It was Friday, again, and I was undeniably happy to have gotten through the week without any more humiliating episodes.

The picture Becca posted was still circulating, making its rounds to every student at Palm Beach High. It was calming down though, and every day I got less and less crude comments. Eventually something else would come up, and everyone would forget I even existed.

But now I had more important things to worry about. Mr. Fells has announced earlier today that our Romeo and Juliet presentations would be Monday. Which meant I had exactly one weekend to somehow translate everything and practice with Colton. We had procrastinated so much; after our first practice we hadn't talked about it. I was hoping he had already translated his part so I wouldn't have to do that too.

I sighed, tucking a strand of my blonde hair behind my ear. I had exactly 24 minutes until I had to walk over to Colton's house and work on the play. You could say I was dreading it, watching the second hand go around the clock seemed like unintentional torture. Colton and I hadn't talked much since our car ride Monday. We didn't even so much as look at one another until Mr.Fells announced the date of the presentation and Colton and I had shared a moment of panic.

In all seriousness, my life consisted of nothing less than Colton Pane at the moment.

Everything. I mean everything, tied back to him.

All of my issues were because of him. Most of them indirectly related, of course. But still.

It was actually quite unhealthy how much my life revolved around him. Above all, it was pathetic.

My senior year was going great, actually. Despite all the crap going on, my grades were doing well and I was all set to send in college applications. Even my dad and Kim were a positive aspect in my life. Everything was going great except all things involving Colton.

I decided that I needed to finally confront him about what happened in able to to finally move past it and get on with my life.

Anna's reason to why I should talk to him was nothing more than: Folton.

For whichever reason, I made it my goal to talk to him, and hopefully tonight.

"Finn! Are you excited about tonight?"

I looked up from the skit i was translating toward my bedroom door, where Anna was standing.

"What do you mean?" I asked, glancing back down at the stack of papers on my desk.

"You're going over to Colton's! That's exciting!" Anna said, wiggling her eyebrows.

Oh. Right.

"We're working on a project. It's not exciting" I said.

Anna moved over to my window, and opened it, letting a gust of air into my room.

"Hey! What are you doing?!" I asked in a shushed whisper. Colton's window was open and a Falloutboys was erupting from his room.

"Hey, Colton!"

I smacked my forehead. It was a replay from my first day.

The music momentarily stopped as Colton appeared in the window.

"Hey Anna..." Colton said wearily, obviously confused.

"I was just curious- has your mom said anything about the Thanksgiving Day trip?" She asked, resting her elbows on the windowsill.

I pursed my lips. She did not.

"Wait-"

I didn't bother letting him finish; I pulled Anna back from the window and began to shut it.

"Nice talking to you" I said, abruptly closing the window.

Anna huffed in disappointment as she left my room.

Yeah, I was rude. I get it. Did I care at this point? Nope.

I know Anna is only trying to help, and i loved her good intentions, but i really needed to work things out by myself right now. And that did not include violating his personal time and space by using the horribly placed window to talk to him.

~*~*~*~

"Finnly, honey! It's so nice to see you!" Carol said, gathering me into a hug.

"Colton is already upstairs; he seems quite frazzled by this project." She laughed, closing the front door behind me.

I smiled, "Yeah, it's due Monday" I said

Carol nodded, "I bet it won't take long, you guys seem to have been working on it for a long time" she said.

I shrugged, "Hopefully" I admitted truthfully.

Hopefully this wouldn't be as time-consuming as we thought it would be.

Get in. Get out.

We arrived in the kitchen and I was astounded by the huge pile of pans in the sink, and the flour covering the countertops.

"Please excuse the mess, I've been making cookies" Carol said

I laughed, "It's not a problem" I said, amused.

Carol's thing was cooking. Even when we use to go to the lake house, she would bring her array of pans and try out new recipes with my mom.

The oven started smoking and the alarm started ringing urgently, jerking me from my thoughts.

"Oh my!" Carol shouted, rushing over to the oven, hastily pulling on her oven mits before she opened the door. She waved away the smoke and took out the pans before turning it off.

She inspected the cookies, "Oh no. Definitely not edible" she said, before tossing the burnt cookies into the trashcan.

"Mom, what's going on?" Colton asked, jogging down the stairs.

I immediately diverted my attention from him, helping Carol scrape the pans.

"Nothing, Col." She said, "Finnly just burned the cookies" she continued.

I let out an exasperated gasp, "Did not!" I laughed.

Colton moved around to help, laughing softly, "Are you sure you followed the recipe correctly?" he asked.

Carol rolled her eyes, "I thought so, but apparently not" she said, laughing.

I laughed with her, setting the pans into the dishwasher.

Colton reached around me to wash one of the bowls and Carol ruffled his hair, "Well, look at this! I can't believe my eyes! Is my son doing dishes?!" she exclaimed

Colton rolled his eyes, "Please, Mom, it's not that big of a deal" he muttered, a small smile on his lips.

Carol laughed and took the bowl from him, "Ok, I won't torture you kids anymore, I know you have a project to get going on so I've got this" she said, grabbing a towel.

"Thanks" Colton said, obviously relieved.

Once upstairs, I pulled out all of my school books, sitting in the same chair I had sat in the first practice.

His room was much cleaner than it had been before. I was quite impressed that a guy could keep his room this clean.

"Have you finished translating your part?" I asked looking up at him.

He rifled through some papers, "Yeah, here" he said, passing it to me.

I briefly glanced at it.

God, his handwriting was awful.

"Ok, good" I said.

"I have my costume too" he said, getting up to show me a white buttoned down shirt and khakis.

I was pleasantly surprised, "That's perfect" I said.

Ok, everything was going well. It wasn't like we had any major problems to deal with.

"Do you want to practice, then?" I asked.

He nodded, "Let's start with your half" he said. I handed him a copy of the first part and he glanced at it briefly before nodding, "Ok" he said.

He started reading his part, which included a big monologue by Romeo about Juliet when he first sees her.

Honestly, I didn't even listen to him. I just kept thinking about how pathetic of a character Romeo was. First you fall in love with some other girl, but then right when things don't work out you turn toward another girl based solely on her appearance. How low could you get?

The whole scene sounded kind of familiar, and above all, it was just hilarious hearing Colton say it.

We read a few more lines.

"Well then, saint, let lips do what hands do. I'm praying for you to kiss me." Colton says, examining his script closely.

I scrutinized the script. There was kissing in here? I seriously should've read the script closer while I was translating.

I had another line before there was an actual kissing part "You can just give me a Hershey kiss at that part" I stated plainly, raising my eyes from the paper , "You know, instead of um.."

Colton just nodded, glancing at me briefly, "Yeah yeah" he said, "That sounds good".

We changed to his written half and I tried to make out his mangled handwriting.

"You miss like you stole now?" I offered, hoping it was right. Which I highly doubted, because it made no sense whatsoever.

Colton furrowed his brow, "You kiss like you've studied how?" he said.

I coughed, "Yeah. That's what I meant" I said.

Colton laughed softly, "I'll type the script, don't worry" he said.

I offered him a small smile, a blush coming to my cheeks.

Stop! Stop it right now.

I shuffled my papers together, hoping he hadn't noticed.

When I looked back up at him, he was looking at me, a slight smile on his lips "You're blushing" he said.

I coughed again, "I just love Romeo and Juliet" I said, "It's so romantic" I continued, hoping my petty excuse would suffice him.

Because seriously, isn't falling in love with someone and then killing yourself like 3 days later so romantic?

<><><><><><>

Sorry for the short chapter and it's kind of all over the place..

But yeah, i finally updated! Yay...

Song of the chap- Kid in Love by Shawn Mendes

Kisses- A