I looked out the window, to the rain that didn't look like it was going to stop anytime soon, the weather seemed to match my feelings at the moment. Troy didn't say a thing after those awful words came out of my mouth, he just sat there for a while without saying a word with his eyes wide open like he really couldn't believe it, after a while he let me go and turned on his truck and drove away. The silence was driving me crazy, I was seriously debating on jumping off and maybe die or something. Soon we were on the school parking lot, Troy turned off the truck and stayed there just looking ahead, he didn't try to touch me again, he didn't say a word, I was getting tired of the cold silence so I reached the door to open it and get out, he grabbed my arm before I could jump off the truck.

I looked into Troy's eyes and he seemed to be worried about me for some reason, or was it some other thing hanging there, was it…pity? I shut my eyes closed for a while and just opened the door and walked out, into the rain, I didn't need his pity, the old me stuck her head out for a while, if there was something I totally hated was to people feel sorry about me, I didn't need that. I walked into the school feeling mad and sad at the same time.

I didn't need him to feel sorry for me just because he didn't feel the same way about me. I walked over to my locker ignoring the voice calling my name in the distance. I opened my locker and got some books out of it for my first period, I looked around and there wasn't a sign of Ryan or Taylor so I just sighed, I put my IPod inside the locker and some other stuff I wouldn't be needing anytime soon, suddenly my locker was closed with my hand halfway in, I jumped back and turned to see Landon standing there with his eyes almost popping out of his head and looking red. He seemed mad.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I asked him as I looked around, the halls were empty. He grabbed my arms and pushed me against the lockers furiously, I looked into his blue eyes, they were red as his face, he was breathing heavily and his grip around my arms was hurting me badly.

"What do you think you're doing?" he asked me, his question didn't make any sense so I just stood there staring at him. He shook me a little bit. "What is your game?" he seemed a little off, almost crazy like, for the first time in a long time I was afraid of him.

"I don't know what you're talking about?" I said. Landon pulled me from the lockers just to push me against them harder than before, the back of my head hit the cold metal and I felt a little dizzy.

"Don't lie to me!" He yelled "Do you think we don't notice your moves, the way you hide behind him all the time" he got closer to me, I could feel him breathing on my neck, one of his hands slowly left my arm and he grabbed my neck applying some pressure to it making it hard to breathe. "I'm just going to ask one more time. What are you doing?"

"I don't know what you're talking about Landon" I whispered because I couldn't really talk when there wasn't air in my lungs. His grip grew tighter on my neck and my lungs were burning my now, with my free hand I tried to punch him or just get him off me but it was impossible.

Just when I thought I was gonna pass out for the lack of air he got off me, I saw him falling to the floor, he looked up angry as he was and I did the same to find none other than Chad Danforth staring down at him looking really pissed. He looked at me for a short period of time and looked back at Landon.

"What are you doing Landon?" Chad's voice seemed calm but I knew he wasn't calm at all.

"She's going to ruin everything!" Landon looked at Chad like he was crazy.

"This is not the answer Landon, leave her alone!" Chad yelled this time and just looked at me to see my reaction.

I just sat there on the floor trying to catch my breath, to be honest it was weird to see Chad trying to help me or defend me, most of the time it was him who was always trying to bully me, so this was a huge change. Chad walked over to Landon and looked right into his eyes.

"How much?" He asked.

"I didn't…"

"How much Landon!" Chad yelled again, he seemed to be in a bad mood.

"Just a little bit, I swear I didn't have that much, it was just a taste" Landon tried to explain himself but Chad shut him up with a stern look.

"Just go home" Chad started to walk over to me, my heart stopped beating, was he going to continue Landon's job, even when he helped me earlier I didn't trust Chad just like I didn't trust Landon.

"But I…"

"Do you want me to repeat myself?" Chad looked at Landon over his shoulder and Landon just walked away not even looking back at me once. Chad sat beside me "Are you ok?" I managed to nod "You need to find Troy, tell him, they're going to look for you now" Chad spoke slowly like he was afraid I wouldn't understand.

"Ok"

"Tell him to take you home, you'll be safe there" he stood up and left. When I felt strong enough to walk I stood up and walked to the main hall of the school, there were still some people walking around and talking, I looked around for Troy, I saw him standing by the entrance and I started to walk there, I needed some answers now, I was scared as hell and I couldn't even describe the scene that just happened. I bumped into someone on my way to Troy's position, I looked back to see the person staring back at me.

"Are you ok?" Ryan's blue eyes were staring at me wide open; I didn't say a thing "Gabriella what happened? What are those marks around your neck?" My hand instantly flew to my neck trying to hide the red marks.

"It's nothing" My voice was a little raspy, I tried to leave but he grabbed my arm in the exact same place Landon did a while ago, I felt the pain run through my arm.

"Ouch!"

"What's going on Gabriella?" He asked. I looked over at Troy again and he was walking over to us, I felt relieved and tried to get off Ryan's grip. "Gabriella!"

"Stop it" I said "You're hurting me" He let me go and Troy walked in between us, his cold blue eyes went from Ryan to me, trying to figure out what just happened.

"What did you do to her?" Ryan pushed Troy, looking really mad. Just what I needed, a fight, great.

"Boys can't we discuss this outside please" I said before it got any worse, Troy looked around and nodded agreeing with me, I sighed in relief. We walked to the parking lot when we heard the last bell ring for class, Ryan seemed to be more furious by the minute, and Troy on the other hand was already as pissed as he could be.

"What is going on?" Ryan asked "Why does she have those marks on her neck?" Troy looked surprised and looked at me; suddenly his full attention was on me.

"What marks?" He pulled down my hands and checked the red marks around my neck, I couldn't see them but I really hoped they weren't that bad. If my mother saw them I would never hear the end of it. "What happened?" He was talking to me, his cold and expressionless eyes seemed worried now, and I could almost forgive him for not saying anything when I said I loved him.

"Landon found me by my locker, he seemed weird, his eyes were red and he just smashed me against the locker asking me weird stuff" I explained, Ryan looked confused.

"Landon did that?" He asked.

"What did he ask you?" Troy demanded.

"He seemed a little crazy, like he was on something, he asked me what was I doing but I didn't have a clue of what he meant, that just made him even more angry" I said rubbing the back of my head, Troy kinda slapped my hand away and rubbed my head looking for any wounds.

"Did he say anything else?"

"No, but then Chad came in and saved me, he told me to tell you something"

"Chad saved you?" Ryan asked. Troy looked at him.

"Are you slow?" he said.

"Something about your hairspray won't let me think" Ryan shot back. I would laugh if my throat didn't hurt.

"Can we focus, please, what did he say Gabs?"

"He told me to tell you 'they' would look for me now and to take me home or something like that" I said, I rubbed my arm while he processed this information. It felt so weird to have Troy and Ryan standing here in front of me, the situation was changing slowly and I didn't know what to do about it.

"Fine I'll take you home now" Troy said after a while, I frowned, what?

"But, what about school?"

"School is not important now…you're not safe here" He pushed me in direction to his truck, Ryan walked with us.

"Wait wherever you're taking her I'll go with you" He said, Troy seemed annoyed by Ryan's presence but he was just too polite to say anything, I felt Troy's arm wrapping around my waist, he pulled me closer to him, my heart skipped a beat.

"We don't need you" Troy said "So just get lost"

"I don't care if you have superpowers or anything like that, I don't trust you with her so you're stuck with me" Ryan crossed his arms over his chest, closing the conversation, I knew him well to know he wasn't going to change his mind about this, I could see the determination in his eyes. Troy sighed.

"Fine, follow us" Troy simply said and we walked over to his white truck. He opened the door for me and helped me get inside, he was looking at me like there was something he wanted to tell me. I was too freaking scared to actually try to start a conversation.

Troy got inside his truck and drove away, he was breathing heavily and looked really nervous, my mind was a mess, I felt like things were definitely changing now and not for good, Troy looked over at me several times, I think he was afraid I would pass out or something like that.

"Do you need a doctor?" he asked me, his voice seemed calmed but I knew he wasn't, I couldn't help but think Troy also changed from the moment we met, when I met him he would never let his emotions out, he always had this indifference mask on and now…

Now his emotions were all over the place.

"No I'm fine" I said "my head hurts a little but it's no big deal"

He didn't say anything. Soon he was in my driveway, he jumped off the truck and helped me out, Ryan parked his car behind us and looked around, he seemed anxious for some reason.

"What's with all these black cars?" Ryan asked. I looked around and saw at least 4 black Mercedes carefully parked over the street, those weren't there this morning.

"Damn!" Troy said, he looked at Ryan "New plan go wait for us a few blocks down, she needs another place to hide, Gabriella go inside and pack some stuff, you can't stay here"

"Why not?"

"Because they found you now go!" he pushed me in direction to my house and I ran inside, the place was empty because my mom and husband number six were working and Lauren was at school, I didn't know where Landon was but I sure didn't want to run into him. I packed some clothes in a small suitcase and wrote a small letter for my mother to find; when I was finally done I walked down the stairs to find Troy standing by the door.

"Would you explain to me what is going on?" I asked as we ran over to his truck again. Ryan's car was gone.

"I can't tell you just yet, but I will fix it I promise" he helped me in the truck again and jumped inside. He was nervously looking and around and drove away. A few blocks down we found Ryan's car. "You're going to have to ride with him from now on"

"Why?" I asked.

"Because I need to find a way to fix this, I'll find you" He said and gave Ryan my suitcase. I was so confused, why did I need to hide? And most importantly why did he trust Ryan now?

"I don't get it" I said, we were in front of his truck and Ryan was waiting for me.

"Just do as I say please" He pleaded with his beautiful blue eyes staring deep into my soul, I tried to take a mental picture of him. He grabbed my face and kissed my lips softly "please stay safe, I love you"

And with that everything just went down.

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