My scratch on the forehead was making me itch it like a dog. Though everything seemed fine and it was a normal sunny day outside, there was something nagging me behind.

I had called Dad again, but it had gone straight to voicemail. I assumed he was still sleeping, for it was seven thirty in the morning. And since he was a heavy-eyed bear to hear the ringtone, I assumed that he hadn't heard it. I slumped the bread toasts into the hot box for him if he came home while I was working.

I made my way towards the coffee shop making sure that I had locked the door properly. Walking the lonely streets, I reached the shop. The aroma of the coffee had pushed my negative thoughts away and I was feeling a bit uplifted.

"Good morning, honey." Mira spoke thorough the kitchen. The shop was a bit packed, but it was not anything that Mira couldn't handle.

She was typing in the receipt for the customer who was standing in front of her. She ran to the kitchen half way in between the typing and twirled the batter for the cupcakes. For her age, she was pretty hard worker.

"Busy morning, huh?" I asked as I wrapped an apron around me. I walked past her and started looping the spoon in the batter. It was a recipe that she hadn't passed on to me. "I'll take care from here."

"Thank you, Scarlet." Her motherly affection made me smile. "Can you take over the queue? I'm not fast with the typing."

"Sure." I said as she smiled sheepishly taking over the reception. "Any items going empty?"

She gave me a list of things that were depleted for the morning. I memorized them and put up a small notice board at the counter to let the customers know that we were out of stock for the morning.

By the time I was done with taking the orders, Mira had finished the baking. She wiped her hands on her white apron getting the batter swiped on the sides. Her gray curls had come off from her bun and were dangling as she turned around. Though she was old enough to be my grand aunt, she had a zeal in her which most of us—even in our young age—lost. That was what I admired the most about her.

"You are done there?" She called once she found she had cleaned the place from her previous jobs. "I need a hand here."

Though I was a worker there, she had never once demanded work from me. It was as if she was asking for some extra help and she was very kind about it. The fact alone put me at ease and it felt as if I was working with someone whom I had known for years.

"Of course, Mira." I called back, dusting the wrinkle in my apron. "I've taken the orders and have asked them to wait for a second."

"Hope this takes a second too." She smiled nervously, pulling her hair behind her ears.

She put the butter in a big bowl and added a spatula full of sugar. Mixing it proportionately, she added a drop of essence to it.

"Are you making cream?" I asked curiously, watching her do her work with much dedication.

"Yup." She said, sticking her tongue out of her mouth in concentration. "Now, I'm going to put it in a plastic cone so that it becomes easy for the creaming."

"That is really cool." I gushed. It really was. Perhaps that was the reason behind the dreadful rush of customers.

"You had drawing in your school?" She put the cone aside and looked at me, but she wasn't looking for my answer. "You are going to design the cakes."

"What?" I was sure my eyebrows had shot upwards. "I will be a mess, Mira. I will take care of the serving part."

"Get on with it, Scarlet." She said sternly and I had to obey. "Cut the hole below according to the size in which you want the design."

With my random and haphazard designs on the cakes, they were sold more than we had anticipated. Mira was so happy that she had not stopped smiling even when we were telling that we were out of the cupcakes for the day.

"Oh my God!" Mira beamed as the morning rush came down a bit. "I had never seen so much enthusiastic cupcake wanters!"

I laughed at her. "Mira, that's not even a word." I scratched my head, taking away the plates to dispose.

"Scarlet!" She shrieked and I was taken aback by her sudden outrage. For a second, considering her age, I thought she had a heart attack due to over-joy. I turned towards her to see what was wrong.

"You are bleeding." She said. She looked as if she was going to lose her consciousness the very next second. "Your head... so much... blood... no."

I touched my forehead in response and found droplets of fresh blood trickling down to the sides. It was the same one I had got from the track-incident, aka accident. I pulled a napkin from the serving table and damped it on the gushing red liquid. When I was sure there was less blood so that Mira would be okay, I went closer to her.

"Mira, do you need some water?" I asked as I handed a glass of water from the table. "You should sit down. Are you okay?"

"What happened?" She asked. She looked almost terrified and seemed to break into sobs any minute.

"I ran into a pole yesterday." I waved my hand in the air. It seemed so easy to lie, as if my tongue rolled on their own, making up for the things I did. Perhaps that was the way Rob wanted me to be, at least in the tracks, covering up was what he called, giving it a fancy name. "Are you okay?" I repeated my question again, kneeling down next to her.

"I'm just... it's nothing." She said a little while later. "I get nauseated when I see blood." She finished later. But it seemed as if she was trying to convince herself more than she did to convince me.

I nodded. Without hovering about the subject any more, I took the plates into the sink and scrubbed them clean. I arranged the plates according to their sizes and swiped the kitchen table spotless.

"I've classes in an hour." I called out, as I took my bag from the counter and swung it around my shoulders. "But not in the noon, so I'll be back by then."

"Hey, wait." She said as she ran towards me. "You should apply this on your head."

She opened her hands to show me some yellow colored paste in her palms. "What's this?"

"It's turmeric and water." She took some of it on her hands and gestured me to bend my head lower for her to reach. "In India, this is what they do as first aid. My mother used to put this when I used to get scratches from playing."

I nodded at her and obliged as she put the medicine on my head. I had never applied any medicine of any kind for fallen injuries in my whole life. I usually left it to dry and heal on its own. But this was different, a good different. Like a mother looking out for her child. And I didn't know how that felt like.

"Um... thank you." I said, grateful that someone had made an effort to care for me.

"It will look yellowish when it's dry, but trust me it heals faster." She said with a smile on her face.

I smiled back politely making my way back home. Staying with my Dad and the track people my whole life, I had forgotten what a motherly touch felt like. We had hardly known each other and yet, there she was patching my forehead with her yellow medicine. Who had thought going to coffee house would bring out my carvings for motherly warmth?

---

"Surprise test!"

The physics teacher gushed at us. It was as if her Christmas had come early. She was too enthusiastic about the test that her cheerful smile made me cringe.

I had brushed up with the chemistry few days ago, but I had never touched the physics chapters. The last I studies was before the party... err... before my hell broke lose.

I looked at Lily who shared physics class with me. Her face hadn't fallen like mine and was expectantly waiting for the question papers. When our eyes met, she gave me thumbs up sign at me.

Just as I thought of mouthing my distress, she turned away, as the teacher stood in front of her distributing her question booklet. I internally winced as my turn came to get the question papers. The whole booklet seemed to be of Greek and Latin, something that I couldn't fathom.

Twisting and turning the pages for an hour completely, I handed over the sheets to the ever cheerful teacher, returning her smile halfheartedly. I had only marked the multiple choice questions and the fill ups that I thought I knew. But the bigger part of me knew I was going to flunk in the subject just as Lily was going to ace it.

"Hey!" Lily looped her hand in between mine, halting my train of thoughts. "That fifth question was easy right? I'm so happy that I went through that stuff late night yesterday. I was just not sleepy and those books were calling me..."

She went on ranting as we scurried past the hall. It was the last of the classes for the day and I wanted nothing more than to bury myself in my blankets. Listening to her rant about it, made my head hurt. Made me want to scream my lungs out. Made me want to hate myself for not studying.

"Lily... I'm just having a headache." I tried telling her in the best way I could, but she was not listening.

"You didn't study, did you?" She stopped in her tow, waiting for my reaction. When I didn't say anything back, I knew she knew it. "Why Scar?" She folded her hands against her chest, tapping her right foot on the ground.

It was like adding fuel to my distress and I couldn't take her inquiries. "Well Lily, I was busy dying in the tracks yesterday. That's why. You happy now?"

I took off not looking back to see if I had hurt her. I had actually not died. It was just a tiny scratch on my forehead and a big dent on the car. Robert said that I had fallen unconscious because I had feared it and not because I was dying.

I had never raised my voice with her throughout my friendship and this new-crazy-me was ruining it very well. The thought alone made me hate myself and tears had already started to pool in my eyes. I walked faster, keeping my eyes to the ground, not wanting anyone to see my tears.

As I reached the corner, I made a mistake of looking up, just to see Nick and his new girl together laughing heartily at something. It was more than enough to put fuel to my already burning conscious.

The tears that I was trying to keep at bay ran down my cheeks before I had a chance to wipe them. I changed my directions, not wanting to meet anyone. Before I knew where I was heading, I saw myself walking towards the school playground. The boys were practising for a match our school had that Friday and no one were bothered that I had come.

I sat at the corner making it easy for me to run any chance I met someone whom I knew. Not only had I fought with my best friend, I had also been heartbroken watching Nick, who was supposed to be at my side consoling me.

I had never felt this alone.

It was all because of that fateful race. It changed my life and turned it upside down. Even though my Dad had to stay at the house and take rest, he was at Dan's place chilling out. He had never once called me to ask how I was doing.

The boulder of responsibility was too much for me to carry all at once. With a job on one hand and the school, it was really difficult to cope up. I was doing my best but it was not enough.

"Hey, what happened to you?" I cursed myself under my breath for being so irresponsible as to not to watch out for myself.

It was James, of course. He was in the team, vice-captain to be precise. He held his cap on his hand and had already climbed up the stairs to greet me. His eyes looked puzzled, yet there was concern in his eyes, like that of an elder brother looking out for his little sister.

James and I were opposites to be frank. He was the blazing sun, glistening and hot, while I was the snow always cold. But somehow he had melted me with his charming character, making it seem that he was more than what people gave credit for. It was not until Lily had a crush on him, I became the messenger between the two, making them collide on their way once a while in an attempt to hook them up.

It was just like those cliché movies where the college's football captain had fallen for the beauty. It was so adorable when they were so shy to even talk with each other. But when they did, it was as if they were in their own bubble of happiness and love. It was not a surprise when they announced that they liked each other just a week after they started speaking.

James and me became close along their journey and had considered me his sister ever since. He's always been looking out for me.

"Scar, did anyone hurt you?" He changed his questions before he took a seat next to me.

Well, I was not physically hurt, but was wounded emotionally deep down. I shook my head, not making eye contact with him.

"Then how do you explain that scar on your head?" He gestured towards the small dent with his cap. "I'm not good at this." He scratched his head. "Wait, let me call Lil."

"NO!" I rushed. "No... I just met her." I wiped my eyes.

"Oh," He pocketed his phone and looked dazzled. "Did you guys fight?"

The moment he said those words, my guilt knew no bounds. Tears formed and soon I was hiccuping. I reached to wipe away, but more seemed to make its way down and I saw myself having a mini meltdown. I wanted her by my side telling me that it was all okay, but she was judging me for not studying.

"Hey, hey. Shush, it's okay." He said putting an arm behind my head and pulled me towards him. I put my head on his chest and wept like a two year old baby. "I know whatever it was, you didn't mean it. I'm sure Lil didn't mean it either."

"I..." I started, pulling myself away, and trying to get a hold of myself. "I blew up on her."

"It's okay." He said, taking my hand in his. "I know you didn't mean it."

"No, it's not okay!" I screamed. "I've never raised my voice with her. Even when she said she was finally dating you, I kept my quite..."

"Thanks." I guess I saw an eye roll from his side.

"But now, just because I hadn't studied for that exam, I got all defensive. I told her that I was dying yesterday... instead of studying." I hiccuped. "I made it seem as if it was her mistake for not looking out for me, James."

"That's the scar?" he asked, pointing my head.

"Well, that's not the point!" I put my hand in the air. "She didn't even come after me. I put her into guilt and she's probably crying her eyes out blaming everything on her."

I bent ahead, putting my hand on my eyes, too dizzy to think straight. It was getting late for my practice and didn't care as long as I knew that we were okay.

"What are you guys doing?" Lily's voice startled me.

I looked up to see her. As predicted, I could tell that she had been crying just like me. The deep dark circles around her eyes and the puffy eyes with a reddened nose was enough for anyone to rush to her asking her what the hell was wrong with her.

She eyed us—James and me—alternatively with a face full of confusion. James had put his arm behind the small on my back, while his other rested on my arm, trying to get me to look at him. For anyone who saw, they would think that there was something going on between the two of us.

I spoke quickly. "Lily, it's not what you think it is."

She shook her head sideways and I was terrified. I was the one, who had struggled day and night just to get the two of them together and now, I was the one who was creating a confusion.

Besides, I had never seen James like that. The only person I had set my eyes were Nicholas Everest who at the present moment was flirting with some other girl.

"Did he hurt you?" was all Lily asked.

Fresh tears popped up again at the selfless love she had towards me. Of course, I should have thought about it. She would have doubted him and not me; after all, I was her best friend.

Without another word, I ran down the stairs and hugged her, almost knocking the air out of her. "I'm so sorry, Lil. I'm sorry." I sobbed.

"Honey, you are really scaring me."

"Hey, I didn't do anything." James said from behind me, clearly confused. "I was just trying to help her out."

"Help her?" Lily was now angry and seemed to throw tantrums at her boyfriend in my honor. It was so like her that I had to hold back my smile.

Lily and James were very uncommon of the couple I had ever seen. Though they had announced that they were officially together, there were many people who wanted to break them up just to keep the pieces for themselves.

Being a football jock, James was always followed by a herd of girls, who always tried to flirt and get attention from him. And, being the beauty of the school, Lily was constantly asked out by other boys. But neither of them had fought about it. They had a lot of respect, love and belief, trusting each other that they wouldn't do anything stupid to lose what they had.

"He was just asking me why I was crying." I said, not looking at her.

"Oh," Lily said, stopping her curse words in half. "I'll deal with you later." She said to James, who just rolled his eyes and ran back to the game which he had left to console me. "Are you okay?"

"No," I said, breaking down. "I'm going crazy with all the things I've to deal with."

"I know." She said, making me sit on the lower stair. She sat next to me. "I should have been there with you when you were going through it. I'm sorry."

Her eyes were glistened and I felt sorry for dragging her into my plate. "No, you shouldn't be sorry. I should be mad at myself for not being strong enough. I'm just sorry, I took it out on you."

"Sweetie, we're young." She said, "It's okay not to be strong. I know getting a job, taking care of the house with a wheel chaired Dad, racing the unknown out in the open and studying your ass off for the school was not something you were expecting over a night. But, here you are and there's nothing but to go along with the flow, at least until you get a hang of it, right?"

I nodded my head. She had understood me like no other. "I can help you out with the school during weekends." She offered and I was grateful.

"You are the best, Lil" I said hugging her sideways.

"So now, can you explain me how you were dying?"

---

A/N: I'm so sorry. It's another filler chapter. I wanted to showcase the relationship between Lily and James. I wish I had a James too. Can't wait for you to read the next chapter!