I rose my hand to wipe the tears off my face, but when I brought it back down something was smudged onto my hand. I looked at what it was and realized that it was a faint peach color. What? That's when the thought hit me hard like a brick. My makeup. My fake freckles.

I know I don't cuss often, but there's the only thought running through my head at that moment.

Oh gosh the students. I can't have my identity blown.

I ran into the girls bathroom and looked into the mirror and saw that most of my fake freckles were gone. I wish Abby was here. She would know what to do. I heard someone feet shuffling from outside of the bathroom so I quickly ran into one of the stalls and locked it.

"Ariah?" I heard a familiar voice call. I stayed silent.

"Ariah?" The voice called again.

"Ariah." It said one more time but it came out more as a statement.

"I know you're here. I can see your feet from under the stall." In surrender I got out of the stall and faced the owner of the voice.

"What do you want Ali?" I asked him.

"I'm really sorry Ariah, but-" I cut him off.

"Don't call me Ariah anymore. The Ali I used to know can only call me that." I said looking down. He stayed silent for a while, but he finally spoke up again.

"What happened to you calling me Ali?" He asked with a hint of sadness in his voice. I sighed.

"What happened to the old you?" I asked looking up and I felt some more tears sliding down my face. Unexpectedly, Ali picked me up and set me down on the counter and looked into my eyes.

"The old me is still here." He said frowning.

"The old you hasn't been there for me today or the past 5 years." I said letting a few more tears out.

Ali lifted his hand to my face and started to wipe away my tears. I stared into his face that was still frowning. I looked into his eyes to see sadness and guilt. I'm probably lying to myself now. Why would we feel bad? He has everything he wanted now so why bother with trying to make me feel better?

After a minute, his eyebrows creased together and his eyes looked into mine. Did I do something wrong?

"I don't remember you having freckles." He mumbled to himself quietly, but not quiet enough for me to not here.

"What?" I asked softly.

"When we were kids I don't remember you having freckles." He said a little louder. I turned around to look in the mirror and saw that my fake freckles were gone. I looked back at him.

"I don't have freckles though." I said a little confidently yet still having a little tremble in my voice at the end.

"Everyone knows you as the kid with freckles though." He said staring right at me.

"I don't have freckles." I said. "Don't you trust me?" Ali looked a little taken back at my sudden question.

"I trust you." He said hesitantly yet I knew he somewhat meant it. It was silent in the bathroom.

"Do you want me to walk you home?" He asked breaking the silence. I hesitantly nodded.

We didn't really talk or anything, but we just walked side by side. We would sneak occasional glances at each other and once we caught each other doing it so we looked away real fast.

"We're here." I said stopping in front of my house.

"I know, silly." Ali said smiling and when I looked at him, it looked like a genuine smile. He then looked to my other house and by my other house, I mean Ariah Lim's house.

"You live next to that model?" He asked surprised.

"Yeah. Her family built that house about 2 or 3 years ago." I said trying to not act like I'm nervous or anything.

He walked me to my door and being the stupid person I am, I forgot my keys inside the house this morning so we had to ring the doorbell and wait for one of my parents to open the door. My mom opened the door.

"Hi honey." She gasped when she saw Ali with me. "Oh hi dear. I haven't seen you in ages."

"Hello Mrs. Janeiro." Ali responded politely.

"Would you like to come in?" My mom offered.

"Thanks for the offer, but I have to get going." Ali rejected.

"Alright. Get home safely." And with that I entered the house and Ali left.

I had some dinner alone and when I was about to go upstairs, my mother gasped loudly.

"What is it?" I asked her. She rushed up to me and put her hands on my shoulders. Now I was really worried.

"What happened to your cheek?" She asked urgently. My eyes widened and I rushed to the nearest bathroom and looked in the mirror to see my cheek. It had a disfigured shape of red spread across my right cheek. I touched it, but winced at the pain. My father came in and looked shocked when he saw my cheek.

"Does it hurt?" He asked urgently.

"It's fine." I lied. Gosh, I hate lying to my parents. My father sighed.

"We'll just have to even it out with some makeup." I nodded.

I went upstairs and texted Abby.

I waited for Abby to respond, but she didn't so I turned my phone off. I'm not planning on going to school tomorrow because, guess what? I actually have feelings and I don't want to be harassed by the popular crowd about how Brit slapped me. Of course they all support the one that started yelling and accusing the other person.

I heard the doorbell ring and my one of my parents opened it and they were talking to the person at the door. The door then closed and I didn't hear anymore talking. I looked out my window and stared into the darkness. I was about to pick up my phone to text Abby and ask her why she's not responding, but when I turned around, I swear I almost got a heart attack.