Gray's POV

"Hey girl!" Surprised that someone was seemingly shouting that in my direction, I turned my head slowly. The shout was probably not directed at me anyway, no point rushing. However, a quick glance showed that the girl was definitely looking my way, and seemed to be going straight for me. Drawing Petal closer to my side, I glanced in confusion around me, hoping to find I was just standing in front of her friend. Being mistaken for a girl this early on a Monday morning was definitely not on my to-do list.

"Hi." A sigh of relief rushed out of my lips quickly when I saw she had actually been talking to Petal, who was smiling brightly at the girl. I should've noticed earlier that she had been looking at the other girl happily, which would've clued me in greatly on the situation. As she approached, her eyes shifted to the arm I'd put around Pet's waist, so quickly I could've just imagined it. The smile that had been covering her features since I'd first seen her, seemed to tug even wider at the corner of her bright red lips. If I had to be honest, she looked like the opposite type of girl Petal would befriend. She obviously didn't care about what the rest of the school thought about her, and carried herself so confidently that she made Petal dwarf in comparison.

"Not together, eh?" With this she let a loud laugh out, making me startle for a second. She was so small, how was she that loud? The more time I spent around this chick the more confused I got. For starters, why the hell was she questioning my relationship with Petal? I was about to stalk forward to ask her exactly that myself, when Pet put a restraining hand on my arm, never taking her eyes off the girl. She'd been uncannily accurate with what I'd do, making me purse my lips in exasperation. I'd never seen myself as predictable before but Pet had showed me the opposite quite a few times already – and we'd been only been dating for a week. Today had been the first day that she'd let me actually show the rest of the school that I was hers.

"Well… There's been a new development." Petal gave her a shy smile and finally turned to look at me. Remaining next to Petal was paid off as she quickly made eye contact, the warmth in her eyes making me want to kiss her senseless. Reminding myself of the girl's presence in front of us, I shook my head quickly, attempting to remove the sight of her soft lips from my mind.

"So, who's this?"

"Althea, this is Gray, who you've probably guessed by now is my boyfriend." The word sent a pleasant shiver down my spine, it'd been the first time she'd referred to me as such. "And Gray this is my friend Althea." I chanced a quick look up and down, noticing everything in her outfit was either red or black, reminding me of that goth girl I always saw walking around. They were probably the same person but I'd never actually met her. She'd looked pretty intimidating from a distance. It made me question once more how she and Petal had come to be friends in the first place.

"Odd name you got there Althea."

"You're one to talk, Gray." I could already tell she was going to be a lot of work to be around. Petal's eyes were shifting from Althea to me, confusion sprouting in her features, causing a slight frown to form between her brows. I didn't want to upset her but I didn't really want to stay and talk to Althea, whose smile had disappeared, replaced with a standoffish posture and a slight puffing out of her cheeks.

"Right, we need to head off to English. I'll see you at lunch, though. Bye." With a quick smile to Althea and a short hug, she turned back to me, both eyebrows raised as she took my arm and practically dragged me away from Althea. Not that I was complaining, the less time I spent with that girl the better.

"What's wrong?" That obviously wasn't the right thing to say as Petal stopped right in her tracks, glaring me down with what was supposed to be an intimidating squint of her eyes. I had to hold back a smile, knowing she'd just get madder at me.

"What's wrong? Are you kidding me? Gray, Althea's my friend and you two just stared at each other as if you were fighting to the death. What gives?" Before I had a chance to excuse myself with a lame excuse that would save me having to admit that I simply didn't like her friend, she clamped both her hands over her mouth, shaking her head quickly. "No, oh god, just ignore I said any of that, you know I'm always like this when I'm tired."

"What if I don't want to ignore you? Seriously, your dad might've told you that behaviour like that is 'unacceptable' but it's far from that. I love it when you get like this, it's like you're showing me the real you, not the person that your dad constructed for you." Shaking my head slightly, I took her hand back in mine, starting a slow walk back towards English. "So never apologise for stuff like that, please. If it's what you want to say then there's no reason to hide it."

"I… I suppose."

"You don't need to force yourself to say what's on your mind either – just do what makes you happy. If you want to speak up then do. If you don't and feel too shy then don't. But don't let anyone else tell you what you should say."

"I think I like that idea." She finally leaned against my side, looking up and smiling at me. She never said it but I knew she appreciated it when I told her to do whatever she wanted. She sometimes just needed a reminder that it was ok. After all the beatings the asshole had forced her to endure, it was no wonder the thoughts sometimes overtook her. "You know, last week I talked back to the popular crowd." I would've been worried if I hadn't heard the tinge of pride in her voice.

"What did they do to deserve the wrath of P- Maisee?" Only a roll of eyes was met in response to my joke, as she continued to tell the story.

"They were insulting others. I didn't mind them calling me nasty things but… They kind of crossed the line with that one."

"Yeah I can tell. To make you mad, you really need to do something bad." At this, she tugged up the corners of her lips tiredly, despite it not being meant as a compliment. I could tell that in Petal's mind there was nothing worse than becoming horrible to others, due to her father scaring her into thinking the rest of the world was full of monsters and she'd soon become one too. I'd have to make sure to reassure her that she was good, as well as all the other things I tried to tell her daily, like her being beautiful, and loving when she actually told me what she thought.

"Thanks. For… For everything."

Hi :)

Wow. Just wow. You guys got up to 70 on the same day I uploaded the chapter? You made my day, I kid you not. You are honestly so amazing, I don't deserve you. But hey, maybe we can get it up to 74 this time? Completely optional, as always.

Ok, so I don't know if you've seen but I've put up Hearing Althea. I know quite a few of you liked her, so tell me what you think! It's based after Fixing Pet, but, obviously, won't contain any spoilers :)

Bye bye!