"Amelia."

She wasn't listening to me.

"Amelia."

She still wasn't listening to me.

"Amelia!"

Her head snapped up to look at me from her phone where she was reading the subtitles of a show. "What? What? Why are you yelling at me?"

"I called your name like one hundred times."

"Oh sorry I'm just thinking."

"About what?"

"Do you ever think about the end of the year? I mean, it's all coming by so soon and prom is close and so is graduation-"

"Everyday Lia, what's your point?"

She sighed. "I don't know. It's all so overwhelming. Sometimes I feel like I didn't make the right choices."

I wasn't sure what she was talking about. "Is this about Emil?"

"A bit," her eyes flickered towards me. "I haven't exactly told you everything."

"Huh?"

Amelia brought her knees up against her chest. "It started to feel more like a friendhsip and he agreed and also it wasn't a mutual break up. I broke up with him because I started feeling a different way for someone else."

This was news to me.

"What? How come I didn't know?"

"I-I wasn't sure and it was all happening so fast. Emil understood and we ended it. I have yet to tell the person how I feel about them."

I hesitated. "Who is this person?"

"You promise you won't react?"

"I'm kind of going to react no matter what you say but..."

"Okay," she took a deep breath. "It's Cam."

My eyes almost popped out of my head. Out of the about 600 or so guys at our school my cousin was the one she was into.

"Cam? My cousin?"

"Yeah..." she trailed off, wincing.

I took in her words, a little bit stunned. Amelia and Cam didn't hang out that often and when they did it was usually because I would invite both to an event with me.

So when she admitted that to me, yes, I was surprised.

"Interesting."

"That's all you've have to say?"

"What do you want me to say? That you shouldn't have feelings for him? In case you haven't noticed I don't have that kind power."

Amelia rolled her eyes. "But seriously? What are your thoughts?"

"Are you going to tell him?" I blurted out.

"That wasn't a thought. That was a question."

"And that was you avoiding my question." I pointed out.

Amelia sighed. "Do you think I should?"

"You're the one that was talking about how high school is coming to an end soon. Wouldn't you want to tell him before everything is over?"

Amelia hid her face in her hands, slouching down and groaning loudly. "I was trying to avoid this."

"You were trying to avoid telling Cam your feelings for him. Those same feelings that led you to end a relationship you were in for like two years? Do you not see the problem with trying to avoid it?"

Amelia sat up straight, sighing. "Okay, fine. I'll tell him."

She didn't sound happy to tell him.

"That's the spirit." I sarcastically said just when my phone buzzed in my pocket.

Sandra: how did you even know that?👀

Sandra: you're not my boyfriend. I don't think I have to tell you everything all the time

Realizing that Kevin's "ejever" was actually never, I was about to type again when my phone rang. I answered it quickly, holding it up to my ear. "It's-"

"Explain." He demanded and at that tone i got mad.

"I don't have to explain anything to you."

"Are you seeing him?" I opened my mouth to speak but this idiot didn't let me get a word in. "Or are you planning on doing that? Sandra I know you aren't stupid enough to actually think about being with that-"

"I'm not stupid enough. He tried to ask me out even though I knew he was still dating his girlfriend again. Even if he broke up with her, I still wouldn't go out with him. I'm not about to date someone I know will cheat on me. I'm not stupid enough. I'm not stupid period."

There was silence on the phone but by this point I was agitated and I hung up.

I got out of my room after minutes of hearing Kevin try to call me back. I was walking down the stairs to see what anyone was doing.

I knew my parents weren't home because they went out with a couple of friends but who I didn't expect to see was my sister with a guy on our couch.

"What. The. Hell?" I voiced loudly.

The guy scrambled off, looking embarrassed as if I had caught him shoving his throat down my younger sisters throat.

Luckily I didn't.

"Who are you?"

He grabbed his sweater, putting it on. "I'm Richard."

"Awesome. Bye now Richard, Raina will see you at school tomorrow."

I grabbed him by the shoulders and directed him towards the exit of our house. Closing and locking the door the second he was outside, I moved back to the living room.

Raina was staring at me wide eyed. "What? Why did you kick him out?"

"Mom and dad said not to let anyone come over, especially boys. Does that ring a bell or...?"

"But it's just Richard! He doesn't even go to our school. I barely get to see him."

"Who is he? Your boyfriend?"

"Almost." Raina glared at me.

"Well, too bad."

"Why can't you just relax? You're so uptight."

"I'm not upright."

Raina rolled her eyes. "Sure. We weren't even going to do anything."

"It doesn't matter. You're lucky I'm not going to tell them about this."

Raina let out a small scream, getting and stomping over to me. "Why do you have to be such a-"

"Such a what?"

"A bitch sometimes?"

"Why do you have to act like you suddenly know everything?"

"It's not my fault that your life is so boring and that you're trying to get in the way of mine, now is it?"

She moved past me, making sure to hit my shoulder on the way up the stairs.

I heard her bedroom door close with a loud bang.

The doorbell rang and I sighed, walking over to it.

If it's that Richard kid again I swear-

On the other side revealed Kevin.

"What are you doing here?"

"Can we talk?"

I stared at him, wondering what possessed him to come out of his house at this time and run all the way to mine.

I knew he ran. He was panting slightly and trying to catch his breath. Last time I checked, he didn't live that close to me.

"Not inside." I closed the door behind me and grabbed him by the arm. We sat down on the stairs in the front of my house. "Why'd you come?"

"I didn't mean to indirectly call you stupid. It's just-Ian is an asshole. A major one. On and off the basketball court and it's not hard for him to find a girlfriend."

"Are you calling me easy?"

"No, no, no, from current and personal experience you definitely aren't easy, babe. Just saying."

Tell me how in the middle of a sort of fight between us he still manages to insert that pet name.

"Then what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that I just don't...I don't want you dating him."

He said that so seriously and even though I had no plan to date Ian, there was a part of me that wanted to egg Kevin on. "Why do I have to listen to you?"

"Because Ian is the type of guy to get a girl during the winter and break up with her during the spring. He'll just use the girl and then find someone better-"

"Are you saying that I'm not good enough for Ian? For anybody?"

"What? No. You're amazing . Why would you even think that?"

"I don't know. Maybe because you just said that he can find someone bet-"

"But there isn't someone better. It's you for fuck's sakes. He won't realize that and i just- i don't want you to get hurt. That's all."

He turned his head to face me and I tried not to look at his eyes from that sentence. It was like he actually cared.

I took a deep breath. "I'm not going out with him."

Kevin looked relived. "Really?"

"I blocked him then deleted his number right after he tried asking me out again."

"Really?"

"Yes."

Kevin dramatically sighed, leaning back against they wood floors of my porch, his head near the welcome mat. "Oh thank God."

"Why did you care anyway?"

"Because i don't want anybody to be with my prom date. It's going to be me, just me and only me."

"Huh," I stared at him. Unbelievable. "And what if i want to go with my friends?"

He scratched his head. "Never really thought about that. Okay, you can go with you're friends but i still have to go with you as your date."

"What if i just want to be with friends and not have a specific date?"

"Because...i'm yours."

"And?"

"And technically by Kevin Reed's laws of belonging, you're mine as well." He winked at me.

After kicking Kevin off my porch, I went back inside the house to watch TV before i possibly went to bed.

When my parents came back, I was still thinking about what Kevin said.

"How was the night?" I asked them as they walked into the living room.

Neither of them had time to answer because my younger sister was already running down the stairs towards them. "Sandra brought a boy over when you said we weren't supposed to."

Are you kidding me?