Calming myself down once again; I slipped my arms into the armholes of the shirt. Slipping the shirt over my head I took a breath. The shirt smelled sweet. It took me by surprise. When my head had gone through the top of the shirt, I took in another breath. This time it was of fresh clean air. Tempted to smell the sweet scent of the shirt again, I took hold of the shirt and pulled it up to my face. Covering my face up to my nose I deeply inhaled the whiff of the delicious scent. I couldn't deny it, the smell of his shirt was very delectable; it was luscious and most of all it made my heart race knowing that I was wearing his shirt.

                Closing my eyes, I took another deep breath so that I could taste the yummy smell. I felt like one of those crazy psychotic girls who, when they were obsessed with a person, did really weird things. It couldn’t be helped though. His shirt just smelled so, so good. The shirt gave off the scent of sweet fruits; Fruity smells were my favorite scents.

                Clearing my head I let go of the shirt. I turned my attention to my dirtied shirt and picked it up, rolling it up so that I couldn’t see the blood.

                Taking in a deep breath, I headed towards the door. It was quiet by then. Taking my time, I opened the door. In my heart I hoped that Ethan had left already. Unfortunately my wish was ruined. He was sitting next to the shirt that I had been sitting in. The nurse was doing something else on her computer. As I walked out of the bathroom, Ethan looked up at me.

                I looked away from him. Seeing him look at me made my heart beat fast. I hated it. I despised it. I wanted to rip my heart out.

                “Thanks.” I said to the nurse as I walked by her desk, “I’m going to go to class.”

                She looked up at me, “If you want, you can lay down for a few minutes.”

                “No thanks.”, I smiled slightly and nodded my head.

                “Okay, let me write you a pass.” She grabbed a pen and a piece of paper, “It’s nice that Ethan wanted to wait for you.”

                I froze a little; my worst nightmare. “O-oh.”

                She handed me the pass, hastily I grabbed it and walked towards the door. Before I could open the door myself, he did the honor.

                “Thanks”, I forced out crudely. I didn’t mean to though. Swiftly, I walked out the door. I was speed walking by the time I was out of view of the nurse.

                “Bye Ms. Qwerty.” Ethan said cheerfully.

                Was he ever this cheerful? I thought to myself. What was wrong with him today? A clone maybe? Or he hit his head! Did he eat something weird this morning? Ugg, the possibilities! I didn’t understand! After a month of hostility he just one day randomly changed! Today was certainly just too much for me.

                I staggered a little, surprised by his sudden presence. I felt my face turning red.

He was taking longer strides, walking ahead of me slightly. I began to wonder why he had bothered to wait for me. Maybe to torment me? “You are Zola’s best friend.” He let out

                “Huh?” it was all that I could get out in such a short amount of time.

                Ethan didn’t reply right away, instead he looked back at me with an annoyed expression, then looked forward again, “You are Zola’s best friend, she sees you the same as you see her.” With this he walked off leaving me in his dust.

                What had just happened? I was even more stunned now. Was he PMSing!? He had just turned back to his old self. What happened to being so nice to me! Ugg! I was definitely being played. Frustration surged through me. Clenching my fists around my t-shirt, I twisted it in anger. I felt as if I was about to scream, and I did.

                “ARG! What the flip!” it partially echoed through the empty hallway.

                Instead of walking to class calmly, I stomped. If he wasn’t so scary looking most of the time, I’d give him a piece of my mind. I thought to myself. That was the only real reason why I never said anything to him personally. I was losing it though. I wanted to strangle him. I wanted to beat him. I wanted to scratch up his corvette; this thought was quickly rethought though. He had my dream car; it’d be a shame to ruin such a beauty. Letting out a sigh, I took in deep breaths. It was becoming a daily thing for me today.

                By the time I got to the door of the class room I had calmed myself down. When I opened the door, my eyes looked forward to my seat. I caught sight of Ethan sitting in his seat. It was childish but I attempted to send a angry vibe to him.

                I turned my attention to Ms. Wilson, my teacher who had called out my name. “Uh huh?”

                “How are you feeling?” she asked me.

                “Fine; nothing broken, nothing out of place.” Except for a few other things I thought to myself.

                “That’s good”, Ms. Wilson said after I finished, “Well, we only have thirty-minutes left. You could lay your head down if you want.”

                “Nah, I’m really fine, I’m going to work on my project.”

                She smiled at me. Smiling back, I swung myself around and took a step only to find myself nearly run into someone’s chest. Luckily that person had stopped in time, barely avoiding the collision. Looking up I was quite thankful that I had not run into the person, because the person standing in front of me was Ethan. Tightening my face, I looked back down at my level and walked around him.

                “Excuse me.” Those two simple words came out with no real feelings, except for the feeling of menace; although I wasn’t too sure if he felt the vibe of menace that was directed towards him. I was still upset, no scratch that, I was still utterly angry at him. At his bipolar self; if he was bipolar.

                “It’s okay.” His tone sounded friendly, but it had no real emotion put into it. Yet it made me feel the beating in my chest grow faster. My own heart was betraying me and at the very moment that I needed it to be on my side. Traitor, I whispered to myself inside my head. If only I could rip out my heart so that I couldn’t feel the way I did.

                Taking a seat at my desk, I didn’t bother to look at Ethan. Seeing him would only make me more frustrated. I didn’t care about his tense expression anymore. I didn’t care about much that happened before the fight. What I couldn’t get out of my head were the things that happened after the fight. Picking up my pencil I started to sketch light lines on my paper. We had started a new project.

The portrait of him that I had been working on it secretly was finished. I had captured him, but I hadn’t captured everything about him. There was something missing, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Even so I turned it in and got a perfect score. Ms. Wilson had asked to hang it up, but I pleaded that she didn’t and so she didn’t. She instead gave it back to me.

I heard a low voice just as I began to let my hand do its job, which was drawing of course.

I looked up unwillingly to see part of his face. I did not reply. Who he was directing it to, seemed a bit obvious to me, sort of, but I wasn’t completely positive sure and didn’t want to look like an idiot; so I looked back down and continued on with my work.

With an obviously annoyed tone he repeated himself, “You shouldn’t talk to that guy.”

Once again I looked up at him. This time he was looking straight at me. It was obvious he was directing it towards me the first time now.

“What?” I asked him, although I had already heard him the first two times.

“Tsk, are you deaf?” his reply kind of ticked me off so I pouted an angry pout and continued working on my project.

I heard him let out a sigh, “I said, you need to stay away from that guy.”

“What guy?” I asked innocently. I really had no clue who he was talking about.

Instantly I felt something come over me. “What about him?”

“Stay away from him.” He sounded serious, but he always did, so I wasn’t sure how to take this.

“Why?” I liked asking questions. It gave me a wealth of knowledge, but right now it was mostly to annoy him. Payback; ha ha.

I let out a small hmph and looked up a little with suspicious eyes, “Trust you?”

He was no longer looking at me but he had the same serious tone from before and always, “Yes, just trust me on this one okay. He’s not good for you to be around.”

“How is he not good for me to be around? He seems like a nice enough guy.” It was obvious he was becoming annoyed at me, but at the moment I didn’t care, I wanted to get him mad; I wanted him to feel the same frustration that I did. Well. . .almost the same kind of frustration. Nah, it wasn’t the same, but I knew I wanted to get him angered. Not sure why though.

Quickly his eyes shot up at me, “He seems nice enough? So you’re willing to trust a person because they seem ‘nice enough?’”

I looked down at my paper, “Eh. . .” I made my voice sound indifferent.

“Can you at least give me a proper answer?” I thought I had heard a hint of pleading in the sound of his precious voice. “Like a yes or a no.”

“Dunno.” I was dragging the conversation into a ditch.

Frustration seemed to have gotten a hold of him, because what he said next was really odd, well coming for him, that is. “Amina, please, I’m begging you; if you’re not going to answer me, just please. Stay away from him. I know that he’s not good for you. I know for a fact. . . . just . . .” there was a short pause as he let out a frustrated sigh, “ just keep away from him. You don’t have to do it for me, do it for your friends, for Zola.”

When I heard this my head shot up, “My friends? For Zola? When exactly did they get into the picture?!” I exclaimed in a low voice, not wanting to draw attention over to our table.

“Look,” he paused, I could tell he was trying to find the correct words. When he did, it came as a shock to me, “I’m just trying to do the right thing for a friend okay.”

Friend! Since when did we become friends? I could have promised that I’d be the last person to even be considered his ‘friend’. Instead of replying back to him, I just sat still.

The rest of the hour, it was quiet. There was a bit of tension in the air. As the hour came to end, everyone started cleaning up. I was still working a little. There wasn’t much to clean up so I began to clean up when the bell rang, and when everyone was leaving. I didn’t blame them though. It was time to go home.

“Bye.” I said to Ms. Wilson as I walked to the door

“See you tomorrow Amina.” She waved at me.

“Yea.” I replied in courtesy. When I opened the door and turned the small corner that hid the door I saw Ethan leaning against the wall.

                He lightly pushed himself off the wall when he saw me coming his way. Even though I knew he was by my side, I ignored him, walking a little faster so that I could leave him in my dust. Seeing that I was ignoring him; he too picked up his pace; keeping along with mine.

                “Hey, are you listening to me?” he asked

                I didn’t answer him. I didn’t want to start another unnecessary argument. So instead I quickly walked into the crowd of people that were walking in the hallway. People were going in all directions. Some weren’t even going anywhere at all. I was a bit satisfied; I had lost him, although the act tickled my heart a little. Secretly, I grabbed my chest. The feeling in my chest was unwanted.

                “Are you okay?”

                Shocked by the voice I looked back. Ethan was right behind me. How he had managed to keep up with me in this hallway mess was in over my head, “Why are you still following me?”

                “Eh”, he was giving me the same answer that I had given him

                “Fine don’t answer me you stalker.” I turned back around so that I could navigate my way through the sea of people in front of me.

                As I turned into the partially empty stair well Ethan walked in front of me. Anger flooded me from the inside as my traitor heart thumped ever so loudly in my ears.

                The pace at what I climbed the stairs was fairly slow. I didn’t want to get too close to him. I was afraid that he could hear my heart, although it was impossible. When my feet were on the even ground of the second floor, I quickly rushed to my locker. As I walked into the small walk way that the lockers made I avoided looking ahead of me, instead I looked at the side of row of lockers that my locker was on. Hurriedly I opened my locker door; opening it so that I knew for sure that I couldn’t see him.

                I wasn’t sure when he had passed by behind me, but I knew he had left before I finished getting my things out from my locker. Walking out into the main hallway, I headed towards my usual way to meet up with Zola so that we could walk out to the school parking lot together. The hall way was almost cleared up now. Most of the people, who were under class men of course, had left to catch the busses.

                The almost cleared hallway made me feel more relaxed than I had been. I could feel my bottled anger and frustration draining from inside of myself. Pursing my lips together, I felt my lips start to curve up a little.

                “Hey Amina!”, Zola waved to me from the main hallway. Ethan wasn’t anywhere to be seen today. Sometimes he would meet up with her.

                Relived I let my smile take over for me, “Hi Zola, did I take long?”

                She shook her head, “No. I had other things to do anyways.”

                “Oh that’s good.”

                When I got to the main hallway, Zola began to walk beside me.

                “I heard.” She stated plainly. It was obvious as to what she was speaking of. I waited for more, but she didn’t continue. I wasn’t surprised that she wasn’t overreacting.

                “I’m okay, as you can see.” I wasn’t sure what to say.

                She nodded, “I know, Ethan told me.” Discreetly, she looked over at me.

                “Figured.” I couldn’t say more. Simply hearing his name reminded me of his bipolar self.

                “He also told me about Jalen.” I partially froze for a split second. Zola seemed to had noticed but pushed it aside. She was waiting for me to respond.

                “What exactly did he tell you?” I asked. I didn’t know what else to say.

                Looking forward again, she continued her run down the ‘cat walk’ as I came to call the main hallway when we we’re in it. “Not much, just what happened between you and him.”

                Between him and I. I thought to myself. Did he say something about that too?

                “Amina, I’m not saying this because of Ethan. I’m saying this as a friend.”

                It became obvious to me at that moment where this was going but I asked anyways, “What ?”

                “Please, do stay away from Jalen.”

                I didn’t think I’d get upset with Zola when she said it, but when I came out of her mouth, I was proved incorrect. I did become upset. “What’s wrong with Jalen Zola? You don’t even know him.” Although I didn’t know him either, I was willing to give him a chance if he wanted to be friends.

                “Amina it’s complicated.”

                “How Zola? How is it so complicated that I can’t just befriend some guy who saved me from getting stitches?” I was upset and it showed in my voice. I didn’t yell though, Zola was one person I could never see myself yelling at. There was just something about her that kept me from losing my mind.

                “Just trust me.” Her words were the same ones as Ethan’s.

                My face was thrown into a dragged expression, “Don’t you mean trust Ethan?” The words came out. By the time I realized what had come out; I discovered a new expression that Zola kept behind her precious face.

                An awkward silence swept us away. What else was there to say? I regretted what I had said. I was about to open my mouth to apologize but Zola beat me to it.

                “You know, Ethan would die for anyone he loved. He’d even die for a complete stranger. Even for someone he didn’t like.” She paused. I was a little lost. Where was this going? “He was going to help you Amina. He was reaching out towards you during that fight. He was—”

                “How do you know this?” I was in completely and utterly in disbelief.

                “I was there Amina; watching in horror. He was on the opposite side and he was about to grab you before the fight broke out but you were in too far for him to reach.”

                “You saw me?” I didn’t remember any faces.

                “You didn’t see us? Jenna, Valerie and I? We were trying to break through the crowd.” she paused to look at my lost face, “By the time we even got close to you the fight ended and you were lying on the floor.”

                “I really didn’t see your faces.” What else was there to say?

                “We were going to stay and see how you were, but they made us go to class.” She was obviously troubled by this.

                Not knowing what to do I hugged her, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say those things. I was just upset because of—” I had to stop myself from saying his name. It’d only make things worse, I thought.

                “Yea I know who.” She lightly laughed, “He’s usually not like that. Really don’t be mad at him. It’s—”

                Pulling myself away I looked up at her, “Complicated, right?” I said teasingly.

                “Yea, complicated.” She smiled lightly at me, then her face turned serious, “but really Amina for me.”

                It was starting again, or so I thought. “Don’t be mad at him. He’s just trying to look out for you.” This surprised me. I thought she was going to talk about something else.

                I hesitated but she didn’t, “Please Amina he really cares about you.”

                “Care about me? He barely even talks to me.”

                “There are things he has to deal with. But believe me, he really does care.”

                “Fine.” I agreed to her request. I didn’t want this to continue. My agreement made her whole face light up. I was almost blinded by the light emitting from her.

                After finishing our small heated talk, we continued our walk to the school parking lot. Most everyone had left already. When we got out of the building, we spotted Ethan’s car waiting out by the front curb of the school. Zola looked over at me. “Bye.” She walked over to the car, and opened the door of the corvette. Instead of climbing into the car she turned around, as if she realized something.

                “Hey, Amina can you come over today?” Zola asked me excitedly

                “Um. . .” I looked past her into the driver seat of the car. Even though I only say his side view. I could tell that he was irritated.

                “It’s a Friday Amina, why don’t you sleep over?”

                “Well, I don’t know.” I was a little scared and began to regret having made Ethan mad. I was regretting things a lot today.

                “We’ll come pick you up at your house okay?” Quickly she climbed into the passenger seat of the car and they sped off before I could oppose the plan.

                I was barely in the house for five minutes before I heard the door bell ring. Letting out a sigh, I walked to the door.

                “Zola I don’t know about sle—” I stopped midway through the sentence when I saw who was at the door.