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The Ga I noticed as I walked through the door They were locked right onto h them I kept my face blank as I watched his twist into ato Randy, who also turned to look at ave me a brief look and then turned away to stare at the front of the class I ignored hi in ain that maybe I&039;d try to speak to Josh civilly

I took a deep breath and closedthe attempt His entire body stiffened as I approached hier He obviously did not wantto hie of his desk Randy twisted from the seat in front of Josh to watch, his eyes nervous

The teacher, Mr Tho and the rest of the students to filter into class, co up inside the roo toas bodies shifted in theive thean, cautious of Josh&039;s stormy face and excitable te with you, Josh, I just want to talk"

Josh&039;s eyes narrowed "I have nothing to say to you"

I sighed "Coht You got me fucked up and almost kicked out of here" I lifted my shoulders and hands in an exasperated expression "Isn&039;t that enough?"

He stood by his desk and I felt the tension in the room triple He was shorter than me, by a lot, but his confidence that he could kick my ass was evident in every rin "I don&039;t knohat you&039;re talking about, Luc" He eyed me up and down contemptuously "You made your own bad choices like always"

I closed ht "Josh, we used to be friends Coertips pushed me back Josh&039;s face looked even stors, Luc" His voice rose and he took a step towards me, until ere toe to toe "A brothera best friend" His finger jabbed her "You took all of that away froive me the &039;come on&039; crap!"

At this point, Mr Tho that a stor in his room He stood up and quickly raced over to Josh and me I was so twisted with emotion over Josh&039;s words that I hadn&039;t backed away froe us apart We both looked over to his annoyed face when he spoke "Enough! Break it off or you&039;ll both get detention!" He pushedin a dazed funk "Sit down, Lucas!" He turneda bit, I finally startedon my own I heard hi, right as I sat down, and with a quick glance at a glaring Josh, I turned my attention back to Mr Tho between the two of us "There will be no fighting in my classroom! Understand!"

I reluctantly nodded and looked over at Josh as doing the same The tension in the air started to dissolve and a few students around me let out held breaths A few snickered and a couple started placing odds on an after school knockout From what I could make out, the odds were not in my favor I clenched my jaw and tried to let my body relax I don&039;t knohy I&039;d even tried that There was no reasoning with Josh, not with howmy eyes, I listened to Mr Tho I&039;d tried I&039;d tried to let go of e some of Josh and I&039;s friendship But I&039;d failed I&039;d failed, and now I had to let hiain I&039;d just have to ignore any nore any detrie to kick et froree with Josh&039;s ry too, if I thought Josh had gotten drunk and killed them all That would tear ive hio to Josh&039;s extreh that I could sy to destroy me

The rest of class went by with the traditional stares and whispers For the first half of class, there were so the students in the space between Josh andto launch at each other right in the middle of Mr Thomson&039;s speech on the ht and focused on listening to the teacher and eventually people started to relax, realizing nothing was going to happen

I tried to focus on the teacher, but all I heard inwords, &039;You took all of that away froht I knew that no ht I was the one driving that night I had done itone because of it Josh would never see past that and whatever seht of how disappointed Darren would be about that I&039;hter over his death, leaning on each other for support and comfort But this was no Disney movie, and what Josh wanted froeance

It saddened o, he really was all I had left of Darren, but I couldn&039;t hold onto someone who didn&039;t want o, would be the best solution for both of us It would be hard to let his anger and tor, but even with all he&039;d done so far, I hadn&039;t hit hi me was the worst he could do I&039;d just have to be more careful with lare at ed out of the rooetic face I had no idea why Surely he&039;d been more than happy to carry out Josh&039;s orders and spike my water It&039;s not like he&039;d been warm towards me at all this year

By the tione and I breathed in deeply, letting the crispness in the air clear hts I walked withone foot in front of the other; that was enough to concentrate on for now I heard a vague cacophony of whispers as I walked along and felt more than a few eyes, but I did my best to not worry about theain and then this feeling of discord would lift from me

I walked into art class and immediately smiled as Mrs Solheim turned at my entrance and exclaimed, "Welcome back, To the need to correct her I grinned as I thought that e my name and be this elusive &039;Tom&039; from now on A small chuckle escaped me when I realized how my name would fit in so nicely with Sawyer&039;s We were connected on sostudents looked up at hter They blinked and seemed surprised to see my seat occupied, and then went back to whatever they orking on I smiled softly and let the sounds of busy people relax ht scratches on paper, the faint ss of Mrs Solhei the student&039;s progress, eased the tension of the last class away from me I took a deep breath and prepared to work on race, Sawyer

Mrs Solheim never commented on the fact that all ofus, were all a dark haired girl with pale gray eyes I wasn&039;t even sure she hadour techniques than e chose to paint Art was the one class that I hadn&039;t had any real ho, since I&039;d have been really ee to turn in for h to paint it The teacher had only told Sawyer that I could work on one project while I was gone, and hand it in when I got back

I dug through my backpack until I found the charcoal sketched version of her that I had created during my hiatus I unfolded the paper and stretched it out ontouches before I turned it in It was my favorite piece of her, maybe because of the style, orover the tiny details of her face, details I loved: the delicate bridge of her nose, the tiny freckle right beside her left eye, the one di me a wry half-s about me, the way her upper lip for down next to lanced over at the teacher leaning in, inspecting one, Tom?"

"Yesand it&039;s Lucas, Mrs Solhei nalanced at ht, of course" She looked overto her lips "It&039;s a beautiful piece, Lucas Your strokes are delicate and intricate, quite an accomplishhtened and patted my shoulder "I can see you put a lot of work into this It&039;s very good Nice job, Torinned ear to ear as she walked away, happy that my picture had pleased her I stared at Sawyer&039;s face for long et it back soon and I did need the grade I sighed and wroteo

I exhaled a happy sigh when school finally let out for the day I&039;d done it I&039;d survived as essentially another first day of school It had been e and definitely difficult, but noas over and none of that h to put a spring in my step as I exited the classroom

I stumbled on that step as I sayer in what looked like a heated conversation outside of the choir roo intense words withBrittany I hastilyI could stop whatever they were arguing about

Brittany was surrounded by her legion of followers,out with on several occasions They noticedand patted Brittany on the shoulder She broke off on her co Her shoulders straightened and she swept her almost-blonde hair back over her shoulder Her face twisted into a cruel sneer and I wondered how I&039;d ever found her attractive

She took a step towardSawyer&039;s shoulder back with her other Sawyer&039;s eyes flicked to ht balls She looked like she wanted to slug Brittany, although her eyes looked like she wanted to start sobbing My heart seized at the hurt I saw in her face and I hoped whatever had started thishadn&039;t been because of h because ofto a knowing smirk "Back for more, Lucas? I&039;ve already told you &039;no&039; a dozen tiet overthat that really wasn&039;t what she was saying at all I got the feeling that if I secretly told her to , I took a step over to Sawyer and pulled her into ht "Are you okay," I whispered as I looked down at her, roup of friends Sawyer bit her lip and nodded that she was, but her eyes watered drastically

A hand reached out and pushed ht as she stepped up to nored "I was talking to you druggyor are you just too high to notice?"

I resisted the urge to s Brittany, she&039;d probably like that "What did you say to her?" I said through clenched teeth, trying desperately to hold in ed, like she really couldn&039;t care less about the argu over your extracurricular activities" She glanced at Sawyer and her grin turned outrageously cocky She was loving this

I closedto pull Sawyer out of this school and away fro about?" I muttered instead

She leaned in close to ed away from her unintentionally when she spoke in a husky voice "I only apologized that her boyfriend was a no good man whore" Her eyes flicked down my body seductively and conteed out alcoholic?"

Sawyer beside ht red and herabout getting away fronals, I cut Sawyer offand said so really, really stupid "I&039;m not her boyfriend, Brittany Leave her alone"

With those words, I grabbed a suddenly pale looking Sawyer&039;s hand and dragged her away froroup Frood, he&039;s fucking her but he doesn&039;t even want her!" Then even louder I heard her yell, "Sorry, white trash! I guess I had nothing to apologize for!"

I exhaled slowly and clenched Sawyer&039;s hand inso stupid to Brittany True, there was nothing false about the states Brittany had said, that was the worst one forthat stateiven Brittany an arsenal of torture to spout at Sawyer In one sentence, I&039;d prettyelse she&039;d said about me and downplayed the importance of Sawyer in my life

God, I&039;m an idiot

"I&039;m sorry," I muttered, as Sawyer hurried beside lanced over at her and saw that her eyes weren&039;t as watery, but still seemed sad The rest of her face had returned to her normal composure and I was sure that no one but me would even notice the faint unhappiness in her eyes I slowed my pace and she looked over at me "SawyerI&039;m sorry about what I-"

She shook her head and cutthat isn&039;t true"

I stopped walking and she stopped withfor some clue about how I really felt about her I wished I could explain it, wished I could tell her that she was the one that ht up in a way that made my mom smile, that she was the one that I painted in every art class, that she was hoh, not without confusing her even more

"I shouldn&039;t have said it like thatespecially to someone like Brittany It came off like I don&039;t care about you at all and that&039;s not true" I sighed heavily and shook s worse for you"

Her hand came up to brush my cheek and she sed "It&039;s fine, Lucas They just" She sighed and looked away, dropping her hand

"They what, Sawyer?"

She turned back and her eyes stared at my shoes "She&039;s teasedsince the first day, when I ran into her in the parking lot" She sighed and looked up toout in the bathroo about ht it was hilarious that I didn&039;t have a jacket when it was pouring and" she looked out over the campus to where we&039;d left Brittany and her wannabes, "when she saearing your jacket later that dayshe justpicked up her teasing a touch more"

I opened my mouth, surprised at her revelation and looked back with Sawyer I had the sudden desire to run back there and tell that bitch that I never cared about her and never would, so she was the one that should just get over itwhatever the hell it was to her Sawyer&039;s words brought h

"It doesn&039;tand putdowns, but," she sniffed and straightened her shoulders, "I know les with money and stuff They do the best they can for me" She shook her head, and a wisdoe crept into her voice "I knohat&039;s importantand what&039;s not, and Brittany and her croniesaren&039;t" Her face hardened into that serious mask that she could sometimes slip into "I won&039;t let solanced around the school grounds with only her eyes "All of thisit&039;s only temporary, Luc" She looked at me pointedly "Remember that"

I nodded and then shookMost kids, even h school could see existence "How old are you?" I irl she really was, and started walking towards the hteen in January," she added with a grin

I threw an arm around her shoulders as I in&039; with an older woot soenuinely and slung an arm around my waist I let the tension of our conversation, and the faceoff with Brittany, die as her cohed happily and looked up at ood job by the way"

Confused, I scrunched my brow and looked down at her "Huh?"

She s, where the Safe and Sound club erly answered "Well, you&039;re not bruised or bleeding, so I&039; it that you did what I asked and left Josh alone" Her face beah the door

I frowned as I followed her "Maybe I just won the fight" I raised an eyebrow at her and she giggled again

"Well, you weren&039;t carted off the ca that you didn&039;t haul off and hit hied "I said I&039;d stay awayI did" I didn&039;t mention that I&039;d tried to have an actual conversation with hione well anyway, so, not led back into lad, Luc" She rested her head against me and I smiled "I don&039;t want to see you in anymore trouble"

I rested my cheek on her head "Me either," I muttered

We cao in with her She put a hand on my chest and looked at ?"

Confused, I was about to ask her what she was talking about when it suddenly hitthat had happened today, I&039;d co forways now

She brought her hand up toit with the back of her knuckle "Hey, sged "Maybe you&039;ll even like it?"

I gave her a &039;yeah right&039; face and sighed, staring longingly at the purity club door The thought that I was longing to be at a purity clubmade oodbye and gave her a swift hug before she entered the classroo at the closed door, I waited for ten long seconds before turning around and heading for the officewherefor me

I knocked softly on the closed, opaque door with the word "counselor" in rub-on, black letters across it This was technically the guidance counselor&039;s office, where she set up shop to help seniors apply to colleges, juniors put together a senior year with the most free periods, and fresh The &039;grief&039; counselor that they&039;d brought in this year full ti the office with her I suppose this arrangement was quite handy for the custodians, since technically, they didn&039;t have to resign the door

I waited a couple seconds, hoping she hadn&039;t heardthat I&039;d tried No such luck Just as I was turning to dash away, to wait in the hallway for Sawyer, a soft voice answered ed; both that she&039;d heard h, I opened the door and stepped inside I&039;ination, but the teh the doorframe I closed the door behind hout the roo my eyes at my own dramatics, I took a step into the room and looked around at my "home away from home" for the next six weeks

I&039;d been to the counselor&039;s office a few tiuidance counselor had it to herself I internally smiled at the school&039;s attempt to casually split a room into two Their solution to the problem was an obtrusive line of two six foot tall lateral file cabinets in a straight line down the center of the roouidance counselor&039;s "area", with her desk shoved haphazardly in the corner She had a chair for visitors and a sturdy case full of thick, hardbound books, and that was about it I bet she loved having her personal work space halved like that