Okay so finally the school musical is over, so now I’ll have more time to make the quality of the chapters better. I hope you enjoy this! Picture of Blaine to the side, you'll all get to know him better soon! >>>

I thought Vee’s face was priceless when I told her about Colton, but Mark’s was ten times better. After his initial shock, he didn’t even know what to say. “He what?” He repeated, his eyes wide.

Vee had a look on her face that screamed sorry, but truthfully I thought the whole situation was funny. And not a lot of things were amusing to me.  Holding back a smile, I hooked my arm in Vee’s and pulled her the other way.

“Wait up Sutton you need to explain to me what she just said!” Mark demanded catching up to us in two large strides.

“Vee explained it pretty well.”

Marks hand clamped over my forearm. I stopped in my tracks, now becoming slightly annoyed. “Mark, I should probably get to class.”

“Well the sooner you tell me what the hell she’s talking about, I’ll let you get on with your day,” he said, trying to stay as calm as possible.

I could tell I was breaking his limit. Sighing, I pulled away from Vee and faced him. “Colton placed his lips onto mine. Is that better?”

Mark frowned. “I’m serious Sutton, and since when did you two even talk? I thought I told you to stay away from him.”

“It was before today, and we don’t, but even if we did, it would be none of your business.”

He clenched his fists together and sighed. “Melody told me to always watch out for you, that’s all I’m doing. Wouldn’t you want to follow through on something she asked you?”

Once again, my sister’s name made me feel completely uncomfortable. “Mark, this doesn’t have anything to do with her. So what, he kissed me, like I said it won’t be happening again. Drop it.”

Mark looked like he was about to say something else, but he pressed his lips together. I could tell by the irritated expression on his face that he still wasn’t done talking about the situation.

“He didn’t try to-“

“Oh my God drop it!” I shouted before slapping a hand over my mouth. My voice echoed through the hallways louder than I even thought possible.

Vee looked like she was about to crack up as I shoved Mark out of the way and walked towards the nearest classroom.

“Okay but if I find out that he did anything, I’m kicking his ass!” Mark shouted after us.

I laughed at the thought of Mark trying to take on Colton. All I could think was good luck with that.

**

Finally, the day ended with a ring of a bell and I was done being the freak show. Students seemed too eager to get out of school that they didn’t so much as glance at me on the way out.  After I retrieved everything I needed from my locker, I met Mark outside in the front parking lot.

He promised to take me to and from school until I got my license, which was only a few months away. I was already sixteen, but I had taken the driver’s Ed class late and still needed to wait a few months.  He smiled at me as I took the passenger seat next to him. I was so used to sitting in the backseat that I felt weird being in the front. Melody had always sat in the front.

Taking a deep breath, I let my head rest against the seat as we pulled out of school. A few wondering students gave us weird glances, but not many people noticed the little ugly duckling in the seat next to him.

“So how was today, everything went okay?” Mark finally asked, turning down the volume on the radio.

I shrugged my shoulders. “Besides the fact that everyone was staring at me like I was a freak of nature, everything went pretty well. But I did get into a fight with this one guy in the hallway, he kept bugging me on a personal matter.”

Mark’s lips curved up into a smile at the last part. “Yeah, sorry I guess I was being a little bit unreasonable.”

“A little bit?” I questioned .

He rolled his eyes. “I’m just watching out for you bud,” he said using the nickname he gave me when I was a freshmen and he and Melody were juniors.

“Well I don’t need you to, I’m perfectly capable.”

“Yes but I know his type, and I know he’ll say anything to-“

“Spare me the lecture Mark, Vee already gave it to me. And anyway, what makes you think I’m interested?” I asked raising an eyebrow.

Mark smiled. “Oh well everyone’s interested in Colton Jones, he’s just like the sexist person alive,” he joked in an overly high pitched voice.

Rolling my eyes, I managed a small smile. “Last time I checked, every girl in school was going after a certain drama club heartthrob.”

“Well there’s only one girl for me, and she’s not around anymore.”

His words took me way off guard. I turned to watch as his eyes watered up a little. He blinked back the tears and all of the sudden we were in my driveway.

“Hey Mark, everyone’s been so worried about me that they haven’t really asked if you were okay. So Mark, are you okay?”

He put the car in park and rested his head against the steering wheel. After a few deep breaths, he nodded his head.

I felt my chest tighten as I thought about being in Mark’s place. He was in the same car as her; he was with her when she died. How could someone go through a trauma like that? She had been right next to him when the car crashed, but she was long gone by the time it was over.

“Come inside, I bet my mom and dad would be happy to see you,” I finally said.

He shook his head. “It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have let her drive, we both weren’t right to drive and-“

“It’s no one’s fault but hers. She got into the driver’s seat Mark, not you.”

My breath became heavier as the topic of Melody lingered in the car. Why couldn’t I control things like this? I couldn’t even talk about my dead sister without having trouble breathing.

Mark must have noticed something was wrong, because he placed his hand on my back and nodded towards the house. “Come on we can watch a movie or something.”

I smiled up at him before grabbing my bag and hopping out of the car. The cool air on my face felt nice, and we both walked up to the house in silence. Mark followed me inside and my hopes of my father and him talking about football or anything but Melody vanished. A note was sitting on the kitchen counter and by the looks of the handwriting it was my mothers.

Sutton I’m sorry I forgot to tell you me and your father had a meeting tonight with Mrs. Jenson. We’ll be home as soon as possible; you know how much I hate to leave you at a time like this. Feel free to invite Mark, Vee or Blaine over for company. Love your mother and father.

Mrs. Jenson was our family therapist, and since my sister past my mother and father had been making daily visits to see her. They practically begged me to go, and one time even forced me but no one was able to get me to talk about the situation, so my parents gave up on me.

Most kids my age probably wouldn’t like having an overprotective and worry wart mother like I did, but to me in showed how much she cared. I smiled down at the note because I knew my mother and father trusted me, and as much as I hated to admit it, more than Melody.

“Looks like we got the house to ourselves,” Mark said looking up from the note and immediately walking over to the fridge.

Mark was always eating, and when I say always, I mean it. I think the first time I ever met him he was shoving a plateful of noodles down his throat, and he only stopped long enough to mutter hi to me. Now I knew that he was never trying to be rude, just trying to calm his insane appetite.

“We stocked up on Nutter Butters, if you were wondering,” I told him mentioning his all-time favorite snack.

At this his eyes lit up and he lumbered over to the cabinet. After rummaging through, he brought out two Nutter Butters, a bag of sour cream and onion chips and a box of sun dried raisins. At least one thing was healthy…

“Aren’t you going to eat?” he asked me opening his food in a hurry.

I shrugged my shoulders and slid my backpack onto the counter. Like usual Mondays, I took out my bio and English and went right to work.

“You’re doing homework already? I don’t usually start mine until…oh wait I don’t.”

I glared up over the counter at him. Mark somehow managed to keep good grades without doing much work, he and Melody never worried about school much, yet they always seemed to do fine. Me on the other hand, I had to work and work hard to keep my grades at all A’s.

Mark laughed. “Oh come on little nerd, let’s play Call of Duty, or oh lets watch a movie, it’s a movie kind of night.”

Looking down at my heaps of homework, I shook my head. “Look Mark, I missed a lot and I should get to work.”

“Oh come on you have an excuse anyway…”

“I’m not using my dead sister as an excuse Mark!” I snapped.

Mark seemed taken aback when I stood up and pushed past him. I bet I was already up the stairs by the time he had even blinked, but in only took him a few moments to follow after me. He found me in Melody’s bed, curled up in her blankets and pillows.

Instantly a sad expression crossed his face and he lay down next to me. “It still smells like her, it’s crazy,” he breathed in the air around us, and I did the same.

Her smell lingered everywhere, always making me feel like she was just in the other room, doing her hair, talking to Mark on the phone past hours. The boy next to me seemed just as frazzled. His eyes were trained on a picture of them, and I could tell that he really had loved her with all his heart.

“You know, as much as you don’t think it, you really do remind me of her. You two were sort of alike.”

His words took me off guard, and I frowned. “Mark I was nothing like-“

“You make the same, scrunched up face she made when she was upset or mad, and oh you always chew on your lip, bad habit but she did the same. And sometimes, when I look really close, you actually do look like her, maybe just for a second when you do something that reminds me of her, but you do.”

I took in a deep breath and focused in on the memory of Melody. She was so beautiful and flawless compared to me, I just couldn’t see how I looked or acted like her at all. My thoughts started to wander farther, but the loud ringing of our doorbell jolted me back to reality.

Mark looked up as I jumped off the bed and hurried downstairs. As much as he liked to talk about her, I didn’t, and the person at the door was my savior. It was like something had been lifted from my shoulders when I opened the front door; that is until I saw who it was.

“Colton?”

The name slipped from my mouth as my eyes focused on the guy outside my door. He was still in the same outfit from school, but the motorcycle helmet in his hand and the way his hair was ruffled made my stomach flutter nervously.

God what was happening to me?

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

Colton looked a little confused himself, and when he looked down at his feet and fidgeted with his hair, I knew the situation was making him just as uncomfortable as me.

“Well, I just, I wanted to apologize. I know I shouldn’t have mentioned that night, and I’m doing it again, shoot, but I thought it would be right of me to say sorry.”

Before I could even respond, a presence behind my back told me that Mark had made his way downstairs, and I knew everything was about to get real interesting.

Whoa next chapter will get interesting, sorry if this was a little borring. Love you all, vote and comment. !