Sophia and I left Bailey's Glass 30 minutes later. Before I departed, Marisol and I held each other in one of the tightest embraces we've ever done in our years of knowing each other. When we pulled away from each other, we held each other at arm's length, locking each other's gazes.

We knew that a part of us was over weeks ago. Saying goodbye to that chapter was painless and smooth. Maybe because there was no real beginning; Marisol's kisses were fading out just as easy as they faded in. Getting the chance to hold her in my arms one last time made the farewell, in a way, blissful.

"Marisol is nice," Sophia commented quietly when I eventually joined her in the car. I closed the car door and turned to her, nodding in agreement.

"Most people wouldn't use that word to describe her but..." I trailed off with a laugh, turning to face the window. Troublesome was usually the word of choice, but it always came from the people who never took the time to know her.

"She should come to your birthday party next week," Sophia suggested with nonchalance as she pulled out of the parking lot. My head whipped around to face her with speed fueled by my great confusion.

"What birthday party Sophia?" I asked slowly, watching her nervous facial tics.

The last birthday that I celebrated was my 14th when I got to high school and committed social suicide. Zach and my parents still got me presents, and once or twice Marisol has come to visit, but it's been a long time since I've had a birthday party. I don't even know how Sophia found out that my birthday is next week; I most definitely didn't talk about it.

"It'll be fun Avery. There's going to be cake." Sophia sang, pointedly ignoring my question.

"There's going to be cake where?" I pressed, rewording my question.

Sophia nervously chuckled and shrugged off the question.

"Think of it this way. Your birthday is on Wednesday, and our date is on Saturday. Two fun and exciting things happening in one week!" She cheered, and I rolled my eyes at her incorrect math. Only fifty percent of that statement was correct.

"Sophia, you know that I'm looking forward to our date, but I don't want a big party. I just want my birthday to be a normal day." I pleaded.

"It's not going to be a big party!" She quickly reassured me. "And you have to throw this party. Normal days are for losers."

As one of the most popular girls at our schools, Sophia's definition of a "big party" is severely skewed. A small party to her probably looks like a 50 person minimum. Sophia is also friends with at least one or two of the people who have bullied me, and trouble comes in threes. It's bad enough I have to deal with them at school. But after hours? That's too much to ask for.

"Hate to break it to you Soph, but you're dating one of the biggest losers at school," I informed her, sitting back in my seat.

We reached a red light so Sophia could look over at me with a pout that I wanted to kiss away. My wish must've read clear on my face because she was soon leaning over the middle console to press her lips against mine for a brief moment.

She turned her attention back to the road before someone could honk their horn at us, and then smirked in my direction.

"Well at least you're pretty and a good kisser," Sophia joked, and my cheeks were painted red. "But really babe, we've got to have this party. It's going to be great."

My mood deflated with my sigh. "Sophia, what will people think if you throw me this party? It's too risky."

I saw her grip tighten on the steering wheel. "Why does that matter." She muttered, disdain clear in her voice.

I don't know Sophia. Maybe because if Chris finds out that we're talking to each other he'll skin me alive and I actually want to 17 for a few days?

"Soph, people can't see us that close right now. The people who don't like me will start going after you." I tried to reason, but if anything she only became even more annoyed.

"I feel like, if you just told me who was hurting you, we wouldn't even have this problem." She countered in a raised tone, waving one of her hands around wildly.

I sighed quietly before answering. "Soph, I don't want to talk about that. We can have the party, I just don't want a big one is that okay?"

The grunt she gave out was somehow laced with sarcasm, but nevertheless, she was nodding. It was clear she was nowhere in agreement with me, but her silence told me that she was done with the conversation.

An uncomfortable silence filled the car and seeped into my body, upsetting my stomach. For some reason, I felt like this was only the beginning of the downhill journey for this party.

∆

"Seth I'm being serious," Sophia warned, handing him my backpack, "You take her to her class, and only to her class. No surprise field trips today. Do you understand?"

Monday morning rolled around, and Sophia was being much more a drill sergeant than usual, most likely because she was still upset at me for keeping secrets.

Now Seth isn't allowed to let his eyes off of me for any reason at all. When we asked her about using the restroom, she dismissed us with a "you'll figure it out."

"I've got it, Sophia. Get to class." Seth dismissed, waving her away after she spewed a million more demands at him. He most likely couldn't even remember half of what she just said.

Besides, Seth Meyers isn't exactly a rule follower; most would call him the exact opposite. The only rules he's sure to follow are the ones he comes up with. And those are the rules we usually want him to break.

"I want my girlfriend to be in one piece when I see her at lunch Meyers," Sophia warned one last time before flipping her hair over her shoulder and walking down the hallway. Drake followed close behind her after sending Seth and I a wave.

I gave Drake a few orders of my own when Sophia was busy lecturing Seth. I don't want Sophia going anywhere alone so long as Chris was around and suspicious. And thanks to the beautiful, spray-painted words found on my locker today, I knew he was definitely here and suspecting. He was nowhere near backing down.

Usually, I was a hundred percent sure that Sophia was safe from Chris, no matter how psycho he was feeling. But last time, I saw a completely different side of Chris that terrified me, and I wasn't so sure anymore.

"Avery, are you and Sophia fighting?" Seth suddenly questioned as we began our walk to class.

"What makes you ask that?" I asked, looking over at him.

"For one, she's more grumpy than usual." He muttered disdainfully. Even though he was more than right, I still felt the need to glare because that's my girl he's talking about. He ignored it and carried on. "But mostly, the fact that she didn't say bye to you."

I shrugged the best I could on my crutches and faced forward again. "I don't think that "fighting" is the best word for it. The bullying came up again yesterday, and I kept quiet about it."

Seth fell uncharacteristically quiet. And he stared at me like he believed just as much as Sophia does that my secrecy is doing more harm than good. But maybe he didn't say anything because he knows just like I do, that nothing good can come from Sophia knowing.

"Well, hopefully, she fixes her attitude in time for your party." Seth sighed, falling back into his normal self. "Aren't you excited!"

The smug smirk on Seth's face and the falsetto tone in his excitement told me that he knew I was less than thrilled about this party.

I gave him a bored look and pulled myself forward so that I could pass the nuisance.

Seth chuckled loudly behind me. "Oh come on Avery. I've never seen anyone party in crutches before. Now that will be something to see."

I stopped in my tracks and whipped around to face the boy with a devious smirk of my own. When he got close enough, I swung my crutch with as much force possible into his waiting shin. I didn't think it'd be that effective considering how tired I was, but the way Seth's face contorted into ten different versions of pain told me I did good enough.

Two can play at the tormenting game, Seth Meyers.

"Those things are for walking Leon. Not hitting." Seth hissed in my ear, once he was finally able to catch up and walk off his limp. "When do you give those things back?"

"Not for another month" I sang with false cheer, swinging myself forward.

"I can't wait until we put that creep behind bars. He's indirectly making a lot of people unhappy." Seth muttered from behind me.

"Glad to know where your priorities lay," I responded in a dull tone.

Seth gave me a beaming smile and led us into our first class.

Those 45 minutes ran by smoothly, as did all of our other classes until lunchtime. Apparently, Chris' only stunt for the day was the spraypaint. To be fair, that was going to take a few hours after school to scrub off, so he really may have won today.

We all met up at our usual table, and Sophia seemed to be in a much better mood than before.

"So where exactly is this party going to be Sophia?" Drake asked, before stuffing another fork of noodles in his mouth.

"I was actually thinking of your house, Seth. It's big enough." Sophia responded while giving Seth a leveled look that dared him to argue. She wasn't as murderous as earlier, but that doesn't mean that she's not capable of murder if need to.

We all turned towards Seth's face to see him fighting off a million different emotions.

"I'm all for this party Sophia. Don't get me wrong," He started. "But why can't we have the party at Avery's. Since it's, you know, her birthday. "

I immediately shook my head. "I don't even want to have the party."

"I don't want people who Avery doesn't know in her house. That'd be weird. You know all of the people who are going to this party, Seth. " Sophia offered with a shrug, but Seth still shook his head.

"Sure. But if something breaks or the house ends up trashed, my parents will actually kill me." He commented, and this time Drake shrugged.

"I'm not seeing the problem here," Drake commented with a smirk. Seth glared at him and threw a chip at his head.

"Don't worry Seth, it won't be a very big party. No more than fifty people." Sophia reassured him, but alarm bells went off in my head. Fifty people sounded like a lot to me.

"Still Sophia. I-"

"I'll make sure and invite lots of cheerleaders," Sophia interjected, and Seth's eyes immediately lit up.

"Invite Britney Stevens and you can have a hundred people at my house." He bargained. Seth really shouldn't tell her that because then she'll end up actually inviting a hundred people.

"Deal." Sophia agreed, and I glared at Seth who just shrugged.

"Get ready for the party of the year Avery, because it's coming."