Warning: Tons of drama. I am happy. Oh so happy.

Chapter 52: Cassie, Can I Kiss You?

Cassie's POV

I didn't even know what to think anymore. My life was all going downhill. All the trust I had in the guys poofed. My best friend was gone. My other close friend didn't want to be near me. My so called boyfriend couldn't even meet my eyes. Tears didn't come rather frustration, anger, and pain did. My brain was fried-stressed, more of-and I just wished I would wake up from a bad dream.

To make matters worse, some people were already waiting for me at home.

As I entered the house, trying to make sense of everything going on, I met their faces. "Mom? Dad?"

They sat on the couch with exhausted looks on their faces. Mom was even crying. Cate and Gramma sat next to her, trying to calm her down. Behind me, my older brother, Jimmy, came in with a panicked look.

"What's the emergency?" asked Jimmy as he took my side. I shrugged not knowing what was going on.

Dad sighed. "We went through a major loss in our company." Jimmy and I exchanged a glance. No wonder Mom was crying.

"How bad?" asked Jimmy cautiously.

"Pretty bad. We need a lot of money to cover it up," replied Dad.

"We might have to sell the house," Cate said with a depressed look. She looked at our parents to deny it, but they didn't.

"Or take money out of your girls' college funds," Dad said rubbing his temple.

Could my day get any better?

Upset, I crashed down on the couch. "When did it all happen?" I asked.

"Three days ago. We've been trying to gather money but it hasn't been working," Dad said and leaned back on the sofa. "We lost two major deals to the Crowells, and all the investments we made crashed. It's awful. We'll lose our company in about a week if we can't make a one hundred k payment at least within the next few days."

Jimmy said a bunch of colorful words as he plopped down next to me. However, no one reprimanded him for his language. We were all in the same thoughts.

"You can take the money out of my college fund," said Cate, breaking the silence. We all looked at her in surprise. "Jimmy's already in college. Sandy's almost there. I still have two more years." She shrugged. I honestly didn't expect it from the brat. She was being unusually considerate.

Mom put an arm around her. She had finally stopped crying. "We don't know if that'll be enough, Cate."

"You can always pull money out my college money too," I offered. "I haven't even started college yet. Cate and my college funds can probably make it up." My younger sister nodded in agreement.

My parents sighed. "We'll figure it out. Go to your rooms. Relax. We'll talk about this later," Dad told us. Cate, Jimmy, and I sat still. As expected.

"There goes my savings' account," I said feeling awful. As a future business major, I knew the most important thing in everyone's life: money. The business & finance teachers in school always stressed on a savings account. So I got one. It was going to disappear soon.

"You have a savings' account?" Cate asked. Everyone gave me skeptical looks.

I rubbed my temple. My head was hurting from the stress and pressure. Now, I had to tell them this little secret or remind my parents the secret. "Yeah. I was really pissed off when Cate got her credit card and she wasted so much money on useless things," I said. My sister and whole family was already aware of that.

"So?" Jimmy waited for further elaboration.

"Oh the separate account," Mom said in realization. Dad and her exchanged a glance before turning to me. "It's where we made that automatic thing where you get the same amount of money that Cate spent on clothes and other things in your account."

"Yeah, I've hardly used that account," I told them. "I'm sure there is hell a lot of money in there because the money has been going in for two and half years. You can check if that helps."

"You actually did that?" Cate asked shocked.

"You really thought I was going to let you get away with spending so much money?" I asked my sister.

"No," she said thoughtfully. "So now, you can see how much money I've spent for the past two years at least?" No wonder she was shocked. This was what she was concerned about: getting caught for so much money wastage.

Mom and Dad looked at her, before Dad faced me. "Sandy, get me the card as soon as possible. We'll see if that'll help. I really don't want to take out any money from your college accounts."

I nodded and went to retrieve the card from my room. There was a funny thing hapening in all this.

It seemed like my family was the only thing I had left. The only people who had shared the truth with me.

How ironic.

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Miserable, awful, and heartbreaking-made up the next few days. Mom and Dad found over a hundred thousand in the credit card. Their first response was to cancel all of Cate's credit cards. The next response was to stay away and try to figure out everything. What a family I had.

School was a whole different story. I avoided Lucas, Julian, and even Cheryl at all costs. Seemingly, they didn't get in my way either. Piper kept wanting to know what happened, but I couldn't bring myself to tell her anything.

To make my life harder, my AP biology teacher allowed for the AP environmental science (APES) students to come in for the presentations on human body systems. This only added more people to hear about the reproductive system.

The struggle was real.

I waited by the Smartboard which held up my powerpoint. My teacher was telling the class to behave like mature seniors. We were AP students and could handle hearing . . . the terms. "I'm not sure I can handle saying the terms," I mumbled. To add on to that, Lucas, Julian, and Piper were three of the APES students. I couldn't even meet their eyes, though I did see Piper throwing me a reassuring smile.

"I have full faith in you, Sandy. Start whenever you're ready," Ms. Kalesse told me.

I held a packet that all my slides and information printed on there. Putting my focus solely on the words on the paper, I started reading off. Eye contact in this presentation was going to be rare-that is, if it even happened at all. I began reading and kept my voice as monotone as possible.

My face burned. I had never felt so much heat on my face as I said words I had never said before. "I love this presentation," some guy whispered loudly.

I stopped for a second and met his eyes. There goes eye contact, right? More like a glare. Moving back to describing the male reproductive anatomy, I planned on ways of killing myself after this.

The same guy made another comment and this time, I think Julian told him to shut up. Out of sheer stupidity, I looked up to meet Julian's eyes when I had heard his voice. His words immediately returned.

Cassie's my greatest regret. He looked away from me.

I quickly continued. It was going okay until the same stupid kid who called himself an advanced placement (AP) student cracked jokes. Some were really vulgar. Ms. Kalesse gave him two warnings. The third time, I didn't know whether I should have laughed or what.

"Would you quit it already?" Julian interrupted me as he stared directly at the rude boy.

"Dude, chill," said the rude idiot.

"No!" snapped Lucas. "Shut the f-"

"Lucas, I can handle this," Ms. Kalesse interjected before Lucas could have gotten himself in trouble. "Dante, get out of my class. Apparently, asking for you to act your age is a bit too much. I'm sure those students sitting in in-school suspension won't mind having company for one period. Choices. Now."

Dante looked horrified. "I am not going to Choices! There are animals sitting in there! Wild animals sitting around as uncivilized humans!" Choices was the room in our school where they sent all the troublemakers. All of us were aware of the kids in there. Mostly, the ninth graders resided in the Choices room which was just another school room. Some of the middle school kids just couldn't adapt or fit in a more mature environment.

Dante had to spend the rest of the class with those "wild animals" or "uncivilized humans."

My presentation finished pretty quickly after his departure, and I returned to my seat as soon as possible.

In all this, Piper caught one thing: something was seriously wrong between the boys and I. There was tension.

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"He said that?!" Piper almost screamed in my ear as we were walking down to the student parking lot. School had ended five minutes ago and I had finally told Piper what happened. "I miss one day of the school play and all this drama happens. Julian is so dead." She looked furious as she made a u-turn.

"Piper, stop it," I said imitating her actions. "I don't want to get into more drama. My life's been through enough already."

Piper stopped in her tracks and looked at me. "Do you remember when Gabe broke up with me?" She didn't wait for my response. "You made a whole plan to get him back for breaking my heart. Sandy, I'm just going there to teach Julian something. You don't have to come if you don't want to."

I cracked a smile. "Piper-"

"I know I'm amazing. Now, are you coming or not? I do plan on punching him for you," she smirked.

I winced and shook my head. "I don't want to see that. I can't even look at him in the first place."

"Cool, just wait for me near my car. I'll be back," she said cheerfully and legitimately skipped to the main entrance of the school. I didn't even know what to do with her. I didn't want Piper to punch Julian. No. No need for him to get more pain than I had already caused him, right?

I hadn't even done anything.

Loud thunder almost startled me. Huffing, I adjusted my backpack on my back and went after Piper. Now, I couldn't wait for her outside when it started raining, could I?

Just a reason to go after my friend.

Julian's POV

"Julie, you are on the wrong scene," said Cherry as I rehearsed next to her. Officially, everyone still had time to get to the auditorium and rehearse. Cherry was helping the designers prepare all the artistic things. But for the last two days she had been bothering me. I already saw the next comment coming. "I know she's occupying your mind, but please focus. Wherever you are, be there."

I slammed the script down frustrated and sighed. "Cherry, quit up bringing the same thing. You're making it worse for me." We sat in the front row seats of the auditorium.

"Worse? How much worse can everything get than it already is?" she asked me. Her words held truth. Nothing could be worse than what I had said to Cassie or rather about Cassie.

"Julian!" A piercing, high-pitched voice startled both my friend and I. Piper was on her way to us with a look that told me she was ready to kill somebody.

Was it me? Quite Possible.

"Piper, I can expla-" I began as I stood up, knowing what was coming. Piper was Cassie's friend after all. Being violent was in their nature.

"You have exactly ten seconds to do that before I punch you." At least Piper gave a chance unlike Cassie who would simply just throw the punch and then listen. "One," began Piper.

Cherry and I exchanged a glance. "I'm leaving."

Piper narrowed her eyes at me. "Leaving for what? What point of explain did you not understand?"

"Piper, I'm leaving for Spain on the day of the play," I told her. The school play (of "Pride & Prejudice") had been delayed due to issues with our director. The teacher, Ms. Spruance, had injured herself, so we got held back. Now, the play was on the day I was leaving. To my idiocy, I said I would come for my role that evening.

"You're leaving for spring break?" She really was Cassie's best friend.

"No, it'll be a goodbye. Family problems. I won't be coming back for a long while," I informed her. Maybe she could help keep Cassie and I apart. What a thought. I craved for her attention and now, when Cassie actually was somewhat willing to give it to me, I came up with another stupid plan.

"Okay. Does Sandy know that?" Cherry and I nodded in response. "Why did you hurt her then? She already knows you're leaving."

"He's afraid of getting close to her when he is leaving so soon," Cheryl answered on my behalf.

"You're stupid," Piper told me. I had realized that already. "Do you know how much you hurt her?!"

"Do you know how much it hurt me to do that?" I calmly asked.

"That's not the way to approach this. Do you not love her?" she asked.

"I do," I said.

"Do you not want her happy?"

"I do!"

"Do you not want to see her with you? Hold her? Cherish her?"

"I do, Piper! I do! But time is something I don't have! It's not easy letting go! I do love her. I do want her happy. I do!"

A small smile came on Piper's face. "Might as well get married with all these 'I do's.'" I gave the statement no importance. She was really making it worse. "You're probably gonna kill me for this, but still." What was she talking about now? Cherry appeared confused as well. "You might want to turn around," Piper said a little uneasily. "This was worth dying for," she mumbled.

"Piper, what-" I didn't get a chance to complete my thought. Cherry pulled my arm and forced me turn around.

My eyes were met with a crying face, looking at me with a mixture of anger and betrayal.

No.

No.

Piper!

Cassie's POV

"I do, Piper! I do! But time is something I don't have! It's not easy letting go! I do love her. I do want her happy. I do!" he nearly shouted at Piper. Julian had lied. He had put a whole charade up with Cheryl. All because of the fact that he was leaving? My mind wouldn't cooperate and tell me how to react. All the stress doubled. I didn't know whether I should punch Julian or kis-punch him.

Piper met my eyes for a second before smiling at Julian. Oh, she planned this. "Might as well get married with all these 'I do's.' You're probably gonna kill me for this, but still. You might want to turn around," Piper said a little uneasily. She added an incoherent mumble as tears slipped down my cheeks. I couldn't cry like this. No more weakness. I was almost an adult.

Cheryl turned around first and her eyes almost popped out of her head upon seeing me. She forced Julian to turn who was still confused by Piper. When he saw me, his face dropped.

"You-you," I couldn't finish. Turning on my heel, I almost ran out of there. Julian Aylmer was playing with my goddamn feelings.

"Cassie, wait!" I heard his footsteps behind me.

Wiping my face, I picked up my pace as I hurried down the hallway. Julian caught me just as I walked out of the back exit of the school building. It had started raining when we were inside. "Julian, let go." His hands held my arms, refusing to set me free. "What other lies do I have to hear now?" Both of us were getting drenched in the rain but that was the least of our worries.

"Cassie, you-I-I can't." He backed off. "I'm sorry-"

"Don't you dare ever use that phrase aga-"

"Darling, you-"

"Don't call me that!" I snapped.

"Why are you so angry?" he asked outraged. This side of Julian wasn't something I was familiar with or wanted to get familiar with. "Bloody hell Cassie! I confessed in front of you!"

I blinked at him as his words registered. "That would have never happened if it weren't for Piper."

"You sent Piper after me?"

"She was only supposed to go and demand answers for . . . for 'Cassie's my biggest regret.'"

He ran a hand through his dark, wet hair and kicked a flowerpot nearby. "Damn it, Piper," he muttered. We stood in silence until I chose to break it. I needed answers.

"Julian, why did you kiss me?" I asked him slowly and dropped my backpack on the ground.

He met my eyes. "Because I was being . . . I knew I couldn't get another opportunity." Why did I even ask when I knew the answer wasn't going to be easy to handle?

Wiping my face from the rain water, I said, "Why didn't you tell me about . . . about everything? I climbed two stories to your room to only find you saying that you were heartbroken by someone!"

He stepped my way, still keeping distance between us. "What was I supposed to say? 'Darling, I love you, but you'd much rather be with my cousin?'" he asked. "Cassie?"

"Yeah?"

"It was wrong of me to kiss you when I was well aware that you were dating my cousin. I'm sorry." I was unsure of what to respond when he added, "Frankly speaking, I wasn't sure you were even going to let me." I knew why he said that: Julian wasn't the only one at fault.

I stared at him. He wanted an answer. I had let him kiss me. Why oh why was I so stupid?

"You caught me by surprise" was my brilliant answer.

With a disappointed look, he said, "Of course. The element of surprise can always function as an excuse." I narrowed my eyes at him. I did not use surprise as an excuse as far as I knew. "At least you made it clear that you don't return my feelings." He looked at me as if challenging me to deny it.

I didn't know my own feelings, so how could I accept or deny anything? "Why are you doing this, Julian?" My head hurt. No. It ached. It ached because it had been messed around with too much. "Why did you make everything so complicated?" I was happy to have the rain as I felt hot tears escape my eyes.

"Cassie," he said taking a step closer. His proximity bothered me. I wasn't used to all those strange sensafions in my body. "I didn't mean for this to happen. I don't want anything like . . . to happen before I left."

"Like what?" I asked.

"Like us getting close," he said looking away. Ironic since he was standing less than a foot apart from me. "You know my feelings, and I'm somewhat aware of yours." He was aware of my feelings? Did he want to share the knowledge so I would know as well? Julian slowly raised his hands to my face and wiped the tears-rainwater mixture on my cheeks. My heart started jogging on a damn treadmill. "My cousin is extremely lucky," whispered Julian, putting his forehead against mine.

I didn't know how to respond. My breaths came out uneven as my senses became full aware of his hands on my cheeks. "Julian-"

He took my hand and brought it to his chest. His heart was beating loud and clear underneath his drenched button down. I searched his eyes questioningly. "Every time I come near you, that happens. Not since the kiss, but since I h-held you at that camp in the rain." His voice was breaking but he kept leaning his forehead against mine. "I don't know, Cassie, but it scares me. Sca-scares me a lot to allow this inconsistent beating to continue." My hand remained under his on his chest, feeling the loud thumping of his heart.

It scared me as well. Because it matched mine. "Julian, please-" I tried to pull away but he held me. Rain poured down us, lightening struck at different angles far away, thunder roared telling us to separate-but Julian wouldn't.

"Give me a moment, Cassie," he said in his low, deep voice that I knew I was going to miss hearing. "I-I promise not to kiss you without your permission," he added and let out a forced chuckled. I really wasn't finding anything funny. "I'm being selfish right now. Very selfish. Forgive me."  I would have to be angry first to forgive him. My body felt a sensation of tingles as Julian slowly pulled me in his arms, embracing me. I didn't know why I was crying.

"You're gonna see me tomorrow, Julian," I whispered. He acted like this was it.

"But I won't be making any confessions tomorrow," he said back.

"I don't want any-"

"I love you, Cassie." I immediately tried to pull away, but he held me tightly. "This won't happen again, so listen. I know you don't return my feelings and that is alright. I'm not holding anything against you. I love you and that's it. I love you for your temper. I love you for your stunning smile. I love you for your soft heart. I love you for the extreme measures you go through for the sake of your friendship. I love you for bumping into me when you were jogging. I love you for you-you know I could go on for hours." For some reason, I wanted to tell him to go on.

"I didn't bump into you that day. We bumped into each other," I said. My head was still pressed against his chest but it was slightly better protected from the rain.

"I suppose that's the only 'we' there'll ever be." Julian's voice held his emotions. I didn't want him hurt and depressed-that wasn't Julian. I slowly pulled my head back to look at him-a huge mistake. Julian helped turn me so that we were fully facing each other. His sky blue eyes lingered on my lips before meeting my eyes. "Cassie," his voice was barely audible as he leaned in. My heart raced as my eyes closed. Julian's hands were on my back, pulling me closer to him, trying to erase any gaps. The rain poured, making my hair cling to my face. Julian lightly brought one hand from my back to my face, pushing my hair behind my ears. "Cassie, can I kiss you?" he asked as his lips moved dangerously close to mine.

I froze. He had asked me as promised. The spontaneous and irrational part of me was telling me to give him my consent. I wanted him to kiss me. But my rational side proposed all the complications. And Lucas.

I opened my eyes slowly and found Julian's face barely a few inches away. "N-no," I said. Julian's eyes opened immediately and his face fell. He quickly collected himself and nodded, letting me go. "Julian, Lucas-"

"I get it." He backed away, not meeting my eyes.

"You're hurt," I said.

"Took you a while to notice, eh?" He tried to sound amused but it came out bitter. "Don't worry, darling. I've always been awful at accepting rejection."

I sniffled. "You deserve so much better, Julian. So much better."

"Whoever is in charge of the justice system disagrees obviously." He looked so forlorn. "I'm sorry for everything wrong I've done or said in the past few days."

"Julian, I-" That's when I saw his eyes. Like really saw his eyes. Those teary, blue eyes that had been hidden by the rain. The pain in them was so obvious that it took me by surprise. "Your eyes."

"Thought I mentioned rejection doesn't work in my favor," he smiled. His dimples showed. But the smile was miserable. Absolutely miserable. It was forced. "I better leave. The play awaits. My other Elizabeth waits for me." He lightly brushed his fingers against my cheek before turning around and walking away.

I raised my hand to my cheek and felt the tingling sensation again. Tears burned down my face as I broke at his departure. Julian. He could make me feel so many things. I had hurt him so much.

Oh boy, Julian, you are killing me.

Why couldn't you like someone else?

Lucas's POV (A/N you're welcome)

I watched them cry. I heard their conversation. I felt terrible to get in between this. Ms. Spruance had to send me to fetch Julian and all I find is Julian and Sandy heartbroken in each other's arms.

From the window, I saw Sandy break down crying as soon as Julian got back inside. He himself looked like a mess as he headed off to the opposite end of the school. They had been about to kiss. Second time? But Cassie said something that made them both pull away.

Never had I ever seen two people so miserable.

Julian loved her.

She loved him.

And I-Lucas Crowell-was just there. Adding more complications. Julian spent a hell lot of time grieving for his mom's death and now Sandy was just adding the pain. She was stupid not realize her feelings. Messing with three lives: hers, mine's, and my cousin's.

I had been stupid too, to come between them. I knew . . . deep down, I was well aware that she loved him. Ever since she saw him die in the asylum, I knew she had something for him. She always had a soft spot for Julian. She trusted him more. She felt something for him that she didn't feel for me.

Sandy didn't like me.

I was there to get the blame why they couldn't be together.

"Lucas! Come on! Rehearsals are starting!" a high pitched, female voice broke me out of my thoughts. I looked out the window and saw Sandy leaving. Turning around, I found Jenna. She had been a long time friend. "What's up?" she asked when she saw my face. I had never felt so down in a relationship.

"I need your help."

Julian wasn't the only one who could be selfless.

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A/N

Important thing to clear: I know the many ships are frustrated and annoyed at the turn of the events. It's gonna unwind and solve itself. Hardly even two chapters are left. Please be respectful of other people's opinions. I do read every comment. I mean it. Treat others the way you want to be treated. This book is ENTIRELY a work of fiction. Phew. Glad to get that off my chest. Moving on. (

My poor Lucas. He saw. Whatya think he is gonna do?

My poor Julian. He confessed.

My poor Cassie. She said no. She is confused.

I'm sorry. But this stuff can happen in real life. Not really. I just hope never to any of us. Too much stress.

Anyways, on a lighter note, whatya think of what Piper did? Any ship hoppers? 

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