"Did he hit her?"

"What? No! Are you crazy?"

"I wouldn't mind if he had."

"Shut up, Chanel."

"What? She's nothing. She should just -"

"I swear, Chanel, I'll kill you. The girl fainted and you're badmouthing her."

"Give it a rest, Blake."

My head swarmed, but I knew I was regaining consciousness. I felt a groan escape my lips. The muttering stopped. "Alex?" I heard and opened my eyes, but my vision was still blurry. "Alex. Hey, can you focus on my finger?"

I could faintly make out something that looked vaguely like a finger. I blinked a few times and looked again. This time I saw a long finger held out in front of my eyes and I angled my head to look at it. "Sure," I said, groggily, "I see it."

"How many fingers is this?" I couldn't make out the voice. It could have been any guy in my class.

"Four," I said, and sat up. I was on a table. Probably, the one in the coach's office. I looked around seeing coach, with an ice pack in his hand, look completely relieved. Standing to my right was Hanna, looking completely worried and behind her, Jackson had a hand on her shoulder with a concerned look on his face. He was almost always undeterred and unworried. On my left, stood Blake, who's fingers I'd been inspecting. In the far corner of the room, stood Chanel, leaning over Parker, but looking my way with a dubious look on her face. Parker as usual, looked cold and wore an expression of complete and utter indifference.

"You gave us a scare, Hale," coach said, getting up, "But according to your friend here, it's usual thing. Do you have any pills you take?"

"Han?" I questioned.

She held out my little bottle of pills to me. I always had them on me. With a pang I realized that it was usually Parker who was standing by my side hoping that I was OK.

Ten Years Ago

"Alex? Alex, honey? Can you hear me?" I heard my dad's voice, vaguely above my head.

I turned my head from side to side, the light hitting my eyes. Slowly, opening my eyes, I saw my dad smile at me and move away to tell someone, "She's fine."

"That's great," I heard Parker's dad's voice and he came into view, smiling at me, "You're a fighter, kiddo. Keep going."

It wasn't till then that I noticed Parker. He was sitting on my right, a worried expression on his face, a banana with a bite taken out of it in one hand and my bottle of pills in the other. He looked like he was about to burst into tears and even for eight-year-old Parker, that was a feat.

I looked at him and smiled and that made a huge smile spread across his face, and his bright green eyes shone, the fluorescence making them appear more golden. He dropped what he was holding and hugged me tightly, like he never wanted to let me go.

"I got so scared," he mumbled into my hair, "I know I was there when it happened the first time, but it was just you and me and I got so scared. I don't know how I got you here."

Unable to remove myself from his grasp, I lifted my head from his shoulder, "You carried me here?"

He pulled away, a mischievous grin crossing his face. "You're not that heavy. I'm bigger than you."

It was true, but I'd never let him win. He and I tried to compete with each other; who was the fastest, who had better aim, who was the strongest, who could throw the furthest. Parker won the last two, but not without a fight and we were pretty much head to head on the other two, but I think I had the upper hand at aim, especially. Guys could run faster than girls; that was a fact.

I stuck my tongue out at him.

He smiled, but then looked thoughtful. "You know what?" he said, looking down at the pill bottle he had discarded, "I'm going to keep one of these with myself. What if I can't find yours?"

I looked at him and pulled him in for a hug. "You're my best friend, Parker."

He sighed, sounding triumphant. "I know." He laughed.

My dad came over and put his hand on my shoulder. "Honey, I'm just going to be in the kitchen. Tell me if you need anything, OK? It's a good thing Parker knew about the bananas. Eat it."

He left and I turned to Parker. "How'd you know about the bananas?" I asked him. I knew only because the doctor who told me all about it told me and told me to tell dad, but I forgot.

Parker shrugged. "When it happened a few months ago, you fell near me and it scared me way too much, so I looked it up," he said, which was amazing since he made me do all the looking up possible, "And I found out about the bananas."

I bit my lip, trying to hold back tears. "You did that for me?"

"Sure, I did," he said, rolling his eyes and pulling me in by the shoulder, "You're my best friend."

I shook my head, trying to shake my memories of him.

"OK, people, let's hit the showers. We'll pick this up tomorrow," Coach said - not yell - and blew his whistle.

Everyone scattered, except for the people right by me.

"You sure you're OK?" Blake asked me, furrowing his brows.

"Sure," I shrugged, "Thanks."

He nodded, smiled and walked off. I turned to Hanna.

"Oh, God. I swear I thought you were going to die," she said, holding my shoulders, "I've never actually been there when that happened to you even though you've told me it had. You told me where to get your pills, but it's never really happened. I never thought it would."

That's because only one person has actually been there when it ever happened. Parker.

"It's OK, Han," I soothed her, getting off the table, "I'm fine. It's just low blood pressure, that's all."

She nodded and grabbed my hand. "Let's just shower and get to lunch. See you, Jackson."

As she pulled me, I saw a bunch of bananas sitting on a chair. "Why'd you get those?" I asked, intrigued. Was there someone who actually paid attention in health class?

"Oh, weirdest thing," she said, like it was nothing, "When you fell, the first thing Parker did was say 'Get bananas' and then, suddenly, like he'd been electrocuted, went back to brooding and the people who fall over themselves to please him, meaning the cheerleaders, headed by Chanel, fell over themselves to get the hopeless guys in our class to get them and the hopeless guys in our class, except Jackson and Stephen and Blake and some other person I noted, fell over themselves to get bananas for the girls, so all in all, you got bananas."

I was stunned. It was a habit of Parker's. I smiled, bitterly.

Old habits die hard.

Like mine of looking over at his window whenever I passed mine to see if he was there and if I could see him.

"It was really nice of Blake to carry you over, though," she said.

"Blake carried me?" I asked.

"Yeah," she said, a sly smile crossing her face. She came back to me because I hadn't realized that I stopped. "Romeo carried you away; bridal style."

"Shut up."

*

The only time the school field was peaceful was when school and after school practise was over. I sat there, lacing my sneakers, when I heard footsteps come up to me.

"Didn't faint again, did you?"

I turned to see Blake, smiling down at me, squinting in the evening sun.

"Uh, hey, Blake," I said, giving a weak laugh, "No. No, I didn't."

"Good, because the basketball court is a little too far away from the track you all run to get there in time," he said, sitting down next to me, putting his backpack on the ground next to him.

I widened my eyes at him and then laughed. "Oh, yeah. Thanks for that," I said, "Hanna told me you got stuck carrying me."

He smiled at me. "No big," he shook his head, "You're not heavy anyway."

I nodded at him and got up. "Going home?" I asked him, looking over at the basketball court, trying to avoid running into the rest of the football team.

He shook his head. "I think I'll catch the subway. My car kind of," he sheepishly scratched the back of his neck, "Yeah, well. Let's just say that I won't get it for another week or so."

I laughed. "Grounded?"

"Pretty much."

"Well, uh, let me give you a ride," I offered, "Since you pretty much saved my life."

"Ah." He waved a dismissive hand.

"No, really, come on," I said, "It's not far from my place."

He looked up at me and smiled. "Yeah, thanks." He got up and followed me to my car. And for the first time since school started, a guy was actually nice to me instead of being a jerk.