[TRAVIS]

The weekend had been long, but not long enough.  I thought as I stood face to face with Sam at my locker on Monday morning.

"Err..." I trailed before opening my locker. I could feel her eyes boring holes into the back of my head.

"Travis we need to talk," I heard Sam say as she took a hold of my shoulder.

"Talk about what? There's nothing to talk about—" 

"Don't act dumb, after school, okay? I don't want to ruin your day," she said before walking away. I don't want to ruin your day? What does that even mean?

I took the books I needed out my locker, for the first time I'm not planning on being late. I don't feel like talking to anyone today, and thank goodness I don't share a class with Alex... Urg! The thought of the bastard made me want to kill myself.

I shut my eyes in an attempt to calm myself. I couldn't believe he'd been so subtle about the whole thing. I groaned shaking my head. It had been a thorn in my side all weekend.

Walking into math I took my usual seat in the back, the majority of the class wasn't even there yet. I took out my math textbook and the printed note sheets of what Alex emailed to me.

Alex. I brought my hands to my head, groaning. Why did he have to do that? Why did he have to break down my already weak defense system? I should be mad that he kissed me but, I'm mad that he brushed it off like it was nothing.

He has a boyfriend. A voice said in my head, which I decided to ignore. I should have thought of that, before, you know.

"You're here already?" I heard Jasper say as he took his seat beside me.

"Uh huh," I said trying to avoid further conversation. The rest of the class had started to come in. The teacher was a middle-aged small structured female. I kinda liked her, she wasn't as cranky as the other teachers, *cough* *cough* Miss Smith.

"You have notes, since when?" Jasper asked. I turned to find his wide eyes glued to the printed sheets.

"Since a while ago," I said, tucking them beneath my textbook as I shrugged.

"The tutoring is paying off, isn't it?" Jasper said, sighing before returning to his own work. Math wasn't as alien, and as hard as it had been throughout the semester. Alex's notes were really detailed yet simplistic. In the sense that they had everything I need to know, but it didn't look like a complicated instruction manual.

Class passed by until it slowed down during history (Why does this always happen?) My eyes were fixated on the wall clock until class finally ended and it was time for lunch break. Walking through the halls I meet up with Jonah, Jasper, and Tony. We walked into the lunch hall together, and grabbed our lunches.

As we walked to our seats I noticed Alex was already at his table reading a book (as usual), Sky and the other kid were having a casual conversation as they ate.

What does he see in them that he doesn't see in me? I asked myself, turning away at the feeling of my cheeks getting warm. I sat down and tried to dig into my burger. Well, Alex seemed to make a big deal on peace and quiet when he's around me, yet Sky talked more than I did.

"Travis," I heard Casey call. I blinked shaking my head a little before facing the others on the table. They were all giving me worried looks.

"You haven't been with us lately." Casey pointed out, her brown straight weave falling to the side as she corked her head.

"I err... I've had things on my mind," I said, returning to the burger that had now stained my fingers with grease. I actually had things on my mind, just things I wasn't planning to discuss.

"You can tell us, ya know?" Tony said, feeding Jonah a piece of chicken.

"Yes, you can tell us, Travis," Sam said, not taking her eyes off her phone. Although she was looking straight at her screen, I could sense the mental glare she was sending my way.

"I can handle it," I muttered, taking a bite of my burger.

"Okay, enough with this mushy stuff. We have a game this Wednesday. You'll have to come for practice," Jonah said, looking my way.

"I know, I know," I said waving it off. Soccer wasn't hard and a lot of schools focused on their football teams so their soccer teams weren't as good as ours.

"So, you're ditching your tutoring?" Jasper asked.

"I err..." I'd never actually planned on going. I mean, everything would be awkward — well, for me that is — if Alex still acted like it was nothing.

"So he's skipping," Jonah finished off for me. I shook my head, trying to get the memory of Alex and me off my mind, but it's hard as fuck. Imagine having a—err—daydream about something for so long and it actually happened.

Lunch rolled over, but I wasn't too bothered. We had gym for two periods afterward.

"Damn I forgot my gym clothes, do you have an extra pair?" Jonah asked, slamming his gym locker in frustration.

"Yeah," I said, fishing out an extra pair of gym shorts and a stray tee.

"Thanks," Jonah mouthed, catching the clothes that I threw his way.

"I hate the fact that the whole year has Gym together, it's just so messy."

The whole year? I thought, turning sharply towards Jonah. It was true, the whole year did have gym together, so where was Alex?

"Come on, let's get on the track before we're made to do some extras," Jonah said getting up from the side bench in the dressing room before pulling me out the dressing room after him.

We did some laps and some stretches before we were allowed to split and do whatever we wanted, two periods was a lot for P.E anyway. Mostly it was the girls on one side of the gym and the boys at the other. I spotted Sky sitting over in the bleachers her head bent over. I smiled walking towards her, she's always hated P.E.

"Hey," I said, sitting beside her. Sky raised her head to take a look at me as a small smile played at the corner of her lips.

"Hey," Sky muttered, sitting up, her red curls still managing to look messy behind the two Alice bands that held them in place.

"Seems like the girls are avoiding the boys again," I muttered, airing my thoughts as I looked at the evident division in the gym.

"No one likes a sweaty Pac man no matter what you guys believe," Sky said, clicking her tongue. Our conversation bounced into an awkward silence. This was one of the reasons I didn't talk to Sky so much. If you thought about it no one in our circle really talked to Sky. She wasn't a one circle person and really just moved from circle to circle.

"I wish Alex did P.E. someone would at least made a funny remark, or start a catfight..." Sky sighed, before looking up at me with a semi-smile.

"Why doesn't he do P.E?" I asked.

"Well he's already doing thirteen subjects, so he ditched P.E. He made this long speech to the principal about having gathered enough points to graduate," Sky said, chuckling at the end.

The rest of the school day rolled by without me seeing Alex. Was he hiding, or was I being too conscious?

"There you are," I heard Alex sigh behind me making me jump. I turned around to a frustrated looking Alex.

"I've been looking for you all day. What did you do? Hide under a rock or something?" he asked, pulling down his bag from his shoulders.

"I don't think I'll be able to make it..." I trailed as Alex searched his bag.

"I figured that, since you have a game on Wednesday. Here, I made some key points that will help with your test on Friday. I have things to do on Thursday," Alex said handing me printed out sheets.

"Thanks," I mouthed as I watched him disappear behind the other students strolling through the hall.

He's still acting like nothing happened. I thought. It made me feel a bit relieved, and angry at the same time. I can't explain it.

For the first time in a week, I had practice with the team. Our coach, a sunburned sports fanatic was okay, but he took the game too seriously. I was one of the defenders on the actual but played as a striker sometimes when we were split into two for practice. Jasper and I left for the car park together, Jonah had to talk with the coach.

"Hey isn't that Sam?" Jasper asked, trying to remove his sweat stuck bangs from his forehead.

"Yeah..." I trailed. I looked at Sam who was standing by the driver's seat of my car. She must have caught a glimpse of me because she walked to over the passenger seat.

I waved Jonah goodbye as he jumped on his motorcycle before heading to my car. She'd said something about talking to me this morning but about what?

"Hey," She said from the other side of the car as I unlocked it. I opened the door to find her already getting comfortable.

"So about Alex..." She trailed as I started the engine.

"What about him?" I asked trying to forge some sort of confidence. I know she saw what happened last week Friday. But I trusted that she wouldn't tell anybody. Sam and I were like siblings.

Sam sighed, as I moved the car out of the parking lot and into the road.

"Whatever he's trying to do, don't fall for it..." Sam trailed, biting her bottom lip.

"He's not trying to do anything," I said, furrowing my brows.

"That's what you think. Let me tell you something, Alex is an asshole, and a very manipulative person. He's — just don't fall for it," she groaned, rearranging her ponytail — her one and only hairdo.

"You can't just make assumptions about a person—" 

"I'm not making an assumption. I know what I'm talking about. Alex will screw you, just be careful, okay?" Sam said. I thought about it for a while. Casey did say he was on medication for some stuff. Maybe that's why he kissed me? Because he wasn't thinking straight? I don't know.

"Okay, but if you're so worried why don't you talk to Sky about this?" I asked, pulling up at her house.

"He hasn't made a move yet," Sam said, opening the door before getting down. I gave Sam a confused look.

"What exactly did he do to you?" I asked. I knew Alex could be an ass. I mean, I suffered it first hand, but he had to do something on a higher scale to trip Sam off. Sam sighed, biting her bottom lip.

"I'll tell you later, okay? Don't just get too close to him." Sam warned as she closed the passenger door. I sighed as I watched her disappear into the house. There was something off about her whenever she spoke of Alex, what exactly could have happened?