"Look, Eric, I don't know why you're freaking out. It was just a bet."

"Why did you even agree to take that bet?" Eric Reynolds asked through his cell phone, pacing in his room.

"Because you didn't think I would. Proved you wrong, didn't I?" His girlfriend's snarky voice came through on the other end.

"What are you talking about?" He shoved his free hand through his hair in frustration.

Amelie Travers watched Eric's part of the conversation just a few metres away, from the large window of her bedroom. She wondered why he didn't just break up with Jade Devaine. They had already fought a couple of times before, so she figured the end was near. Then again, with Jade, you could never tell. She kept all her guys on a leash and wrapped around her finger until the inevitable day when she decided to dump them. When she set her sights on Eric, Amy hoped that he would be immune, but apparently that wasn't the case.

"I don't know why you thought that was funny. That 'joke' Jake told you was completely insulting."

"Okay, I'm sorry. I didn't know you'd take it so badly."

"You better be." She replied as she disconnected. Jade wasn't one for sappy goodbyes.

As he stared down at his phone, Eric became aware of a light flashing on his window. He looked up to see Amelie holding up a flashlight and a sign. You OK? It read. He picked up his own large notepad and wrote, Tired of Drama. He watched her write Sorry :(, matching her own apologetic look and smiled. The stress from the phone call erased, he rose to close the curtains. He could always count on Amelie to make him laugh. She would've understood the joke, he thought resentfully, then shook his head. She was different from all the other girls, he knew that. But she was also a friend. Nothing else. He cleared his thoughts as he prepared to study for his physics test tomorrow.

***

Amy saw his smile in response to her sign and, in a reckless moment, opened up to a new page and wrote I love you. She looked up just in time to see him close the curtains. She looked down at her sign and showed it to the curtained window with a bitter smile.

Sighing, she dropped the pad onto her bed and lay down, staring at the words beside her. "Stupid." She whispered to herself. Why did she feel so disappointed that he hadn't seen it? It was better that way, she reminded herself. Otherwise, things would've gone awkward fast. She liked being Eric's friend; she liked having him talk to her. If he had seen her sign, he most probably would've grouped her with all the other girls in Greystone High who giggled as he passed by. Sure, he was hot, but that wasn't the only thing she liked about him. He was also really funny and sweet to those who knew him.

"Amy!" Her mother's voice came from downstairs as the front door opened and closed.

"Yeah, mom?" She asked as she walked down the stairs.

"We have a surprise for you." She beamed at Amy as she put away her spring coat.

"Um... Okay..." She smiled nervously at her parents as they finished putting away their coats. She really hoped it wasn't another pot of potpourri, or another pair of rainbow socks. They were weird like that.

Her father pushed his blue snake-skinned frames back onto his nose as he and her mother sat down on the couch nearest to them. Growing more puzzled by the second, Amy took a seat on the sofa in front of them.

"We know things have been..." He paused, as if searching for the right word. He looked at her mother for help, who decided to take over.

"We know things have been hectic lately, what with your brother moving out and going to college—"

"And your sister going to Paris to study Fashion—" Her father interrupted.

"That we haven't had a lot of time for you. So we decided to make up for it." Her mother continued. It was common for them to interrupt each other in a conversation. She beamed at Amy as her father took out a small package from a nearby shopping bag.

Amy's eyes widened in shock as she recognized the logo printed on the packaging."Oh my god! You got me contacts?"

"We know you had wanted them for some time now, so, to also celebrate that marvelous ninety you got last semester in math, we decided to spare some time to get you them with your latest prescription." Her father nodded in acknowledgment to her mother's words. He wasn't one to talk much.

"Thanks, dad! Thanks, mom!" Grinning in delight, Amy dutifully hugged both of them before rushing off to the bathroom adjoining her room to try them on.

***

Taking off the large round lenses and putting in the contacts, she stared at her reflection in the mirror. She looked too... changed. It was definitely strange to see herself without the frames that she's had since she was five.

"Guess I'm not ready for them yet." Shrugging, she put her glasses back on and went back to her room to turn on the stereo. It was time to celebrate. Her braces were gone, and, soon, her glasses would be, too.

For the rest of the night, she sang to the rhythm of Girlfriend with Avril Lavigne as the background vocals and her hairbrush as a microphone. What she didn't know was that Eric had watched and laughed at her not-so-graceful "dancing" (if you could call it that).