Chapter 1

Adam looked at his watch as he stood outside the bathroom for Drew to hurry up and be done. He was dressed for school already and well groomed, but his brother hadn't come out so that they could take their leave. He pounded on the door, getting more and more frustrated at his brother.

"And you call me out when I take to long?" he yells through the door. "Now we're gonna be late and thanks to mom going in early to work, we're gonna have to run to school to get their on time!"

"Sheesh can you be anymore of a pain on my ass?" Drew says while opening the door. "Ditto" Adam says back, wiping away the harsh smell of too much cologne that his brother had put on. "You need to air out."

"Whatever, bro. don't be jealous." Drew comments back before taking one last look in the mirror.

"Any minute now and it's gonna start talking back to you" Adam jokes. Drew simply rolls his eyes and walks away and down the stairs. Adam grabs his backpack and does the same. He looks down his watch again.

"Great. Now we really are late. Nice going, Andrew"

"Don't worry, bro. I got us covered"

"Huh?" Adam says back, confused to what his brother means. Suddenly, as if on cue, the doorbell rings. Drew has a big smile on his face as he walks towards the door. Adam still doesn't know what his brother means until Drew opens it. There she stood. Fiona. The girl his older brother was dating, thanks to him. Adam took in the sight. She was dress in the usual Degrassi senior uniform, but with her own twist to it. Her blouse accentuated with a yellow tie. Her hair graced by her signature blue ribbon hair band. Her short skirt showing off her gorgeous legs.

He kept eyeing her till he caught her noticing him noticing her. He averted his eyesight to the floor. He never really told her how he felt and now it was too late. She was now dating his brother. Of course he couldn't really blame her since he pushed them together, not taking in to consideration the way he felt about her at the time. Like she'd be interested in me anyways he thought to himself.

"Hey beautiful" Drew said to Fiona, trying lock a kiss on her lips before she turned, making him plant it on her cheek.

"Hey Drew" she said back to him. Adam simply rolled his eyes at their exchange. She looked at him. "Hey Adam" she said slowly, shining her signature smile at him. He felt those butterflies again in his stomach, but he ignored them.

"Hey" he replied back in a dead tone voice. She cleared her throat and looked back at her boyfriend. "So you guys ready to go?"

"Yep" Drew replied as he took her hand and walked out of the house. Adam walked slowly behind them, stopping to lock the door. He saw the cab waiting for them. He didn't feel like seeing her and Drew locking lips all the way to school.

Drew jumped in first as she opened the door. She raised her eyebrows and smirked at his action. Such a charmer she thought before looking back at a shy Adam looking down at the floor as he made his way towards the cab. She motioned for him to take his place next to his brother, but he simply stood there. "You first" was all he said as he stuck his hand out, gesturing for her to get in the cab. She gave him a quick smile before going inside. As she moved closer to Drew, saving some space for Adam to move in, the car door slam shut. She saw Adam outside the cab. She rolled the window down.

"Aren't you coming?" she asked him

"What's up bro?" Drew said from behind her.

"I think I'll just walk to school" Adam informed them

"But you were the one who was saying we were gonna be late if we walked and now that we have a ride, you wanna walk?" Drew questioned him. Adam gave him a simply shrug. "Adam come on. Stop playing around" Fiona told him.

"I'm fine really. I could use some fresh air to clear my head anyways." Adam told her. She looked at him for a moment, wondering what brought out this idea before Drew wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "That's cool then. Just don't get angry when mom finds out you were late" Drew joked with him. Adam gave him a smirk.

"See ya later then, Bro…" He said as he makes eye contact with his brothers' girl. She stares back at him. He can't bring himself to break their stare, but after a short silence, he spoke. "Bye…Fiona" he said as he walked away. He walked pretty slowly before hearing the cab behind him screeching away. He let out a heavy sigh as he saw them passing him and driving towards the school.

He quickly took out his phone and dialed Eli.

"Hello?"

"Hey dude"

"Oh hey. Where are you? Clare and I are waiting for you"

"I'm walking to school as we speak"

"Walking? At this hour? You want me to pick you up?"

"Nah." He let out a sigh "I could use the alone time"

"Don't you sound enthusiastic? What's wrong?"

"Women"

"Ok…what about them?"

"Well not women, just a woman. Well a girl. Well she's still a woman just…"

"So who's the lucky lady that has you rambling like a lunatic?"

"Believe me; you don't want to know…"

"Do I know her?"

"Well…"

"Is it Clare? You have a little crush on Clare, my young friend? I really don't approve, especially since I'm dating her."

"It's Fiona. Fiona Coyne"

The conversation went silent.

"Fiona? The same Fiona that's dating your brother?"

"Yep. That one"

"Whoa"

"Whoa indeed, my good sir. Whoa indeed"

"So does she know? Does Drew know?"

"I haven't told anyone, only you."

Eli was laughing in the other side.

"What's so funny, Eli?"

After catching his breath, Eli replied back. "Nothing I just think it's funny that you have feelings for her and instead of telling her, you set her up with your brother! You have to admit it's pretty funny"

"I'm so happy it's amusing to you." Adam replied back, a little irritated by his friends attitude.

"Oh come now. Don't get angry. It's just kinda like a soap opera of some sorts. The evil brother gets the girl while the good brother sits on the sideline, waiting for the damsel to make her choice only this time, the good brother chooses for her."

"Not funny." Adam replied back in a dead tone.

"Why didn't you tell her? That you liked her?"

"I don't know…what if she rejected me? Because of…you know…"

"Well if she did, it's her lose, but now it's yours since you didn't put yourself out there…"

Adam heard the bell ring in the background

"Hey I gotta go inside. See you in English?"

"Yeah. See you then. Bye."

Adam put his phone away and sprinted down the street, trying to beat the late bell. As the school came into eyesight, he heard the last bell toll, meaning he was late to Art. Great jus great, he thought as he stopped running and walked. He went up the stairs and into the deserted hallways towards his locker. He opened it and put his backpack in as he took out his sketchpad, coloring pencils and his drawing charcoal. He loved his Art class. It was where he felt he could truly express himself without being judge or ridiculed. The only problem now that it had become a bit of a burden to him since he had the class with Fiona. He had loved spending time with her, but now? Now just being around her made him nervous. Nervous of what he might do or better yet, what he might say to her. He wanted to tell her what he felt, but he objected to it. She's dating Drew. She dating drew he kept on repeating in his brain.

As he closed his locker, he quickly went face first into the steel door, feeling a hand push him into it. He dropped his supplies as he took his head into his hands. He was dizzy and confused to what had happened when he heard laughter.

"Watch where you're going, Freak!" he heard from behind him. He didn't have to look to know who it was. Fitz. As the sound of footsteps retreated, he gently took his hand off the top of his face and looked down at it, watching his fingers covered in blood. He quickly gathered his things and made his way to the handicap bathroom. He took out his key and opened the door. He threw his things on the floor as he locked it and walked over to the bathroom mirror. He saw a small cut just above his right eyebrow. It didn't look big, but deep. He grabbed paper towels from the dispenser and started to clean the still bleeding wound. He kept the paper towel there for a minute as he sat on the bathroom floor.

His life was a living hell. He got bullied and taunted on regular bases by some punk. He got stares and whispers almost constantly and now to make matters worse, he had fallen for Fiona. Things can't get any worse he thought to himself.

He sat a few more minutes till finally getting up and heading towards his Art class with the still bleeding gash on his forehead. As he opened the door to the classroom, he put his head down, trying to hide the obvious cut.

"It's good of you to join us Mr. Torres…" His teacher said before looking back at him. "Adam, what happened to you face?" she asked him, making everyone in the class, including Fiona, look up at him. She brought her hands to her mouth in shock before getting up from her sit and rushing to his side.

"Adam what happened?" Fiona said as she looked at the cut. He had tried to hold the bleeding, but it hadn't worked. He looked over at his teacher who was making her way towards him as well.

"Ms. Coyne, would you mind accompanying Mr. Torres to the nurse's office please?

Fiona gave Ms. Dawes a quick nod before returning back to her desk to pick up her stuff. She gathered her things and walked to Adam's side. She made a gesture for her to carry his bloodied up supplies, but he shook his head. As they walked out of the classroom Fiona asked what happened.

"Oh you know, just some god old fashion bullying" he said sarcastically. He looked back at her to see she wasn't amused.

"Why do you even care, anyways?" He said in a neutral tone. She put her hand on his shoulder and motioned for him to stop.

"Because you matter to me, Adam" he felt his heart skip. "To me and Drew and Eli…"

"Yeah" he said before continuing to walk towards the nurse's office.

"What's you problem?" she asked from behind him.

"Nothing" He said, not wanting to deal with this right now

"Whatever" she mumbled to herself before picking up her pace to be by his side.

"Adam" the nurse said as she saw him come in. "What happened? Who was it this time?"

"This time?" Fiona questioned. She wasn't aware of Adam's bullying from all sorts of individuals.

"No one" Adam said quickly.

"Fitz" The nurse said, confident that the bully had bothered again one of the nicest guys she had met. As the nurse fetch some gauze, Adam politely stared at the floor, not wanting to meet Fiona's eyes that he knew where on him at the moment.

"Does Drew know?" Fiona said suddenly.

"Yeah" Adam replied back, knowing her question was referring to the bullying Adam received.

"Oh Adam" Fiona said in a sweet tone, making Adam soften a bit as she came closer to him and put a hand on his cheek. He closed his eyes and embraced the touch while he put his hand on top of hers, but it only lasted a minute when his brother's face came to his mind. As gently as he could, he retracted her hand from his face.

"You better get back to class." He told her, seeing the disappointment on her face. She quickly nodded and smiled as she turned to the door.

"See at lunch, ok?" She told him. He gave her a smile as she left.

"So is she your girlfriend?" the nurse asked a startled Adam. He looked back at the door where Fiona had walked out of a minute ago. "Nope" he said in a sad tone.

"Too bad. She likes you. I can tell" the nurse said as she proceeded to clean the cut with alcohol wipes. Adam let out a groan as he felt the wound sting.

"Well, she's taken" he told her as he let out another grunt as she put butterfly bandages on his now clean and blood free cut. "Oh" she said in a pity tone which he despised. Yeah by my brother he said in his head.

End of Chapter 1