"I'm lost, then I'm found."

-Sad! XXXTENTACION

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It takes a while to get the blood off my hands. The expression only makes the bad feeling in my gut worsen, almost to the brink of suffocation.

Alec is concerned. Maybe more so. But he keeps his calm like he normally does, so it's impossible to tell if this whole thing has got him as freaked as it's got me.

We walk in silence to the dining hall for breakfast. He keeps close to my side as we walk through the doors, like he's worried about me. But judging by his cautious looks and crinkled eyebrows, he is. We collect our food and I'm about to turn to Sky's table when I realise I do not want to be alone right now, not with anyone expect Alec. He knows what happened this morning, they don't.

We share a brief knowing look, and instead of heading to the Fighter crowd, he leads me over to an empty table near the Wallflowers. He takes a seat opposite me, not saying a word, before picking at his toast lifelessly.

"You're worried," I surmise, raising my eyebrows. I glance around the room, noticing a pair of Socios whispering to each other through smirks, and a Wallflower cutting her toast into tiny squares and making a minuscule building out of the pieces.

He looks up and sighs. "Of course I am. I woke up to find you covered in blood."

I think back to the knife that disappeared from my shoe. That can't be a coincidence, can it?

"I had a knife in my shoe," I admit. "I put it in before I got here. But this morning, I couldn't find it. Something bad has happened, Alec, I can feel it."

Before he can respond, someone sits in the empty seat beside me. I look up and am surprised to see Jasper sitting beside me, facing us both sceptically. "Did I interrupt something?" he asks slowly.

I turn back to Alec, and motion with my eyes to Jasper. He sighs and murmurs, "This morning, Liv woke up with blood on her hands. Literally. It's got us freaked out."

Jasper presses his lips together, and leans in, muttering in a quiet voice, "Is it your time of the month?"

I lean back in my seat abruptly and drop my spoon into my cereal, shaking my head and scowling. "You have got to be kidding me."

Jasper turns to Alec, who is chuckling quietly. "Is it something I said?"

"For a start, girls hate it when guys say that. It sucks, seriously. And next, there was way too much blood for it to be...that."

My cheeks are burning, because the last people I want to be talking about my cycle to is Jasper and Alec. Especially them.

"Right, so what was it?" he asks.

"Your guess is as good as mine," I confess, taking a sip of my orange juice. I only recently brushed my teeth and the sour taste makes my nose wrinkle.

"Well, maybe we can brainstorm in detention tonight," Alec says, taking a final bite of his toast before dropping the crust onto his tray.

"I forgot about that," I groan, head melting in my hands.

Alec chuckles and stands, picking up his tray.

"You're leaving?" I ask, to which he nods.

"I've got some school stuff to catch up on, I'll see you in first period?"

I nod, and he leaves.

"Alec likes you."

I spin around to face Jasper, gaping. He's picking at his toast with a strange look in his eyes, a look that's almost knowing.

"Pardon?"

"Alec, he obviously likes you," he deducts, finally meeting my gaze.

"What makes you say that?" I ask, looking back down at my cereal, stirring the fruit loops with my spoon.

Jasper chuckles lightly, and finally says, "The way he looks at you." He stands when the bell goes, and smiles down at me. "But he's got competition." Jasper then bends down and plants a soft kiss onto my cheek, before grinning alluringly and disappearing into the crowd of students leaving the dining hall.