*Hands over an Oreo*

"Don't you think that's just bizarre?! Why would they do that to us?" Mia said, agitation clear in her tone. "Call me Aleksandar. My butt!"

She almost yelled, saying the dialogue in a weird voice.

"Yeah mm hm, I completely understand what you're going through Mia." I said, absentmindedly.

"It was supposed to be a significant moment. She was supposed to know that she's someone special to the darkling, but noooo!" Mia blabbered while I continued to vigorously look through my bag. "They just had to ruin the one thing he had."

I nodded, and suddenly I was shoved to the side. "What the-"

I shut my mouth as I saw Mia glaring at me. "You are not agitated enough for this conversation." Mia shook her head.

I rolled my eyes. "I'm sorry but I can't seem to find the assignment I was supposed to submit today."

"The assignment for Mr. Jones?" Lex said, slinging her arm over my shoulder.

I nodded.

"You're so dead." She chuckled, while I swat her arm away.

"Thanks." I reply dryly.

"She's right, you know." Mia said, making me groan. "Aw that's okay. Don't... attend, I guess." She shrugged.

"I've already missed too many of his classes." I replied, giving up and walking with my shoulders sagging.

"You'll be fine. He probably won't yell at you, that much." Mia said, in a not very convincing tone. "I need to stop by my locker, you guys go ahead."

I shook my head. "Nah, we're early anyway, we'll come with."

It was almost lunch and we were all let out of my classes a little early by our teachers.

We made our way towards Mia's locker which was close to the cafeteria.

"You know what I don't get?" Lex started, popping another m&m in her mouth. "The fact that you found out that Em here, is a streetfighter and is being chased by a gang, but all you can talk about is a toxic dark haired dude who plays with shadows and gifts her crush a fucking collar made of bones? What the fuck?"

Mia looked at her dead in the eye. "Your point?"

A chuckle escaped my lips at that, while Lex shook her head. "Nevermind."

"I was pretty shocked, you know? I'm a human after all." Mia said, digging stuff out of her bag. "But Em told us what we needed to know and that had nothing to do with my love interests."

"Love interests?" Lex said, disbelief in her tone. "They don't even exist?"

Mia and I turned to look at each other before we sighed in unison.

"You don't think we know that?" I said, sniffleing.

"So, you're telling me you guys fall in love with guys who are literal mere words?" Lex frowned.

"So much, that it hurts." I said, shutting my eyes in despair.

"Wow! Just when you start to feel special, fictional characters jump in." Came a deep voice, startling me.

A heavy arm landed on my shoulder, while Mia looked at us wide eyed and Lex simply smirked.

She knows too much.

"Oh please Ryder, we have like 200 husbands before we even think of real people." Mia said, before shutting her locker.

"Damn that's a lot of competition." Ryder muttered, making me roll my eyes.

"Tap out, whenever you want, then." I said shrugging his arm off me.

I turned to look at him and as always he took my breath away. There he stood as his 6'3 tall self with a small smile on his perfect face with a chiselled bone structure.

He shoved his hands in his pockets. "Nah. I'm good."

I smiled at that.

"Yeah you guys are definitely just friends." Lex scoffed, making me roll my eyes.

"Where are the guys?" I asked.

"Dylan is in detention and Cole didn't come today." Ryder said.

I noticed, students filing out of the classrooms.

"What? Why?" I frowned.

"I guess he caught some flu, it's not anything major." He said. "Speaking of which, where's Perri? "

As if on cue, a voice filled the corridor. "GUYS!" And a very hyper looking Perri made a beeline towards us, dodging the crowd.

She came to a stop while we looked at her in confusion.

"You won't" *gasp* "believe who I" *gasp* "just saw."

She bent down and was panting from the short run, making me shake my head.

"Deep breaths, Perri." I patted her back. "I'm sure, whoever it was, it wasn't more important than oxygen."

Her head suddenly jerked up as she looked at me. "Oh God. It is!"

I shook my head at her. "It's nice to know that you have your priorities straight."

"Who is it, Perri?" Lex asked, curiousity dripping from her tone.

"The new guy." She gulped, taking deep breaths.

Ryder let out a frustrated sigh. "I miss the guys."

Mia's eyes widened. "You saw him? Is he cute?"

"He-"

"MILL!" A voice yelled, making heads turn, including mine.

My eyes widened as they landed on, none other that Connor, waving at me from a distance, like a madman.

"Connor?" I gasped, as I saw him make his way towards us.

I was so shocked to see him here that I almost didn't notice Ryder stiffen beside me.

I glanced at him, only to see his face emotionless, as he looked quietly at Connor.

Connor reached me and we didn't wait any further and went in for a hug.

"What are you doing here?" I chuckled, pulling away to look at him.

My eyes widened as I saw a bag slung on his shoulder. "Wait..."

I glanced at Perri, who was still panting. "New... Student..." She said, pointing at Connor. "Big deal. This."

"You are really unfit." Mia sighed, patting her back.

I turned back to Connor. "You go here? Why didn't you tell me?" I asked, nudging his shoulder.

"I wanted to surprise you." He grinned.

I scoffed before facing everyone else. "Guys, I'm sure you all know him already. This is Connor."

"Hey." Mia said, waving.

"Ssup." Lex said.

"Hi." Perri said, finally breathing normally.

I turned to look at Ryder who had a foreign expression on his face.

Just as I was about to step in, to fill the awkward silence, Connor spoke up.

"Hey man. Long time." Connor said, smiling at Ryder.

Ryder looked at him up and down before glancing at me. "Yeah, long time. Welcome back." Ryder said, and his lips broke into a small smile.

I frowned slightly at the sudden change in Ryder's demeanor.

After our conversation yesterday, I fell asleep in his arms, as the pills made me super drowsy. I woke up in the middle of the night to an empty bed and a little goodbye note by Ryder.

It's Monday and I didn't expect anything major to happen today and I was hoping for an uneventful week since the weekend has been chaotic.

"Ooh you're the cute cafe guy." Lex said, glancing at Ryder.

Connor chuckled. "Whatever works. Anything's better than turn." He said, giving me a side eye.

"Hey! It's a great name. Connor. Corner. Turn." I explained, waving my arms frantically.

Everyone looked at me with deadpanned, while I sighed. "I was a kid when I came up with this."

Everyone laughed and a hand landed on my shoulder.

"Come on, the cafeteria is about to get crowded." Ryder suddenly said, then turned to look at Connor. "Why don't you join us?"

I frowned at his slightly heavier than usual arm on my shoulder and I'm pretty sure everyone did.

Connor smiles. "Sure. I'd love to."

We walked to the cafe and took a seat at our usual table after everyone got lunch.

I was seated in the middle of Ryder and Connor, and Ryder was still tense, for some reason.

It was when Connor was in the middle of telling everyone a story about his time in Rome that I decided to break the ice.

I leaned towards Ryder, placing a hand on his knee. "Hey, what's on your mind?"

He simply smiled at me and shook his head. "Why? You worried about me?" He said, leaning in a little himself.

I scoffed, moving away. "I was just checking, cuz you looked constipated."

I couldn't think of anything better than using Alec's words because in reality, I was worried about him. After the way he acted, at the carnival, I can't help but think that there some sort of a trigger that I'm not noticing.

'Just admit you're worried. Just admit you cared about him.'

Um... Nah

'Why the fuck? You basically admitted that you liked each other yesterday.'

Uh...

'Stubborn bitch...'

I sighed, again losing the internal battle with my conscience.

It's true that we somewhat admitted that we like each other but I don't know where the conversation went from there.

"I wanna do this right. You deserve it."

What does that even mean?

I sighed, picking at my burger, when I realised thay everyone at the table was silent and looking at me.

"What?" I asked, in a slightly sharp tone.

Why am I getting triggered?

"Woah okay. We were just planning to go visit Cole after school and since you're obviously distracted, I'll repeat. You're tagging along right?" Lex said, making me roll my eyes at her sarcasm.

"Yeah, sure." I said, before another thought flashed my mind and my eyes widened. "No, wait!"

I quickly dig out my phone to check if I have any fights scheduled for today.

"False alarm. All good. I'm coming." I said, putting away my phone. I turned to Connor. "You free after school right?"

"I am, but I'm not sure if I should intrude." He said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Oh no, come on. We'll have fun. The more the merrier." Mia said, being the sweetheart that she is. "Right guys?"

Everyone nodded, in agreement, except Ryder, who was looking down into his phone.

I nudged his with my elbow and he raised his head to smile at at me. "Yes, beautiful."

"Are you even listening?" I asked, frowning trying to suppress the heat that crept up my cheeks.

He looked around, then back at me, with pursed lips and a lost expression. "Forget it. We're all going." I declared, leaving no room for argument.

I felt an elbow dig into my side.

I winced and turned to look at Connor who was looking at me with a knowing smirk.

I frowned at him in confusion and he simply glanced at Ryder and his smirk widened.

This bitch...

After lunch, I took Connor's schedule and realised that we both have English with Mr. Jones in the next period.

Ryder and Lex are in the same class as well, making a sort of restlessness brew in my stomach.

"Yeah don't get too excited. I'm thinking of ditching the class." I sighed, trying to tone down Connor's excitement.

He has this misconception that I have some things in my life that he doesn't know about so he's going to try his best to torment me till I tell him what he's curious about.

"What? Why?" He frowned.

"Miles you've already missed too many of his classes." Ryder said, making me sigh.

"I know, but I left the assignment at home and I'm sure he's gonna pick on me if I don't have it with me." I said, rubbing my temples.

"So you're just gonna ditch because you don't wanna be yelled at?" Lex asked, stating the obvious.

"Duh, I'd rather sit in lunch detention for the rest of the year than being yelled at in front of an entire class. Haven't you read the manual of our generation?" I said, making her raise her hands in defeat.

"Fine. Whatever." Lex said. "But what are you gonna do anyway?"

I opened my mouth to respond.

"No. You're attending." Connor said, cutting me off. I frowned opening my mouth to deny but he cut me off again. "Just trust me. Come on."

He said quickly grabbing my hand and dragging me towards the class. I clawed the air around me to somehow stop him but he just kept moving.

Why are all the boys getting stronger?

I saw Ryder and Lexi following us. Lexi was obviously laughing at my failed attempts to get Connor to stop while Ryder walked with a face void of emotions, taking stiff steps behind us.

We reached class and Mr. Jones was already there. As soon as we entered, he threw a glare in my direction before looking away.

I scowled at Connor before walking towards my seat and slumping on it. Ryder took his usual seat beside me while Lex was in front.

Connor walked to the teacher and started talking in a hushed tone, making me frown. "What is he doing?"

Ryder sighed. "Trying to save you." He said leaning back in his chair, while my frown deepened. "Like always."

I saw Mr. Jones handing Connor a slip and he turned to look at me with his sharp and frightening gaze. "I hope you guide him well."

I sat up on my seat, narrowing my eyes at the teacher, while Connor walked to the seat on the other side of me with a triumphant smile on his face. "You're welcome."

"What did you do?" I whisper yelled, for some reason.

He rolled his eyes. "Saved your ass. I told him that, because I'm a new student, I wasn't aware of the assignment to be submitted today. So, I asked him to let you help me work on it. And to do that you're gonna need your own assignment for reference."

My eyes widened at that, as I heard a soft scoff from Ryder but I chose to ignore it this time. "You- wow."

"I know." He said, flicking imaginary hair over his shoulder.

I sighed before slumping further down on my seat. "That's a relief. I'm saved from the ultimate embarrassment."

"Bitch remember to feed me in return." Connor said, nudging my said, while I chuckled in return.

"Of course, I knew you'd say that. Evolution works in reverse for you." I muttered the last part, making him scoff.

I turned to Ryder, only to see him looking at his phone screen.

I thought of disturbing for a moment but decided against it.

I know he felt my gaze on him but he didn't acknowledge it and that made me frown.

My train of thoughts were cut short as Mr. Jones started the class, asking for the assignments.

I calmly sat there, with a lot of things on my mind but with no clue what to say or conclude upon.

All I can do is hope that my unintentional ignorance doesn't bite me in the ass.