The First Cut is the Deepest

I woke up the next morning, a migraine slowly making its way to my head. I sat up slowly and grabbed the two pills on my bedside table. I popped them into my mouth and downed the glass of water. I placed the empty glass back onto the bedside table before I looked around the room. It was empty with only me in the room. The blinds above Will and I's bed were both open and the sun was blinding me. Bright lights and a hangover were not a good mix. The warmth from the sun though felt good on my skin. I looked down at myself and noticed that I slept in my clothes from yesterday.

I got out of my bed and walked towards the bathroom, extra clothes and a towel in my arms. I took a quick shower and got ready. After doing that, I left the bathroom and walked towards the kitchen. I heard my stomach growl once I got there. I grabbed two eggs from the fridge and decided to make an omelet. I grabbed all the other ingredients that I needed and made my breakfast.

Right as I sat down on a stool in the kitchen and started to eat my omelet, I heard the door open. I glanced over my shoulder to see Will enter the room before I turned back to my food.

"You're awake," Will stated.

"I am," I replied.

"I didn't expect you to be up early," he said as he walked into the kitchen and grabbed a water bottle from the fridge. He took a gulp from the bottle as I glanced at the digital clock on the stove. It was almost ten in the morning. "You were beyond plastered," Will continued after he was done drinking his water. I put another forkful of egg into my mouth. "You can cook?" he asked me. I nodded.

"Yeah," I replied, shoving more food into my mouth.

"I didn't know you could cook," he stated.

"You don't know a lot of things about me," I said simply.

"Good. Let's keep it that way," he said harshly. I rolled my eyes at him before pointing at the rules on the fridge.

"You're breaking your own rules again," I said. "Rule number five, no talking to each other unless it is necessary," I said, mocking him once again. He seemed to be breaking his own rules more than me. He stared at me for a good second or two before he replied.

"Shut up," he muttered as he grabbed something from the fridge. I rolled my eyes again. And there he went again. I wasn't sure if I liked him better mean or nice. It was scary when he was mean, but it was just as scary when he was nice.

I finished up my breakfast and started to wash my dishes. From the corner of my eye, I saw Will sit in a stool, his own breakfast in front of him. I couldn't help, but feel as if he was looking at me. I took a quick glance at him and saw that he was looking at me. I saw where his eyes were and I was starting to feel a little self-conscious. His eyes were staring at my wrists. I could have been wrong, but I was pretty sure he was looking at my wrists.

"What?" I finally asked, not even bothering to look at him.

"What's with the wristband?" he asked. I felt myself tense up before I replied.

"Is that a necessary question?" I asked, a small smirk making its way onto my face. I could easily turn this around. From my peripheral vision, I saw him shrug.

"I don't know. It could be, depending on your answer," he said. Touché, Will, touché. This time, I shrugged.

"I like wristbands," I said simply.

"You like them that much, you wear them all the time?" he questioned. I shrugged again.

"Sure, why not?" I finished washing my dishes and dried them and put them away back into the cupboards. Will didn't bother to reply to that as I walked towards my bed. I grabbed my iron supplements and tossed them into my mouth, dry swallowing them since I was too lazy to walk back into the kitchen to get water. I climbed back into my bed and pulled out one of my books from my bedside table. I opened to the page I was at and started reading where I left off. In a matter of minutes, I was engrossed in the book. I didn't even notice when people came into the room. I stopped reading when I felt my bed lower slightly and I felt something warm on my lap.

"What are you doing?" I questioned.

"I still have a hangover..." Chris murmured, burrowing deeper into my lap. I felt a bit uncomfortable when he did that.

"I mean, what are you doing lying down on my lap?" I placed my book on the bedside table.

"Eh," he replied. I rolled my eyes at his response.

"As much as I feel your pain of a hangover, your head is heavy. So get off," I said as I pushed him off me and onto the floor.

"Ow! You don't have to be so mean!" he said as he sat up and rubbed his head. "Nicole, I thought you were nice..." Chris pouted. I sent him a cheeky smile in response. I picked up my book after I noticed that Annabella, Sara, and James were also in the room. I took a glance at Sara and James' entwine fingers before turning all my attention back to my book. I smiled to myself.

They're cute together.

I thought to myself.

"So she's a bookworm, eh?" I heard Chris mutter. I glanced up and saw he was talking to Will. I saw Will shrug.

"Hell if I know. I don't think she's very smart," Will replied. I gritted my teeth. Without looking up from my book, I flicked him off and I heard Chris snicker. I could just tell Will was rolling his eyes at me. I put my hand down to turn the page. "Did you know she honked twice when she came back last night? Or should I say this morning?" Will said. I felt my cheeks flush a tint of pink.

"Really? I only did once," Chris replied. I narrowed my eyes at my book instead of at Chris.

"Yeah, it was horrible. She barely made it to the loo," Will continued to say. "Did you see those scratches on the door? Yeah, she made those with her key card." I heard Chris laugh. I closed my book, angered. I threw my book towards Will, but apparently, my aim was a bit off and I hit Chris instead. I heard a loud smack before my hard-covered book hit the ground.

"Oh my gosh! I am so sorry, Chris! Are you okay?!" I jumped up from my bed and ran over to Chris. The hard impact from my heavy book sent him flying to the ground. I bent down to his height. "Chris, I am so sorry!" I apologized again. "Why didn't you dodge it?! Haven't you learned anything from the game of dodgeball?!"

"Didn't you ever learn how to aim from dodgeball?!" he retorted. I didn't bother to reply to him, but instead helped him off the ground. Will laughed his ass off the whole time. Sara and James looked at Chris and I in shock, while Annabella was trying to shut Will up. I sat Chris on my bed and rushed into the kitchen. I quickly grabbed a sandwich bag and filled it with ice from the freezer. I rushed back to Chris and gently pressed the bag to Chris' forehead. He hissed in pain.

"Sorry!" I apologized again. I could already see a huge bruise start to form. "You should blame Will for this," I said.

"What?!" Will yelled at me. "I didn't do anything!" he defended himself.

"Bullshit. I was trying to throw the book at you to shut you up," I said, rubbing my home-made ice pack onto Chris' forehead.

"It's not my fault you can't aim. And you're the one who threw the book!" he said as he pointed at me.

"You provoked me!" I retorted, raising my voice slightly.

"Guys, stop!" Chris ordered. "I already have a migraine from the hangover and now from the book thrown at my head. I don't need people yelling into my ear right now."

"Sorry," I said again.

"You better apologize," Will said.

"Fuck you!" I said in a harsh whisper before he glared at me.

"What did I just say?!" Chris cut in sternly.

"Sorry," both Will and I muttered. I glared at Will while he glared back at me just as harsh. I turned away from him and faced Chris. His forehead was slightly swollen.

"How does it look?"

"Uh..." I started.

"Will?" Will replied with the same thing as me. "Annabella?" She didn't bother to reply. "Sara? James...?" They both didn't bother to reply either. "How bad is it?" Chris asked, fear rising in his voice. "Nicole, tell me," he ordered me.

"Chris, I am so sorry! Forgive me?" I pleaded. He stared at me for a second or two before he pushed me out of the way and ran to the bathroom. He looked in the mirror and gasped loudly. I cringed as I slowly walked over to the bathroom and saw his horrified face.

"Nicole, how could you?" he asked, touching his forehead slightly. He winced in pain.

"I'm sorry! If you want to blame someone, blame Will. Like I said earlier..." I trailed off.

"Stop putting me into this!" Will yelled. I inched my way away from him.

"My pretty face..." Chris pouted. Annabella tried stifling her laughter. While James and Sara were nowhere to be found. When in the hell did they leave?

"Want me to kiss it to make it better?" I asked jokingly.

"Yes," Chris said.

"You've got to be kidding me..." Will said in disbelief.

"What?" I asked in disbelief as well.

"I said yes. Kiss it to make it better," he said, bending down lower to my height.

"What?" I repeated. "I was just kidding!" I said, stepping back slowly.

"Well, I wasn't," he said, completely serious. I stared at him incredulously before I sighed heavily.

"Fine," I said. "Get down lower. I'm pretty short," I motioned him lower with my hand. Annabella stopped laughing and watched intently, while Will tried to look away, but just couldn't. Chris' forehead was about an inch away from my mouth. I took a deep breath and placed my hands on his head. I pursed my lips and then puckered them. I leaned my lips towards his forehead and landed a big sloppy kiss on it. "There. All better?" I asked as I pulled away.

"All better," Chris repeated, pulling away from me. I dropped my arms to my sides. I saw a goofy grin make its way onto his face. I rolled my eyes at him.

"You better wipe that nasty smile off your face before I throw my book at you again," I threatened. Chris quickly composed himself and covered it up with a cough.

"I can't believe you just did that," Will muttered. I shrugged.

"It's not like I made out with him or anything. I just kissed his boo-boo," I said the last part in a baby voice as I pinched Chris' cheeks.

"Ow," he muttered when I pulled away. He rubbed his cheek in pain. I rolled my eyes.

"Oh, suck it up, wuss," I said. He gaped at me.

"First, you shove me off your lap and onto the floor, then you throw a gigantic-arse book at my head, then you kiss my boo-boo," Chris said as he pointed at his forehead and said the word "boo-boo" in a baby voice. "Now, you call me a wuss. What kind of friend are you? Are you mental?" he asked me as I picked up my book from the floor and sat back in my bed, under the covers. I shrugged.

"Maybe. You never know," I replied as I continued where I left off from before I hit Chris in the head. I smiled to myself at the thought. I did feel a little guilty about it though.

I spent the rest of my Saturday morning trying to read. Chris was like a child that needed attention every ten minutes. So of course, I couldn't really read while he was in the room. Will and Annbella making out in the same room as us wasn't exactly helping either. I tried to ignore all three of them, but it was kind of difficult to say the least. I did start to wonder where James and Sara went off to. I assumed they just went off to have time alone with each other.


Monday morning rolled and I woke up and got ready for school. After a quick breakfast, I left the room and made my way to the school building towards my locker. I got to my locker and grabbed my books for my first class. I glanced at the time on my phone and realized I had a few minutes to spare. I leaned against my closed locker and watched as people walked by me. I examined my nails in curiosity. When I glanced up for a quick second, something caught my eye. I lifted my gaze up to down the hall.

I saw Hayley waiting by Chris' locker, wringing her hands together nervously. I smiled to myself and pushed myself off my locker. I made my way down the hall to her.

"Hey," I said as I stood in front of her.

"Huh? Oh, hi," she said as she looked down nervously.

"Expecting someone else?" I asked her. She nodded slowly. "He'll come," I said. "He was surprised, I'll tell you that."

"Oh. You were there with him when he read it?" she asked me.

"Yeah, but don't worry. I didn't read it personally. He didn't tell me the details. All he told me was that you liked him for five years. Is that true?" I noticed Hayley's cheeks blush red.

"Yeah, it's true," she said with a shy smile.

"Aw! How cute!" I exclaimed. She smiled back at me nervously. I glanced to the right of me and saw Chris making his way over to where we were. "Well, I guess I should go now. He's on his way over," I said as I thumbed over to the direction of Chris.

"What?" she managed to say before I left. She stood there, slightly dazed and panicked. I walked in the opposite direction of Chris and walked to my first class.

The first bell hadn't rung yet, but I decided to just go anyway. I opened the door and sat at my seat. The classroom was empty, so I leaned my head back and looked up at the ceiling. I stared at a tiny speck on the white ceiling. I didn't even realize when the bell rang and people started to file into the classroom. I was pulled out of my trance when I was rudely bumped into. I looked to the left of me to see Will sitting in his seat. I glared at him, but he didn't even seem fazed by it. That only made me glare at him harder.


By the time lunch came around, I was starving. I made my way over to the cafeteria building, my bag over my shoulder, swaying wildly as I rushed. When I got there, there was a slight line.

"Damn it," I muttered to myself. I impatiently waited in the line. I recalled this one time that I waited so long in a line that I passed out from hunger. Yeah, it's happened before.

I finally made it to the front of the line and picked out what I wanted and placed it all on my black tray. When I got to pay for the things I wanted, it came out to being a lot of food. I pulled out my key card and slid it through. The lunch lady and the people behind me looked at me funny while I slid my key card through. Have they not seen a tiny girl like myself get a lot of food to eat? Apparently not.

After paying the lady, I grabbed my tray and walked away, my nose slightly in the air. I picked a random table and set my tray and bag down. I grabbed a bread roll and started tearing it into pieces. Right as I stuffed a few pieces into my mouth, Chris sat down in front of me.

"Hey," he greeted me, a tray of his own in front of him.

"Hey, I replied, my mouth full of bread. I think I accidentally spit on him...

"Eww," he muttered as he wiped his cheek clean of the saliva soaked bread. I guess I did spit on him.

"Sorry," I muttered as I covered my mouth. He shook his head.

"So how was your day?" he asked. I shrugged and then grinned.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" I retorted. He stared at me in confusion for a few seconds. "Hayley, you dork!" I exclaimed.

"Oh!" he said. "Well..." he started.

"You talked to her this morning, right?" I asked him.

"Well..."

"Well what?" I urged him.

"Well, I kind of avoided her..." he muttered.

"What?!" I screeched. "You mean you didn't talk to her this morning?!" I yelled at him. I didn't bother lowering my voice. People were already staring at me because I had a lot of food.

"No. When I saw her this morning, I quickly took a turn down another hallway..." he admitted quietly.

"You asshole!" I yelled at him again.

"What?" he asked me.

"How could you?! Do you have any idea how she feels right now?!"

"Well... No..."

"Oh my gosh... I seriously want to throw my book at your head again..." Chris' hand instantly flew up to his still slightly purple forehead. "But I'm not going to, because I don't have my big book with me..." I muttered. I saw a look of relief cross his face. "Even without my book though, I will kick your ass!"

"Why?!" he exclaimed, getting up from his seat and backing away.

"I can't believe you did that! She fucking loves you and you avoid her?!" Chris looked at me in fear and shock. I stood up from my seat and then threw my jello at him. Yeah, that's right. I threw my jello at him. He deserved it. The green jello landed on his chest, all over his crisp, white, uniform shirt. "Now, you owe me jello!" I exclaimed.

"What the fuck?!" he exclaimed, grabbing a nearby napkin and quickly wiping off the green substance. "I can't believe you fucking threw your jelly at me!" he said loudly. The whole cafeteria stared at the both of us. Some of the girls gasped, while some of the guys tried to stifle their laughter. I rolled my eyes at him.

"Well, you're a fucking pussy!" I yelled back. This time, everyone gasped. Even the lunch lady dropped her metal spoon of gravy as her mouth fell open in shock. Chris stared at me, his mouth hanging open as well as the other people in the huge room.

"Did you... Did you just call me a pussy?" He asked in surprise. I rolled my eyes.

"Yes. Yes, I did. Because you are one. I can't believe you just... ran away from her!" I said. I felt a light tap on my shoulder. I whirled around to see Hayley standing quietly behind me. "Hayley!" I said in surprise. She jumped back a bit.

"What's going on?" she asked, confusion plastered across her face.

"Oh! Um... N-nothing going's on!" I said nervously. "I was just leaving actually. Chris," I said as I turned to face him. "didn't you tell me that you needed to talk with Hayley?" I didn't even wait for his reply as I gently moved Hayley towards Chris. He still stared at me in shock. By now, all the staring stopped and everyone went back to what they were doing before my little... outburst.

"Nicole-" Hayley tried to protest, but I wouldn't hear it. I quickly winked at her while Chris wasn't looking. Her face started to glow a slight red. I grabbed most of my food and placed them in a napkin and put it in my bag. I grabbed my sandwich and started eating it as I walked out, with my bag full of books and food slung on my shoulder. I waved my hand behind me, signaling that I was leaving.

Before I left, Will walked through the cafeteria doors. I ignored him and continued walking to the doors. As he passed by me though, he roughly shoved his shoulder into mine, not even bothering to say sorry. Since he was so much taller than me, he nearly knocked my sandwich and I over to the ground. Fortunately, I caught myself before my face landed with the tile floor.

"Watch it, twat!" Will spat at me as he turned back at me. I gaped at him. I straightened myself out and turned to him.

"You know what?" I asked him. I didn't even bother to wait for him to answer me. "Will, do you like jello?" I asked in a sickeningly sweet voice as I slowly inched my way to the closest table next to me, which luckily was empty and by mere chance had an abandoned jello cup on it. His eyes narrowed at me suspiciously.

"What are you on about?" he asked me. I grinned wickedly and grabbed the cup of green jello. I carelessly threw the jello onto Will's face which then trailed down onto his chest.

"Oops..." I feigned innocence as I dropped the now empty cup back onto the table. "Sorry," I said sarcastically with a shrug as I turned around and walked through the cafeteria doors.

"That bitch..." I faintly heard Will seethe out. I grinned to myself as I walked down the hall, taking another bite out of my sandwich.