EMILY *** “I’m so sorry you have to go through this,” I said to Harper as we waited for Harry and Gabriel. It was the very next weekend, and Harper and I had managed to convince Harry and Gabriel to go on the hike with us. Harry was fairly easy to convince and if he saw right through me to the fact that I was trying to make it up to him for the ruined date, he did not mention it. I was thankful that he didn’t. I could do without the guilt of it. I had suffered for long enough. I had spent the whole week after our date feeling guilty, not because of what Gabriel and I had done but because of what it had implied. I was afraid of what Harry really thought. Worse, I was afraid of Harper. What if they didn’t see it as me standing up for myself, but they saw the discomfort as something else entirely? What if they questioned why he was making me uncomfortable? I knew that I didn't know how to hide my feelings, so I was sure someone if not everyone in the room had seen through me, and my

GABRIEL***“Thanks, man,” Harry said as I helped him onto his bed.“Don’t mention it,” I said. I made sure he was comfortable in his bed and that he had everything he needed so that he didn’t have to limp around the room.“Will that be all?” I asked after I made sure he was as comfortable as possible.“I’m so sorry for ruining the hike,” he said.“It’s the perfect payback for how I ruined the bowling date,” I said and smiled.“Thanks again, and thanks for driving us here, too,” he said.“Stop saying ‘thanks’. You’re making things weird,” I said, making my way to the door. “See you tomorrow,” he said as I walked out of his room.I was walking towards my room when my phone buzzed. It was a call from Harper.“Are you too tired or can I see you for a minute?” she asked when I answered.“Where are you? I'll come to you,” I said, turning around.“Meet me at the statue,” she said.I hung up and made my way toward the statue and for a moment I have tempted to text Emily and ask her if her

EMILY***My knee only began to hurt after Gabriel pointed it out. I hadn’t even noticed that I had gotten hurt. I was too busy trying to run away from Harper before she saw right through me again.I was in the dorm and had taken a shower and was disinfecting the wound that had appeared on my knee and I couldn't help but worry as I did it. Had Harper noticed my knee? Had she known that it was the reason why Gabriel offered to drive? I didn’t have to worry about Harry. I was sure he had no idea what was going on. He was in too much pain.I hated the feeling of walking on eggshells around Harper. She proved herself to be observant and it scared me. She would end up being the reason why I broke up with Harry, especially if she decided to ask me these questions in public. I couldn’t wait for it to happen. We would just have to stop going on these double dates. I would tell Harry and I would also tell Gabriel just in case Harry needed more convincing.If there was anything to be thankful f

EMILY***I know what happened to Emily in high school and I am going to expose it to the whole school.That statement had been ringing in my mind ever since Gabriel showed me the message. There was someone who knew about what happened to me in high school, the reason why I moved to Cresswell just before my senior year. But that’s not what fazed me. I was sure there were people who knew outside of my family and Gabriel. What shook me to my core was the fact that they were going to expose me to the whole school.It had taken all of my strength to walk from my dorm to Gabriel’s after he had shown me that text. I felt like my legs wanted to give way under me. I wanted them to give way, them and the ground beneath my feet, because I could not imagine being the topic of attention. I could not imagine people knowing what I had kept to myself for years, something that I hadn't even told Harry. We went to Gabriel’s room and I tried to be as cooperative as I could but I was scared. I wanted t

(Bakersville HighSchool)***It had been a month since Emily’s family moved. He’d found out that they had moved when he saw a ‘FOR SALE’ sign on their front porch. It had been, for him, the worst way to find out that his best friend had left him. Everything had started going wrong on the day of Ashley Brown’s party. Gabriel and Emily, who had been dating for a little over a year at that point, had argued that morning and he had decided to go to the party without her. He told himself that she had a car, too, and that she knew where Ashley’s house was, so she would make it. He reasoned that they didn't need to go together. He hadn’t wanted to do that, hadn’t wanted to leave her even if they were arguing, but he had also argued with his Dad and he had feared that would make things worse. It was something he had started considering ever since that day in middle school when he got into a fight in school after arguing with his Dad. Arguing with his dad made him angry and when he got angr