“So…” Lucy drawled out.

I felt as if I were in an alcoholics anonymous meeting, Lucy had immediately herded me into an empty classroom as soon as the lunch bell had rang, claiming that now it was December it was of the utmost importance that we discussed our annual Secret Santa. I quickly realised when I was pushed into the classroom to see Edward, Violet and Rebecca all sat in a circle that this was a lot more than a simple friendly gathering.

“Why are we doing this?” Violet blurted out, “We’ve sorted things out, can’t we just leave it?”

“You haven’t sorted things out and you know it.” Lucy shook her head, “You and Jade are civil but you’re not the way you used to be, and Edward has suddenly become a mute. I haven’t heard you speak or crack a joke in weeks.”

Edwards shrugged, “I’m fine.”

“Sure.” Lucy snorted. She looked around us, her light eyes incredulous as she looked at the broken band of musketeers. It had only been three months since September but so much had happened and changed. In the summer we had been inseparable; and now it was as if we were strangers, “We need to fix this. I can’t keep hanging around with you all when everyone is walking on eggshells.”

Lucy motioned for me to take a seat, and after seeing the determination in her eyes, I perched on the end of desk. It was awkward as we all looked at each other; no one wanted to break the ice.

“Edward, do you have feelings for Jade?” Rebecca finally blurted out.

Edward started slightly, Rebecca’s abrupt question nearly causing him to fall off his chair. His eyes found mine; almost as if he couldn’t control it. His face flushed so red it reached the tips of his ears. He sank down in his seat slightly, glancing at the door to his left as if he were contemplating to tuck and roll out of this awkward situation.

“I was drunk ok?” Edward sighed; crossing his arms defensively, “And yes, over the summer I may have developed a miniscule crush on Jade.” He added quietly.

“Miniscule?” Lucy repeated, shaking her head, “You kissed her Edward!”

“It was just a kiss!” Edward hissed, “Now shut up Lucy!”

I had never seen Edward look so nervous. His eyebrows were practically in his hairline, his eyes were wide as he gave Lucy a warning look, Lucy on the other hand was sat back casually in her seat, her mouth pursed with a slight smug look on her face.

“Now that’s not true is it Edward?” She scolded lightly.

“Lucy!” Edward warned again.

“Because it was your first kiss!” Lucy yelled, her tone dramatic as if she were an actor in a play. Lucy glanced around the group, almost as if she were expecting us all to fall to the floor with big gasps. “Oh come on! Tell me you didn’t all know?”

“I didn’t…” I shrugged, “I’m a bit surprised though.”

“A bit surprised?” Violet repeated incredulously, “Coming from the girl who was mad at a boy for six years because he,” She paused to use her index and middle fingers as quotes,”stole my first kiss.” She attempted to mimic my voice but instead it came out as a high pitched squawk.

“I don’t sound like that!” I snapped defensively, “And I wasn’t mad at him for six years!”

“Could have fooled us!” Edward sniggered, a smile gracing his lips for the first time since we had been in this room.

“I bet you don’t run away and cry when he kisses you now.” Rebecca teased, giving me an over exaggerated wink.

It was my turn to blush then, “Shut up.”

It was as if that five minute banter between everyone had loosened the tension. We had all began to relax, our posture become less defensive and we were now facing each other instead of shying away.

I found myself looking at Violet, she met my gaze and her smile faltered slightly. We had apologised and tried to put everything that had happened behind us but I knew deep down we were both hurt. I couldn’t forget the way she looked at me at Miles’s bonfire, the look of hatred as she wrapped herself around Jared; the boy she knew I had feelings for, but I knew she knew exactly how she was making me feel, because she believed I had done it to her first with Edward.

“I’m sorry.” I whispered; suddenly feeling tearful, “About everything Violet, I never meant to hurt you.”

Violet stared at me; her own eyes growing glassy, “I’m sorry I blamed you. I shouldn’t have done that.” She wrung her hands together and took a deep breath before blurting out, “I’m so sorry I was such a bitch, I know you didn’t kiss Edward, it just broke my heart a little bit,” She chuckled softly and shook her head while Edward looked up, his eyebrows furrowed, “I’m sorry I acted like a bitch again at the bonfire, you didn’t deserve what I said about you.”

“It’s ok.” I reassured her, “You were hurt. But we should never treat each other like that again. We’ve been friends for years Vi, and in a few weeks we were acting as if we hated each other.”

“It won’t happen again.” Violet stated firmly.

“You were heartbroken?” Edward questioned quietly.

Violet’s head snapped in his direction; as if she had forgotten that Edward had been in the room. She shuffled her feet slightly and cleared her throat. Rebecca, Lucy and I exchanged a glance. Was Violet finally going to tell Edward how she felt?

“Edward…I….” Violet stuttered, her face growing redder and redder every passing second. I bit my lip to restrain myself from squealing, this was the moment we had all been waiting for, Edward was finally going to know, he- “I was just drunk.”

“Really?” Lucy grumbled under her breath.

Edward gave Violet a strange look before he slowly nodded, “Right ok. At least I wasn’t the only one.” He smiled and reached out to nudge her, “Hey at least we can be the alcoholics of the group together.”

Violet let out a short fake laugh and avoided the eyes of the girls in the room. It was up to Violet if she wanted to tell Edward how she felt; she would tell him when she was ready. Normal chatter took over and eventually all of the tension evaporated, it seemed that Lucy knew best and we had needed an intervention. We decided on the budget of our secret santa and that we would put names in a hat to decide who would buy whose present.

“Hey, do you have P.E next?” Rebecca questioned me as we all piled out of the classroom once the bell had rung.

I grimaced, “Unfortunately!”

“Hey at least cross country is over.” Rebecca grinned, “I think we’re doing netball now.”

This cheered me up slightly; I actually liked netball. People underestimate me because I was small but I had always had a knack with the sport, I could move fast and snatch the ball when it was thrown low.

“Not to mention Jared will be drooling over you when he see’s you in that netball skirt!” Lucy added, nudging me in the shoulder teasingly.

Suddenly the prospect of P.E didn’t seem so terrible.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I was so unfit.

The class had been playing netball for the past hour, each team receiving ten minute breaks while the different teams alternated between playing each other. I had forced my hair into a messy bun but after three games it had loosen, half of the curly strands sticking to my sweaty face. The boys were playing football on the opposite side of the sports hall, and it was obvious that both genders were very aware of each other. The girls looked hot in their netball skirts and the boys look hot in their football gear, it was common knowledge.

I had spotted Jared during my break. He had been playing a game, all kitted up in the Easton High blue football kit; he looked amazing in blue. I hadn’t spoken to him a lot since our date; only sending the occasional text as I had been complete swamped with revision for mock exams, but I hoped things between us were ok. The time we had spent together recently had been intense.

“Nice skirt Rochelle.”

I turned around to see the devil himself. He was sweeping his hair up from his forehead, his face red from the exercise. He had a huge grin on his face; probably from his games last win but I hoped it was because he was speaking to me.

I looked down at the navy blue netball skirt which reached my knees, “Thanks.” I laughed.

“I didn’t know you could play netball so well.” Jared observed, leaning against the wall beside me.

“You were watching me?” I questioned, tilting my head to the side almost teasingly.

Jared licked his lips before shrugging, “Maybe.” He retorted playfully. He stared at me a moment before reaching down and entwining our fingers, “Hey, what are you doing tonight?”

“Probably revision.” I grimaced, “Unless you have something better in mind?” I added when I saw his face fall.

His smile quickly returned, “I have an idea.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Won’t your parents mind though?” Jared asked, “I remember you saying your parents were quite strict when it came to studying.”

I didn’t know how to tell him that my parent’s had yet to have an inkling that he existed. I just couldn’t be bothered with the lectures from them both, “You’re going to throw away your life for some boy now? So close to exams?!” It had taken them almost six months to become accustomed to Darren and after the way that turned out I’m pretty sure my parent’s would handle the situation with Jared even worse.

“It should be fine.” I attempted to be nonchalant.

“Good,” Jared grinned, “I’ll pick you up around five?”

I nodded and he shifted closer to me. I was suddenly aware of how incredibly gross I must have looked, all sweaty and no makeup left to hide out the breakouts I had kindly received this morning. I forgot all about that when Jared leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to my lips.

“I’ll see you later.” Jared grinned when he pulled away.

I watched him jog away; a huge smile spread across my face.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

“So how’s school going honey?” Mum questioned.

I had come home from school and decided it would work in my favour if I spent some quality time with Mum before I sprang it on her I was going on a date. I wasn’t sure how I was going to break it to her yet; all I knew was that I was terrified.

“Yeah it’s going good.” I shrugged, “I’m a little nervous for mocks. That’s normal though, I just want to do well.”

Mum nodded “I’m sure you’ll do great. All you need to do is revise and you’ll fly through them.” She smiled at me before she reached for her glass of wine. It was a Tuesday night and Mum always had the tradition of having a glass of wine. I always like Tuesdays because it was the one night my Mum seemed to relax. She was always whizzing about, cleaning the house, running errands or worrying about something.

“You look pretty Mum.” I told her.

She looked up from her glass, a small and surprised smile on her lips. She did look pretty. She was wearing a loose grey jumper and a pair of jeans, her hair was down for once, spilling down her shoulders in golden waves. The wine had caused her cheeks to have a slight pink tinge to them; she looked happy.

“Thank you.” Mum mumbled self-consciously.

“She’s right. You look beautiful.” My Dad grinned, looking over his shoulder as he ceased washing the dishes. Mum glanced at him bashfully, a small chuckle escaping her lips.

I knew the past few months had been rough on our family, but somehow things had started to get better. Mum and Dad were making more of an effort with Adrianna, they had asked her about her counselling sessions and Mum had even gone into her room last night to listen to some music with her. It seemed that they had finally been able to move on from the fact that Adrianna had used drugs, they finally saw the dark reasons why it had happened and we’re now taking action to prevent it from ever happening again.

“Hey, do you mind if I go out tonight?” I finally asked after seeing it was nearly four thirty.

“Where are you going?” Dad questioned, turning around and leaning on the counter so he could look at me.

I gulped under his piercing stare, “I’m just going out with someone?”

“Someone?” Mum repeated curiously.

“Is this someone a boy?” Dad pressed, his face darkening. “Because you know the rules. They go through me to get to you.”

“Dad!” I sighed, rolling my eyes.

“What embarrassing thing is Dad doing now?” Adrianna chuckled, making her way into the kitchen. She was in her pajamas, her hair loose around her shoulders as she padded to the fridge in her slippers.

“I’m not embarrassing!” Dad protested. Adrianna and I both made noises of disagreement. “I’m just wondering who Jade has deemed good enough to take her out.”

Adrianna span around, her blue eyes wide as she smirked at me, “You still haven’t told them yet?!”

“So there is a boy.” Mum sighed, crossing her arms.

“There certainly is!” Adrianna sniggered.

“Shut up!” I hissed.

“Who is it?” Mum questioned.

“I don’t want to tell you!” I sighed in frustration, “I don’t want to tell you who he is…until I figure out if this is…real.”

It was true. I was so unsure of where Jared and I were going right now. One minute we were like sunshine and daisies, the next we’re at each other’s throats. The last thing I wanted to do was get my family involved in our turbulent relationship. It would be unfair to them; I only wanted to integrate him into my family if we were both serious about having a relationship.

“Just please understand.” I pleaded, “Let me figure this out.” I watched as Mum and Dad exchanged a doubtful glance, “If it does end up working out…you can meet him straight away. I promise.” I bargained.

Mum and Dad shared a glance before Dad shrugged.

“Ok.” Mum sighed. “But we meet him as soon as he becomes your boyfriend!”

“Ok.” I grinned, “I promise.”