Andre sat on the hard stool staring up at the ceiling fan. There wasn't a word to describe how absolutely bored he was; Cal was at prom, either dying or having fun. Andre heavily doubted the latter; Cal hated social gatherings. Business was completely dead at this time, yet he was supposed to work anyway. His other co-workers were a bunch of assholes and they all were in the corner of the kitchen talking about a bunch of bullshit this world could do without.

Hell, why did he have to go with that bitch anyway? Andre made an effort to show that he hated her, but deep inside, he truly was afraid of her. She could ruin everything; Cal and Rachel could stop being "just friends" like they said they were; she could make Cal something he wasn't.

She could take Cal away from him, and that thought made him uneasy in the head.

If Calvin vanished to be her boyfriend/slave, they would probably never see each other again. Andre's only friend in the world would be gone and all the good memories they shared would only come back to stab Andre in the back and make him feel worse than he already did about himself. It was a secret he had hid from Cal for five out of six years. Andre hated himself to the bone, and he hated who he was. He hated every inch of him. He hated every second of being himself.

When told this, Calvin smiled understandingly and said, "But I don't hate you." And that meant the world to Andre.

Cal was the only person who had stayed with him this whole time. With him out of his life, Andre would never have made it this far. And if Rachel so much stepped in the middle of their friendship, then she could destroy him from the inside out in a matter of a minute.

And the worse part of the entire prom thing happened to be that Andre could tell that she liked him. Not the friendship like, the like like. It was so obvious; he had no idea why Cal didn't say anything (or even if he's seen the signs yet). She stares at him in the way a child stares at a giant, free lollipop. Andre didn't tamper with that, though. He knew how it felt to be in love with someone, so he didn't confront her about it. She had her reasons, and nothing he would say to her would change it probably.

That was another thing—Andre didn't completely hate her. She was pretty, she had a nice figure, and she had treated Calvin just fine over the course of their friendship. Rachel was polite and thoughtful, not snobby and bitchy. She just gave Andre this evil glare. Why? It beat Andre. Maybe she had the same fear as he did.

But that'd be completely barbaric, because Andre met Cal when they were eleven, and Rachel joined their lives whilst they were thirteen. Why would she hate Andre? Why did she glower at him when he talked to Cal?

Andre pushed the entire dark cloud away and forced his mind to be blank. He had never asked Cal on the matter before, but somehow he had a strong feeling nothing too serious would happen between them on prom tonight. Or maybe he was being too hopeful. Nevertheless, he would find out when Cal got home. Zero Day was two days away. 48 hours. They could make it through without being penetrated, right?

Right?