"riley! hi!" i turn. i look at parker and start to panic. i had no idea what to do. of course, the idea of telling her was way easier when she wasn't standing right in front of me. "guys what's up?" riley chews her gum while looking at us both. natalie comes up from behind riley. "hey guys."

parker and i are silent. more people equals more problems. "finally you're here. parker and bri are being weird and they're keeping secrets." riley says normally. "secrets? what secrets? i don't know any secrets!" natalie freaks out.

great.

"okay all three of you are acting very suspicious right now. babe, what's wrong?" i look at parker again. "brianna and i have something to tell you." he says not breaking eye contact with me. i feel my heart drop. oh god. here we go.

he nods at me. i look down as my eyes water. riley starts to get fidgety. "oh my god. what happened?" she stares at me.

i can't tell her. there's no way i could tell her. there's also no way i couldn't tell her. i'm a horrible best friend that made a horrible mistake. i have to be the one to tell her.

"i...i had..." i try to speak but it's like i couldn't. "brianna and i had sex." parker rips the bandaid straight off. "parker!" i snap. i wasn't expecting him to say it like that, or maybe hearing it out loud made me snap into reality.

i look at natalies face first. complete shock. then i look at rileys. amusement. she laughs. "very funny, come on the bell's about to ring." she grabs parkers hand but he snatches it back. she looks at us, back and forth. riley laughs again but this time she looks as if she's trying to figure out if we're lying or not.

"is it true?"

the bell rings. "tell me it isn't true!" riley shouts causing a scene. when we don't answer she steps up to me. "best friend, tell me it isn't true." best friend.

"riley i am so so sorry it was a mistake i-" riley slaps me and i hear a whole bunch of gasps. there was definitely a crowd around us now. i hold my face with my left hand. for some unexplainable reason i smacked her back.

more gasps. oh shit.

she holds her face for a second. "oh my god riley i'm so sorry!" i panic. i walk up to her then she punches me. something triggered me and i punch her back. then we start fighting.

this is definitely not what i expected or wanted to happen.

i get pulled back by someone and so does riley. "how could you do this to me? you're my best friend." riley cries. "best friend? you're not my best friend. maybe if you were a better fucking friend you'd know that i've liked parker for a while now!" i snap back. "i liked him first but i never told you because i knew you'd go after him but look. i didn't even have to tell you...you did it anyways!"

she's silent. "for the past year you've been treating natalie and i like shit! you think just because you got hotter and more popular over the summer that you're better than us! natalie i know you've noticed!" i look at nat. she's on the verge of tears and i feel so bad. i regret saying all of that out loud. riley gets out of parkers grip and walks up to me.

she pulls my necklace off of my neck. "fuck you!" she yanks hers off and throws them. something in me broke. younger me would've never seen this coming.

i look around me. in all of the faces around me, i only look at one. masons.

"no, mason." i get out of the grip of whoever pulled me back and i start walking up to him but he walks away. no. not mason. i can't lose mason.

"mason!" i yell out his name. he disappears into the crowd. "come on, we have to get you home before you get suspended." i hear my brothers voice and suddenly i'm being pulled to my car.

❀

we both stormed in the house scaring our mom. "what the hell is going on here?" she gets up from the couch. "look i get what i did was wrong but why are you so pissed off?" i say to noah. he didn't talk to me the whole car ride. "out of all the guys you pick it has to be your friends boyfriend? i've gotten close to mason since we've met and all he does is talk about you and how much he likes you. but you're so blind and naïvely attached to parker who doesn't give a shit about you by the way. you're just like the other girls at school."

noah hurts my feelings. i'm quiet reflecting on what he said. i knew mason liked me but i didn't know he liked me that much. every time we're together i wait for him to make a move but he never does. i assumed he just didn't like me like that.

"fuck you noah!" i push him. "hey! stop it! what is going on? why are you bleeding?" my mom separates us. "brianna slept with parker. she told riley and they got in a fight." noah storms upstairs. "holy shit babe, i didn't know she'd react like this." my mom touches my face and i wince. i touch my nose. i didn't even know i was bleeding.

"your cheek is starting to get swollen. come here." my mom walks into the kitchen. i follow. i'm not really sure what to do right now. i just want to cry. "how did this happen?"

"i told her, she slapped me, i slapped her back, she punched me, i punched her. then we started fighting." i can't stop replaying riley taking our necklaces off. "why did you slap her back? i love you but you kind of deserved that slap." my mom hands me frozen vegetables wrapped in a towel.

"i don't know, it was a reflex." i start crying as she wipes my nose. "mom we're done. done for good." i cry and my mom hugs me. "i'm so sorry baby."

i cry for a good minute before my mom takes me to my room where i cried myself to sleep.

a few hours later i wake up to my mom knocking on my door. "someone's here to see you." i sit up. mason. i run to the bathroom and i try to make myself look okay. i had a killer headache from crying for hours. i leave my room with my mom and i look at the front door. it's riley and her mom.