Julio wasn't in school for the next three days, and I felt almost worried.

He'd dropped me home after an hour or two of just sitting with our legs dangling off the edge of the building. I'd thought I was going to die, but Julio promptly told me to stop being a wimp and sit my ass down.

Then, we'd talked. He didn't say anything personal, and just gave me his opinion on a bunch of movies and, surprisingly, books. I hadn't ever thought he'd read. I told him about how and why I'd come to town, but his nickname had still stuck.

Afterwards, he'd dropped me off at home but, before he could leave, I'd said, "You do know that this means we're actual, legit friends now, right?"

"I know." He'd said before speeding off into the distance, and I'd appreciated how I'd made a good thing come from a bad situation. Being sent here was the bad situation, but I'd managed to make from really great friends in the process. My old friends and I had completely lost contact, once I'd realized that I was the one making all of the effort and they hadn't called me first even once.

Well, I'd felt good about the whole friends thing until Julio dropped off the face of the Earth.

Which was why, when I walked into school on Friday morning, I did not expect to see him sitting there, wearing his usual dark colors and his head tilted downwards.

"Hi." I said, almost cautiously, as I took my seat.

"Hey." He looked up, and I almost gasped. There was a large, blue bruise on his eyelid that was yellowing at the edges. He even had a split lip. His face, on the whole, looked absolutely disgusting.

"What happened to you?" I demanded, my hand flying to cover my mouth.

"This is what happens when you piss off the wrong sort of people, princess." Julio informed me, a lazy smirk coming over his face. He then winced, showing that it hurt to even do that.

"Is this why you've been out of school?" I was curious. The poor guy looked like he'd been run over by a truck.

"Yeah," he brushed it off.

"Okay, fine. You missed so much entertaining stuff in Physics, though." I told him, my tone matter-of-fact.

"Did I?" He was clearly amused, and I could sense Mr. Barker's growing frustration as not one person in class listened to him.

"Of course not." I stated blankly, and Julio rolled his eyes at me. "And, we need to stop talking before our teacher cries."

Julio turned his gaze to the front of the class, where Mr. Barker was watching all of us with complete helplessness. All of his students were talking and no one heard a word he was saying.

"Shut the fuck up." Julio ordered, loud enough for everyone to hear him. His voice was calm and not flustered in the least, but it was enough for everyone to just stop.

Mr. Barker nodded at him in thanks, and I smiled. The bad boy could be sweet sometimes.

***

Chris was absolutely out of his mind. He had to be. He was so completely insane.

"What do you mean you punched Charlie?" I demanded, my mouth falling open.

"I mean, I punched Charlie." He said calmly, and my hand latched onto his shoulder.

"Are you serious right now?" I couldn't believe it the first time he'd said it, calm as could be over cheese fries (well, his cheese fries and my salad) and I still couldn't believe it now.

"I'm completely serious." How could he be this....... together? There really was something wrong with this boy.

"Why?!" Punching Charlie Melton wasn't something that you did. It just wasn't. I'd known him for, like, a month but even I knew that that was an unspoken rule.

"I told him something and he overreacted. He said some shit. A lot of shit, actually. So I punched him in the face. He should have a black eye tomorrow, not that I care, though." Chris shrugged it off, and I felt a wave of frustration pass through me.

"What did you tell him?" My curiosity was definitely piqued.

"That's unimportant. The only important thing is that I punched Charlie and that is why we aren't sitting with him and the rest for lunch right now. I answered your question, right?"

Yikes. I obviously struck a nerve.

"Okay, I'm sorry." I apologized, making a 'surrender' hand gesture.

"It's fine. It just isn't something I want to talk about right now." Chris barely displayed any emotion, even though anyone who looked in those ridiculously blue eyes of his could pretty much tell what he was feeling. Right now, to me, it seemed like he was tormented.

"What are we talking about?" Romi asked suddenly, appearing out of nowhere, her smile evident. She'd hardly ever spoken to me before, which was why her sudden appearance was slightly confusing.

Actually, she hardly ever spoke, period, so that made it even weirder.

"Nothing." Chris said, leaning back in his stupid, fancy cafeteria chair.

"Yeah," I felt the need to add, "Chris was just filling me in on all the latest gossip." Romi and I weren't close at all, so I wasn't fully comfortable around her.

"Like what?" She scrunched up her nose. "I can't imagine Chris knows much gossip."

"Oh, it's only the simple stuff." I said awkwardly, barely registering Chris's snicker as I dug myself into a deep, deep hole. "Like, who's dating who and things."

"You care about things like that?" Romi asked Chris, clueless.

"I don't particularly care, but I do know." Chris stepped in, although it was pretty obvious that he had no clue who anyone at school was seeing, apart from Ally and Charlie and Brad and Romi, of course.

"Oh, okay." Romi said, seeming willing to let it go. "I just came over here to see if you guys wanted to come to a party this Sunday. At The Crown. It's super exclusive, guest list only."

I wasn't exactly sure how to proceed, so I looked to Chris for help.

"What kind of party are we talking?" He asked, almost curiously.

"It's mine and Brad's second anniversary on Sunday. So, we booked out the hotel's ballroom. It's exactly the kind of party you'd think it is—dancing, drinks. Don't worry, they won't card you. I mean, it's Brad's dad's, and they have his permission."

From what I'd heard over the past few weeks from Ally, Brad's father was the owner of a chain of five star hotels across California. They'd settled in his dad's old hometown when he found someone else to manage the hotels for him.

I nodded, slightly overwhelmed. I hadn't known that teenagers threw parties like that. I mean, it sounded like one of those fancy cocktail parties that my mother threw but I refused to attend.

"Anyway," Romi continued and I wondered how there could be more. "It's black tie. So, what do you say?"

"Why not?" I squeezed out, suddenly finding it difficult to breathe.

"Sure." Chris shrugged, not caring either way. Romi skipped off, smiling widely, and taking her seat beside Brad again.

"Wait, we have school on Monday...?" I said, more a question than a statement.

"Do you think anyone cares? It's an opportunity to get dressed up and drink more than they probably should; everyone's willing to take it. Don't worry, you can leave early." Chris promised and I sighed, wondering why I'd accepted at all.

"That doesn't really sound like my scene. I'm used to crappy apartment parties with cheap booze and creepy high school boys!" I groaned, banging my head on the table.

"Honest, that sounds like it'd be way more fun than what's in store for us on Sunday."

"Really?" I asked, my voice muffled by both the table and my own hair.

"Yes."

"I think I want to die. Those were awful. People were always too drunk, or high, and grinded up against random strangers. So, if that's more fun than Sunday's going to be, how much am I going to dread Sunday?" I rambled, looking up at him.

"Very much, I promise." I promptly put my head back down again, groaning. People were probably looking weirdly at me, but I didn't care.

Nothing would beat how much they stared when I was around Julio, anyway.

"Is there any way to get out of this now?" I asked, pushing hair out of my face as I sat up straight. "I mean, I can suddenly contract some grievous illness, right?" I asked, hopefully.

"Your name's going to be on the guest list now. If you don't show up, people are going to talk. And the talk will reach your mother." Chris warned and my heart sank. "Besides, you can't leave me there alone."

"True." I admitted reluctantly, tired of doing things that I regretted. Since moving here, I was almost always doing things that, later, I wondered why I'd agreed to.

This party was just going to be another one of those.