Laura P. O. V:

"Laura, calm down.", Charlie hugged me as my hands shuddered from the rage after punching Christian in his face.

"I don't know what kind of fight you are in but I'm going to kill him.", Cass cursed out.

It was lunch time already, but my anger is firing up. My body was quavering over the ornery situation, the cadency of my chaotic heart not able to slow down, interrupting my breath.

Cass brought lunch, my favourite part but now I'm about to throw up. The mockery to my trust was so much excruciatingly painful.

It's like you give something so precious to them, like a baby. But they never cared for it, broke them.

And the worst part is they are never even sorry.

My stupid heart.

Anger slowly changed to regret, which is worse. I regretted why I even broke the wall I built for. I knew that this would happen, but still I trusted not to.

Tears filled my eyes, my throat spasmed hard as I controlled to swallow all the pain.

"Hey, I'm so sorry.", Ethan sat near me, came to hold my hand but I reverted. Right now, I wanted to kill them, furiously yet slowly.

"I'm really truly sorry. I did not know what was happening", he said with a soft tone.

I sat silently, my attitude seeping through slowly. My body was so hot and flushed, rage taking off in all directions.

Christian and his crew sat down, all psyched out and sad. Everyone had a dreary face, except Christian and me. Fresh tender bruise spread on his left cheek, on which he placed ice pack. After all he got, still He smiled mockingly.

I stood up furiously, packing my bags.

"Laura. Please sit down. At least eat your lunch.", Cass said, grabbing my hand.

"Aren't you over reacting? Stop being a child.", Chris said, as he swiped a crisp French fries into his mouth. His arrogance slapped me in my face.

"Wha-", I scoffed, ridicule laughed back.

"I'm not a child.", I sat down, breathing deeply and slowly. Right now, I wished I could transform into a humongous Hulk, belittling him of how much power I could be. My hands twitched to slap him, for every twist of smile he gave.

"God! Christian. Swipe off that smile or I'll cut your throat.", My hand eagerly waiting to slap him.

"What are you angry about, honeybee? Your sweet crush broke my plan.", He slouched back, narcissism filled his speech.

David was the one who stopped him, from displaying the photo of me in the costume. His indirect talk between them arouse attention around people but no one knew what they were talking. He persuaded Chris slowly, but then here I come.

At the wrong timing.

One Swift punch. His left cheek blacked into a tender bruise. Crowd gathered around us, awe and surprise filled as I hit him. David held me back, from making matters worse.

Shirley bought the principal and both of us received detention and Christian was sent to school nurse. But, David took most of the blame.

For me, detention was a normal routine. But for an A class topper, that was like blood on my hands.

"The problem is between us. But why take it on David? He doesn't deserve it.", I raised my voice to let him know I'm serious but, he didn't even flinch or wipe off that shady smile.

"Actually, the trap was for you. He butted in.", He said, his relaxed hands crossed his chest.

"But he deserves it. He is just a liar as you are.", Christian said boldly.

"We are not as bad as you are. You are the worst. We just lie. But you come, you fake love and you just go when your pleasure is done. All you want is to get into pants."

"And you know what? I was wrong. I thought you changed after all. But you can't change a player as you don't have a heart.", I started with the mean facts.

Christian's face flushed and his jaws clenched as I said those words. For a moment, I saw his caring eyes pleaded with hurt and pain, but I don't want to stop.

"I saw you with Shirley at her party. How is that?"

"What? You went to Shirley's party?", Cass asked me out of the blue.

Well. Shit.

"No. I didn't.", The tables turned towards me.

"What do you mean? You saw them?"

"Ughh.. I.. I saw.."

"I posted it on Instagram.", Chris said, as he was back to calm composure.

"Woah!. You cheat on Laura and post it online. You are so mean. I hate you.", Charlie scolded him, her voice strong and bold.

"You hurt our friend. We would hurt you. You shithead!", Cass shouted at him, cursing him.

"Excuse me? Stop it. Chris won't do anything without a reason. Ask her what she had done.", Gaby said, innocence stalking his voice.

The argument soon turned into a commotion, as we fought, taking sides of our friends. Mean facts were thrown at them, accusing them as players and that they attack the innocent.

"You were the one who started it. I had no intention of taking revenge on you. If you had just told the truth, I would have understood.", Christian said, candor lingered on his speech.

I stood there, anger building up but I hated it that he kind of made me understand what he had been going through when he found out I lied to him.

I had no idea, why I lied to him for no reason when we met again.

"And You know what! Shirley was right. I shouldn't have believed you"

"You would lie to any extent to save yourself. Maybe that's why she left you.", he said, pressing his sharp words through my heart.

Tears filled immediately as the cruel past reminisced clearly. The way she left always stayed and made a deep scar. Even though I moved on, the scar hurts like it happened yesterday.

"You are not good enough for any relationship.", His intimidating voice made me more broken and empty.

"You jerk.", My harsh voice broke as I ran back into the corridor, hiding my tears back in the hoodie.

***

It was evening. The golden caramel rays of the setting sun casted my black shadow on the empty corridor as I stood near my locker, emptying my books.

After lunch, I went into a safe haven. I skipped classes and stayed at the empty library for hours, skimming through old romancing books. All I needed was to feel safe and silent. Like I said, the empty library was filled only with my own fantastic beasts and Knights in shining armor saving me in the idyllic realm.

It was the only way to save myself from regrets and anger.

I opened the locker, as a fresh warm pizza box was stuffed on the top of my books. A yellow note with scribbled letters was placed,

'Sorry for the trouble, hope it would make up.
- C"

I took the box in my hand, and closed the locker. Yes, I was grumpy and hungry and haven't eaten since morning. My stomach churned at the smell of parsley, sweet corn and barbeque chicken. But my highly worth pride stopped me. I would rather die than to accept it.

I opened the dustbin.

"You are not going to eat it, huh?", A brass voice heard from behind.

I turned to see Ethan, sliding on the wall, tilting his head towards me. He plucked the earphones out of his ear and walked.

"You must be hungry."

"I'm not.", my stomach growled back at my comments.

"Your stomach harbors a lot of growling dinosaurs, I guess?"

"I don't want to eat.", I pushed the pizza back into him.

"So why are you here? Are you a bait again while he is planning something stupid?", I asked him, my eyes vaguely searching for the white T shirt, Christian wore today.

"Actually. I came to see you."

"Well, I'm fine. You can go."

"Are you always this savage?"

Savage, that is an interesting selection of word to say I'm rude.

I walked away, ignoring his question.

"Come with me for five minutes.", he grabbed my hand.

Why should I?

"Just five minutes.", He urged me hard, catching my doubtful inner voice.

***

We sat on the green lushes and dainty daisies, shining brightly on the golden hue. The vast sky was already painting in violet red and the lamps were burning to match the creeping darkness.

"I'm hungry.", I whispered to myself, acid burning all my organs.

"Hope this helps.", Ethan handed me two protein bars and a soda.

I stared at him, whether or not to accept it. The battle between my pride and hunger was vicious.

"Seriously? Do you want to starve and die?"

"The thing at the library was a total accident. I lost in a game and talking to you was a dare. That's why I was there. I never knew about anything.", He explained desperately.

"Fine", I took them as an apology.

"God! I wish I never met him again.", I started to bitch about him to his best friend.

Wrong move.

To my surprise, Ethan laughed as he ate the ice cold pizza.

"That's really brave though. Telling him that he is a player. Everyone was shocked. He never liked being called a player."

"Oh my God, are you serious? He is going to murder me and make it look like a suicide. Or an animal attack."

"He isn't that bad. Half of what you said, I accept it. But the other half. That he don't have a heart. That's not true.", Ethan said, sincerity dominated his voice.

I stared at him, waiting for an persuasive reason.

"I have a sister, Leila. Well, at least biologically. But emotionally, she is so much bonded with Christan."

"Leila loves to party, she is so outgoing and carefree. A typical female version of Chris. Mostly she would hang out with him and do all bad stuff. She is like his baby sister."

"But one day, Leila was different. She totally shut herself down. Never came out of her room and never been the same."

"What happened to her?", I asked, all horrendous options dumping at the back of my mind.

"Some days later, Chris became restless too. He was too absorbed in his own thoughts and was very short tempered. I knew something bad happened between them. And sometimes I thought he might have flirted my sister, as he is a player.", His voice flared up with accusation.

"Next day, I went to Florida for a event and when I came back, I heard Christian got into a fight with a biker named Ryan. Ryan was severely injured and Chris even broke his right leg and a couple of ribs."

"I asked him and Leila, what was this about. After long hours of persuasion, Leila said she was blackmailed by Ryan. He lied to my sister and tricked her. Almost eighty five thousand dollars were lost. Chris confronted Ryan. When matters had gone worse, Chris beat the shit out of him."

Silence filled between us, as millions of thoughts choked my mind.

"He isn't that bad."

"He often guards what he loves the most.", Ethan said, as I stared blindly at the point of nowhere. I couldn't zone back from the bazillion questions clouding my mind.

"So he does have a heart.", A sense of halcyon felicity arose from the bottom of my troubled heart.

After all, no one is ever truly bad.

(Playlist - Rock bottom by Hailee Steinfield)

***