Lately, one person had been occupying my mind. I can’t sleep without him haunting my dreams, I can’t eat without remembering how his lips felt on mine, and I can’t think without his image popping into my head.

Unfortunately for me, I was madly in love with a guy who might not feel the same way about me.

"You dumped my cousin's ass?" Alex was beside me and we both were walking to our next class. She didn't look like someone who was mad that I broke her cousin's heart.

“I didn’t dump him. We just realized we weren’t good together and reached an agreement.” I explained, not wanting her to get the wrong idea.

“Yeah yeah, whatever.” She didn’t look convinced as she rolled her eyes. “So...what about Ryan?” She suddenly asked, making my heart skip a beat.

Ryan was the definition of hot and cold. One moment, he had told me he liked me and then started being possessive over me, and the next, I see him with his ex-girlfriend about to kiss. How sure am I she’s even his ex? Maybe they were already back together or maybe he was a liar and cheater. The thought of all this was making me go crazy.

“What about him?” I remained nonchalant even though on the inside, I was a confused and depressed mess.

“Sam,” She sighed and grabbed my hand to stop me from walking. “I don’t know if Ryan is a jerk who wants to play two girls at a time, or if it was just Jenny throwing herself at him,” I wanted to leave then not wanting to listen to any excuse she wanted to make up for Ryan, but she stopped me again.

“Stop making excuses for him. I know what I saw.” I huffed while rolling my eyes.

“I’m not! Let me finish.” She defended before continuing, “Look, I know you really like him and I’ve seen you cry over him twice. Once, you were drunk.” Dammit, she knew me so well.

“So instead of ignoring or running from your problems, face them head-on this time or you might never know the outcome and regret it.” She placed her hands on my shoulder and had a concerned look on her face.

“What?! I do not ignore or run away from my problems.” I scoffed while she cocked her head at me with an eyebrow raised like she was asking me, ‘really?’.

Sighing, she shook her head at me before saying, “You came back to town, and instead of mending things with your former best friend, you started to avoid him. You kicked him out after he kissed you and started to avoid him, again. He confessed his feelings to you, but you didn’t accept him or confess yours back to him. You found him with his ex-girlfriend, in the parking lot almost kissing, and instead of confronting him you went up and kissed another guy before running away, again!” She recounted while I, the guilty culprit, tried to look anywhere else but her.

“Oh look at the time,” I looked at my wrist which had no watch, “we’re almost late for class. Guess we’ll have to continue this conversation another time.” I tried to escape but she caught me again.

“Sam!” She scolded which was funny because she’s the one who normally gets scolded by Jane.

“Okay fine, maybe you’re right.” I agreed and slumped my shoulders in defeat, “But I’m not his girlfriend, so I have no right to confront him if I see him with another girl.” I shrugged even though I could feel a familiar ache in my chest at the thought of that.

She smiled a little and shook her head, “Keep thinking like that, and you might never be his girlfriend.” She patted my back before walking down the empty hallway.

Sitting and concentrating on what the English teacher was saying seemed to be impossible at the moment because a particular someone was behind me, twirling a strand of my hair around his finger and breathing very close to my ear.

“Stop it.” I hissed and turned to glare at Ryan when he tugged my hair, but he didn’t let go of my hair and acted like he didn’t even hear me.

I huffed in annoyance and turned back to the teacher even though I haven’t been paying attention to what she was saying. I think she was talking about clauses, I’m not sure which particular one though.

This is all the hottie at my back fault. When he came into the class, I hadn’t noticed until I heard him tell whoever was behind me to go get another seat. I wanted to look up then at him but willed myself not to and kept playing with my phone instead. He hadn’t talked to me, and I thought he wouldn’t bug me, but I was proven wrong after the teacher walked in.

At first, he pulled the rubber band I had used to pack my hair in a ponytail, then he pulled my hair to one side, exposing the left side of my neck, before picking random strands to play with.

I wanted to cuss him to hell, but when I tried that earlier, the teacher almost gave me detention and I am not up for that. So I just had to sit there and let him do whatever he liked with my hair.

I felt him tug my hair again but harder this time, making a jolt of pain shoot through my skull. I almost let out another cuss but refrained myself quickly and shot another death glare at him. My eyes connected with his then, and it felt like he was challenging me with his eyes to stop him, but I know he knows that I can’t do much.

He still held on to the strand of hair as his eyes never left mine, and it was then I noticed something in them, anger. Well if he was angry, he should go bother someone else but me. I reached for my hair and pulled it from his finger. Surprisingly, he let it slide through his hand and made no effort to stop me.

Exhaling in relief, I turned back to the teacher, but my joy was short-lived as I felt him pick another strand and pulled really hard this time sending another sharp pain through my skull, and I couldn’t stop the cuss from coming out this time.

“Is everything alright over there?” Mrs. Thomas, our English teacher, asked, looking over to me in concern.

“Yes Mrs. Thomas, everything’s okay,” I replied, and she nodded before going back to teaching. I didn’t want to tell what Ryan was doing. It would only give the students more things to gossip about, although I’m sure some of them were seeing whatever it was Ryan had been doing. “Everything’s just great,” I muttered, still feeling my hair being pulled.

Immediately the bell went off, and students started to pile out the class, I faced Mr. Grumpy and gave him my deadliest glare.

“Can’t you just leave me alone and go back to your ‘ex-girlfriend’?” I made sure to use air quotes to annoy him the more. He had that cool aloof expression on his face like he always does, but his eyes spoke volumes.

“You just love to piss me off today now don’t you.” His nostrils flared in anger as he stood and towered of me.

What was he talking about? After the parking lot, this was the only time we had seen each other today. I hadn’t done anything to him, so why was he mad at me?

Not wanting to tolerate him anymore, I turned to leave, but his hand shot out to grip my arm. Students weren’t in the class anymore and had all gone for lunch, just two guys at the back, but they weren’t focused on us.

I turned back to Ryan, hoping he had some kind of explanation for me or anything to make me think what I saw this morning was false. He was scrutinizing my face like he was trying to find something before a big grin broke out on his face.

“You’re jealous.” He declared while brushing a strand of my hair from my face, and I felt goosebumps rise on my skin from the contact with his hand.

Maybe he was right, or maybe he wasn’t, I didn’t care. If he was just going to gloat, then I didn’t want to stand here with him anymore. Rolling my eyes at him, I wanted to leave again, but he didn’t let me go and pulled me closer to him.

“Jealousy looks good on you. I would love to see it more often.” He still had that stupid grin on his face.

“Are you done?” I asked, “I wouldn’t want to miss lunch. Oh, and FYI, I am not jealous of anybody.”

He didn’t seem to believe me as his rest his forehead on mine still smiling like an idiot. I could feel his breath on my cheek, and I tried not to be affected by how close we were but failed miserably. My legs felt like jelly right now and I could feel my stomach do flip flops. His face turned serious again and he wrapped his arm around my waist to bring me even closer to him. I should fight him, I know. But being this close to him was messing up my thinking, again. I just was a mess around him.

“Tell me you have nothing to do with that boy.” He was sounding like he was older than Trevor and not a boy too. And I should tell him that Trevor and I were no longer going out or anything like that but I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction. If he thinks he can play both Jenny and I then he has another thing coming.

“It’s none of your business what I do with another guy.” I whispered harshly at him and I felt his arm tighten around my waist.

“Of course it’s my business. You’re mine and you didn’t seem to protest when I proved that.” His breath was coming out harshly now as his lips was dangerously close to mine now.

“I am not yours,” I slowly replied so that he could understand me very clearly. A smirk broke out on his lips, and he leaned back away from me before letting go.

“We’ll see about that.” He walked past me to the classroom door but stopped before opening the door to face me. I still stood at where he left me not able to walk as my legs were still feeling like jelly, but I had already turned to watch his retreating form.

“Oh and mum invited you over to dinner. Just you. I’m picking you by six.” He announced before slamming the classroom door shut behind him.