I quietly watched Noah from afar during chemistry. He always had his head buried inside his text book and listened to the teacher so carefully. There was never a single moment in class when he lowered his head and slept through the lesson. He never ditched classes and he studied in the library through lunch.

School was important to him and now I understood why, he needed to get a good job in order to support Emily.

Since that night in the hotel room we haven't spoken, he hasn't even so much as looked my way. Instead he took on board what I said and respected my wishes, we merely just became passing ships in the hallway.

I stood leaning on the locker next to Abbeys while she unloaded all of her books. My eyes trained on Noah whose locker was three doors down, he added notebooks to his locker one at a time.

"Come hang out at my house after school." Abigail suggested. Noah froze, hovering his notebook in mid air. He's listening. "Mia?" Abbey asked.

"What?" I questioned, forcing my eyes away from Noah and back onto her.

"You want to come hang out at my place after school?" She repeated her question again and Noah carefully placed his book inside his locker.

"Sure, whatever. I don't mind." I answered quickly. All of the muscles in his back tensed and he clenched his jaw. He didn't like me hanging out with Abbey.

"Great!" She said with a little excited jump. I giggled at her reaction and she slammed her locker shut. "I'm going this way." She pointed up the corridor.

"Uh, I'm gonna use the bathroom real quick." I admitted. She gave me a small wave and departed, I walked right past Noah and entered the girls toilets. He chased after me, pushing me quickly into a cubicle and locking the door.

"What—" he threw his hand over my mouth and my eyes widened. I heard a few girls talking about makeup by the sinks and he kept his hand over my lips until they had left the room.

"I swear to god Noah, you better have washed your hands good before you put them on my lips." He looked at his hand as if inspecting it for dirt and then peered back at me.

"Are you hanging out with her just to get to me or something?" I grunted and rolled my eyes.

"Why do you think the world revolves around you? She's my friend." I pointed out straightly. The door opened again and Noah slapped his hand over my mouth. I clamped my teeth around his finger and he pulled back his hand.

"Ow." He whispered shaking off his finger.

"Does anybody have a tampon?" A girl shouted from the next cubicle, Noah screwed his lips up. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a tampon, holding it under the cubicle until the girl took it from my hand. "Thank you." She shouted again.

"You guys share tampons?" Noah asked once the girl had flushed the chain, washed her hands and left the bathroom. I gave him half a shrug.

"I'm late to class." I admitted, hoping he would roll this up faster.

"Mia, you can't go to Abigails after school. You can't be close with her or be friends with her and Joel. You can pick anyone else to be friends with, just not them." I burst out laughing, I spluttered spit on his face and then covered my mouth with my own hand. "Ew" he wiped his face which made me laugh even more.

"I'm sorry." I admitted. "Noah, I had a percussion music lesson earlier and the drum kit was really loud so my hearing is a little off. I thought for a minute there that you were telling me who I could and couldn't be friends with but I know you wouldn't be that controlling, so would you mind repeating what you just said?"

"Mia—" I held my hand out to stop him.

"Don't you fucking dare repeat what you just said." I warned.

"Why have you gotta be so difficult? The whole school! There's the whole school to be friends with. I'm asking you to stay away from two people, that's all." I sat down on the toilet seat and crossed my legs, placing my hand on my chin.

"Why?" I asked. He squirmed uncomfortably in front of me and I smirked knowing I had him by the balls.

"Mia, could you not sit eye level with my crotch. It's awkward." And almost instantly I made eye contact with it. I could see the shape just sitting there on the left hand side of his jeans. My mouth gaped open a little and I rose to my feet fast, falling into him. He grabbed me and helped me regain my balance.

"Look, I've avoided my friends for a year just so I didn't slip up and reveal my secret. I can't have you come along and ruin that in the matter of minutes. They were the closest to me, they could figure everything out with even a slither of information. Please Mia, just stay away from them."

I traced my finger over his cheek and sighed.

"Noah, my dad drove all of my moms friends away. He told her she couldn't hang out with them or see them anymore and she didn't. I can't let you do that to me, the cycle needs to end. I'm sorry but I'm going to be friends with them and you're just going to have to trust me. Please step aside, I really need to get to class." He screwed his eyes tightly closed and breathed deeply before finally unlocking the door and stepping aside to give me the access I needed to leave.

***

Abigail's bedroom was very pink, Barbie pink. I sat awkwardly on the edge of her bed as she tossed things out of her closet.

"Got it." She pulled out a big bottle of vodka and smiled slyly. I glanced at the floor, clothes, shoes, books, shoe boxes lay scattered around she had created quite a mess.

I picked up a pile of her year books and started flicking through the pages. I laughed at the younger images of Abigail, Noah and Joel.

"It's kinda sweet you all grew up together." I admitted as I continued looking through the pages, pointing out the bad hair styles and fashions of the past.

"Is it though? People remember my braces and puppy fat. You stroll in here at your prime." Abigail joked.

"Noah got voted life of the party?" I asked, surprised.

"Yeah, he was. Surprising huh?" She glanced down at the picture of him and smiled sweetly to herself. "Noah was up for anything back in the day. Biggest triple dog dare champion, coolest parties, epic pranks. Now he's all school work and teacher ass kissing." She handed me a glass half filled with vodka and knocked back her own, grimacing at the taste.

She picked up one of her shoe boxes and dumped it down on the bed. I watched curiously as she flipped the lid. It was filled with apparent junk.

"This, right here is our relationship. I don't know why I still have this. I should burn it." She pulled out concert tickets and set them down on the bed. "Our first date." She clarified.

She picked out a paper napkin, "this was from the first time he met my parents, they took him to dinner at Aldanos. I was so nervous and excited, I felt like he was finally committing to me because our relationship was always off and on." She flipped over the napkin and written in blue ink had the words, 'this bites, let's ditch.' "Then he left halfway through because he got 'bored.'

"That's harsh." I admitted.

She pulled out a condom foil and set it down on the bed, a frown set onto my face. "This one speaks for itself." She rolled her eyes and moved onto the next thing, "oh this" she said with sadness, setting a bloody hand wrap bandage down on the bed. "We got into a huge fight after one of his boxing matches, I can't remember what we fought over but it was pretty bad. Both pushing each other around, hitting one another, hurting one another. So fucking toxic."

"He hit you?" I questioned with surprise.

"We were always slapping one another around Mia." She replied casually. I picked out a handful of photographs and flicked through them. They looked young but in love, happy. I felt jealous but I would never admit that so instead I smiled at the images.

My phone vibrated inside my pocket and I pulled it out, feasting my eyes over the unsaved number. My blood instantly ran cold and my stomach fell nauseous.