Another Cliché Love Romance

"7 friends. 6 states. 5 secrets. 4 weeks. 3 plane rides. 2 cars. 1 Winner."

As each second passed, the ticking of the clock grew louder between my ears. I checked back between the wall clock and my wrist watch, both read 3:00pm, but the siren that would dismiss us from our twelve years of schooling (a.k.a hell) and declare the end of my human biology exam had still not come.

I glanced back at Faith, my best friend and the closest thing to a sister I had. She shook her head at me with a small frown on her face. I gave her the best reassuring smile I could muster. I had endured my whole school life with Faith. It was all coming to an end and I could hardly believe it myself.

"Zoey Jacobs!" The shrieking voice of the supervisor boomed over the class and I turned my head back to the front. Not that she could really do anything now, all our tests had been collected as the class sat in anticipation with me, counting down the minutes. I suddenly felt overwhelmed. All the tears, stress, work, coffee and assignments had brought me to this last week of exams, biology being a more confident subject of mine. My future was unfolding before me. Faith and I had our applications in for college next year, and all we could do for the next three months was sit back in more anticipation, and wait.

I smiled back at Faith, her red curls hung in front of her pretty, freckled face. After a moment she looked up at me with her green eyes but before I could be yelled at again, the siren boomed over our heads. I stood up and got caught in the stampede of students rushing out the door as I turned to see Faith running towards me.

She grabbed my hand as we followed the moving body of students out.

"I can't believe it." Her face beamed at me. "But we did it! We actually did it!"

Her face reflected how I felt and I sensed a goofy grin spreading across my face. She pulled me down the hall and stopped at a similar room to our own, where Kaleb -her boyfriend- sat his chemistry exam. Like our own class, his came rushing out and he was caught in the middle. He caught sight of Faith and pushed his way through the crowd to us.

"Baby!" He called to her. Her face lit up like a thousand stars. I rolled my eyes as he picked her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist as they kissed. They were so in love it was sickening.

I was about to dissolve myself into the rest of the student body when I felt a pair of arms wrap around my middle and spin me around. I came face to face with Tyler.

"Baby!" He smirked at me, impersonating his best friend. A disgusting nausea rose up in my throat and I peeled his hands off me.His body was so close to mine I could feel the energy radiate off him.

I turned to Faith to ask for help but she was still sucking face with Kaleb. I wanted to barf.

"Faith." I tried my best to voice my annoyance but struggled. If she was happy, who was I to say she couldn't date Kaleb? Even if he happened to be the best friend of the most self centered, arrogant, twisted thing I had ever met in my life, Tyler Anderson.

His warm hand slipped into mine and it took me a second to yank it free. I turned back to him, but his caramel eyes stared deep into my soul.

"You hesitated." The corner of his lip twisted upward. "Are we making improvements then darling?"

I shrugged, regaining my composure. "I thought you should feel the warmth of another human being for once in your pathetic life."'

Lie.

"Ouch." He twisted his face in mock hurt and put a hand over his heart. "Oh, how you hurt me Zoey. You reject my love. You reject me. You reject us."

He did his big puppy dog eyes as he still held his hand over his chest.

"Add me to the list of girls that reject your STD infected soul then."