"By now you know that I'd come for you. No one but you. And I'd fight for you. I'd lie, it's true. Give my life for you. You know I'd always come for you." —Nickelback.

••

°°(Before he finds Harmony)°°

I didn't realize that I was sitting here in Calculus class, staring at Harmony's picture with a smirk on my face like a crackhead until I saw my own reflection through the phone screen.

She's doing something to me.

Since I was diagnosed at the age of ten, I have never felt this weird feeling toward someone. The need to see them; to hang around them. This feels foreign and unusual, and I am not sure what term could be used to describe what has been happening to me lately. Maybe I need to type these symptoms in on google or take a trip back to that boring therapist woman. This is all against my nature. I must be malfunctioning.

The picture, however, does not satisfy my interest. I want to see her in person. I want to see those innocent green eyes, and not from a lifeless image.

"Yo, look at this!" James pulls me back to reality by shoving his cell into my face. I shift away from the dirty device that almost collides with my lips as I shoot him an annoyed glare.

I am convinced that he isn't right in the head. Ironically.

"This girl finally texted me! I gave her my number on Sunday and it took her two days. Woah."

I deadpan him, perching one of my elbows on the desk behind me. "This is why April doesn't want you. You're a player, dude."

He laughs deeply, scratching the top of his head. "Yeah I admit, I am. But so are you. Hanging around poor innocent Harmony to take her virginity." I roll my eyes, and he continues. "You have known her for a while now, yet you still haven't had sex with her. You both even got locked in your room that night of the party and nothing happened."

I shrug lightly, returning my eyes to the picture she sent me this morning.

"You guys really didn't do anything that night?"

"Nope." I pop the 'p' carelessly.

"Not even kissed?"

My thoughts return to the events that occurred between us, from me kissing her to the ecstasy she made me feel just by merely moving against my groin. I shake my head shortly.

"No. Nothing happened."

I am not sure why I suddenly feel the need not to kiss and tell. Fuck, I am probably losing my mind for good.

His eyes fall to the picture on my phone and he grips my hand inquisitively. "Woah, is that her?"

I click the home icon, and his face pipes up. "Damn, did she send you that? Does she send you nudes too?"

I make a face. "What?"

The words 'nude' and 'Harmony' do not fit in one sentence. It makes me feel so shallow.

Shallow. Another emotion I have not felt in a long while. This girl is definitely doing something to me.

And then the urge to see her emerges stronger than ever before. I need to see her. Just one look would be okay.

"I'll be back, Jay." I conjure up from my seat and begin to leave the theatre, not caring that my lecturer is in the middle of her lesson. She doesn't seem to care either; probably has reached her quota of handling my misconduct.

Harmony is supposed to be at Literature now. With that idiot Malcolm.

I locate her lecture hall and peer through the transparent door, but I am disappointed to see that Malcolm is sitting alone while Harmony is nowhere in sight. This morning she told me she was running late for class, so then why isn't she in? I look at my wristwatch. 8:35 am. She would have arrived by now.

I pull open the glass door, and the lecturer looks up from his desk as I step into the room. "Blaze Xander, you are not a part of this class."

Duh!

I smile. "Don't you think I know that, Mr. Foster? Sorry but I need to speak with someone."

Malcolm sees me coming toward him and his brows furrow in confusion. Probably thinking I've finally come to beat his ass.

I plop down next to him with a sigh, and a chick sitting at the row in front attempts to flirt with me, twirling her hair around her finger and blushing. I pretend not to see her and continue my visual search for the only girl I give a fuck about.

"Yo, where's Harmony?" I ask him while my orbs are scanning the classroom like a technological device.

Malcolm looks at me as if I am an alien conversing with him. "Are we friends?"

"Obviously not Malcolm X. Just tell me where I can find her. She's not in class?"

"You should just leave her alone." He hisses and looks back to his notebook.

I sigh. "That's not what I asked. Just tell me where she is, will you?"

"Blaze Xander, please leave my classroom." Mr. Foster sighs and holds his forehead in distress.

I smile toothily. "Yes, sir. Right away." I grip Mal's bicep painfully, sinking my fingers into his skin. "Tell me."

"Ow, are you crazy?"

"Tell me where she is."

"What is your deal?" He shrugs my hand away and shifts farther away from me. "Mr. Jones, her English teacher took her to his office. What the hell's wrong with you?"

Mr. Jones?

My teeth clench hard and I tap my finger against the desk in thought. Why did that little pervert call her to his office?

"Blaze Xander!"

"Okay Mr. Foster, I am leaving now," I promise, giving him my best goofy smile. I arise from the seat. "Thank you, Mal, pleasure doing business with you."

"Just get the hell away from me," he answers but I don't care to listen because I am already making my way out to find Harmony.

••

I arrive at the large doors leading to the staffroom. No teachers are present inside, granting Mr. Jones more than enough space and time to do whatever he wants.

If that little fucker touches even a strand of hair on her head, I swear that I will divide his neck like a slice of bread.

I press my hands to my waists, chewing on the corner of my lip. I know his office door will be locked if he has bad intentions, so I see a girl casually passing by and quickly slide in her pathway. "Excuse me."

The minute her eyes lock with mine, her cheeks rise to a rosy color, something that always happens whenever I converse with the opposite gender. I like to pretend not to notice. "Hi."

"Do you have a hairpin?"

She smiles, her forehead pleating in bewilderment. "A hairpin?"

"Yeah you know the black thing that girls use in their hair to—" I am doing visual descriptions with my hand, and she laughs at this.

"Yeah I know what you mean, I do have one actually."

She dips inside her bag and hands me two.

"One is fine," I tell her. "But I'll just take both."

She chuckles, tucking her brown hair behind her ear. "Okay."

"Thanks." I raise the hairpin with a smile and turn to walk away when she grips my arm. I look back at her. As much as I am grateful to her for giving me the pins, she is kind of taking up my time right now.

"Do you...perhaps want my number?"

I laugh. "No."

She looks offended and I realize how blunt and honest I can be sometimes.

"I mean, maybe next time." I half-heartedly try to amend, not caring if it's not enough to repair her hurt feelings. I am not interested.

"Okay." She purses her full lips, disappointment etched on her face. "But what are you gonna do with a hairpin though?"

My lips tug up in a sinister smile. "I am going to pick a lock."

••

°°(Present/Now)°°

"H-having a knife is illegal on the school property." Mr. Jones stammers while he steps back, almost falling over his own shaky feet. The dim lighting in his office is enough to display the cowardly glint in his eyes.

I shrug lightly. "Well... so is trying to molest your student in your office, Mr. Jones."

The sight of him hovering over Harmony just now angers me so much that I can feel my blood pumping red hot through my veins. It feels like when that kid in my Physics class pissed me off so bad that I ended up stabbing him in his neck with a 3b pencil. My intention was, in fact, to kill him but he shifted too much and I ended up missing the detrimental spot. I am still disappointed in myself for not aiming correctly up until this day. But I was fifteen then so it was expected, but now? I am twenty and I am sure I won't miss this time.

"Put the knife away!" Mr. Jones says, and the fear in his eyes makes me more excited.

You know that rush a child experiences when he gets a new toy and just can't wait to play with it? Yeah, that's exactly how I am feeling right now. I love the way he's shaking under my venomous gaze; it keeps me in control.

"Where has all the confidence gone, Mr. Jones?" I am taking small, provocative steps at each syllable. I wouldn't want the fun to be over too soon. "You sure looked high and mighty when you were pushing yourself onto her a minute ago."

"I did not push myself onto her!"

Harmony looks at him with narrowed, teary eyes and my eyes make out a red mark on her cheek.

My eyes squint to slits when I notice that Mr. Jones's rusty palm is faintly printed out on her tanned skin.

I feel the anger morph into something more and my grip on the knife tightens.

"Did you...did you actually slap her?"

Harmony's eyes shift to me in an instant, and they hold so much fear because she sees the malicious look in mine.

"Did you put your fucking hand on her, Mr. Jones?"

He swallows, and his silence tells me all I need to know.

"How dare you?" I charge toward him when Harmony slides in the middle, pressing her palm to my chest. "Blaze...please."

She's crying softly while pressing her forehead against my torso. Her tears are flowing so much that they seep through the thin fabric of my T-shirt.

I sigh and close my eyes. "Harmony, do not—"

"Blaze just let it go," she begs. "Please. This is going to get you into trouble and—"

"Let me see your face." I grip her jaw and tilt her face to the side to have a closer look at the bruise there. Harmony's face is naturally so tiny and Mr. Jones's fucking palm is so big that it almost covers her whole damn face.

"Look what he did, and you want me to let it go? No, I can't fucking do that!" I grip her shoulders and nudge her to the side.

"Blaze! Stop!"

"I will report you!" The man begins to grab papers and files from his desk to throw at me like a pathetic little ass.

They collide with my chest but does no damage since I could still kick him in his stomach and send him flying across his desk.

As he lands against the ground in a painful fall, I am hovering over him attempting to stab him while he moves around like a caterpillar. His desperate, pleading eyes beneath me makes me more venomous and merciless. I want to stab him until the soul leaves his body and even after he is dead, I won't stop stabbing him until his Godforsaken spirit knows that touching Harmony was the worst thing he had ever done in his whole life.

"Please." He's begging, and it makes my lips spread in a satisfied smile. The expression on my face, of pure enjoyment and delight, makes his eyes widen. He has finally realized that I am not as sane as he may have thought.

"You're crazy...." He mumbles in terror.

I laugh. Has he finally realized that?

"Say your prayers, Mr. Jones," I say softly, slowly lowering the knife onto his face when I feel Harmony's small arms wrap around me from behind, pressing her face into my back.

"Blaze...just don't. This will ruin you, please."

"Harmony." I sigh. "Would you let me go?"

"No... please." She lays her forehead against my back. "We will solve this another way, please don't do this..."

"Listen to her!" Mr. Jones cries, covering his eyes like a pussy. "Listen to—"

"You, shut the fuck up you molesting little son of a bitch!"

"Blaze just let it go, please just let it go!"

I can't do that. I can't let this go. Because he may just try it again.

"Close your eyes then Harmony! Look what he did to your face!"

"Blaze!" She's still sobbing and I grip her hands to unwrap them from my waists when I hear the front door of the staffroom opens, followed by small chatters and giggles.

"Oh, the teachers! The teachers are back!" Mr. Jones talks with relief as he opens his watery, beady eyes. The smile on his face pisses me off so much that if Harmony wasn't holding me back with her hands, I would have sunken my knife into his fucking face.

"Let's go, Blaze, please!"

I stand to my feet, but my eyes are still positioned on the man. In my mind, I am stabbing him all over until my T-shirt and hands are coated with his blood. If only he knew what he just got saved from.

"I will report you!" He says, finally getting some confidence. "I am going to report you for having a knife!"

"I am going to report you for touching me!" Harmony yells.

She looks at me, who is still staring at Mr. Jones, not saying a word. He looks uneasy because my eyes are enough to tell him that it's not over.

"Blaze, come! The teachers will come down here soon!"

"Don't think I am done with you," I say finally, before turning away and pulling Harmony along with me.

••

😏♥️

🖤