*Flashback 7 months ago*

I heard there was a new transfer student from the UK today, a 16 year old Freshman named Leslie Loughty.

And typically, new transfers would often have an aura of confidence around them and they'd flaunt their foreign accent at us, educating others about their country and culture, whatnot. 

It appears this new English student is rather shy and reserved, it's lunch break and I don't see her anywhere in the cafeteria; I know a new face when I see one, and all I saw were the same people I see everyday.

I thought of asking Kevin since he knows almost everyone in the school, he might know something about the new student. 

Slowly I approached the table he was sitting at, the basketball table; it was filled with loud laughter and howls from the basketball team while the cheerleaders sat at the table behind them, staring at the players with focused hungry and dilated eyes. 

"Hey, Kevin..." I slightly bend down to tap on his head to grab his attention. The ruckus the team was making suddenly died down as soon as they saw me. Kevin turned around, looked up and our eyes met...my legs weakened and my heart raced. 

"Ah, Jack! Hey, what brings you here?" he gives me a smile, which made my heart skipped a beat and the words stuck in my throat. His warm red clothes and his long mid long brown hair reminds me of the Autumn season, and I loved it than words could describe. This guy really has an effect on me, I couldn't help but stammer at this point. "I...uhh...the..uhm..." 

Come on! Damnnit! Say what you wanna say! UGHHH!! My brain is now having an internal battle with my heart. 

"What's wrong, Jackson?~ Cat got your tongue?~"  one of the guys at the table commented at my loss of words, causing everyone to snicker. I felt myself slowly blushing. 

Occasionally I'd go to some of their basketball practices at the farthest seat just to watch how they work as a team, but most of the time just to observe Kevin and how he plays. Sometimes they'd approach me and...tease me about him. 

I had the feeling they knew I had a thing for Kevin, so it was no wonder why they were like this...they better had not tell him!

"Hey now, guys."  Kevin shake his head disappointingly like a mother scolding her children, and pushed up into his feet from his chair. "I'm sorry about these idiots, let's talk somewhere else..." he grabs my hand, and lead me to the hallway; as we walked out, we heard the team cheering and whistling back inside the cafeteria.

"OOOOHHH~~!!"  

"We did it, miei amici(Italian: my friends)! We raised a man!" 

"Finally! He's gonna get lucky tonight!~" 

"I CAN HEAR THE WEDDING BELLS FROM HERE!!"

"Uhm..." 

"Don't mind them, they're jealous virgins."  Kevin groans once we've reached the lockers, his eyes rolling in annoyance from the loud racket faintly echoing behind. I narrowed my eyes down at him and raised an eyebrow. "And you're not?"  

His eyes popped out and his body grew stiff, a tint blush appeared on his face as he lets go off my hand. I was already missing his warmth of hand. "...A gentleman doesn't kiss and tell, Jack."  he asserts so smoothly.

It was my turn to roll my eyes.

"Anyway, what is it you wanna say?" he asked me again with the same smile he gave me just seconds ago. This time, I refrained from letting my nerves get to me.

"I...ahh, yeah...the new transfer student from the UK?" 

"Oh, Leslie Loughty? What about her?" 

"Have you seen her around?" 

"...This is the first time I see you showing concern to a student you haven't met yet."  he raised his eyebrows and cocked his head at my attempt to socialize. 

I shrugged my shoulders. "I'm just branching out, and being a new student in a foreign country might be a nerve-wracking experience for her, she might want someone to talk to."

Kevin's smile turns into a grin, his eyes gleaming with light. It made my heart flutter with the same happiness he had; he looks so handsome like this...

"Thank goodness for that. You're making my job a lot easier! Especially since she's a lot like you; shy, reserved, does anything to avoid people like me." he gives me a knowing smirk as I bashfully rub the back of my neck. 

He remembered how I was 2 years ago...those lonely times. 

"Anyway, I know where she is. Follow me."

~~~~

"There's Leslie." The athlete points at a window that shows the school's courtyard with the fresh face, eating her lunch quietly on the courtyard's grass; reminds me of myself during my Freshman years, the only difference is instead in the courtyard, it was in the restroom where I ate my lunches. 

"Huh...you weren't kidding when you said she's similar to me." I muttered quietly enough for the two of us to hear. 

"I'm gonna go back now before the guys get even more ideas of where we ran off to." Kevin muttered back, matching the softness in my voice. I could only chuckle awkwardly, his teammates does have quite an imagination and I experienced it first hand. "Ahh...sure. See ya later..." I mumbled off as I hear the sound of his shoes walking away.

I stepped out to the courtyard, and approached the new girl. She immediately snapped up to my direction. I stopped in front of her. "Hi. Mind if I sit here?" Forcing myself to give her a small wave and a friendly smile, when in truth I was dying inside from the anxiety building in my spine. 

The girl squirms in her seat a little before squeaking out, "N-no..."

I decided to sit on the grass a few steps away from her to assure her that I'm not a threat. Before the awkward and uncomfortable silence got to us, I spoke out. "So...I heard you're the new transfer student-"

"I'm sorry, but I'm not interested."

My surprised eyes blinked for more than it should as I processed what she just said. "Come again...?"

"I...like birds." the new transfer rubs her arm nervously. 'Birds? What about birds?' I thought to myself as I started searching for birds "Uh...yeah, birds are magnificent flyers..." 

"No...I mean...women, ladies...I'm into girls."

...Ohhhh! Hah! Is that what bird meant? Haha! I thought she meant actually birds. I laughed at my stupidity before saying, "Haha, good for you. Unfortunately, I can't relate; I'm into guys."  

Did I come out as flirting? I wouldn't know if I were flirting with girls, I don't know what ticks them off or flatter them to the core. 

"Oh! You're...ahh...I see."  after realizing I was just as gay as her, I could see her visibly relaxing and her voices changes into a more relief and natural voice. "My sincerest apologies...I thought you were going to flirt with me, to try your luck on me, like how the other lads here..."

"Ahh yeah...some boys here tend to be suggestive, that's high school for you."

"Couldn't avoid it."

My smile was more genuine now as I held out a hand. "My name is Jack Azaleas." 

She smiles back and shook my hand. "Leslie Loughty, but I think you already know that."

"Yep. You're pretty popular here as a transfer kid and all."

We've talked endlessly about stuff and became fast friends. After school, I decided to introduce to my other friends. 

When she met the detective twins, they were in the middle of chasing their notes that has been blown away by the wind; not a great introduction, but she did got a laugh out of it. 

When I introduced her to Bianca, who was busy pruning a shrub, Leslie's eyes dilated and a blush crept to her face. You should've seen her being all flustered and stuttered in her words when Bianca approached us.

It appears to me that Bianca seems to be fond of Leslie too, since she kept smiling and laughing at the littlest thing the new student said. 

I'm ready to matchmake them with all my heart.

When I walked Leslie home to ensure her safety, she asked me about what kind of person Bianca was, what she likes, if she was interest in girls, whatnot. 

I couldn't suppress the smile I had even when I tried to, it was just adorable to see the new student all loved up at first sight...I'm rooting for them. I'll do anything I can for them to make them a couple.

====

Jack's perspective

Compliments...they're created to make a person feel better about themselves, to make themselves feel good, their day brighter and more tolerable, because everyone in the overpopulated world had one more basic need aside water, food, shelter, clothing; and that was to feed our ego and that ego feeds only on compliments and praises. 

And I think my ego was broken. For some reason, growing up, I couldn't process compliments; whenever someone told me that I was handsome, or I was really talented, or anything nice about me, it never process within me. 

I'd always tell myself: "they're lying; you're not whatever they said, you're the complete opposite. 

They're just trying to make you feel better even if it was just to make a fool out of you." Compliments felt like a backhand insult or a passive aggressive comments, which would made me feel worse about myself. 

I'd rather have people to just straight up tell me that I was an unattractive, worthless, space than for them to cover it up with a fake praise.

The world was getting more advanced each year, and so did people's act to lie. It's already hard to tell if someone's actually genuine or not, and if someone actually did think of me as someone who was worth something to them...

I would feel pity for that person, to have their standards so low to the point they considered me as wonderful.

I pitied my friends to a great extend.

It was 8 PM when I snuck out of the house; after the great and the last time I had with the twins,  I decided to break out of my comfort zone and...crash a party. 

It was Ashton's, one of Kevin's teammates', 18th birthday, so he was hosting a party late like he does every year; his parties usually starts at 7 PM and ends tomorrow morning. 

Only night owl students get to come in his party and luckily I was one; I always thought late nights or early mornings were the best time of the day because most people would still be sleeping, you wouldn't know how peaceful the street was during those hours, it gives you the tranquility you never knew you needed...until the sun comes up, that's when everyone's waking up from their slumber.

Anyway, the only problem was I didn't get an invitation, and I always had the mentality that going to parties wouldn't be enjoyable since everyone knew who I was...breaking out of my shell and actually tried going one of the best decisions I made. 

I got into Ashton's mansion by blending into a group who didn't notice me tagged along. And I remembered the party was PACKED! I didn't expect so many students to be night owlers...unless half of them already had their sleep for this event. 

There were balloons in every corner,  a disco ball above the dance floor, a DJ playing "Party Rock Anthem" by LMFAO, the birthday cake was a giant sculpture of Ash holding a basketball, and the swimming pool shaped of a hand in his backyard was changing colors in a drastic rhythm. 

There was a bowl of punch at the food table, I inspected it and it tasted non alcoholic like all of the drinks, it tasted like a dozens of soda brands mixed together; what surprised me was the drinks were poured in various brand of bottles that were supposedly be alcoholic like Johnnie Walkers, Yamazaki, Penfolds...

It was obvious the birthday boy wanted people to think they were drinking alcohol when they're actually not...smart guy. 

The moment the song blasted from the humongous speakers, my first instinct was to run away, it was all getting too much for someone introverted and quiet like me, but I stopped myself just in time and remembered I was trying new things -- things normal me wouldn't do before I die of Hanahaki. 

I tried not to think too much, put on an active and lively facade, and let myself go crazy.

I danced my life on the dance floor, I didn't care whether I was a bad dancer or not,  I never felt so alive! I couldn't stop laughing at myself as new energy kept coursing through my veins; sweating like an animal from all the dancing, took advantage on the chocolate fountain and the bowls filled with gummy bears, stole a bunch of glow sticks that had been thrown at the crowd, messed around with the DJ(don't worry he was a cool guy), and cannonballed into the pool with my clothes on! 

It was the best feeling ever, it made me completely forgot about my sickness for those few hours. 

If I came to the party as my normal self, I may have gotten an invitation but I wouldn't considered going or had done all that, and I would get side glances of judgement from other students. There'd be whispers such as: 

"what is he doing here?"

 "ugh, what a killjoy!"

"wouldn't be a party if there weren't that one lonely kid in the corner." 

"why did the host invite an outcast like him?" 

I crashed the party as a mysterious person; no one knows a guy with spiky dark blue hair and matching lapis hoodie and jeans in school, so instead of judgmental stares, I got confused yet intrigued stares from others. There were whispers about me during my time at the party, instead of the expected berating, they were: 

"who's that guy? I've never seen him before!"

"is he a friend of someone? Or a mystery guest?" 

"that guy is insane! But in a good way!"

"Why does he have his hoodie on while swimming?"

Keep talking, like that's gonna solve your curiosities. So far, no one attempted to grab a hold of me to reveal my identity. That is until...4 hours later.

I was standing in a shallow corner of the hand shaped swimming pool drinking a blue cup of 'beer', still drenched wet in my clothes when I heard two familiar female voices arguing just a few steps behind me:

"I can't believe you, Bianca! You promised me you won't try the spiked beverage! We're not here to get wasted, and here you are I see you drinking more than you should!"

There was that unmistaken feminine british accent,  I already knew who they were. I sunk down to the water until it was on my chin's level, my already empty cup floating away in the water to avoid getting caught eavesdropping. 

"You also promised me you wouldn't talk with the girls who had been bullying my body weight for years, yet I see you laughing and spending your precious time with those...those...whores!"

"I told you already, it wasn't my intention! They just came up to me and wouldn't let me leave the conversation!"

"And you couldn't shove them aside? Or scream at their faces? Or literally anything that would make them back off? Is that too much for you?!" 

"You're being demented Bianca, don't you trust me?!"

"I trust you, but I don't want my girlfriend talking to my enemies! I have the right to be angry!"

"And I too have the right to be upset, over the fact my girlfriend is drinking ALCOHOL as an underaged!"

"Now you're the one overreacting!"

A tired sigh followed after. 

"Forget it. We're here to have fun, and I'm not in the mood to have a fight with you. We'll talk about this later."

"Bianca..."

Loud stomps of footsteps followed suit. I immediately dived into the water, luckily they didn't noticed me. When I came back to the surface, Leslie was covering her face with her hands. "What is happening to us...?" I heard her mumbled to herself.

They were at it again. 

The garden girlfriends had been fighting so much over the smallest things for two months, I thought they've made up since they appeared as peaceful lovers in public, it seems like not everything shown was true.

 If they kept that up, they might have officially broken up that night and never speak to each other again. And there's nothing more painful than witnessing a love separate! (I got the 'love separate' quote from Pax. They may not seemed like it as they don't show it much, but that detective was the biggest fan of romance)

When Leslie left and headed back into the party, I hastily swam to one of the pool's ladder, stepped out of the pool and the cold night air hit my face and hair like a truck. I shivered to the bones, clutching my arms together. 

'Maybe I should go home now, since I'm soaking wet -- and not in a good way.' I laughed at my little private mental joke, but I didn't wanna leave yet; it was only 12 AM and I was having the time of my life...there was suddenly a prickling on the back of your neck. 

My head spun around and saw the last people left at the outside with me were the school's basketball team, and they were staring intensely at me while their arms in defensive.

My breathing hitched. If I could get paler than I already was, then that moment would've shown it. I began to panic inside, 'Oh no, have they found out my true identity?!' my heart started pounding for its life. 

"Need to dry your clothes, alter(German: mate)?" I knew who's that voice belonged to. Stefan, one of the basketball players, asked me. Remember the exchange German student I told you about? Yeah, that's him. He had the thickest German accent, it would be impossible to mistaken the voice for anyone else. 

I took a couple of deep breaths to calm my nerves. "Ahh...yeah." my voice was in a slight lower and deeper tone to avoid suspicion, but I probably already looked suspicious enough. I didn't dare to glance up the turquoise-haired in the eye, my gaze was somewhere else as my hoodie was pulled down further. 

He motioned towards a door to the left. "The dryer is over there, I recommend putting a towel in the dryer to speed off the process." Stefan's voice was soft and irritatingly calm but his, and so were the others', gazes never left me...the intense stares they had made me feel like a prey under the eyes of predators, waiting for the right moment to strike...

Where they trying to figuring out who I was? Nooope, nope nope! -- that was the only thing that ran to my mind; a conga line of nopes, nej, non, nien, nyhet, not tonight Satan! 

"Thank you, kind sir..." I thanked him with my head down and scurried to the drying room without looking back. 

I've hung out with the basketball team a fair amount of times to know those scumbags hated leaving things a mystery and they're not gonna stop until they know the truth!

My clothes all in the dryer, I grabbed and wore a pool robe that were neatly folded in one of the shelves in the room. Can't go out naked after all...

By the time I headed back to the pool as I wait for my clothes to dry off, it was empty; everyone must had gone inside to sing the birthday song. Phew!

Since I was neither invited or a tag along, I stayed outside; keep in mind I was still in robes after all, it would be embarrassing to show myself to the birthday player wearing nothing but a robe. Although knowing the birthday boy, he would've liked that.

I let myself wandered around the gigantic garden filled of lanterns, roses, and countless of trees carved with hearts and each heart held Ashton's name and random boys' names...that's a lot of broken hearts.

Minutes after strolling around, I came back to the exterior stairs with the celebration on full pack inside the mansion. I rested my back against a wall with a sigh, letting myself sink back into the inevitable reality that I was dying. 

Usually people would fight for their life and try to find a way even by means sacrificing their family, but I was just so tired with life; I never asked to be born, I never asked my parents to have sex so they could have me, but...what a turn of events. I wanted everything to go fast, to end everyone's suffering including mine. I had bring nothing into the world except problems...

For the first time in those hours, my lungs started contracting and swelling like it did before. While stuck in my own world, there was an audible a sigh and a small 'bloody hell' on the balcony above, it held a familiar feminine tone.

Leslie? Why was she not at the party? I couldn't see her no matter how hard I try to see from above, but her mumbles were loud enough to be heard. 

Suddenly a red cup was thrown down from the balcony  toward me! The remaining liquid from the cup splashed into me; the good news was, it's just water(thankfully), but the bad news was...it was ice cold!

"Ahh! Ugh! Geez!" the freezing water soaked my robe and my hair was became wet again, the coldness of the water made me shiver. I heard a surprised gasp from above. 

"Oh my goodness! I-I'm sorry, sir! I didn't know there was anyone else here!" I heard Leslie's high pitched British accent squeaked above. 

Good thing there were no lights on the ground or else she'd see me, and my voice changed to deep and scruffy, much like an old man from the sudden cold shower I received and mixed from the increasing blockage of petals in my lungs.

"Ughh...i-it's fine." I groaned out, clutching myself and chest for heat and to ease the pain. I was aware that my voice had changed, and I intended to talk to Leslie as a role popped into my mind; I was now acting as an American old man.

"Are you sure? Do you need help down there?" Leslie continued on. 

"N-no! It won't be necessary, young lady."

"A-alright...if you say so."

Silence began to take over. Neither of us knew how to create a conversation with a 'stranger' anyway, but I wasn't going to let her go, not with whatever is going on with her and Bianca. 

I 'cleared my throat'(if I actually did, it would make my voice revert to normal), and spoke, "Is there anything bothering you, miss...?"

Another sigh from above.

"Leslie, Leslie Loughty. And yes, something has been pissing me off and nothing in this bloody party is helping me." her voice was aggravated as another sigh came out followed by a whine of irritation. 

"Do tell, miss. It might make you feel better."

...silence again until,

"...I'd never want to come here if I knew those slags were coming, I thought this would be a chance to spend time with my girlfriend since we've been having endless fallouts these months...but no, they just have to create trouble and now Bianca is considering breaking up with me; she said she felt I was choosing them over her and she couldn't date someone who was hanging out with the group who made her feel invalidated."

"Why were you making time for the people who hurt your girlfriend?"

"I...I don't know. One day they approached me and they said they found my sense of fashion interesting and wanted me to be a part of their group, and so I did...I didn't know they were my partner's bullies, if I knew that I would have turned them down. But now I feel attached to them, but at the same time, upset that they did awful things..."

"Well, miss Loughty, I'd say you need to make a decision now since your relationship with your lady depends in this very moment. Unless you could persuade your love to forgive and forget?"

"Bianca doesn't want to talk to them, and neither does the group. And yes, I know I have to choose...but it's hard. I don't want to lose either of them..."

LESLIE, IT SHOULDN'T BE HARD YOU DUMB CUT OF A TEA BAG! Tried to remain calm throughout my acting, I paused for a minute and resumed.

How hard is it exactly to ditch your friends for someone more important? That's like taking a hard time to choose whether ditch a puppy for a life time supply of candies or not, when the obvious answer is to ditch the pup and get your unlimited candies!

"...If there's anything my 60 years of living taught me, was that you have to choose what's more important at some point. In your case, who is more important; do you see a future with your lady?" 

Is 60 years old too young to believe? Should've made it to 70...

"Yes...she's my first love; I want to be at her side for as long as I can, I want to give her my everything, I want to our love to grow, and I'd do anything for her..." The love in the English teenager was unmistakable, she's so lovestruck.

"Then the decision should be easy; fight for your love, miss. Don't do the same mistake I did 40 years ago; I let the woman I loved  get taken before I could even get the chance." I knew I was still acting, but there was a bit of truth in the last 12 words(and replace 'woman' with 'guy').

"Oh...I'm very sorry to hear that...and you're right. I'm going apologize to Bianca, stop being friends with the group, and tell her I still love her!" She was giggling to herself before silence again. This time, the silence held more satisfying accomplishment in the air. 

Welp, that was easy. When she spoke again, it's obvious she was smiling through her voice.

"Thank you, mister...?"

"Jack-" WAIT NO! 

"-King..."

...Did I just named myself 'Jack King'? I felt an infinite facepalm in my gut. You idiotic piece of human meat.

"Sir King. Many thanks for the encouragement, I needed that. Apologize for not asking your name first." Alright, it's a good thing she didn't notice how fake the name sounded because there's obviously going to be a 60 years old American man named 'Jack King'.

"It's fine, young lady. No need to say sorry."

Silence filled us again between us for a couple of minutes.

"...Your first name is Jack, Mr King?" Shit. I think I spoke too soon.

"Y-yes. W-why do you ask?" Why did I stutter?! WHY DID I STUTTER!?

"Nothing. It's just...see, I have a friend named Jack, Jack Azaleas. And he had been expelled for health reasons today."

"Ahh...that's unfortunate." Not.

"Yes it is...A day ago, we saw him puking out dandelion petals. I don't know his home address neither does my girlfriend. His other friends, Kevin and the twins in our school, knows but they won't tell us." There was a pause of silence before Leslie spoke again. "It has only been a day, but I miss him already; Jack was my first friend in school and the sweetest lad I've ever met."

'Sweetest lad'? Come on, Leslie. We both knew that's a lie. At that point I bet she had figured out it was me below because there was no way she'd say that. Still, I kept up my acting. "I heard he was a good for nothing loser who had no hope in life and deserved to die." I replied grumbling.

"Pardon for asking, but who said that?"

"...heard some students here."

"Whoever said that are mistaken. If Jack never approached me at my first day of school, I wouldn't have met my girlfriend, I wouldn't appreciate rock music, and I wouldn't have the courage to tell blokes to sod themselves off."

Those were...true, she wouldn't have met Bianca or like rock if it weren't for me. Did she really knew it was me or... 

"I care for him so much, Azaleas is like the brother I never had as an only child. If something happens to him...I will forever regret it."

We were silent for a few minutes, I found myself crying against the wall biting my hand to silence any sobs, the swelling in my system increased by the second. 

Why was I crying? Leslie probably knew it was me, there was no chance she'd actually say that to anyone else!...right? Did she really...care for me? Did she see me as a brother? 

Was I really someone worth to be missed?

No...

That's a lie.

She's lying.

"...I'm sorry, miss Loughty. But I have to go now." I took a deep breath(more like a short breath at that point) and head to go.

"Alright. It was nice talking to you, Mr King. I hope we meet again someday." she say with a sad yet cheerful tone. 

"Yeah...someday."

====

By the time I came back to the dryers, it was already dry. Time to leave the party, another coughing session was clawing up my throat. 

Why couldn't I just cough out flowers in the garden or in a trashcan, you might be thinking. The answer to that is because it's rude and people might talk more than they already have regarding me as their mysterious guest. 

I put my clothes on, hanged the wet robe and towel, and slipped into the party where the cake has already been cut into hundreds of slices and half of the guests were at the tables eating away, and the other half mingling around.

As I was in the search for the exit, there were two very familiar voices behind me; one was the incredibly thick German accent, and one was the unmistakably deep sultry voice that captured many horny virgin boys' heart(tree carves don't lie). 

"The mystery boy vanished when we came to check on him in the dryers." German accent -- Stefan.

"So you supposed he went out naked?" deep voice -- Ashton, the birthday boy. Followed by a low chuckle. "My my...this mystery guest is more daring than I thought~ Stealing the spotlight at my birthday, eating all the desserts, and jumped into the pool fully clothed...now walking on the property nude."

"What now? You wouldn't wanna scar your guests with a butt bare guy roaming around, would you?"

"I want you to find him, he seems like an intriguing person...I'd like to meet him personally~" 

"You've gotta be ki-"

"Hey, isn't that him right there in his clothes?" another voice came, that was when my head whirled behind and I see the basketball players staring at me. 

Nooopppee!! Not tonight fellas!

There, the main door was on sight, my legs immediately sprinted to the door's direction. "Hey du! Halt!" I heard the German called out. Nien! 

Dodging people smoothly as I go,  Stefan was trying to catch up, but failed miserably as he kept bumping against sweaty bodies and apologizing.

At a split second of time, I saw Bianca and Leslie making out at their table with genuine and happy smiles on their faces. My pep talk helped! At least they were back together, that's one less lonely sad night for two people.

Back to the Tom and Jerry chase; as the frantic pursuit continued, my feet has slowed down a little when the petals fully blocked my breathing. 'No! Not now!' I couldn't suck in another breath of air and my legs were faltering from lack of oxygen, there was no other option but to stop...

NO! I am NOT risking people know I was at the party, NO! Gritting my teeth, I kept my legs up as my mental focus was on the suffocation.

I ended up coughing a bunch of petals while my legs ran, and it was a very difficult considered  you need air to run and I had little to no air in my bleeding lungs while choking out the petals...but I somehow managed to stay alive, I don't know how the hell I did but what a miracle! 

Though I may have left a trail of petals and blood along the way...but anyhow I reached the door before German boy could catch up on me. 

I continued to run down the streets, never once stopping...until I saw my house. Slowly I crawled into my bedroom's window the same way I snuck out and slid down the window, taking in air.

'That was wild and dangerous...I almost got caught!' I scolded myself...then laughed breathlessly. 'Worth it. What a time of my life!' Normal me would've fainted the moment the chase began, but I wasn't my normal self.

While I changed into my pajamas, my mind started racing about what Leslie had said. I continued to think about it until sleep took me over.