~At School the Following Morning~

I saw Julie and Gina standing around my locker and quickly approached them. "Hey," I greeted cheerfully. "What's up?"

"Not much." Julie answered, hitching her backpack higher up.

"Just waiting for you." Gina continued, "What's up with you?"

I shrugged, opening my locker and depositing most of my heavy textbooks in. Julie gave me a look after I slammed the door shut again.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

I looked at both of them through tired eyes. I hadn't been able to get much sleep yesterday. The loud noise made by some band down the street didn't help much either.

"Have you guys talked to Aaron lately?" I finally asked.

They looked at each other again. "Noooo..." Gina finally said.

"Why would we?" Julie started walking with Gina to class, and I jogged to catch up.

"So what's up?" Gina asked. "Trouble in paradise?"

"I don't know," I said truthfully. "We were talking last night and everything was fine. Then when I told him I had to get to bed, he practically dashed for his house," I sighed, frustrated.

"Well, maybe he just had to pee....REALLY BAD," Julie said, trying to make me feel better.

I gave a very dry laugh, "Maybe." But something in me hightly doubts that.

"C'mon," Julie and Gina called, grabbing my hand on each side. "First period teacher's gonna be a real bitch if we don't get there in time."

With a laugh, I raced with them to class.

~Afterschool~

What a day. Between the awkward stares and the whispers in the halls, I'm more than happy to be home. I got out of Dad's car and looked across the street to see if Aaron was home. No one was in the living room, and Nick's car wasn't in the driveway. I hope everything's okay...

Just in case, I better call Aaron. I took my phone out of my pocket and dialed his number as I walked up to my room.

Ring. Ring. "Hello?" Aaron answered.

"Hey baby!" I said cheerfully. "Feeling better?"

"Than what?" he laughed.

"Than last night."

"Oh uh, yeah," he answered. "Sorry about running off like that."

"I thought we agreed that we needed to stop apologizing."

It was meant to be a joke, but he didn't laugh. After a minute of silence I realised it was probably because he wasn't paying attention.

"Listen, I have homework," I lied. "I just wanted to see if you were feeling better. I guess I'll catch you later."

"Mmhm, yeah. Bye," he hung up.

"What is going on with him?" I asked myself, burying my face in my pillows.

My dreams entwined themselves with real life happenings, from the experience with Jack and Tony, to my fight with Aaron...

I woke up and looked at my clock, it read 6:24 in bright red numbers.

My stomach growled and I went downstairs to see if my parents were cooking anything. All there was was a note from my Dad.

---

Mom and I went out for dinner. We were going to invite you to come along, but we decided you needed your sleep. Call my work cell if you need anything.

Love,
Dad

---

Why is everyone leaving me alone lately? It's like I have some disease or something... Oh yeah, I sorta do.

I glanced all around me, wondering what to do. Of course I could just go downstairs and rummage for something edible to eat, but I didn't really want to eat alone. I could just do homework or something and wait until somebody comes over here, but come on. Homework?!

A sharp tapping against my window, like the sound of pebbles being thrown at it, broke into my thoughts. My body tensed up, still remembering the week's past events.

What now?