Part 1: Cooper

“You two are crazy,” I shook my head. “We’re enemies, remember?”

“But Peggy agrees, and Peggy is never wrong,” Justin explained, and Nick nodded.

I stood up and ran my fingers through my hair.

“We never said it was true,” Nick commented.

“You think it is though!” I shouted. I put my hands in my pockets, hoping my friends wouldn’t see them shaking. Nick stood and put a hand in my shoulder, his face was calm, but his eyes on fire with mischief. Him and Justin were loving this.

“We were just messing with you,” he was failing to hide the fact that he found this funny.

“I’m gonna go,” I replied, and I began to walk away.

“Wait!” Justin yelled.

I turned my head.

“Coat.”

He handed me my coat, a kind smile on his face. I returned the smile and walked away.

I didn’t know where I was going, or where to go, but I just had to get away.

“Cooper!” called a voice who had definitely had too much tea that morning: Bridget. I continued to walk.

“Oi! Cooper!” called a second voice, darker and less bubbly: Sara. I continued to walk.

“Hey! My friends are trying to actively care about you and you just walk off? Rude.”

Jasmine.

Her voice stopped me dead in my tracks. I slowly turned to face them, masking my hurt and confusion with a smile that makes some girls at Westriver go weak at the knees.

“But I don’t actively care about them, so what’s the point?” I replied.

I turned around and continued to walk, due to the fact that they didn’t say anything else.

I covered the school grounds several times, lost in thought. I passed Nick and Justin, who acted like nothing had happened. I acted the same. Justin had had his phone confiscated.

Karma. I thought.

I had been ages since I had been alone just to think. It was nice. Mostly my head is consumed with schoolwork, keeping my reputation outside of class in order, and making sure what happens at home stays there. Rumours fly like airplanes here: common and sometimes deadly.

Something was bugging me though. A question, linked like a piece of red string to what Justin and Nick had told me earlier.

Was Jasmine blushing whilst speaking to me?