I sighed, fiddling with a belt loop on my zipper-rip black skinny jeans. I hate to admit it, but I was nervous. Yes, I was nervous about school. I didn't really want to go.

There was a knock at my door and I turned around to see Butch leaning against the frame. He was staring at my floor, avoiding my eyes.

"Are you sure you're feeling better?" he stressed, looking up into my eyes worriedly.

I smirked. "Aw, is Butchy-Boy worried?"

He scowled. "You dumbass- of course I am! I mean," his voice lowered as he dropped his eyes once more. "It's my fault,"

I sighed and hovered over to him. I put my hand on his shoulder. "I'm fine, Butch. You don't have to worry anymore, alright? You didn't hurt me that bad." I chuckled.

He nodded and went to smile but did a double take. "Are those my gloves?"

I bit my lip and looked at my dark green, fingerless-gloved hands. "Um…no?"

"Buttercup," he warned. "Give them back," he held his hand out, waiting.

I sighed and slid them off. "They looked cool, alright?" I went to hand him the awesome gloves but he slowly took my hand and caressed it, his fingers slithering around my palm.

"You know what? Keep 'em." He looked sincere as he stared into my eyes.

I slid them back on, not looking away from his dark, emerald green eyes. I clasped his hands in mine. "Thanks," I had worn the gloves because my hands seemed the last to heal over the span of two weeks. They had red scratches and purple bruises all over the palms. Butch understood that I wanted to hide them until they were healed completely.

We seemed to be standing closer than I first thought, and I had to look up to be able to see into his eyes.

His breath fanned over my lips, making them tingle in remembering the feel of his lips on my own.

My eyes started to close and I leaned forward, deciding to try to initiate a kiss. So, I'm feeling romantic- sue me!

I had just finished clasping my pink-charmed necklace when I felt pressure on my neck that generated heat. I gasped and spun around, Brick chuckling at my jumpiness.

"Chill, Blossom," he said, placing his hand on my shoulder. "I was kidding. I wasn't going to do anything,"

"I know," I stated, facing my mirror. "I just hate it when you play with your heat. It gives me unsightly blisters." I mumbled, frowning. I didn't exactly like looking like a burnt ham.

He hugged me from the back, fixing my shirt at the same time. "Sorry, I'm trying to change. So, what happened to Buttercup… won't ever happen again." His voice was soft, sincere- determined.

I sighed. "You know what Butch is doing, don't you?" I questioned, not an accusing bone in my body- just in my voice.

Brick hesitated but nodded nonetheless. "Yeah, I do." he grunted in disapproval. "I don't like it- it's going to hurt her on an all new level."

I pursed my lips to the side. "Yeah… Come on," I patted his hands and stepped away. "We better go if we want to arrive on time,"

Brick pulled at my hands, dragging me back to him. He put his hand on my cheek, near my jaw, and tilted my head towards him, giving me a gentle, sincere expression.

Boomer kept glancing over at me but every time I met his eyes, he'd quickly look away.

I sighed and walked over to him. He was by the fridge in the kitchen, cornered. He turned around, sensing me behind him. He stared at my feet instead of my face.

"Boomer?" I called quietly, carefully. I didn't want him to zip away and leave me alone in the kitchen. "Did I do something?"

He looked up at me in a flash, shock shadowing his face. He shook his head so fast, it looked like he was twitching. "No! No, Bubbles, you," He sighed, biting his lip and sliding his hands around my hips to rest around my waist at my lower back. "You didn't do anything at all. I'm just… thinking, that's all,"

I put my finger under his chin to keep his head up since it was slowly descending to rest his eyes back on the floor. I kept eye contact. "About what?"

He shrugged, linking his fingers together behind my back. "Just stuff. I think maybe this year, I'm going to focus on school work. I'm not going to take any distractions."

I nodded and smiled. "That's good! School is important- you should be focused." I blinked. "Wow, I feel like Blossom,"

Boomer chuckled. "But, I'm serious, Bubbles. I mean, maybe I'll join some clubs or teams and be part of the school. I won't fly through without a care. So," He bit his lip. "Okay, I'm just going to say it: I'm doing this to stay away from you,"

The shock made my jaw drop and the hurt shone through on my face as clear as day. I stepped out of his arm-made barricade and bit my lip, looking at the floor.

He stepped forward, reaching his hand out to me, but I flew back quickly, glaring at him through watery eyes. I saw regret and sorrow in his eyes. Boomer dropped his hand to his side.

"I knew I did something wrong-" I started.

Boomer zoomed over to me and clamped his hand over my mouth, the tears falling out of my eyes from the shock of his action. "Stop it, Bubbles!" He commanded, suddenly angry. "I told you: it's not anything you did." He paused. "It was Butch. What he did to Buttercup… what I almost did to you- I can't let that happen again." He looked into my eyes with his shiny dark blue orbs. His tears wouldn't fall. "I'll be damned if I did that to you again. So, I'm staying away from you."

He slowly took his hand off my mouth and I noticed my nose was most likely red from my sadness and my eyes were bloodshot and red, still sheen with unshed tears.

I drew in a shaky breath. "Can I ask for one last thing before you do this?" My voice wavered as I tried to keep from crying about losing a fun- yet annoying- friend.

He hesitantly nodded. "Sure,"

I stepped toward him and whispered in his ear, biting my lip afterward as I looked at his face.

A smirk slipped over his lips as he pulled me into a hug that crushed me to his rock-hard chest. "Since you asked for something, can I?" He murmured into my hair.

I looked up at him, the salty water running down my cheeks. I nodded as he wiped them off my face, cupping his hand to my cheek as he brushed his thumb back and forth under my eye.

He leaned toward me.

Hey, everyone! So, oh my gosh, I know, I know! I'm so sorry that I haven't updated in a long time. I give you permission to murder me. *dodges flaming arrows and swords* ...Anyway, I have had writer's block for this story for soooo long and I didn't want to update for fear of ruining the plot. I finally got inspiration again because this week is Homecoming Week and Thursday is the day we dress to the theme. My school's theme is Cartoons. Even though sophomores are Looney Toons (Freshmeat is Finding Nemo, Juniors are Toy Story, Seniors are Flintstones), my redheaded friend, my blonde friend, and I (brunette) are going to dress as the PowerPuff Girls! All throughout the last of last week and the beginning of this week, I've been writing down my idea for this chapter during Chem and English.

So, I'm finally adding to this- YAY! Some bad news though... The classes I'm taking are the hardest out of all you can choose. Honors/AP English II, Spanish II (although it seems easy, the teacher is confusing-ish), Geometry (where my teacher doesn't teach us at all...), Chemistry (so boring, I fall asleep unless I'm writing for this or other stories. AND a hard class), Western Civilization (awesomesauce teacher but the student teacher is boring and we have essay homework every night, including weekends), choir (awesomesauce but learning four songs for the upcoming concert, two in English, one in French, and the last in Korean). AND THEN, I auditioned for the school play which is The Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged. It's so awesome but rehearsals are all day after school and on the weekends. I hope I get a part but I also hope I don't haha. I realized today, after my audition, I'd rather be in a serious play than a comedy.

So, last but not least, I've been trying to finish up my Maximum Ride stories first- Choir's Angel and I Give You Wings. I'm basically done with IGYW since there's only one chapter left and Choir's Angel has a way to go. Max needs to get to jail, get out, find Fang, explain things, blah, blah, blah. I'd say, if I do long chapters, it'd be...seven more chapters? Depending, you know? Anyway, once I finished with those two, I'll try to finish with this. I've been writing in my notebook ideas for other stories: I'm working on a Danny Phantom one (I've already written down to chapter 5 in scenes: I just have to put them in order), I've been thinking of an InuYasha story but I need to figure out how to do that, and lastly, I've had this musical idea for Maximum Ride for a while and I REALLY want it on here! So, I might start other stories on here while i try to finish this one and they might get more attention- accidentally of course. It's like with new babies; love the new one, ignore the old- I'm just kidding, I swear, lmfao.

Anywhoo, thank you to those who stuck through all this and decided to keep me on alert and I'm sorry to those who literally, officially hate me now. I wish I got over my Writer's Block earlier but I didn't and I'm sorry. Anyway, please, review, I'd like to know your thoughts on me, my update time, my story, my chapter...or if you just want to say hi or leave a mean comment on how long I didn't update, it'll be fine.

~~Amy-Katherine914~~