"Rose, you have to get up at some point."

I moaned and shook my head. Romano poked my body.

"You've been curled up in here all day."

I ignored him.

"Would you at least get up so I can make my bed?"

I ignored him.

He suddenly pushed me off his bed and I fell to the ground.

"Ouch!" I yelped, rubbing my elbow.

As Romano fluffed his pillows, he stared at me with raised eyebrows. "You might as well go back to your house. He's not coming home anytime soon."

I groaned and dramatically rolled over on the floor. "He has to. He can't go to jail because of me. He just can't!"

Romano shrugged. "Buzz got what was coming to him."

"But it wasn't him that hurt me. It was Finn," I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Same thing. They're all pricks," Romano waved off. "That's what they get for bothering my best friend."

I stared at Romano in worry. "But what if he dies?"

Both of us stared at each other, taking in the ominous sentence. Neither of us wanted to admit it, but we both knew it was a possibility.

By first period at school today, everyone had heard the news. Buzz had been rushed to the emergency room last night, and he was now in a coma. His body had been found on the road yesterday night with tire marks—the tire marks of a motorcycle.

Antonio had been missing since yesterday night at the diner. His motorcycle was gone too. The police were searching for the culprit, and everyone in Burnsley knew of Antonio and Buzz's feud. It was only a matter of time before they traced things back to him.

"Buzz isn't gonna die," Romano said. "Antonio has a nasty temper, but he's not stupid. He wouldn't actually kill him. At least not on purpose."

I sighed and mulled over his words.

"Okay," I nodded while getting up. "I should start heading home. Jo's probably wondering where I am. Call me if Antonio shows up."

"Will do. See ya, Ro."

"Bye, Ro."

We waved and I left his house. The orange hues of the sky signified that the sun was about to set, but after much contemplation, I decided to head over to the spot. It'd been a stressful day and I needed to relax.

It took me a while to reach there, as I travelled on foot. Though, the travel was worth it when I saw Antonio sitting in front of the waterfall. I gasped and began to tip toe over to him, though I froze when a branch crunched underneath my foot. Despite his back facing me, Antonio spoke like he knew exactly who was there.

"Flower." He sounded expectant.

"Don't Flower me," I huffed, stomping his way.

I came to a stop beside him and crossed my arms. He squinted and glanced up at me, not saying a word as he casually blew a puff of smoke. I rolled my eyes and plopped down on the grass next to him.

"You skipped school," I said.

He nodded.

"Why'd you do it?" I asked.

"Skip school?"

"No. Why'd you hurt Buzz?"

"What makes you think it was me?" he scoffed in offence.

"Well, was it?"

"Yes."

I sighed and stared at him.

"Don't you dare lecture me," he waved his hand. "I don't wanna hear it."

I gave him an incredulous look. "What'd you even do? Run him over?"

He was silent.

"My goodness." I placed a hand over my forehead.

"Would you believe me if I said it was an accident?" he gruffly muttered, drawing heavily on his cigarette.

"An accident," I repeated in disbelief.

"I didn't do it on purpose. After I saw you hurt at the diner, I knew I had to blow off some steam so I drove around on my motorcycle. I swear to you Flower, I was this close," he pinched his fingers, "to murdering someone. I went to the other side of town, where I knew the Downsview Academy kids lived—Buzz, Finn, all of 'em. But then I heard your voice in my head."

"My voice?"

"Yes. Back at the diner, I promised you I wasn't going to do anything. I could never break a promise—not to you," he paused. "I began to speed away before I did something I'd regret, but I was going so fast that I hit someone walking on the street. I didn't even realize it was Buzz until after I hit him. It was just a lucky coincidence."

Clearly, we had two very different definitions of the word lucky.

"I called for an ambulance and waited for them to show up before I left," he said.

I silently mulled over his explanation, as his eyes desperately bore into my face.

"Do you believe me?" he asked. Without waiting for me to respond, he bitterly chuckled. "It's okay. I wouldn't believe me either."

"No, I believe you," I said. Antonio looked surprised. Meanwhile, I continued. "Won't the police come looking for you?"

"Nah, perks of being a rich white boy in America." He didn't look happy about it. "Besides, my dad has influence in this town, so he'll get the police to lay off. I'll just stay at Benny's place in the meantime–give things a couple days to cool over."

"Are you gonna be okay?" I frowned.

"My dad'll give me so much shit for this," he rather replied. He looked exhausted.

That didn't quite answer my question.

"You know why Buzz and his goons keep bothering you, right?" Antonio quietly scoffed. "They're doing it to get to me."

I nodded, wondering where he was going with this.

"Now that you know, don't you wanna stay away from me?"

"Of course not," I indignantly replied. "Didn't think you'd get rid of me that easily, did you?"

Antonio laughed at my words, and I grinned back at him. Our amusement subsided after a moment, and I scratched my head in exhaustion. I grabbed the cigarette out of his hands, though I wasn't even able to put it in my mouth before he smacked it away from me.

"What do you think you're doing?" he demanded.

"You smoke all the time," I gaped.

"It's different," he rolled his dark eyes.

"Why? Because I'm a girl?"

"No," he shook his head. "Because your life matters. This stuff's bad for you."

My hazel eyes softened as I stared at him. "Your life matters too."

Antonio's dark eyes met mine, but he didn't respond. I almost thought he was going to hold my hand, but instead, he softly touched my bruised wrist with his calloused fingers.

"Does it hurt?"

"Not as much before," I replied honestly. "Can't you see? It's already getting better."

"Good." He looked away as if he couldn't bear the sight of me hurt.

I softly smiled and leaned my head onto his broad shoulder. He stiffened at my touch before slowly relaxing and wrapping an arm around me. I was warmed by his hold and briefly stared at the waterfall. The sound of the whooshing water soothed my ears, and I eventually switched my gaze up to the stars illuminating the night sky.

"Although I wish I hit Finn instead, I don't regret what I did to Buzz," Antonio lowly murmured. "Not at all."

It sounded cruel–a little evil, honestly. However, the sentence warmed my insides and made me smile. I felt so safe in his presence. It was at that very moment, that I realized what was happening. I liked Antonio. Like, like like.

I couldn't tell if that was a good or bad thing.

• • •