After that first day, things developed into a pattern. I would wake up, eat breakfast with my parents, and go to school. While I was at school, I would go to classes, watch Eliza and Quinn flirt with each other, eat lunch, and then walk home from school with Quinn. He would always complain to me about his day.  

By the time we reached my house, he realized he had been the only one talking and I would shrug it off like it was no big deal. I tutored him during the weekends. 

My life was becoming a pattern of boring and I hated it. Before I knew it, the end of second quarter was almost here and finals were looming over my head. 

When I woke up for school on that dreary, December first, I had no idea my boring pattern of life was going to change so drastically and so abruptly.  

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

My hand automatically slammed down on my alarm clock.  

Before I opened my eyes, I knew there was a good two feet of snow on the ground. After peeking out my window, I confirmed that there was a good five feet of snow freshly fallen from the sky. I could see from my window the snowplows had already made their routes and were doing them again for a second or third time. 

I bundled up in thick layers of clothing before I dashed downstairs to greet my parents. But halfway down the steps, I remembered both of them had to work overtime and weren’t able to come home last night. They had arranged for me to ride to and from school with Quinn. 

His parents were driving him since snow had been broadcasted last night on the local news channel. I wasn’t complaining. I didn’t have a desire to walk in the snow for thirty minutes. 

So, with an empty house, I ate a quiet breakfast of cold, leftover cheese pizza followed by a glass of milk.

This rarely happened.

I hated when it did. 

As if on cue, a car horn honked from outside. 

Forcing my face into a happy expression, I slung the strap of my book bag over my shoulder and went outside to greet the Adams family. 

Quinn’s parents got lucky with their profession. Both worked at the same company and had the same hours. But that also meant both his parents were in the car, so I had to sit in the back with Quinn. 

For some reason, the atmosphere around us felt awkward. We greeted each other like normal and bickered back and forth like we always did…

What was so different about today? 

It took longer to get to school because of the snow, and that only increased this weird strain between me and Quinn. I didn’t like it, but I had no way of addressing it since Quinn’s parents were in the car with us. 

I kept stealing glances at him from time to time, but he always looked away when he caught my eye. 

By the time we reached school, I felt as if I had reached my quota of patience for the day. We both waved goodbye to his parents and, after they rounded the street corner, I grabbed Quinn’s arm to keep him from rushing off. 

“Are we good, Q? You’ve been acting weird ever since I got in the backseat. What’s wrong?” There were so many students ambling about that no one paid us any mind. 

Quinn met my eyes with a frown and that’s when I noticed he was taller than at the beginning of the school year. “Nothing’s wrong, Zenna. I’m not feeling well today.” 

My eyes widened a fraction when he used my real name. I let my hand drop to my side. “Okay…I just wanted to make sure we were still okay.” 

He half-heartedly rumpled my hair then headed towards the side entrance of the school. I followed him with my eyes until he was out of sight.

Something was wrong.

And I was sure it had to do with me. 

I did a brief overview of the past few months, but I hadn’t noticed any change between us unless…unless there was a change between him and Eliza. 

That must be it. 

I can’t be the cause of everything that goes wrong.  

School was becoming a prison. I tried keeping my friends from last year and making more this year, but nothing was working. My old friends were jealous over the money my parents made and the classmates I tried to befriend already had a bad misconception about me no matter what I said. 

I didn’t understand how things went so sideways. They had no problem being my friend at the beginning of the school year. I’m not sure when they started drifting away. It became noticeable when no one greeted me outside on my way home. I shrugged that off, until it became the norm.

The fact we were stuck with the same group of classmates until the end of the school year didn’t really help my situation.  

I just wanted someone to talk to…someone to vent to. 

Lately, on all our walks home, Quinn would do nothing but complain about how his friends did this or how Eliza said that. To be honest, I was getting tired of hearing about them. But I persevered because it was Quinn. He had to know I was losing all of my friends…right? 

It was during lunch when I finally heard the rumors floating around school. I needed to use the bathroom, so I excused myself from our ever-growing lunch table.

I typically used the stall furthest from the door, so when I heard someone mention my name when they entered, I decided to hide out until they left. 

That was perhaps one of my lowest moments of middle school.  

“Did you hear Quinn and Zenna have finally gotten together?” a girl asked as she applied on more makeup. 

I had no idea who she was. 

“Yes! When I heard the news I thought, ‘Finally! It happened!’” the second girl replied. 

“I know! For the longest time I thought Quinn and Eliza had something going on but someone mentioned how Zenna sometimes stays the night at Quinn’s place and I even heard there was talk of marriage after they graduate high school.” 

My entire body tensed. Who was spreading these rumors?

And why? 

“You know what I heard,” the second continued. “I heard Zenna made the rumors up herself. I think her and Quinn look good together, but once I heard that…I think it’s a more realistic story, don’t you agree, Ange?” 

Ange let out a nervous laugh. “I’d rather not believe that rumor, Sarah. Zenna just doesn’t seem the type. And she is Quinn’s best friend…but. I’ve heard so many things about her, I’m not sure what to believe.” 

Sarah let out a pitiful sigh. “I just hope Zenna remembers her place. She doesn’t deserve someone like him anyway. Eliza should just make her move and snatch Quinn from her.”

The first bell rang after Sarah said that and, after they left, I returned back to lunch with a better understanding of why Quinn was acting so weird earlier. He must have heard the rumors. 

“What’s wrong?” Quinn asked when I sat down next to him. 

I didn’t have the energy to explain, so I shrugged my shoulders and took a large bite of an apple.  

“Come on, Z, you can tell me anything.” 

I looked over at him and met his stare. I quickly looked away, but my resolve to hold my tongue vanished just by looking at him. “I heard some rumors. About us.” 

“Ah.” With that one little sound, Quinn confirmed my worst fears. “Well, just forget about those, okay?” 

I looked over at him and glared. “What? Did you think I’d take them seriously?” 

Quinn met my hard expression and I think I saw the harsher side of him that day. His eyes became darker with hidden humor and I felt as if a rift had formed between us. I didn’t break eye contact with him, but that only made my feeling of unease even stronger. 

“I thought you’d say something like that.” Quinn taunted. “So, we’re not getting married, correct?” 

His eyes were taunting me, challenging me to go against him.

I didn’t want to. 

“I didn’t realize this was how a best friend was supposed to act.”  

All the heads at our table swiveled to look at me. A few had knowing looks on their faces and I wanted nothing more than to slap all of them silly. 

Quinn raised an eyebrow and stood, wrapping a slender arm around my neck, taking his other hand and tousling my hair into a tangled haystack. I had put up a fight to save my hair, but it was no use. 

In the end, Quinn did what he always did and got his way. 

“I believe this is how best friends are supposed to act.” He said just as the second bell rang. 

I think I was the only one to hear those words and that gave me hope—hope that maybe I hadn’t lost my best friend after all. 

Before we returned to class, Quinn pulled me aside and told me his parents weren’t able to take us home after school. There had been a big wreck involving seven cars and they weren’t sure when they would be able to return home.  

This was terrible news, but I didn’t want to get too worked up about it. I would just have to endure thirty minutes of cold weather. It wouldn’t kill me. 

When Quinn finished telling me this, the third bell rang signaling the end of passing period. We would both get marked for this. 

I sighed as we hurried to our homeroom. 

“Are you sure you’re okay, Z?” Quinn asked as we rounded a corner. 

I didn’t respond for a few seconds. When I did, even I could hear the forced note in my voice. “Yeah. I’m fine. I can ignore the rumors. It’s no big deal.”  

Quinn let out a sigh of his own, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and pulling me close. “I’ll make the rumors go away by the end of today.” 

If I knew how he was going to accomplish that, I would have stopped him if I could. 

At the end of the day, I realized what Quinn meant by his statement to me earlier. In order to make the rumors go away, he officially started dating Eliza Cowell.  

The only reason I found this out was because I saw them holding hands while leaving the school building. I had been waiting for Quinn after I gathered my things so we could walk home together.  

All he did was nod at me as they passed by.  

I followed them with my eyes and my heart sank when I saw Quinn get inside Eliza’s parents’ car.  

He wasn’t walking home with me after all. 

Every head that belonged to a living body turned to stare at me when I opened the front door and walked outside.

Every. Single. Person. Was. Looking. At. Me. 

It was idiotic to feel so much hurt after I swore to myself I was going to move forward. But I hadn’t yet been successful. Quinn kept doing too many things for me, always catching me off guard. I couldn’t keep up with him and at every turn it seemed like he was determined to keep me as his best friend.  

I knew why he got a ride from her. I didn’t like how it affected me. It was so irrational to feel this way! He was my best friend, not my boyfriend.