James

I stormed through our school halfways in an angry haze

'We need to talk.' She said. I walked faster.

'It's not you it's me.' She said. My heart rate began to speed up.

'I'm sorry.' She had said. My vision started to blur as my legs began to burn from speed walking so much and started to give out.

It got so bad that I tripped on literal nothingness but me not being able to find the willpower to get up and walk again, sat down on the floor and silently cried.

'How could she do this to me' I wailed to myself in my head.

'How could she leave me so heartbroken?'

'Our relationship was perfect! Or at least I thought it was. From my eyes, things were amazing between us. I made a promise to her that I would be the best boyfriend ever to her and she cheats on me with some stupid jock?!? Like what does he have that I don't? Is he funnier than me? More attractive? Smarter than me even? Doesn't matter. What does is that I wasn't good enough and Cassandra chose Andrew over-'

My rant was rudely cut short when from above me, someone lightly tapped me on the shoulder.

I was unable to see who it was because there were still harbouring tears in my eyes so in an annoyed tone I snapped, "What do you want? Can't you see I'm in the middle of something?"

The person immediately took their fingers off of me.

"Sorry bro, I saw you were upset and I thought that could maybe I could help. But if you want me to leave then..."

I felt a huge wave of guilt come over me. 'Just because you're mad at Cass right now doesn't mean you should hate the rest of the world too! He's just tryna be nice, give the guy a break.'

I sighed and sat more upright while tilting my head against the wall and avoided eye contact with him. My teary-eyed state was not a pretty sight to see. "I'm sorry, it's just my girlfriend broke up with me today..."

"Oof that sucks," the dude said. Then he asked, "What was she like?"

I smiled amidst my tears and sadness.

"She was, er, is sooo smart. Oh and she's hilarious! She made amazing jokes. And lastly, she's super pretty. I didn't even deserve her in the first place." I sighed again, now more disappointed than anything.

"Wow, she sounds a lot like a girl that I like. But we can't be together. She likes someone else." I could hear the smile and wistfulness in his voice for the first part then his voice dropped with a hint of defeat for the last.

I smirked and began to turn to him. "Aw. What's her name?" Just because I was in a failed relationship didn't mean I had to ruin everyone else's day.

He sighed, clearly infatuated with this girl and said softly "her name is Cassandra. Cassandra Kivetsky."

I gasped. 'He did not just say that!'

My eyes immediately snapped open and I viciously turned to the dude.

And you won't believe who I saw. Like, just guess.

...

Have you figured it out?

It was Andrew freaking Miller, the guy who stole my girlfriend!

I stood up abruptly. "You!" I hissed at him.

He stood up too and smiled awkwardly at me. "Um... hi?"

I couldn't help but notice that he towered an entire foot taller than me but I stood my ground anyway.

"Wait," I paused, trying to wrap my head around what he had just said. "Did you say Cassandra Kivetski?"

He blushed and looked down. "Yeah... I really like her but she has a boyfriend."

I could feel my face darken as I bellowed "I am that boyfriend. Er, I was. She broke up with me for you."

His face quickly contorted into an expression of fear and he went a few shades paler than usual.

Andrew gaped at me. "You're James?!?"

I rolled my eyes at him. At this point, I was just done with everyone. "No, I'm Dora the Explorer."

Then feeling a sudden rush of anger I yelled "Why would you do something like this? You knew she had a boyfriend and you went on ahead and kissed her?!? And you have a girlfriend too! Does she know that your cheating on her? How low of a person can you be??? Like honestly!"

I guess he was still a little shocked because all he could do was stare dumbfounded at me and stutter " We... I... umm..."

Then he gave me this super dorky grin and smiled despite himself. "Wait... she broke up with you for me?"

I threw my arms up in the air, exasperated. "I can't believe this!" I narrowed my eyes at him "you know what, forget it! I hope you two are happy with each other." And I stormed off for the second time today.

I don't know why, but I looked behind me and all I saw was a very confused Andrew running his fingers through his hair and looking around to see if anyone else saw my big outburst.

I turned back around and continued walking away. 'You don't need her' I told myself as a sort of pep-talk to try and cheer myself up.

'She was stupid to leave you. And for someone like Andrew? Pfft, she must've been really dumb. What you need is someone who actually cares about you. Someone who likes you for you and wouldn't betray you like this. You need someone like..."

I was so caught up in my thoughts that I didn't notice that I was about to walk into a girl with her attention glued onto her phone and we were about to collide!

We bumped shoulders harder than I anticipated that we would and she dropped her phone. Luckily, it landed on its back so there wasn't too much damage but it did hit the floor with quite a thud.

Her head snapped towards me and she muttered, clearly annoyed "Hey! Watch where you're going next time."

I was about to apologize when I paused. I recognized those aquamarine eyes anywhere.

"Bella...?"

Surprised that I knew her name, the girl looked and recognized me before replying drily "James."

Carefully, I continued. "Sorry about your phone. It was an accident." I had to choose my words cautiously because, for reasons way beyond my comprehension, Bella hated me with a passion. She always had some sassy remark to fire back at me whenever I tried to say something. And the time I had asked about Cass's admirer? That was by far the worst.

"It's fine." Her words were clipped at first, then she paused, wondering if she should continue.

Slowly she started, "how's your um, relationship with Cass?"

When she said 'Cass', her nose wrinkled like she smelled something bad but she recovered quickly by tightening her high ponytail nonchalantly, acting as if she couldn't care less.

Me, on the other hand, when she mentioned Cass, it was like someone had punched me in the stomach and shredded my heart into tiny little pieces. But I followed Bella's example. I threw my aching heart to the side, pushed up my glasses like I usually would and said, emotionless, "we broke up."

She was scooping up her phone as I spoke from off the ground but when I said that, she almost dropped it a second time and stumbled upward.

"Really?" She had sputtered with a hopeful glint in her eye until she cleared her throat and said again, more seriously this time, "Really."

"Yeah," I responded, running my fingers through my tousled hair.

"Well, what happened then?" She inquired seriously.

And I recited my entire morning to her, leaving out nothing. From me scaring Cass outside to my little run-in with Andrew after my huge outburst. After I finished, I waited on her to come up with something, anything to say as a reply but she was silent.

Finally, after attempting to put everything together in her head she wondered aloud, "so you're telling me" she started "that she was pretty much having an affair with some other dude but couldn't handle the guilt so she told you and broke up with you supposedly doing the right thing, right?"

"Mmhmm, yeah pretty much" I hummed back.

Then I narrowed my eyes at her. "And I can't believe you knew and allowed it to happen!" I was aware that it was quite a big accusation to make but still! Bella was Cass's best friend so I was sure she had told her something but the fact that Bella would have let it go on and not think of telling me was wrong... and it kind of hurt.

Bella threw her hands up in surrender. "I swear, I didn't know! And if you hadn't noticed already, me and her aren't really on speaking terms at the moment." She was gritting her teeth at the last part.

I had noticed that something was up between Cass and Bella. They avoided each other at Mathinators and Cass never really talked about her back when we were still together. I never asked about it before but now that I was here with Bella, it seemed like a good time to prod, just a little bit.

"Yeah, what did happen between you guys anyway?" I asked innocently.

The moment of those words came out of my mouth, her usually pale and freckled face instantly turned a bright shade of crimson red and she stumbled on her own words, like the weight of them were heavy in her mouth and they just had to tumble out.

"N-nothing." She stammered, finding more interest in her shoes than my questioning gaze.

I shrugged it off. The answer wasn't really that important to me anyway.

"Anyway," Bella continued. "Sorry again about the breakup."

I sighed. "I'm sorry too."

No one, not even Cass herself, realized how much I actually liked her. Tears spilled out of my eyes faster than I could control them and just like that, I had now cried at school three times in one day.

Bella clicked her tongue and pouted a little. I could tell she was feeling sorry for me and I hated it. Firstly, it was embarrassing and secondly, it wasn't going to help make me feel better so no point pitying me.

Then, out of the blue, she went "Aw, C'mere you" and proceeded to pull me into a tight hug.

At first, I was surprised and a bit shocked. 'Bella's hugging me. Well, that's new.' But she was like an anchor that kept me together as I drifted farther out into the uncharted waters of the sea. So I held on tight.

I hugged her back with the same amount of emotion, if not more than she was giving me and we stayed there, together, enjoying each other's company.

A strange feeling began stirring in me, but I couldn't quite pinpoint what it was exactly. All I knew was that standing in the middle of the hall in Bella's arms, it felt... nice.

I think five full minutes went by before I asked: "why are you being so nice to me all of a sudden?"

She pulled away and I couldn't help but feel a twang of disappointment course through me.

"Was I really that mean to you before?" She said, the hint of surprise evident in her voice.

I let out a breathy chuckle as a grimace-sort-of smile crossed my face. "Maybe just a little..." my words drifted away into the hall and swirled around the two of us.

"Oh." She stated, then looked up at me and bit her lip thoughtfully.

"Well, then I'm sorry." Bella rocked back-and-forth on her heels and stuck her hand out to me, waiting patiently for me to do the same.

I looked at her, to her outstretched arm, then back to her again. I chuckled, genuinely this time and shook my head playfully at her.

"Apology accepted." I finally mused, taking her hand in mine.

The feeling of her soft fingertips brushing against my palm and the warm smile that lit up in her face caused the strange feeling I had felt before to start up again and move more vigorously this time.

A slight feeling of warmth crept up onto my cheeks and despite myself, I was blushing.

Eventually, though, she had to let go and I was cold again.

"We should probably start to get going now, classes will be starting any minute." She gestured at the handful of students that had begun to fill the halls.

"Yeah," I agreed but I couldn't help but notice that my voice sounded a bit funny as I spoke.

"It was nice talking to you, James." She said while fiddling with the hem of her shirt and taking a step back, making some space between us.

I was tempted to step closer to her to fill that space but as much as I wanted to, as much as I needed to, I stayed right where I was.

"You too, Bella." I shot her a shy smile and she mirrored it by smiling right back.

Then, after what felt like an eternity, the bell rang so she pushed back of the stray hairs that had managed to escape her ponytail and started to turn around. "Bye." She waved and began to walk away, making her way down the hall.

"Bye," I whispered back, so low I was positive she couldn't hear me. I started walking again.

Bella's kind smile kept drifting in and out of my memory and I still couldn't shake off the strange feeling that she had given me even after she had left.

And though Cassandra may have broken my heart...

Maybe Bella could be the one to help me pick the pieces back up again.