IT WAS LUNCHTIME, AND DARREN sat at a table with Nova and Jillian, a girl whom they'd just had biology with.

"Did you hear University of Florida has already sent out their acceptance letters?" Jillian asked. She turned to Nova, and the hair in her ponytail swept up when she did with much enthusiasm.

"They did?" Nova's eyes widened. "Did you get in?" she asked, knowing Jillian had applied for early admission.

Jillian smiled an all-telling smile, and it must have been contagious, because Nova became ecstatic too.

"That's great!" she said. She turned to Darren. "Don't you think?"

Darren managed to put up a smile too. "It is." But he kept his gaze fixed on his plate and poked his food with his fork, not having eaten a bite of it yet.

"I'm still hoping I'll get into Florida State or Miami, though," Jillian said, her expression not faltering at the lack of enthusiasm from Darren.

"Did you hear back from them yet?" Nova asked.

Jillian nodded. "From Florida State, but I didn't get in." She shrugged.

"You didn't?" Nova frowned, and it was clear she thought something of it.

"But I can still get in through regular admission," Jillian said, as a way to lift her spirits up. It helped: the slight sadness that had slipped into her features disappeared. "And I really like University of Florida too. It's a great back-up in case I wouldn't get into the others after all." She turned to Nova and Darren. "What about you? Did you hear back from Yale or Princeton or any other university yet?" She turned from Nova to Darren and back, but Darren didn't even acknowledge her question, so Nova decided to answer.

"No, but it'll happen soon, probably." She sent a worried look Darren's way, but he didn't respond to it. "I'm really hoping I'll get in," she continued to Jillian. "I don't know what I'd do if I wouldn't."

"You deserve to get in," Jillian assured her. "You've been working so hard on this. For as long as I've known you, you've been talking about Yale."

Suddenly, someone smacked the lunch table they were sitting at with a flat hand and interrupted their conversation. Jillian and Nova turned around to see who it was, and Darren woke up from his daydream too. When he looked up, he was faced with a raging Dakota.

"Did you give her my name?" Her usual pale skin had turned red with anger, and she leaned in close to Darren while screaming the words at him so everyone in the lunch hall could hear.

Darren didn't need an explanation as to who the "her" Dakota was referring to was. It could only be Rebecca. He stammered, but couldn't get an audible word to leave his mouth.

"Did you tell her where to find me?" Dakota clarified, the strength of her voice not weakening. He never knew a small girl like her, who'd always seemed so fragile because of that overall lightness about her, was capable of producing volumes as loud as this.

"I–I..." Darren began. He looked around. Everyone was staring at them, some in shock, others enjoying the drama. "Could we talk somewhere else?"

"I don't want to go somewhere else with you!" she yelled. She got even closer, and her eyes filled with fire. "You need to tell me right now: did you tell her to contact me?"

"I didn't," Darren muttered. "You have to believe me, I didn't." But even he realized that his words were hard to believe.

"You are unbelievable," she said. She stood up straight, and her arm was still stretched out, leaning on the table. She clenched her jaw, looked at Darren for a few seconds, before she tried to walk away.

"Wait, Dakota!" Darren said, a sudden strength taking over him. He picked up his backpack that had been lying next to him all of lunch. A specific item of its content had been on his mind for hours.

To his surprise, Dakota listened to him, turned around, and approached him again. She didn't seem to be bothered by the attention they were getting from the crowd who'd been peacefully enjoying their lunch just a minute ago.

"I have something," he said, fumbling around in his backpack. When his hands found a piece of paper, slightly crumpled up compared to how he'd put it in his backpack a few days ago, he pulled the item out. "You weren't h-here," he said. "Friday, I mean, you weren't at school." He bit his lip. He felt how the watching of other people made him even more nervous, and he beat himself up for feeling that way. This should just be about him and Dakota; it was nobody else's business. "And today, you weren't in c-class either," he continued. During English earlier that day, he'd sat alone, and he hadn't seen her walking around the halls either. He would know, because he had been looking around for her just to give her this piece of paper he'd been carrying since Friday.

Dakota snatched the page out of his hands and read the first few lines. "What is this?" she asked, looking up from the paper. Her eyes met Darren's, and it gave him an uneasy feeling.

"This..." He looked away, straightened his back, and tried to find the courage to start his sentence over again. "This is everything I've been w-wanting to tell y-you. Not just sorry, but I also tried to explain m-my side of things, and I wanted to..." He took a deep breath. "I wanted to ask for your forgiveness. I never should've done what I've done after you've told me not to." He knew he was being vague in his wording, but was so intentionally, in case Dakota didn't want anyone else to know what they were talking about.

"You've written me a letter?"

From her tone, Darren didn't know if she was offended or surprised.

He nodded. "I–I did."

She smashed the page down on the table, as much as paper allowed itself to be dramatically thrown down, and folded her arms. "If you have something to say to me, man up and say it. Don't do it in some stupid letter."

He felt the eyes of the other people on him, especially Jillian's and Nova's, and in a sudden flash, he seemed to have forgotten everything he'd written down and that had been mulling over in his mind. He looked at Dakota, who waited for him to say something, but he was unable to do so because of his apparent incapability to speak.

For a few seconds, the entire lunch hall was quiet, and all eyes were on the two of them. The beautiful girl who had become the personification of rage, and the withdrawn boy who was at a loss for words.

Then, Dakota's expression changed. "Good to know you don't regret anything." She rested her hand on her hip, but the way she did it, it was more threatening than girly. "At least now everyone knows who you are."

She turned around and walked away. When Darren called out after her, she didn't turn around, but went straight for the emergency exit. A teacher ran after her, warning her that she should use the regular exit, but Darren knew it was hopeless: Dakota would do what she wanted. And one of the things she wanted was to leave school. She wouldn't come back.

It pained him even more when he realized there was another thing she wanted even more. Now more than ever did it seem definite she would never talk to him again, and that she wanted him out of her life.

Murmurs filled the lunch hall, and while not everyone was looking at him anymore, Darren knew they were talking about him. It gave him an uneasy feeling in his stomach, and he couldn't help but think that that was exactly what Dakota had wanted: the humiliation, the embarrassment. Only Jillian and Nova seemed to be sensitive enough not to start asking him a bunch of questions to find out what the scene they just witnessed was all about.