I watched him from across the room, sighing as he gave a smile to one of the girls sitting with him. His hair hung in his eyes in a boyish way and it was all I could do to stop myself from getting up and moving it out of the way so I could see his beautiful eyes.

He laughed at something his friends said and I found myself smiling at the sound. How I would love to join in on that laughter.

Although sure, I guess I could if I wanted to, after all we had known each other for years, but there was one problem. In fact that problem was walking right at me with a smile. My

boyfriend.

Do you know how much it sucks to like someone who isn’t your boyfriend? And do you know how much it sucks that you can’t break up with said boyfriend because a) you’ve been dating for a little over six months and you can’t bear to break his heart and all when you do, and b) because your new love interest doesn’t like you anyway.

All of this is really complicated. And it doesn’t even have to be! All I have to do is spend more time with Nelson (the boyfriend) and bam! I can learn to like him again. But when I look at Ethan…well…I don’t want to spend more time with Nelson. It doesn’t help either that I have a conscience.

But…then again…having a conscience makes me feel better. At least I’m not one of those bitchy girls who dump and cheat on their boyfriends so fast you can’t say ‘what the fuck?’

I’ll have you know that I am not like one of those girls. I haven’t kissed or touched anyone other than Nelson. I’ve just looked. And looking isn’t that bad is it? No, because I’m pretty sure Nelson does it too. Take for example that blond emo chick that just passed. He just totally turned around to check out her ass.

I rolled my eyes. I wasn’t the jealous type and well…I couldn’t talk. I did it all the time.

I smiled as Nelson reached where I was sitting and sat down with me. He smiled as well and leaned forward to kiss my cheek.

“Will you come over tomorrow,” he asked.

It was Valentine’s Day. I remembered how last year I was excited to finally have a real valentine. This year was a different story. While, yes, I did have a valentine, it wasn’t who I wanted it to be. But seeing as how I’m practically a coward about all of this, I didn’t do much about it.

“Of course,” I replied.

He smiled back at me and leaned forward again to kiss me. This time, my eyes drifted towards Ethan just as Nelson was closing in. Ethan caught me eye then and I squeaked and moved my face away from his gaze. Poor Nelson had to settle kissing my jaw instead.

Nelson leaned back and looked at me confused. “Something wrong?”

I smiled sheepishly, a little embarrassed that I squeaked. “No, I just don’t like PDA. You should know this by now,” I added.

Nelson nodded. “Sorry.”

Actually, he probably didn’t know. I never complained about it before. But then again, I hardly ever saw him in public anyway so I guess it didn’t matter.

Nelson went to another school about twenty minutes from mine. I only met him last year after going on a trip to the movies with a friend who went to his school.

Because of this I only saw him during the weekends. At first it really sucked but now I found myself fine with it. Especially since I wasn’t too excited to see him anyway.

OK, I sound really bad. I really did like Nelson, I did. But as a friend. I did like seeing him but not as my boyfriend. I really didn’t want to hurt him but that wasn’t really avoidable. In fact, I was probably hurting now already; he just didn’t know it yet. And to top it all off, I felt really bad about it all.

I looked over at Ethan again and sighed. The fact that Nelson was here with Ethan wasn’t helping things.

Nelson seemed to hear my sigh and looked concerned. “What’s wrong?”

I shook my head. “Nothing. I’m just not feeling well.” Which couldn’t really be considered a lie.

Nelson nodded. “Do you want me to take you home?”

I considered it. Actually that wasn’t a bad idea. At home I could clear my thoughts and pretend everything was normal and fine.

Finally I nodded. “Yea, that would be nice.”

Nelson got up and offered me his hand. I took it and gave him a small smile. He smiled back and without a wave to everyone else, we headed out to the parking lot to his car.

The ride to my house was quiet. I stared out the window and tried not to think about Ethan and everything. It was the least I could do, even if it was hard and I was doing it earlier.

Finally we made it to my house. Nelson parked the car and made to open his door but I stopped him.

“I can make in fine, but thanks anyway.”

Reluctantly he nodded. “I hope you feel better soon.”

I smiled and leaned forward to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Thanks.”

It was times like these where I really appreciated Nelson. He really cared about me and really did hope I would feel better. It was times like these where I felt worse about everything.

I made my way up to the front door and unlocked it. Once inside, I went to the window and waved at Nelson through it. When he saw me, he turned his car on and backed out and drove away. I sighed and went over to flop on the couch.

Given how things went today, I was probably screwed.

OoooOoooO

A/N: Hey guys! Yea, this is another story. No, it isn’t a valentine’s story. Actually it’ll be more like a bunch of one-shots (but hopefully good one-shots) all stringed together for a story.

Also, for those who have read my other story, please don’t ask about it. I’m still writing many, many notes about it and figuring out what I want to do with it. I am aiming for a rewrite though. Maybe even in Nicollet’s POV. But that won’t be for another while. Right now that’s kind of off to the side (but still there!) and this is taking priority.

So enjoy this little chapter, and let me know what you think. I hope to hear back from you!