Heather and I stood in the bathroom for a couple minutes in silence and I avoided all eye contact with her because I could feel her glare inflicting daggers into me.

I crossed my arms and sighed in annoyance. "So...what did you want to talk about?"

Her glare dropped to my exposed arms. My eyes widened when she grabbed both of my wrist. She quickly let go of one of my wrist, grabbed her phone from her purse, and took a photo of my arms. "Hey!" I cried out.

She held my wrist in her hands and evilly laughed, "did you beat yourself up again?"

I yanked my wrist away from her hold. "I'm leaving if you don't tell me what it is you wanted to say."

"You bother me...a lot."

My eyebrow lifted in confusion, "ok? Why do I care?"

"You know," she wrapped a piece of her blonde hair around her pointer finger, "Ryder doesnt like you at all. He's only working with you because he knows that you will do all the work."

"You know," I wrapped a piece of my brown hair around my finger, mimicking her, "hes actually been doing the work. He writes his essays and comes to the shelter with me so I think that's where you're wrong."

Her light green eyes darkened to the color of trees in a forest and the snarl on her lips told me she was irritated. Good.

"The other day I overheard him speaking to his best friend, Brandon, saying he hates you and that you are nothing but a piece of trash."

I smirked, "maybe you should look in the mirror before you call other people trash, Heather."

She rolled her eyes. "Fine. Dont believe me."

"Ok I won't."

"You idiotic, worthless girl. You're so pathetic with all those scars on your arms. I bet your parents hate you. That is, if you even have parents. I cant believe you haven't given up already. But," she looked at the markings on my arms, "it seems that you're close."

This is when her words finally affected me. I felt water threatening to fall from my eyes but I blinked it back. A tight pain stung every inch of my heart. My lungs hurt, making it harder for me to take in deep breathes.

Pathetic

Worthless

Idiotic

"I bet your parents hate you"

"I can't believe you haven't given up already"

Why haven't I given up already? I've been through so much pain and trauma for a teenager. So why haven't I given up?

Because I'm strong, that's why. I'm no quitter.

Confidence rose in me. My lungs opened and the pain in my heart went away. I took a threatening step towards her and she backed up in suprise.

"You're scared of me, aren't you?"

Her eyes widened, "w-what?"

"You don't like the fact that you can't understand me so you trying to test me by telling me false things about Ryder to see if it will affect me."

She thinks she can play me. Not today Satan.

"You're the type of person to read the rules before you break them. That's what you do with everyone else — you figure them out then mess with them so they don't challenge you because you want to be above everyone."

"The fact that you can't figure out my weak spots means that I'm a threat to you, isn't that right." The tone in my voice lit her eyes up with furry but her bottom lip quivered in defeat.

"Guess what Heather," I leaned close to her ear and whispered, "I dont have any weak spots."

Ok that was a lie. But she doesn't need to know that. Everyone has weak spots, I just wont show her mine.

The triumphant smirk on my lips was enough to piss her off. She brought her hand up to smack my face but I grabbed it in an instant.

The amount of pressure my hold had on her wrist made her whimper but I didn't care.

The anger swirling in my blue eyes sliced through her petrified green ones. "Mark my words, Heather. I have been through a lot of traumatic shit to last me a lifetime so trust me when I say you should think twice before messing with me. You can't hurt me even if you tried, hoe."

Everyone knows you can't break someone that's already broken, so I give Heather the best of luck because she's not capable of breaking me. She will never have that power.

Releasing her wrist, I tossed my hair to the side and walked off. As I walked down the hallway I felt some sort of power and confidence.

Since when have I felt this confident?

It felt good to stand up to the most popular girl in school. It made me feel like I could do anything.

So caught up in what just happened, I barely felt the impact when I crashed into someone. Looking up at the person, my eyes furrowed in annoyance. "Derek..." I mumbled under my breath.

He smiled at me. "Hey Autumn! Do you know where Heather is?"

That smile. The first time I met him, that smile of his seemed to just be bright and cheerful. But now that I know the truth about what he did to Ryder, that smile no longer looked the same. His smile is now a crooked grin, lethal like a knife.

The grin of a monster.

My eyebrow lifted in confusion at his question. Heather? Since when does he want to know where Heather is? She seemed afraid of him the day I met Derek.

"Why on Earth do you want to know where she is?" I spat in irritation which seemed to startle but intrigue him.

"I um just need to ask her something," he said nervously as he looked around the hallway. Everyone was in class and talking to Heather made me late to my next period so it didn't matter how long I stood in the hallway with Derek.

We both stood in awkward silence for a few minutes until he spoke up. "So do you want to study history some–''

"I know what you did to Ryder in 8th grade. I know the truth."

His eyes widened in fear. "I don't know what you're talking about."

I clenched my fist. "Don't act like this is news to you, Derek. You lied to me and said Ryder was the one that betrayed you, but you were really the one to betray him."

He looked down at the ground with shame, "Autumn–''

I took a confident step towards him, "what kind of psycho would do that to his best friend! I can't believe you would do something so horrible to him." I shoved him with all my might, "you bastard!"

As his head was lowered, his blonde hair covered his eyes and the only thing I could see was those devilish lips. They formed into a crooked smirk and he laughed, chaos booming in each chuckle. "You seriously think I care about Ryder? He was a lost cause, sweetheart. I'm glad I dumped his ass, he was such a buzzkill."

That's enough. I couldn't handle what he was saying. It is mean of Heather to bully me, but it's sinical of Derek to betray his best friend for a group of kids that didn't give a crap about him at the end of the day.

I'd rather have to endure all the pain in the world than have anyone hurt the slightest hair on Ryder's head.

Wow. I can't believe I just admitted that to myself.

Wow.

Before I could stop myself, my hand forcefully smacked the right side of Derek's face. He made an 'oof' sound even though I didn't hit him as hard as I could have.

As he held onto his cheek, I moved my lips close to his ear.

"Go to hell, dickhead."

With that said I walked away, purposefully bumping my shoulder hard in to his. I advanced down the hallway to my next class with bravery in my bones and satisfaction on my lips.

It felt amazing to stand up for myself against Heather and to defend Ryder.

I got to class very late and apologized many times but the teacher just rolled her eyes and continued the boring lesson she was presenting.

As I sat in my assigned desk, all I could think about was protecting Ryder.

All I want to do is protect Ryder from any pain that would be caused by Derek or anyone in the future.

So that's exactly what I'm going to do.