“Looking like a sunflower chasing the sun” your mom said ironically looking at you eating your cereal, tiredly stirring your spoon in the milk.

It’s been 3 days since your “break-up” and your last real meal, the fight with Rodrick making you lose your appetite completely. Your entire weekend you’ve spent practically reading books only, trying to distract yourself from overthinking, knowing that worrying would only double the constant needle-like pinch in your chest. Of course, you’d lie saying that you haven’t cried at all, but it was definitely way less than the day you found out about moving out of Florida, it’s like you’ve gotten used to life’s extreme ups and downs and didn’t really have much more tears left to cry. Yet your eyes were still all red and swollen and your concealer empty, forcing you to put on an oversized black hoodie and a ripped black skinny jeans matching your black converse in order to stay as invisible as possible today at school.

“Funny mum, turning into a comedian, aren’t we?” you answered coldly giving her a short, forced smile, making her understand that you weren’t in the mood for her jokes now. You didn’t tell her about Rodrick yet and honestly didn’t plan to. Talking to your mum about the sad end of a fake relationship seemed ridiculous and pathetic, and the fact that your love life wasn’t any of her business anyway, made this decision way easier to you.

“Moody, I see. And I suppose you don’t wanna talk about it, right?” she asked raising her gaze up from the gossip magazine she was reading, taking a small sip from her black coffee as you nodded your head in agreement, standing up from the kitchen table, throwing the leftover food in the trash, cleaning the now empty bowl.

“Alright” she answered letting out a quiet sigh. “Is Rodrick driving you to school today again?” she asked as you packed your lunch in the backpack, throwing it on your back, rubbing your eyes tiredly. “I don’t know, I don’t think so” you said as your mum looked at you confused, her brows knitted as she frowned. “I think his lessons start later today” you quickly lied to not raise any suspicions. “I’ll just drive myself” you added quickly taking the keys of your car, before giving her a quick kiss on the cheek, leaving your house behind.

But before you could let out a relived sigh another surprise was waiting for you outside, making you freeze, a sudden dread hitting your core as you felt all of your muscles tense, millions of feelings floating you, making you dizzy.

“Well, what you’re waiting for?” Rodrick shouted, waiting in his van right in front of your house, making you come back to reality. “You’ll have plenty of other opportunities to admire my beauty but now get your ass in the car, we’ll be late” he added as you approached the car, trying your best to ignore your heart moving lightspeed, a small smile building up as the surprise sank in.

Getting inside of the van you couldn’t help but realize that he looked as terrible as you did, dressed all in black trying to cover the red circles under his eyes, yet a small smile lighting up his face at your sight.

“You’re such a dumbass, bawling out your eyes” he said teasing you, starting the engineer, a smirk appearing on his face as you put your middle finger up. “Look at yourself, damn crybaby” you answered quickly, making him throw a pack of tissues at your face. You could feel yourself getting less nervous with each moment, your heart getting lighter, remembering how easy hanging out with Rodrick was, the constant pain in your chest fading away slowly. Yet you couldn’t stop thinking about why it was there in the first place, making you feel like shit once and passionate and enthusiastic in the next moment.

Moreover, you felt yourself getting overwhelmed by the whole situation. You basically just broke up, having a huge fight and now are supposed to act like nothing happened? You had no idea how to behave, act around him. How you were supposed to deal with all the feelings building up inside of you, getting stronger with each day, not knowing what they were in the first place.

“Listen Rodrick” you’ve quietly said after a while, making him turn around to face you for a second before turning back to face the road once again. “I don’t mean for this to sound offensive, but what the hell are we even doing?” you added confused as he let out an amused huff, pulling into the school’s parking lot, taking a quick glance at his phone in order to check the hour to ensure himself that he had enough time before the lesson started, turning back to you, locking his eyes with yours.

“Alright” he said letting out a quiet sigh, looking down now. “I know that I’ve hurt you a lot and that I was acting childish and selfish. I know that I shouldn’t have dragged you into that whole Heather bullshit. I know that many things I did were unfair and I know that a break up normally means to distance yourself from one another. But I just can’t, you know?” he added, nervously looking to the left. “You’re still my favorite girl Y/N, my best friend. Remember the times we were alone and didn’t have to pretend? These were probably the times I’ve had the most fun. I didn’t like you for the fake girlfriend you were, I mean, I did as well but that’s not really the point. The point is that I like you for who you turned out to be when no one was watching” he added now looking back up at you, trying to fight back your tears. You didn’t know what happened to you, why you’ve been so emotional lately, but you couldn’t help it. “So, wanna stay my best friend?” he asked as you let go of his hand, covering your face with them, letting your tears flow, nodding in agreement, a genuine smile appearing on his face as he pulled you into a tight hug.

“Oh God, you’re such a sensitive softie” he said laughing, wiping away your tears with the sleeve of his black hoodie, giving you a quick kiss on your forehead before pulling away. “Now let’s get out of here, we’ll be late” he added, which wasn’t true at all. You still had 20 minutes to go before school started but you always met up with all of your friends before lessons began, just to catch up with each other, talk about what was new.

“Now, how we wanna tell them?” Rodrick asked turning to you putting on his usual, cocky smile. “Quick and painless or overdramatic and detailed?” he added making you laugh. “How about we say it like it’s not a big deal, shortly before classes start so they don’t have enough time to ask questions” you answered smiling as Rodrick put his arm over your shoulder. “So that they won’t be able to think about anything else until lunch break? Evil. I like it.” Rodrick answered giving you a proud look before turning around to greet your friends, Maddie and Ben talking about something enthusiastically.

“What did we miss?” you asked casually peeling the tangerine you’ve got from Rodrick, him doing the same, nearly dropping it after you’ve heard Jake repeating what they were talking about.

“Mads and Ben wanna get matching tattoos this weekend, they even got an appointment at the local tattoo artist already” he said making your jaw drop. Now how do you tell your best friend that the idea she is so excited about might be really sweet, but a little hasty considering the fact that they’ve been dating for a month only, without upsetting her? Adding the fact that you didn’t even know they were official in the first place until now, since she simply didn’t tell you. Oh, and then again didn’t asked you for your damn opinion. I guess you just don’t say anything at all. You just nod and smile.

“That’s great” you said trying to sound as convincing as possible, nodding your head slowly. “And which motive do you want to get tattooed?” you added looking up at Rodrick, his face covered in visual confusion.

“That’s easy” Maddie answered quickly putting her long, curly, red hair up in a bun. “The sun and the moon” she added proudly, making your face light up. They wanted the kind of partner tattoos you can keep even after your break up, now that’s a relief. You were really scared they’d pull a “his&hers” one.

“No, no, no, no, no” Ben suddenly said shaking his head turning to Maddie. “I thought we talked about this already. We’re going with two skulls on our wrists” he stated turning back to you as Maddie rolled her eyes annoyed. “Great, we might as well just go with anchor and compass” she added ironically, Ben letting out a quiet sigh. “Alright, how about superman and wonder woman logos then?” he asked turning back to Maddie, who let a silent huff. “I didn’t even like the damn movies” she said as Ben threw up his arms in desperation. “How about we go with Ying and Yang?” she said trying to stay as calm as possible. “I don’t even know what that is Mads” he answered, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

“Alright, I think we got it” Chris quickly said, interrupting their vivid discussion. “Now let me tell you what happened yesterday” he said excitedly. “Guess who asked Madison out? You know, Heather Hills best friend. Me!!” he almost shouted euphorically. “And she said yes Ya'll. She said yes!! I knew she’s got a soft spot for me” he added proudly bowing down as everyone burst out into a huge applause.

“Now anything new with the two you, love birds?” Chris asked facing Rodrick and you as the applause faded away. “You both be twinning today, both looking like depressed fuckers” he said amused as you looked up at Rodrick, locking your eyes for a second as he nodded his head slightly, before turning back around to your friends.

“Well” you’ve said quietly, realizing that you still had 10 minutes before classes started and therefore wouldn’t be able to avoid their questions. “Rodrick and I, we broke up” you added, leaving all of your friends shocked, unable to say a single word, standing there speechless in disbelieve for several seconds.

And after a moment of silence that felt like an eternity passed, Chris finally opened his mouth. “What? But why?” being the only words coming out of it followed by confused looks on all of your friends faces.

“Well, we just decided that we’d be better off as friends, you know” Rodrick answered calmly, his arm resting on your shoulder pulling you even closer, as if to protect you from the possible reactions. “But you guys aren’t just friends” Ben suddenly said, Maddie nudging him lightly in order to show him that you might perceive it as rude and inappropriate. “But it’s true” he added anyway. “I mean come on, you guys are literally made for each other. I’ve never seen two people harmonizing this great with one another” he said with his brows knitted, his eyes looking almost hurt. “If Ya'll really broke up, then there’s no way love is even real. That’s all I gotta say” he added, his words hitting both of you like a train, leaving you speechless.

“Shut up Ben” Maddie finally spoke up after no one said a single word, overwhelmed by Ben’s ‘speech’. “I’m sure they had a good reason, it’s none of our business anyway” she added calmly trying to get the situation under control once again. Sometimes you were wondering how in the world Maddie ended up with Ben. Her-the cool, responsible, spiritual fairy that could have everyone, dating the depressed but funny, brutally honest emo guy, coming from a broken family. It’s like she is the mom friend of your group, while he’s the rebellious and problematic teen, yet they are dating. Opposites attract, I guess.

“Alright” Chris suddenly said, coming over to your side throwing off Rodrick’s arm off your shoulder, replacing it by his, leaning down to you, as you looked up at him as confused as ever. And before he even got the chance to open his mouth you knew exactly what he was going to say. From your whole friend group, he was the one you were the closest with, except of Maddie and Rodrick of course. He always managed to make you laugh somehow and since the both of you shared nearly every class, you’ve spent the most time with him. You even liked to meet after school sometimes, getting coffee, watching a movie or even playing the bass. Since both of you played it, you liked teaching each other new stuff. A genuine guy friend, this is who he turned out to be over the time. No other intentions. And you enjoyed it a lot. “So, since you’re single now...” he started jokingly, a wicked smirk covering his face making you laugh, followed by Rodrick throwing his tangerine peel at him annoyed, everyone bursting out in laughter.

“Okay guys, I have one last question” Jake suddenly said after all of you slowly headed to school, Rodrick’s arm finding it's place on your shoulder again. “It’s kinda stupid but how the fuck are we supposed to act now that you guys broke up?” he asked genuinely disorientated, Rodrick sending you an amused look, indicating that you should leave this one for him. “Well, I don’t really know” he answered shrugging. “I mean, originally we’ve planned for this to be World War 3, where you guys would have to position yourself. I’d take you and Chris, Y/N Mads and Ben, and all of us would be enemies till the rest of our life's. But actually, it’s up to you” he added as you rolled your eyes yet unable to cover the smile building up on your face.

“Obviously nothing has changed” you said softly turning back to Jake. “We’re still best friends and this whole thing ain’t that big of a deal anyways, things aren’t supposed to get awkward” you added before turning to Maddie. “Now come on, let’s go we’ll be late for English” you stated before turning around and leaving your friends, Rodrick giving you a small “goodbye” kiss on your head.

He always used to do this when you were ‘dating’, giving you a kiss on your cheek each time you left. Now that you broke up, he replaced it by a kiss on the forehead, making it feel like a promise each time.