The next day came before I knew it. Today...I would end things with Lysander once and for all. I was so nervous about it, I almost forgot to sleep! Lysander was so close to me for so long, even if our relationship was twisted. Now, worried and exhausted at 7 a.m., I had to find the strength somewhere within me to break his heart.

…..again...

I just didn't know if I could do it. But I had to; like Castiel said, my safety depended on it. He was just telling me that before Lysander went crazy on me. If Lysander could break down that easily, then I couldn't be around him anymore. Breaking up with him was going to be hard, but it had to be done. So, wanting to get it over with as soon as possible, I sighed and got out of bed. When I was ready to leave, I picked up the paper on my nightstand, read through it one more time to make sure I knew what I wanted to say, and headed to school.

Sure enough, Castiel was waiting for me when I got there. I made eye contact with him to make sure he saw me, then he nodded and I went into the school. Thankfully, I didn't have to worry about trying to find Lysander myself. Not a minute had gone by before he showed up out of nowhere and pulled me into his arms.

"Oh, I'm so glad you're here. I was afraid you might not come today."

"...To school?" I asked, puzzled.

"Well...after the way I acted yesterday, I fully expected you to run away from me...from here. You left before..."

"Yeah..." I trailed off. "And I'm sorry. I just thought it was the best thing I could do at that point. The sooner I left, the sooner you'd forget, you know?"

"I never forgot." He said, cradling my face in his hand. "I could never forget you."

Clearly! "Why? What's so damn special about me?"

"How could you ask me that? You...um..." He fell silent. I could tell he was trying to think of something, but he said nothing.

"Exactly. There's nothing! You've been after me for so long, and you can't even figure out why!"

"Well, I–"

"And that's why I have something to tell you." I took a deep breath, but I was visibly shaking.

"...Darling...?" He looked at me nervously, like he already knew what I was going to say.

"I'm...done. With you. With all of this."

"What are you saying?"

"I just said what I'm saying." I reaffirmed, looking him straight in the eye. "...You can be really sweet, and I know there's good in you somewhere, but...you have this side to you, Lysander...! You get really dark and disturbing, and it scares the hell out of me! One moment, you're you, and the next...you're 'him', and I can't be around you anymore. I'm sorry..."

"You don't mean that."

"Yes, I do! I always have, I just never had the courage to say it! I...I want nothing to do with you."

He let go of me. "Oh...so this is Castiel's doing."

My eyes widened. "What? No, it's not! I honestly can't stand you!"

"Did he tell you to say that too? You sound more and more like him with everything you say."

"I'm telling you, I don't love you!"

"That's a lie, and you know it. Nice try, Darling, but lest you've forgotten, you said the exact opposite to me not too long ago." His evil smile appeared once again. "Now tell me, where is your script? I'd love to read it."

"Uh..." I'll admit, I had it in my pocket this entire time, but there was no way he could've known I had it. I never took it out, and it wasn't visible to anyone, so why did he know I had one?!

"That is your script on the ground, isn't it? It fell out while you were spewing those lies."

"Oh..." I looked at my feet and sure enough, there it was. ...I'm dead, aren't I?

He picked the paper up off the ground and looked at it. "Oh, how cute." He said. "You've prepared a whole list of things to tell me." Then he started reading through it. "'You turn into a monster,' 'You scare me to death,' 'I want nothing to do with you,' you've followed it pretty well up to there." He silently read through the rest. "But you conveniently left out the part where I 'ruin your life' and 'need intense therapy.' Too scared to say your lines, Darling?" He asked, looking at me."

I couldn't answer. He was right, I was scared – too scared to speak – and I'm sure my face showed it.

"Well..." He folded up the paper and put it in his pocket. "I think I'll just keep this, as a reminder of your betrayal. Now begone. I need some time to find forgiveness. And, Castiel..." He turned his gaze towards the wall, where Castiel was waiting right around the corner. "Could you come out here please? I'd like to have a word with you."

"Hmph." Castiel came out from hiding. "What?"

"You didn't actually think this would fool me, did you? You're not as sly as you think."

"I gave her one line, that was it. She made the rest up on her own."

"Dare I guess which one?"

"Do whatever the fuck you want, as long as you stay away from her."

Lysander looked back at me. "I thought I told you to go. Get out of my sight immediately, I can't bear to look at you after the horrible things you've said to me."

I tried to leave, but Castiel grabbed my arm. "Don't do a damn thing this asshole says." He faced Lysander again. "She has every right to wanna get rid of you! And I'll say it again – she's not your puppet. Don't tell her what to do!"

"Well that's awfully funny, considering your part in this."

"I'll do what I have to to get her away from you! I don't want you near me or anyone I care about. Just stay the fuck away!"

"Do you believe me now, Darling?" Lysander smiled and looked at me. "This 'hate' act is all it is. An act. He just blatantly said he cares about you. What's to stop him then, from tearing us apart?"

"You were never together, you sick fuck! You've been stalking her since day one! That's not a relationship, it's an obsession! Bordering on abduction!"

"Please, I would never kidnap Darling."

"She has a name, you know!"

"Oh, right. My apologies, 'Slim', I merely forgot."

"You son of a bitch!" Castiel let go of me and threw a punch at Lysander, hitting him right in the face. Lysander was stunned, but only for a second. Wiping the blood from his mouth, he threw his fist back at Castiel, punching him in the nose. The two of them kept going like that for a few minutes, while I stood there, unsure of what to do. I tried yelling at them to stop, but none of my cries worked. Then, out of nowhere–

"ENOUGH!"

Startled by the sudden outburst, Castiel and Lysander stopped fighting. We all looked over to see Nathaniel standing a few feet behind us. "I should've known it was you. Will you two ever stop acting like children?!" Nathaniel said this, probably expecting them to apologize, but it painted him as their target instead.

"Fuck off, Nathaniel, it's none of your damn business!"

"My, you're on such a high horse for knowing nothing about this."

I didn't say anything at all. In fact, I was kinda hoping I'd become invisible. Stupid, I know, but the last thing I wanted to do was make things worse.

"Well whatever, I don't care." Nathaniel said. "You're both getting detention." Then, looking at Castiel, he continued, "Don't worry, it's nothing you're not already used to."

Enraged, Castiel charged at Nathaniel with every intention of dealing some damage, but I stepped in between them. I didn't wanna put any attention on myself, but I had to do something about this. "STOP!" I shouted.

"Outta my way, Slim!" Castiel shouted back, trying to push me aside. " This fuckface needs to learn a lesson."

I clung onto his arm as hard as I could. "It's not worth it! You'll just get in even more trouble! Listen to me, dammit!"

"She's right." Nathaniel confirmed, remaining perfectly still. "Touch me, and you'll get a suspension instead."

"Fine!" Castiel growled at him, miraculously managing to control himself, although I could swear the words "Death to Nathaniel" were still written all over his face. "Fine." He repeated, calmly.

"Good. Now get to class, you're late."

"Whatever." Castiel scoffed as he walked off.

"Very well." Lysander said, following behind him.

"...'She has a name, you know.'"

"Shut up."

I started walking away too. After all, I had my own classes to get to.

"Wait." Nathaniel called out from behind me.

I turned around to face him. "What?" I asked, annoyed. "You just said we were late, so what do you want?"

"Watch the tone. I just wanted to ask you something. What were they fighting about?"

I didn't respond. To Nathaniel, this should've been fairly obvious. I really didn't wanna say it.

"Julia...?" But he was still waiting for me to answer.

"Me." I said quietly.

"What? Speak up, I can't hear you."

"Me!" I yelled at him. "I said 'me!' They were fighting about me."

"I thought as much." He said, looking away. Then why did you make me say that?! "Listen." He continued. "Don't get caught up in their mess. Next time they do that, just walk away. We all know you can."

"Alright, you know what? I'm sick of your attitude. Either yell at me or stay away, but no more of this passive-aggressive bullshit!"

"Then by all means, please disregard me. Although, you'd do well to follow my advice. Stay out of their line of fire. That's all I was trying to say."

With that, Nathaniel walked away. That's when I noticed it – there was a huge bruise on his neck. I didn't see it before, but now that he was closer, I could see it very clearly.

"Wait." I told him.

"What?" He replied with a sigh. "This game is getting old."

"It's not a game, this is serious. What is that on your neck?"

He tried hide the bruise with his collar. "Nothing. Sound familiar?"

"Knock it off! What happened?"

"Frustrating, isn't it?" He said with a chuckle. "But I won't tell you. Why would I?"

"Because! …..Because you're my friend."

He scowled at me. "You are no friend of mine."

"Then why are you trying to help me?"

"Because clearly, you can't help yourself! When it comes to those two, you always put yourself right in the middle. I don't get it! You're not a stupid person, so why can't you see how much danger you're in?! I...I don't understand you. And I know I shouldn't care anymore, but...this isn't going to end well."

"Well...thank you for caring." I said to him, trying to calm him down a little. "I do appreciate you. I always have, whether you believe that or not. And I still care about you too, so...if you don't wanna tell me about...that, then...I won't make you. But just know that I'm here...if you ever wanna talk. Okay?"

"...We should go. We both have somewhere to be."

"...Yeah..."

I didn't wanna make him mad again, so I walked away to go to class. After all that, he's still cold...I hope he's okay... I thought about what I saw. That bruise looked really recent, like only a day or two old. I wasn't sure what it meant, but if it was on his neck like that, it couldn't be good. I wanted to talk to him about it, but I didn't want to push him. Our relationship was still very fragile – I could break it to pieces if I demanded answers too soon. I wanted us to be okay, but more importantly, I wanted him to be okay. That was my priority.

The next few days were a little awkward. I didn't talk to Castiel or Lysander at all since the fight, which made it really hard to share classes with them. Nathaniel started being a little nicer to me, although he didn't say much, and Chris didn't want to talk to me at all. I obviously couldn't talk to him at school, so I tried calling him several times to apologize, but he wouldn't answer. I even tried visiting his house, but I was told to go home. Things were not looking bright for me, but then, before I realized it, it was Thanksgiving Day! I actually woke up somewhat happy this time, because I remembered that I would get to spend the day with Jasmine and her family, since I had none. But that was okay; they basically became my family anyway. Since they were kind enough to let me spend the holiday with them, I made sure to get there early so I could help out. It took us a few hours and a lot of work, but it was well worth it. The food was delicious, and I had a really great time talking with everyone. Being part of a family like that made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. If there was anything I was thankful for, it was definitely them. After dinner, we all helped clean up the table, and then Jasmine and I went back to her room to hang out for a while. Of course, we took forever deciding what to do, but in the end, we decided to play Fantasy Life. Even though I knew what the game was, I decided to read the back cover of the case anyway, since my copy was digital.

"All Roads Lead To The Adventure Of A Lifetime! Create the Life you've always wanted! Craft, cast, hunt, and battle your way through a great world of magic dragons and ancient secrets!"

"Vast, Julie. The world is vast."

"Shut up. You know I can't read." This dumb joke was often my excuse for my reading mistakes, since I really didn't like to read that much. I don't even know how people write, for that matter...

She laughed at me. She laughed for an entire minute. I was starting to get really annoyed at her. Finally, she said, "You're gonna have to know how to read. Look, it says right here: 'Basic reading ability is needed to fully enjoy this game.'" She barely finished the sentence before she burst out laughing again.

"Are you saying I can't fully enjoy the game?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying."

"Screw you! I can enjoy the game if I want to!"

"Yes, but not fully. You can only mildly enjoy it."

"I'll fully enjoy whatever I want! 'Basic reading ability' or not!"

So, we went on to fully enjoy the game. And it was fun. We did indeed battle the magic dragons and discover ancient secrets, as we normally did. Despite our argument about enjoyment levels, we both agreed that Fantasy Life was the best game ever created. The end. We had so much fun playing, I was still there well past midnight. I didn't even realize what time it was until my DS was dying and I had to check its battery level. Right next to it was the time: 03:28.

"Oh my god!" I panicked. "It's super late! I gotta get home!"

"Yeah..." Jasmine replied, half-asleep. "You probably should..."

"Yeah. So anyways, thanks for having me over, and make sure you thank your family too. See you later."

"Yup. See yaaaa."

I raced out of there quickly, but quietly so as not to wake anyone up. The apartment halls were a bit scary at night, with no one around and nothing going on. It was completely silent, which gave me an eerie feeling, so I kept my fast pace until I got to my apartment. Even though it was exactly the same inside, I felt safer just because of the familiar surroundings. I was home, and it was nice. I grew calmer as I got ready for bed. By the time I was done, I fell asleep with no problems. Good.

As quickly as it started, Thanksgiving break was over, and it was time to go back to school. Even worse, now we had to study for our final exams. Ugh... Thankfully, today was a review day, and all of my teachers recapped the material we'd learned. In Chinese, we went over basic greetings and phrases, and how to write their respective hanzi characters. In English, we reviewed how to write a proper thesis statement and essay structure. In Floral Design, we...well, we pretty much just looked at flowers. By the end of the day, I was fairly confident I would pass most of my exams, as long as I remembered to study. The one thing I wasn't sure about was my choir performance. I practiced here and there, and I also practiced with Jasmine whenever I could, but I didn't know if it would be enough. Not that I was getting a solo or anything, but certain parts were given to each group, and if Jasmine and I weren't coordinated enough, we could ruin the entire thing. So, I decided I would have to practice that just as hard as I would have to study, but the studying had to come first. With that in mind, I started as soon as I got home, reading through every note I'd ever written and searching my textbooks for more information. I worked hard for several hours, but eventually, I got tired and had to stop. Plus, it was really hard to concentrate knowing that one of my best friends and I were at odds, so I decided to try and call him one more time.

One ring...

Two rings...

Three...

After the fifth ring, I got his voicemail. This made me very upset. It had already been a week since we fought, and he still wasn't ready to talk to me. I couldn't understand why. Normally we would have been over this kind of problem by now, but this time, it's still going. My thoughts were filled with dread as I slumped into bed that night.

Did I really upset him that much?