Lunch the next day was intense to say the least. I had tried to sneak away into the theater room again—no one ever went in there—but that mountain of a boy was already waiting for me.

I let out a heavy sigh and acted like he was dragging me to certain doom after he, quite literally, put his huge hand on top of my head and spun me in the opposite direction of my secret escape. Now I was sitting right smack in the middle of a beyond awkward bubble of tension as Trey and Denton tried to pretend there was nothing wrong.

I could feel his dark, tummy-turning chestnut eyes glaring from the other side of the table, but I was too much of a chicken to meet his gaze.

Even after my Rex-tirade from the night before—where I finally decided he was more of the knight than a demon—I was not dumb enough to believe we were even close to being friends. He might have saved me, but that didn't mean he liked me. Despite sleeping through most of the night without a problem, I felt more tired than ever.

"You alright there, Princess?"

I nodded at the slight concern in Trey's voice, but kept my gaze pointed towards the sorry excuse of mac and cheese on the school's crummy paper trays in front of me.

Trey was pretty adamant in his disgust at the food when I insisted on grabbing some from the lunch line, even after he offered to split the lasagna he brought from his dinner before. The cafeteria had microwaves for the students to use, and his lunch smelled delicious.

The lunch table was a small, black, circular table that allowed everyone to practically stare at each other as they ate, and it was more than uncomfortable when those chestnut eyes refused to stop glaring daggers into the top of my head.

"Why do you call me that?" I mumbled down to my food as Trey stretched his large body out beside me. Those strong shoulders shrugged in a nonchalant manner.

"You're cute, and small. Like a princess."

There was heat staining my cheeks but that was quickly replaced by the scowl pulling on my lips. "I'm not small." But I wasn't going to argue if he insisted on calling me cute.

The all-too-familiar shriek of a chair scraping against tile surrounded us as Rex, like usual, slammed his chair back and rose to his feet. He didn't say a word, or bother pushing his seat back in as he left—fire practically flaming from his eyes.

Everyone watched him leave, even the Dimajio brother's who had been too busy shoveling food into their mouths. I glanced up at Trey to see his bright eyes narrowed, and his brow furrowed. Like he felt my stare on him, his gaze flickered down and he forced a small smile on his lips.

"Must be that time of the month. He'll get over whatever's up his ass eventually."

Even though my face heated at the period-comment, unease settled deep in the pit of my stomach. I wasn't sure what I did, or what I was doing, that made Rex hate me so much—but it was tearing apart his relationship with his friends. That's the last thing I ever wanted to do.

I gulped down one slimy, fake-cheese, disgusting bite of noodles before grabbing onto my bag and rising slowly to my feet. "I-I'm really not that hungry, and I have that paper to do..." Those bright eyes were now narrowed at me as I pushed my chair in and pulled the bag onto my shoulders.

"Listen Rose..." He started softly, his eyes flickering briefly to the twins who were back to eating whatever they were shoveling pass their lips. "Don't let Rex bother you. He has a lot of issues he needs to figure out."

I gave him a small nod before turning on my heel and hurrying for the cafeteria's doors. It didn't matter what kind of issues he had, what mattered was he had them against me. The most beautiful boy I had ever met—hated me. Every daydream I ever had was dragging my heart to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

I felt the hot sting of tears in my eyes the minute I stepped into the empty hall, though I tried to choke it down the best I could. I needed to be alert in case Jason popped out of a locker or something. I didn't need to be boohooing over the fact that my crush wanted nothing to do with me.

My crush... I didn't even have the right to call him that.

I bit down hard on my bottom lip to fend off that awful sting in my eyes and hurried toward my locker. I didn't so much as catch a glimpse of Jason the entire way there, which was more than a little relief. I hated how stressful that monster made my life.

I just finished spinning my combo into my lock and started pulling out the binders for the second half of the day, when that gruff voice that plagued my dreams for the last three nights entered my ears.

"Rose."

My whole body went rigid, my hand stopping halfway into the locker. My shoulders were stiff, my breath clogging my throat. I wasn't sure if turning around was a good thing or pretending if I never heard him was better.

I paused for too long, and he let out an exasperated sigh of annoyance. "I'm not going to hurt you. Relax."

That was easy for him to say. I wasn't the one who had been yelling at him the day before, then beating my steering wheel until it bruised my hand in vicious anger.

My hand started moving again, and I carefully, slowly, grabbed the binders I needed for the afternoon before shoving them into my bag. I didn't say anything the entire time, and he waited until I closed my locker and finally turned to face him.

He was leaning back against the opposite wall, much like he had the day before. His bag was at his feet, and his jaw was chewing a piece of gum so minty I could smell it across the hall. His dark eyes were hard as they watched me clutch tightly at the straps around my shoulders, his hair deliciously disheveled. I tried not to stare, but it was always so hard with him.

We stared silently at each other for another moment before he finally looked away, his jaw clenching as he did. "Look, Rose, I don't think you should be hanging around us as much as you are... or at all really." His voice was so nonchalant, so emotionless that it tore viciously into my stomach—and his words weren't helping that much either.

"Oh..." I mumbled softly, my stomaching twisting in nausea. "I just, uh, they just- I thought it was alright if we could be friends..." The words sounded like jumbled nonsense as they left my mouth, an uncomfortable, nervous heat sitting in my lower back.

He snorted, and crossed those huge arms over his chest, but refused to turn those dark eyes at me. "The last thing any of us need is your friendship." The word sounded like poison slipping off his tongue, or that was just his interpretation of it.

The sucker-punch he sent straight into my stomach was so prominent I could have sworn it were real. What was it about me that threw people off like this? Even before dad brought me home, Jax had been the only one who wanted to be my friend. But it never hurt as bad as this.

I bit my lip, and that sting was back and harder to fight off this time. "If that... is what you want." The voice leaving my lips sounded so foreign I nearly flinched, but if Rex noticed the hurt strain in it he made no indication.

I was staring at the floor between us, praying desperately for this to be over. Today had been going so well too. I had started officially thinking of Trey and the Dimajios as my friends, and I think they did too. But Rex didn't. He didn't even want me to hang around them.

And I would only cause a rift in their group. I wasn't important enough for that. I wasn't important at all. I was nothing, and like everyone else, Rex saw that.

I could just make out his sharp nod from the top of my vision. "Good." He announced then bent down for his bag. "Stay away from them, and I'll make sure they stay away from you." He didn't bother glancing at me as he threw his backpack over his shoulder and stalked off down the hall—completely oblivious of my chest splitting open and my heart falling to the ground.

I waited until he turned the corner at the end of the hall before letting my back slide down the lockers until my butt hit the floor. I brought my knees up to my chest, wrapped my arms tightly around them and let that horrible sting in my eyes take over.

I only took one pill that day.

Thursday and Friday passed slowly. I didn't bother looking for Trey and the others, and they didn't bother looking for me. I even stood by the abandon theater room for the first ten minutes of lunch on Thursday, expecting Trey to come by and drag me to the cafeteria—but he didn't, and I slipped quietly inside.

I didn't exist again. It was foolish to think I ever would, especially to the Big Four.

I saw them a couple of times hanging around that halls during passing periods, but not one of them noticed me walk by. I didn't bother trying to sit by Rex in third period again, and he acknowledge me as much as the rest of the class did. Not at all. The only peace I had was the complete absence of Jason.

I was more relieved than ever for the weekend, even though I only tortured myself by sitting in the living room, watching their cars come and go from Trey's house. My heart did a little flutter every time that familiar convertible came into view.

I could still feel the cool black leather beneath me as I clutched at my bag and prayed we wouldn't crash. Could still remember the fear at the sight of him punching his steering wheel over and over again. Two hours, we had been driving around for two hours and I never noticed.

I had been so scared, but a sick part of me wished I could be back in that car with him more than anything. I rested my chin on my folded arms laying against the back of the couch and blinked at the sleek black car. They had been in my life for less than a week—so why did my chest hurt so much?

"Rose?" Luce's voice snapped my attention away from the house down the street, and I quickly spun around and sat on the couch like I hadn't just been a staring, stalking, creeper.

"Yeah?" I called back and quickly flipped on some random TV channel as she appeared in the doorway.

"Dad's on the phone. Wanna' say hi?" She held the cordless house phone up in the air, blue eyes flashing in the dim light of the living room.

My sister was the epitome of beautiful. She had eyes bluer than the sky, long, curly black hair, a pale, blemish-free, petite face, and that tall model-like body I hear Victoria Secret models would fight over. She looked almost identical to mom, at least from the pictures I've seen. And one-hundred percent completely my opposite.

"Just tell him 'hi' for me."

Her bright eyes narrowed, that immovable stern look crossing her face. I gulped. "You haven't spoken to him in weeks, Rosalyn." Her tone was no-nonsense, and so was the look in her eyes. I dropped my gaze to the coffee table.

"I'll talk to him when he comes home."

"He's not sure when that will be."

"Then I'm not sure when I will talk to him."

She let out a long, exasperated sigh before pinching the bridge of her small, pale nose with her thumb and forefinger, eyes closing in annoyance. "Rosalyn Marie, you are acting like a child."

I scowled at that, even if she was right. But I knew Luce, and even if she didn't like how I was acting she understood why I did. She flipped her long, dark hair over her shoulder, turned back towards the kitchen and raised the phone to her ear.

"She's busy, but said 'hi'..." Her voice disappeared into the kitchen as she walked away, and I couldn't help the smug satisfaction settling over me. Then I only felt guilty five minutes later.

I loved my dad, and I did truly miss him, but he hasn't been home longer than a month in as long as I can remember. Luce was practically my guardian, my mom and my dad. She was the one who pretty much raised me, even before I left.

Her and Tate together were like the parents I never truly had. Over-bearing, over-protective parents. "Dinner will be ready in twenty-minutes, Rose!" She shouted from the kitchen, but I only groaned and flopped down belly-first on the couch.

This weekend was supposed to be my reprieve from the disaster that was school, but I found myself wanting to go more than anything. I wanted to see them- to see Rex. And I hated that. The feelings coursing through me weren't any good, and they wouldn't go away no matter how hard I tried to force them.

I sat locked in my room the next day, staring intently down at my smartphone. I couldn't delete Trey and the Dimajio's numbers, no matter how hard I tried. I know I should have. We weren't friends, and it honestly tore at my heart having them in my phone, but I couldn't.

My finger thumbed over one of the only other names in my contacts, my heart lurching slightly as I did. I hadn't heard from him in months, he told me not to contact him, that it wouldn't be good. I was out, he wasn't. He didn't want me dragged back into that awful place.

Just one call couldn't hurt, right?

I slid his name to the right, my heart beating rapidly as the green call screen popped up. I held the phone up to my ear before I could convince myself otherwise. IT rang three or four times before he finally picked up, my breathing hitching at the icy voice shooting through the phone.

"Who the fuck is this?"

"Uh..." I started softly, uncertainty clouding my voice. I've never heard him use that tone before, especially not directed at me. I gulped and played with the end of my shorts. "Jax?"

Then, just like I had originally hoped, his voice immediately softened. "Rosie? Are you okay? What's wrong? Why are you calling me?" The complete worry in his voice only made me feel guilty and I curled my knees to my chest to stop the sudden ache there.

"I-I'm fine. Just had a really bad week, and I miss you."

I heard him let out a long, soft sigh, his voice low as he spoke into the receiver. "I miss you too bae, but you know you can't call me like this. If Gerald found out-"

"I know, I know. I'm sorry. I'll let you go." I mumbled as my heart dropped to my feet. I couldn't even speak to the one friend I truly did have.

He paused then spoke softly once again. "Are you sure you're alright?"

I nodded into my knees before I realized he couldn't see me. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Okay... I have to go. I love you, Rose."

He hung up before waiting for my reply. I sighed and flopped back on my bed before letting the phone fall to my chest. I love you too, Jax.