasn't clear about it and I didn't specify anything but that's the whole point. I just asked you to write about it. And there is no paper limit, you can submit it in one page or hundreds or a PowerPoint presentation for all I care. I know it is much more complicated than you think it is but you will get to know what I am talking about when you finish your assignment."

I feel like banging my head on the desk in front of me but I hold myself back and nod. "Thank you, sir."

We both start to walk out of the class when Mr. Trudin stops me. "Ms. Adams, can I speak to you for a minute?"

"I'll wait outside," Jay whispers and leaves while I turn around in my heel to walk back to my teacher's desk again.

"How is your assignment going with your crush, Ms. Adams?" He smirks knowingly.

He leaves me jaw dropped with his confession and then and there I wish the ground to open and swallow me. Knowing about your crush to your friends or classmates is something but when it comes to a teacher, it is just a whole new level of awkwardness.

"Ho...how did you...?" I falter in my words.

He scoffs, "Please, Ms. Adams, do you think teachers are that blind to not know their students' love interests?"

"It..is...uhh..it's going well, Mr. Trudin," I stutter between my words.

"And you are not wasting your time giving heart-eyes, are you?" He continues to embarrass me.

I fidget in my place and try hard not to show him face which is turning scarlet second by second. "I am concentrating on finishing my assignment and nothing more, sir."

"I want to ask you some more questions but I see that you are on the verge of dying the very next minute," He chuckles at my expense and I relax a little. "But good to know that you are concentrating. I mean the assignment not your 'partner'." He laughs out loud when he starts pitying my misery. "I swear, I will stop, this is the last one."

And then true to his word, he really stops and I breathe out in relief.

"I actually wanted to pair you up with Mr. Evans, seeing that this assignment will help you to score a little more but then I thought I was making a mistake so I remember pairing you up with some other boy."

Wow! I think that 'cupid' is one of his part time jobs.

"But I don't know what changed, when I was reading the names out loud, your name was beside Mr. Evans'. I guessed it was fate and so I let it be," he shrugs it off.

"Ohhhhhhh!" Not knowing what to reply, I just nod my head slowly dragging the word 'oh'.

"Well, I just wanted to check your progress with all of it and I am impressed with you. Hope you are not lying," he tilts his head to the side raising a suspicious brow.

I shake my head immediately in disagreement. "No, Mr. Trudin, everything is perfectly alright and I am not wasting my time with him."

"Glad to know that! I wish you all the best for your assignment and I really have high hopes on you. Your previous Literature teacher told me about your papers and I am quite impressed with them. Hope you will not disappoint me on this one. You may leave now."

Stunned at his minor confession, my face beams in pure delight as I absentmindedly nod my head. "I will not let your hopes down."

With that, I leave the classroom and join Jay who is waiting patiently for me. As he sees me coming out of the class, he immediately questions. "What happened there?"

"Nothing, he was talking about how my brother needs to improve his grades in his subject and also said that he has high hopes on me in this assignment. He had read few of my old ones it seems," I partly lie and partly tell the truth to him because telling him that 'everybody, except you, knows about my undying crush towards you,' calls in for a very tremendously awkward situation.

"Wow, that's really impressive. Then I guess I should stop stressing about this paper, since you got everything covered," he teases and I chuckle.

"Are you free now?" He asks me as we walk out of the school doors. "We could work on that 'Emotions and Emojis' he hinted about."

"I really wish that I could, but I need to be home," I fiddle with the strap of my backpack. "I...uhh.... I am kind of....grounded. For one week. I am supposed to come straight to home without taking any detours."

"Shit," Jay curses under his breath, "Is it because of the party? Did your parents come to know that you were in jail?"

"No!" I shout. "Thankfully, they don't know about it. They just grounded me because I didn't tell them that I was going to a party. If they come to know about the jail thing, the punishment would be ten times worse than this," I shudder in fear, thinking about all the ways they would punish me.

Maybe they would have taken away my phone and laptop. That is fine until I have my books with me. Oh flip! What if they would've decided to take away my novels as a punishment. That is much worse than banning junk food for me.

"I understand," Jay nods. "So some other time?"

"Some other time," I agree.

Even though I tell him that it is alright, Jay insists that he walks me to the car. I don't fight it anymore. I won't turn down any small chance to spend my valuable time with my crush.

"I know this is going to sound uncomfortable, but..." Jay hesitates from speaking further but I encourage him to continue. "Didn't you...didn't you think it was a bit awkward between all of us in the lunch break?"

I throw my hands up in the air, "Thank god, we are not the only one who felt it that way!"

"Really?"

"Yes! Maybe it was fine when we were all intoxicated but now it is just painfully awful."

"We still need some time to get used to the new....new...."

"Friendship?" I finish for him.

"Yeah...that!" He then stops in his tracks and I question him why but then he turns to me, his green eyes shining in excitement. "Maybe we should go out somewhere. Maybe like camping or play some arcade games or something like that? This could be like a bonding session and we all will be sober as well."

I think for a few seconds and decide that it really is good. "That sounds brilliant! I will text my friends and let them know."

"Perfect!"

Just as I am about to say something else to Jay, my phone vibrates in my pocket and I take it out to answer.

"Will you stop walking like a turtle? Let's go home, I am hungry!" Ben screeches from the other side of the phone.

Annoyed, I disconnect the call and scan the parking lot and meet his frustrated face where he is resting on my car and I flip him off to silence him.

A chuckle resonates from Jay beside me. "Annoying you?"

"Do you even have to guess?" I retort back. "I will let you know about our plan soon."

"Umm..Emma, wait!"

I barely take another step after I hear him. "What is it?"

He takes another step before he comes forward to engulf me into a hug. I stand still for a second, too dumbfounded to utter a word. But I snap out immediately and hug him back.

"I don't know the reason why I did it, but I just acted on impulse and hugged you." Jay scratches the back of his neck in nervousness, as he releases himself from me. "It's just that...I am really looking forward to spend some time with you. I am not one of those guys who doesn't admit what he is feeling because he thinks that it is not 'manly' enough of him, so I will go ahead and say it because that's what a man does. The way your mind works, it is simply mind blowing. You think differently from others and have extremely different ideologies compared to others. You are kind enough to see the good in others, kind enough to help others and a wonderful friend even though you are a crackhead on the side. I think this is what makes this assignment even more interesting and challenging. I may seem restless, but I really hope that you will make some time this week so that I can have fun challenging your fantasy world and you bickering with mine."

Hyperventilate Mode: On.

He leaves me completely speechless at the end of his confession. Amazed. Astonished. Awe. Does he really...is he really looking forward to spend time with me? With me?! Is it really true, did I just hear all of it correct or is this one of my dreams? A pure bliss of elation runs through every fibre of my body at his rendering words.

This truth, I think this confession is much much better than him confessing that he likes me.

Girls do like it when boys compliment saying that they are beautiful or sexy. But when they compliment you about your inner beauty, that is just another level of cloud 9!

"I..I didn't know that you f..feel this way about me!"

"I didn't know that too," he confesses. "But I really don't understand why I said it. I really hope that I will find an answer to that."

I give him a smile of my own. "Me too."

And this time, I throw my arms around him and hug him with all of my strength inside of me and he slips his hands under my arms to hug me back with equally strong affection.

Whoever came up with this idea of physical contact between humans need to be born again so that I can thank him with all of my heart. A hug is a beautiful emotion which communicates a thousand words silently between the two people who are embracing each other. A lot of unsaid words are resonated through each other. With eyes fluttered closed and savouring them in your embrace. A safe haven to each other. Letting them know that it is going to be alright. A hug gives you an immense strength, it boosts up your mood. A miraculous cure for anything and everything.

After what seems like forever, we break our hug but we still hold on to each other's arms, unable to let go. His exceptional green eyes show me something pure of elate calmness. His clear emerald eyes resemble the greenery of the nature, the peaceful silence that we crave for. Right now, looking into his eyes and holding on to him is the perfect calmness I am craving for.

Someday, Jay Evans is going to be the brutal death of me!

Aaaaannndddddd scene!

This is a short chapter. At least compared to the previous one...hehehe!

Also, how are you liking the story so far?! Are there any changes or improvements? Drop them in the inline comments if you have any!!! I would love to see if there is something that I could change here....it will mean a lot to me.

Thank you so much for 2K reads. Your immense love is the proof why I achieved another huge milestone. Lots of love!!!

Also, a very happy happy happy birthday to my constant supporter Myself_Keval This chapter is dedicated to you. 😘😘

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