Kinsley pushed me further and I could feel my small feet moving faster, trying to avoid stumbling to the ground. I walked faster and faster until I could no longer feel Kinsley's hands on my shoulders. I looked around and saw Kinsley waiting in the long lineup for food. She waves at me, ushering for me to come to her. 

  I stared up at Brandon, who was behind me and pointed in Kinsley's direction.

  "Look, I know how much you care for Kinsley and that's why you said what you said. I get it, truly I do." He faced me, now fist-bumping my shoulder gently. I felt his touch and looked at him, not avoiding his gaze anymore.

  He smiled at this, and I couldn't help but do the same.

  "I shouldn't have said anything, I wasn't thinking clearly." I scolded myself. "God, I haven't been able to with all of the drama between Trent and the group. But I'm not making any excuses for myself. What I did was not cool, so I'm sorry, Brandon." I apologized and felt my forehead dampen, then pointed my thumb backwards in Kinsley's direction.

  "I should go to Kinsley before she gets angry," I tried to excuse myself, but Brandon said something that got my full attention.

   "Jess, I don't blame you for not liking me. I mean I know I'm nothing like Quentin. Thank God—" he laughed. "But if you give me a chance, by letting me make amends I will be better with Kinsley. I'll treat her better," he said while scratching the back of his dark brown hair.

  I looked at him Journal, at Brandon and realized he reminded me of Taylor Kitsch since he had the exact haircut as him in Friday Night Lights.

  I offered my hand, and we shook on it.

  "That's all I ask Brandon." I pulled away, heading towards the cafeteria.

  When I stepped into the hot cafeteria, I saw some people I had classes with, but no Kinsley. I searched around for her in the parked crowd, finding them at the meat station.

  "Took you long enough. Thought for a minute there you and Brandon bailed on me, bitch." She joked as I approached her with a bagel and cream cheese in hand, and she had three cokes on her tray she got from the lunch lady. I placed it on the plastic holder and went towards the dessert station, grabbing a piece of vanilla cake.

  "Get me one too!" She yelled out which startled many people, including myself.

  I turned around with a tray in my hand, thanks to one of the lunch ladies, I was ready to pay.

  "So, what were you and Brandon talking about while I was gone?'' Kinsley suddenly asked with her money in hand.

  "You know the basics; safe sex, sexual diseases." I teased which she chuckled as we moved forward in line.

  "Seriously what did you talk about Jess?'' She asked again, her expression changed.

  I sighed, "We had a bit of a disagreement before class this morning which revolved around your relationship with him. So, we made amends." I watched as her cheeks darkened with redness.

  "Jess, I thought I told you—"

  "I know, I know. That's why I apologized. Surprisingly, so did he." I told her honestly as we reached the cashier. I took a deep breath, heading to a table where Brandon was at.

  Alas, we found him near a couple who were exchanging spit and gum. I scrunched my nose out of disgust, sitting far away from them.

  "Look I get it. I've been off ever since last Friday, and I think you both know the reason behind it... well, several actually." I sighed. 

  "Yes—" Kinsley said, holding Brandon's hand, he mutually did the same, now wrapping his arms around her. 

  "Right— um, what I was saying is even though some pretty intense drama has occurred, I want you both to know I have been eating. Three meals a day with plenty of water to hydrate." I started to ramble again, coming back from my thoughts at the sight of Brandon and Kinsley feeding each other. "The point is, will you guys not look at me that way when I'm eating? It makes me uncomfortable." I bit my lip, grabbing grabbed my water.

  "Sorry," they both said at the same time, noticing that they were synced with their words at a certain time. They grinned at one another, leaning it and eventually slipped their tongues into each other's mouths. 

  I groaned in disgust, picking up the tray to cover my face. I slowly put it down watching them swap pit like the other couple beside me. "Seriously? This is a cafeteria! People eat here!" I protested, hoping I reached them. 

  They stopped, apologizing once again. 

  "What are you going to do when you have a boyfriend? Pledge him with a purity ring too?" Kinsley teased, sucking on the plastic fork in her cake, letting Brandon have a piece too. 

  I laughed sarcastically at her response. "Very funny. But purity pledges are a real thing, you'd be surprised how many people are not having sex at our age!" I retorted which caused the two of them to laugh hysterically

  I slung my book bag over my shoulder. "Jess don't go, we're sorry." Kinsley once again broke out into a laughing fit.

  Brandon slicked his hand into his hair and showed off his pearly white teeth, "I'm not, I love sex." He winked at Kinsley while placing tiny kisses on her jaw. I groaned, leaving Brandon and Kinsley to do their own thing.

  I strutted down the hall but stopped when I caught sight of a broad-shoulder young man wearing a leather jacket standing near the office. He wore dark blue jeans, with black combat boots and black shades over his tan skin, messing up his light brown shaggy-tousled waves. 

  More of a Chace Crawford look in Gossip Girl Journal. He even reminded me of him by the way his jawline was built. His manners were a different story; he was fiddling with an unlit cigarette and then shoved it behind his ear. 

  I watched as he grabbed it again, stuck it in between his lips and pulled out a lighter.

Out of attraction, I walked up to him now while fixing my bag on my shoulder. "You know cigarettes can kill you," I introduced myself. "By the way, if you smoke in here, it's a thousand-dollar fine or more. You could get arrested."

  He glared at me.

  "Just saying," I formed a smirk, but it faltered when the guy surprisingly acknowledged me by taking off his Ray Ban's, his brown eyes looking me up and down.

  "That doesn't bother most girls," he responded in a smooth and sort of raspy kind of voice.

  I shrugged. He removed the cigarette from his smooth lips, tucking it behind his ear. I exhaled a breath, and realized that he wasn't in high school; he was older by a few years.

  "What are you doing here if you're not in high school? Picking up underage girls because you're that kind of guy?" I questioned.

  "Maybe, but then again, you don't know me." He softly said. I checked my surroundings, hoping no one was seeing what I was doing, or whom I was talking with.

  I stared into his eyes, intending to part ways. "You're right, I don't know you. And I don't want to." I retorted, finally fleeing the scene to the nearest bathroom. I didn't even bother to look back. Instead, I entered the bathroom and searched the stalls for anyone then pulled out my phone, calling my mom.  I anxiously bit my lip, waiting for my mom to pick up. As expected, it went straight to voicemail, so I hung up. Deciding that maybe choking on my sobs in the girl's room wasn't a good idea, I went into one of the stalls, and sat on the toilet with my feet up on the seat, rocking back and forth like a baby.

  "Jess, is that you in there?" I heard a soft voice ask. "C'mon, I know it's you, I can see your bag." The voice said yet I couldn't identify the person. "It's me, Sydney," I gulped. When I tried to escape the stall I fell, leaving my feet in the air, my butt on the ground.

  Suddenly, I saw Sydney's pale face and the open stall door. She tilted her tilting her head, intrigued. "Trent always said you were clumsy. You alright?" She asked, but I brushed past her, sticking my hands under one of the sinks.

  "Yep, I'm fine." I cleared my throat watching as she unzipped my bag and grabbed my phone. I tried to retrieve it, but she raised it in the air so I couldn't reach it.

  I jumped, successfully getting back. "Why'd you do that?''

  "To get your number silly." 

  "I don't think that's a good idea Sydney," I replied, and her gigantic smile faded like a scene out of a movie.

  "Why not?'' She clued in the missing piece of the puzzle. "Jess, I like you, but just as a friend. Saturday I was shit-faced drunk, and you happened to be alone in the room with me—trust me it was nothing." She grabbed her phone from her bra and handed it to me. 

  "Put in your number so we can do homework. Maybe have dinner with my family on Thursday night. My parents are eager to know who my tutor is." She winked as I finished adding my number to her contacts.

She took her phone out of my hand and opened the bathroom door.

"But I'm not tutoring you," I replied.

She put her finger to her mouth. "Don't tell my parents that on Thursday. See you in class." She opened the door, exiting the room just as I stopped the door from closing, heading out myself.

"What the hell just happened?" I searched my surroundings, but no Sydney was in sight. I rubbed my tired eyes, checking the time.

I exhaled a deep breath and made eye contact with Trent and Mitchell. They stared at me and then quickly turned away, talking amongst themselves. 

  Shit.