Chapter 3

Jan made his way towards first lesson, his mind constantly drifting back to last night. He was exhausted, all through the night, Antonio had been on his mind. Even in his sleep he wouldn't leave him alone. Jan yawned and rubbed his eyes, Antonio hadn't been the only thing on his mind. It would be best for him to just stay away and avoid him but he wanted to know how Antonio ended up in that state in the first place. What had he done to make someone beat him up like that and then just leave him there?

Jan shook his head, it wasn't his problem and he wanted it to stay like that. He had enough trouble on his plate without getting involved in Antonio's problems. Jan opened his locker and grabbed his English book; he may as well just get the day over with.

"JAN!"

He'd just closed his locker when his breath was knocked out of him by the girl that charged into his chest. He held onto her shoulders and stumbled back to stop them from falling.

"El- Elizabeta!"

The shorter girl frowned up at him and slapped his arm.

"That's for making me worry, you idiot."

Jan just gave her a look of confusion. Elizabeta sighed and rested her hand on her forehead.

"Bella called me last night to see if you were at my house."

"Ah." Jan was surprised at first before he quickly hid it from Elizabeta, he should have known Bella would have called her.

"Ah! All you have to say is Ah! I was worried about you." Elizabeta waited for some kind of explanation, Jan just stared blankly back at her. She sighed and leaned on the locker next to him.

"At least tell me where you went."

Jan opened his mouth, then stopped, should he tell her what happened? Antonio's beaten face appeared in his mind. Elizabeta was one of the worst gossips he knew but if it was something serious she would stay quiet. He hadn't even explained anything to Bella yet after he managed to avoid her this morning.

Laughter caught his attention and Jan looked over Elizabeta to the end of the hall. His eyes focused the guy who'd not left his head. Antonio was laughing at something Gilbert had said, the bruises from last night barely visible unless you knew what to look for. Jan frowned as Antonio went to his locker with Gilbert and Francis acting like everything was fine. Jan clenched his fist as he watched Antonio wince when Gilbert shoved his arm.

"Well, were where you?"

Jan looked back down at Elizabeta who was looking at him expectantly.

"I-"

Jan glanced back up at Antonio to see the teen looking back at him, the smile now gone. His green eyes stared back at Jan. He must have known what they were talking about. Jan stared back at him for a second before turning back to Elizabeta.

"No-where, I just went out to cool off."

Elizabeta watched him, studying his face to look for any trace of lie. Eventually she smiled at him.

"Well make sure you get back earlier, Bella sounded really worried."

"Yeah." Jan looked back up at Antonio to see the Spaniard's back as he left for first period.

"Come on, we've got English first. I hear we've got a new sub."

Jan just nodded and followed after Elizabeta who continued to chat happily.

Jan slouched in his chair as the bell for the end of third lesson rang. So far his day had been uneventful. The only slightly interesting thing was watching Arthur's reaction to seeing who the new English sub was. Jan quickly packed his stuff away and made his way out to the hall to where Elizabeta and Arthur were waiting for him. Looking at the three you wouldn't expect them to be friends. Jan was silent and he intimidated most people because of his past, Arthur was hard for some people to deal with plus he pushed most people away during his punk faze. Elizabeta was the main reason they were now together, for some unknown reason to the other two she had set out to make them open up.

"How can they let that man teach! Let alone English?"

Jan shook his head as he heard Arthur's continued rant. Elizabeta smiled at him, ignoring Arthur as she'd been listening to him all of last lesson.

"Hey, you ready to go get lunch."

"Sure."

They three set off to the canteen. Arthur was still complaining but the others weren't really listening. When they reached the canteen they sat at their usual table at the back. Arthur's sister, Meredith, was all ready there waiting for them. She smiled when she saw them approach.

"I see Arthur heard who was subbing English."

Elizabeta laughed sitting across from her, "He won't stop whining about it"

Arthur sat down next to Meredith frowning at the two laughing girls.

"I'm not whining it's just, how can they let Duncan teach English?"

Meredith tried to hold in her laughter, and failed.

"He's not that bad Artie."

Arthur rested his head in his hands "He's going to make it a living nightmare for me."

The others just laughed at him.

"Some friends you are." Arthur mumbled.

Jan chuckled at his friends, momentarily forgetting his problems. It wasn't until he saw Antonio enter the canteen without Francis and Gilbert. Jan frowned, those three were always together. Jan watched Antonio look around the canteen. His eyes stopped when they met Jan's. He gestured towards the hall entrance before leaving. Jan hesitated, part of him was curious as to what Antonio, the other was warning him to stay away.

Curiosity got the better of him; he stood from the table causing the others to look at him.

"Jan?"

"I won't be long."

Meredith and Arthur returned to arguing about Duncan but Elizabeta watched Jan leave with concern in her eyes. Jan could feel her eyes on him until he left the canteen and turned to look for Antonio. Elizabeta was the only one apart from his sister's who knew what kind of trouble he'd been involved in; she was the one who helped him get over it. He knew she trusted him but he also knew a part of her would always worry when he left somewhere on his own.

Jan looked down the now empty hall to see Antonio leaning against the nearby lockers. He looked nervous as Jan approached him.

"What do you want?"

Antonio was silent and continued to stare at the floor.

Jan's voice was impatient "Antonio."

"Did you tell her?"

"Tell who what?"

Antonio finally looked up at him.

"Elizabeta, did you tell her anything?"

Jan hesitated, debating whether to tell him or not. He looked at Antonio, studied his face. Dark circles were starting to show under his eyes and Jan knew he had been worrying about what Jan would do with the knowledge of what had happened.

"No."

Antonio's eyes widened in surprise. He had heard that Elizabeta and Jan were close, so he'd expected him to say something, especially since he didn't owe him anything.

"Why?"

Jan looked thoughtful for a moment as he tried to figure out himself why he didn't tell Elizabeta.

"The way I see it is that it's not my place."

Antonio nodded "Thank you. Could you not tell anyone about what happened?"

"I'll stay quiet, is there anything else?"

Antonio was surprised by the harsh tone of Jan's voice; it was so different from last night when he was cleaning him up.

"Ah, yes."

Jan nodded again and turned around to go back to the canteen. Antonio watched him leave, with an unusual feeling in his chest. He should have expected this treatment from Jan; they'd never gotten along in the past so why would that change now.

"Antonio."

Antonio glanced up at Jan to see him looking back over his shoulder.

"Si?"

Jan looked around uncomfortably for a while, before looking back at Antonio.

"Go to the nurse if your chest is still hurting you, I couldn't do much last night so you should get it checked out."

Antonio waited to see if Jan would say more before smiling at him.

"Si, I will. Thank you."

Jan stared at Antonio; the same confusion from last night filled his head. He shook his head and quickly made his way back to the canteen. Twice in less than 24 hours Antonio had given him a genuine smile.

Jan sat back down next to Elizabeta who looked at curiously. She rested a hand on his shoulder.

"Jan, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just...thinking."

"You know you can talk to me right."

Jan didn't answer, after talking with Antonio he didn't feel like talking to anyone. What he really wanted was to try and sort his thoughts out. Why had he felt guilty after snapping at Antonio? He'd never felt guilty about it before.

Elizabeta carefully watched Antonio as he tried to sort things out in his head. She was worried about him, he'd just settle everything down and now it seems he's found trouble again.

Loud laughter filled the canteen and Elizabeta turned her attention to the trio that entered. Usually she'd try to ignore them but when she was about to turn back she caught Antonio looking over in their direction, more specifically at Jan. Antonio watched Jan with what looked like confusion on his face. He tore his gaze away when Francis wrapped an arm around his waist.

Elizabeta frowned and glanced between Antonio and Jan. What had happened between those two?

AN: I'd like to thank everyone who's reading this and I hope you enjoy it. I'd like to thank everyone who's reviewed, alerted and/or favourite my story and I hope you like the new chapter. Antonio and Jan's relationship will start to get better from this chapter as they try to figure out their feelings and get thing sorted out and new characters are going to be introduced, also let me know if there are any side pairings you like and I may try to fit them in. I now have a general plot set out in my head of where I want this story to go so I'm really excited because I'm really enjoying working on this. Tell me if you think I've got Elizabeta and Arthur in character please because I haven't written much of these two before. So once again thank you for reading this and if you like it, please review.

Duncan: Scotland

Meredith: Wales.