Alright guys for the 290834093rd time, I know I take way too long with chapters but things were happening and stuff and I was trying to write but yeah, excuses are really useless but I'm sorry so here's the new chapter!

As I walked into English and saw the dark and brooding figure that I used to be so close to, I immediately lost all the confidence I had in my essay. I didn't want him to read it, I didn't want him to review it, to be blunt, I didn't want to talk to him or even be in the same room with him. It made me upset how much I couldn't stand to look at him because whenever I did, I'd feel like I could go over to him and be with him like I was before. I'd feel like everything was okay again, but it all just a false hope. His presence alone tormented me and that terrified me more than anything. How a person could go from a safe haven to a tormenting monster.

I sat down in my seat, slinking down hoping if I slunk down enough I would end up sliding into an alternate universe where all these problems would go away. I tried comforting myself by reminding myself that soon enough this would be over. This was not my forever, this was just a class that would be over. I repeated that over and over in my mind hoping that soon enough it would be true and it would be over but it never happened.

Ms. Dawes was talking about the project but I zoned out without thinking about it. I was staring outside the window, watching the clouds in the blue sky pass by. Everything she was saying sounded like a blur in the background as my eyes watched the white clouds float and fly and create shapes. A part of me knew that I was supposed to be listening and was trying to fight with the dominate part that was zoning out into the vanilla cotton candy filled sky but of course the dominate part was winning and of course that wasn't in my favor. As I stared out the window, and as Ms. Dawes always took every chance she could to embarrass anyone who wasn't paying full attention to her, it was my chance once again.

"Ms. Mitchell, how many times do you have to be embarrassed in front of the class before you actually pay attention?"

I drew my eyes and attention away from the window and back to classroom where everyone was now rearranged in different seats, and where everyone's eyes stared at me as I was now the center of attention. Ms. Dawes stared at me along with everyone else, waiting for a response but I didn't know what to say so instead of going with the first thing that came to my mind like last time which didn't get me far, I just sat there. In either situation, I would have looked stupid so I just went with the one that didn't require me to open my mouth.

"If you didn't get the hint from the rest of the class, we've moved seats to talk with our English partners to discuss and review out essays, which I'm sure you've written, right?"

I nodded my head.

"Alright, so get with your English partner."

Feeling stupid and reluctant to even get up, I scanned through my bag, pulling out my paper. I looked across the room at Eli who didn't even seem to have noticed what had just happened and I wasn't sure if I was more relieved or annoyed at that. I took a deep breath in as I got up and walked in the direction of his desk. I knew if anyone was going to do the talking it was going to be me. So I got myself prepared and tried to push the negative thoughts out of my head though they were very strong.

As I stood in front of his desk, I closed my eyes and opened them to see that Eli was staring straight at me. At first, it look me off guard. I had thought that he would stare at the board again like last time and I would just talk to the side of his face. I found a sort of peace in not having to talk eye to eye with him. Now with his green eyes burning a hole into my soul, I lost all the confidence or whatever I had before. Then I noticed the direction of his stare. It wasn't at my face but at my neck. I followed his stare down to notice the marks left on my skin by Luke, the boy who kissed me but I still had yet to know personally.

Feeling like I had done something wrong, I quickly up the neckline of my shirt to the highest it could get without looking like something that resembled a bib. Even then though, the marks were still visible and Eli's stare was still heating up the skin on my neck.

Instead of trying to cover up the marks, I tried to distract away from it with getting back to what I was standing there for.

"Uh," I started, as my throat began to clench up, "I have my essay."

"Isn't that what we're here for."

At first, my heart fluttered and I wanted to smile because hearing his sarcasm was a lead way to being able to talk and converse with Eli like before. But his voice had an angry undertone and his sarcasm wasn't coming from a joking and heartwarming place but rather a place where he wanted me to feel bad or stupid or both and I did, which then led me to feel angry and annoyed by the fact that he felt like he could talk to me like that.

"You know Eli, you're the one who screwed me over so don't sit here acting like you have any right to be pissed off or angry at me, I did nothing to you."

His eyes turned suddenly from a regular green to a green that looked like clouds and thunder had taken over. He stared at me with such hatred that I felt like he actually hated me and who knows, he probably could have. But I would've never had known because he didn't open his mouth to say anything. He knew I wanted a reaction sentence or a response and that's exactly why he didn't give it to me. Before I could get anymore mad and proceed to blurt out angry sentences that would be useless considering they'd get no response, I put my paper on his desk, grabbed his and walked back to my desk.

I had to fight myself to stop myself from looking over at him. To see where his eyes were trailing. To see if he even acknowledged my paper or my walking away. I hated myself for caring so much and I hated him for not caring at all.

When the bell rang, I flew out of class trying to get away from Eli as soon as possible. As I ran out the door, I felt myself smack straight into someone.

"I guess this is our hello."

I looked up to see that Drew was the one I had ran into, twice too many times today.

"Sorry," I said, glancing back at the door of the classroom, "I just had to get out of there."

"Oh yeah, I hate English too."

"It's not really English that I hate." I said, turning back and staring at Eli as he walked out of the classroom.

Drew followed my stare to end up looking at Eli along with me. He nodded as he understood, "Ah, ex hate."

"Not just ex hate. Ex who I have to converse with for a grade and who seems to have a problem with me when I didn't do anything to him hate."

Drew put his arm around my shoulders, pulling me close to him and squeezing my shoulder reassuringly as we walked down the hall. As he did, my breath started getting slower and harder to do and I didn't know why. I wanted to pull away from him but I felt comfort, minus the loss of breath, in his embrace.

"Uh," I spoke, trying to not make it obvious that my breath was being taken every time I looked at him basically, "I have to get to band."

"Oh you're a band geek, I would've never known." Drew said with a smirk.

"I guess that means you don't know me at all." I replied with the same smug smirk and an added shrug.

"I guess that means I have to get to know you."

"I…" I started but trailed off as his smirk and eyes that were set directly on my eyes made my hands turn clammy and I had to look away from him before the thoughts that I locked in the safe in the back of my mind seeped their way out. Luckily, we were standing right in the same hallway as my classroom and the bell rang so I had an excuse to get away from him.

"See you later." He said, and I replied back with a "Yeah." But in my mind I actually really didn't want to see him because every time I saw him I was forced to face the way I might actually feel about him.

Alright, don't forget to review and I hope I'll post another pretty pretty soon. (also, I'm sorry that it's kinda short but it will get better in time!)