Always

Chapter 1

A sudden boisterous voice boomed down the hall, drawing my attention in that direction.  Much to my distaste, I saw my ex, Colt, throw his strong shoulder into a boy passing by and knock him into the locker.  Colt sneered at him as his body bounced off the metal and continued on his path towards us, his ego almost visible as he neared.  The boy turned around and rubbed his shoulder slightly, doing nothing more to defend himself before carrying on.

It was Harry Styles, a guy in our grade who'd been in the same school as me as long as my group of friends.  With his big framed glasses, simple clothes, and brown hair that was always smoothed back from his forehead, he was definitely not in our circle of friends. 

Nerdy, quiet, and shy, he was just about the exact opposite of my loud, cocky, party loving group.  I felt a slight pang of guilt when I saw his hurt expression before he turned to continue down the hall.  That type of thing happened to him a lot for no apparant reason other than not looking like the rest of us, but no one ever said anything about it.

I slammed my locker closed, trying to ignore what I had just witnessed.  Putting on a grin, I turned around to face my group of friends.  Lydia was in the middle of telling a story about getting caught by her mother, yet again, while hooking up with her boyfriend, Will.  She smirked as she recounted her utter terror at being discovered in a very compromising position, something that should have embarrassed her but only made her laugh now as it happened so ofte

"I don't know why you don't just lock your door.  I'm sure your own mother would be thankful at this point," I commented as Lydia wrapped up her story.

"You know that takes away from the fun.   There's just something about the thrill of being caught that gets to me," she replied, nudging me conspiratorially in the shoulder.

"But is it still thrilling when you've been caught so often?" Haley replied sarcastically, too concerned with searching the crowd for her boyfriend, Jack, and not really looking at anyone.  She ran her fingers through short blonde hair and huffed.  "Joey have you seen Jack? He's usually here by now."

"His car was still in the street when I left home so who knows where he is," I replied, shrugging.  Jack lived across the street from me, just as he had our entire lives, which meant that I was often responsible for telling Haley the whereabouts of her boyfriend.  

"Where who is?" a male voice sounded from behind me.  I turned around to see Jack himself, standing over us and grinning. 

"You," Haley exclaimed before launching herself at him to hug him and press a kiss to his lips.  He didn't hesitate to wrap his arms around her waist and lift her up, never disconnecting their mouths.

"Can you two keep it in your pants for two minutes? It's disgusting." Lydia groaned at the image.

"Lyd let them be.  Besides I hardly think you have room to talk after that story," I chuckled.  Lydia, Haley, Jack, Will, and I had all been best friends for as long as I could remember.  We did everything together, so it didn't surprise me when everyone sort of coupled up.  Lydia and Will.  Haley and Jack.  Me and Colt.  Colt, who I had dated for nearly two years before he started to change.  Before he decided he was somehow more important than everyone in school, and wasn't afraid to show it. 

Now that it was our senior year, he was worse than ever.  Mean, conceited, and entitled, he was nearly the exact opposite of how he had been when we started dating and I couldn't deal with it anymore.  While everyone else in our group told me I was over reacting and that he'd always been that way, I was decided.  I didn't like who he was anymore or who I was becoming when I was with him, so I broke things off with him, and he did not take it well.  Being in the "popular" group of school, our friends were known by nearly everyone.  It felt weird to consider myself popular, but I guess that's what I was.  While I didn't really care one way or another, Colt sure did.