Chapter One: Hiroki

School. One of the only things that I can actually stand. Crazy, I know. It's the one place where I can see all my friends and actually enjoy life. Oakesdale Highschool doesn't give out much work and gives the students more freedom. They listen to our problems and help us, unlike most schools. Today is more exciting than any of the other days too. That's because I get to see Hayden. I haven't seen him in the last 3 weeks due to his family being on a family vacation.

Me and Hayden's family go way back. And by way back I mean before we were even born. My family works for his company and our parents are best friends so that means me and Hayden had to become best friends too. Fortunately, it worked out really well. Actually…it worked out better than we thought. Hayden and I have been dating for 4 months now and I have never been happier. The way it happened too was like it came right out of a cheesy romance movie. To sum it up, Hayden and I were walking to Oakesdale Café from school like we do almost every day after school and we sat down at our normal table next to the big front window.

We talk about school and home life like we normally do but this time I wasn't really paying attention as much. Instead, his emerald green eyes caught my attention more than usual. I thought to myself, "Get it together. You're making it too obvious, dumbass." I played it off by fiddling around with my fingers and nodding my head to the sound of Hayden's voice.

We ordered our usual coffees and then made eye contact for a bit. That shared moment was filled with only one word I could think of. Love. We hesitantly leaned across the table and kissed. A few seconds later we parted lips and smiled at each other. Afterwards, we talked about our feelings and what we were feeling over the past few months and we didn't care about anything or anyone else. Only each other.

Anyways, that's how it went and I could never be happier. I picked out a brown crew neck and some ripped black jeans then ran out the door with my backpack. I met Hayden at our bus stop and we interlocked our fingers together and exchanged hellos and good mornings. "So how was vacation?" I asked.

"It was good, I got sunburnt through" Hayden smiled.

"Oh I can tell."

We got on the bus and I listen to Hayden tell me about all the dumb sovieneers he got and how the seagulls stole his food on the beach. I laughed at the image of Hayden yelling at a seagull to give him his sandwich back. The bus ride to school wasn't too long, we got there in 15 minutes. I was looking around to meet with Ayeka and Sadie. Ayeka is Hayden's twin sister who always arrives at school 30 minutes early for some reason. We wave to them and walk over.

"Morning." Sadie yawns.

"Morin'" Hayden and I say back.

Today was going to be a very long day because our English teacher decided to schedule a very long lecture today and we have to write notes for a presentation on it. That's high school for you. I know I'll end up falling asleep but I'll end up finding notes on the lesson somewhere online so I think I'll be ok.

It's time for our first 10:00 a.m. class to start and the four of us are together which is great. We head in and take our seats in the back.

"So~ how are things between you and Hayden?" Sadie asks.

Hayden rolls his eyes, "It's going good."

"Did y'all have se-"

Ayeka covers her mouth. "I swear to god Sadie, if you finish that sentence."

I put my head down on the desk trying to hold in my laugh. That's Sadie for you. She asks the weirdest questions in the worst times. She's so fun to be around and always makes a boring party fun. The lesson starts and by the end of it the only bit of info that I got was the different types of poetry. We have an hour until our next class so we decide to go over to the café to get some coffee. It's only a block away so we walk over and go inside to order our coffee and sit at our table.

"Did you understand anything the teacher said?" I ask Hayden.

"Nope, I only heard about the longest sentence. It sounded so important." Hayden makes air quotes.

We are definitely failing this presentation.

Our coffees were ready so Hayden got up to pick them up and head back to our table. He looks out the window. He freezes. "Oh shit."

I look out the window and see Aliana burst through the café doors and stomps over to our table. Aliana and Hayden have been dating for a while and Hayden has lost feelings for Aliana in the last 4 months. That's when we started dating and I have known about all this since we have been dating. In the last 4 months I've been nudging Hayden to break up with Aliana so there is no drama between the three of us but he's been pushing it off because he doesn't want to hurt her. I keep reminding him that the longer you wait the more you're going to end up hurting her.

"YOU ASSHOLE!!!" yells Aliana as she slaps Hayden in the face. "WHY DID YOU DO THIS?"

Hayden fell back on me in shock. What was happening? Did Aliana find out about us? Probably. Either way this isn't going to end up well.

Hayden sat back up after the initial shock. "Listen, you have been amazing to me but I've been meaning to tell you something for a while."

Aliana slaps him again. "I don't want to hear anything for you Hayden. I already know what's going on with you and Hiroki. We're done." She walks out.

The whole café is silent. Quiet whispers and murmurs here and there but nothing more than that. Hayden and I sit in plain shock, both wondering the same thing. Hayden's cheeks both have a red handprint from Aliana slapping him. I get up from my seat to get him an ice pack and the manager of the café pokes his head out from behind the register. His name is Jay and we've known each other ever since freshman year.

"Is Hayden ok? I saw what happened." He asks, handing me an ice pack.

I thank him. "I think so, it's just a feeling of shock right now. Aliana never snapped like that. It was kind of…scary."

"Wouldn't be the first time she snapped. I would stay as far away from her as you can. It's for the better." Jay leaves to go into the back. I stand there in confusion. This wasn't the first time? I shake it off and go back to Hayden with the ice pack. I asked Hayden if he wants to stay over at my house tonight. I don't want him alone with a furious Aliana on the loose. It's for the best. He agreed to staying over so that's the plan. After talking a bit about the incident it's time to go back to school unfortunately. The café drama definitely got to the high school already.