After I spent a good half hour looking for my car, getting my way home and laying down in my bed for the rest of the night, I concluded that I may have been wrong for snapping at Alex like that. He had a point. He’s done nothing but try to be nice to me and I’ve shoved him away each time. I didn’t want him to get too close, but I realized that constantly bashing him for no reason would get me nowhere.

I remembered when I was on the receiving end of that bullshit. I would try my hardest to please people, and they would turn around and slap me in the face. Sometimes literally. If I continued to act this way to someone who tried to treat me with kindness, I was no better than the humans I hated.

It’s funny. I’ve only had this resolve for a month and it’s already gone to the first person who treats me with respect. Alex treated me like a decent, sane person. Jared was different. He acted like I was a child who would shatter under the smallest graze of a finger. Not anymore. I grew up, and part of growing up is understanding your mistakes.

I wasn’t going to change my attitude for people. All humans were the same. But…something about Alex wasn’t anything I’d ever encountered before. It was as if he wasn’t even human. My experiences were not helping me in this situation.

I knew that he was going to be easy to make up with. He’s been trying so hard that dropping it now would be redundant. I imagined me apologizing smoothly. As soon as I did so, he would flash his stupid grin, glad that I was even saying the words to him. He would accept my apology and things would go back to normal, except I wouldn’t be a complete bitch. It’s not like I was going to flip that quickly, and I think he knew and understood that.

That explained why I was sitting in English, waiting for my partner to make his way over. I didn’t look over to see what was taking him so long. I thought that he was just tired and taking his sweet time. Leaning over, I take out the binder that held all of the papers we’ve prepared thus far. When I was upright again, I noticed that Alex still hadn’t made an appearance. Getting over my pride, I glance over where the boy usually sat.

I expected him to be looking over, about to get up from his desk with a smirk, teasing me when he got over here, but that didn’t happen. He wasn’t even looking in my direction. His focus was on a paper on his desk that he was scribbling on. His shoulders were hunched over and his hair acted as a curtain to the sides of his face. I was hit with a wave of confusion. We couldn’t do anything separate for this project.

I rolled my eyes, grabbing my things and heading over to his desk. He didn’t even look up when I dragged a chair near his desk. “Haha, very funny,” I cross my arms over my chest. “You got your payback. Let’s get to work now, huh?”

I knew it was the wrong thing to say even before the sour expression appeared on his face. “Where’s the money,” he grumbled, refusing to look up from his paper.

Sighing, I pulled an envelope with the money in out from my bag and plopped it down on top of his paper, “Here. We good now?”

As he reached for the envelope, he chuckled darkly, “Good? No, we’re not good. I will hold up my side by pretending to like you in front of your uncle, but other than that, you’re on your own.”

I raised an eyebrow, extremely puzzled at this situation. I did not see this coming. “I thought you wanted to be friends,” the tone of my voice sounded venomous, but I hadn’t meant it to sound that way.

He finally looked up, staring right into my eyes. In his brown eyes, annoyance radiated. “Yeah, I did. Past tense,” he set down his pencil, never taking his eyes off of me. “I gave you all the chances I possibly could, and you couldn’t even fucking get over yourself to see that.”

I opened my mouth to retort, to say anything in my defense, but instead, I just sat there with an open mouth. For the first time ever, I didn’t have anything to say. He seemed to notice this. “Speechless?” He sneered, “If that’s all it took to shut you up, I would’ve said that a long time ago. Now go away. You can work by yourself again.”

His attention went back to his paper, ignoring me again. I waited for a moment to see if he would crack a smile and tell me he was messing with me, but it didn’t happen. Nodding to myself, I gathered my belongings, heading back to my desk. I slumped down with confusion and disappointment. It wasn’t disappointment towards Alex. It was at me.

I couldn’t even say I was fucking sorry.

---

It seemed to be a mess with Hazel day. Each class I went to after that was filled with people whispering behind my back. Now, if it were just whispering, I would be fine. But it wasn’t just that. I was actually getting called names to my face. And it wasn’t the normal ‘Hazel is a bitch’ comments I was used to. I was being told multiple rumors like I was a drug addict and a whore. Each time I lashed out about it, they would laugh and walk away. The whole thing made me frustrated and each snap was worse than the previous. It wasn’t until the end of Art that I realized why this was happening. The incident yesterday didn’t make students wary of me; it made me more of a target.

I had found out who that Ian kid was. Ian Nicholls. He was captain of the basketball team, president of the senior class, and everyone’s favorite guy. Even the teachers adored him. He sat far away from me in Art, but he was eyeing me the entire time. I didn’t let it show, but it made me nervous. Guys like that were only trouble. They were beloved by everyone, which meant that he could get away with everything. I’ve had experience with people like that, and I knew that I couldn’t snap at those people. It would only harm me in the end. I was rude and disrespectful, but I knew who I could treat like that and who I couldn’t. And I messed with the one guy I shouldn’t have. I found that out at lunch.

I was dropping my stuff off at my locker. Everyone had already made it to lunch, so the hallways were deserted. I was unaware of my surroundings until I closed my locker and turned towards the lunchroom. It was Ian. Clenching my jaw, I prepared myself to walk by him. He wasn’t looking at me, so it made me feel slightly better about having to walk by him. I put my guard down, which was a bad move.

As I walked pass him, I was flung against the lockers, hands slamming on each side of my head to prevent me from going anywhere. When my sight cleared from my head hitting the metal, I notice that it was Ian keeping me against the wall, and it wasn’t just him anymore. Two friends of his were behind him. He was glaring down at me with a burning rage. I refused to show weakness and give up without a fight. I kept my chin up, staring him down with the worst look I could muster. He only sniggered, “You don’t scare me.”

“Neither do you,” I growled, glancing from him to his friends. “Is this you and your buddies’ way of trying to intimidate me?”

He shook his head with a smirk, “Not at all. They’re my insurance.”

“Oh, so you need backup?” I scoffed, “You’re even more of a pussy than I thought.”

His darkly amused look didn’t fade, “I only am what I eat, baby.”

Oh, I had to hand it to him. That was a good comeback. I shrug, “At least you can admit it. What do you want?”

“Call it karma,” he purred, his face getting closer to mine. “Sasha did tell you that you were going to get what you deserve.”

“Sasha?” I tilt my head. “Who the fuck is Sasha? The dumbass brunette?”

“My girlfriend.”

“So, it is true that guys only look at faces and not brains,” I quip.

He chuckled darkly, lowering his arms. My suspicions rose, but I was prepared to walk away. Just as I was about to do so, his hand found his way across my face. Holding in a cry of pain, I stumbled to the floor. When this guy had the upper hand, he could really land a hit. I was about to get up to tear his throat out, but my arms were snatched by his friends. “So, this is what you meant by insurance?”

He raised his hand to hit me again, but was interrupted by someone shouting, “Hey!” From down the hallway.

The boys didn’t think. They took off. I knew they didn’t want to be caught in fear of their reputation being soiled. I fell to my hands and knees, wondering who would stop those guys from beating me up. Everyone in this school wanted to see what was coming to me. “You alright?” The voice said from above me.

I knew that voice.

I glanced up to see Alex Gaskarth in all his glory. Nodding, I get up to my feet, only to start wobbling. Damn, that was only one hit, but it was a good one. “Woah,” he exclaimed, grabbing me as I accidentally fell into his chest.

I steady myself, scrambling away from him. “You’re bleeding,” he lifts my chin to look at him.

If this were any other person, I would’ve punched them in the face by now. But this was Alex. His eyes were different from this morning, I noticed when I looked into them. They weren’t dark with anger. They were filled with worry. About me. “I’m sorry,” I mumbled.

He let out a soft chuckle, a smirk growing on his face, “I know, Hazel. I know.”

Notes

Woah, this is the longest chapter I've ever written for this story!
Now, before anyone asks, "why didn't she just hit him like she did before?"
Remember, he had his friends with him and she understood the gravity of the situation. She knew that she couldn't throw the first punch without being attacked by all three of them.
Thank you for reading!