The car ride towards my house contained apprehensive feelings on my part. I wasn't exactly sure on how to break it to Tate that i had to blow off our plans for another guy.. on school terms only i mean.

As i caught few, then multiple glances of Alex's profile, I admitted that he was pretty cute. I held a slight form of attraction towards him but i could never face my feelings to commit to them. Like father, like daughter eh?

As we entered the driveway, Alex smoothly parked the car and gestured that we were here. Exiting the car became the first of my worries as when i stepped out of the car, I faced a world of humiliation.

I tripped over two meekly, old kids toy.

Why the hell is there two kids toys in the driveway?

Looking over to the side, i could see Alex trying to suppress his laughter with a faint, not so subtle smile.

"Laugh all you want. I'm clumsy, get used to it!"

I exclaimed and i myself couldn't suppress a few giggles either. He strided over and offered a hand.

"Need some help?"

"While i overcome my huge fail, help sounds great."

I reached out for his hand and he pulled me up towards him softly but with a firm hold. He grasped onto my hand a little longer than i thought and we both blushed and pulled our hands away in embarrassment. Out of my peripheral vision, i could see him stare at the hand that once held mine and he sincerely smiled.

"So, you got younger siblings?"

He chuckled a bit and slightly nudged the toys. Examining them closer, i noticed they were toy baseball bats.

"No, I'm an only child. I don't know where these came from to be honest."

We exchanged puzzling looks and waved it off after a couple seconds.

"Let's go inside before it gets dark." The sky began to dim a heavy, grayish coor and i could tell it was only a while till the sun would plunge down and night would emerge.

Entering the house, i was flooded by the image of Tate in my mind.

"Hey, head into the living room without me okay? I'll be right back. I just need to grab a few things from upstairs." I muttered an excuse from the top of my head and grinned to re assure everything. He grinned back in response and lifted his arm and made an "okay" reference with his hand while clicking his tongue, It was the kind of thing you saw in old movies and this made me chuckle slightly.

When he turned his back and he started down the hall towards the living room, I darted up the stairs to my room.

"Tate!" I emit his name as i rush into the room. As expected, he's perched on top of my bed, just looking through my small collection of records. His face brightened up like a child's face on Christmas day when his gaze met mine and it almost melted my heart. I couldn't help but feel terrible to steal that adorable face away from him with my words.

"You're back from school, now we can finally hang out."

He sat up and straightened his posture a bit, releasing a sigh of satisfaction.

"Yeah.."

I replied and tried to match up his enthusiasm and disguise my guilt. I couldn't compare because his wasn't filled with a little pain inside like mine. I bit my tongue back and smiled wholeheartedly at him.

"So how was Westfield High hell?"

He questioned and signaled for me to sit next to him on my bed. I climbed over the end bed post and situated myself in a comfortable position to ease my uneasiness. I wasn't sure how he was going to take this.

"Torture as always. But.. we were assigned a big project today in creative writing. It's supposedly a big deal and it could mean scholarships to colleges and stuff."

"That's cool but you're really going to go to college? I thought we were always going to hang out together once you graduate, you know. Together, Vi. "

He tensed up a bit and his eyes displayed a sad gleam.

"I'm not sure about my plans for college and stuff yet. I'll just go with the flow. It's easier that way. Anyways, we got partners and stuff and we're supposed to start working on it today."

I tried to revert the subject back to our original topic to save him from more pain. I wasn't sure about my future plans and i didn't know what Tate and I were. An item, a couple? He hasn't even asked me out yet i feel like we've been dating for ages.

"So.. you have to work on it today? That means.. we weren't going to hang out together like you said huh?"

His eyes grew darker and deeper by the minute as i couldn't respond. I was sad for him and I. All we could do was stare at each other's faces in hopes of identifying our true emotions through our facial expressions.

I was hesitant to speak again and ruin the silence that was tense enough as it was. I could feel him shift positions in the bed and then finally lifted as he slid off the bed.

I quickly got up to catch him before he left and tugged at his sweater. He turned around and his eyes almost bore into my soul. He didn't look like the same, gentle Tate i was fond of.

Things only grew worse as he noticed the crimson blood emerging from the cuts against the driveway i earned after tripping over the toys. He grabbed my wrists roughly and brought it closer to his face.

"What happened to your hand?"

His words cut like ice. Cold and persistent.

"I just tripped over two kids toys on the way outside the house. It's nothing-"

"Shit. The twins are around."

He murmured and the last part was almost entirely inaudible but one key word jumped at me. "Twins."

Twins? What twins?

I gave him a quizzical look but he didn't face me again. I couldn't even ask about the "twins" because his grip tightened and the cuts began to sting like a mother-

"You're hurting me."

It was all i could manage to spit and i winced silently in pain.

He loosened the grip on my wrist and turned his back towards the door. The last sound from him was the door slamming shut. My body tensed at the sound and i could feel my eyes glisten with tears just dying to spill out. The image of his back, cold and distant, replayed in my mind.

Over, over, over, and over again.

He left. Just like that.

He left me overwhelmed in a bath of emotions and I was drowning.

But unlike usual, he wasn't there to save me.