Chapter 04 | I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend

"That's life. If nothing else, it's life. It's real, and sometimes it hurts, but it's sort of all we have." ― Garden State

"What're you even doing here? No one even likes you, you know," Aspen irritably snaps the following morning at school at Jason as the two of them, along with Piper, Sienna and myself are all standing in the school parking lot together, near where we've all parked our cars.

This is usually what we do in the mornings, just stand around in the parking lot and talk until the bell rings for us to go inside the building. I mean, Jason usually isn't with us, seeing as how he no longer lives in the town, but since he's here for a little while, he's with us today, being that he's my and Sienna's friend and Piper's boyfriend. Like I was saying though, this is what we usually do in the mornings, provided it's not one of those mornings that I oversleep and have to rush to get to school on time, which happens about 2 out of 5 days. I know that the only reason why I'm always oversleeping is because of the fact that I stay up and watch Netflix at ungodly hours of the night. It sure does beat the heck out of going to sleep though, that's for sure.

Ever since last fall, when the stuff with Flynn and everything else went down, I've been having some brutally intense on-again-off-again nightmares. If you can even call them nightmares. I'd like to think that they're more like, really vivid memories of what happened that night and the subsequent nights. My simple solution is to just stay away for as long as I possibly can at night because the way I see it, I can't have nightmares if I'm not sleeping and having to rush to school in exchange for not having to basically re-live the worst week of my life in my waves of unconsciousness makes it totally worth it. I've told Dr. Fontana about them, the nightmares / (repressed?) memories, a few times, actually, but he's convinced that they'll "go away, in due time," whatever that even means.

"I like him," Piper chimes, coming to her boyfriend's defense, wrapping her arm around his midsection and lays her head against his chest.

"So do I," Sienna chirps in agreement, absentmindedly raking her fingers through her long brunette hair as she applies some light mascara.

"Me too," I advocate, laughing at the annoyed look on Aspen's face and the humorous look on Jason's face. She and Jason really don't like each other like, at all, in case you can't tell. I mean, I'm sure you can because the tension between the two of them is always thick enough to cut with a knife. A butter knife, at that. The thing with the two of them is kinda complicated. They don't really hate one another for just the sake of it; there is a legitimate reason and even though it's sort of really dumb, it's the reason for the bad blood between the two of them.

You see, this year, Sienna, Aspen, Piper, Jason, Beckett, Tommy and I all went to Seaside, Florida for Spring Break. Beckett and Tommy are all roughly the same age. While we weren't too keen on spending an entire week with the guys, it was the only way any of our parents would let us go. Jason, Piper, Sienna, Aspen and I are all minors too, so that was another reason that the guys had to come along, so that we wouldn't get into any trouble or anything like that. I mean, I'm sure Jason was happy to have the male companionship or whatever.

So, on our first night there, we got invited to this bonfire thing on one of the beaches in Daytona, which is where we were staying in Jason's aunt's beach house. All seven of us went and since Beckett and Tommy were and still are probably the most irresponsible adults to ever walk the face of this planet, they didn't do such a great job of chaperoning us, meaning they didn't really care if we went home with any of the random guys (or, in Jason's case, girls) or got drunk or high or anything. In fact, Tommy, being the stoner he is, welcomed the latter.

I didn't, even though I knew I had the perfect opportunity, because I was and still way too much of a wuss to ever do something like that. Because of that simple fact, Sienna and I mostly hung out on the beach and talked and whatnot. She was still completing her drug addiction rehabilitation program at the facility in Switzerland but on account of the fact that it was Spring Break, she got to come home for the week. Obviously, my recovering drug addict of a best friend and I weren't gonna do anything, because that'd totally screw up her sobriety, so we just avoided the drugs and alcohol and all of that. Piper, Jason and Aspen, however, did not. I'm sure Flynn, Beckett and Tommy were all stoned out of their minds as well but we didn't really cross paths with them too much that night-it was a really big beach.

Anyways, so some guy was hitting on Piper and at this time, she and Jason had been together for something like, eight months, I think. Apparently Jason saw the guy hitting on his girlfriend and, in his nearly drunken stupor, he got all upset about it, even though Piper didn't really even do anything wrong. Okay, so, yeah, maybe she was kinda flirting back with the random guy-from what I was told by Aspen, anyway-but she was so sloppily drunk and it's not as if she can exactly help it if guys flirt with her.

That being said, Jason, who was fuming (he's a bit of an angry drunk) stumbled into the beach house and upon Aspen, who was so drunk that she was literally questioning the motives behind bottled water. If you can't tell what happened from there, I'll just be blatantly honest with you. The two of them hooked up, Aspen and Jason did. The problem being that Jason was dating Piper and Aspen was dating Elliot, who was still here in Andover. She had invited him to come along with us to Florida but I guess his parents said no.

Then, the next morning, Aspen and Jason got into this super huge fight because Jason wanted to keep it a secret, their hook-up, because he knew that it'd destroy his relationship with his girlfriend. Aspen, on the other hand, wanted to tell Piper because she knew that if Piper had found out from someone else, she'd be torn up and their friendship would be over quicker than the Anglo-Zanzibar War, which was the shortest war in history, in case you didn't know that, which I'm sure you didn't but now you do.

What ended up happening though was Aspen told Piper and Jason was so pissed off about it that he called Elliot and told him. As if that wasn't bad enough, Elliot and Jason were kind of friends, not close but friends nevertheless, so that obviously strained their friendship. After Elliot found out, he called Aspen and broke up with her over the phone, which was just extremely rude but understandable because I mean, he'd just had his heart broken, Elliot had. After that, Aspen was obviously heartbroken too and she basically became the biggest bitch in the world for the week that we spent in Florida, not to mention the fact that Jason and Piper wouldn't stop shouting at each other. Literally, the only relief we got from them was when one or both of them were sleeping.

To make a long story somewhat shorter though, when we came home the week after, Piper forgave Jason a few weeks later on account of the fact that she knew he was drunk out of his mind and they reconciled. The same thing can't exactly be said for Elliot and Aspen though. I mean, he did forgive her after a few weeks and they got back together. It was well into April though, by the time they got back together and he died something like three of four weeks after they were a couple again.

So, that's basically the reason as to why Aspen hates Jason-she blames him for stealing her last few weeks with Elliot when he was still alive, which is just, you know, kind of silly, because it's not like Jason had a crystal ball telling him that Elliot was gonna die just a few weeks after. He doesn't really hate her though, Jason doesn't, it's just that Aspen calls him some really terrible names and she's just really terrible to him, so he reacts to what she dishes out. Don't get me wrong, Jason doesn't like Aspen at all though. And if you're wondering, there's no more bad blood between Aspen and Piper-that was over around the time Elliot died and Piper basically moved in with Aspen, who was deathly depressed, and she basically just took care of her because Aspen had just given up on everything and couldn't take care of herself.

"You guys are actually awful best friends, I do hope that you realize that," Aspen huffs in annoyance, crossing her arms over her chest.

"If you're so annoyed by my being here, Aspen, why are you here? You do have the option to leave, you know," He reminds Aspen.

"Because they're my friends!" She exclaims. "And just because you're temporarily back, doesn't mean you can hang out with us," She adds.

"Look, Aspen, I know that you don't like me at all and trust me, you're not my favorite person in the world either, but if you really think that I'm gonna sacrifice time with my girlfriend, who, by the way, lives in an entirely different town than I do, then you're even crazier than I thought."

Aspen opens her mouth to respond but before she can, Piper jumps in, evidently seeing that a full blown argument is about to break out.

"Okay, guys, seriously it happened almost a year ago," Piper reminds them, obviously by her best friend and boyfriend's constant bickering. "Jason is only going to be here for a few weeks, Aspen, so can you two just at least try to get along with one another? I mean, I'm definitely not suggesting you guys have sex...again, but at least try to get along, okay? Hell, you don't even have to get along-just be civil and tolerate each other for just a few weeks. Please can you guys do that? For me?" She pleads hopefully, looking from Jason, who looks slightly uncomfortable, most likely because of the fact that Piper just brought up his cheating on her, to Aspen, who looks uneasy and is tomato red.

"I'm always civil," Aspen tells Piper after a few minutes of awkward silence and I glance down at my iPhone, checking the time to see how much longer I'll have to stand here and endure the extreme awkwardness of Jason, Aspen and Piper until the bell rings to let us go inside. "Actually though, I do need to go-I have to go talk to my Spanish teacher, so I'll see you guys at lunch," She informs us before giving Jason a weird and annoyed look. Then she gives a small parting wave and takes off across the parking lot and makes her way up into the building.

"Well, that was fun," I sarcastically say, leaning against the trunk of my car lazily and stifling a yawn.

"So much fun," Jason sardonically agrees, his tone matching mine.

Jason is one of the very few guys that I can be around without feeling as if I'm about to faint or have a massive heart attack or something like that. I'm not quite sure why that it but I guess it's just because I've known the guy since the eighth grade and he's really never been anything but nice to me. He's also a really good boyfriend to Piper, you know, aside from the whole sleeping with Aspen thing, but aside from that, he seems like a nice enough guy, so I don't really mind him.

That brings the total up to three guys that don't make me freak out: Dr. Fontana, Beckett and Jason. I guess you could count my dad but he's been in jail since right before I was fifteen. I'm not scared of him or anything though, it's just that the other day when he called me to go and ask my grandmother for his bail money was literally the first time that he's bothered to call me in the two years that he's been gone.

Had that not been the case, maybe I would actually go and speak to my grandmother on his behalf but I'm definitely not going to now, not after my own father decides that it's perfectly acceptable to not call your daughter (or son and estranged wife) for two entire years. He can actually rot in his prison cell for all I care and I know that's a really mean thing to say but what he said to me in that phone call was mean too.

"Hey, Sienna, where's your friend? Jason and I never got to meet him," Piper randomly states, obviously referring to Graham.

"I don't know where Graham is, actually," Sienna tells us. "He sucks at time management though, so I'm sure he's probably running late."

"Well, when you talk to him, tell him he has to sit with us at lunch because I can't take being with just you girls much longer," Jason jokes.

"I thought you said you loved us?" I teasingly reply, raising my eyebrows suspiciously at him.

"Of course I love you guys," Jason says. "But last year at lunch, all any of you ever talked about was that weird wolf show," He reminds me.

"It's called Teen Wolf and it is not weird," Piper giggles, playfully rolling her eyes at her boyfriend.

"Oh, no, it is definitely weird," He disagrees, shaking his head. "In fact, the only show weirder than it might just be The Walking Dead."

"The Walking Dead is your favorite show, Jason," Sienna recaps him with a chuckle.

"Exactly, which is how I know it's weird," Jason replies matter-of-factly. Before any of us can say anything else, the bell rings loudly and the parking lot immediately starts to vacate. "And my and Piper's class is on the other side of the building, so we better get going," He explains.

"See you lovebirds at lunch," Sienna says as I wave Jasper goodbye and they take off in the opposite direction. "They are adorable. Don't you think they're adorable?" She asks me, looping her bony arm through mine loosely as I hit the lock button on the black remote thingy for my car then tuck the keys into the pocket of my jeans when it makes the weird sound that means the doors are locked and the alarm is on.

"They're very adorable," I confirm with a nod as my best friend and I cross the parking lot and make our way up the stairs of the school.

Since Sienna and I don't have any classes together today until fourth block, which is English, we part ways in the hallway and I make my way down the lengthy hallway to my locker. When I reach it, I spin the dial on the lock and then pull it open, taking out what I need for the two classes that I have before lunch today, which are Psychology and European History. Once I have my stuff together, I close the locker and then go upstairs, which is where my classroom is located.

On account of the fact that I don't really stand around and talk to people right up until the tardy bell sounds, I'm usually the very first one in class and today is no different. I bid the teacher, Ms. Jacey, a polite good morning before walking to the back of the classroom and sliding into one of the desks, putting my bag on the floor and leaning over to lie my head on the desk while I wait for the room to fill up some more.

After about ten minutes or so, the tardy bell rings and I sleepily lift my head up from the desk, half-way listening to the daily morning announcements. If this class wasn't such an important class, I would definitely just sleep through it, but since it's kinda important, I can't. Granted, it's not a core class or anything, it's an elective class, which means I chose to take it.

Mostly because Psychology just seems really cool to me. Also because seeing as how I have to see a psychiatrist on a daily basis, I thought it'd be smart for me to take psychology and maybe it'd help me be able get more inside of my own head. So, that's the reason that I decided to take this class.

Well, that and the fact that I didn't want to end up having to take another foreign language this year or ever again, for that matter fact. Last year, I took French II and it was all fine and dandy until we started doing all of that verb conjugation crap and having to learn what gender stuff was. I mean, no offence to the French and all but that's just too much for me.

Once the announcements are over, Ms. Jacey starts talking, only to be interrupted by a knock on the door. At the sound of it, she excuses herself and then walks over to the door, pulling it open and stepping out into the hallway, talking to whoever it is on the opposite side.

Psychology is mostly an elective that's only open to seniors but my counselor got me in some kind of way. Personally, I think it's only because she felt bad for me. We made our schedules for this year last year right after Thanksgiving break, so it was right after the Flynn stuff and everything else, so I guess she thought it'd be nice to just let me take the class. So, yes, all of the people in here are seniors, apart from me, which is really lonely because I have absolutely no friends in the 12th grade.

While Ms. Jacey is outside talking to whoever, I take the minute to lie my head back down on the desk, not to go to sleep, just to rest my eyes for a few good minutes or so. I really am extremely tired and I actually have no idea how I didn't oversleep this morning. I'm glad that I didn't though because I tend to look extra crappy whenever I oversleep. Not that I dress up for school or anything because I definitely do not.

Today, I'm just wearing a random pair of a black skinny jeans and a maroon red short sleeved t-shirt that has Ramones written across the top of it in block white letters and below it, there's this seal thingy that kinda looks like the United States' Great Seal thingy, only it has the names Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee and Tommy written around it where the original seal reads "The Great Seal of the United States of America" or whatever that thing says. I'm wearing a pair of maroon red Vans and they match the shirt, though that wasn't really intentional, I just pulled them out of my closet this morning.

After about five minutes or so, the door closes and I hear Ms. Jacey start to speak, so I make myself listen, but I don't open my eyes just yet.

"I've just been informed that we've got a new student and I've also just been informed that most of you probably already know him, but for those few of you who don't, I'll let him introduce himself," She explains and I nearly choke on the air that I'm breathing as soon as the words are out of her mouth. I try to convince myself that it's not Graham, that it's just some other guy that decided to transfer here today and just so happens to be in this class. I mean, October is a busy month for transfer kids and I don't know why that is but it's the truth.

"Uh," He starts and I internally groan, placing the voice as his.

It's not that I don't like Graham, that's not it at all. I mean, that's not my way of saying that I do like him, as a friend or otherwise, because I don't. Not that he's like, ugly or mean or anything because, he's actually unfairly attractive and he was pretty nice to me yesterday in our Physics and Trigonometry classes. It's just that he's an immensely popular guy and...well, I've heard rumors. Not necessarily bad rumors, just that he sleeps around. Ike, a lot. Well, depending on the kind of person that you are, that could be considered a bad rumor. I've also heard that he goes through girls really quickly and breaks a lot of hearts. I really don't doubt it either, to be completely and totally honest.

"Okay, well, I'm Graham Cambridge and I just transferred here from Volcom yesterday," Graham goes on to casually say and I choose that moment to open my eyes. "And, so, yeah," He slowly and awkwardly concludes before looking at Ms. Jacey, who's sitting behind her desk.

"Well, if that's all you'd like to say, you can just sit wherever there's an open desk," Ms. Jacey informs him, walking back from her desk and over to the SMART Board thingy, pushing one of the button and powering it to life. "And welcome to Jamestown, Mr. Cambridge," She adds.

"Yeah, thanks," Graham replies, his eyes scanning the large-ish classroom for an empty seat.

There's plenty of them in here, empty desks, I mean, because a lot of students who had this class in the beginning of the year dropped it for another class. Most of them just complained about how it was too hard, which isn't true at all. It's a fairly easy class and the work load isn't really that much at all.

As long as you pay attention in here, I think you'll be just fine. Ms. Jacey is also one of the nicest teachers I've ever had, so I don't mind it too much. Then again, maybe she just feels sorry (the rest of my teachers apparently do) so she's just nice to me and in order to not make it look as if she's laying favorites, she's nice to us all. I highly doubt that's it though because she does seem really nice.

I avoid eye contact with Graham in the hopes that he doesn't see me and instead focus my attention to the SMART Board as Ms. Jacey begins writing on it, starting todays lesson. There's an empty desk in front of me and there's also one to my left, so the chances of Graham of taking one of those two are pretty high and they're almost certain, if he sees me, which I don't think he has yet. Maybe he has some friends in here though, since he apparently has a lot of those.

My theory proves to be wrong though and Graham makes his way to the side of the room that I'm sitting on. He walks down the row and then sits down in the chair parallel to me before taking a tablet and an ink pen out of his backpack, beginning to copy what Ms. Jacey's saying and writing on the board. Maybe I'm lucky and he didn't notice me and that's why he's not talking to me. I don't really care at all what the reason for him not talking to me is, I'm just glad that he isn't. I pull my own tablet and pen out too, copying his motions and starting to take notes.

✿✿✿✿✿✿

A few hours later, I'm sitting at the normal lunch table with Sienna, Piper and Jason but we're without Aspen. I just got out of AP European History class, which is a class that I've got with both her and Piper and she was there, so I have no idea where she is now. Out of our small group of friends though, Aspen is definitely the most dramatic one, so I'm sure she just decided to leave campus for lunch, which we're not really supposed to do. A lot of people do it, so it's not that strict of a rule but if you're caught leaving the school by the wrong security guard-the mean one-you're looking at about two weeks of out of school suspension and a week of in school. He's an awful man, that one guy is.

"I'm just saying," Sienna shrugs, poking her Jell-O with her Spork. "It's weird," She complains.

"What's so weird about it, Sienna?" I ask my weird best friend with a chuckle.

"What is it even made of?" She questions, continually poking her Jell-O until it just collapses on her tray.

"Gelatin, I'm assuming," I reply with a laugh as I push one of my overly-salted fries in my mouth. By the time I graduate from Jamestown next year, I'm about 98.9% sure that I'll have some pretty severe hypertension or something due to the boatload of salt they dump into the fries. It'll be so worth it though because the fries here are just so amazingly wonderful and worth getting hypertension.

"I just can't," Sienna shakes her head, standing up from the table and throwing her tray away, even though she barely ate any of it.

"You're really weird," I inform her, tearing open another ketchup package and spreading it over my fries.

"Maybe," She shrugs carelessly. "Anyway, a little birdy told me that you and Graham have Psychology together," Sienna chimes.

"Well, that little birdy was correct," I confirm, pulling my iPhone out of my pocket to text my mother as I remember that Dr. Fontana told me yesterday at our session that today he wouldn't be able to talk to me. She likes for me to let her know whenever I'm not going to see the doctor after school and the reason why because she's just weird and overprotective. He said that he's going to California and I'm not quite sure why because I didn't really ask for specifics but he told me that he has to go and pay his son a visit for some reason.

He'll be back in a few days though, I guess, so I'll probably just work the days that he's out of town. It's a good thing that I'm not totally dependent on the money that I earn from my job because if I were, I'd be so dead. I mean, since I have to see Dr. Fontana every day after school, I can only work on Saturdays and Sundays. Well, that's not really true-I can work after I leave Dr. Fontana's office and sometimes I do but not that often because by that time, I'm just ready to go home and sleep.

"Was he nice to you? I told him to be nice to you," Sienna says, stealing a handful of my fries.

"Yeah, I guess so," I reply with a nod, uncapping my bottled water and taking a long sip from it.

"What's that mean?" Sienna queries, giving me a curious look.

"Nothing, you weirdo," I laugh, pushing her arm lightly. "We just didn't talk or anything, for which I'm thankful," I explain.

"You sound really antisocial when you say things like that, you know, Saw," Sienna informs me matter-of-factly.

"Yes, I'm aware," I reply with a careless shrug. "I like seeming like I'm antisocial-people won't talk to me if they think that," I explain.

"Sawyer, it's been almost a year," Sienna quietly tells me, glancing down at the table.

"Wow, has it really? Gee, thanks for reminding me, Sienna; I totally forgot," I sarcastically mumble.

"I'm just saying, don't you think that it's about time to, you know, get back out there?" She wonders.

"Nope, I don't think that at all," I deny truthfully, shaking my head at her ridiculously stupid question.

"What, you're just gonna be alone for the rest of your life?" Sienna asks me incredulously as if that's the worst thing in the world, being alone.

"Tell you what, Sienna, I'll 'get back out there' when you start talking to your brother again," I starkly say, knowing that she won't ever do that.

"Oh, come on, Sawyer, that's different and you know it," She replies, rolling her eyes. Tommy has been trying to get Sienna to forgive him for introducing her to drugs ever since Spring Break, which was the first time that he'd seen her since she was released from the hospital a year prior. She told him that she'll never forgive him as long as she living, which is totally understandable to me because I know if he were my brother, I'd never so much as even be in the same room as him.

"Not really, no," I laugh.

"I almost died," Sienna reminds me. "Literally," She adds.

"So did I!" I exclaim somewhat louder than what I'd intended.

"Whoa, whoa, what is going on?" Piper wonders, stopping mid-conversation with Jason. Before either of us can reply, the lunch bell rings, signaling the end of lunch. "You're telling me later," Piper firmly tells us, getting up from the table with Jason and dumping her tray before the two of them walk out of the cafeteria, most likely en route to the storage closet that they get all hot and heavy in. I only know this because Piper is quite the opposite of a private person and feels the need to divulge every spectacle of her relationship with Jason to Sienna, Aspen and I. I mean, really, nothing is TMI to this girl. I (along with Aspen and Sienna) know stuff about Jason that I'm sure none of us wanted to.

"I'm sorry," I sigh, throwing my own tray away and grabbing my back.

"It's okay," Sienna shrugs. "You're totally right-if I can't forgive my own brother, I shouldn't expect you to like, get out there," She says.

"If it's any consolation, I'm pretty sure I won't die alone," I reply. "I mean, it'll be a very, very, very long time before I let myself get close to any guys but it'll eventually happen," I inform my best friend with a small smile. "Now, I have to go to Theology, but I will see you in English, yes?"

"Yeah, see you then," She nods in confirmation. "Oh and Theology? With Ms. Newman?" Sienna asks curiously.

"Yeah, why?" I wonder as the two of us exit the cafeteria together and walk down the crowded hallway.

"Because Graham has that class too," Sienna replies. "And I need to go the other way, so I'll see you later," She says, turning and walking.

With an annoyed sigh, I make my way down the hallway and up the stairs, heading towards my Theology class. The fact that Graham and I apparently have four out of eight classes together really bothers me. I know that I don't have a legit reason not to like the boy, but in my head, I don't need a legit reason. I don't like him and I don't want to have classes with him and I definitely do not want to talk to him ever.

When I make it to Theology, I go in the room, which already has a few students in it, but no Graham. I walk over to the seat near the bane of windows in the room, which is where I always sit and then plop down. Theology, in case you were wondering, is just a scientific name for 'religious studies'. I'm not sure how it's even legal considering the whole 'separation of church and state' thing but I don't really care. I'm not really curious about religious stuff because I, myself, personally am not religious at all. I mean, I go to church sometimes, you know, for like, Easter and stuff but that's about it. I only signed up for this class because, again, I didn't want to be stuck taking another foreign language. This is another one of those electives that's only open to seniors but just like Psychology, I'm sure it was my counselor who got me into it.

I sit there in my desk, staring out of the window for a little while, waiting for class to start and after about five minutes or so, there's a voice.

"I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend," The voice randomly states, making me jump because I wasn't expecting it, obviously.

"Excuse me?" I shakily reply, turning in my seat and seeing Graham sitting in the seat right beside me.

"Ramones," He explains, gesturing down to my shirt. "It's a song by them," Graham informs me, laughing lightly.

"Oh, erm, right, I knew that," I mumble awkwardly before I going back to looking out of the window, looking at nothing in particular.

"Right," Graham says but I can tell he doesn't actually believe that. With good reason too because I so obviously didn't know it was a song.

From what I know, the Ramones are (were?) a band from a long time ago-like, the 70's or something. I only have this shirt because my mom was a fan of them when she was a teenager and she went to one of their concerts and got the shirt.

Seeing as how the 70's were about forty years ago and my mom still had the shirt, I figured she must have really loved that band and she told me I could have the shirt if I wanted it. I didn't but I took it anyway, mostly because it looks kinda cool. Anyway, the only song that I know by them is called I Wanna Be Sedated or something and I don't even actually know that song, I just know that that's the title.

"So, you're a senior?" He randomly wonders and I wonder why he's being so talkative when he was basically a mime in psychology.

"Junior," I reply quietly, still glancing out of the window, watching an airplane as it soars in the sky.

"But Theology's a senior elective, isn't it?"

"I guess my counselor likes me," I shrug.

"Did I do something? Because you kinda make me feel like you hate me," Graham informs me.

"I don't hate you," I mumble. "Don't even know you," I add.

"Exactly," He chuckles. "Sienna said you're shy but I've seen shy and I don't think you're it," He says.

"I am shy," I assure him, still watching the airplane fly high in the sky, until it goes over the school and I can't see it anymore.

"But you're so talkative with your friends," He notes.

"Because they're my friends," I mutter as the bell rings and Ms. Newman begins talking about Confirmation.

"So, if I was your friend, you'd talk to me?" Graham asks me with a boyish grin and I only see it because I turn to look.

"I guess," I mumble. "We're not friends though," I add.

"Okay," Graham laughs. "Well, I'm inviting you to my party anyway," He informs me.

"Thanks," I sigh, lowering my voice so that Ms. Newman doesn't yell at me. To call herself a 'holy woman' she sure does yell at us a lot. I mean, like a lot more than necessary. It's no wonder she's not married. "But I'll just tell you now that I'm not gonna come," I mumble.

"What? Why not?" He wonders.

"Parties aren't...really my thing," I awkwardly explain.

"That's very vague," Graham tells me, leaning back in his desk a little bit. Instead of replying, I just shrug and pull my Theology tablet out of my bag along with a pen, flipping it over and beginning to take notes before Ms. Newman bites my head off. Graham doesn't say anything else for a while but near the end of the class, as Ms. Newman is busy reading us some religious passage from her podium, he leans over and picks my pen up from my desk and clicks it before scribbling something in the corner of my paper in messy penmanship. "That's where the party's gonna be," He whispers, so as not to disturb Ms. Newman. "Sienna's coming and I assume your friend Aspen will be there too. Just think about it, yeah?"

"If I say yes, will you leave me alone?" I wonder, trying to make it sound as sweet as possible.

"If you say yes, I will leave you alone for the rest of the class, yeah," Graham promises with a boyish grin.

"Then yes, I'll come to your dumb party," I grumble with a sigh before turning the page in the tablet and starting a new page of notes.

Obviously, I'm not really gonna go. As I've said before, Graham Cambridge is really, really popular, so there's bound to be a lot of people at this party, so surely he won't notice if I'm not there. And if he brings it up next week that I wasn't there, in the extra rare event that he actually looks to me to no avail, I'll just lie to him and tell him that I really was there and that he just must have missed me or something to that effect.

"What happened to you, Sawyer?" Graham randomly asks me, his voice softer than usual.

"What do you mean?" I ask him, raising my eyebrows suspiciously at him.

"Well, obviously something bad happened to you-a blind person could see that," He replies.

"Nothing happened to me," I mumble, deciding that I'm not gonna tell this random guy anything and especially not during class.

"Okay, well, if you wanna talk about it, you now have my address," Graham tries to joke, referring to the address he wrote on my paper.

"Okay," I quietly reply, blinking a few times as I feel tears well in my eyes for no apparent reason.

"You can bring your brother, if you just want to," Graham informs me. "You know, to the party," He clarifies.

"Yeah, I don't wanna do that," I deny, shaking my head as the bell signaling the end of the block sounds.

"Okay then, well, I'll see you Thursday night then?" He asks hopefully.

"Um, yeah, I'll see you later," I mutter, collecting my stuff before speedily walking out of the classroom.

Author's Note: In case you didn't get the message that I send out, basically it was just me telling you guys that I've decided to change the updates from every Friday to every Saturday. Mostly because school's about to start back and I'll have to focus on it a bit, of course, and also because I knew that I wouldn't be able to update on the Friday that's coming up, because it's my birthday (woo).

Anywho, thank you all so, so very much for all of your lovely comments and votes and whatnot on the previous chapters and please, please, PLEASE do not forget to comment, comment, comment and vote on this chapter, por favor, because I'd just love your forever.