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A moment later, Shane strolled in.
    “Late as usual, Shane.” Mr. Shapiro announced. He huffed out and gave Shane an aggravated glare.
    “But always here for you, sir,” Shane retorted. He threw the teacher a crooked smile and leaned back in his seat. He quickly noticed me and winked. I rolled my eyes at him while turning away.
    After what seemed like hours of Mr. Shapiro going over problems on the board, a crumpled paper landed on my desk. I quickly grabbed it and held it in my fist so Mr. Shapiro wouldn’t see it. I carefully opened it on my lap when the coast was clear. The note read…
    You wanna go to The Impulse with me tonight?
    I looked up and scanned the room to see who had thrown it towards me. When my eyes met Ayden’s, he showed me a brave smile and tilted his head forward as if he were asking me again. I looked back down and began writing…
    No thanks, I have plans.
    I had to end it with him already. Ever since Shane and Markus brought it to my attention, I haven’t wanted to do the whole friends-with-benefits deal. It really was stupid. Since we weren’t technically going out, I guessed I didn’t really have to tell him it was over, right? I could just brush him off?
    I crumpled the paper back up and threw it at him. Instead of letting it fall on his desk, he caught it in an exaggerating motion that grabbed the teacher’s attention. Mr. Shapiro walked up to him with his hand extended out. Ayden regrettably handed him the paper.
    “Such a dive for a piece of trash.” Mr. Shapiro said. He opened up the crumpled paper and walked back to the front of the class. All the students had their attention on Mr. Shapiro. “Ayden over here wants me to read this out loud.” He took a look at Ayden, “I wouldn’t want to be rude while he’s trying to say something…” Shapiro continued, “…so I’ll make sure that he gets his point out. Apparently, he wants to go to the club with Mindy and she rejected him. The end.” Mr. Shapiro crumpled and tossed the note into the trash next to his desk.
    Ayden sunk into his seat and peeked over his shoulder at me. Embarrassment flooded his face.
    “I’m sorry.” I mouthed out to him.
    “Burn!” Shane laughed out. All the students laughed along with his remark. He leaned his upper body on his desktop to get a better look at Ayden. Shane threw him a taunting smile. It was similar to the one he always gave Dean.
    I covered my face with my hands and sunk in my seat. I felt so horrible. I basically rejected Ayden in front of the whole class.
    “I’ll let you guys escape a few minutes early today. Have a safe wee kend.” Mr. Shapiro announced, then dismissed us with a wave of his hand.
    The class swarmed towards the door in excitement. Ayden stayed in his desk and as the students passed him, they playfully stroked his head, messing up his hair. After all the students passed his desk, he followed with his head down. I collected all my books and tried to catch up to him.
    “Ayden! Ayden, I’m so sorry!” I called out to him. He didn’t turn around. He must have heard me though, I wasn’t that far away. I guessed he really was embarrassed. He just kept walking and I didn’t follow.
    Amazingly, the day went by pretty fast for a Friday. And everyone was raving about The Impulse. I had only been there once. I would describe it as a lounge, but with no age restrictions. Security guards made sure to catch the underage drinkers. They sometimes had bands there trying to promote themselves. Markus and Tanya were dragging me there tonight. And I really hoped I didn’t end up bumping into Ayden there.
    “Pick you up at eight?” Markus asked. He pulled up to my house and parked in front of the driveway.
    “Yeah. Eight is good.” I answered.
    “Not eight thirty,” he continued, “eight.”
    “Yes!” I assured him. In my head I was telling myself seven thirty, so for sure I wouldn’t be late. I lifted the car handle and tried pushing the door open. It was stuck. I