"I can't make you love me if you don't, you can't make your heart feel, something that it won't." —Tank/Adele.

••

"I have to go," I mumble with a hung head while quickly moving past him. With a loud sigh, he grasps my arm to halt my steps. "Harmony, wait."

I hastily free myself of his grip and glance around the area. If Blaze sees us talking, he will certainly be mad. I respect him just as much as he respects me.

I take a step back. "What are you doing here?"

"To see you." He shrugs. "Why aren't you answering my text messages?"

"I didn't see them..."

He simpers and shakes his head. "Now you're lying? You know WhatsApp is known for its 'read recipients' feature, and I see that my messages get 'blue ticked' all the time, you don't have to lie."

"Look, Kite, I like you but not in the way you want me to." I sigh. "I love Blaze."

He nods and scratches his nose. "Yeah, but does he love you?"

I don't say anything, I just look away, and he steps forward. "Has he even said that he 'likes' you? Because at least an 'I Like You' from him would be enough."

"No," I reply. "No, he hasn't said that but...but I know he does, he—"

I don't need to tell Kite about Blaze's Sociopathy; that's not his business to know. I don't need to explain myself to him now, do I?

"He is just a complex human being," I answer. "And I understand him."

"Yeah, that's what Maddie said." He replies.

I tilt my head to the side, not sure I heard him correctly.

"Maddie? What do you know about Maddie?"

He sighs. "I know all there is to know. Maddie thought she could 'change' Blaze for the better, and that ended up almost being the death of her. It's the norm for girls to think they will be the one to change the bad guy, but you know Harmony? That tends to backfire a lot. I just don't want your conquest of saving Blaze getting blown up in your face."

I shake my head. "It won't...I am different from Maddie."

He nods. "I know...but does Blaze know the difference? To him, all girls are the same, he just sees a feminine figure with a vagina, and that's it."

"No...he doesn't see me that way. Blaze doesn't see me the way he sees all the other girls."

A vulgar outburst comes from the beverage section, and Kite and I drag our attention to the very same girls who were giving me the nasty eye earlier. Their circle looks larger now as they congregate around the red table of alcoholic drinks.

"Look at that." A blonde girl begins while chewing gum around in her mouth.

God, I hate gum-chewing.

"Blaze just turned his back a minute ago, and she's already talking to another guy."

Another chick in the clique with red-bleached hair chuckles at her friend's remark. "Yeah. Like seriously, she's a whore. I don't get why Blaze is hanging around such trash."

Kite rolls his eyes at them. "You all look more of a whore than her, bearing in mind the fact that I am seeing everything between your legs from over here. Girl with the red hair, close your legs."

She gasps and clenches her legs together, and Kite shakes his head and looks back at me.

"Don't mind them. You're not a whore."

I sigh. Their jeers do hurt my feelings, but I won't let it affect me too much because I know I am nothing like them. This is also why I don't think talking to Kite is a good idea. I don't want those girls telling Blaze that they saw us together. I can't bear him getting mad.

I swallow. "I have to go."

"That's what I am scared of, you being classed as a whore because you're hanging around Blaze."

"Kite, enough. I have to go." I turn away and head toward the dormitories, leaving him standing there and forking his fingers through his hair.

••

"You're not doing it right!" A familiar voice comes from behind him. He turns around with disappointment and hurt hanging from his features.

Maddie smiles as she modestly walks up to him. "You're not doing it right. That's not how you get a girl, Kite."

His expression morphs into one of confusion mixed with surprise. He heard about Maddie's attempt at suicide, and he was also a first-hand witness of her undying love and obsession for Blaze. She was a member of their circle, so when he was informed of her admittance in a Youth Psychiatric Rehab Centre, he felt bad for her. Maybe that is what he wants to save Harmony from.

"What are you doing here?" He asks.

"This is my school." She droops her eyelids as if he just asked her if the sky had always been blue.

"Yeah, but weren't you...sick?"

"Well, I am fine now." She opens her arms widely with a grin. "Can't you see that?"

He narrows his eyes and points to his head. "Up here is good as well?"

She squints her eyes, offended. "There is nothing wrong with my head."

"You could have fooled me." He mutters at the ground.

She crosses her arms over her chest and frowns, deciding to end the conversation about her mental health.

"Anyway, you can't woo a girl by chasing her down like a desperate idiot, Kite. You're handsome; it doesn't look good on you."

He scoffs. "You're pretty, so chasing behind Blaze doesn't look good on you either."

"Well, I lack pride, so it works for me, but you're too proud to chase a girl that way."

Kite jams his hands in his pockets and looks away from her, knowing she is certainly right about how desperate he seems.

"Everyone likes Harmony. I am not sure what is so special about her anyway." Maddie mumbles and Kite gives her a nasty glare.

"But how about this?" She begins in a louder pitch. "Let's help each other; why don't we?"

Kite narrows his eyes at her request, and instantly his eyes stray to the girls at the beverage section. Deciding that he doesn't want his business on their tongues, he grips Maddie by her arm and pulls her away.

Once they are at a private corner, he releases her and eagerly places his hands on his waists. "Repeat that."

Maddie confidently steps closer to him, a smile on her face. "You want Harmony, and I want Blaze, so why don't we just work together?"

Kite stares at her for a while as if he's contemplating her idea. He doesn't want to go to shallow measures just to get a girl. He isn't that type of person now, is he?

He shakes his head. "Forget that; it won't happen."

He turns away to leave, but Maddie steps forward and speaks again.

"Wait. Look, I normally work alone when I am doing this kind of stuff, but I see potential in you. I mean, you love the girl; how far are you willing to go to prove that? Me? I will go to the ends of the earth to get who I want. Listen Kite, Blaze hasn't even popped her cherry yet; she's still pure. You don't want that going to waste, do you? Snatch her now before Blaze takes everything and leaves nothing for you. We both know Blaze will eventually take it all."

Kite freezes in his spot like a mannequin, taking in the words that just left Maddie's lips. He instantly feels as though she is not spouting nonsense and is indeed correct. Blaze will take everything, and soon he will just be on the backburner, watching Blaze, who always gets the girls, with the girl he has feelings for. He finds himself wanting to do something he wouldn't normally do and that he may regret later.

Teaming up with this psychotic girl standing behind him.

He whirls to her, and her satisfaction with his deciding to stay makes a smile carve her fragile but evil features.

"What do you say?" She presses. "What do you say we take what's ours?"

Kite's chest lifts in a deep breath. "Fine. Deal. But Harmony can't get hurt."

"Don't worry." She chuckles. "I won't hurt your precious jewel...at least...not physically."