"Zach, leave my crisps alone," Colette orders him.

"I just want one," he whines.

"No," she states.

"One."

"No."

"Soph?" He turns to her, pouting.

"I'm not giving you anything," Sophie refuses.

"Ri?" He then turns to Riley.

"Try Anna. She's the kind one," she nods towards me.

"Will you give me one, Leni?" Zach juts his lower lip out.

"Yeah sure," I hand him the bag and he grins, snatching the bag from me and taking more than one, but I didn't care how many he took.

"Yow da best," he muffles out and I smile at him.

"You okay, Lyn?" Alex asks and I nod my head with the smile still on my face.

"She's not," Sophie disagrees.

"You're still upset about the Luke thing, aren't you?" He questions.

"A bit, but it's mostly about what happened with Jennie yesterday," I answer, fiddling with my earphones.

"What happened with Jennie?" Riley furrows her eyebrows.

"She knows about Anastasia and my panic disorder and she said that I shouldn't get advice from my family because 'Asians are stupid' and that I should get a therapist instead," I recall yesterday's conversation, doing air quotes at Jennie's statement.

"That bitch," Sophie mutters.

"Who's Anastasia?" Zach asks in confusion.

"My twin sister. She passed away when we were ten," I explain to Zach.

"I'm so sorry, Leni," Zach says sheepishly.

"It's okay," I assure him, smiling.

"Wait, so she talked shit about your family and stole Luke from you? Wow, she really is a bitch," Alex comments.

"She didn't steal Luke from me," I differ. "It's not like he is mine or anything."

"But he is," Sophie tilts her head to the side.

"No, he is not."

"And what proves that?" She insists.

"He is literally dating another girl," I tell her.

"Who stole him from you," she pokes the table, trying to prove her point.

"No, she didn't. Luke can date whoever he wants to date. I don't have control over him," I say. "Now can we please drop this?"

"Yeah sure. I'm just training to be a debater," Sophie shrugs and I blink at her.

"Nice," Alex high fives Sophie.

"I don't know what the bloody hell does he see in her anyways," Colette rolls her eyes.

"She's racist, a total bitch and she wears Hollister. Who wears Hollister anymore?" Riley exclaims.

"My grandmother does," Zach replies. "And my friend's dog."

"Who?" Alex frowns in confusion.

"I meant Jennie, dumbass," Zach responds and Sophie snickers.

"Guys," I scold. "Look, just because we don't like her; doesn't mean we talk about her like that. It's her own choices and her own life. We shouldn't be judging her. She can do whatever she wants. She is free of her own choices. Just leave her alone and ignore her. That's the only right thing to do."

"Anna's right," Alex nods. "Just because she judges others, doesn't mean we be like her."

"Exactly," Sophie agrees.

"Okay, but seriously? He just had to bring her with him," Zach runs his hand through his brown curls, sighing.

I just shrug and put the earphones in my ears, then I play the music on my phone, while proceeding on with my book to distract myself from Jennie and Luke. I guess that's what I'm going to do from now on.

"Hey, guys," I hear his faint voice and they all greet him back, while I stay quiet as if I didn't hear him. Jennie and Luke take a seat on the bench of the lunch table.

"Um...do you really eat all of that?" I hear Jennie asking in disgust and I look up to find her wrinkling her nose.

I pause my playlist. "No, we take a selfie with half of it," I couldn't help but answer for her, smiling sarcastically.

She rolls her eyes. "I honestly don't know what is wrong with you."

"Nothing's wrong with me. I'm just being mean for no reason at all," I tell her sweetly.

"Cherries," Luke sighs and I roll my eyes, unpausing my playlist again, lowering the volume just a bit in case anything happens and I continue reading.

"Aren't you supposed to be with your friends, Jennie?" Zach asks.

"Yes, but I wanted to spend some more time with my boyfriend," she smiles at Luke and he gives her a lopsided smile back.

"We're eating here. Thank you," Sophie butts in and shoves more crisps in her mouth.

"Gross," Jennie grimaces.

"Do you have a problem with food?" I ask her.

She is really starting to annoy me. This is literally what everybody eats and she's acting like it's a sin. It's food; all humans eat it.

"Do you have a problem with me?" She scoffs.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm the one who's being a total annoyance and not minding her own business," the sarcasm drips from my voice.

"At least you know yourself, sweetie," she smiles widely in a fake way.

"Cherries, can I talk to you for a minute outside?" Luke requests, sounding kinda annoyed.

"Okay," I shrug.

I get up and place the book in my bag, then I do the same thing with my phone after I unplug the earphones out. Luke walks ahead of me, marching to the exit of the cafeteria and I stroll behind him. I glance at the girls and Sophie secretly crosses her fingers and I cross them behind my back too. I follow Luke until we walk out in the empty hallway and he turns to me, looking mad.

"What's up with you?" He asks.

"Nothing," I reply. "Why do you think there's something wrong with me?"

"Maybe because you're treating Jennie like shit?" He answers firmly.

"Me?" I sputter in disbelief . "She's the one who has been against me since forever! How am I treating her like crap when she's treating me worse?"

"I know that you don't like her, but can't you just suck it up until she leaves?" He snaps at me.

"You know you're treating me like I'm the only one who has done a mistake here, when you have done the exact same thing!" I shout, pointing at him.

"What the hell did I do to you?" He shouts back.

"You told Jennie about my anxiety and my sister!" I glare at him.

His eyebrows shoot up. "What the fuck, Anna? Who gave you that idea?"

"She did. She told me that you told her everything!"

"You really think I told her what you've been through?" He frowns.

"Well, there's no other way. Is there?" I cross my arms, raising my eyebrows in question.

"Wow," he mutters in disbelief. "If that's what you really think, then fine."

"Fine," I narrow my eyes at him again, then the bell rings and I quickly turn on my heels to head to my class.

I walk inside the classroom and take a seat in my far back chair as I wait for Mr. Harris to arrive. Colette appears in the doorway of the classroom and when she sees me sitting in my chair, a look of relief appears on her face and she goes around the desks to sit next to me.

"What happened? I saw Luke storming away, looking angry," She says.

"We had a fight and not like the small, stupid fights that we usually have; like a full-on, yelling, huge fight," I answer, leaning my head back on the wall.

Colette stares at me as if she's thinking about something, then she speaks up. "Do you really think he told her?"

"Well yeah. There's no other explanation to that," I tell her.

"Do you trust Luke?" She asks.

"I thought I did," I respond.

"You thought?" Colette raises her eyebrow at my reply. "Anna, this is no thinking matter. Trust is something that you need to be sure about because it builds on honesty and faith. If you don't have trust in a person, then you lost your honesty and faith in whoever is in front of you."

"Do you think that this is all because of my jealousy?" I ask her.

"It's okay to be jealous, Lyn, but you shouldn't let jealousy get in your trust. Your trust will decrease when your jealousy increases and you might lose someone because of it," Colette says.

I sigh and let my head fall forward on the desk, then I prop my chin on it and I see Luke walking in the classroom with Zach and Alex following behind. Probably all the girls stopped what they're doing to look, but most of them turned away from Luke's emotionless expression. Zach looks at me and shrugs his shoulders, sending me a sheepish look. I smile at him reassuringly.

I messed this up.

| | | |

"I'm home," I announce, not bothering to say it loudly.

"Hey," Cole walks out of the kitchen with a bowl of cereal and milk in his hand.

"You okay?" He frowns.

"Yup," I drop my keys in the bowl on the dresser next to the door. "Just peachy."

"What happened?" He asks and puts a spoonful of Lucky Charms and milk in his mouth.

"Luke and I had a fight," I simply respond.

"Want me to beat him up?" Cole requests.

"No, Cole," I laugh. "It was just a stupid fight."

"Stupid fights don't make you that upset," he shoves another spoonful in his mouth and I shift on my feet, biting my lip. Cole drops the spoon in the bowl dramatically and widens his eyes at me.

"Yow wike Cawter?" He muffles and I move my head up then down in slowed down movements.

"Just great," he mutters.

"What does that mean?"

"It means that I'll be threatening another guy by chopping off of his penis if he hurts you," he replies.

"Ew," I laugh.

"It's okay, dear sister. I'll give them back to him with leaves like those extra fancy restaurants," he places his hand on my shoulder.

"Oh, my God. Stop," I laugh even harder, covering my ears. "How do you even have a girlfriend?"

"I don't know. I wonder that sometimes," he squints his eyes. "Cora wonders that too."

Cora is Cole's girlfriend of five years straight. They went to the same highschool and they've been dating since Year 11. Cora was on the softball team while he was on the football one and each team wanted the court for warming up and Cora started arguing with Cole since they were both team captains, then they both got detention and that's how a beautiful relationship started. After Cora punched Cole for asking her if she wants to 'do-something-that-I-would-like-not-to-elaborate-on', of course.

"What are you doing here early anyway?" I ask.

"I finished classes early; only had three."

"What about Josh?"

"He has five classes. He's still going to finish at four," he snickers. "Too bad for his unlucky ass."

"You're so mean," I giggle.

"Yeah, I know," he shrugs. "By the way, Cora was wondering if you wanted to hang out on Saturday. She wants to see you and I quote 'I miss my little Lyn'."

"Yeah, that sounds good. I missed her a lot too," I smile.

"Great," Cole continues on eating his cereal.

"I'll be upstairs if you need anything," I say and walk past him, then upstairs to my room.

"Can you cook today? Mum is going to be late!" he yells.

"Alright!" I yell back.

I trudge to my room and close the door behind me, then I throw my backpack on my wheelie chair and get my pajamas. Something catches my eye out of the window. I find Jennie and Luke entering his room and even though his room isn't the one directly in front of me, I can still see them.

I roll my eyes, then I walk to my window and swish the curtains close. I drop down on the maroon red bay window and let my head fall back against the glass, letting out a soft sigh.

If I do hate anything in this world, it would be this.

| | | |

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