"Okay you're scaring me now." I said eyeing Ryder, who was sitting on my bed, staring at nothing, cautiously.

He's been like that for the last half an hour, while I, in the meantime, took a shower and changed into clean clothes.

I was now standing, by my desk, with no clue about where this conversation is going to be heading and what am I going to say.

My mind was empty since the moment I saw the three dorks outside the underground arena.

"Come on Ryder, it was just a slight disagreement, it's no big deal." I pushed the words out and cringe when I heard them myself.

Ryder's blank stare met mine and I lowered my gaze, sighing.

*****

*One hour ago*

"Seriously? This, again?" I said, coming out of the shock of seeing the guys here outside the arena.

Everyone stiffened visibly as I dropped my gym bag on the broken sidewalk and crossed my arms over my chest.

Ryder's eyes met mine and I saw several emotions flash through his eyes, but they left before I could put a finger on any of them as if he himself was confused about what he should be feeling or thinking right now.

We were intently looking at each other when we sensed movement from the side and Ryder's eyes widened in panic as my face remained void of any emotions.

Brody turned to me, still holding a gun in his shaky hand, now aiming right at me.

Ryder jerked forward but several hands stopped him where he is, along with my warning filled glance.

God, why does everything have to go wrong with my life?

'Well-'

I don't wanna hear it, actually.

It was bad enough that he witnessed me almost bleed out in our school gymnasium but now this.

I can't even begin to imagine how he must be feeling right now, and how confused he must be.

And now it's not just him, Dylan and Cole too. Those two look like they could piss their pants, any moment, looking equally troubled with being held at gunpoint.

"You've ruined my life, you little bitch!" The menacing scream pulled me out of my thoughts and look at an insane looking Brody.

My gaze hardened as I met his gaze, making him flinch slightly.

Now that I see more clearly, his face was beaten up, he had fresh wounds and a dislocated jaw.

I assure that I have personally taken care of it and that you won't have to face such problems in the future.

I guess this is what Mr. King meant by taking care of the problem.

"And how do I have anything to do with your beat up face?" I asked, taking a step forward making his grip tighten on the gun.

"Stay back!" He yelled.

I could sense how restless everyone else was getting by the continuous gaze shifting and fidgeting, while my face remained void of any emotions.

I've been in similar situations before and your best shot at getting out of these alive is to appear confident, even if you have to fake it sometimes.

I was definitely not faking it this time because I could see how bad of a state, Brody, was in.

His hands shook as he aimed his gun at me, moisture blurred his vision and the several broken bones in his body made him wince every other second.

"I had everything!" He seethes, wiping his nose with the back of his hand. "Everything! Before you set foot here. And now I have nothing, I was thrown out of the gang, Sophia left and now I have to spend every day of my life being taunted about the fact that I lost to a fucking girl!"

A yawn escaped my mouth by the end of his speech making him, look at me in disbelief. "Yeah, I still don't see your point there, you know." I shook my head, pouting slightly.

I saw Cole almost choke on his spit at that as the guys looked at me as if I've grown a second head.

"YOU-" Brody shook in rage but I cut him off, taking slow steps towards him.

"You know, your attempts at offending me, are getting old." I said frowning, not breaking eye contact as I kept walking towards him.

In about ten steps, I stopped right in front of him.

"I'm going to kill you and you can take your jokes with you to the grave, chirpy." He said, holding the gun right at my head, the vein in his forehead almost at the verge of being popped. "You see, I have the upper hand here if you haven't noticed, yet."

A menacing smile took over his face again, as his index finger hovered over the trigger.

He would pull.

He would define pull the trigger.

I can tell by a look at a person, whether they would pull the trigger or not, and Brody has every reason to do so, specially now, that he has nothing to lose.

And I'm not ready to die, yet.

The next few seconds flashed before everyone's eyes so fast that they seemed to have missed it.

One moment, Brody was about to pull the trigger, and the next, he was standing at a gunpoint himself, empty-handed.

I brought my hand up, in a single motion, hitting his wrist, disarming him of the gun, snatching it out of his grasp and aiming it at him, instead.

"You have the what now?" I tilted my head to the side, keeping a firm grip on the gun as Brody gulped in fear.

"Miles... " He trailed off, looking at the gun in caution.

"Uh huh, go on." I urged for him to speak, glaring right at him.

"You won't shoot... " He said, an unsure smile taking over his face. "You can't shoot- you're- you're basically a kid."

I raised an eyebrow, as a smirk grew on my face.

"You see that's half true. I may be a kid," I said, nodding slightly, and brought my other hand up and cocked the gun, not breaking eye contact. "but I've got a hell lot of issues."

Brody's smile fell as his gaze shifted between me and the gun.

I noticed his gaze flicker to something on the side as I saw his body tense up as if about to move, towards his left, where Lex and the guys were standing.

I frowned at that.

This wuss was going to grab Lex and use her as a shield to walk out of here.

Anger flared inside me and before he could use another muscle in his body, I brought the gun down, aiming at his thigh and fired.

*****

*Present*

Okay so maybe it was not a slight disagreement...

I sighed before, grabbing my chair away from my desk towards my bed and taking a seat in front of a very lost looking Ryder.

"Ryder..." I started, unsure. "What are you thinking? Tell me."

He blinked out of his trance before looking at me, making me raise my eyebrows hopefully.

"I- " He cleared his throat. "I don't know."

"Look, if it's about that guy outside the arena, he's not dead, I promise." I shook my head. "He just passed out and I'm pretty sure his friends would tend to his wounds when they find him."

He scoffed slightly, before looking up to meet my gaze. "Aren't you going to ask me what I was doing there in the first place and start an unnecessary argument about it?"

He frowned. "I think you're forgetting the usual steps here." The sarcasm was dripping from his tone making me bite my lip and look away.

"Trust me I want to," I started, leaning back on the chair. "I so want to be mad at you for even going near that place. But I also know how unfair this is to you."

I sighed, before looking up at him. "I mean, I know I would hate to be in your place, with no answers to go with that. And even though I still hate dragging you into this, you deserve answers and I'm here to give them."

He held my gaze as if trying to find the hidden humor in my words but there wasn't any. I was serious and I meant every word.

"Okay." He breathed out, leaning forward, resting his elbows on his thighs and threading his hands together. "What was that place?"

"It was an underground streetfighting arena." I said, firmly, before pursing my lips. "And I'm gonna have to ask you to keep this information to yourself, because it's kind of illegal." I said sheepishly.

He nodded, taking in the information. "Why Miles?"

"Well, there are several reasons, why I fight but-"

"No. I meant, why the name, 'Miles'?" He cut me off, making me raise my eyebrows.

"Huh?" I asked, unsure.

"I heard the announcer and the guy with the gun, call you Miles. Why is that?"

My eyebrows remained raised in disbelief.

"Really? That you wanna know?" I asked.

He nodded, shrugging, making me part my lips.

"Okay, well, that's the first name I could think of when I first stepped into an arena in London." I sighed. "It's my fighting name but people have a different, but stupid name which I'm known by."

"And that is..." He urged, leaning forward.

"Seriously, how is this even a relevant topic?" I scoff in disbelief. "You just find out that I'm a streetfighter and what name I'm known by, is what you're curious about?"

"Seems pretty relevant to me. And by how you're avoiding this, is making me even more curious." He said tilting his head to the side. "So, what is it?"

I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. "K.O. queen." I mumbled.

"What?" He asked, just to get on my nerve because it is impossible that he couldn't hear what I said, thanks to our proximity.

"K.O. queen!" I said, shutting my eyes, annoyed.

A small smile grew on Ryder's face before moved forward to pinch my cheek. "Looks like, the badass streetfighter is a dork, after all."

I narrowed my eyes at him, swatting his hand away from my face.

"Wanna know why though?" I asked innocently, making him nod. "Because most of my fights end with my opponents getting knocked out."

His eyes widened slightly, but he didn't break eye contact.

A small smirk grew on my face. "Looks like the badass streetfighter is a badass, after all."

He looked at me with such a strong emotion that I could almost feel the heat rise between us.

He sighed before looking down, hanging his head, making my smirk falter.

"Do you... uh... do you need something?" I asked, getting up from the chair, planning to get a glass of water for the both of us.

Just when I was about to turn towards the door, a hand latched onto mine and pulled me back to a rock hard chest.

I don't even try to fight him when he pulled me so I'm sitting on his lap, sideways, while he hugs me close to his chest.

He hid his face in the crook of my neck while my arms floated, awkwardly in the air for a minute.

"I- " He stopped himself, tightening his hold on my waist. "Don't scare me like that, again."

I snapped out of my trance and finally wrapped my arms around his neck, throwing caution to the wind.

Our arms were now coiled around each other like snakes as if we were each other's only source of comfort right now.

"It's not like I planned for us all, to be held at a gunpoint, for fun." I said with a slight chuckle, in order to lighten the mood but Ryder didn't find it amusing.

"This isn't funny Miles." He sighed in my neck, as a shiver went down my spine. "A part of me is mad at you, wants to yell at you for what you've gotten yourself into and that you kept it from me."

He raised his head from my neck just enough to look at my face, making no movement to get out of this position.

"But a bigger part of me is grateful that you're safe," He whispered, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear and scan my face. "and is terrified of the thought of losing you again."

My eyes softened further at that as I saw how his eyes diluted, when he looked at me.

My lips parted and his gaze dropped to them, making my breath hitch.

Heat built in my core as I felt butterflies erupt in my tummy, making me gulp.

It's then that I noticed that my hands had slipped down from being around his neck to his hard chest. It felt so natural, touching him that I didn't even realise that my hands had been roaming around on his body.

"So..." I trailed off, suddenly grateful for the fact that my room was dimly lit and he wouldn't be able to see my fired up cheeks. "We good?"

He chuckled at my lame attempt to distract myself.

"Yes, but you'd be crazy if you think, your street name is all I wanted to know." He said raising his eyebrows.

"Yeah I know." I rolled my eyes. "But it's pretty late, now. You need to sneak back into your room, anyway. We'll talk about this on Saturday."

He stopped to scan my face, again. "You promise?"

I chuckle before nodding. "I promise."

I looked down, being aware of our intimate position again and made a move to get up but Ryder's hold simply tightened around my waist.

"Uh Ryder?" I said looking anywhere but in his eyes. "Can you... uh" I motioned towards his arms around me.

"Oh no, I'm quite comfortable. Thank you." He said, grinning as I gaped at him.

I moved to get up again but his grip around my waist remained firm but not harsh enough to hurt or bruise me.

Stupid sexy boy.

'Wow.'

He chuckled at my failed attempts to get away from him and gave a tug, with quite some force making me crash into his chest yet again.

I could feel every dip of his muscular body on mine, making me lose the ability to think straight.

By the look of Ryder's face, I could tell that he didn't mean to pull me so close to him as, the smile of his face fell as we stared at each other wide-eyed.

I don't know how long we sat there looking at each other but the sound of footsteps in the hall made us snap out of our trance.

I quickly got on my feet, as soon as Ryder's grip loosened around me and looked at him in alarm as I recognised the voice that followed.

"Em? I heard some noises, are you okay?"

My eyes widened as I quickly motioned for Ryder to get up from my bed and ushered him towards the window that we usually climb out of.

"Yeah! I was hungry and went down for a snack. Sorry for the noise." I rushed out, trying to not sound suspicious.

When I saw Ryder casually strolling across my room, I huffed. "He's going to kill you, if he finds you in here. You know that right?" I whisper yelled.

"I know." He sighed, finally ducking through the window frame.

He grabbed my hand before I could turn back towards my room. "Don't forget your promise, princess." He said before scanning my astonished face once more and jumped off the ledge and disappeared.

I sighed, as I finally released the breath that I didn't even know I was holding.

What is this boy doing to me?

"Really? You have snacks?" Alec barged into the room, and stopped mid-way as he saw me standing near the window.

"Couldn't find anything." I shrugged.

He rolled his eyes. "Come on, I'm hungry too. I'll make something." He motioned for me to follow him down to the kitchen.

My face lit up at the mention of food, as I followed him out, with a certain grey eyed boy still in mind.