My phone started to vibrate in my pocket, I stole a look at my teacher, hoping he wasn't looking in my direction, and noticed he was too busy talking to one of the smarter kids at the front of the room, to care what I was doing. I took out my phone and read the message, 'Meet me in CR in 5.' It was a text from my best friend, Courtney Diamond.

Courtney happened to not only be my best friend but also what could be described as the queen bee of this school, college, what ever you want to call it, and I, I am her second in command. The one she turns to when she is in trouble, or more to the point, whenever she felt like it. Just like right now.

Sighing, I checked the time, it was just a little after ten past nine, we had only been in class for little over ten minutes and she had already been kicked out. I sighed and picked up my bag, throwing in my english folder before heading to the door.

"Miss James. Where do you think you're going?" My english teacher, Mr. Conroy, called out to me. His eyebrows were raised and his hands were on his hips, clearly unimpressed with my attempt to skive.

"To the nurse sir. I'm not feeling well." I said, clutching my stomach for that added effect. "I think I ate something bad."

"Uh-huh." He said, obviously not buying my cock-and-bull story. He rolled his eyes and motioned with his hand that it was fine for me to leave, before turning to continue his conversation, I nodded and quickly exited the class room. I slung my bag over my shoulder and headed to the common room.

Courtney and I were often bunking lessons, well she was usually sent out and I would make an excuse to leave, so that she wouldn't be on her own. It was the way we worked, we stuck together.

Courtney and I are your average collage students, both aged 17, trying to scrape a few A-levels, maybe head to Uni if we get good enough grades. Really we were both just interested in having a good time, trying to get in the littlest amount of trouble possible, well I am anyway.

I turned the corner nearest to the common room and almost walked straight into Courtney.

"There you are Mickie. What took you so long?" Courtney asked, she sounded annoyed, and when she was annoyed you knew about it.

"Mr. pain-in-the-arse Conroy wouldn't let me leave." She nodded, accepting my excuse. Like I said she was queen bee, I was just her sidekick, everything I did had to be accepted by her.

"So, did you get sent out?" I asked, as we walked into the deserted common room. No surprise there, everyone was supposed to be in lesson.

"Of course." She answered, rolling her eyes, making me feel like I had said something stupid. "Mrs. Lean hates me. It's because she's jealous." Courtney said as if refraining from adding duh. She sat down on one of the sofa's and took out her phone, and began to text with incredible speed.

I sat down on the couch opposite. "Jealous? Jealous of what?" I couldn't help but ask. There was so much to be jealous about when it came to Courtney.

"Jealous of my beauty silly." She said giggling, continuing to text. "And my popularity."

She was right about that. Everybody was jealous of how popular Courtney was. Practically everyone knew her name, and I'm not just talking about the school, I'm talking about the whole town. I suppose that is one of the perks of having well-known parents, her dad worked high up in the council and her mum was the co-owner of modelling agency that supplied models all over London. Unlike my parents who are your average joe office workers.

She was also right about being beautiful. She was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. Her gorgeous blond curls cascading down her face, to just below her shoulder. She was a natural blonde, unlike me, mine was out of a bottle. She also has the most wonderful green eyes, that occasionally changed to a more blueish colour, but no matter what colour they were, they were still gorgeous. She was gorgeous. The way she flicked her hair when she was flirting, or the way her eyes lit up when she got her own way...

"Mickie. Mickie." Courtney said snapping her fingers a little distance from my face. Snapping me out of my daydream.

"Sorry. I zoned out. Did you say something?" I felt colour rise to my cheeks, knowing that she had caught me staring at her, thankfully she couldn't read my thoughts.

"No I didn't say anything, but you were staring at me." She said, smiling, the smile reached her eyes and made them look like they were twinkling. I could so easily get lost in her eyes. They were so green today, almost like two emeralds. "Just like that." She laughed, it was so pure, so light, so addicting.

Many admired Courtney and look up to her, as if she was a role model for all of them to follow. Though they had all heard the rumours that she was fake, wicked and heartless, most had only seen her act like the perfect angel, so kind and sweet, in order to get what she wanted. She was a charmer, a good one at that, and that's how come she never failed to get what it was she wanted.

Though many had in fact seen the cold-hearted Courtney who was more than willing to break someone's heart, or ruin someone's reputation in order to get a laugh out of it.

But none of them got to see what I see. The sweet, kind, real Courtney. The girl who cried at Bambi. The girl who was too afraid to let anyone in. The girl who was afraid to have her heartbroken. Who wore a mask and acted as if she were someone else. If only she would let me in I could help her, I know I could.

"Mickie. You're doing it again." She rolled her eyes, but not in a hurtful way. "C'mon lets go." She said bouncing up from the sofa, taking my hand, practically dragging me out of the room.

"Go? Go where?" I didn't mind where, as long as I was with her, I was happy.

"To meet Danny." I felt my heart sink at the mention of his name.

Danny Blaze. He used to be the schools most popular boy. The schools hot 'bad-boy' with he's jet black hair gelled back, and his leather jacket he always wore. That was before he got kicked out, though is legacy lives on in the school. He, just like Courtney, has everything he wants, that's what made them such a perfect couple.

I had hoped that moving to a new school for sixth-form would have split up the most popular couple. But it hadn't. If anything their relationship had become stronger, Courtney was always willing to bunk lessons to meet with him, and often he would arrive to pick her up after school or at lunch. I hated the amount of attention she gave him, he wasn't worth it. She needed someone who was going to treat her right, who would worship the ground she walked on...

We walked out of the main building, making our way to the student car park, and there he was. Leaning against the hood of his silver BMW. He's hair gelled back, in his usual attire, faded blue jeans, simple black tee and his black leather jacket. His smile had the ability to stop you in your tracks, it was inviting yet smug, as if to say I'm better than you and you know it but you still want me.

"Hey baby." Courtney said walking into his open arms. He gave her a quick hug, smugly smiling at me over her head, before leaning down to kiss her. The sight made my stomach turn, I hated when he or anyone else ever touched her.

"What's she doing here?" Danny motioned towards me with his head, not caring if I heard him. Courtney turned as if if to check who he meant. She playfully hit his chest with her tiny fist, and pouted.

"I thought she could hang out with us."

"Well I had plans for the two of us." Sex. That's all Danny's plans ever consisted of. "Tell her to get lost and we can head back to mine." Danny had never really liked me, he felt threatened by mine and Courtney's relationship. At school it had never really mattered because we had all hung out in a large group. But now, it was just me and Courtney, and Danny hated it.

Courtney turned to face me, a sad look on her face, I knew what she was going to say before she said it. "Do you mind Mickie? We can hang out later I promise." She said smiling, a smile worth a billion pounds. How could I possibly say no to that smile? To that face? To Courtney?

I smiled back and shook my head, "No of course I don't mind. You two go on." Danny smirked and walked round to the drivers side of his car.

"I'll text you later." Courtney called to me climbing into the passengers side.

I watched as Danny reversed out of the car park and drove of towards his house. I sighed, I didn't feel like going back to class, and I couldn't be bothered to go out so I decided to just head home.

I was lying on my bed, staring at the celling, with the TV playing to itself. My mind was wandered. I felt so confused, even after figuring out what it was I felt towards Courtney.

Courtney and I had meet when we were 8, I was new in town and she took me under her wing, since that day I had stuck by her, following her where ever she went. I was 13 when I started to think differently about her. I thought at first it was because I admired her, wanted to be just like her. But as time went by I felt myself becoming more and more attached to her, falling for, if you will. The realisation that I was in love with my best-friend happened halfway through our final year of school. Ever since then the attraction I felt towards her only got stronger as each day passed. With each passing day I feel deeper and deeper in love with her.

Courtney, she's just amazing, special and beautiful. Unlike myself. I am plain, boring and not half as beautiful as she is. With my brown hair dyed a dirty blonde, my soft brown eyes, and well distinguished features I was pretty, but nothing special. I often attracted a lot of attention from the boys, at first it was overwhelming that they found me attractive even though I found that I was attracted to none of them, but now that meant nothing to me, if anything the attention they gave me annoyed me.

Until Courtney, I had never even looked at another girl in that way. I had always known that I wasn't really attracted to guys, but never had I questioned my sexuality. Yet, here I am lying on my bed trying to decide whether or not l was going to come out as gay. How would Courtney react? She made fun of those at school who were gay, acting as if they had disease she could catch, but I was her best-friend, surely she would accept me for who I was? What if I told her I was in love with her? Would she ever be able to look at me the same? Would she hate me? How would my parents react? Would they accept me?

I had so many questions, but no answers. I grabbed my pillow and covered my face with it to muffle my frustrated screams. Sometimes I felt like running away and never looking back. I hated hiding who I was, but I was scared of the repercussions if I told everybody the truth. I felt so alone, the one person I was supposed to be able to talk to about this, I couldn't.

Keeping it a secret was killing me. But what was worse, was knowing that Courtney would never love me back. It broke my heart. Which is why I couldn't tell her. Her friendship was too important for me to ruin by telling her. I couldn't risk it. I needed her in my live, even if it was as just a friend.

I checked the clock on my bedside table. 12:43. I had been here for over 3 hours, just thinking things through, yet I had gained nothing. I sighed and stood up, now that I had come back to realty I am starving. I made my way downstairs to the kitchen. After Rummaging through the cupboards and the fridge, I settled on the sofa with a chicken sandwich and packet of crisps. If only Courtney could she me now, she always went on about how we, the most popular and the prettiest girls, should not consume certain foods in order to keep slim and 'smoking hot'. She always managed to persuade me to eat salads, to avoid white bread and anything with carbs.

Courtney is one of those girls who always believes that she is 'fat', regardless that every person on this earth tells her she's not. Here I go again thinking about her, it seems to be all I ever do, know matter what I think about my mind drifts back to her.

I was startled by a knock at the door. Why would anyone be knocking here at this time, usually not a soul would be in. Cautiously I walked to the front door and unlocked it, praying that it wasn't a family friend who would be more than willing to 'inform' my parents about my day off.

I opened the door and saw none other than Courtney. She looked like she had been crying, her eyeliner and mascara had run, making black trails down her cheeks.

"Can I come in?" Courtney asked, I barely recognised her voice.

"Yeah sure." I told her, moving to the side, opening the door wider for her to get past. She made her way to my living room and sat down on the sofa. Closing the front door, I followed her.

"Are you okay Courtney?" The question caused her to start crying. I mentally slapped myself, of course she wasn't okay, if she was okay she wouldn't be here crying right now, would she.

"Shh. It's okay." I said soothingly. I sat down next to her, wrapping my arms around her, gently stroking her hair. She leaned it me, her tears soaking my shoulder. We sat there for a good 10 minutes, with her crying and me trying to comfort her. Her crying stopped and I took it as my cue to get up and get her hot drink. I made her tea and brought it over to her, I sat down on the recliner across from her, hoping that she would open up and tell me what was wrong.

"He's been cheating on me." She said quietly, just loud enough for me to hear.

"Who Danny?" Once more I mentally slapped myself. What the hell was wrong with me, who else could she have possibly meant. She looked up at me, her facial expression telling me that she thought I was just as stupid as I felt.

"No the gingerbread man." Courtney replied sarcastically.

My cheeks flushed a deep shade of scarlet, my head lowering slightly to hide my embarrassment, "I didn't... I know... I'm sorry, how do you know?" I waited to see her reaction, to see if that too was a stupid question.

"Whilst he was in the shower he got a text from some slut, telling him that she enjoyed last night and hoped they could do it again some time soon." She said it all through gritted teeth, she had gone from being sad to angry in a matter of seconds. Courtney often had mood swings, so it wasn't a surprise when her face lit up, a smile playing at her lips.

"Do you know what we should do?" She had a devious grin on her face, what ever she had planned, I knew it wasn't going to be nice and I'm sure that I really didn't want to know what it was.

"What?" I asked, playing along for her benefit. She just smiled at me whipped out her phone, texting with such speed, that you would have though it was a race. I watched as the grin on her face grew, whatever she was doing she was pleased with it. She pressed one final key and looked up at me.

"There. That'll teach him." Oh God, what has she done now, please don't let it have been anything stupid, I prayed.

"Courtney, w-what have you done?"

"You'll see." She stood up and I stood up with her, she began walking towards me that same devious grin. My heart started to thump against my chest faster and faster, harder and harder, with every step she took towards me. She stopped just inches from me, and it took everything I had to restrain myself from reaching over and touching her. From tucking her hair behind her ears, from giving in and placing my lips tentatively on hers.

"Thanks Mickie." She quickly leaned in and gave me a peck on the cheek, "See you tomorrow." Before leaving, straight through the front door and not once did she turn to look back at me.

I was frozen to the spot. She had kissed me. Courtney Diamond had kissed me. Yes, it may have only been on my cheek, but it was wonderful. The spot on my cheek where her lips had made contact with my skin was still tingling. I loved the feel of her lips on my skin. I couldn't help but crave the feel of those lips somewhere else. I sighed as I remembered that I was standing in the middle of my living room, alone. I needed her, it was like she was my oxygen, without her I would surely die...