I woke up kind of late the next morning, when I walked into the kitchen of Hayley's house, her dad was making pancakes and her mom was already gone to work.

“Hey there, feeling okay?” Her dad asked, and I nodded. “Good. Take a seat, I'll make you a plate.”
“Thank you Mr. Williams.”
“Please, call me Joey.” He smiled, setting down a plate as I sat down.
“Okay...thanks for letting me stay here too.”
“Don't think too much about it.” He said, and Hayley spoke up.
“I'm glad you slept okay, I kept checking in on you.”
“You didn't have to do that.”
“After listening to your cry for two hours, yeah, I did.” She took hold my hand. “So, any plans for today?”
“Jack and I are going to hang out.”
“Well, that's good.” I nodded, taking a bite of my pancakes.

We ate breakfast, Joey had to go, leaving Hayley and me alone. I still didn't get any word from Jack yet. I wasn't sure if I should call him first or not. I have a feeling he didn't sleep as well as I did, being stuck in that house. Right as I thought I couldn't wait any longer, my phone rang. I quickly answered.

“Hey Jack?” I smiled, just happy to finally hear is voice.
“Hi... Umm, listen...I don't think we should hang out today.” I frowned. I didn't want to hear that.
“Why?”
“I just...I feel so guilty about last night. I'm not sure how to face you right now, and with the stress of tomorrow already over my head I think we should just not see each other until I get my results.”
“Oh...” I felt my heart sink. “Kay...”
“Please don't be mad at me.”
“I-i'm not.” I said, trying not to cry. “I guess...I guess I'll see you after Monday.”
“Bye Ember.”
“Bye.” I whispered, and he hung up.

I dropped my phone and just started to cry. This was it, he was totally going to try and break up with me. I felt Hayley hug me, and try to ask me what's wrong, but all I could do was cry and mumble nonsense. I thought it would work out like this, I'm such an idiot.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

I walked into school with Hayley, trailing a little behind her. I hadn't slept much, and felt like shit since Jack bailed on me. I knew he wouldn't even be here today, and it just made everything worse. Hayley left me to go to her class, saying she'll text me afterward. I just nodded and went to my own classroom. Sitting in my desk, I just stared at the floor.

I have no idea how I made it through anything today. I couldn't pay attention, I didn't even sit by any of my friends. I skipped lunch, just sitting outside behind the school instead. I didn't even have the motivation to tell Jared to fuck off when he tried saying something ignorant to me. Hayley, Cass, Dalton, Zack, and Rian voiced their concern for me, but didn't get any answers from me. Surprisingly, Alex didn't say anything to me about how I was, which made me a bit suspicious.

After school, my suspicions were proven correct when he met me at my locker.

“Hey babycakes.” He smirked, leaning against the metal doors.
“What do you want?” I deadpanned, opening my locker so I could shove my bag into it. I didn't have any homework anyway.
“Wanna hang out?” He asked. I sighed loudly.
“I don't know if you can tell, but I'm kinda not in the mood.”
“Come on, it will be fun!” he said, still smiling.
“I don't want to.” I grumbled, going to walk away, but he followed me.
“Please?”
“No, Lex.”
“Pretty please?”
“I said no!” I yelled. “I'm kinda in the middle of some bullshit right now.”
“Come on, I promise that after you hang with me you'll be the happiest person on earth.”
“If that's you trying to jokingly fucking hit on me, I'm gonna kick you so hard in the balls, you won't be able to have children.” I threatened, and Alex didn't even seemed phased.
“It's not. I know you're upset.” He said, much more serious. “I just want to help.”
“Ugh, if it will get you to shut up.”

Alex cheered, and pulled me to his car. We went to his place, and Alex tried to get me to play video games with him, but I didn't really want to. He did by himself, while talking about how the next show would be the best ever, They weren't going to do any cover songs, or anything, just their own. He asked me which ones they should play, and if there's anything I wanted to him to try and get for the after party. I started talking with him a little more, feeling a bit less like a shit.

It wasn't until Alex suddenly said we had to go did I get suspicious again. He pulled me to the car with barely and explanations, and off we went. When I saw us turn on Thames St, I freaked out.

“Alex, no.” I glared.
“What?” He asked innocently.
“I'm not going there!” I yelled, and tried to open my door. Alex held onto my arm with one hand and drove with the other.
“Come on, I just want some coffee.”
“Go to fucking Starbucks.”
“It's not as good.” He parked in front of the coffee shop where Jack and I finally admitted that we liked each other. I tried to refuse to get out of the car, but Alex was stronger than me. He managed to get me out, and literally dragged me to the shop. He had me in a choke hold nearly, just not cutting off my air supply and one of his arms around my waist. I kicked and clawed at his arm, but he kept going.

“Coffe's not fucking worth this! What are you trying to do?” I yelled, as we got in the door. We got some stares, but no one did anything.
“Would you just calm down?”
“No!” I screamed, then whined. “I want to go back to Hayley's.”
“Too bad, come on.”
“No!” I continued to yell. Why was no one doing anything? Why was the world against me?

Alex finally let go of me, just to turn me around and come face to face with....

Jack.

Notes

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh~