The sound of my alarm on my phone creeps into my dream until it manages to pull me from sleep. I roll over and shut it off, wanting to burst into tears. Why does school have to exist? Is it the weekend yet? No, it's Monday. My heart shatters.

I throw on blue ripped jeans and a white t-shirt after i've showered and brushed my teeth. I don't have enough time for breakfast today so I leave the house and drive to school without speaking to anyone once.

The day goes by slowly, and it's lunch time when it happens.

I'm sat at the table with Yasmin, Alex, Santiago, Jace and Valentino when people start to stare, pointing, laughing. Phones go off, and I hear people saying things like, "Is that Amelia Miller?"

"What's going on?" Val says, frowning.

Yasmin's phone makes a noise. She picks it up off the table. "Oh no."

"What?" I demand, my worry growing to a dangerous level. Val and Santiago also take out their phones, and Jace looks at Val's. They all freeze when they see it.

And then I do. There, on Yasmin's and everyone else here's phone, is a picture of me with my mouth wrapped around my ex-boyfriends dick.

"Oh my God," my voice is weak; pathetic. I look at Alex, his face clouding with worry. He leans into Santiago and looks at his phone. His face falls, and he looks back at me with an expression I can't read.

I jump out of my seat and run out of the cafeteria, laughter following my every step. How can this happen? Who got this photo from Bradley and sent it around the school?

Just as I round a corner in the corridor, I crash into someone.

"Amelia..." Ray says, his phone in his hand. I hold back my tears. "Are you okay? I mean, obviously you're not."

"I'll be fine," I nod and wipe under my eye where a tear escaped.

"The person who sent it hid there ID... I don't know who would do something like this-"

"It's fine. I just need to get out of here." I walk away from him and burst out of the school doors. The drive home is a blur. Literally. Everything is blurry with the tears in my eyes, and as soon as I get back to the Fuentes's house, I run to my room and cry my eyes out.

I hate Bradley. I hate him. I couldn't hate a person as much as I hate him. He ruined my life back at the school I went to a year ago, and he's managed to ruin it again here.

I didn't even know he had taken the picture at the time until his friends were all teasing me and asking for blowjobs the next day. I start to punch my tear soaked pillow, imaging it as Bradley's face, then I cry on it some more.

Mom and Dad try calling me but I ignore it, and not long later I hear Mom come in the front door, calling my name. She comes up the stairs and just before she comes into my room, I turn the other way and pull the covers up to my nose so she can't see me cry.

"Amelia, I was so worried! Your Principal called and said you'd gone missing. Why did you leave? Is everything okay?"

"I'm fine," I say a little too harshly. "I just didn't feel good so I left."

"Without telling anyone?"

"I just want to sleep," my voice cracks.

"Okay, A. Tell me if you need anything." She leaves and I sob quietly.

For the next few hours I stay awake, staring at the wall. Yasmin comes in when she gets home but I pretend to be asleep, feeling guilty about it as soon as she leaves and crying more. No one disturbs me again until 8pm, when there is a knock on my door.

"Amelia? It's Alex. Can I come in?"

I don't reply but he comes in anyway, closing the door behind him.

"I want to be alone," I mumble.

"That won't stop me." He sits on the edge of my bed and gently pulls the covers from my face. He frowns when he sees my face, and I can only imagine how groggy and disgusting I look.

"You missed out on some good food. There's some leftover if you want-"

"I'm not hungry."

He presses his lips together and I sit up and lean my back against the headboard.

"You don't have to be nice to me just because I was humiliated in front of the whole school and might as well just die."

"I'm sorry about what happened."

I don't know what it is about those words, or when people ask if you're okay, that breaks you and you start crying. But they certainly break down my walls and tears fall down my cheeks.

His expression goes doleful, and he hesitantly takes my hand. "No llores."

I remember those words. Don't cry. He said them to me when we were five. I don't remember much from my childhood – but I remember that. Maybe he remembers too, or maybe it's just a coincidence.

His thumb strokes the top of my hand, and I wipe away my tears. He's acting so different to how he usually does.

"My Dad used to say to us, that if it won't matter in five years – don't spend more than five minutes upset about it."

"It's harder than it sounds."

"I know," he whispers.

I focus on his hand holding mine instead of thinking about everything else. His skin looks so dark against mine, and his hand feels soft. I never want to let it go.

"Amelia?" I look at him. His lips are parted, and he looks like he's trying to decide on something. Then he puts his arm around me and pulls me into him.

For a moment I'm shocked by the sudden kindness he's showing towards me. After all, I thought we hated each other.

"I should leave and let you sleep," he says after a few minutes.

I feel anxious and cold as soon as he lets go of me, but he's clearly had enough of tolerating me for one day, so I nod and he smiles slightly before leaving my room.

+++

As soon as my eyes are open I instantly dread the thought of going to school. It would be great to stay in bed for the rest of my life, or hope my Dad gets a new job so we can move state, but I know I can't hide from this. I have to be strong.

Once i'm showered, dressed and have makeup on, I go downstairs into the kitchen. Yasmin hugs me as soon as I walk in the door, and Val joins in on the hug. Carlos and Ray are sitting at the table, and they look at me with pitying smiles.

"We'll find who did it," Yasmin says and goes back to buttering toast. "He'll pay for it," she waves the butter knife while saying this.

Max comes over and hugs me. "How do you feel?" He says into my hair. Alex walks in just then, his hair still wet from the shower, and goes straight to the coffee maker.

"I'm fine, honestly. You guys are treating me like I broke two legs and an arm." Max let's me go and he sits on top of the table.

"Well I'm jus' sayin' if a picture of me sucking a dudes dick got out, I'd move straight back to España." Val says and Alex slaps him on the back of the head. Val tries to hit him back with his hands that are covered in nutella, but Alex grabs his wrist before he can.

I laugh and lean against a counter. "I can't move to Spain, so I guess I'll just have to deal with it."

"Who was the guy? Someone here?" Max asks.

"No, you think I'd already be hooking up with guys here? It's only been three weeks."

Yasmin and Valentino share guilty looks. Right, I forgot they only need about five minutes to get to know someone before they have sex.

"It was my ex," I continue. "He was an ass, and I didn't know he had taken it." Alex looks up then, his eyes filled with annoyance.

"If it makes you feel any better, it kind of turned me on," Val says and Ray bursts out laughing. It's the first time i've seen him laugh.

Alex and I don't talk anymore that morning, and on the drive to school I can't stop thinking about the night before. It was so strange to see that other side to him, as if he was a different person. I wonder if that's what he was like before his Dad went to prison.

I try to ignore the laughing and pointing when I walk into school. Everyone is looking at me, but I try to pretend they don't exist.

"Hey, Amelia! When can I get a blowjob?" A guy shouts for everyone in the corridor to hear. They all laugh and I feel like crawling into a hole and dying. It's just like a repeat of what happened at my last school.

I've already decided that I'm going to the toilet to pull myself together when there is a smashing sound of someone being thrown against a locker, and some people scream. When I look back I see Alex holding him by the neck against the lockers.

"Apologise to her," Alex demands. The guy doesn't speak, he just tries to pull Alex's hand from his neck, choking a little. "Now!"

"I'm sorry!" He cries. "Amelia, I'm sorry."

Alex puts his face close to him, his voice low and dark. "If you ever say anything like that again, or even so much as look at her. I'll make you fucking regret you were ever born."

People cower away from him, afraid, and the guys eyes are filled with fear. He looks like he might cry. Alex finally lets him go and the guy falls to the floor.

What the heck? When did Alex become such a caring guy? Maybe I did judge him too quickly.

Alex doesn't say anything to me when he passes, and I continue walking to my class. No one in that corridor says anything else to me. They don't even look me in the eye.

Abigail finds me at my locker later in the day. She's holding a laptop in her arms and she's looking at me sympathetically. I've been getting a lot of those looks.

"I'm fine, before you ask," I say.

She nods and smiles. "That's good to hear. But the reason I came over here was to tell you that I tracked the device that sent out that text; and I know who did it."

My eyes widen. "You do? Who?"

"A guy called James Portland. He's a senior – I don't know if you know him."

The name is completely foreign to me. "I don't. Why would he do this if we don't even know each other?"

"I have no idea. You should ask him."

"Can you show me where he is?" I ask, she nods and takes me to the cafeteria. After skimming the place, her eyes freeze on someone.

"You see that guy in the green sweatshirt?"

"That's him?" The guy is sitting with a bunch other boys, laughing. Him and his friends seem like morons, as they throw food about and one of them stands on their seat.

"Yeah. He's a jerk, so good luck."

I smile and thank her, then walk straight to the bastards table. The guys at the table are silenced when they see me. One of them says 'Look it's blowjob girl!'

"Why did you do it?" I question James.

He looks a little taken aback, and I can't figure out what he's thinking, but then when his friends laugh he does too. "What are you talking about? Have you come here to give me a request?" He sneers, and I slap the smirk straight off his face.

The cafeteria falls silent from the slapping sound, and James stands up, angry. He steps towards me and I step back.

"I don't even know you," I cry. "You had no reason to send that picture."

"I thought everyone would love to see it," he steps forward again, I step back. He's much taller than me and has a good build. It's intimidating.

"Hit her back!" One of his friends calls, and I start to feel afraid.

Suddenly James is pulled away from me and he goes crashing to the floor. Santiago stands by my side and takes me away from him, while Alex kneels over James, punching him repeatedly in the face. None of his friends even try to stop him, probably too scared to get in the middle of it.

Even with my back turned, walking to where Yasmin and Jace are sitting, I can hear the impact of Alex's fist hitting James's face. He's doing it for me.

"He's gonna kill him!" Yasmin yells. Jace looks over, his chilled expression filling with fear, and he runs to them, trying to pull Alex off of him. He manages to get him stood up, and James's bloody face is now in clear view as he lays there barely conscious.

Alex looks down at the blood on his shaking hands, frowning. Teachers flood into the cafeteria, a little too late, and some of them help carry James's dazed body, another says something to Alex, and he follows them out of the room, kicking a chair on the way.

Oh no.

+++

teaser: alex deals with the consequences of what he did, from school and his mom. he gets back from a bad night at work and is looking for a distraction.

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