As soon as we exited the Smiths, we headed straight to my house. I was still in shock from my previous encounter with Carter, I couldn't seriously believe that everything had been a lie. I was so stupid! I should have listened to Lila sooner. Earlier while thinking about him I realized that I didn't even know a lot about him and I knew nothing about his friends. I should probably try to ask Lila or even better yet Madden. I felt a little awkward bringing up his twin brother and his friends. I wondered if Carter's friends sold drugs too, because earlier Madden was about to say it was a family thing. I wondered what that meant and I wanted to know more. Lila might have known bit about that but she didn't know enough.

"Elle are you okay? You're being really quiet, what's on your mind?" Madden questioned, breaking me out of my thoughts. We have been sitting in his Porsche for ten minutes in complete silence, if I wasn't so submerged by my thoughts I would have been cringing with awkwardness.

"Sorry, yeah I'm fine. I was just thinking about today. I was also wondering if I could ask you something?" I questioned in a shy voice while playing with the hem of my T-shirt.

"Yeah of course you can Elle, go ahead." He answered with a smile touching his lips.

"Well I met a new friend today in the library her name is Nicole, as we were walking out Vaughn pushed her, and she said that he didn't appreciate her a lot. I realized that I knew nothing about him and his friends. The only thing that Lila said was to stay away from them, so I was thinking that maybe you could lighten me about them?" I said before biting my bottom lip, I really needed to know the maximum about them because they seemed to really not like me and Nicole.

Madden cleared his throat and started explaining: " Ok well I'll just give you little summaries about all three of them. I'm sure you know about Carter." He replied through gritted teeth and at the mention of Carter I decided not to answer and just wait for him to carry on, "Ok I guess first there is Sawyer which is Carter's best friend out of all of them, they have been friends since they were about five. He's kind of the joker and he will follow Carter for anything. So if Carter is nice to you Sawyer is also but if he isn't...well he will treated you the same way."Sawyer never insulted or threatened me so I was kind of taken aback by his words.

"Oh they are all on the football team by the way. I don't know if you knew that...anyway Sawyer's parents are lawyers but his dad is an ass, always threatening him with military school. Sawyer is always drinking and it makes his father mad that he isn't planning to follow his steps." He swallowed before continuing with a monotonous tone. "Nathan! He's alright actually, he seems to be the most normal out of all four of them, but I get a weird feeling around him. I don't know like it's all fake or something, his hair is actually natural blonde he didn't dye it and everyone thinks he did which pisses him off. So I suggest you not to question him about his it." A laugh escaped his lips as he ranted. " Vaughn Bates well he's probably the biggest player out of all of them. Fuck...and that says a lot. He makes his own rules and isn't about to change. His dad is a business man and his mum just a trophy wife, but that's why no one fucks with him he gets away with everything. He's a scary mother fucker and someone you really must avoid by all the costs."

Thinking about Vaughn gave me chills... he was so horrible and awful to Nicole and I. I would probably never understand his reasons.

"But yeah. That's about it, I don't really want to talk about my brother because he's just asshole. Well they all are, but Elle I'm not joking when I say to stay away from them, they aren't just some cocky high school jocks. They are the real fucking deal, they won't think twice before hurting you, they don't care because they're emotionless. Just stay out of their way and they hopefully will stay out of yours." Madden confirmed my thoughts.

We arrived at my house about five minutes ago now and I hadn't even properly realized until my friend stopped ranting. I looked over at Madden and nodded slowly.

"Thank you Madden. I promise I'll stay away, I'm not stupid anymore. And thank you for the ride home, I'll see you tomorrow?" I smiled wide at him, he was becoming my best friend now, I didn't know what I would do without him.

"Yeah you will, do you need a ride to school? And if you get anymore texts tonight just text me okay?" He was so sweet so you would have never guessed that he was related to Carter.

"No! It's fine I'm taking my grandma's car to school tomorrow and I won't think twice so don't worry. I hope I don't though, I'm so scared of that person." I admitted and he took my hand and squeezed to reassure me.

"Don't be.. they are probably just pranks if it's Carter he will get bored soon." He added.

" I hope so, anyway bye again Madden." I got the door handle and started getting out after kissing his cheek.

___

It was nearly lunch now and I hadn't seen Lila all day which was weird. I tried to call her but she never picked up and she was always on her phone. I was starting to get worried, it wasn't normal. I got into the cafeteria alone, it was taco day! That was the main reason why I loved Fridays.

As I went to sit down, I felt eyes on me so I turned over to see Billie glaring at me with a disgusting snarl on her face. She was sitting on the guys table, with her ass on Carter's lap for the second time in a week. I quickly looked away and clenched my fists involuntarily. He didn't even spare me a glance but that was better than him tormenting me. He was just pretending I didn't exist anymore. I kept my head down looking at my taco just as I heard a small female voice.

"H..hello, is it ok if I sit with you?" I looked up to see Nicole staring down at me with an smile plastered on her face.

"Of course come sit down, I'm glad you decided to come! " I smiled to try to sound happy but Billie and Carter were still playing on my mind, pushing me to the edges.

" Yeah I don't usually eat in here, I'm not particularly friends with anyone and they don't seem to like me very much so when I come in here they just... it doesn't matter but I thought I would come in today to see you." She whispered very awkwardly and I wondered what she meant. I felt like there was defiantly a story behind that but I decided to ask her about it another time.

"I'm so glad you did we should always eat lunch together from now on, my friend Lila is usually here but I don't know where she is today." Just as the words left my lips I noticed Lila walking through the cafeteria doors. I instantly sighed of relief and smiled at her. She smiled at me while walking directly towards us.

"Hey sorry I broke my phone so didn't wake up until eleven this morning." Lila apologized after rolling her eyes.

"It was fine, this is Nicole! We met the other day. She will be having lunch with us from now on." I pointed a hand proudly at Nicole while beaming a smile.

"Hello! I'm Nicole nice to meet you!" Nicole muttered in a shy voice and put her hand out for Lila to shake. Lila instantly smiled back and took her hand to squeeze it.

"Hi I'm Lila! I've seen you around before! Vaughn and the boys are real jerks. Now we're our friend and we won't let that happen again I promise. We got your back." Lila whisper-yelled and sat next to me.

"Hey... I just had an idea why don't we have a sleep over tonight?" I asked while smiling at them. I was sure my grandma would let them stay over. Knowing her, she would probably bake us a cake for the occasion.

" Oh my gosh yes we have to! Are you in Nicole?" Lila questioned Nicole with a smile.

"Umm yeah I guess but I've never had a sleep over before." Our new friend told us, almost ashamed by herself.

"Oh it will be great we can do face masks, order pizza and gossip about everything and nothing." Lila stared at us while laughing but she was interrupted when a voice spoke.

"What are you doing with them?" Someone said and the laughs around the cafeteria ceased. I looked up to see Vaughn and Billie with her little plastics.

"What do you mean?" I asked rising my voice a little at the end.

"What are you doing here Nicole, with your new friends? I thought we spoke about this already. If I see your face again I'll get you kicked out of this school, you loser." Vaughn promised with a scary smirk on his face.

Nicole glanced up at him and made eye contact with him and his smirk dropped, he looked away from her.

"Im sorry it wo-" Nicole started and I interrupted her before she could finish her sentence.

"No! Nicole is siting with us from now on and if you have a problem then just go play with your barbies. But stop treating her like shit all the time! Got it?" I screamed angrily and stood up, my fists clenched.

Vaughn looked and me, squinting. Then Billie stood in front of him and conveyed:

"Getting a little too confident, I see..."

"Come on she's not worth it nor is she!" Carter rejoined us and made the last blow and laughed while looking at Vaughn. But Vaughn's eyes were still glued on Nicole who was playing with her food. After a few seconds they finally left to desert the cafeteria.

" So...Tonight! At Elle's house." Lila erupted while faking a smile to lighten the mood.

___