It was the next week. I didn't even remember the last time I walked to school with Philip or ate breakfast with him. He started going to school a half an hour earlier, he said it was because he needed time to study before school but I didn't really believe his believable lie. He didn't want to be near me. He barely talked to me at school after what happened. Just nodded his head and if I was lucky he would mumble a monotone "yeah" sometimes. 

Philip didn't seem like the type to hold a grudge but I guess I was really bad at reading people. I wasn't mad at him, if I was him I could be pissed. His parents grounded him for a whole week because of me. And like he said, they probably wouldn't let him go to "the party". I wasn't quite sure what "the party" meant, but I didn't ask, I didn't want to pour salt in the wound and make him explain it to me. Lola has also ignored me. I didn't mind, I didn't really want to hang out with someone that called me "weird" to their cool friends.

I walked into the classroom, the leaves on the trees outside now a golden reddish colour, summer flew past me before I knew it. Just as I was about to walk in I hesitated, Nathalie wasn't there, again. Ever since Fall started she has been missing a bunch. Something about organising the winter ball. 

Didn't make me feel any better sitting there though, at an empty desk. It felt like another punch in the gut. Nathalie was gone, Lola was apparently a mean girl, Rudoslav is ignoring me, Philip will probably never talk to me again and Bruce was still missing, maybe because of me.

It felt like my whole world was collapsing in on itself. I just wanted to bury myself in the science text book and never look up again. At least the pages smelled nice, the kind of smell of a freshly bought book. My mom used to have piles of books in our living room, making the whole place smell like that.

"Didn't sleep well?"

I jumped, the book almost flew off the table as I tried to adjust my hair. I turned to the seat next to mine just to be left stunned.

"Bruce?"

He was sitting right next to me. Well, someone that had the same face, just everything else was different. His outfit now black and grey, the jacket he wore was stylish and well matched to his shirt and pants. Let's not forget about his hair, still messy but it looked intentional. Did he get a makeover in those past few weeks?

He just looked back at me, with eyes that almost challenged my staring. He was waiting for me to answer. Say something!

"Oh, uh- Yeah, no. I... barely slept.", I awkwardly smiled, trying to hide my shock.

He smiled towards me. Not the awkward smile he used to have, a smile that radiated confidence and well, weird happiness. His smile reminded me of the look Clara gave me. Somewhat normal, just there was something behind it that I couldn't quite explain.

"I hear that. Feels like I haven't slept for a few weeks now.", he grinned.

I just stared at him. Not quite sure if I was hallucinating or if someone was playing a large prank on me. I instinctively looked over at Nathalie's seat, somehow hoping she would be there and we both could give each other a "what the hell" look.

"Are you invited to her party?"

"What?", I snapped my head back.

He gestured to her seat as he took out his stuff and repeated: "Nathalie's Halloween party."

Was that what Philip meant with "the party"? Of course he was excited to go to her party. I guess I ruined that for him. I couldn't imagine it would have been fun though, she seemed like the type to not even play music during her parties, and even if she did it probably would have been classical music.

"No, I'm not."

It was Wednesday, and as you may know by now, that meant it was time for a club meeting. I haven't started writing my article yet, but on the way to the club meeting I did come up with some pretty good excuses for why I haven't yet. One of them involved getting drunk, which for some reason I thought Nathalie would have understood.

I walked in and immediately realised my mistake. The break wasn't over yet, I was the first one there, well besides someone. Nathalie. Although I thought her presence would make me mad like it usually did but that time it strangely didn't. That day she tied her hair with two blue ribbons in the back, it looked neat. She turned as she heard me take a step. Yeah no, I was getting mad again. I wasn't mad because she didn't invite me to her party, or at least that's what I told myself at the time, I just didn't get why she was even throwing a part in the first place! Who did she think she was? Some party girl? Definitely not.

She looked at me for a moment, long enough that I thought she would say something to me, maybe something about her party, but she didn't. She just quietly  stacked her papers, her hands moving in a perfect motion as she put them in a folder and then into her expensive bag.

"How's the winter ball thingy going?", I asked, desperately trying to relieve the silence.

I walked over to her and she now fully turned towards me, her blue sweater really made her eyes pop. I really should get some advice on how to dress from her.

She just shrugged: "The thingy is going well. Everything's perfect-"

Her voice cracked a little on the word perfect as her hand slipped off the folder. She immediately readjusted herself and put the bag over her shoulder, clearly not wanting to talk about it any longer. 

Which made me want to continue even more: "Perfect, huh?"

That stare. Her blue-greyish eyes pierced through my skin, I could feel how heated and... slightly uncomfortable she felt. It was the first time when her mask slipped and showed discomfort, like she didn't have everything under control. That made me instinctively take a step back.

"I couldn't organise stuff like this. You would think they would have a teacher help you.", I scoffed.

She chuckled a little, although her nervousness was still showing.

"I suppose. They want me to do everything and then also make a speech.", she leaned on the desk, clearly more relaxed than before.

"Speech?"

She nodded: "As the new school president they want me to introduce myself to the town and present my plans."

I watched as she played with her blonde locks. I didn't get her nervousness at the time and I made that clear.

"Should be easy for you. You like to talk."

She scoffed, a small grin on her face: "If only you would actually listen to what I have to say. Maybe you would have been done with your article already."

"Maybe. Probably not.", I shrugged.

She chuckled, she probably thought I was joking.

As the door suddenly opened it was almost like something switched back in her brain. She immediately stood up straight, hands to her side and head up high. That confident aura I was all too familiar with quickly followed. The rest of our club walked through the door and it didn't seem like they noticed her quick switch, everyone except for Philip, who walked in first. He probably heard her chuckling because of my "joke". I just hoped he wouldn't start thinking we were becoming friends, because I definitely did not want to be friends with anyone anyway but especially not her.

The meeting went as expected, Philip ignoring me and Nathalie trying to peer pressure me into writing that article. After it was all over Philip quickly left the room, once again not even waiting for me like he used to. I could feel Nathalie staring at me. What was she thinking? She was probably happy she didn't have to be jealous of me anymore. I should really stop putting words in people's mouths. Fifi, you don't know what she is thinking.

Just as I thought I was going to walk back alone, someone suddenly started walking besides me. Someone that I still could barely recognize.

"Where's Philip?", Bruce questioned while looking around.

"Not here."

He paused. My blunt answer caught him off guard, he quickly changed the subject: "You sure you don't want to go to Nathalie's party? I could sneak you in."

"You got invited?"

"Yeah, Clara made it happen.", he grinned.

"You're friends with Clara?"

"Weird, right?"

Not really. Maybe it would have been weird when I met him, but now, he looked like a stereotypical popular kid. He would have fit right in the group.

"So, how do you feel about sneaking in?"

"Why so desperate to have me there?"

"You seem like fun."

It was fun, I knew that much. But what he said next was something that I really did not expect.

"You're also cute. I don't mind having you around."

Cute? Did Bruce just call me cute? Okay, maybe I was starting to really hallucinate. That quickly shut me up and made me walk faster back to Philip's house. Okay, I could totally get that Bruce changed the way he dresses, behaved and spoke, but what I couldn't get or even explain was how he somehow got the confidence hit on me. That wasn't Bruce. That couldn't be Bruce.

I basically ran upstairs when I arrived. I had to talk to someone about what just happened, even if it was Philip. It took only seconds for Philip to tell me to come in. Probably because I was frantically knocking on his door, he probably couldn't even ignore it. I don't think I even said hi when I walked in.

I just bursted out: "Do you remember the Bruce guy from my class?"

"Who?"

He was at his desk, probably studying since it was filled with papers and books. Although, surprisingly, his room wasn't as messy as his desk. He had the small type of balcony as my room, his room looked almost identical to mine, just instead of a built- in closet he had a wardrobe. His room was also more decorated and lived in than mine. Dark blue curtains hung above the windows, on the walls were posters and even a dart target with some darts poking out of it. His room looked nicer than mine, although I didn't really have time to get jealous.

I quickly explained: "The guy that was at the book cafe with me... when me and Nathalie fought."

He turned in his desk chair to look over at me: "The nerdy kid?"

"Yeah! He's like a totally different guy now! I feel like I'm going crazy because everyone is acting like it's not a big deal but he-"

"What do you want?"

I paused. I slightly leaned on it, somehow it made me feel less nervous as the mood in the room suddenly shifted, or maybe it was always like that I just haven't noticed before. Looking over at him, he didn't seem annoyed or angry, just displeased, I guess. 

All I came up with to say was: "Thank you, for what you did."

"Took you long enough.", he slightly smiled, although you could tell he was forcing it.

I don't even know why it took me so long to thank him for it. Maybe it was guilt, maybe stupidity. But leaving it unexplained like that probably made things worse, so I tried to explain: "I'm not good at thanking people. I don't even know how to make it up to you."

"I'm not allowed to go to Nathalie's party.", he commented.

Did he want me to feel bad? I probably deserved it. I walked further into his room. His bed was bigger than mine, now that my apology was out of the way, the jealousy creeped in.

"I know. I'm sorry."

He tapped his pencil on his desk before adding: "Nathalie said I could bring a second person with me too."

I lied down on the bed, his mattress was slightly softer than mine. Would he mind if I borrowed that too? He spun his chair around to look at me. Right, he was waiting for me to respond.

All I did was sigh: "She probably doesn't want me there anyway."

There was a long pause. I stretched my arms out towards the ceiling. My nails were dirty and uneven. I couldn't even imagine how Nathalie managed to keep her nails so perfect, she probably didn't do anything with her hands.

"She actually does.", Philip's voice pierced the silence.

I dropped my arms and looked over at him, confused: "What makes you think that?"

"Well, she told me to bring a person with me."

"So?"

He smiled slightly, almost like he was embarrassed about the fact he had to explain it to me. Or maybe about the fact he knew so much about her.

"She never lets people tag along to her parties. They're exclusive, that's why so many people want to go to them. She told me to take one person with me because she knew I would bring you."

He added while pointing his pencil at me: "She does want you there, she just doesn't want to admit it."

I couldn't help but smile, no wonder she liked him. He could really read her, if his theory was even true.

"Okay. Rich girl expert.", I joked.

"So?"

I sat up on the bed. His persistence now annoyed me a little. I found it frustrating that he didn't understand that I already accepted the fact that I wasn't going, because I couldn't go. That was it. Nothing could have been done.

So, I tried once again to convince him of the fact: "You really think your parents will let me go alone?"

"That's exactly why I want you to ask them."