"I'm home!" I yelled as soon as the door shut behind me. Immediately, my mom hurried out of the living room, a pen behind her ear and still dressed in her work uniform. She'd probably only gotten home in the last hour or so.

"Hey sweetie," she said. Immediately followed by: "doesn't that car belong to that Hendrix girl?" I internally sighed. Of course she'd see that.

"Yeah. I was just driving around and my car broke down out of no where and it was pretty far away from here. Tessa happened to drive by and offered to take me home."

"Why didn't you just call me? Where is the car now? You should've called the tow service." Her eyebrows furrowed in disapproval.

I held out my phone, "Dead batterie. And anyways, she was there and I didn't want you to worry if I didn't come home on time. I'll just get it towed tomorrow." My mom was still eying me skeptically, clearly not comfortable with the situation. Jeez, people treated Tessa like someone who was out to get innocent teenagers. Maybe she is, I thought, but I didn't really believe it, no matter how hard I tried to push back all my thoughts about the surprisingly pleasant car ride.

"That was nice of her." Everything about her expression suggested that she didn't actually think Tessa was even capable of being nice. And for some reason I felt the need to tell her that she was wrong. To defend her and show her… what exactly? I barely knew Tessa, actually I didn't know her at all. Yesterday, I had been acting like everyone else was acting towards her. Cold and distant. Any yet, something told me I had been wrong. That we all were incredibly wrong. I didn't say anything though. One car ride wasn't enough to prove someone's good nature. Was it?

Instead I said, "Could you drive me to Kat's house later? Lacey, Kat and I are having a sleepover and since my car is still in the middle of nowhere…"

"Sure. Just tell me when. And text me when I should go pick you up tomorrow."

The familiar faint ringing could be heard when I rang the doorbell to Kat's house. Moments later, I could hear someone running towards the door before it was flung open.

"You're late, Lacey and I were starting to think you bailed on us." She said. "Oh, hi Miss Mitchell! I almost didn't see you."

"Hi Katherine. It's so nice to see you again. Congratulations on becoming the cheer captain!" My mom was always exhaustingly nice to Kat, it was almost embarrassing. That was probably because Kat and her entire family was perfect.

You could tell just by looking at their house. The front yard was always immaculately cared for, and the house itself was big and impressive but not too flashy or pompous. The outer walls were repainted every couple of years and every holiday the whole house got a makeover to fit the occasion. It was the number one attraction for all trick-or-treaters every year and every little kid begged their parents to drive by as often as possible once Christmas rolled around.

The people living inside were no different. Kat was a genius, never even close to getting a bad grade in school, really good at sports - hence the cheer captain - and to top it all of beautiful. She didn't even ruin it by being mean, she was always genuinely nice to everybody, whether she knew them or not.

Except for Tessa. The thought flashed through my mind before I could properly think about it. But then again, no one was nice to Tessa.

"Thank you so much!" Kat's answer pulled me out of my contemplating and I quickly said goodbye to my mom before closing the door behind me.

Kat's house was like a second home to me so the first thing I did once inside was heading towards the fridge and pulling out the bowl of fruit Kat's mom always prepared for us and only then went into Kat's room.

"Your mom is seriously the best. Thank her for me." I said, eating a strawberry. "Hey, Lacey." Lacey's answer consisted of her snatching the bowl out of my hands and throwing herself back on the bed, grinning.

"So, what are we doing today?" Kat asked and put her phone away. "My mom just restocked the minibar…"

"Can't, sorry. I've got a calculus test tomorrow." Lacey interjected. "But I'll come back to that."

"How about disco night?" I offered, knowing what the answer would be. And as expected the response was unanimously positive. Disco night was this game we played whenever we couldn't think of anything else or just felt like it. Kat would switch of all the lights and put on some disco lights and we would take turns playing songs we'd discovered recently, dancing as ridiculous as we could. It was weird and silly but we loved it since we came up with it in fourth grade - since Kat got disco lights to be exact.

Lacey started - she always did - and ten songs and way too much head banging later we were laying back on Kat's bed completely exhausted.

"Why can't you ever play anything quiet and relaxing?" Kat moaned, still trying to control her breathing.

"It's more fun and the music's better." Lacey responded, a wild grin adorning her face. Her dark eyeshadow had smudged, making her look even more dangerous. Before Tessa moved here Lacey had been the "badgirl". At some point in her life she had discovered the colours black and dark red and banished all other colours immediately. People still liked her but only because they still remembered the pretty, charming princess she'd been in kindergarten. Some parents - my own included - liked to complain about "that terrible style. And her music!" but in the end no one really said anything and Lacey continued shocking our teachers with smudgy eyeliner and ripped, oversized band tees or tight, revealing dresses - whichever she felt like that day. I sometimes wondered why she still wanted to be friends with me. Probably because I was friends with Kat, was the conclusion I'd always end up with. And then I'd start wondering why Kat was friends with me.

"How are things with you and Luke?" Kat asked me. Despite my efforts I immediately tensed.

"Um… fine, I guess." I tried shrugging it off. Judging from Lacey and Kat's now very curious looks, I hadn't done a very good job.

"That doesn't sound fine. What's wrong?" Lacey asked. My answer took longer than I'd expected and I realised I cared more about the whole topic than I had admitted to myself. Apparently my small search for the cabin earlier hadn't helped clearing my mind.

"We sort of fought the last time I saw him." I answered, still trying to evade the coming interrogation, although I knew it was useless. And sure enough, Lacey and Kat just waited for me to continue.

"It's nothing really. He just… well he wants to do… things… and I don't think I want to yet. He got kind of mad and then I got mad at him and left. He hasn't texted me yet. I just…" I stopped talking and felt myself tear up. Lacey put an arm around me but now I'd started thinking about it again.

"God dam-it!" I cursed. "I'm sorry guys, it's really not a big deal, I'm overreacting. It's all my fault anyways."

"Don't worry, that's what friends are for. And he'll get over it soon enough, he really likes you." Kat said, soothingly, but I couldn't help but notice that she hadn't said it wasn't my fault. Well, why should she? It was my fault. Luke and I had been together for six months, going further than making out shouldn't be a big deal. But it was. I didn't know why but every time his hands wandered to far down I started to panic.

And for some reason all the reassurance that Luke really cared about me didn't make me feel better. Eventually I pretended to be happier so we wouldn't sit there all evening but the prospect of making up with Luke didn't actually make things better - for some reason it almost made it worse.