"Wake up, sleepyhead. You said that you wanted to go and get some coffee and right now's a perfect time to go." You gently shook August awake at a time you deemed would allow the two of you enough time to go and pick up coffee and still make it to school on time. After a few moments had passed, he showed no sign of waking up and you began shaking him harder. "Come on, get up or no coffee for you."
Finally, he let out a groan and started to stir. "Alright, alright. I'm getting up."
"You better be." You laughed a bit as you stood up and grabbed ahold of both of his hands before you pulled him up in order to help him stand up.
"I can't see a goddamn thing." He rubbed his eyes and yawned as he stretched. "Where the hell are my glasses?"
"I'll find them." You began looking around for his glasses. After a moment of looking around, you found them in the same place that he had placed them when he had taken them off in order to rub his eyes before he ended falling asleep. You went over to where they were, bent down, and picked them up. After you picked them up, you walked back over to him and put them on him.
"Oh good, I can see again." August smiled a bit as he adjusted them slightly. "Now, let's go and get some coffee because I'll need it to keep me awake today."

*****

"Where the hell have you been?!" Troy screamed into the phone after you got into August's car and picked up your phone to discover that you had several missed calls and texts from Troy. "I've been trying to get ahold of you for the longest time! I was getting ready to call the police because I thought something terrible happened!"
"Okay, calm down." You put your seatbelt and looked out the window as you continued to talk to Troy. You then told him where you had been.
"Aren't you a bit young to sneak out of the house to go and hang out with a boy?"
"Aren't you a bit old to be involved with a seventeen year old?"
"Damn it, you got me there." Troy sighed. "Well, can you do me a favor and tell me what you're doing so that I don't think that you were kidnapped or something?"
"I can do that on one condition."
"Oh God, what is it?"
"Can you keep it down when you and Mary are... Well, you know."
"Shit, were we really that loud?"
"Dude, I bet the entire neighborhood could hear you two. Also, I'm so surprised that you actually recall anything from last night."
"The only reason I know it happened is because I faintly remember when Mary-"
"Alright, you can stop there." You stopped him before he could finish his sentence, not wanting him to go into detail. "But do we have a deal?"
"Oh yeah, totally." Even though you couldn't see him, you imagined that Troy had just nodded because he had a habit of doing that whenever he was on the phone with someone. "I'm going to hang up now since you have school and I don't want to bother you. I'll see you later."
"See you later." You replied before you hung up and put your phone in your pocket.
"Let me guess. He flipped the fuck out, didn't he?" August asked, laughing a bit.
"Oh yeah, he totally did." You laughed a bit as well. "I swear, sometimes he acts like he's my overprotective older brother rather than my friend."
"That's not necessarily a bad thing." August shrugged a bit as he took a sip of his coffee. "After all, you told me that he felt like your older brother rather than your friend and you seemed to be okay with having that kind of relationship with him."
"Yeah, I am." You shrugged a bit. "I really couldn't imagine our friendship being any other way."
"Could you imagine dating him?"
You shook your head. "No, I couldn't. He's a nice guy and a really good friend and all, but we don't have those kind of feelings for each other."
"That's good to know." August smiled a bit as he took another sip of his coffee. "I'll be sure to keep that in mind."

*****

"So, tell me." August turned to face you once you had walked into school. "Will I be seeing you after school?"
"Of course you will." You grinned. "Especially since I may or may not need a ride after school."
"Great. I can't wait. I don't have any plans for today so let's hang out." Before you could respond, August pressed his lips to yours and placed his right hand on the side of your face. After a moment, he pulled away and gave you a small goodbye wave before he walked away and disappeared down one of the hallways.

You had a huge grin on your face as you walked to your locker. Once you reached your locker, you put all of your stuff down on the ground before you began entering your combination. After you finished entering it, you opened your locker and took all of the things that were inside of your backpack. Just as you were about to put the rest of your stuff into your locker, you noticed that there was something at the bottom of your locker. Upon closer inspection, you saw that it was a purple rose.
"August, you're such a sweetheart." You smiled as you grabbed the purple rose and put the rest of your stuff into your locker before you closed it. You then placed the purple rose on top of the stuff that you needed for your class before you picked it all up and began walking to your first class of the day.

"I'm so glad that you're back!"
You were just about to walk into your first class when you heard Mary's voice a few feet away. You stopped in your tracks and hid behind the end of a row of lockers to that she wouldn't see you and so that you wouldn't get in anyone's way. When you peered out into the hallway from your hiding place, you did a double take when you saw Mary. While she was still wearing the flower crown that you had made for Mark all of those months ago, she no longer had the knee-length blue hair that made her noticeable from a mile away. Instead, her hair was now just barely touching her shoulders and instead of blue, it was now jet black with bright red tips.
But Mary wasn't the only one that had changed her hair.
While the length of Mark's hair had hardly changed at all, the color had. Instead of being an electric blue color at the top, it was now a bright red color, the same bright red color that Mary had on the tips of her hair.
Oh, how cute. You two are matching again. You sarcastically thought to yourself. You then shrugged a bit as you thought, Well, at least Mary fixed up that nasty ass hair of hers. I really hate to admit it, but she looks at least a little bit pretty, even if her hair looks like it had a period with how red the tips are.
"I missed seeing you throughout the day! You were the only thing that helped me get through the school day, you know!"
As you were watching the two of them, you now noticed that, because you now knew the truth of what was really going on,  it was painfully obvious that they were pretending to have feelings for each other and making it seem like they were in a relationship when they actually weren't.
Mark smiled, a smile that looked fake from a mile away, back at Mary and pressed his lips to hers.
Wow, even their kisses look incredibly fake. How the hell are people convinced that these two are actually dating?
"I'll be seeing you soon, Pretty Boy." Mary smiled and gave Mark a small goodbye wave before she turned and walked away from him.
You felt your hand curl up into a fist and you resisted the urge to give away your hiding place by running up to Mary and punching her in the face. Even though you and Mark were just starting to repair your broken friendship, you wouldn't allow anyone to call him by that nickname, especially Mary.
"Turn around and walk away." You whispered as you forced yourself to walk into your first class of the day and at least try to forget about what she had just said.

*****

"Hey there, I missed you." August smiled as you approached him at the end of the school day. Once you were close enough to him, he pulled you into a hug.
"I missed you too." You smiled as well as you hugged him back. You hugged him for a few moments before you broke off the hug and showed him the purple rose. "By the way, thanks for leaving this in my locker this morning. It was really nice of you to do that."
"Huh?" He seemed confused at first and he glanced down at the purple rose. "Oh, yeah, that. Yep, that was totally me. You like roses, right? I mean, they're a symbol of romance after all and I'd like to think that I'm a pretty romantic guy." He shrugged and his facial expression changed, almost looking like he was lying. You didn't understand why his expression changed so suddenly like that. Besides, if he hadn't put the purple rose in your locker, he wouldn't say or act like he did.
Right?

You laughed a little, deciding that you trusted him and thought that he was telling the truth. "You're so adorable. This is going into a vase and in my room as soon as I get home."
August smiled as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. "Let's get the hell out of here so I can smoke without getting into any legal trouble for smoking indoors. Plus, I know a little place nearby that we can go where no one will bother us."

*****

"So, please tell me that you know what's coming up next week." August asked as one of his cigarette dangled from his bottom lip and as he stared down at his guitar.
You thought for a moment, trying to figure out what he was talking about. When you couldn't figure it out, you gave up and replied, "Nope, I have no idea."
August's eyes widened and he nearly dropped his cigarette. "What? Are you serious?"
"Yep, completely serious."
"Have you not seen the signs around school? Prom's next week!"
"Oh, God, no." You groaned. "Please don't tell me that you want to go. I really don't like dressing up and plus, our school's full of assholes that I can't wait to never see again after I graduate, even though I'm dreading graduation."
"Oh, come on, (Y/N)." August flicked ashes from his cigarette onto the ground as he spoke. "You only ever get to go to Prom twice, you know. Why waste it?"
"It's not wasting it if I have better things to do." Your grumbled as you crossed your arms.
"What better things do you have to do?"
"Um, well, you know..." You trailed off. You hadn't expected him to ask you that so you had no idea what to say.
"Exactly." August grinned a bit as he turned his head away for a moment in order to blow smoke from his mouth. "Besides, it's not like you'd be going alone."
"Oh, really? Who the hell would take me to Prom? No guy would ask me to Prom, even if someone paid them to do it."
"You sell yourself short. I bet there are a couple of guys at our school that would love to date you."
You laughed. "Sure, okay, whatever you say. If there are a couple of guys at our school that would love to date me, then that means I have some secret admirers." You joked.
"You know, I wouldn't be surprised if you did have a secret admirer or two." August continued to grin a bit. "I mean, there are so many things to love about you."
"Like what?"
"There are so many things that it'd take a very long time to name them all."
"We've got time." You laughed a little.
"That's true." August laughed a little as well. "But, even then, I'm not sure where to start."
"Start with your favorite thing about me."
"I don't think that I have a favorite thing about you. Everything about you is just so great."
"Come on, there has to be a favorite."
August was quiet for a few moments before he said, "Fine, If I absolutely must pick a favorite thing about you, I guess it would have to be that you're really fun to be around and you're really kind."
You felt your face growing hot and you were certain that you were blushing a bit if you weren't already doing so. "S-Shut up. You know that's not true! Besides, that's two things, not one!"
"If it wasn't true, do you think that I would be telling you that to begin with?" August smirked as he got up and placed his cigarette into a nearby ashtray.
"W-Well, maybe..."
"Come on now, you know me enough to realize that I wouldn't tell you something if it wasn't true." He sat back down in the grass and got his guitar out of its case. "By the way, I'm gonna convince you to go to Prom soon. Just you wait."
"We can do something else on Prom night, you know." You rolled your eyes slightly as you tried to convince August that Prom wasn't all that it was cracked out to be. "I don't even care what it is. Anything is better than going to Prom, especially without a date."
"We'll see about that, (Y/N)." August smirked as he tuned his guitar a bit. "We'll see about that. Now, come here. I'd like to do something very special for you."
You felt your face growing hot as you scooted towards him until your leg was brushing up against his.
"No, closer." His smirk grew and he bit his lip slightly.
"How do you expect me to get any closer than this?" You asked, smiling back at him.
"You could get closer to me by sitting on my lap." August had the biggest smirk on his face as he set his guitar to the side.
"Oh, why didn't you just say so in the first place?" You asked him as you did what he suggested you should do, moving around a bit until you found a place where you would both be comfortable.
August shrugged. "I was kinda hoping that you would suggest it." He laughed a little.
"Oh, whatever." You laughed a little as well. Your smile grew as August grabbed his guitar and positioned it so that it was resting on your lap. He then held his hands out in front of you.
"Pick one."
"Right hand, you ambidextrous freak." You laughed.
"Oh, you haven't seen my handwriting yet." August laughed as well as he adjusted his guitar so that he could play it with his right hand. "My handwriting is the same when I write with both hands. I'd be very surprised if I showed you a side-by-side comparison and you were able to tell me which hand I used to write."
"I'd be up for that challenge." You smiled as August pulled out his guitar pick from his hoodie pocket. "But, for now, I'd like you to hear you a play a song or two."
"If you want me to do that, you're going to have to ask nicely." He teased as he nudged you slightly.
You shook your head and rolled your eyes, smiling slightly as you did so. "Can you please play a song or two?"
"Why, of course I can." August rested his head on your shoulder and you could feel his breath on your neck as he spoke. "Lucky for you, I have a couple of songs in mind that I want to play."
"I can't wait to hear them." You smiled and bit your lip slightly as he tucked your hair behind your ear.
"And I can't wait for you to hear them." He smiled as well. "Now, what I want you to do is I want you to close your eyes so that the only things that you can focus on are the sounds from my guitar and my voice."
You did what you were told and eagerly anticipated hearing the guitar mix with August's voice. While you loved hearing him play guitar, you loved hearing him sing even more. You thought that he had one of the best singing voices that you had heard from anyone you had met and that he didn't sing nearly as often as he should. Then again, you would be content listening to him sing as he flawlessly strummed his guitar and produced truly beautiful melodies that only a guitarist of tremendous skill could produce.
It was blatantly obvious to anyone that had the chance to listen to August that he was born to play the guitar.

*****

"You're coming back quite late for a school night." Troy said almost as you walked inside after August had dropped you off at your house.
"You know, you sometimes sound like you're my dad rather than my friend." You replied as you closed the door behind you and locked it.
"Yeah, well, I just don't want you out there acting like a dumbass." Troy ran a hand through his hair as you walked over to the couch and sat down next to him. "Trust me, you'll look back in a couple of years and think, "Damn, why the fuck was I so stupid?" I would know because I was a dumbass when I was in high school and I regret it every single time that I think about it."
"What? Were you a high school party boy instead of a college party boy?" You teased slightly.
Troy rolled his eyes and smiled only the tiniest bit. "Maybe. Maybe not. But I was definitely that one popular kid that tried to get with any girl he could." He shook his head, continuing to smile a tiny bit. "I failed. Miserably."
"So, let me get this straight," You smiled a tiny bit as well. "You're telling me that you don't want to flirt with every guy I meet and try to get them to take me home for the night, right?"
"Well, yeah. That's exactly what I'm saying." Troy ran a hand through his hair once more. "Do you really want to end up pregnant in high school?"
"Hell no. That's the last thing I want, especially since I'm questioning whether or not I actually want kids in the future. Hell, I don't even have my future figured out yet and I'm graduating next year!"
"Don't you remember what I said before?" Troy didn't even bother to wait for your response before he added, "I told you that you'd figure out what you wanted to do with your life eventually."
"Yeah, well, I better figure it out soon." You sighed. "I'd also like to figure out where I want to go to college."
"So, you basically want everything figured out before graduation?"
"Yes, that would be really nice."
"Well, good luck with that." Troy said as he stood up. "Also, choose wisely. Whether you like it or not, choices like those will either make or break you and you'll have to suffer the consequences if you make the wrong choices."
"Gee, way to put pressure on me." You scoffed as you stood up as well before you began heading up to your room.
"I wasn't trying to." Troy shrugged as he headed into the kitchen. "You were the one who took my words as me putting pressure on you."
"Oh, whatever." You shrugged and rolled your eyes as you opened the door to your room before stepping inside and closing the door behind you.

*****
When you arrived at school the next morning, you found yourself dreading the school day more than you usually did. Since Prom was less than a week away, you felt as if that would be the only thing that people were talking about until it came. After all, that's how it had been during your freshman and sophomore year and there really wasn't any reason why it would be any different. The school that you went cared way too much about Prom.
Well, that's what you thought at least.

The moment you stepped foot into the building, the power went out.
"Of fucking course." You grumbled as the doors closed behind you. "The school district needs to invest more into this goddamn school instead of keeping it to themselves."
"Hey, um, you're (Y/N), right?"
A voice you didn't recognize pulled you out of your thoughts. "Yeah... Why?"
"Come into the cafeteria." You tried to make out the features of the person that was talking to you, but you couldn't because it was too dark.
You sighed, wondering what was going on as you placed your hand on the wall and headed in the direction of the cafeteria.

Once you reached the cafeteria, you could faintly make out the crowd of people standing on either side and the tables were completely gone. Your confusion grew as you leaned against the wall and crossed your arms. You were about to call out and ask what was going on when you heard two people whisper, "She's here!"
A moment later, light filled the room. But it was in a way you could've never guessed, even in your wildest dreams.
Located at the front of the cafeteria to the right of where people would go to get their lunches, "Prom?" was spelled out with stringed lights that were carefully hanging on the wall. Then, before you could properly process everything that was going on, more light filled the room as you heard the collective click of tiny lights being turned on and placed into star-shaped lanterns that everyone in the crowd was holding.

Just then, you could just barely make out the silhouette of someone walking towards you while holding something in their hands. It wasn't until they were standing right in front of you that you realized that the silhouette was that of August and the item that he was holding in his hands was a bouquet of purple roses.
"(Y/N), will you go to Prom with me?" August asked, his nervousness showing in his voice, which trembled as he spoke.
You smiled and wrapped your arms around his neck before you replied, "Yes, of course I'll go to Prom with you."
August smiled back as he wrapped his arms tightly around you. Even though he had been extremely nervous only a couple of moments ago, that nervousness was gone and it was replaced with his normal confident and flirty attitude.
"I told you that I would be able to convince you to go to Prom." He laughed a bit as he ran his fingers through your hair with one hand and held the bouquet of purple roses in the other hand.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." You laughed a bit as well and rolled your eyes. "You convinced me."
"I'm really glad to hear that." August whispered as he removed his hand from your hair in order to adjust his glasses. "I got here super early in order to set everything up."
"I'm surprised that the school let you do this." You whispered back as you broke off the hug.
August laughed sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, um, here's the thing..."
"August..."
"Relax, I didn't do anything bad." He assured you. "But anyway, I was only allowed to put this whole thing together because the school made me pay them in order to give me permission to do it."
"Oh my God, are you serious?" You let out a sigh of annoyance. "I swear, this school's always looking for a way that they can get their hands on more money."
August opened his mouth to respond, but immediately closed it when someone called out, "Hey, um, can we go now? We've been standing here for a while."
"Yeah, you guys can go." August called back as he turned his head in order to face the crowd.
As the crowd began disassembling, August turned his head back so that he was facing you once more. Once his eyes met yours, you pulled him into another hug, the bouquet of purple roses preventing the two of you from fully brushing up against each other.
"Thank you so much for putting all of this together." You grinned widely as you rested his head on your shoulder. "You really didn't have to do this."
"I know, but I was happy to do it." Even though you weren't looking up at August, you imagined that he was grinning widely as well. "Anything is worth doing if it'll make you happy."
Your smile grew when he said this and you turned your head so that you were facing the hallway that led to the entrance of the school. You opened your mouth to respond to August, but immediately closed it when you saw Mark standing in the hallway. He was wearing the flower crown that you had made for him all those months ago and the flower crown that he, much to your dismay, had given to Mary. He was holding a bouquet of flowers and, upon closer inspection, you noticed that they were purple roses.

Time seemed to stop as your eyes briefly met his. Even though he was quite a distance away from you, you could still see the sadness in his eyes. You couldn't blame him for being sad though. After all, his mother was using him for her own personal gain and you didn't know whether or not Mark knew the truth about what his mother was doing with the money that Mary and her family were giving to his family. Even if he did, however, you knew that Mark wouldn't do anything since he wasn't exactly the type of person to stand up for himself.

Time now seemed to move in slow motion as Mark gave you a smile.
A fake smile.
He then turned and walked away, dropping the bouquet of purple roses on the ground when he did so.
"(Y/N)? Are you okay?"
The sound of August's voice caused you to turn your head back towards him and look up at him. "Yeah, I'm fine." You assured him, even though you were pretty sure that you weren't fine because, even though you weren't sure if you had forgiven him for ruining the friendship between the two of you, you hated Mark being sad. He had made it sound like he had been through quite a lot in the past and he was certainly going through a lot right now.  "Why wouldn't I be fine? I just got asked out to Prom by an amazing guy in an equally amazing way. I have no reason to not be fine."
August let out a small laugh and broke off the hug. "Okay, if you say so." He then held out the bouquet of purple roses that he had gotten for you. "Take good care of these, okay?"
"Yeah, of course I will." You smiled a bit as you took them in your arms. "I'll see you after school, okay?"
"Yep, can't wait." August smiled a bit as well as he planted a kiss on your forehead. "Hopefully class isn't too boring for you today."
"I sure hope it isn't." You agreed as you let out a small laugh.
August let out another small laugh as he gave you  a small goodbye wave. "See you after school." He then turned and headed in the opposite direction that you intended on heading in, which you were relieved about.

After August had turned his back to you and walked away, you quickly headed over to the spot where Mark had dropped the bouquet of purple roses that he had had in his arms before you had noticed him and had almost instantly dropped them on the ground before he turned and walked away, giving you a fake smile before he had done so.
You carefully set the bouquet that August had given you down on the ground as you bent down and began putting the purple roses, which were scattered all around the immediate area, from Mark's bouquet back into their proper place. After doing so, you slowly and carefully grabbed ahold of both of the bouquets before you stood up and began heading towards your locker.

While you were heading towards your locker, you heard Mary's voice, which was very faint and hushed as if she didn't want anyone to hear what she was saying, from around the corner. You tried to force yourself to continue walking, but your curiosity got the better of you and you rested your back against the wall so that you would be out of her sight and could therefore prevent the possibility of her seeing you and realizing that you had heard what she was saying.

"This is unbearable."
There was a moment of silence and you assumed that Mark was either using sign language or his dry erase board to communicate with her.
"What do you mean, "What's unbearable?" You know what I'm talking about! Don't act like you're completely clueless because I know that you aren't!"
There was another moment of silence.
"How can you repeatedly insist that we keep this up? Your mother isn't using the money like she's supposed to and your brother told you that the other day!"
Yet another moment of silence passed by.
"Mark, your mother is using you for her own personal gain! She doesn't care about you! She only sees you as an opportunity to get her hands on money. Are you really going to let her treat you like this?"
Each moment of dead silence felt like an eternity to you, but yet, you couldn't bring yourself to just walk away.
"I don't care that you love her! Sometimes the people you love do things to betray you and sometimes people aren't the person that they've made themselves out to be. Your mother isn't a good woman. She's greedy, selfish, and is using you the fact that you're mute and not willing to stand up for yourself to her advantage. You're allowing her to walk over her and use your weaknesses so that she can get the things that she wants rather than what your father needs."
You knew that you should just walk away, especially since you shouldn't even know about any of this in the first place and it wasn't even your business, but, no matter how hard you tried to pry yourself from that spot on the wall, you just couldn't do it.
You just had to keep on listening.
"Listen, I know it's hard to see someone you love slowly waste away and go through so much pain and suffering. And trust me, I know that feeling of wanting to do anything to help that person and put an end to all their pain and suffering. But, at the same time, you can't allow people to take advantage of you so that they can get what they want from you. If you keep doing that, you're going to end up being miserable. Do you really want that?"
Even though you couldn't see him right now, you imagined that Mark had tears streaming down his face. As the image of Mark with bloodshot eyes and tears streaming down his face flashed in your mind, you had the desire to run over to him and give him the biggest hug that you would've ever given him. Even though he had made some mistakes over the past few months, you still hated seeing him upset. You felt like no matter what he did, you would always hate seeing him upset.
Besides, even though you had been mad at him for the mistakes he had made, you weren't mad at him anymore.
In fact, you forgave him for all the things that had previously hurt you so badly, even though not even moments before you decided to listen in on his conversation with Mary, you were questioning whether or not you forgave him for everything.

It felt like eons before Mary finally spoke again and you were so relieved when she did. Even though you usually found silence to be comforting, it was absolutely deafening in this case.
"Wait, you're going to confront her after Prom? Why wait until then? Why not just do it today?"
Thankfully, the silence didn't last very long this time around. In fact, it felt like only a very brief moment had passed when it was more than likely that a few moments had actually passed.
"Fine, I guess I can see your point." Mary let out a sigh that almost sounded like it was one of defeat. "But you better confront her when the day of Prom comes. You like to back out of things a lot."
Yet again, the silence felt like a very brief moment.
"Yeah, okay, we'll just have to see about that." Mary let out another sigh. "Come on, let's get going to class."
You felt your heart stop in your chest as you realized that the two of them would probably see you standing against the wall that they came around the corner. In a blind panic, you sprinted towards the bathroom and hid in the corner. You held your breath as you heard both Mark's and Mary's footsteps getting closer and closer to the bathroom.
"Hey, will do me a favor and tell She Who Shall Not Be Named that I'm going to go to the bathroom and that I'll be in class shortly?"
You felt your heart stop in your chest as you quickly sprinted into the first stall that you laid eyes on before you closed the door behind you and locked it. You covered your mouth so that Mary wouldn't hear you panting and you sat cross-legged so that she couldn't see your legs from underneath the stall. You were surprised that you could hear Mary make her way to the bathroom over the pounding of your heart. You hugged the two bouquets of purple roses to your chest and waited for her to leave so that you could go to class as well. For once, you actually wanted to be in your first class of the day, even though you hated every single person that was in it. Hell, you would rather be almost any place right now than in a bathroom stall hiding from who everyone thinks is Mark's girlfriend, but is actually being forced to fake a relationship because of Mark's greedy mother.

"Why the hell are you calling me? I'm in school right now."
Your heart leapt up into your throat when you heard Mary's voice. Even though you were almost dead certain that she had no idea you were in the bathroom as well and hiding from her, the thought of confronting her terrified you. Even though you normally had zero fear of her and calling her out on her bullshit, for some odd reason, now you felt terrified of the prospect of her banging on the stall door and telling you that she knew that you were in there.
Maybe it was because she would realize that you knew that her relationship with Mark was fake and you had the ability to spread it around the entire school, shattering the illusion that the two of them were trying so hard to maintain.

Nonetheless, you tried your best to bury that fear into the back of your mind and remain as quiet as possible.
"What do you mean that you saw a photo of me with another guy? The only guy I'm seeing right now is you."
Stop lying right to Troy's face, you stupid bitch. He's a nice guy that doesn't need to be tainted by a rotten apple like you.
Yeah, well, you're allowing this to happen because you've known all this time that she was lying to him and yet, you haven't said a thing to him.
The nagging voice filled your mind once more and you had the strong urge to bang your head against the wall. The only thing that was stopping you from doing so was the fact that you would expose yourself to Mary.
Yeah, well, you don't have to nag me about this anymore because I'm going to tell him everything today.
"Okay, well, guess what? Mark's just a friend. Am I not allowed to have guy friends or something?"
Not when you're going to lie to everyone and act like Mark's your boyfriend when he really isn't.
"Ugh, I don't have time for you. We'll talk about this later. I'm already late to class and you've called me four times today and it's not even noon." She then let out a frustrated sigh. "Goodbye, Troy. I'll talk to you later."
Time seemed to move in slow motion as Mary left the bathroom and as you listened as her footsteps slowly faded away. You swore that you didn't move a muscle for at least five minutes before you decided that the coast was clear and it was safe for you to leave your hiding place. Nonetheless, you were careful as you slowly placed one foot on the ground before the other foot followed suit. You then carefully unlocked the stall door, wincing as the loud click echoed throughout the entire bathroom. Afterwards, you slowly slid the stall door open, wincing again as the loud creaking of it filled the entire bathroom. You then seemed to move in slow motion as you took the first few steps out of the stall and the first few steps to the exit. Even though you had somehow managed to convince yourself that Mary was gone, you still slowly and carefully peered your head into the hallway and looked in both directions multiple times. When you saw that no one was there, you finally left the bathroom and made your way to your locker. Once you reached your locker, you placed the two bouquets of purple roses down on the ground and began entering your combination. After you had entered your combination and had opened your locker, you picked the two bouquets up once more and placed them both on the top of your locker. You then kneeled down, emptied out your backpack, and quickly gathered up everything that you needed for class before you basically shoved your backpack into your locker and you slammed the locker door shut before quickly making your way to class, everything from August asking you to Prom to finally building up the courage to tell Troy the truth about Mary that you've been hiding from him since he first mentioned her buzzing in your mind all at once as you did so.