Teresa

Teresa sat in her room, sprawled out on her bed doing her math homework. It wasn't anything necessarily difficult, but since she was placed in an AP math class, it did take up most of her time. Besides, she had long ago finished everything else that needed to be done in study hall, and math was the only thing left to do. She sighed as she began to set up another equation.

"I can't!" came a voice on the other side of Teresa's room. "I just can't."

Teresa laughed. "Oh, come on Tom, it isn't that bad" she tried to reason.

"Why does math even need letters anyways?" Thomas continued to whine. "I need help with my calculus, not my ABC's" he huffed in annoyance.

Teresa rolled her eyes as she rolled off of her messy bed to walk across her room to help Thomas.

Teresa and Thomas have been best friends since literally forever. Their moms have known each other forever, and even work together, therefore Teresa and Thomas have just always known each other. Thomas and his mom don't live that far away from Teresa and her mom, so he's always over and hanging out with her, which she doesn't mind one bit.

She kind of has a crush on Thomas.

Teresa has had a thing for Thomas, probably since middle school. But once puberty hit and they entered high school, she fell hard for the "boy next door". Even if said boy lived a few blocks away.

Teresa and Thomas are both juniors in high school and share practically all the same classes except for Art and Physics. While Thomas has an Art class, Teresa has history; and Teresa is taking Physics while Thomas is taking Chemistry.

"Do you understand it now?" Teresa asked as she leaned over Thomas to look at his work. It took everything she had not to lean over any farther and just take in his familiar scent.

"Yea, I guess" Thomas sighed, thankful that his math troubles were over. "I just hope I pass the math quiz this Friday" Thomas sighed with concern

Teresa only smiled. "Well, if you ever need a tutor, I'm your girl!" she announced with fake enthusiasm, causing them both to laugh.

It was cut short however, when Thomas' phone rang.

"Hello?" Thomas answered into the phone.

"Who is is?" Teresa questioned with curiosity.

"Umm…" Thomas paused, listening to whoever was on the other side of the conversation. "Yeah, sure...I'll be right over." he said before hanging up. Teresa stared at him

"It was Brenda." he finally answered her. "She wants me to come over."

"But we had study plans." Teresa said with a frown.

"I know but…" Thomas trailed off.

"No, it's cool." Teresa sighed.

"Tess…" Thomas trailed off again. He didn't want to hurt his best friends feelings.

"We'll catch up later okay?" Teresa said, trying to hide her disappointment. This was the third time this month Thomas was blowing her off to go hang out with his girlfriend.

"Yeah, okay." Thomas replied as he began to pack up his stuff. As he slung his backpack over his shoulder and made his way out of Teresa's bedroom, he turned around and smiled at her. "I could still use that tutor before Friday." he said.

Teresa still somehow managed to fake a smile. "I'm still your girl" she said, with even less enthusiasm than the first time. Thomas gave her the I'm really sorry this is happening again look, to which she replied to with the it's fine, go before she becomes inpatient and whiny look.

Teresa knew how his girlfriend was. Clingy and a real pain in the butt sometimes. She had to be around Thomas constantly or she felt like the world would somehow end. She was constantly calling him, texting him, flirting with him, touching him. It was absolutely ridiculous. If Thomas was a drug, that girl needed some serious rehab.

Thomas walked over to Teresa and wrapped her up in a hug. Teresa couldn't help but to melt into him as she rested her head on his shoulder.

"I'll text you later okay?" he said as he pulled away from her. Teresa almost cringed at the sudden loss of contact.

"I'll be here" she replied once again with a fake smile. Thomas returned the gesture.

"Later T" and with that, he walked out the door.

Teresa sighed as she closed her door shut and trotted back over to her bed and plopped down on it, causing some of her homework to fall onto the floor. She just didn't understand this whole ordeal. Sure, Thomas and Brenda have been together for three years. But three years was nothing compared to her and Thomas' sixteen, almost seventeen years. Yeah, they weren't dating, but Thomas had to feel something too, right?

Right?

Page Break

The next morning at school, Teresa slammed her door shut as she made her way to her first period. Thomas had forgotten to text her. Again. On top of that, she woke up late and her mom was working a late shift. She would have called Thomas to come and pick her up, except he wasn't answering his damn phone. So she had to call Minho and beg him for a ride.

"Have you heard from Thomas?" she asked turning to face him. Their group of friends all shared a homeroom together, followed by first period.

"Nah," Minho said, tipping his chair back on two legs. "But maybe Newt has" he said, gesturing to the front of the class.

Thomas and Teresa have been friends the longest out of their group. But Thomas met Newt in first grade and they were inseparable. In third grade, they went to a new school, and that's where they met Minho and his group of friends, including Gally, Alby, and Chuck. Middle school their circle grew when they met Winston, Zart, their friend Frypan (nicknamed for his love of food) and a few others.

It wasn't until high school, freshman year, when they met the rest of their group, including Brenda, Sonya, Harriet, and a few others. Ever since then, the group has kind of broken up. Especially when Brenda and Thomas started dating. They both kind of...changed.

Now it's just Thomas, Brenda, Minho, Teresa and Newt, but even Thomas has thrown Newt off to the side lately. Thomas may only cancel on Teresa every once in a while, but he has been ditching Newt left and right for Brenda. Newt tried to hide it, but it was obvious he was in pain.

Him and Teresa have spent many forgotten movie nights together on his couch, wondering if Thomas was just as miserable as they were.

"Hey Newt" Teresa called over to him. He looked up and smiled.

"Hey" he said, making his way over to sit on the other side of her.

"You haven't heard from Thomas lately have you?" she asked, concern laced in her voice.

"If you haven't, then I certainly haven't" he replied more bitterly than he meant to.

"I'm sorry" Teresa said. "If it's any consolation, he canceled on me last night."

"Wow, really?" Newt asked.

"Yeah. Wanna guess who for?" Teresa joked, just as bitterly.

Newt huffed. "I bet I have a pretty good bloody guess."

Teresa was going to reply, when the bell rang. Since this wasn't really a class, Teresa decided to try and get ahead in her history homework. she didn't want to think about Thomas and his problems. Of course she cared, but she couldn't let him be the center of her attention 24/7.

About five minutes into class, Thomas and Brenda came walking through the door.

Well so much for concentrating.

"Sorry we're late" Brenda huffed out of breath.

"We sort of over slept" Thomas breathed out.

Teresa rolled her eyes as she and Newt shared a look.

"Over slept my bloody ass" Newt muttered.

"What, you don't believe them?" Teresa taunted.

"I doubt they were doing much sleeping" Newt replied with an eye roll.

Thomas and Brenda stood at the front of the class talking to the teacher, before walking to the back of the classroom to sit with the "other half" of their group.

"I'm surprised you're not back there" Teresa said to Minho.

"Huh?" he replied looking up from his phone.

Teresa rolled her eyes. "You. Thomas. Why?" she spoke.

"Oh!" Minho said. "Me and Sonya broke up the other day, and she was not happy. Plus, Alby is kind of naggy and I've had just about enough of Gally" he said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"What are we? Your bloody replacements?" Newt asked.

"Hey" Minho said, glaring. "At least I make time for you guys. Unlike Thomas, I actually like you hanging out with guys." Minho defended.

"Thomas likes us" Teresa tried to defend. "He just likes her better."

"Yeah, but we were here first." Newt muttered.

"Well, suck it up Princesses" Minho huffed back. "I hang out with him every other weekend, and it's nothing special." Minho said rolling his eyes. "I'll hang out with you two shanks any day." and with that, they went back to working on their homework.

Page Break

It was finally lunch time and Teresa was happy for the break. Thomas has been avoiding her all day and she knew exactly why. This always happens when he blows her off. Or anyone for that matter. First, Thomas makes a promise, then he breaks it, Teresa gets pissed, then he avoids her until he can come up with a good enough excuse to make her forgive him. Or until he knows Teresa isn't going to blow up in his face.

Maybe if he didn't ignore me, I wouldn't be so pissed!

It was different for everyone in the group. Teresa just let him be. They had been friends for so long, and he did try to make time for her. She knew he would come back eventually.

Newt was a different story. Unlike Teresa, he had long ago stopped trying to call Thomas and make plans. Thomas still tried, but he was always inviting him to parties and other various places Newt just had no interest in going to. He would much rather spend his Friday night at home or at the arcade than around drunk teenagers, only to have to babysit Thomas for the remainder of his Saturday until Thomas was sober enough to walk home.

Then there was Minho who could care less. He was down for pretty much anything and everything so he was constantly with Thomas and his new group of friends. It's like slowly over time Minho was replacing Newt. Whenever Newt didn't go or wouldn't go or just refused to go, Thomas called up Minho, who he knew would always say yes. It got to the point where he just stopped asking Newt. He didn't even have to ask Minho anymore. If Thomas was going, he knew Minho was sure to show up.

Others like Gally and Alby left the latter of the group to go be with Thomas and and his "click". I mean why wouldn't they? Why hang out with a bunch of AP nerds like Teresa and Newt, when you can hang out with someone like Thomas and Brenda? Which is funny because Thomas has AP classes too. It's Brenda who has absolutely no classes with Thomas except for homeroom.

They don't even have the same study hall.

Others like Winston and Zart kind of just faded off. They found new friends and new hobbies. They still see each other from time to time at parties and other places. They used to do this thing where once a year, they would all spend the night at someone's house, usually Thomas', and they would just reminisce about the good ol' times. There was no judging, no fighting, no "who was more popular than the other" contests. It was genuine and casual and they always ended up having a good time.

But then Brenda became jealous that she, along with the rest of the new group was never invited, and it kind of ruined the whole thing. So they stopped, and instead would all just meet up at whatever huge party event was going on.

But soon that stopped as Newt just wanted no part of it, followed by Teresa, who too had her share of caring for a drunken Thomas. Soon the others like Winston and Zart fell out. Only Minho migrates between the two groups now. I mean the others could if they wanted too, but it be too much work to join the other's circle. Not to mention awkward, and no one wants to go through Brenda just to get to Thomas.

In all honesty, it just wasn't worth it.

Why should the others have to change just because Brenda doesn't like them or doesn't think that Thomas should be hanging around them? The only reason why Brenda tolerates Teresa is because she kind of has too. But if she had it her way, we all know Teresa would have no part in her group.

Teresa sighed as she sat in between Minho and Newt, picking at her food. She wasn't really hungry. If anything, she was angry, frustrated, and about ready to punch a wall. She could care less about who Thomas dated. What she cared about was his loyalty and the fact that he was blowing everyone off. Thomas and Brenda were closely reaching their four year mark and Teresa was not happy about it. It's all that was ever talked about around this school.

What she wouldn't give to run away and start over.

But that wasn't going to happen, and there was no way the two were breaking up. Not that anyone other than her wanted that. Well, except for maybe Newt. But that didn't mean everything was going to change and go back to normal. It would just make everything even more unbalanced and awkward.

And Brenda would find some way to blame it on Teresa. She huffed at the thought as she glanced over at the "happy couple". Maybe no one else could notice it, but Thomas looked miserable. He had his arm draped around her shoulder, both of them laughing at something their friend Adam had just said. Brenda looked genuinely happy, but Teresa knew that fake smile of Thomas' anywhere.

She kind of felt bad for him. But then she thought about Newt and the rest of his friends he just decided to throw away and thought maybe he deserves it.

Page Break

"Just talk to me Tess!" Thomas shouted, running down the street.

"I don't want to talk to you!" Teresa yelled back as she quickly unlocked her front door and slammed it open, before closing it just as hard.

"Well hello to you too" her mother announced from the kitchen.

Teresa just groaned a hello in response as she pounded up the stairs.

"Hello mom!" Thomas shouted enthusiastically as he walked up the stairs. Another perk about him and Teresa growing up together. He got to call her mom and vise versa for Teresa.

"Hello Tom" she replied back.

Thomas made his way up to Teresa's room, only to find it locked.

"Oh, come on Tess!" he whined.

"Don't call me that!" she yelled through the door.

Thomas rolled his eyes as he continued to pound on her door. "I'm not leaving until we talk."

Teresa swung the door open and pushed Thomas in the chest. "I hate you" she said as she walked back into her room, leaving the door open this time.

"Love you too sis" Thomas snickered.

"Don't call me that either Thomas!" she shouted. It's bad enough I like you, I'd rather not be referenced to as your goddamn sister.

"Alright, gees, calm down Teresa" Thomas tried.

"Not until you explain yourself to me" Teresa demanded as she plopped down on her bed. Thomas closed her door behind him and took a seat at her desk.

"Guess you wanna know why I've been avoiding you huh?" Thomas asked sheepishly.

"Gee, it be a good start" Teresa said sarcastically.

Thomas sighed in defeat. "Okay. I went to Brenda's last night and well…" Thomas trailed off.

"Well, what?" Teresa urged. Thomas blushed. "You know what?" Teresa began again. "Never mind. What happened this morning?" she questioned.

"Well, we overslept…" Thomas trailed off. "and so Brenda then began to try to bribe me into skipping school if you um...know what I mean?"

Teresa pretended to fake gag, even though in all honesty she actually felt like gagging.

"So you finally convinced her to go to school, just so you could avoid me?" Teresa questioned.

"Oh come on Tess, it's not like that"

"Don't call me that!" Teresa scolded again. "I'm mad at you remember?! Not to mention I kind of needed you this morning, and you blew me off again!"

"Yes, I know, and I'm sorry, really I am" Thomas said.

Teresa huffed. "You can't keep doing this Thomas"

"I know and I-"

"No Thomas!" Teresa yelled. "I mean it! And not just to me either! To everyone, including newt!"

Thomas was about to protest when he realized she was right. He sighed in defeat.

"Okay." he mumbled

"Okay what?"' she questioned.

"Okay, I will make time for you guys."'

"And?" Teresa pressed.

"And I will start telling Brenda no" he answered.

"Promise?"

"Promise."

"Good." Teresa huffed with a sigh of relief. Hopefully he keeps this promise.

Thomas sighed. "But she isn't going to like it."

A/N: New story underway! I'm excited!