Sorry I haven't updated. Science Fair. It sucks. Well, my project will rock the judges socks off, but the whole concept sucks. Anyway, yeah.

WHO'S READ THE ANGEL EXCERPS ON JP'S WEBSITE!

If you haven't, you should, because it's amazing.

6 MORE DAYS!

Enjoy.

Chapter Eighteen

Ella

I hated the feeling of being afraid to go anywhere without being within arm's reach of another person. What I hated even worse was being afraid all the time. After five days of it, I kind of just wanted them to get me and be done with it. I didn't want to worry about crazy drug-abusing guys jumping out of the shadows and trying to defile my body anymore. I was really just completely afraid of…well, anything and everything, at this point.

I walked down the hall with a large group of students, all trying to get to the cafeteria for lunch. I found Kali waiting for me and I walked over to where she was standing by the line of students waiting eagerly for their food. I had almost reached them when I realized that she was also standing with Phil. His blond hair fell messily in his eyes, and his large, muscly body stood out among the other, much more scrawny students.

"Hey, guys," I said when I finished pushing through the crowd and was able to get to them. "How's it going?"

"We're fine," Kali answered. She was looking at her fingers impatiently. "It took you long enough to get here."

"Yeah, traffic," I said, nodding my head at the cluster I'd come in with. I grabbed a tray and walked along the counter, gabbing spoonful after spoonful of whatever. I ate when I was stressed, which was never much of a problem when I didn't get stressed much.

Kali and Phil took their trays and headed for our normal seat near the big windows on the back wall.

"Um, guys?" I called. They turned around and I walked over to them. "Um, maybe…we could sit somewhere else today?"

Kali shrugged. "Yeah, whatever," she agreed. We found a seat on the opposite side of the room. I didn't notice how hungry I really was until I actually took a bite of my food.

"Hey, Ella?" Phil said. "You know some guy, Iggy?"

I looked up from my food. I was pretty sure it was supposed to be spaghetti. "Yup," I said, my mouth half full. I swallowed and continued. "He's been living with me for, like, two years. Why?"

"I saw him a little while ago," Phil answered. "I kind of forgot to tell you. He bumped into me in the parking lot, didn't know his way home, so I picked him up."

"Oh," I said, not really listening to his words. "That's interesting."

"Seems like an okay guy, though he's kind of…"

"Brooding," I supplied. "Yeah, he's like that with people he doesn't know."

"Good looking, though," Phil went on, leaning back in his chair. I went back to my food. I was so worried about the whole Bullet-And-His-Gang thing, and I was so tired of being so worried, I was beyond caring about what people said. Even if they were my best friends.

"Um, Ella?" Kali said slowly.

"What ?" I mumbled.

"You're forking air into your mouth."

I glanced down at my plate. I guess my hand had continued the forking motion, even after all the food was gone. I glanced away from my friends as my cheeks burned. How stressed out was I becoming?

"I knew that," I said.

"Ella, this isn't healthy," Phil informed me. "You're too stressed out. You need to stop."

How am I supposed to stop! I wanted to shriek. There are three super-huge guys out there who want to kill me or defile me or whatever!

All I said was, "I know."

"Good, because you're being super messed up and stuff lately. I mean, seriously." Kali looked over at Phil. "It's those damn friends of hers. They're messing with her brain."

"Don't talk about them like that," I warned under my breath.

"I'm just speaking the truth," Kali said. I glared at her as I felt heat pulse through my veins.

"If it weren't for 'those damn friends of mine,' Bullet probably would have killed me those five years ago!" I shouted at her. "If it weren't for 'those damn friends of mine,' I'd probably be dead!"

My table, as well as a few tables around us, went silent.

"Sorry," I whispered, suddenly embarrassed by my outburst.

"No, you're right," Kali whispered back. "They are good. Maybe I'm just…jealous. You have a great family. You got it all, and I got nothing."

I'd mostly forgotten about Kali's family. Phil, me, and everyone else who knew her was sworn never to speak of them. Her mother died when she was little, and she rarely ever saw her dad. He was always travelling to somewhere. He was a business man, one of the best. He never talked to his daughter. She was just left alone with the housekeeping staff. That's how it had always been for her.

"Well, I'm done," Phil said, pushing his chair back and standing up.

"Yeah," I said. "Me, too."

The bell rang and the three of us headed for our next classes in silence.