ERIC POV

"Forgiveness," she answered.

Forgiveness? She was practically holding onto a grudge for all the things she saw me do. I don't even why I care about what she thinks about me. But like Four and Peter mention, it's pretty obvious that I do.

"Thank you Grant," Shauna said. "Eric, your question please."

I got up and slowly made my way to the mic. I was planning on asking something else, but now that my opportunity stood in front of me and she stated clearly that she would prefer that quality, I had to ask. She was going to hate me probably even more for this. That thought made me smile instantly. I did enjoy provoking Alex. I thought it was the most adorable thing to see her glare back evilly at me.

"Would you forgive me?"

From the look on her face she did not expect it. I smiled even wider. She looked away and I saw her steal a few glances at Aidan. The whole gym was silent.

"Would you like some clarification," I asked her. She turned to look at me expectantly. "You said you prefer forgiveness over vengeance. Yet, here I stand with having done nothing to wrong youand instead of pardoning some past error you are determined to judge me by it." I knew now was not the time for everyone to know that she hated me, but I really wanted a straight answer from her. "So, would you forgive me?"

"You can only forgive someone their error, if they don't commit it again," she said calmly. "You can say you want to be forgiven, but you would need to back that up with evidence. And so far there's evidence pointing to someone who does not deserve to be forgiven."

"Your evidence isn't sound," I said. Was I really going to start another argument with her right here? She answered the question, but I wanted her to see that all of that wasn't really me. "You can't always believe what you think you saw or heard."

"But that's how you know what kind of person they truly are." I wanted to reply but she started again. "If you want to know what someone thinks, you listen to what they say. If you want to know what someone feels, you watch what they do. Unless they are being fake," she finished and stared me down as if trying to read me. I wanted to leave the mic and walk straight up to her. Why? I guess the guys were right. This was one girl who knew how to irritate me and I found myself drawn to her because of that. What the hell was wrong with me?

"What if what the person did in the first place, wasn't really him? The person that stands before you is real. What then?"

"Actions would have to back up the words. If they did, then…" Alex hesitated. I could see the conflict on her face. What she said next almost knocked me out. "Forgiveness would be possible," she answered.

An instant wave of relief and excitement passed through me when she answered. I gave her a small smile and went back to sit down.

Shauna finished with a couple more questions and then had her leave. Immediately Four leaned over.

"So what now," he asked in a blank tone.

"I feel like I need to prove to her that that wasn't me, that that is not something I would normally do." My legs started to bounce. Why did the thought of trying to impress her or gain her better opinion overcome me?

"Dude, I was going to ask, do you have the hots for Aidan's sister," questioned Colin. I totally forgot that they were there too.

"She is a cutie," responded David.

"Aidan would be upset if you messed with her," started Evan. "So I think you should leave that to one of us." All six of us guys in the front turned around to glare at him. We were a close football team after spring camp. So for them to talk about Alex like that, we all took it kind of personal. Not to mention the thought of her being with someone else was like having someone take a sledge hammer to my body. I don't want to say heart. That would just sound wrong. I wasn't even sure yet, if I liked her. Evan threw him hands up to play surrender.

The interviews were over shortly after, which I was glad for. After Alex's interview, I couldn't concentrate on anything else. To make things worse, we still had football tryouts. My mind wandered throughout the tryout. I didn't even put in 100% today.

"Eric," Justin called after we walked out of the locker room. I wanted to just head back to the dorms. Back here came Justin, Trick, Uriah and Will. "Don't even worry about today. We still got tomorrow and besides you know you're going to make team."

"Yea, I guess," I answered solemnly.

"Thinking about Alex, aren't you," asked Uriah while moving his eyebrows.

Was it that obvious? This girl was literally driving me insane.

"Maybe," Will said while scratching his head. "You should just tell her the truth."

"That's the thing guys. I shouldn't care what she thinks about me," I snapped.

"Whoa, chill Eric," said Trick. "Look you're totally bugging and it's because of Alex. Perhaps you should try and straighten it out. You would probably be able to think better if you knew that she knew what really happened last year."

"No, she shouldn't have to know," I defended. "She should have just believed me and everyone else when they said that she doesn't know what she saw or heard."

"Alex is new here. She's going to believe whatever she's told," explained Will. I gave him a glare knowing full well half the information probably came from his girlfriend. He seemed to read my thoughts. "And I'll talk to Christina to see if she's been saying anything to her, which I doubt, because you know she would find other topics of conversation other that the guy who attempted to drown her freshmen year."

Edward, Al, and Peter came out at that moment.

"Why in the world are we talking about Will's girlfriend," asked Edward.

"We're actually talking about Eric's girlfriend," teased Uriah.

"I told you, you liked her," stated Peter.

"I don't like her," I snapped again. "She's just so…" I couldn't think about how to describe her. I don't even think I could put into words what this girl was doing to me.

"I like her already, she made Eric speechless," teased Justin.

"One of us could talk to her to help smooth things out," suggested Al. Sometimes I think he took one too many hits to the helmet on special teams.

"I'm one of her brother's close friends and not even he can get her to trust me," I answered. "You know what? Screw it! I don't want her to know, I don't want her forgiveness, and I don't want her. In fact, do me a favor and stop talking about her. It's bad enough that I think about her too much, I really don't want to talk about her anymore."

I walked away and hurried back to the dorm before anyone could stop me. Once in the dorm, I hooked up Aidan's iPod, hoping to drown out any thoughts of Alex. It just made it worse.

"See, baby, I, apologize, for all the things that I've done that I've done."

Immediately, I sat up in my bed. Did I really want to apologize to her? Suddenly the chorus came on.

"I can't think, think about this crazy day.
I lose sleep just to daydream about you baby.
I'm going crazy crazy crazy just thinking about you lately.
I'm going crazy crazy crazy just thinking about you baby."

The following lyrics began to play throughout the room. The stupid iPod was feeding this into my head. I stood up and looked at the iPod. The song was entitled "Crazy" by K-Ci and Jojo. I yanked the iPod out and threw it across the room.

Just then Aidan walked in.

"Was that my iPod?"

"Yea, sorry man," I said looking away.

"Well, thankfully it has a case, so it's not broken," he said picking it up. He looked at the wall. "It doesn't even seem like you threw it that hard. The dent in the wall is pretty small," he teased. "Is this about tryouts," he asked going to sit down on his bed.

"The guys already told me to not worry that I would make team no matter what happened today," I said flopping down on my bed and throwing my arm over my eyes. Perhaps if I got sleep, I wouldn't think of my room-mate's sister.

"Actually I was talking about the cheer leading tryouts."

I moved my arm away from my face and slowly sat back up again. I turned to look at Aidan who still had his iPod in his hand.

"It seems like everything related to you is driving me crazy. First it was your sister and now it is your stupid iPod."

"She can be a bit one-tracked minded I guess you could say. Once she determines something, she hardly ever sways from it. It's one of her strong points. Yet in cases like this," he said shrugging. "I just want to know, because usually you don't care what people, especially girls, think about you. So is it possible, you're starting to feel something for my sister?"

I looked at him dumbfounded.

"I don't know," I answered simply, which was the truth.

I really don't know what I was feeling for her. Technically, I never really "liked" a girl like that. So was that really what was going on with me. "I don't know, Aidan. I wish I could tell you, not just because you're her brother, but because you're one of my closest friends. But honestly, I don't know. I don't know what she's doing to me. I can't tell half the time if I'm happy to see her because I just want to see her or if I'm happy to see her because I want us to get into another argument. She pisses me off a lot, but I can't stay mad at her. I don't know."

He seemed to think it over. "Well, when you do figure it out, it would be nice to know."

"Sorry man, I know she's your sister and all."

"Hey, don't even mention it. I never told anyone this but," he paused as if to think about something.

Was he planning on telling me why he never talked about her?

"Alex and I were so close growing up. We both wanted to travel the world and do things together. We both went to Navy Pier Prep for two weeks our freshmen year. Everyone liked her instantly. I was known as Alex's brother," he said with a slight chuckle. "Guys would only hang out with me, because they wanted to get to my sister. I would get into fights with the guys there. After the first week, our parents talked about transferring us out. She hated me for it. She went to Amity Prep and I came here. When we both went back home during winter break, we fought about Navy Pier again. The argument was so heated, I ended up slapping her," he swallowed as I stared at him wide eyed.

"Aidan…"

"Twice," Aidan finally choked out. "Before we came back to school, I apologized and she said she forgave me. But nothing between us was ever the same. I guess that's why I'm trying so hard to protect her. I feel like I need to make it up to her somehow."

"I'm sure she still loves you. You are her brother, no matter what," I said. I sat there thinking how could he slap his sister? Then it dawned on me that's why at camp when Four told us about his dad, Aidan felt so guilty.

"I guess she will always love me, but I can't help but feel guilty thinking that she never truly forgave me. I think that's why she may have problems with forgiving people. It's sort of my fault she's been so hard on you."

"No, it's not. It's my fault she doesn't like me," I said looking away. Why did I care if she liked me or not? "Promise me something about your sister?"

"Like what?"

"When I finally know how I feel about her, before I let you know, I believe you should talk to her about what happened. It's obvious you care, a whole lot, about your sister, more than I do about mine. Promise you'll do that, not just for you, but for her too, and I'll let you know when I realize I'm going crazy for her."

I started to chuckle and he started to laugh.

"Yea sure," he said as we did a fist bump. "Eric, there is one more thing." I nodded. "If you do, and she does too, please don't hurt her."

"You're always going to be playing the caring older brother, huh? If things end up going that way, I give you my word," I answered as I stood up and we did a quick hug.

"Now, that that's clear," he said pulling away before things got awkward. "We should go and see if everyone is down in the cafeteria eating dinner."