Thomas texted me numerous times and rang the bell a dozen times the following morning. Darcy ambushed him the second he got through the door despite how many times this exact event occurred. He followed me to the kitchen, where I was making coffee at my Keurig.

"I thought working at Rizzo's would get you to stop drinking it so much," he commented.

"You thought wrong. I'm a coffee addict."

I smiled and began to add the sugar and creamer to the travel mug my father had gotten me on one of his many business trips. This one was stateside, from Reno, Nevada. Over the years, there'd been plenty of souvenirs and gifts that now filled cabinets and decorated the otherwise empty rooms. However, he never took me along with him, nor did he ever ask me to.

"Where's your dad?" Thomas asked as I walked past him into the living room to put on my jacket, hat, and shoes, and grab my bag.

"Not sure. Let's go."

I pushed him out the door and locked it. He didn't usually ask about either of my parents but when he did the first thing I did was change the subject to make him forget. It happened too much for my liking, but I understood why he asked. I shared everything with him except that. It was the only thing left in my life that I could keep as just mine.

"Wait, don't you have to walk Darcy?" Thomas asked.

"We'll be late."

"It's Friday. Who cares?"

"Fine." I unlocked the door and grabbed his leash off the hook that held an extra set of keys as well. They used to be my mother's. "Come on Darcy, you're going for a walk."

Darcy came bounding out the door happily, which put a smile on my face. Luckily Thomas caught him before he could get down the stairs. I couldn't do that on my own and I'd usually catch up with him at the bottom of the staircase.

"Does he have ADHD?" Thomas asked.

He brought Darcy over to me and began laughing.

"Maybe, I haven't asked his vet."

I hooked the leash and let Thomas carry him to the front door. The walk woke me up

At school, I always tried to avoid Rebecca and her golden football player boyfriend as much as possible. But because I had economics with her, I had to see her boyfriend drop her off and pick her up from class every day. He tried to seem like the good boyfriend by bringing her flowers to school and taking her on fancy date from what I heard, but even I knew she was too good for him. He kissed her lightly for the second time before he left. Rebecca came in and sat next to me, but didn't acknowledge me. It didn't surprise me even though she spoke to me yesterday. I looked at her a few times, daring myself to say hello, internally begging her to turn her head and say hello to me first.

"Alright class, to start I'll be handing back yesterday's test." Mrs. Owens said after the bell rang again to signal the start of class.

I groaned internally, knowing that I bombed the test. I wasn't too good at Economics and my grade showed that. I could never find any amount of effort to bring myself to study or find a way to increase my grade. Before Mrs. Owens handed me my test, she flipped it over and placed it face down on the desk. That was never a good sign.

"Miss. Harding, Miss. Mitchell, I want to see the both of you after class."

"Owens knows how hard it is for Parker to get a date, because she's so ugly obvi', so she's trying to set her up with you Kirsten." One of the girls behind me cackled.

I stiffened when I recognized the voice. It was Jaz Carey, someone who played a significant role in ruining the last few months of my life. I wanted to say something- no, I should've said something. However, since my coming out I'd gotten a lot quieter. A few others who heard smothered a laugh which discouraged me even more. I bit my lip and looked down shyly, waiting for the girl to make another remark and embarrass me further. Thanks to her, everyone knew who I was.

"Grow up Jaz," Rebecca replied softly. She sounded as shy as I felt. I always liked the sound of her voice. She had one that could put a baby to sleep no matter how loud she got.

"Excuse me, are you defending that dyke?" Jaz asked.

"How old are you? Five?" Rebecca asked.

She turned in her chair and the movement cause the sweet smell of her shampoo to swim through the air. She was wearing less make up than usual, which I liked. What I didn't like was how angry she looked.

"Shut up, or you're gonna regret it," Rebecca said.

"So, who has questions?" Mrs. Owens asked, not even giving Jaz a chance to respond. I don't think she would've however, even I felt threatened by Rebecca.

I should've raised my hand, seeing as how I'd gotten a 57 on the test and similar grades on the two before that. I left my hands in my lap for the remainder of class as I always did. Even before I came out I was never big on public speaking. Afterwards, Kirsten and I waited at Mrs. Owens's desk as asked. Kirsten couldn't look more annoyed. She was one of Jaz's friends and she looked the part of being one of Willow Grove's most popular. She was tall, skinny, blonde, and generically pretty. I thought she would've looked upset, or even embarrassed to even be almost alone with me, the big lesbian of the school.

"Miss. Harding is failing," Mrs. Owens started. My mouth opened in shock. I was aware that my grade was low but I didn't know I was failing and I didn't appreciate her telling Kirsten without my consent. "And she needs a tutor. You have one of the highest grades in all of my economics classes, and I think you'll be a good fit for Miss. Harding."

"Oh, um, right. Well I have a job, and I have cheerleading practice, so I'll have to check my schedule to see if I'll have time for you Parker," Kirsten said, talking to me more than Mrs. Owens. She didn't even turn her head to look at me.

"I'll need to know by Monday Miss. Mitchell."

"I'll let you know." Kirsten nodded and left the room.

"She's not going to tutor me," I said.

"And why not?" Mrs. Owens pushed her glasses onto her short brown hair that would help her understand better.

"Ever since Homecoming weekend, I've been deemed the school's next social outcast. No one is going to tutor me. They're too embarrassed," I explained.

"I think I have the perfect person for the job. Here, I'll write you a pass, where are you going?"

She wrote me a pass to English, where I was luckily meeting up with Thomas again. I was thankful she didn't ask more details about what I meant about Homecoming weekend, but then again, I don't think she really cared. Her job was to teach and that's what she was doing.

At the end of the day, I drove Thomas to his house to pick up his uniform before work. I tapped my hands anxiously against the wheel, knowing that within the next hour I'd be seeing Rebecca again. When we arrived at Rizzo's, Jan and Hayley were finishing up their shift. Thanks to Thomas, we were almost late. He lost his shirt in the cyclone known as his room. Just as I finally ended the struggle of putting my long box braids into a bun, and pinned the name tag on my shirt, I heard the jingle. I glanced at the clock with a smile on my face. Today, she was five minutes early.

"Large cafe mocha double-double."

'Stay calm, stay calm, stay calm. Don't say anything stupid.' I reminded myself on my way to her table.

"Here's your drink." I set it on the table and walked away before she could speak to me.

I sat down on a stool behind the counter and, I'll admit in a stalkerish-way, watched her. I watched the way she wiped her upper lip and nose after every sip whether there was anything there or not. I watched the way her fingers moved swiftly over the keyboard and she typed away the time. I watched the way she got annoyed with the wild brown curls on her head. Tragically, this is what I do most days because I don't think she notices me. Seeing as how I'm behind the counter and I'm not the one at the register. But today, on December 19th, 2015, she looked up from her laptop and coffee, into my eyes, and smiled.

I nearly knocked over the stool as I stood and tried to look busy, tried to look like I wasn't just watching her like a hawk. I found it hard to swallow when I heard her speaking to Thomas.

"Another cookie before you go?" Thomas asked.

"Oh I'm not leaving yet; I was just wondering if I could speak to Parker for a few minutes. Do you mind?"

I found it odd that she didn't just come over to me. Thomas wasn't the boss or the manager, and he didn't look like one either. In my mind still I was sending signals to Thomas, begging him to say no. Conversations between Rebecca and I were almost non-existent. When she spoke to me, I couldn't stop stumbling over my words. Attempting to say more than "here's your coffee" or "large cafe mocha double-double" was asking for trouble. I probably rehearsed saying those plenty of times before I actually said it to her.

"I don't mind at all. Just don't steal her all night." By the teasing and flirty tone in his voice, he probably winked at her too. He tapped me and when I didn't respond he resulted to kicking me. He was encouraging me to speak to her and be friends with her, maybe flirt a little, but when she was gone all he did was remind me that she was straight, that I couldn't have her. When it was obvious I couldn't ignore her or the situation anymore, I made my way to Rebecca and sat in the chair opposite of her.

"Y-you wanted t-to um speak to uh me?" I asked. I couldn't even look her in the eye.

"Relax Parker; I'm not going to kill you. It's just me, little ol' Rebecca."

She said that as if she weren't such a big deal. She was though, and she knew that. She was part of the common story-book cliché of the player falling for the nerd. Overnight, she'd blossomed into Miss. Popularity. Not that she needed to; I noticed her before she started wearing contacts and before she wore dresses and heels to school. I missed that Rebecca, but this version was just as beautiful.

"Right." I chuckled softly.

"At least I got you to smile," she paused and smiled herself. "I just wanted to check on you after what happened in class today."

"Oh, you mean the thing with that girl? Yeah, I'm fine."

If I pretended I didn't know Jaz, I could escape having to talk about that night at the dance. After the buzz died down, I started going back to school and no one really forced me to relive it; I was just avoided like the plague. Before then, it wasn't like I had most of a social life anyway so I wasn't missing out on much.

"I was at the dance, Parker. I know what happ-"

"You didn't exactly have to be at the dance to know what happened. Everyone knows. I don't really care anymore and I'd rather not speak about it, okay?" I responded rather harshly.

"I'm sorry; I should've realized this was a touchy subject for you. I just wanted to say sorry for what she said, because it's not true. You're beautiful Parker. And I'm sorry no one else stuck up for you either."

She called me beautiful.

"I'm used to that, but thank you for sticking up for me. You're the only one who could, with Chris being your boyfriend."

We both knew what I meant by that so she didn't ask me to explain. If Rebecca wanted something done, Chris made it happen. Some girl who liked smelling like a cigarette everyday was bullying Rebecca and Chris got the girls on the cheer-leading squad to protect Rebecca until she was left alone.

"Being the girlfriend of the star football player isn't everything it's cracked up to be." I wanted to ask what she meant but we weren't really friends and it was probably personal. "Speaking of Chris, I should get going. He has a game tonight. Are you going?"

"Um, no. I'm kinda working." I smiled as I threw my thumb over my shoulder, pointing at the counter where Thomas was probably watching intently.

"Right, sorry I forgot." she closed her laptop and began to pack up her things.

"Are you done with this? I'll throw it out for you." I tossed the cup in the trash when she gave me the okay.

"Thanks Parker, you're really nice."

'Only to beautiful girls like you.'

"No biggie." I started to head back to the machines but she called me again.

"Thanks for talking to me." she came over to me and pulled me into a hug I wasn't expecting. I felt a little faint when I put my arms around her curvaceous body. She made me weak in the knees and I stumbled a little when she let go of me.

"Not like I had a choice if I didn't want to. You and Thomas definitely bullied me into that conversation." I teased, surprising myself.

"Did not!"

"You so did." I smiled again. It would get awkward if I didn't say anything and I'd probably never get up the nerve to talk to her again. "I should let you get going. Have fun at the game."

"Yeah right." she rolled her faded green eyes. "I have to sit with the other non-cheerleader girlfriends. Some unwritten rule I guess. I'll see you tomorrow, Parker. Have a great night."

She hugged me again with a smile on her face that could've blinded me and left.

"Parker." Thomas was ruining the moment by opening his mouth. We would have to interact to work efficiently but this wasn't part of the job description.

"Shut up and let me be happy for once Thomas. Let me savor this night and I'll come back to reality in the morning."