Two Months Later -

The buzz of the busy school cafeteria was drowned out by Shan's low, angry mumbling; she prodded at her tuna casserole with her fork, face twisting in disgust. 'I wouldn't even feed this to my dog.'

Tom gave her a smile of sympathy, biting into the ham sandwich his mum had packed that morning. I didn't even have to look. I could smell it.

Sighing heavily, Shan dropped her fork into the slop in defeat and sunk deeper into her chair, clearly unhappy. 'And I don't even have a dog,' she grumbled.

'Oh cheer up, Shan. I don't mind sharing,' a voice chirped from behind me. Maddy.

I whirled around to greet her, but her eyes were trained on her friend; who had, by then, gone red in frustration. Things had finally gone back to normal between us. All the tension and awkwardness gone. Finally. It'd taken us weeks to get over it.

Shan shook her head dismissively. 'Thanks Mads. But I'll just skip lunch today and eat at home.'

'Nonsense,' she said, slumping into the seat next to me with her tray.

'Is that pasta?' Shan's green eyes lit up like fireworks.

'The one and only,' Tom laughed, licking the lid to his yoghurt.

Shan stood up and went to get another fork, one that wasn't covered in Chef's beloved casserole – ironically, of course. Ironic because we all love it for the wrong reasons: throwing, spilling, dripping, sliding, pranking, flushing, but never eating. And poor Shan fell into the trap every Thursday.

'I'm so sick of this stuff my mum's making me eat,' Tom moaned, swallowing another spoonful of his yoghurt and cringing.

'What is it?' Maddy asked through a mouthful of pasta. What a lady.

'This vitamin thing. Half of the ingredients listed here deserve to be in a pot pourri,' Tom said matter-of-factly, inspecting the packaging.

Maddy wrinkled her nose.

'I doubt she'll know if you actually eat it,' I urged, winking at him.

But Tom just shook his head. 'She will, you don't know my mother. Plus, she's a doctor. She knows what's good for me,' he said, placing a hand over his heart.

Maddy and I exchanged worried looks.

Breaking the dwelling silence, Tom threw his head back and his laughter broke from him, racking his body.

I heard Maddy exhale in relief next to me.

'You actually believed that?' He aimed for the bin next to our table and threw.

Shannon sat back down with a fork. 'What did I miss?'

'Where were you, Shan? You've been gone for ages, I've almost eaten all of my pasta,' Maddy asked, arching her eyebrows.

Shan inclined her head towards the table behind us. I turned around and saw Harry, gazing at Shannon the way I'd been gazing at Maddy for years...

I really wish I could take that back. But I'm so done with lying. So done.

'What did he want?' somebody said. I really wasn't paying attention, I was too busy studying Harry. I knew exactly how he felt – withdrawn, alone, depressed, guilty, and… in love. He'd told Shan the week they became "official" that it probably wouldn't work out between them, they were just too different. Still, they put everything they had into the relationship and it just wasn't enough. At least they actually got to try…

'Rhydian!'

I turned to Maddy, tearing my gaze from the sorrow on Harry's face. The sorrow that matched my own. 'Yeah, Mads?'

'We're going to class,' Tom said, gathering his things.

'W-what? But it's only…' I checked my watch. It was one o'clock, but I could have sworn…

'You've been staring over there for the past twenty minutes. Haven't even touched your food,' Shan added, wiping tomato sauce from the corner of her lip.

'You've been quite out of it recently. Is everything okay?' Maddy asked. But she only had to take one look at me to know the answer.

Of course I wasn't okay. I still aren't, two weeks later. Because as long as Maddy and I aren't together…

I'll never be okay.

Author's Note: Thanks for the motivation to continue (I was going to leave it on the last chapter). I'm afraid that this is the final instalment to this story, as I am currently working on another one, of which will be posted soon. More exams in two months, so I'll try to get as much written as possible while I still can, (preferably before the revision and sleepless nights take over.) Also, as I do hear this a lot, I have a problem with making updates too short. However, given the limited amount of time I actually have free at the moment, writing actually seems almost impossible. So, any update at all is close to a miracle. I do, therefore, apologise, and I'll work on it. ;)