21I thought everything was okay—but now I was so sure.The only thing I could think about was Zac.Sitting through all my classes—I couldn't focus or pay attention. I was lost in my head, thinking about him. Jade and Bea would be speaking to me but I wouldn't catch a single word they said—I was too busy thinking about him. Everything about him—the way one loose curl of his hair would always fall on his forehead, his chocolate brown eyes that looked more like honey when light hit them, the intoxicating sound of his laugh, the way he would become cold, his jaw would clench when he was mad or annoyed, the way he called me Bloom as if it were my real name, how he would call me 'love' without even noticing it, whenever we texted and he would annoyingly only respond with pictures of gifs of jasmine flowers or animated princess Jasmine—completely ignoring what it was we were really talking about. Even worse than all of that—I kept thinking back to the night of my birthday.Was he going to

23"You're here!" I squealed as I jumped into Cody's arms and hugged the life out of him. After a ten minute hug, he laughed as he let go of me. I took a step back to take a look at his appearance.He wasn't anything like I remembered.No longer a brace-face, his hair was longer and styled upwards, his eyes looked brighter, he was no longer and skinny and lanky guy but instead was pretty well built and much, much taller now. I had to admit, Cody was really, really attractive now which was weird seeing considering we always knew him as the nerdy, brace face, little boy.Of course I had facetimed him over the years and saw his posts on social media but actually seeing him in person after all years felt a little overwhelming."You look amazing, Jabz. No longer looking like a shy little girl hiding behind her hair."I laughed as we walked into my house, "I still am a shy little girl hiding behind my hair, when I want to be, Co. You however, don't fit the whole nerd stereotype anymore."Co

25I stared at myself in the mirror, worried because I wasn't sure what was going to happen.After taking a minute to collect my thoughts and let my courage build up, I left Evan's bathroom and walked into his room."The hell is this?"He held my phone in front of my face with the picture of Zac and I pulled up. It was the picture Shane took of us when we had fallen asleep together, the night he was very drunk."Why are you going through my phone?" I tried to snatch it back but he was taller and much faster so he pulled his arm back."Well what else am I going to find if I keep looking?" Evan was angry.I clenched my jaw, "Nothing because there is nothing to find. That doesn't mean you can just take my phone and start snooping.""You wouldn't have a problem with it if you weren't hiding something," he retorted. His eyes were cold and tone was dull but harsh. Evan crossed his arms over his chest, waiting for a response."And what exactly do you think you're going to find, Evan? I have

27I craned my neck to the side as my eyes remained shut. Instantly, pain shot through my whole skull.I winced as I blinked my eyes a few times to adjust to the bright lighting. It took me a second until I opened my eyes."Oh God," my dad rushed over to me, placing a hand on my head and running his fingers through my hair. His eyes were pooled up with tears. "Thank God. You're awake, kiddo. You're okay. You're going to be fine."It was painful to swallow because my throat was ridiculously dry. I had no idea what was going on. Why am I in a hospital?"Wha-" I could barley speak."Hold on," my dad grabbed a water cup from the table on the side of the hospital bed and put the straw in my mouth. I took a large sip of the water, the cool and wetness hitting my throat and making me feel just a bit better."What is going on?" I choked out, my voice not much above a whisper. I was still squinting because of how bright the white hospital lights were.My dad gave me a sad smile, "You got into

29A knock on my room door interrupted my reading. I was reading 'Bloom', the book Zac had given me. He was right when he said I would like it. It was heartwarming and made me smile as I thought about my mom.Speak of the devil.Zac walked in, staring down at his shoes as he walked over to me.My eyebrows pulled together as I instantly noticed his knuckles that were cut up and bruised.I blinked, sitting up straighter. "Zac... what happened? What's wrong?"He didn't look at me as he sat down in front of me. "Why didn't you tell me?" His voice was soft, in a whisper and sounding hurt.I blinked."Tell you what?" I had no idea what he was talking about.He sighed, finally looking at me. His eyes were swimming in sadness and hurt. "About what Evan did."My heart stopped for a second. My mouth went agape because this was not anything I was expecting to hear. How the hell did Zac find out Evan hit me?I didn't have to think twice to know that Zac's knuckles were cut up because he screwed E