My mom takes away my phone and bans me to my room when I'm at home, and Zack avoids me like the plague at school. A week goes by without us saying a word to each other, and it's like torture.

We lose the game that Zack sits out and I can tell my dad blames me for it. He won't even look at me when we're at home.

The only time my mom addresses me is to ask why I can't be responsible like Daniel and why she was cursed with such an irresponsible daughter. When I'm at school, people glare at me because of the rumors. When I'm at home, people glare at me because I'm a failure.

It feels like I'm losing everyone around me.

---

"I brought you this," Jaden says and places a pack of sour gummy worms on the desk in front of me. My favorite. Gratitude floods my whole body. At least someone doesn't hate me.

"Thank you. You're the best," I say with a thin smile.

"What's up with you lately? Are you good?" he asks, sitting beside me.

"Yeah," I answer immediately. "Everything's fine." As long as I don't say my worries out loud, they're not true, right?

"Amelia, you're a horrible liar," he says.

I let out a laugh but it's not a real one. "I just... I feel like I'm letting everyone down." Mostly myself.

His brows furrow. "Why do you think that?" he asks.

I bite the inside of my cheek. How do I even begin to explain everything that's going on? Would he understand? Plus, he's going through difficult things too. I don't want to burden him.

"It's my grades," I say finally. "They're falling."

"Aw, don't worry about that," he says dismissively. "It's only October."

I toy with my pencil. "You're right. Thanks, Jaden."

"You'd do the same for me," he replies and nudges my shoulder. I give a small smile in return. "There you go. You look pretty when you smile."

My face freezes. I know that comments like these don't mean anything to a nice guy like Jaden but to me, it feels uncomfortable, like flirting. I brush it off.

"I always look pretty," I joke flatly and look down at my notes.

"So you do know," he says. I shake my head.

"You're too nice," I say.

"You always say that," he says, displeased. "You know, girls don't like nice guys."

"Plenty of girls like you," I insist. As if he doesn't know.

He shakes his head. "Girls always go for guys like Zack. You know his mom opened a new diner the other day and, like, half the chicks in school went to check it out."

I freeze. "Oh."

Jaden seems to note my reaction. "Wait, you guys are friends now, right? He told me you were cool."

"He did?" I ask dubiously. "When?"

"After the night of the party. He said he thought you were different from other bitche-'' I raise an eyebrow. "Girls," he corrects. "Like he actually likes talking to you." Jaden smiles a bit. "You are fun to talk to."

I can't help it; my heart swells.

Jaden pauses. "Is there something going on with you two?" he asks carefully.

I don't even know. "No," I deny. I've denied it so many times, it comes naturally at this point.

"Cool," Jaden says. "Let's eat this," he says and relaxedly opens up the gummy worms.

"So Zack's mom opened a diner?" I try to ask casually as I grab a gummy. The pink and blue ones are the best.

"Yeah, in Pleasantville. It's called Stacey's." He looks at me. "I was thinking of dropping by tomorrow if you wanna go."

"Oh, I can't," I say. "I'm grounded."

"We'll go when you're ungrounded then," he says cheerfully.

"Sounds like a plan." Yeah, in 40 years if I'm lucky.

A/N: thanks soo much for reading. leave a vote/comment if u enjoyed!