Teachers don't like it when you do other things while they're talking. Every time I tried to open the poem book, the teacher had looked in my direction. At one point, I had given up, knowing he was ready to call me out if I had not been paying attention.

 Class went on for what seemed like forever, and when the eighth period finally came, I jetted out of class. I had approximately four minutes to skim over the books before the bell rung.

At my locker, I opened the poetry book. There were no notes or papers inside from Robert like I had expected there to be. I looked at the poems, but could not find anything suspicious. It would have to wait until I got home. As soon as I closed my locker door, Rose came out of the blue.

"Hey," she waved at me with one hand while holding her books. 

"What's up?" I asked while holding my textbooks tightly so that all three wouldn't fall. "I talked to your dad about us practicing together at my house. Turns out, my dad's friend knows your father. He convinced him that he'd watch out for us while you're over. Can you come after class? The contest is next week."

"Yous still want to do it?" I asked.

She inched up her eyebrow, looking as if I had lost my mind. "Of course I do!" 

The bell rang, and it was time to go. "Alright," I nodded. "I'll come. See you later."

...

I've had a lot of awkward moments in my life, that's true to say. However, nothing beat Rose and I practicing our dancing for a half an hour while barely speaking to each other. All she said was 'good job' and 'no, not like that, ' but there was no other talk. She also had this weird, concerned expression on her face the whole time and was not entirely focused. To be honest, I think I was doing better than her. 

At one point when the silence became unbearable, I stopped dancing and walked over to sit on the bench. "Something's bothering you," I said.

She tried to shrug off what I said and ignore it. "I'm fine," she muttered then placed her hands on her hips. "Now let's get back to work, please?"

"You're not focused," I stood up. "I mean, I'm not a mind reader. But I know you're not okay."

"Yeah. I'm not okay," Rose said. "So what? What can I do about it?"

My Chemical Romance song reference, I thought. I'm Not Okay was one of my favorites by the band. She was scared, just like me. We both were, and we didn't know what to do about it. I didn't argue with her though, there was nothing more to say. I placed out my hands and stood strong, ready to continue our routine. That was until Rose sat on the floor all of a sudden.

"Is Robert going to kill me?" She asked abruptly.

"What?" I knew what she asked, but I didn't understand why.

She pinched the skin between her eyebrows then let out a deep breath. "Those things you told me about The Lovely Suicide Children...Robert. Does he want revenge?"

I smiled, not wanting to. I just did it to make her feel more comfortable. "Of course not. Robert is not a bad ghost."

Rose chuckled. "I can't believe you just said that," she then ran her fingers through her hair. "A bad ghost! Wow. I think I'm going crazy. This is so cliche."

I laughed at her statement. It did sound pretty cliche. However, it was happening. 

"Do you see him often?" She asked me.

I nodded my head. "Sometimes."

"What's he...like?" She hesitated.

"He's nice," I said. "Positive. Always reminding me that I shouldn't let the school bring me down and-"

Before I could finish my sentence, Rose broke out into tears. I should have known this would happen if we talked about him. I got up then sat next to Rose. I wasn't good at comforting people at all. I thought about hugging her, but what if she pushed me away.

 Fortunately, she wiped her tears and calmed herself. "I think about Robert every day," she smiled. "No matter what. No matter how much you might have disliked a person, I still can't forgive myself for being a reason behind his death."

"It wasn't your f-"

She put out a hand, looked firmly into my eyes, and shook her head slowly as she spoke. "Don't ever say that. I did it. I am a reason he took his life."

I didn't know what else to say. She had me there. It's weird how you can feel sorry for someone who did something like Rose did. Rose did have remorse. She realized her mistake, and now she suffered daily from it. I can't say she suffers as much as Robert has to, but she will always live with the pain of knowing she a reason someone ended their life. Part of me knew that was true, but part of me wished Robert had been strong enough to save himself.

"Alright," Rose kneeled on one knee to stand up. She wiped her face one more time then got into a striking position, ready to continue the practice. "Let's keep practicing."

My chest felt heavy from overthinking, but I got up too. I copied her stance. Before she could strike my shoulder like we rehearse, I caught her hand then pulled her in for a hug. It was just my gut telling me that she needed it. Rose didn't budge, she let me hug her, but all she did was tap my back. As I leaned back to let go, our eyes locked. Have you ever looked at someone but couldn't look away? I hated it because I couldn't help it at the same time.

What seemed like a long staring contest went from that to Rose giving me a kiss on the cheek. She was only seconds away from my mouth. I think she saw my heart go from zero to one hundred. 

"Are you alright?" She asked.

"I...I think so," I hesitated when she leaned in closer, this time, her lips in front of my mine. She forged a smile and took my hand. Man, she was smooth, beautiful, confusing. I knew what she was doing, but why didn't I stop myself? I let her do it. I let Rose kiss me on the lips. It was just a peck though. A peck on the mouth big enough to send my emotions all over the place.

 I couldn't get mad, because I could have stopped it. I didn't know if I was angry, happy, or what. I was most definitely confused on how things just went here in a matter of time. I just wanted to comfort her. I didn't know why she kissed me either. Was it because she liked me? Was she comforting herself? Was it a friend thing or something she did to with everyone? I did not know.

Nervous, I stepped on my bookbag that was on the floor, which made a loud sound since I stepped on the water bottle that was inside. It scared me so bad that I tripped backward and the top flew off the bottle. Rose was quick to move. She removed all of my books and papers before anything got soaked or damaged. It was when she goes to the poetry book that she stopped. She clapped her hand over her mouth. Right then and there, I knew that she knew something about Robert's message. Or something in that matter.