"Well," the teacher, Mr. Lincoln— I had started to remember his name about halfway through his rambling, declared. "That's it for today."

When the collective sigh of relief emerged from the dozen or so students in the room, he shook his head and continued.

"I know, I know, school in the summer is just unnatural. How do you think I feel? I should be turning bright red on the beach, and I'm stuck here too. But, what's the lesson in this?"

Mr. Lincoln waited, but there were only slight mutters in response. "Don't skip class next year just because you feel like it. Hit the books, dedicate some of your precious teenage time to actually..."

"Can we go, now?" One of the boys from the other side of the room interrupted. Sterling's side of the room, I had taken to calling it in my head.

Because that's simply how much I disliked him. He had his half of the room. I had mine. I painted an invisible line down the center, and if he managed to stick to his side for this torturous eight weeks, then maybe— just maybe, I could survive.

Mr. Lincoln paused, and it looked like he was debating on how nuclear he wanted to go on the unnamed boy, before he let a sigh roll through him. With a lazy flick of his hand, he said, "fine.  Go."

As soon as he said that word, my feet were moving.

I kept my head down as I passed into Sterling's side of the room, cursing him for sitting down first, and in the half of the room that contained the only exit and entrance. I didn't want to look towards him, or catch his eye.

Maybe, if I didn't, he would forget that he was supposed to be driving me home. Maybe, he would forget the fact that I existed at all. Which, I doubted would be hard for him to do.

I didn't slow as I exited the classroom, sighing a breath of relief when I didn't hear his stupid voice call after me. I prayed that even if he didn't forget, he would simply just leave me be. Let me walk, without trying to keep his stupid promise to my sister.

I didn't slow as I reached the end of the hallway. I barely even registered how weird I must look to my new "peers"— my head pointed towards the ground as I walked as fast as I could without running down their pretty white halls.

I let a small smile of victory cross my face as I pushed through the doors, feeling the sun immediately on my skin. I stood still for just a second, allowing my skin to absorb the vitamin D.

But, I only had a single second to spare. Immediately after, my eyes scanned my surroundings. If I had known what Daisy was planning when she was driving me to school, I would have memorized each and every turn with care.

However, I didn't know what she was planning, so instead, I had spent the duration of the ride with my eyes closed, pretending I was still asleep in the heavenly comfortable white blankets in the pool house.

I walked towards the entrance to the parking lot, thinking that it would be a good place to start. Once I reached the end of school grounds, basically, I was guessing. The streets all looked the same, lined with perfectly planned and maintained mansions. They all had foreign luxury cars in the driveways, and they all had perfectly trimmed, bright green lawns.

But, I didn't let it bother me. I had been lost in worst places than this suburbia paradise.

Nothing bad could ever happen to me in a place like this.

The further I got from the school, the more my feet slowed. Apparently, I had nothing to worry about. Sterling didn't give a fuck about driving me home, promise to Daisy or not.

So I walked through the money-lined maze. Slowly, taking my time. I glanced my eyes at each house as I walked by it, just imagining what it would be like to have grown up here. I couldn't quite comprehend it; this being your life.

These people, they had no problems. Well, at least, they had no problems that they couldn't imagine money fixing. And they had the money to fix them.

What would that be like? To grow up without having to worry about what you'll eat next week. To go to school and know you won't be teased because your clothes are dirty and your mother was too drunk to wash them, and too poor to buy you new ones.

These kids... did they wonder? Did they stress about their future? Or, was their hardest decision whether to go to Yale or Harvard?

I was so lost in my mind, asking myself these questions and inventing the families that lived in these houses, that I didn't hear the purr of an incoming car.

Maybe, if I did, I would have had time to run.

"What the fuck?" I heard Sterling's voice yell at me.

Instantly, I felt a frown pull my face down. I felt my teeth grind against each other as my jaw tensed. And I felt the flame made of the hate I had for him start burning again.

"Dahlia!" Sterling called, when I didn't turn my head. "Dahlia!"

Finally, my annoyance caused me to snap my head towards him. He was leaning out of his open window as he crept the car beside me. I wasn't surprised that the was leaning out of a flashy car, a red Tesla. But it still pissed me off— even further than I already was. If that was possible.

"Can you just leave me alone?" I snapped at him, hoping my words conveyed my annoyance in its entirety.

"Believe me," he snapped back, matching my energy. "I would if I could. I promised Daze I would drive you home. Can you just get in the car?"

"Listen," I sighed out. "You're off the hook. I'm fine to walk back to Daisy's house. I won't tell her. And if she asks, I'll tell her that I ran away from you. Okay?"

"Do you even know where you're going?" Sterling said in exasperation.

"I know where I'm going," I said quickly, willing my face to remain blank. Sure, it was a lie. But I figured how hard could it be to navigate this plush and perfect town?

"Really?" Sterling's voice switched to one of amusement.

"Yes," I said, keeping my eyes straight ahead of me as I continued to walk down the sidewalk.

"Really?" He repeated, and his amused tone grew more noticeable.

"Yes," I repeated back to him, not daring to look at his stupid face.

"So, if you know where you're going, why are you walking in the opposite direction of your house?" Sterling asked me, and I could hear the smugness vibrating through his voice.

I clenched my teeth tighter as another wave of fire burned through me. This boy made me angrier than anyone had in a long time, and it angered me even further that he was able to get under my usually, very thick skin.

I turned towards him, my feet finally stopped their movements. Sterling pumped the breaks as I did, coming to standstill right along with me.

"Why the fuck do you care?" I said, finally breaking from my collected tone.

"I told you— I promised Daze I would drive you home," Sterling shrugged as he spoke.

"And I told you that I would cover for you, she'll never know. So, why are you still here?" I asked him, feeling my eyebrow arch upwards.

"I don't feel comfortable leaving you trying to find your way home when, clearly, you don't know where you're going. Especially when you're by yourself. It's a maze when you don't know it," Sterling explained, and I didn't miss the way his tone softened just slightly as he spoke.

"I promise you, I've been lost in worse places and found my own way," I told him, not that he would understand what that was like.

"God, you're a piece of work," Sterling shook his head, running his fingers through his messy hair. "And what about when you inevitably get lost, and you're wandering the streets after dark."

"What about it?" I scoffed at him, scowling as I spoke.

"Dahlia," he breathed my name, shaking his head again. "I get that you think I'm this asshole and everything, but do you really think I would leave a woman alone, in an unfamiliar place, wondering the streets at night when I could just drive the ten minutes to your house right now?"

I felt my eyes narrow as he spoke, trying to find my way out of his words. My lips pursed together, and I was just about to open my mouth to respond, when he spoke again.

"Dahlia," he said my name once more. "Just get in the car, okay? I'll take you to your house. That's it, I won't even say a word the entire drive. Okay?"

I still stared at him, debating my choices.

"Don't make me call Daisy," he added, tilting his head. He pulled out his phone with his other hand, and knowing the two of them, he probably had her on speed dial.

After pulling and releasing a deep breath through my nose, debating my options, I resigned. I accepted my defeat, though, I certainly wasn't happy about it.

I felt my jaw tense even further, so much so that I wondered how much pressure it would take those bones to break, as I grasped onto the handle of the bright and shiny car door. I opened it, letting my body fall into the white leather seats.

Sterling didn't speak as he watched me, but he had a smug smile on his stupid face. I knew it was because he had won. Maybe I had won last night, and this was revenge. All I knew was that the score was officially 1-1.

I was expecting Sterling to turn the car around, since he had told me I was walking the wrong way. He didn't, however. He just kept on driving straight.

"You said Daisy's house was the other way," I said blankly. I regretted saying them almost immediately, since it could have been interpreted as permission for him to speak.

"Yeah, it's not. It's this way," Sterling told me, smirking again as he said it. "You live on Birch St," he nodded his head straight, "you take a left up here."

"I don't live there," I said, and I wasn't sure why I even said it. "You keep saying my house. It's not my house. It's Daisy's house."

The distinction was important to me, through I wasn't completely sure why. I couldn't pinpoint the motive behind my need to correct him.

"Well, you're living there now, aren't you?" Sterling asked me, and I could sense the hint of confusion.

I didn't answer, but he didn't take my silence as a denial.

"So, for now, it's your house," he continued, and he turned left onto Birch St. I was watching the route he was driving intently, so this wouldn't need to happen again.

"You're so fucking annoying," I muttered, and I knew immediately that the words left my mouth without my brains permission.

"So are you," Sterling retorted quickly, so it erased any feeling of guilt that my rudeness had faintly surfaced.

There was only a beat of silence that lingered between us before the car was filled with a ringtone emerging from the expensive sound system. I watched Sterling from the side of my eyes as he looked at the caller ID, and then frowned.

I wasn't expecting him to pull the car over, slamming on the brakes as he did it. He didn't say anything, but I watched as he tapped on his phone, apparently taking it off Bluetooth as he pushed it to the side of his head.

"What?" He said quickly into the phone, his brows furrowed together. "What happened?"

He wore a frown on his lips as he seemingly listened to the person on the other end. His grey eyes scanned side to side as he did so.

"There's..." he cast a quick glance towards me, as he hesitated. "There's no one else that can handle it?"

Sterling let out a sigh, shaking his head in minute movements as he listened to whoever was on the other end.

"No. No, don't do that. Just wait for me, okay? I'll be five minutes, maybe less. Okay. Yeah, thanks, Gale." Sterling finished his conversation, and his eyes looked busy.

Silently, after he tossed his phone aside, he began to drive the car again. This time, his jaw was the one that tensed.

"Problem with the party planning?" I teased into the air, watching him closely for his reaction.

Sterling looked like he was in another dimension entirely, and my words had pulled him back into the one I was in. "Huh?" He shook his head, "what?"

"Let me guess," I continued, and I knew I wasn't being nice. I was just too pissed off to care. "They ran out of the expensive kegs, and you'll all have to settle for Coors Light, instead. Poor rich kids."

Sterling kept as straight face as I began to recognize my immediate surroundings. He was pulling into the long driveway that led to Daisy's house. I just watched him, letting my words do the trick of getting under his skin, just like had done to mine.

"Yeah," Sterling finally said, as he put the car into park. "It sucks, because I wanted this party to be perfect. All of our friends go, and our families too. My whole family will be there." He stressed the last sentence, saying the words slowly like he knew how sharp they were.

Sterling's eyes tore directly into mine, like he was daring me to show the impact of his words on my face again, just like last time.

"But, I guess you wouldn't understand how that feels," he said, his voice dropping low like he was waiting for the bomb.

I nodded, and plastered a smile on my face. My hand reached out, opening my door. I started to climb out, but I paused for a second, before I closed the door behind me.

"I know a liar when I see one, Sterling," I told him, letting our stare down continue. "I know a liar when I see one because I'm a liar too."

And then I slammed the door of his stupid, expensive car.