Carter was quite used to blending into the crowd. This morning, however, he seemed to be the focus of every blatant stare and not so secret whisper. The origin of the dark bruise on his face was apparently a hot topic amongst his fellow students who didn't even try to disguise their curious stares and rumour filled whispers amongst friends.  

He kept his head down, passing through the groups of people and trying to block out the outrageous comments he heard as he passed.

"I heard that Alex beat him up, his own Ex!" "He tried to pick a fight with Jake." "What happened to his face?" "He and Alex used to be so perfect, and now look at them, beating each other up!"

Carter had been close to just going back the way he came and getting into his car, ready to go home and bury himself under a pile of TV and junk food, but he reconsidered when he saw Roxy standing next to his locker, her eyes trained on the phone clenched between perfectly manicured fingers. Roxy was always there for him, she was one of the only people he could really count on, and so he took a deep breath and approached her.

"Hey Roxy," he greeted weakly as he put his locker combination into the lock.

"This schools rumour mill should get an award for least accurate," she mumbled in reply, skipping over a greeting. She didn't look up from the phone that will still nestled in her grasp.

"I know what you mean," he agreed, shoving his bag into his locker.

"Someone texted me this morning that Alex beat you up for hitting on Jake," Roxy spoke like that was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard, and that was probably true.

Carter sighed. "The rumours even got to my sister, and she doesn't even go here."

Roxy pushed her phone into her pocket with a very unladylike grunt."Let's just forget about all the morons here. Today we are getting transfer students!" she smiled.

"Transfer students?" Carter asked, his face still buried in his locker as he searched for a pen.

"Yeah, two people from Greece or Italy or something are joining the school today, someone texted me this morning about it."

Carter wondered how Roxy always seemed to know everything that was going on within the school. He wouldn't have been surprised if she was at the top of some gossip phone tree.

"And I care about this because?"

"Because European guys are hot?" Roxy laughed, flipping dark hair over her shoulder.

Carter shook his head slightly, but conceded, "Well, you aren't wrong about that."

He tucked a book under his arm and closed his locker, turning to fully face his best friend. Roxy looked as pretty as usual, her eyes rimmed in eyeliner and her usually straight hair was curled at the ends into elegant ringlets. He was moments from complimenting her when her eyes widened.

"Woah," she reached up to trace the outline of the bruise with cautious fingers, "That looks sore."

"It's not too bad," he slowly turned away from her fingers, leading them down the hallway to their first class.

The door was open when they arrived at their class, students were talking and messing around and the teacher was nowhere to be seen. Roxy and Carter took their usual spots in the middle, with a spare seat on their other sides.

Roxy made a disgruntled sound next to him, and Carter looked at her, only to see her gaze focused on the front of the room.

He followed her eye line to see Jake and Alex entering the class room. They both looked like emo rockers and Carter wanted to roll his eyes at how much Alex had changed. The boy looked but a shadow of his former self and he seemed so out of place. Jake was tall but he was lanky, and thin. Alex was the opposite of the pale, think stereotypical emo boy, his tanned skin and muscles being poorly hidden underneath the mass of black.

Jake was munching on snacks as he walked into the room, bringing his gaze up just as he passed Carter and Roxy, sending them a malicious wink. Carter could have almost laughed at the way that Alex saw the action, hitting his friend on the arm quite hard as they passed the other desks to theirs at the back.

Carter was again confused at why Alex cared at all for him. Alex was the one who broke it off, Alex was the one who refused to even speak to him when school started up. Alex was the one who changed, but did Alex still care?

Carter shook his head at the war going on in his mind. Alex was his past, and he needed to get over him, even if it hurt.

"Good morning class!"

Carter brought his gaze to the front of the room, and where he expected to just see their teacher he saw her as well as two boys who stood a little to her left.

Suddenly an almost animalistic growl sounded from the back of the room, and the teacher seemed to narrow her eyes at those at the back, somewhat in annoyance and somewhat in confusion before taking a breath and speaking.

"We have two new students this morning," she gestured almost excitedly towards the two boys,  "I hope that you make Cole and Archer feel right at time. They have just joined us from italy!" 

Carter looked at the boy who must have been cole, but could be mistaken for a model, with his strong jawline. He wore sensible clothes and an impossibly neutral expression for someone on their first day. The other boy, who Carter assumed was Archer, was somehow even more attractive than the first one. He looked a little old to be in high school, but that might have just been the effect of the dark stubble which lined his jaw and the confident way he held himself. 

Carter only had to take one look at Roxy to tell that she was absolutely smitten with the new eye candy. He leant over to her, "I think you might be drooling."

He swore that as he leant away he could hear the two boys laugh under their breath, but they were too far away to hear anything he could have said.

Roxy didn't dignify his comment with a reply, probably only because he was right. She instead chose to ignore him and continue staring at them.

Their teacher motioned towards them, "Cole, why don't you sit next over there, next to Roxy."

The girl next to him basically shot out of her chair to get the boys attention, waving an arm in the air to make sure that he definitely knew who he was supposed to be sitting next to. Roxy wasn't going to waste this opportunity.

Carter looked around and realised that there was only one other spare seat and that was next to him. The teacher ushered Archer to sit next to Carter before sitting at the desk at the front.

"Hello." The handsome boy turned to Carter, revealing a thick Italian accent to his words.

"Hey." Carter attempted a smile at Archer.

"Do you speak English?" Carter asked, wondering if 'Hello' was the only word the boy knew.

"Yes," he laughed, "I was taught the language as a child."

"That's good, it will make school a lot easier for you," Carter told him.

Archer bit his lip in contemplation, and Carter couldn't deny that it was one sexy move. "What happened to your face?" the Italian boy looked over the wound with concerned eyes, his plump lip sandwiched between his teeth again, as if suddenly realising that the question could be considered rude.

"Oh this," Carter gestured to his face casually, "I got into a fight with my drug dealer. This is nothing, you should see the other guy."

Carter kept the poker face for a few seconds, but after looking into the wide eyes of Archer he burst out laughing.

Archer sighed in relief, "Oh, you were joking. Thank-god, I was quite concerned."

His reaction caused Carter to laugh even more, but he tried to stifle it, aware that they should have probably been working and the teacher was sure to chastise them if she caught him laughing like that in class time.

"Yeah, it was just a misunderstanding," he told Archer, who nodded.

"I am glad, a beautiful face like that should not be purposefully damaged," Archer spoke in that alluring accent of his.

Was Archer flirting with him?

Suddenly a growl sounded from the back of the room, and Carter turned his head to see Alex staring at him and Archer, a furious expression on his face.

Carter disregarded the strange jealousy coming from his Ex, remembering that he was trying to get over Alex, not scrutinise his every move, no matter how contradictory and strange that move was.

When Carter turned around he saw that Archer looked quizzical, a half smile on his face and Carter followed his eye line to see that Archer was looking right at Alex.

"That guy back there seems awfully unhappy with us," Archer whispered into Carters ear as he turned back around.

"Yeah, don't mind him, that's my ex," Carter told him.

"Oh," Archer muttered in understanding, "well, he is an idiot to have let you go."

Carter blushed, focusing his eyes on his open workbook, which just so happened to be an empty page. The teacher chose that moment to talk to the class and before he knew it the class was over and everyone was packing up.

As Carter stood from his desk, Archer tapped him on the shoulder. "Can Cole and I have lunch with you and your friend today?" the handsome boy asked.

Carter smiled somewhat awkwardly. It wasn't that he wanted to say no or anything, it was just that as sure as he was that he wanted to move on, there was something about accepting the offer of lunch with a cute guy that made it feel official or something. It wasn't even a date, but it still felt like moving on, and that was scary. He fought the urge to say no. "That sounds great, meet us in the cafeteria."

Archer nodded with a smile before leaving the room with Cole.

Carter had almost walked out the room before realising that Roxy wasn't with him. He turned around and rolled his eyes fondly as he saw the girl was smiling absentmindedly into the distance, completely lost in her own mind.

"Roxy?" he waved a hand in front of her face, laughing as she jerked back, her eyes widening as she realised that she had been daydreaming.

She happily jumped from her chair, picking up her books with a giant grin on her face. "I am in love."

Carter laughed, walking side by side with Roxy as they left the room and made their way to their next class.

"You are not in love."

"I am," she playfully slapped her best friends arm, "I am in love with a sexy Italian."

Carter suppressed an eye roll.  "As great as that is, I'm pretty sure you only met the guy like an hour ago."

"Well," Roxy shrugged, 'it was a great hour.' Suppressing that eye roll became more than even Carter could handle. "Don't you roll your eyes at me Carter!" Roxy growled out playfully.

Carter laughed at his friend. "Does he even speak English?"

"Yeah," Roxy said, but her tone made Carter think she was slightly unsure. "I think so."

"You think so? You are in love with him, but you haven't heard him talk?" Carter laughed.

"We talked the whole time," she defended. 

"And.."

"Yes, it was mostly me talking, but that's why I love him! He just listened to me talk for the whole lesson! He seemed really interested in everything that I said!" Roxy smiled. 'Please help me get a date with him! Please!"

"Roxy...." Carter knew where this was going.

"Come on Carter," Roxy stopped walking and turned to Carter with soft, wide eyes. "Please, I'm your best friend, please help me on this! I'll help you get in with that Archer guy! Our boyfriends could be best friends! How amazing would that be?"

"I am not trying to get 'in' with Archer," Carter clarified, "but, seeing as you are my best friend, I will help you."

"Thank-you!" Roxy's smile brightened.

"I can start at lunch today."

"Lunch?"

"Yep, Archer and Cole are joining us for lunch." Carter shrugged.

His eyes widened as he suddenly got a handful of Roxy, the dark haired girl wrapping her free arm around her best friend as she jumped up and down on the spot.

"You are amazing, this is why we are best friends."

Carter slowly disentangled himself from his friend, stepping away as he realised that they had reached their next class room.  

"See you at lunch." Carter nodded to his friend before they parted ways.