I can't tell her. I can't tell Vivian that she was indirectly rejected. She's been texting me all night and since this morning. I didn't have the heart to read her messages. I didn't know how to reply.

I sigh and let my face plummet into the deep depths of my backpack. Vivian will be here soon and I don't know how to sugar coat "I didn't say I wanted to go with Vivian". I can smell the bag of donuts through my backpack. I bought a bunch of them to share with my friends. Mainly, I'm hoping to distract Vivian with her favorite ones, strawberry frosting with sprinkles. The thought of disappointing Vivian makes my stomach turn, and the smell of donuts starts to make me nauseous.

"When are you going to give up the habit of trying to suffocate yourself with your backpack?" I hear Evelyn sigh. She plops on the seat to my left. "Vivian's gone crazy. She won't stop talking about homecoming with Vincent. She keeps complaining that you're not replying to her messages." She gives me a stern look and I give her a weak, crooked smile.

"I was showering."

"For six hours?"

"I was eating dinner."

"So you ate your entire fridge? I know you eat a lot, but six hours is excessive." Evelyn's expression softens and she quietly whispers to me, "It didn't go well did it?"

I slowly shake my head. Evelyn tilts her head back and sighs.

"Wendy!" Vivian runs towards me and sits to my right. "What did he say?"

He says he doesn't want to go with you. He's interested in some other chick. I'm sorry. You can do better. Let's go dress shopping after school. I'll even try on some to make you happy. I might even go to homecoming with you. Don't be sad. I got you donuts. "I didn't get the chance to ask him."

"Aw, really? Why not?" Vivian whines, hugging my arm and making puppy eyes. She tops it off with her signature pout.

"It's Wendy we're talking about. She's practically a mute around everyone except for us," Evelyn explains for me.

"You could always ask him yourself." Olivia suggests. Easy for Olivia to say. She's always the one rejecting boys, not the other way around.

"I'll just have to get him to ask me," Vivian beams. Evelyn gives me a grimace. I'm sure none of us can stop Vivian once she sets her mind on something.

"Oh, hi, Vincent," Olivia says in a panicky voice. She tries to warn us to stop talking about him.

"Hi, Olivia. What's going on?"

"Nothing," the four of us say simultaneously. Way to be subtle.

"Who wants donuts?" I give a breathy laugh and pull out the greased stained bag out of my backpack. First, I pull out the one for Vivian and hand it to her, before placing the bag in the middle of the table. Vincent is too easily manipulated by food. He disregards whatever we were trying to hide from him and takes out a plain, glazed donut. Before he can take a bite, a piece of it is ripped off and popped into he mouth of someone else.

"Carson!" Vincent glares at him jokingly, before quickly taking huge bite of whatever is left of the donut. Vincent's two other friends are quick in pursuit. I recognize then immediately. They stand out in a crowd since they are twins. Luke and Logan I think. I'm sure the one who is stockier is Luke.

"Mind if we have some?" Luke asks, his head turning to see who's the owner of the bag of donuts. I nod and he takes out two chocolate glazed, handing one to his brother.

"Hey, stop taking her food!" Vincent growls.

"It's fine, really," I assure Vincent. He rolls his eyes at the twins and flashes me a smile. I cough. It felt like a hammer knocked into my chest from the inside.

Carson tries to steal the twins' donuts, but they slap his hands away.

"Carson, right? You can have one too." I extend the bag towards him and Carson takes out a vanilla frosted donut.

"Thanks-" he pauses and waits for my name.

"Wendy." I pull back the bag and there's one donut left. Thank goodness I bought a lot. I was preparing for a sob fest with Vivian.

"Thanks, Wendy." Carson devours the donut.

I slide the bag towards Vivian. "I don't feel like eating." She gives me a concerned look.

"Why? Aren't you hungry?"

"No, I'm just sleepy."

"At least have a bite."

"I'll eat after school. I'm craving fries right now and it's all I can think about," I lie again. I feel so bad for Vivian. I don't want her to be rejected. I'll for sure try again after school. The least I could do is convince Vincent to go to homecoming. Maybe then Vivian can have one dance with him.

I pretend yawn and Vincent pops a piece of his donut into my mouth. I almost choke on it from surprise.

"Problem solved," Vincent says, satisfied. Vivian looks even more shocked than I am. Hurt even.

"Are you girls going to homecoming?" Carson starts a conversation. Great. My stomach turns again with guilt. I bury my head back into my backpack and try to cancel out the conversation about homecoming.

"Can't you go to homecoming with your friends. You don't need a date," I suggest, keeping my eyes down on the imaginary math problem I'm trying to solve. Vincent is taken back from my sudden mention of homecoming. I see his look at me in the corner of his eyes. I try my best to continue to look at my math journal.

"What? And third-wheel all of my friends? They have dates you know," he chuckles. Of course they do.

"What about Vivian?" I gulp.

"You really want me to date your friend? What if things go wrong between us? You know my address, so you could easily assassinate me. How am I supposed to know you won't teach me the wrong things and sabotage my math tests?"

He's right. Things would be too weird. I can't give up, yet. Vivian wants this so bad. "Easy, don't let things go wrong."

"Easy for you to say. You've never dated before."

I whip my head up, ready to protest that he would think I've been single my whole life. My mouth opens, but he's read me correctly. The concept of dating has never existed in my universe, and it will probably never exist.

"I'm right aren't I? Dang, I was just teasing you. You never dated before?" he laughs and my cheeks burn. I should've just lied and made up a story.

I quickly change the subject. "Why are you so hung up on a girl anyways? It's not like you guys were dating, right? You could just ask out another girl." I'm stupid. Why would I suggest he ask out another girl? What if he ends up going with someone else besides Vivian? It's going to be all my fault.

"I don't know. I really like this girl. She's special, different." There's an awkward pause.

"Wow, I totally mistook you for a player. Guess you're really a Romeo."

"Hey, stereotyping people isn't nice. I mistook you for being smart, but you're denser than I thought." Dense? How am I dense? Vincent see my confused face and continues, "The fact that you don't get what I'm talking about proves you're dense."

We're over at Vivian's, since she's the only one who actually wears makeup. Vivian expertly lines Evelyn and Olivia's eyes, before doing her own. I was supposed to help with the make-up to speed up the process. I can draw, and dare I say I'm pretty good. However, drawing straight lines on a 3-D canvas is harder than people think. I don't even know what 90% of the products are for.

I'm sitting on the bed, admiring the dresses my friends picked out. Vivian is wearing a blush colored dress. It's in two pieces, exposing a part of her stomach. There's a light ruffle at the end, and the neckline of the dress had beading that runs to the the collar of the dress. Her tan skin pulls off the color.

Evelyn's dress is more simple. It's the same dress she tried to convince me to try on. It goes down to her ankles, and has slits on the sides that run up until her knees. There's a simple design on the waist area and on the collar of the dress. She has to borrow Vivian's heels since the dress is a little too long, even though she bought the smallest size possible.

Olivia is dressed with a simple mint green dress. The dress has a collar and some layering at the bottom. It's the most simple of all the dresses, but it suits Olivia. Simple things suit Olivia better than things like that poofy dress I saw her try on at the mall.

As for me, I'm wearing my plaid pajama pants and an oversized t-shirt with a cactus on it. I bought them from the men's section at the mall. They were on sale and comfortable, the perfect wardrobe for me.

They drop me off at my house and head off to homecoming. It's the usual Friday night for me. My sister locked herself in her room and is probably playing some video games. My dad is probably watching up in his room watching TV. It leaves me with my turtle, Wilbur, to watch some cooking competitions while I talk to him and he completely ignores me and hides in his shell. For others, I probably don't talk enough. For Wilbur, I'm sure he wishes everyday that I would shut up already.

The doorbell rings downstairs and I wait for my dad to go get it. It rings again and I don't hear any of the doors in the hallway opening. I sigh. I hate social interaction. Against the will of my body to stay glued to my bed, I force myself to go downstairs. I swing open the doors and Vincent is standing outside in a white button up and some dress pants. He's not wearing a tie.

Vincent holds up greasy bag, "Still craving fries?"

I walk outside and close the door behind me. I don't want having to go through the trouble of explain to my dad why a boy is at our door. It's not like he's going to walk down anyways. I guess I wanted to get some fresh air.

"What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be at the dance?" I point to his attire.

"I went. It got boring though."

"Okay, then what are you doing here?"

"To eat fries with you. The school didn't let me take food inside. I have no one to eat with." He holds up the bag of fires, which is very tempting.

"I needed fresh air anyways. Let's go sit at the park." I walk ahead of him and he follows me, walking fast in the beginning so he catches up next to me. He slows down his pace and strolls beside me. I find the cleanest bench there and sit down on it. Vincent sits down next to me, leaving some space between us and places the bag of fries there. He starts eating the fries and I'm sitting there silent.

"What about Vivian? Did you take her?"

"No, but I did see her there. We hung out for a bit." He shoves more fries in his mouth. I take one and slowly nibble on it. I guess that's better than her not seeing him at all, or even worse, with another girl. Another girl!

"Did you go alone?" I abruptly ask him, causing Vincent to flinch a bit.

"Calm down. Yes, I went solo like a wierdo. Are you happy?" he sighs and continues to eat.

"It's not about me being happy. It's about Vivian."

He stops chewing for a while, and swallows the fries in one gulp. "Why is it that ever since you started to actually say sentences to me that it's always about Vivian? Why are you so obsessed with her?" he says with a tinge of bitterness.

"She's my friend. I'm supposed to care."

Vincent glances at my clothes and changes the topic. "You should've worn that to the dance. You would've won homecoming queen in that get-up."

"Yeah, right..." I'm forgetting something really important. Think, Wendy, Think... Homecoming queen!

I slap Vincent on the shoulder without warning.

"Ow! What did I do?"

"Homecoming queen!"

"Yeah, and?"

"Vivian's probably homecoming queen! You're probably going to be homecoming king. you have to go back!" I shove him off the bench and onto his feet.

"They already stopped allowing entry."

"I don't care. You have to hurry." I shove him again.

"It's fine. If they realize I'm not there, they'll just give it to the runner up."

"No, Vivian wants it to be you," I roll my eyes, "And you call me dense." I drag him by the arm to his car. While he gets into the car, I quickly slip into the passenger seat. "Drive, quick!" I say in a exasperate breath.

"You're coming?"

"I'm making sure you don't ditch." I glare at him and point towards the road. "Go!"

"Damn, when did you become so bossy?" He pulls out of my driveway and gets to the school in less than five minutes.

Once there, I get out of the car with him .

"You're going to go in there dressed lie that? You know I was only joking earlier, right?" Vincent nervously runs his hand through his hair.

"No, I'm not an idiot. I'm helping you get inside. Just wait behind the tree. I'll distract the teacher and you slip inside." I jog off before he can reply.

"Have you seen a dog running around here?" I ask the teacher at the door.

"No, sorry." He replies.

"Are you sure? He's around two feet long. He has black fur with white spots."

"No, I don't think so. If he was around here, I probably would've seen him. Maybe try the park nearby."

"Park?"

"Yeah, the park."

"Sorry, I don't know the directions."

The male teacher steps from the front of the door and looks the other way. He points in the direct of my neighborhood. "You see that neighborhood over there? Ridgeside. There's a park in that neighborhood. If you go straight into it, you'll see it."

I see Vincent slip in from the corner of my eye. "Oh, I see. Thanks for your help." I head towards the parking lot and pass by Vincent's car. I was ready to walk home when I see a piece of paper tucked behind his windshield.

Don't walk home by yourself. It's dangerous. Wait for me to take you home. The car is unlocked and there's some snacks in the back. -Vincent

He's so reckless. If someone else saw this note, they would've known his car was unlocked and jacked it. It's not like I could leave his car unlocked like this. I could always lock it from the inside and shut the doors. The car model he uses is confusing, and I don't understand any of the functions. Better to not risk setting off the car alarm. I reluctantly get into the back of the car and sit there, waiting for a while. Before I know it, I'm laying down and drifting to sleep.

"Wendy." I feel a nudge against my shoulders. A hand grabs it and shakes me slightly. "You're home." It's Vincent, towering over me. "Some smart girl you are. Someone could've jacked my car and you with it."

"Some smart guy you are, leaving your car unlocked for me to guard."

"I wasn't supposed to take that long. I didn't expect for the ceremony and slow dance to me that long."

"It's called a slow dance for a reason. It's slow." I push myself back up and ring the bell to my house. No answer. I ring around 20 more times, stopping myself before I break it. I have no phone, and it wouldn't matter anyways. My family consists of deep sleepers. They can't hear the doorbell and their phones are silenced to ensure a peaceful sleep. Crap.

Vincent is in his car, waiting. He's not budging until he sees me walk through the door. I hesitantly walk back to him. He rolls the car window down. "What's wrong?"

"My family is asleep. There's no way they'll wake up, even if I call them. Just drop me off at Vivian's."

"Sure, get in."

"Wait, I can't. She'll see you drop me off. She knows I don't drive, and her house is far."

"How about your other friends?"

"They're having a sleepover at Vivian's," I sigh. "Oh, wait. My backdoor is always unlocked in cases of emergency. I'll see you tomorrow, " I lie, making my way to the backyard. I'll sleep in the shed.

"You're lying."

"What?"

"I tried the back door."

"What are you doing trying to break into my house?" I glare at Vincent.

"Ever heard of a surprise?"

"Ever heard of trespassing?"

"You can crash at my place."

"Um, no. I'm not sleeping at my teacher's house. That's weird."

"My mom won't mind. She likes you."

"Sure, likes me as a student, but I'm pretty sure that doesn't mean she's comfortable with me crashing on her couch." I continue to walk towards the backyard.

"I'm not budging until you get into my car."

"Don't be creepy. Just leave." I ignore him and keep walking.

"I'll see you in the morning," Vincent waves to me and hops into the passenger seat. he lowers the seat back and crosses his arms across his chest, closing his eyes.

"You can stay there forever for all I care." I go into the shed and sit in an old lawn chair. It's dusty and I'm already sneezing up a storm. Periodically, I sneak out and check on Vincent, his car still parked in my driveway. Around an hour passes, and his car is still out in front. I surrender and slip into the backseat of the car. Vincent's eyes are still closed. "Drive."

His mouth curls into a smile and he hops into the driver's seat.

Once we get to his house, I immediately go to the couch. "Night." I curl on the couch and force my eyes closed.

"You should sleep in my room."

"No way."

"I don't think my mom would appreciate waking up to an unannounced guest."

"You said she wouldn't mind," I retorted.

"I lied."

"Fine, but I'm sleeping on the floor."

"Suit yourself." Vincent leads me to his room and lets me in.