As soon as the two of us had walked into our classroom, one of our best friends was already getting chewed out by the teacher. Day one. I brushed Kendall off, walking towards them. “What’s going on?” I grinned. 

Sam rolled her eyes at the teacher as Amelia approached me. She dropped her arm on my shoulder, leaning her weight on me, “Yeah, some guy was being a dick and her immediate reaction was yelling. Safe to say we’re off to a good start,” she finished, stepping back and spinning on the heel of her foot. She walked backwards away from me, “Listen, teach, I’m sure Sam is real sorry, can we let this go?” The teacher glared down at her incredulous way of speaking. After all, Amelia’s just a student. 

“Excuse me? I’m very happy to send the both of you to detention.” she said in response, fairly calm for the situation surprisingly. 

“I’m sorry, Ms. My friend, she’s just been going through so much. Her parents are getting a divorce… and her boyfriend left the city. She’s just devastated,” Amelia said in a particularly dramatic tone of voice. None of this was true, not only was Sam seeing a woman whose name none of us knew; both her parents were still happily married. Back then they were, at least. 

The teacher pulled back slightly, “oh… I didn’t realize. Sam, that is upsetting but that does not mean you can lash out at other students. Or me for that matter. And if you’re feeling upset, you’re welcome to go to the school psychologist.” With that, she walked away and sat back at her desk. 

Sam sent a glare to Amelia, “Oh, woah is me,” she grumbled, plopping back down at her desk. “I had that handled.” 

“Sure you did,” I said, sitting at my desk which happened to be right in front of hers. Kendall slid onto my desk, tapping her fingers on the surface. I hated that I was always so aware of her every movement. Every swish of her head to move her hair from her face. Like listening in slow-motion as her fingers tap a melody. Suddenly, I realized that her hand was making its way towards my head. I froze in hopes that she would stop, but she wouldn't. 

Amelia leaned against her desk, saying something. I couldn’t hear what she was saying with how loud the blood rushing through my body was. Over how fast it was flushing to my face. Over the thumping of my heart as Kendall dragged her fingers in between the thin cornrows she had braided. The fingers slid to the back of my head, curling her fingers through the longer hair there. She kept her hand there for the next ten minutes and I couldn’t focus at all on the conversation. 

“Fior?” I heard her say suddenly, my eyes flew to that gorgeous face and she was just staring down at me. “Are you alright?” she whispered, her touches on the back of my head shifted to gentle caresses as if she was really worried. 

“Yeah, Fior, you good? I asked you a question.” Amelia laughed, snapping in front of my face. 

“Don’t call her that,” Kendall growled. Kendall always tried to be close with our friends but it was more like that they were my friends and she just tagged along. She especially couldn’t handle when Amelia mocked me for the nickname. Her grip on my hair tightened slightly, causing me to flinch. Her hand relaxed immediately, “Sorry.” 

“I didn’t hear your question, my bad.” I grinned, knocking her hand away from my head. I felt her tense next to me, her hand immediately tapping an even more intense beat on the desk. 

“We asked what we’re doing for homecoming weekend? Are we going to the dance?” Sam said, poking me in the shoulder. “If you weren’t always so distracted by pretty girl over there, this wouldn’t be a problem.” I glared at her, I never did figure out how Sam learned how much I loved Kendall. 

“I don’t know… we could… why don’t we just meet at Oli’s place like usual. We can swim in their pool since it’s summer,” I offered as Kendall's beat on the desk got even more aggressive. Even louder, she was angry. Very angry about something. She was probably playing what she always did when she was angry. 

Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C sharp minor. The climax that is. Despite the difficulty of the piece, even to the untrained eye, she plays it beautifully. Always. 

I leaned against her torso, and her playing immediately stopped. “Oli’s not even here to defend themselves,” Amelia joked as Kendall pressed her knuckles into my back. It was almost… painful but all it did was send a wave of arousal through my body. As per usual when her hands were on my body. 

“Oli will say yes, they always do.” Sam grinned, turning towards the board considering that the time for class to start was nearing. 

I did the same, pushing against Kendalls side to get her to go to her desk. As per her request, she was in the back corner, preferring to be far from the teacher. It was easier for her to sleep or sit on her phone, though she’d made it clear she preferred to sit near me. I always liked being closer to the teacher, easier to hear for me. “Parliamo presto, perfezione mia,” she whispered, tapping my shoulder a melody as she walked off. 

“Ugh, when will you stop switching to Italian, it’s so confusing?” Sam groaned, slapping her on the arm as she strutted by. She was always so careful in her steps, preferring slow walking to rushing. Calculated movements to throwing her weight around. It’s why she always made such a great pianist. Sam leaned forward across her desk, dropping her chin on my shoulder. “You know what that means?” she whispered. 

I smacked her off of me as the teacher began class. Twenty minutes later, Oli walked into the classroom, late as usual. They were nearly always late, usually because they’d spent their time smoking on the roof. The teacher wrote them a note and sent them to their seat. I sent her a grin, “Bad, bad kid,” I joked. “Smoking kills.” 

They shrugged, “So do people, but I hang out with you guys all the time.” 

“Positive as per usual,” Amelia said. 

“Ladies, and Oli, please be quiet.” the teacher said, slamming a file down on her desk. “Unless you all want to end up in detention. Or are we hoping to start the year off differently this time.” Sam laughed slightly and dropped her head to the desk. Amelia shook her head and pulled her notebook out. I stared forward with no comment, not wanting to implicate myself further. 

During lunch, we all sat around our usual lunch table. The nice thing about being seniors was that nobody bothered us anymore. Or so I had thought at the time. That was until an 11th grade boy came over, sliding in next to Kendall. I was next to her, as usual, and her arm was set across my back. “Hi, you’re Kendall, right?” he asked, which was surprising because he hadn’t asked if he could sit in the first place. 

“Yeah, that’s me.” she whispered, scooching slightly closer to me and now wrapping her hand around my waist. She pulled me a little closer, almost… worriedly. “Can I help you?” 

“Yeah… my name is Cayden, I was wondering if maybe I could take you out sometime?” he grinned, leaning towards her in a way that I did not like very much. A small smile spread on her face, causing a terrible jolt of fear to spread through my body. If she were to date someone, which she never had, she wouldn’t be at my house every morning. She wouldn’t wake me up. She wouldn’t do my hair. And I would be alone, every day. 

“Take me out,” she said, her tone different than what I was used to. Deeper. More… sultry almost. “And what would we do on our supposed day out?” she continued. 

“I-I mean, I don’t know. We could grab a coffee… or dinner or something like that.” Her hand dragged across my lower back, putting her back to me. My jaw dropped, as did our friends. It’s rare that she would ever… ever ignore me. Especially back then, when we were constantly around each other. 

“Hm…” she hummed, “I don’t know if you could handle any of this.” 

His face flushed a bright red but before he could respond, my arm was already moving. My hand, before I could stop it, slapped her back. I froze. 

Why… why did I do that? I had thought at the time. I never should have done that, she deserves to be with anyone she wants. She slowly turned toward me, a confused look across her face. 

“Well, I mean, we can alway-” she cut him off before he could even get his thoughts out. 

She grabbed my upper arm to the point of pain, “Shut up and leave.” she growled, her eyes were boring into mine, her words though were clearly pointed to the boy. His face paled and he jumped up, heading quickly back to his friends. “What’s the matter, Fior?” Her hand appeared on my cheek, brushing thumb there. It’s then that I felt the tears falling from my eyes. 

I hated crying, especially in front of her. It would set her on edge for days, pissed off at whatever upset me. She refused to watch some of my favorite tv shows simply because they would make me cry. I appreciated it, I did, but it was mostly just cute to me. 

I grabbed her wrists and threw her off, jumping to my feet. “I’m sorry, I’ll be back.” 

“Il mio fiore!”

That stupid voice with that stupid Italian. 

Annoying. I hated it. I hated when she called me her flower, I hated when she looked at me, I hated… I hated everything about her. 

That’s what I tried to make myself think at least.