I shouldn't have said that. Why did I say that to her? I could've given Ashley more time to answer but my stubborn brain wouldn't let her. Now, who knows if she wants to tutor me anymore after I said that. I walk up to my locker and furiously put in my combo. It takes about five tries to open the lock and this gets me more frustrated.

I lean my forehead on the locker in defeat. I thought we were friends, or possibly even more than that. But again, how naive am I? Of course, she doesn't want me to be by her side all the time. But she doesn't understand the pain I am going through and the possibility of Beth doing some uncivilized things to her.

But she might not care. That's why she's been by herself the whole time because she just wanted to be alone. I open my locker and place my backpack on the hook. I crumple my math test into a ball and throw it into my locker in anger. Placing my previous binders into my backpack and placing my next period's binder into it. Later on, throbbing pain in my head starts to hit me.

I ignore it and grab a sandwich from my locker before closing it. Before I can do anything else, a voice calls out, "Will! How have you been?" I look up as I am unraveling the plastic wrap from my sandwich and see a broad figure with slick brown hair walk toward me. My nostrils flare out as I know who this is: Victor Hipotlio, or to better known as the guy that Beth was cheating on me with.

I stand up straight as I look down on him. "May I help you?" I ask nonchalantly.

He leans his shoulder on the lockers next to him. "Ouch. Still salty after everything last year, aren't you?"

"I have nothing to talk to you about. What do you want?"

He rolls his tongue around his mouth as he nods. "It's been kind of hard to catch you by yourself as I want to ask you something. You're always with people, and surprisingly, with Ashley now, eh?" he teases.

"That's none of your business. Ask me what you want and we'll be on our way."

"Ok ok." Victor puts his hands up in surrender. "All I just wanted to ask if you can put me together with Beth again."

I scoff as I cross my arms in front of my chest. "You have the audacity to ask me this?"

"Look, dude. She's been pretty loud about you and Ashley and assuming that she's doing this, she's trying to talk to you. Maybe you can tell her to hang with me...?" he winks at me as he makes finger guns at me.

I furrow my eyebrows in the first part of his sentence. "What do you mean that she's 'been pretty loud about Ashley and me'?"

"She's been spreading gossip about you two. You know, the usual."

I can't let Ash be a part of this. She doesn't deserve it. It's going to be all my fault if she gets hurt by this. "I will take your deal if you do one thing for me," I remark. His brown eyes light up in glee, a sign that I should continue. "You stop Beth's rumors about Ashley."

His eyes immediately turn dull. "Do you know what happens if I challenge her authority?" he asks with widened eyes.

"Yes."

"Then why are you asking me to do that when you know Beth is going to wave me off to the side?"

"Do you want the deal or not?" I repeat as I glare at him.

Victor purses his lips in anxiety. "What's the big deal with the rumors about Ashley anyway?"

"I guess you don't want the deal then." I begin to turn my body away from him until he places his hand on my shoulder to restrain me from walking any further.

"F-Fine. I'll take the deal. But you have to uphold your side of the deal."

I turn around to look straight at him in the eyes. "I never break a deal. Never. You can trust me on that. But what I'm worried about is you breaking your side of the deal."

"D-Don't worry about that. I will try to stop her from spreading the rumors. I'll do anything for Beth."

Pathetic. He's still going for her after everything she's done. "Okay," I finally say. "I'll be checking and if I see or hear one rumor from Ashley in the next couple of weeks, then the deal's off, got it?" I ask.

Victor nods quickly and I then turn my back on him, not wanting to talk to him anymore. My head continues to throb in pain as I walk toward the quad. As I pass the library, the thought of Ashley comes back into my mind. I wonder where she is right now. Maybe she's in there right now.

I hear some heavy footsteps coming from behind me and I turn my head around to see what the commotion is. A familiar blue-eyed and brown-haired fellow runs up to me. "Hey, Will. How's everything?" Jason asks as he slings an arm over my shoulder.

I sigh and shake my head in disappointment. "Just blew off another friendship that I thought that was going to work," I finally say.

"Ashley?" I nod slowly. "Hey, don't get so beat down about it. Do you want to talk about it?"

"There's not much we can talk about though."

Jason punches me lightly on the shoulder. "If it's bothering you, then it's worth it to talk about. That's what I'm here for, dude."