“Gather round,” Mr. Stevens, one of the 12th grade homeroom teachers, yelled after the 12th grade students ignored him for the tenth time.

It was the day of the field trip and the twelfth grade students were standing in front of the three large buses that would take them to the local resort in the next backwoods town. As everyone had been looking forward to the trip for months, excitement sizzled in the air.

Damian jolted from the loud shout and knocked into Leo. Leo scowled and brushed him off, scanning the crowd again for her.

“She’s coming,” Val said with a soft smile that had Leo’s unease melting away. In less than two seconds, Val’s expression dropped as his eyes shifted to something behind Leo. His eyes flitted to Leo with a glare.

Leo frowned. Angry Val was never a good thing. “What is it?”

“You’re stupid. What a waste of my time,” Val spat and walked away, striking Leo right in the feels.

Leo turned to Damian in confusion, noting that Val and Damian’s roles for that day were switched. Before he could speak, a light body rammed into his back. “Leo! There you are. I’ve been looking all over for you,” a familiar voice said.

Damian winced. “I’m with Val on this one. You’re an idiot,” he said and walked away.

“Those are your friends, are they not?” Kendall came to my front to look at me. “Why don’t I ever see them with you?”

“They’re pissed at me and refuse to say why,” Leo said, biting the inside of his cheek with frustration.

“I’m sure you didn’t do anything too bad. They’ll come around,” Kendall reassured him, squeezing his hand with a smile on her face.

Leo smiled at her, letting out a sigh. “Thanks. You don’t know how much that means right now.”

Kendall beamed and began to walk to the bus pulling Leo beside her. “When did you guys fall out?”

Leo hummed under his breath, thinking back to the first time Val had cussed at him. That had been on the first day Kendall sat at their table. It was also the last time he had spoken to Davina. “About the time you started going here,” Leo replied vaguely.

Kendall's smile dropped momentarily. She forced on a shaky smile, her eyes unusually tight. “Oh. I'm sure it's just a coincidence.”

Leo didn't think so. Kendall's arrival had immediately split his newly founded friend group…well, it was more like he had been kicked out of the group as Leo was well aware that Val and Damian talked with the girls often. And as much as Leo wanted to be a victim, he couldn't help but feel that he had genuinely wronged them.

Dropping Kendall was the easiest thing to do. However, besides their parents' friendship making it almost impossible, Kendall hadn’t done anything remotely terrible to warrant such. He would just have to find a way to make up with them while keeping Kendall around.

A familiar laugh caught his attention. Leo's gaze fixed on Jaiyana who had Val's arms wrapped around her, loud laughter wafting from the both of them. Expectedly, Davina stood beside them. Leo couldn't drink up the sight of her fast enough.

She wore a fully baggy outfit that made her look shorter than she already was. Her hands nervously pulled the strings of her hoodie as she spoke with Damian. Damian said something and she cracked a large smile that had Leo's heart soaring and clenching at once.

Perhaps Leo had started to think he was some irreplaceable part of Davina's life after she had warmed up to him. Seeing her look so satisfied around his friends…

She didn't need him.

Damian reached playfully for her headphones. She tilted her head backwards to escape his grasp. In the process, her eyes fell on Leo and skimmed right past him.

Leo's knifed heart dropped to the pit of his stomach. He turned around and boarded the bus. Kendall walked in after him, pressing her body into his side. “Leo, what's–”

“Kendall, can you find somewhere to sit for now? I want to be alone right now.”

Kendall smiled at him like he were a child. “Hey. Haven't you heard, Misery needs company?”

Leo shook his head. “Not right now. I'll talk to you later.”

Without waiting for her to answer, he walked to the back of the bus and plopped on a window seat, clutching to his chest, a heavy bag that was far lighter than his heart. He looked outside the window and swore. Davina, Jaiyana and his two best friends were boarding the other bus while chatting animatedly. As if sensing his presence, Jaiyana looked straight at Leo through the slightly tinted glass. Her eyes narrowed to slits and she grabbed her best friend, hurrying her into the bus.

Leo's phone dinged. There was a message from an unknown number.

You and I need to talk.

Leo glanced up at the opposite bus. Jaiyana stared at him with a raised eyebrow, waving her phone. A sigh of relief escaped Leo. If anyone could understand what Davina was thinking, it would be her. Leo nodded. The screen of his phone lit up with another message immediately.

Don't look so relieved. If you want to make up with Davina, you have to talk to her. She's been tight-lipped about everything.

Leo bit on the inside of his cheek to control his welling emotions as he typed a reply with shaky hands.

Ah, okay. Thanks for reaching out.

Whatever. I'll see you tonight.

“Yo, Leo. Is this seat taken?” Ryan, a member of Leo's football team asked. Glancing at him, Leo grimaced at the cookie crumbs coating his lips and falling from his mouth.

“Yes, it is.”

“Whose is it?” When Leo didn't respond for a few seconds, Ryan grinned, showing the crumbs stuck between his teeth. “Great. I'm sitting here.”

“Not with those teeth, you're not,” Adam, another teammate said, sitting beside Leo. “Go to the front of the bus, Ryan. No one wants you here.”

The rest of the team had moved towards the back of the bus, all yelling in agreement. Of course, with the football team came the cheerleaders so Kendall had a solid reason to move closer to Leo as she was friends with half of the cheerleading team.

“Hi, Leo,” one of the girls on the team said with red cheeks. Leo didn't even try to remember her name, despite that he was sure they had been in the same bed at least once. He nodded and continued to stare out the window absentmindedly.

Adam nudging him brought him back to the present. “Are you okay? The girls have been trying to talk to you. Where's Cap?” Adam whispered, trying to keep his voice lower than all the loud talking and laughter.

Leo ignored the first part of the question. “Val? He's in the next bus over with Damian.”

Adam cocked his head, a thoughtful expression on his face. “You pissed him off, didn't you?” Leo's eyes fell on his jeans. Adam questioning him reminded him of the time in sixth grade when he had been sent to the principal's office for ‘accidentally’ ripping off his teacher's wig during class. “Val never gets pissed off. I doubt you did something to him. Maybe to that girl he likes. Did you hit on her?”

Leo shook his head, giving Adam a stink eye for thinking so low of him. “I wouldn't do that. It's not her either. She just texted me.”

Adam glanced at Leo's phone and then at his face and finally, on the other bus. “I see. Davina? You pissed off Davina and the whole gang's angry at you on her behalf.”

“That's the most reasonable explanation.”

“You don't even know what you did.”

“Davina…she doesn't want to see me right now,” Leo muttered.

“She doesn't want to see you or you think she doesn't want to see you?”

“Um…”

“Idiot. You've been rolling in self pity when the poor girl's probably waiting for an explanation. The longer you wait, the more it seems like you didn't even care in the first pla…When was the last time you spoke to her?”

Leo winced. “Two…”

Adam gave him an encouraging nod. “Days? It's not so late.”

“Weeks. Two weeks a–ow, what was that for?”

Adam returned the binder he had used to hit Leo into his bag. “That was to knock some sense into you. For all your exploits with women, you seem to not understand the basics of a proper relationship…Don't give me that look. I know you've never dated but you and Davina aren't even dating…I said, don't give me that look. If you wanted to date her, you should have asked her out.”

“Is it really that simple?”

Adam grinned. “Sure, it is. If Damian's pissed at you, you two have it out under the bleachers. Same thing with her. You don't hit her obviously. Talk to her. I can bet my PlayStation that she wouldn't avoid you. I should know I've dated Tessa for two years and we've fought a lot about pretty stupid stuff.”

“I heard my name,” a voice said. Adam's eyes lit up and he turned to his girlfriend and they shared a kiss that had Leo feeling jealous. When they pulled away, Tessa's eyes scanned Leo in deep scrutiny. “Never thought I'd see the day Leo asks for relationship advise.”

Leo's cheeks tinted pink. “I'm not…I just want things back to the way they were.”

Tessa raised an eyebrow. “So, no crush?”

Crush? Did he like Davina?

Certainly, what he felt to Davina was more than physical attraction. While she was pretty, it wasn't what kept him wanting her company more and more. It was the way her eyes lit up whenever they discussed something she really like. It was the fact that she kept him on his toes, forcing him to think of new ways to keep her attention. Perhaps it was her unbiased nature that saw past all the rumours and scandals surrounding him. All the time spent with her, clamoring for a single smile to brighten his day didn't matter as long as he got to see…

Shit. He did like her.
***
The stakes were higher.

There was an invisible pressure weighing on his shoulders since he figured out that he liked Davina. That was probably his first real crush on high school and he had probably messed it up. Besides worrying about the fact that she might not like him back, he also had to worry that she might not talk to him ever again.

He groaned loudly, kicking the nearest tree to him. The pain that shot up his leg afterwards made him wish he could cut it off.

“You’ve been weird today, Leo. What's wrong?” Kendall asked, her voice echoing in the empty forest.

Right. He forgot to mention that he was lost in the forest with Kendall after they had been selected by their group to get firewood. Since Leo had been absentminded, Kendall had mostly led the way and gotten them lost. It didn't help that it was around that time that he was supposed to meet Jaiyana and talk to her.

“Leo, you look upset. What's going on?” Kendall's gentle voice broke through his self loathing.

He sat on the forest floor and rested his back against another tree. “Nothing you can fix,” he snapped.

She reeled back, hurt evident on her face. “O-Oh, I-I…I was just…”

Leo sighed. “I'm sorry. I’m a little prickly today. It's really nothing you can do anything about.”

“Even offer advice?”

Leo thought over her offer. What did he have to lose by pouring his heart out on someone who would listen? “I messed something up. Something I didn't realize was important until after I messed it up. And I've been trying to fix it but–”

“Have you been trying to fix it or thinking you've been trying to fix it?”

Irritation flared in Leo's head for a split second at Kendall's interruption. All the doors of his emotions immediately shut. He remained silent afterwards, staring at the sky, imagining her face in the stars.

“My family moved here because of me,” Kendall suddenly said. Leo glanced at her. Her eyes were fixed on a leaf on the ground but she seemed to be staring into space. “I had this boyfriend. We only dated a few months but during that time, it was like magic. Then, I found out he cheated with some college girl and when I confronted him, he pretended not to know me in front of all his friends."

"But there was a friend of his who had been really nice to me all the while we were dating. He warned me and everything but I didn't listen. When the rumors started and spread across town, he tried defending me but I didn't even acknowledge him. What I did was pack my bags and run away like a coward.” She looked at Leo through teary eyes. “I guess it's human nature to think we're fixing stuff when we aren't. I'm hundreds of miles away and I still regret not returning his smiles and treating him like he existed.”

To think someone as carefree as Kendall would be burned by love too.

Leo flopped back on the forest floor. “Relationships are hard, aren't they?”

Kendall laughed ruefully, settling beside him. “You can say that again.”

“Relationships are ha–”

She punched his shoulder playfully. “I didn't actually mean for you to say it again.”

He laughed, feeling the heaviness in his chest lighten a little.

Everything was going to be alright.