"You ready?"

I clasp my necklace with my hand and nod my head. Axel grabs my other hand and squeezes it, letting me know whatever happens, everything will be okay.

"I'll be right here if you need anything."

Smiling my thanks to him, I get out of the car and walk to the front door of Brooke's house. The doorbell rings as I wait patiently for her, hearing shuffling on the other side of the door.

She opens the door and stands there makeup free wearing loose clothes. Her eyes widen when she sees me standing in front of her. She would die of shock if anyone else from school saw her looking like this. "Vienna?" Slowly, she pokes her head out the door and looks at Axel's BMW, knowing that it's not the car Hudson and I share. "What do you want?" she asks suspiciously.

"I want to talk," I state plainly.

She huffs. "What about?"

"Hudson."

Brooke rolls her eyes and crosses her arms over her chest. "Vienna, that was like two years ago. It's time you move on."

She tries to shut the door, but I stop it and hold it open with my hand. "Brooke, please hear me out."

Her face morphs into disgust. "Like you heard me out that night?"

I take a step back, gulping. She's right. I didn't hear her out the night we caught her kissing another guy. Hudson even admitted he was over her before she even cheated. Maybe there's more to their relationship that I don't know about. "I want to know now though."

She eyes me, not quite believing my intentions. "Why does it even matter now?"

"I found out some things yesterday and I think you should know."

After a few seconds of staring at me, she opens the door wider, allowing me to come in. I enter the tiny house and can't help noticing the bare walls. She lives with just her mom, but their home has barely any decorations and no pictures of the two of them anywhere. "Where's your mom?" I ask.

Brooke sighs. "Probably out with some rando. She never came home last night," she mutters darkly.

She doesn't see, but I flinch. I've always had a good home life. Both of my parents are always there for me, even Hudson is.

For Brooke, sadly this was normal. Her mom was always gone. Usually out with a random dude she met at a bar.

I follow Brooke to their living room and sit at the opposite end of the two seater couch. She tucks her feet under her legs and looks at me expectantly. "So, what do you want?"

"I want to apologize."

Her jaw drops. "For what?"

"For how I treated you. For how Hudson treated you. Especially after the accident," I add. Brooke's face softens and she looks away from me. "I didn't even know this until yesterday, but I found out that Hudson blamed you for the accident. It's not your fault and he never should've put that blame on you."

Her eyes meet mine and I can see the different emotions in them, keeping cool on the outside, but ranging on the inside. I don't know why I didn't see it until now, but she's been doing that since I met her, keeping everything bottled up to seem perfect on the surface. "You're right. He shouldn't have. Why are you here telling me this? Shouldn't he be talking to me?"

"I'm hoping he will," I reply. "I also want to apologize for how I treated you."

She looks at me, questioningly. "Vienna, you don't owe me an apology. Yes we didn't get along, we still don't, but you never blamed me for the accident."

"No, but I'm talking about how I treated you while you were with Hudson. He told me yesterday that he was over-" I pause, trying to think of a better way to word it. "Basically I found out he was leading you on."

Smirking, she leans back into the couch. "He said he was over me before he even caught me cheating, didn't he?"

I clench my jaw, nodding my head. "He never should have led you on like that."

She sighs. "He was never into me like I was with him, and I knew it. We were sixteen years old and just friends at the time we started dating. He only dated me because he felt like he had to. All of our friends thought we were dating, so I think he felt like he had to date me to make everyone happy. Reality is, he never needed a girlfriend. Let alone me as one. He had you and Jaden and he wanted to spend his time with you guys. When he started dating Elea, it stung because he really wanted to date her."

We sit in silence for a couple of minutes as I let her gather her thoughts.

She moves her thumbs in circles over each other as she thinks. "It's hard being the girl no one wants. Even my own mom doesn't want me." She laughs, but there's no humor in it.

I never realized how lonely she must feel. "I'm sorry," I say, not knowing what else to reply with.

She shakes her head. "I don't want your pity."

I flinch again, moving to get up. Probably time to leave.

"Vienna?"

Pausing, I wait for her to say what she needs to say.

"The reason I cheated on Hudson was because that guy made me feel desired. I know it was wrong and still wrong, but feeling wanted was what drove me to cheat. I'm not trying to make excuses for myself and my actions, but wanted you to know why I did what I did."

I give her a tight smile and she gives me a weak one back. "Brooke, I hope you find someone someday that will treat you right." My hand is on the doorknob, but I turn around, needing to say one last thing first. "Make sure to love yourself though. You deserve that much."

I walk outside, shutting the door behind me. Axel smiles at me when I get in the car.

"How did it go?" he asks, a hopeful look in his eyes.

"I'm not sure."

He grabs my hand and intertwines his fingers with mine, not saying anything else. I roll down the window and let my arm hang out, letting my hand play with the wind. Axel looks over and smiles at me.

"What?"

His grin widens. "Nothing."

"Axel! What is it?" He shakes his head no. "Tell me!"

"Nope."

*****

I skip out of class as the final bell of junior years dings, happy to be done. I'm technically a senior now. Students file out of the classrooms around me, making the hallway crowded. Finally, I make it to my locker and begin stuffing everything into my backpack.

As I'm standing, an arm wraps around my waist, pulling me backwards. My back hits a hard chest and I hear a small grunt. "Axel, let go of me."

"I think you owe me a thank you, Conley," he says, keeping his arm around my waist.

"Why's that?" I ask in fake gruffness.

"Because I saved you from hitting your head on your locker."

Sure enough, my locker door has moved to where if I had stood up all the way, I would have banged my head on it. Wouldn't have been the first time though. "Oh, well thanks."

"You are very welcome."

I roll my eyes, playfully. "You can let go of me now."

His breath tickles my ear as he leans his head closer to mine. "What if I don't want to?"

Before I can respond, he catches me off guard by releasing his grip, sending me stumbling forward. "Axel!"

He chuckles and leans his shoulder against the locker next to mine, watching me put the rest of my things into my backpack. "What are you doing later tonight?"

My heart starts to pound, making my pulse quicken. Is he about to ask me out? "Probably nothing. Why?"

He smiles. "Hudson, Jaden, and most of the basketball guys from the team are going to the beach around five if you want to go? Landon and Seth are going to be there as well," he adds, looking a little worried.

"You know Landon and I are good now, right?"

"Yeah, but I wanted to make sure. Plus I wasn't sure about Seth."

Chuckling, I shut my locker. "I don't think anyone is sure about Seth."

Grinning, he wraps his arm around my shoulders and brings me closer to him, letting his arm hang loosely around my neck. As we walk out of the building, I notice people glancing at us. Some smile, some girls shoot me weird looks, and some raise their eyebrows. Probably surprised to see someone like me hanging out with Axel.

"Ignore them," Axel says into my hair, bringing me a tiny bit closer.

We make it down the steps and towards the parking lot. Olivia pulls up next to us as we get closer to Axel's car. She puts her car in park and gets on her knees in her seat to get a better look at us since Elea is sitting closest to us in the passenger seat.

"Axel. I'm stealing my best friend back," Olivia states, crossing her arms over her chest. "I've barely seen her since you two started hanging out."

Smirking, Axel looks between Olivia and me. "What if I don't want to share you?" he whispers to me, making my face warm.

Olivia's and Elea's eyes widen when they see my face. "Vienna! Car now!" Olivia points to the back seat.

I'm about to remove myself from Axel's grasp, but he pulls me in for a hug, kissing the top of my head. "I'll see you later," he whispers again.

I squeeze him back before climbing into the back of Olivia's car. Axel smiles as she drives away. Both my friends are scarily quiet, not even acknowledging me.

"Guys?"

Once the school is out of sight, Olivia yanks the car over to the side of the road, putting it in park. As I readjust myself from getting body slammed from Olivia's driving, both my friends start squealing and jumping in their seats at the same time.

My face turns a shade darker and I cover my ears. "Shut up!" I say, laughing.

"Please tell me you two are official now!" Elea's eyes gleam with happiness.

I shake my head no.

"What!" Olivia yells. "How are y'all not?" I shrug my shoulders at her question. "Y'all look like a couple to me and literally everyone else."

I grab my necklace, playing with it. "He hasn't even asked me on a date yet."

Elea grins. "Well, you guys have kinda gone on unplanned dates." I give her a look, letting her know I'm confused. "The ice cream parlor, dancing with you and winning you the stuffed bear! Those sound like dates to me," she says, gently shoving my shoulder.

I mean, she isn't wrong.

"I think he'll ask you soon. Imagine it, all three of us with boyfriends." Olivia says, looking lost in la la land.

Elea and I share a look, laughing.

"Have I really been hanging out with y'all less?" I ask nervously, looking down at my lap.

"V," Olivia says gently. I look up and see concern in her eyes. "Elea and I know you've been working through some stuff. We also know that it's Axel who's been helping you. That's why we think y'all will make such a good couple."

My best friends look at each other and something passes between them. "What?"

Elea's eyes meet mine. "Olivia told me what happened."

Olivia's face pales. "I'm so sorry, Vienna. I know you wanted to tell her, but I felt like she needed to know and you were spending so much time with Axel and I knew he was helping you and-"

I touch her arm to stop her rambling. "It's okay, really." It feels like another burden has been lifted from me. "I'm glad you told her and Elea, I'm sorry I didn't tell you myself. I wanted to, but didn't know how to."

She gives me a soft smile in return. "I understand that it's a hard topic. I would understand if you never told me. I'm just glad we're friends."

"You guys are literally the bestest friends anyone could ever ask for."

The three of us hug, laughing because of the seats getting in the way.

Olivia settles back into her seat and buckles her seatbelt. "Now, time to go get ready and then head to the beach!"

"Wait, how did y'all know about the beach?" I ask.

"Jaden and Hudson told Elea and me," Olivia replies.

"Why didn't they tell me?"

Elea smirks for the first time ever. "They probably knew Axel was going to ask you to go."

Sorry it took me so long to get this chapter up! Haven't had WiFi the last couple of days. Please vote if you liked it! :)