I walk on the side of the road with tears on the verge of coming out of my eyes. I managed to somehow stop them earlier, raising my chin up and trying to remember some happy moments. Although the latter just made me sadder.

I didn't know where I'm supposed to be headed. I didn't want to go home and face my mom and her questions on why I came back home, so I decided to hang out in a nearby McDonald's.

I grabbed my phone from my bag pocket and started to dial one of the few numbers in my contacts. When she picked up, I knew right away she wasn't in school.

"Amelia?" she slurs, I can almost see her still slouched on her bed with her ridiculous bed hair.

"Paula, are you already in school?" I ask even though I already know the answer.

I can hear her sit up right away, getting off the bed hurriedly.

"Shit, what time is it?" she says, her voice alarmed.

"The first class is probably starting by now," I say casually and that's when I hear her pause for a while.

"Are you not in school?" she asks, her voice finally calming down.

"Yeah," I softly say through the phone.

"Where you at?" she says as I hear her bounce back on her bed.

"The McDonald's near school, why?" I say.

"I'm going," she says without hesitation.

"You're not coming to school?" I say with concern.

"If you're not going, I'm not going. That's how simple it is," she says as if stating the most obvious thing.

"Okay," I say.

"In one condition, though," she says.

"What?"

"You better tell me every detail."

Paula arrives after a brief twenty minutes and seated herself across me with a serious look on her face.

"What's up, buttercup?" she says as I stuff my phone back to my bag pocket.

"You haven't seen the scandals?" I ask and that's when her expression suddenly changes.

"Is this Avery's fault? Because if it is, I'm going to give him a good beating," she says through gritted.

"I'm not entirely sure but a part of me believes that he's the one behind it," I say, leaving the part where Cole and I argued.

"What did Cole do about it?" she says as if hearing my thoughts.

"What do you mean?" I say, trying to act as casual as I can.

"Did he beat up Avery or something?" she says, looking at her long nails.

"N-no," I softly say, desperate to move on to another subject.

"Does Cole know?" she says, still examining her nails.

"About what?" I say as I fidget with my fingers.

"About Chelsea," she says, looking from her nails to my eyes.

She looks at me intently while placing down both of her elbows on the table, leaning her face closer to mine across the table.

"I haven't told him about it yet," I admit, looking down to my hands.

"Look at me, Amelia," she says but I continue to avoid any eye contact when she reaches out to hold my chin. She raises my face up so that our eyes would meet.

"Did you guys have a fight or something?" she says and I can't believe how much she can see through me.

"Kind of," I say, swallowing nervously.

"About the videos?" she says as I nod slowly.

She suddenly snapped, got up from the chair, and walked away.

"That's it, I'm going to kill both of them," she states.

I stand up to grab her hand.

"Stop, Paula. It's not like that," I say, lowering down my voice as much as I can.

But, nonetheless, a lot of people were already looking at us.

"If I stopped, would you tell me everything?" she says, not bothering to look back at me.

"Y-yes," I stammer as she removes my hand away from her.

We both walked back to our seats. She seated herself with an impatient look on her face.

"So, why did you have a fight?" she grumbles.

"H-he w-was there," I start, my voice starting to crack.

"What do you mean he was there?" she says, crossing her arms and slouching on her seat.

"He c-comforted me, b-but I sh-shut him away," I continue as tears started to blur my vision.

"Really?" she says, adjusting herself on the chair. "You actually did that?"

She leans in closer once again, her eyes so curious.

"Y-yes," I say in an almost whisper.

"Damn," she remarks before leaning back on her chair. "I've always thought he has become someone you can no longer let go of."

I look at her with widened eyes. We just keep silent for a while when she suddenly gets up and beckons for me to follow her.

I walk behind her as we exit the restaurant, heading to her parked car. We got inside and she starts to drive away.

"Where are you going?" I ask as she keeps silent.

"To my place," she says, her voice soft.

"Are you sure you're not coming to school?" I say, just to make sure she isn't actually forced to accompany me.

She suddenly pulled over and glared at me.

"Can you, like, shut up for a while? I'm here already, am I not? Learn to accept people's affection," she says and those words were enough to silence me.

She starts to drive again and just like that we were silent again.

When we arrived at her place, her apartment was a mess. She started kicking around the mess instead of cleaning them.

"Can I clean your place?" I say, looking around the mess.

She turns to look at me with narrowed eyes.

"Are you saying that my apartment is messy?" she says as I shudder at her tone.

But then she suddenly laughed, grabbed me, and wrapped her arms around me.

"Kidding," she whispers against my ear.

I can't find myself to hug her back, instead, all I can do was cry, cry against her warm, loving hug.

"I don't know if you'd accept me in your life but at least you should be aware that I'm always here for you," she adds as I sob silently.

"Chelsea was one of the greatest friends I've ever met and for some reason, I feel like it was my fate to meet both of you."