"Have you finished your IT assignment yet?" Lisa asked as she threw her apple up in the air and caught it behind her back. I wish I had that sort of coordination.

We were walking through the hallways from our fourth period class out to lunch and for the first time in two years I was doing so in peace. Ever since Blake has started sitting next to me in all the classes we had together and publicly defending me to anyone who tried to bully me people were starting to leave me alone.

For the first time in a long time I finally had some peace, I felt like I could be myself at school and not need to hide and sneak from class to class without the fear of someone bullying me. And I owed that all to Blake, the boy who openly hated me and refused to acknowledge my existence even when he was defending me. What a strange situation we were in.

"No, have you?" I replied to Lisa. I had been working on this assignment in every spare moment I had and still haven't managed to get anywhere close to finishing. It was really starting to frustrate me.

"Nah, it is mind tormenting hard. I have spent nearly every night this week staying up late to crack it but its turning out to be stubborn. My roommate is staring to get pissed at me for having the light on all night. I told her to sleep in the garden," she growled with a flat look on her face. I had to laugh out loud because her roommate Betty, is the roommate from hell, everything Lisa does her roommate makes an argument over. Lisa boards at the school as her parents are from Singapore, so they sent her over here to get the best education she could.

"Harsh," I grinned and we both locked eyes and then cracked up laughing just imagining that situation.

"Did you want to hang at the library and see if we can crack this together?" Lisa asked.

"I would love too but I have self-defense tonight," I admitted, disappointment flowing through me, I wanted to crack this as much as Lisa did. Her face dropped.

"Why do you still do that? Haven't you already mastered self-defense?" She asked with a raised eyebrow. She was right, but I still loved it.

"Well my sister always said that the most important thing about being a woman is the ability to protect yourself," I explained. My older sister Ellie and I started learning it a few years ago after she was mugged outside Freddie's bar a few years ago. But since she left for college a year ago I had just kept going by myself. It was something I really enjoying it, empowering myself and knowing that no one can hurt me physically which was a great comfort to me when I started being bullied.

"Yeah, I wish I could kickass like Jacki Chan," Lisa agreed sarcastically.

My witty retort died in my throat as we turned the corner around the art building and my eyes landed on Blake. My eyes were so tuned to his form now that whenever he was near my eyes would automatically lead me to him. He was talking with Dean and Liam, the school delinquents and guys you only go near if you want to become a delinquent too.

They were hanging out in the old orphanage gardens that was beside the school. The orphanage was bought by the school a few years ago as it attracted too many delinquent and criminal kids to the area and was giving the school a bad name. It has been under development for a year now as the school are still deciding what to transform the building into. So now it just sits there unused and decaying and is used as a hangout for the kids at school who wanted to break the rules and do shady things.

They were all smoking, just that alone could get them all expelled. This interaction was not good.

"Blake looks pretty suspicious," Lisa commented leaning into my ear and in a low voice so only I could hear. A strange sense of fear rushed through me as I watched Blake interact in such a friendly manner with those guys but not for myself, I felt fear for him. He is setting himself up to destroy his life if he hangs out with them.

And I didn't want that for him, not for the boy who has protected me since the first moment he saw me being bullied when no one has.

Even though Blake is terribly rude to me, I still owe him for protecting me so now I am going to protect him.

"Stay here, I am going to talk to him," I informed Lisa.

"Don't, that won't end well," Lisa objected but I ignore her as I move towards Blake.

"Your funeral," Lisa objects sarcastically but then tries to reach out for me, but I was already out of her grasp.

"Blake," I yelled as strut towards him into the gardens with a mission. Blake's hand freezes as he was lowering his cigarette hand that he had just taken a smoke from. He turns around slowly to face me, and I grab him by the arm as I twirl him around to face me and away from his new friends.

"Can I speak with you for a moment? This is important," I demand. Blake's eyes narrow is suspicion but he drops his cigarette and squares it with his foot. Then he lets me lead him away anyway.

"I won't be a second, boys," he explains to his friends who were watching me with interest. They nodded as they took another whiff of killer smoke.

"What do you want?" Blake snapped at me when we were alone, the frustration in his voice was evident.

"You need to stay away from them," I explain with start intensity. I stared straight into his blue eyes trying to convey how serious I was about this. Blake huffs and takes a step away from me like I just offended him.

"Excuse me? You can't tell me who I can be friends with." He crossed his hands across his chest in defiance. I soften my features as I look up at him, not reacting to his anger. This wasn't about his feelings towards me, this was about his wellbeing.

"They are bad news, trust me on this," I promise.

"Leave me alone," Blake growls taking a step closer to me, he towered over me like I was nothing to him. "Or I will make you." His words set a fire alight in my chest sparking the anger only Blake could cause.

"Are you threatening me?" I exclaimed with outrage, my mouth falling open in shock.

"Yes, now leave," he snaps and then spins on his heel as he turns his back to me and walking back to his mates.

"What was that about?" Dean asks Blake as he throws his finished cigarette on the floor and scrubs it into the concrete.

"Nothing, let's go to Freddie's," Blake evades his question and stalks off towards Liam's car. The other two follows after him, Liam giving Blake another cigarette from his pocket.

I am left staring after Blake with my mouth hanging open and my hands scrunched into my shirt to curb the anxiety from the fact that Blake just walked off with the two most dangerous students in this school.

*

I was distracted during my self-defense lesson and kept getting hit due to losing my focus. As I fell to my knees once again from an elbow to the stomach an image of Blake being in the exact same situation but with much more dangerous men flashed through my mind. I realised then just why I was performing so poorly. I was terribly worried about Blake.

On my way home from my self-defense lesson I take a detour from my usual walk home just to check out Freddie's. I didn't want to think why I was so anxious about Blake, but deep down it was obvious, I cared about Blake.

Twilight was descending upon the sky as the dark clouds above emitted a darkness within the streets. I tugged my coat tighter around my waist as droplets of water started falling from blackened clouds above. I was now walking through the more deserted part of the town and I felt the unease in my stomach as it twirled into knots. Why did I come this way again?

I started to hear more noise as I turned onto the street where Freddie's was located. Freddie's was lit up like a Christmas tree compared to the rest of the dark street and I could hear the echoes of the drunk people inside talking and the clomp of their feet on the wooden floors as they danced through the blacked-out windows out the front. Freddie's was more like a gang hangout than anything, there were lines of motorbikes lined out the front and the tables and chairs that usually would have sat eager and socialising gang members had been cleared out due to the rain.

I continue walking past warily, making sure to keep my eyes down on the pavement and my hands tucked into my pockets trying to make myself seem as inconspicuous as possible. I was continuously berating myself from being so stupid and taking this way home. What did I think I was going to find?

I just wanted to get home and snuggle up in my cat onesie with a warm cup of tea and read my book. But my thoughts of peace and serenity were diminished when a loud bang erupts from the entrance of Freddie's and someone comes sprinting out of the bar like they were running for their life. I freeze where I am just past Freddie's in the shadowed corner to watch the scene unfold before me.

The hooded figure runs towards one of the bikes and jumps on it carelessly. With shaky hands he places a key into the ignition and starts the bike with a loud rev. But before he could speed off the door to Freddie's slams open again and a big burley man staggers out of the bar in our blind rage.

"Get back here with my keys!" He bellowed in rage. He was a excessively muscled man with a dark black leather jacket on and a long shaggy beard. The rain droplets drip down his bold head as he catches up the hooded figure on the motorbike and grabs him by the shirt who hadn't managed to gain enough speed to move past his pursuer.

With all the rage and fire streaming though the gang members veins he throws the hooded man onto the floor and he splashed into the rain soaked concrete road. The motorbike roars in protest as it spins wildly without a driver and crashes to the floor. I gasp out in fear as the hooded man's head slams into the concrete with a crash soaking his clothes from the puddle he just catapulted into.

The hood slides off the face of the guy on the floor to reveal the seething face of Blake as he glared up at his attacker. My breath hitches as panic surges through me and I instantly become red alert as I spin around to fully face what was occurring. What is Blake doing?

"You tried to steal my bike, you little shit. Now I am going to end you," declared the biker as he pulled a gun out from his back pocket. I gasped in fear and clasped my hands over my mouth as the biker directed the gun right a Blake's face. I had never felt such a strong surge of terror rush through me than in that moment. I didn't want to think about the possibility of seeing Blake's brains smeared over the dirty road, I wouldn't. I moved to run toward Blake, but Blake reacted before I did.

He used his hands to propel himself into the air and with his right foot he kicked the gun out of the bikes' hand. It went tumbling to the floor and out of both of their reaches. The biker growled, and a sneer was seen just underneath his shaggy beard. Then he jumped at Blake swinging a punch. Blake ducked his advances and with an upper cut he punches the biker from the bottom of the chin, he screamed out and staggered backwards splashing water as he went. But as he gained his footing once again he squared up and grabbed Blake by the shirt, whom wasn't quick enough to evade him this time.

He lifts Blake off the floor by his throat with one hand and with his other hand he punches him straight in the jaw. Blake's head snaps backwards with a sickening crunch and blood spills from his mouth. Blake spits some blood on the floor and with the remnants still dripping down from his mouth he glances up from under his eyelashes to glare at his attacker with pierce hatred that would have sent a chill of fear down my spine if it was directed at me.

"You better let me go or I am going to kill you," Blake growls between charred breaths of stolen oxygen through the bikes fingers.

"Really? You look a bit tied up kid," he smirked back as he increased the intensity of his hold around Blake's neck.

Blake started chocking and spluttering. Panic and terror causes my body to go into flight or fight response as I watched Blake's face start to turn white from lack of blood and I knew I couldn't watch this a moment longer. With adrenaline streaming through my blood and my only focus on Blake's white face I move out from the shadows and sprint back up the road. Blake's eyes widen, and terror overtakes his broken features in warning as he sees me running up to him.

"Don't," Blake tries to mouth to me, but I wasn't leaving him here to die. No matter an idiot he is for getting himself in such a situation. It was like he had a death wish.

I was behind the biker, so he couldn't see me as I near him, I placed my hand into a fist which I had learned in my self-defense lessons and punched his jaw from behind the back of his head. Who would have thought I would have had to use self-defense on the way home from a self-defense lesson?

Pain surges through my knuckles from the blow and I knew there would be a bruise tomorrow.

"Ah," the biker bellowed in agony as his head snapped forward. The shock of the blow caused his fingers to lose their hold on Blake and in his stupefied state Blake is able to kick him in the stomach. Blake falls to the floor with a splash into the rain-soaked road and gasps for breath. My hands were shaking violently as I felt my knuckles starting to swell up but the rain pouring from above helped with the pain. The biker then turns his glare and hatred towards me and uncontrolled terror causes my muscles to freeze.

"You bitch," the Biker growls as he wipes blood from his lip. I stumble a wary step back as the Biker takes a menacing step towards me.

"I am really sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you, I was only meant to mealy incapacitate you, so you wouldn't kill my friend here," I mumble with a cringe on my face, the panic causing me to speak words I wasn't even aware I was speaking. The biker just looked at me like I was insane and didn't listen to me.

He swings his hand back to take a punch at me. I take a gasp of oxygen to prepare myself for the attack and block him, but the biker falls out from under his feet. Blake had just kicked his feet out from under him and as he collapses to the floor Blake punches him in the face. The bikes' crashes to the concrete.

"Run," Blake hollered in panic with terrified wide eyes and grabs me around my upper arm. He yanks me with him as we sprint over to the motorbike Blake has previously tried to steal. He picks it up from the floor and then grabbed the helmet from around the handle to quickly plonk it on my head.

"What are you doing? Don't worry about a bloody helmet we are going to be killed if we don't leave," I screech is fear as I anxiously keep glancing towards the biker on the floor. Blake ignores me and ties up the strap with shaking hands. But just as he locked it into place we hear a horrendous sound, a sound that made my heart leap in my throat and adrenaline to send my body into a state of pure terror.

A gun shot.

***

Hey my lovelies! I am so sorry for such a long wait for this chapter, I have been really busy at work recently. But I finally wrote a chapter, YAY!

What did you all think of it? We are finally getting into a bit of action :D

Thank you all so so much for the comments on the last chapter, I read every single one of them and they are so motivating!

Love Elaine, Xx