• Pain lanced up my rib cage every time I took a ragged breath, and I coughed up blood. Somehow I was laying on the floor, not knowing that I had fallen down. Warm blood trickled from between my fingers, my hand was pressed against my side in an effort to stop the flow. I looked up from where I was laying on the floor, my gaze slowly settling on the face of a boy not much older than me...





    Days earlier

    I blinked sleepily, my cheek resting on my hand and mouth slightly open, brown bangs getting in my face. Homeroom always lasted 30 minutes, some sort of waiting period that went on everyday at my school. I didn't care, I wanted to get out of this classroom and find my girlfriend. We always walked together in the halls, whether we had the same class or not. Sometimes I was late, but I didn't mind, I loved her too much to not be with her.

    "Settle down everyone, I know it's Thursday, but you don't have to act like it's already Friday." Mr. Wilson called out with a chuckle, and the room quieted almost immediately. Unlike some teachers at my school, Mr. Wilson was an okay guy. He let us talk as much as we wanted to, as long as we kept under control.

    "We have a new student, on this wonderful day!" He pointed at some boy, who obviously hadn't been standing beside his desk before. Or had he been there the whole time? I couldn't tell, I wasn't paying attention. "His name is Alexander Fen, just moved here yesterday."

    Alexander was about my height, 5'11", judging from where I was sitting. He had shaggy shortish black hair with bangs swept out of his eyes. His eyes looked different though, almost a yellow color. I blinked and rubbed at my own eyes, sure that I was wrong and it was just the overhead lights. Nope, they were yellow, probably just colored contacts or something. He wore worn blue jeans, a black shirt, black shoes, and a black jacket. His eye color wasn't the only odd thing, I thought to myself.

    Mr. Wilson nodded to him, encouraging him to speak. As if he read his mind, Alexander smiled and turned to face the class.

    "It's nice to meet you all. I hope we can all get along!"

    A few people laughed at that, but the smile on his face didn't get any smaller. It looked like he was relieved that he'd said the right thing.

    "Now, now children," Mr. Wilson said, shaking his finger back and forth scoldingly. "You were all once the new kids, too. Including me."

    "Doubt it!" Some guy behind me called out to him, and laughter erupted from behind me. I didn't need to turn my head to see who it was. Jonah Slark, plus his cronies. Resident bully, son of a father who was an infamous mobster, and all around jackass. He was always messing with girls, doing drugs, and smart mouthing the teachers, including Mr. Wilson. But our teacher wasn't one to back down, even if the son of a mob boss was one of his students. That's what made him even cooler.

    "One of our more "friendly" characters here in this classroom is Jonah." Mr. Wilson said, scratching a little at his balding head. "Don't let him get to you. Now, you can sit next to..." He looked around for an open seat, then smiled. "...Next to Zak! Zak, if you'd be so kind..."

    I glanced at the desk beside me, then pulled my book bag out of the seat. Alexander started to walk towards it, but then the bell rang. He stopped and looked back to Mr. Wilson, almost expecting something. Everyone got up from their seats and began to filter towards the door of the classroom. I did too, but was stopped by a cough from Mr. Wilson.

    "Zak, since Alexander's going to be sitting next to you, could you show him to a couple of his classes?"

    I stared into his gray-blue eyes for a moment, then nodded. "Sure."
    He nodded approvingly, satisfied, sat down at his desk and shifted through some papers. I went outside of the room and waited for Alexander. He came out just a second later, looking down at his schedule in his hand. I peered over at his first period, frowning when I saw that it was on the hall farthest away from where I usually met up with my girlfriend, Jess. He glanced up at me, his yellow eyes startling me and meeting my brown ones.

    I shifted a little uncomfortably, then asked the question I had been thinking. "Hey, uh, you think you can get to your class by yourself? I have something I need to do..." I trailed off.

    He stared at me for a little longer, than broke out into a smile like the one he had in front of the class. I swore I saw that two of his teeth were a little pointed, but I didn't say anything, unless it sounded weird. Honestly, one guy saying to another guy that his teeth were a little off? Not the brightest thing to say.

    "Yeah, it's fine. I have a pretty good memory, I saw a map of the school earlier."

    I nodded and turned to go down the hallway, weaving my way through the crowded place, leaving him to find his class. I stopped by the vending machine to wait for Jess. I scanned everyone in sight, looking for her. A few minutes passed, and I pulled out my phone to text her and ask her where she was. I started to shove it back in my pocket when I felt it vibrate, only a few seconds after I had sent the message, and flipped it open again.


    Need to do something, go ahead to class.
    I'll meet up with you later. Love you!



    I frowned, feeling a little bit worried. It wasn't like I was overly protective of her, it was just that I'd noticed that Jonah had been inching closer to her while I wasn't around, and sometimes when I was around too. I shrugged though and put my phone back in my jeans pocket and went off to go to my first period.

    I decided to talk the long way to my class, and pushed open the door that led outside. Plenty of people did that, but usually not so early in the morning since it was starting to turn to Fall. I didn't mind much, and I walked the familar path beside the red brick walls of the school buildings.

    Voices began to drift to my ears as I neared a corner. I stopped, not really wanting to eavesdrop on anybody. But when I heard Jonah's voice, I just had to atleast poke my head around the corner. The first thing I noticed was that Jess was glaring at him. I felt my heart soar seeing that. Jonah was glaring back at her, er, wait, at Alexander? He was standing in between the two, a defiant expression on his face where Jonah had an angry one. Jonah was a full two heads taller then him too. How'd he get there so fast, and why?

    "What, is this like, pay back for what I said in class?" Jonah sneered. He didn't have his cronies with him, odd.

    Alexander stood there, silent for a moment, before shaking his head. "No."

    "Then what're you doin' here, new kid?"

    "This young lady here doesn't seem to like your company." Alexander shrugged.

    Jonah let out a laugh and continued to smirk. "So what? What's it to you?"

    Yeah, that's what I thought too. Why was he there?

    "She obviously told you 'no', but you still advanced on her." He replied. "If you want to be with someone, you'll have to ask someone who's available and not in a relationship."

    Jonah's face started to turn pink and Jess laughed at his expression, and I silently cheered for that remark.

    "Listen, twerp, just get out of my way, and you can leave without having my foot up your a**." Jonah growled out, balling his fists.

    " 'Fraid I can't do that." Alexander said calmly, not even blinking. Jonah swore and swung his right arm out at him, knocking him to the ground. Jess gasped, and Jonah reached down to pick Alexander up by his neck a he started to get up, slamming him into the brick wall. But instead of struggling, Alexander reached a hand up to touch Jonah's, as if to pry his hand away. From where I was, I could see Jonah's blue eyes meet Alexander's unnatural yellow ones. For a few tense seconds, everyone was still. Then Jonah released him and backed away, shaking his head before turning on his heel and running.

    Jess looked up from helping Alexander to his feet, and her eyes met mine. "Zak!" She exclaimed, a little relieved to see me. I hadn't known that I had frozen in place until she spoke, and I rushed over to her, questions plain on my face. "Don't worry, nothing happened. He came out of nowhere."

    Alexander had taken out a handkerchief and was wiping some blood from the corner of his mouth. It didn't look like he was hurt, he must have had a face of rock.

    "Why did you help?" I asked questioningly.

    "Zak!" Jess said, ready to jump to his defense.

    Alexander stopped wiping and put it back in his pocket. He shrugged and replied. "She needed help, and I couldn't just let him come onto her."

    I nodded and he started to turn away. "Wait!" Jess said, and he turned his face to look at her. "Um, thanks. What's your name? Mine's Jess."

    Alexander blinked at her. "Alexander."

    Jess smiled and nodded. "Alright, Alex for short. You're new here, right? And you probably don't have any friends..."

    "Jess..." I said, seeing where this was going.

    "So, you can be our friend!" She finished.

    "Our?" I echoed, but she ignored me.

    Alexander, Alex now, stared at her for a moment, then broke out into a smile. "I'd like that." He waved and went on his way, Jess waving back and I staring at him.

    "Oh, c'mon, why did you have to say that?" I said, trying not to sound whiny.

    "Because he helped me, and he looks like a nice guy!" She laughed and when I groaned loudly, kissed me on the mouth.

    For some reason, I knew that her impulsive decisions would be the death of me.