Amari

I sat bored at the table Hunter and Angel had sat their coats at. They went to dance and I really wasn't in the mood right now.

So I was alone with a drink in the middle of what could pass for a very boring party for old people.

"Bored?" A familiar voice asked from behind me.

"Jake?" I asked turning around and being met with him in a suit.

"Yes ma'am." He smiled sitting beside me. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." I shook my head pushing me drinks away. "What're you doing here?"

"My Aunt is here to talk to some guy with a chain of hotels about putting a little boutique in them with her dresses." He shrugged. "What're you doing here?"

"I'm Tyler's date." I said. "He's rubbing elbows with future business partners."

"You're his date?" Jake asked.

"Oh, yeah!" I nodded. "We're together now."

"I kind of figured that." Jake chuckled looking down at the table. "I just meant that you're sitting here alone. That doesn't seem like a date to me."

I didn't say anything, just pulled the drink back over to me.

"I know this might be a bit inappropriate given the circumstances..." Jake started. "But, if you were my date, I wouldn't leave you here alone and bored. Especially if you've been drinking."

"Jake stop." I mumbled.

"I know." He nodded grabbing my hand. "You chose who you wanted. I respect your decision, but I'm just saying."

I pulled my hand away from his and cleared my throat.

"Yeah, well the conversations are boring so I wouldn't want to be around them anyway." I said sipping my drink. "Tyler knew that."

I hope that's why he didn't ask me to come along with him.

"Maybe." Jake shrugged. "You look gorgeous by the way. I don't know if I told you that yet."

"You haven't." I smiled at him. "Thank you."

Tyler

"So you learned to fly a plane simply because your Father wouldn't let you go anywhere you couldn't take yourself?" I laughed.

"Yeah." Danielle nodded with a laugh. "I mean, after I realized I could drive myself to the classes it was over."

Danielle and I started talking to avoid talking about serious stuff, but after a while I realized that she wasn't half bad.

"You know..." Danielle sipped her drink. "We've been talking for what? Two hours almost and you have yet to compliment me. That's quite rude."

She had a playful smirk pulling at her face and I laughed.

"You're right." I nodded. "You look beautiful, Danielle."

"Thank you, Tyler." She smiled rested a hand against her chest. "I should say, you look dazzling yourself."

"Why, thank you." I laughed.

I glanced over her shoulder to Grandpa who gave me a thumbs up and I looked back to Danielle.

"You know, the night is winding down, but that doesn't mean it has to be over." She said sitting her drink down. "Let's stretch this night a little. I can fly you anywhere you want to go."

"You don't have to do that." I shook my head.

"I want to, though." She said standing up and grabbing my hands. "Come on. It'll be fun."

"Go ahead!" Grandpa waved his hand. "You can meet everyone else some other time."

I thought about it and sighed.

"Alright. Let's go." I laughed.

Danielle grabbed her bag and began pulling me away.

"Hold on." I heard Amari tell someone. "Tyler!"

Danielle and I stopped walking and I turned to Amari. That's when I noticed Jake standing behind her.

"Where are you going?" She asked.

"I'm not sure yet." I said still staring at Jake. "Why is he here?"

"Does it matter?" Amari crossed her arms over her chest. "Why are you leaving?"

"Is everything alright?" Danielle asked stepping over to us and Amari glared at her before giving me a death stare.

"Everything's fine." I said. "I'll meet you outside."

"Okay." Danielle nodded and walked away.

"Who is that?" Amari asked.

"Does it matter?" I mocked her.

"Actually it does." Amari nodded her head. "Why're you leaving with another girl when I'm here because of you?"

"Because..." I was cut off by Grandpa approaching us.

"Tyler, I thought you were leaving." Grandpa said walking over to us. "Oh. Whose this?"

He was looking at Amari.

"No one." I shook my head standing in front of her. "I am leaving."

"No one?" Amari asked pushing me to the side. "And you're still leaving?"

"Not no one." I shook my head. "A friend."

"A friend?" She scoffed.

"Amari." I said. "This is Amari."

"Yeah." She nodded. "Just Amari."

"No. I didn't mean it like that!" I tried to correct myself, but she was already mad. "Amari."

She snatched her bag off of the table and stormed away. I started to follow her, but Grandpa stopped me.

"I suggest you let her go, Tyler." Grandpa said. "If the situation is what I think it is, it's in your best interest boy."

I saw Jake shake his head and follow behind Amari.

I wanted to chase after her and curse Jake out for even being here, but I knew that if I did, Grandpa would change his mind about me.

"Now go on your little trip." Grandpa said moving out of my way. "Matter of fact, let me walk you outside."

Amari

The Next Day

I walked into school with dark sunglasses on.

My head was pounding and I was exhausted. It took a lot of work and self dedication to avoid Tyler all weekend.

I hardly got any sleep because I had to keep replaying that situation in my head just to remind myself of how stupid he made me look that Night.

And it all just made me hate him even more than before.

It all just made me wish I would've stopped chasing after him after the first rejection.

That I never would've gotten involved with him in the first place, really.

"Girl, you look awful." Lana said leaning against the lockers next to mine.

I looked at her. Even though she couldn't see my eyes, she knew that I was contemplating tearing her head off.

"Sorry." She mumbled. "You alright?"

"Fine." I mumbled stuffing my bag into my locker.

"Maybe the girl he was leaving with wasn't someone he was interested in. Maybe they were just hanging out and becoming friends." Lana tried to console me.

I had spent nights talking to her about the whole situation which is why I looked so fucked up right now.

"You didn't see her." I mumbled. "Sure was tall and not tall for a girl, but around his height. She was skinny and she had hair like his. She was so confident too, Lana."

"So? You're confident and very pretty." Lana tapped my nose.

"But I'm not that other stuff. Am I?" I rolled my eyes and closed my locker. "Relationships suck."

"Honestly." Lana sighed wrapping her arm around mine.

I rested my head on her shoulder and we walked to the field for gym class. All of the gym classes were being combined because Today was going to be a half day.

12 minutes into class, I noticed that Tyler wasn't even here Today.

"Rose, Where's your boyfriend?" Coach asked standing in front of Lana and me.

"I don't know." I shrugged.

"Can you make sure he gets to practice Today?" Coach asked. "Tell him he'll be benched if you doesn't..."

"Sorry!" Tyler yelled rushing onto the field. "Sorry I'm late." He breathed handing Coach a late slip. "Traffic."

"You made it just in time to be able to give me 12 suicides after school." Coach patted his shoulder and walked away.

"Damn..." Tyler mumbled under his breath.

He glanced over at me before looking at Lana who was trying to kill him with her eyes.

"Can I talk to you?" Tyler asked glancing from me to Lana then back again.

"Go ahead." Lana said stepping away from us. "But you gotta see me next."

Lana walked away and Tyler cleared his throat.

"If you want to talk, we should probably go somewhere else." I said. "I have a lot to say and I don't think you want other people to overhear it."

He nodded his head and pulled his car keys out. We walked to the student parking lot and got in his car. We sat in silence for a minute just listening to the air conditioner run until he finally spoke up.

"Why weren't you answering any of my phone calls this weekend?" He asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked crossing my arms.

"I mean that I called you so many times and I didn't get a single answer." He said.

"You also called me 'no one', a 'friend', and 'just Amari'." I said. "I didn't know which one of them you wanted to answer the phone, so I didn't answer."

"How about Amari my girlfriend?" He asked.

"No. You didn't have one of those Friday night." I shook my head.

"Is the word 'friend' not in 'girlfriend'?"

"It is, but you left out the 'girl' part. You know what else is in 'girl friend' that you forgot about?" I asked.

"A phone call, I hope." He said.

"No. Space." I said turning to look at him. "And that's what we need."

"What're you walking about?" He asked.

"This isn't working out. I now see why you didn't want to be in a relationship with me." I said. "So, you're off the hook. We're done. This was a fun little trial run and all, but..."

"I swear if you say something about being buddies, I'll crash this whole car." He cut me off.

"No. I was going to say that I am no longer interested in the games." I said. "We were together for less than a month and you've already cheated on me."

"Cheated on you? When?" He asked.

"When you left with that girl." I said.

"I didn't cheat on you!" He argued. "We were just going to hang out somewhere."

"Somewhere you couldn't tell me about, Tyler!" I argued back. "Besides, it wouldn't have been the first time you've cheated on someone or do I have to remind you that there was a time that you confided everything in me! There was a time when you were cheating with me, Tyler! So excuse me if I automatically assume the worse when you disappear with a girl that looks like that!"

"What about Jake?" Tyler asked angrily. "Are you forgetting that he once liked you too and how close you were to choosing him over me? Do you think that I wasn't upset when I saw you with him that night?"

"Yeah, but there's a difference." I said.

"Really?" Tyler scoffed. "What is it?"

"I wasn't leaving with him!" I yelled in his face. "I wasn't rushing out the front door practically screaming how we were gonna have sex in the back seat of his car!"

"I didn't sleep with her!" Tyler yelled back in my face.

We stared at each other angrily. Neither of us wanted to look away because that would be like admitting you lost the argument.

"Amari..." He groaned frustratedly pulling at his hair. "What happened?"

"You left with that girl. That's what happened." I mumbled.

He squinted his eyes at me before looking away. I stared out the window trying to fight back any tears that threatened to fall. I was thankful for how big these sunglasses were, though.

"How are we in a relationship if we can't even trust each other?" Tyler asked.

"I don't know." I shrugged. "I should've known you couldn't be trusted."

"Could you stop throwing shots at me and actually have a conversation, please?" He asked angrily.

"You hurt me!" I yelled ripping my sunglasses off and glaring at me. "I can do what I want!"

I threw the sunglasses at him and he shook his head hitting the steering wheel.

"Please. Let's just talk." He was fed up. "Please."

"Whatever." I mumbled snatching my glasses from him and putting them back on.

We sat in silence. My chin rested in the palm of my hand as I stared out the window at nothing in particular.

"How many times did you compliment her?" I asked quietly.

"What?" He asked with a dry voice.

"How many times did you compliment her?" I asked louder. "She looked stunning. How could you ignore someone that looks like that?"

"Once or twice." He shrugged. "Why does it matter?"

I looked over at him and we just stared at each other.

"What?" He asked.

"You didn't compliment me at all that night." I mumbled.

"What?" He sat up. "Yes I did. I told your that I liked your hair."

"No you didn't!" I shook my head. "You said that it looked better in the hairstyle I had before I changed it. You never said that you liked my hair."

I pulled at the handle and he quickly grabbed my arm.

"You know that you look beautiful regardless." He said. "Why are you stressing over a compliment you don't need?"

"My parents have been married for 23 years, Tyler." I said not looking at him. "Everyday my Dad compliments me and my Mom. Did your Dad do that for your Mother?"

"No." He scoffed. "So what?"

"They got divorced." I said finally looking at him. "Let's save ourselves the time, energy, and money and end it here."

I pushed the door open.

"If you end it like this, I swear I'm moving on." He said with a broken voice. "I swear."

"What difference would that make? I chose you and you chose her. The only person that has some moving on to do here, is me." I snatched my arm from his hands and got out of the car.

Tyler

I watched Amari throw her hood on and rush into the school building. I closed my eyes and rested my head against the steering wheel.

I was so overwhelmed by everything.

I had fucked up.

How do you fuck up with someone who knows you better than you know yourself?