The name lingered in my head.

The name of the girl I've been in love with since kindergarten.

The name of the girl who will one day, shatter my heart into a million pieces.

The name of the girl who will cause pain to me every day.

The name of the girl who will never know the pain she's caused.

The name of the girl who I'll never leave.

The name of the girl that makes me feel okay inside.

The name of the girl that ruins my life, yet completes it.

The name of the girl, is Rose.

***

I know it's wrong to stare, but can you blame me? The girl is 100% beautiful!

Rosalinda Brianna Williams will be the death of me.

She's everything I could ever want in life.

Now, if you're thinking what the problem with asking her out is, it's just that she happens to be dating the football's quarterback, Adam Hale.

So letting my best friend hook up with Adam probably wasn't the smartest idea, but she's happy and that was all that really matters, right?

Wrong.

She spends so much time with Adam now, that I barely get to see her.

"Daniel! My man," exclaims James.

I can't help but cringe at his loudness. "James, we're in the hallway, do you really want us to get in trouble?"

"Calm down, dawg, I've got this covered."

James is one of those guys who tries way too hard to be 'cool'.

I see Rose shaking her head from across the hall, trying to not laugh.

"James Mayor, I reckon you shut your trap before you buy yourself a detention, yes?" says Mrs. Greene.

James snickers.

"Thank you for your purchase of a detention, Mr. Mayor," she says sarcastically.

He raises an eyebrow. "Is it refundable?" he asks, amusement in his voice.

"No, in fact it was a two for one sale."

"Two for one? Danny," he says, turning to face me, "I now have an extra detention, I'd love to give it to you, free of charge."

As I laugh, Mrs. Greene fumes. "That's it, now you've bought yourself a 3rd detention!"

"Pleasure doing business with you, Francine," he says with a wink before dodging into a bathroom.

Francine? Is that really Mrs. Greene's first name? No wonder she's grumpy all the time.

I hear Rose's stifled laughter from across the hall. Mrs. Greene turns and scowls at Rose.

"Go to class. All of you!" she shouts, turning around to face everyone staring.

Just as Mrs. Greene storms into her classroom, the warning bell rings.

"Is it safe to come out?" James asks, peeking his head out.

Rolling her amazing brown eyes, Rose replies, "Yes, idiot."

"Come on, babe," says Adam, leading Rose off, her brilliant wavy, waist-long, blood red hair swaying back and forth.

"Woah, Daniel, calm down," comments James, "if you need to punch something, punch the locker," he finishes, his hands in the air to surrender.

I look down to find that my hands are clenched into fists.

Oops.

I shake my head. "I'm fine."

"Then let's get to class before Mr. Hale decides we did something wrong."

Mr. Hale is Adam's father. Hence their last name.

"Mayor, Skylar! Late again, I see? Let's make it 3 detentions this time," he announces the second we enter the room.

Oh yeah, did I mention that he absolutely hates James and I? Even James is afraid to give cheek to Mr. Hale.

Adam snickers loudly as Rose looks at me with sad eyes.

Sigh.

***

"Danny!" exclaims a voice.

The same voice I've wanted to hear all day.

I turn around to hug Rose. "Hey, you," I say with a smile.

"Hey," interrupts Adam.

Ugh.

"Get your hands off of my girl, Skylar," Adam says while shoving me away.

I roll my eyes. "She's my friend, you know."

"Yeah, I know all about that little crush you've got on her. How pathetic, Skylar, even for you."

I feel heat rush into my cheeks.

"As far as I remember, she'd rather be with me than hang out with you."

More heat.

"To think, you've liked her ever since day one."

Everything slowly starts to turn red.

"That must feel awful. To love a girl who will never love you back."

Before I realize what I'm doing, I've already punched Adam straight in the face.

I hear Rose gasp.

"Adam!" she screams. "Danny! What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"Me? What the hell is wrong with you? How could you even think about dating someone like him, Rose? You've let him be even more of a jerk than usual!"

Rose turns as red as her hair. "Well, maybe if you weren't a jerk to the boy I love-"

She should have just kicked me in the southern hemisphere. That would have been less painful.

Everything after that just went bad.

Yes, it actually got worse.

"Skylar," snaps Mr. Hale once I step into his classroom for detention, "you're late. Your detention has been extended an extra 2 hours."

"Why two hours? It's usually just 30 minutes!" I argue.

Mr. Hale scowls at me. "You broke my son's nose."

Should have seen that coming...the man already hates me with a burning passion.

I sit down without a word even though I have a very colourful sentence in mind.

2: Chapter 2

I can feel eyes on me. 3 pairs. A brilliant brown pair and two metallic grey pairs.

All glaring.

Another set than I'm used to.

Adam and his father, understandable, they've hated me since Day 1.

Rose, I guess is also understandable. I kind of did break her boyfriend's nose.

Although, he shouldn't have been saying those things to begin with.

Having to sit in the front of the classroom sucks at times like this.

***

"Daniel!" I hear my mother shout from downstairs, "Could you come here for a second?"

As I reach the bottom of the stairs, my nine-year-old sister, Athena, comes out of nowhere and hugs me.

"Athena, could you let go? Mom needs me," I say as gently as possible, she has fragile feelings.

She frowns up at me with my own eyes, navy blue. "You didn't say please."

Ugh.

"Daniel!" I hear again.

"Athena, move. Now."

"Say please!"

"Fine, please."

"No, too late," she says with a smile before running off to Ryan, our soon-to-be step-father.

I roll my eyes as I walk into the kitchen. "Yeah?"

Mom looks at me with her eyes, the same ones Athena and I inherited, and smiles. "Could you bring these wedding invitations to Melinda's house?" she asks sweetly.

She did that on purpose since she knows that Rose and I had an argument. Melinda's her mother. What she doesn't know is that it was because I punched Adam in the face, and I'd prefer to keep it that way.

"I don't have a choice in this, do I?"

"Nope. Now go before Athena decides she wants to go too."

Athena received most of her looks from our father. All except her eyes.

She got his golden blond hair, his semi-tanned skin, certainly not his pale green eyes.

I got my looks from our mother; pale skin, jet black hair, navy eyes.

Rose use to joke about how I could have been a vampire when she was into Twilight and stuff. She claims she isn't, but I'm sure that's because she doesn't want to sound stupid in front of Adam, her oh-so-perfect boyfriend.

Pftt.

As if Adam could ever be perfect. I most definitely couldn't ever be perfect either, in fact I may have more flaws than Adam does, but if there's one thing that makes me a better fit for Rose, it's that I know her like the back of my hand.

Or I use to at least.

Before she started to spend every second of her spare time with Adam.

I've lost my chances with her now that she absolutely hates me.

Life is a scary creature sometimes.

***

"Oh, hi, Daniel," greets Melinda with a surprised tone, "I wasn't aware that you were coming, otherwise I would have made something...you know what, give me 5 minutes and I'll-"

"Um," I interrupt as politely as possible, "my mother told me to drop off her wedding invitations..."

Melinda stands still to look at me. "Rose is in her room if you'd like to see her."

I feel heat rush into my cheeks. "As much as I would, I've gotta g-"

"Daniel, you should talk to her about what happened." Melinda continues to stare me down.

"I don't see why I should."

"If you really care for her, you should go talk to her. She's grounded for coming home late last night. She's probably bored out of her mind right now."

I blink at Melinda. "You took away all her devices?"

"Every last one."

I know it wasn't the best idea to go talk to Rose, but I do care about her...

"Rose?" I say, knocking on the door twice before I enter.

The only thing about Rose's room that looks different is the fact that she isn't in it.

This is usually the part of the story where the girl sneaks out...and look at that.

Gone.

I look out the window to see a flash of vibrant red hair.

Rose.

I sprint as fast as possible to get outside.

"Sorry, Mom, but I've gotta go, just remembered, homework," I shout, pushing my self faster.

"It's Saturday," I hear Melinda protest, her voice is almost non-existent.

There's a faint giggle coming from the silver car that's driving away.

Definitely Rose, I can see her from here since the back window's rolled down.

Yeah, as a guy I probably should know the different types of cars but what's the point? They all move, don't they? They all run on gas, don't they? They all pollute the planet, don't they?

I force myself to stop thinking about that as I watch Rose, Adam, and his friend drive away.

Adam's too young to drive so it's probably one of his older friends.

When did Rose ever become this way?

***

Athena hugs my legs the second I get inside.

The thing about being 5"11 at 15 is that Athena can see me wherever I come from.

"Danny! Let's go play with my Barbies!" she exclaims happily.

I shake my head, mainly to get the hair out of my eyes. "I don't have time, Athena."

"You promised you'd play with me..."

The disappointment in Athena's eyes is too much to bare, especially when the tears rise.

"Athena, come on now," says Mom, poking her head around he corner, "oh, Daniel, you're home already?"

I nod, sparing her the details.

"Well, we're going to the store if you want to come too."

"Not at all."

"Just don't burn the house down while we're gone."

"I'll try not to."

"Do you want me to get you some Subway?"

"With an apple turnover from A&W."

"Wouldn't have it any other way."

"If you're getting one for Athena as well you should just get me the strawberry cheesecake from KFC."

"... Cheesecake it is then," says Mom, laughing.

We continue talking until Ryan says it's time to leave.

Athena always wishes that she looked like Ryan; she wants his tanned skin, his big brown eyes, and especially his brown hair. She doesn't want to be blonde, no she wants to be a brunette.

I walk upstairs the second I hear the click of the door being locked.

Of course, I have to check my iPhone every once in a while, right?

The screen lights up before I have the chance to even touch the home button.

A text.

From Rose.

Her: Hi.

Me: Hi.

Her: Hi.

Me: You already said that.

Her: I know, I just don't know what to say.

Me: Well, it's the first time you've sent me a text in 4 months so come up with something to say. There's a perfectly good book sitting on my bed right now.

She never replied after that.

I spent a perfectly good reading time sitting there, the book open in my hands, but staring at my phone.

I should have known better, I'm such an idiot sometimes.