Ella's POV.

I have been looking for him since the start of my free period. I looked through the cafeteria, the library, the corridors, but no sign of him. I have been searching for the last thirty minutes and now I was getting tired. My body was already aching because of the morning practice, and now this further search was making me worn out. I searched through the basketball court and as I passed through the doors; I spotted his jet black hair and those tattoos up his sleeves.

"Mike!" I called out his name. He stopped and turned around. "I need to talk with you," I said.

"Oh, Ella! Right?" He stood in front of me with a smile on his face.

He was wearing the team's shirt, which was sleeveless, showing the tattoos on both of his arms. He had almost ten tattoos on her left arm and around ten to fifteen on his right one. His both arms, inked with black. He had his ears pierced and also had a loop in his one eyebrow and on the right corner of his lower lip. He had those blue eyes and a crooked nose as if it's broken before. By just glancing at him, one could tell he was the bad boy of this school. It was still hard to believe that Jessica had a crush on this guy.

"Look, I'll come straight to point," I said looking straight in his blue eyes. "You asked Jessica out. May I know the reason?"

He looked at me, raked his eyes from head to toe and his lips turned into a smirk. I felt a disgusting shudder ran down my spine.

"I just asked her out, it's no big deal." He shrugged.

"I told you to tell me the reason." I glared at him, clenching my hands into fists.

"Look! There's no need to get jealous. I would keep in mind that the next turn is yours." He came closer, still smirking. Before I could back away, he touched my stray locks of hair and slightly brushed them behind my ear. At once, I slapped his hand away. Just his mere touch was making me cringe.

"Don't you dare touch me! I'm not something you can get your hands on!" I pointed my finger at him and warned him. My eyes shooting daggers at him and my every single word filled with pure hatred.

"Wanna bet?" He smirked.

"Keep your dirty hands off me and my friends, and if you don't! Then Believe me! You don't wanna face the consequences. I'll become your worst nightmare." I death glared at him and continued, "you leave Jessica alone. She's not someone you can toy around." My temper was rising up while he was just listening to me with that disgusting smirk of his. All I wanted was to punch his damn smirking face.

"I like her," he stated calmly while shrugging his shoulders like an innocent angel.

"Oh please! Don't give me that like shit!" I folded my arms and rolled my eyes.

"No. I seriously like her." A smirk was still plastered on his lips and I was hating him more and more with every passing second.

"You like her? Oh lemme guess! The same way you had liked those hundred girls whom you had fuck around?"

"Aren't you one clever girl, baby doll?" He pinched my cheek and then patted it. I hated him. I hated the way his eyes were looking at me. It made me cringed. It seemed like he was stripping me with his eyes, and that name baby doll, it sent a wave of disgust throughout my body.

"I'm warning you. Stay. Away. From. Her." I emphasized each and every word to make it clear.

Giving him a last warning, I turned around and started heading towards the school corridors. At once, I felt a hand around my wrist and then I was spun back, coming face to face with Mike. A smirk still plastered on his face as he held my chin from his other hand and made me look in his eyes.

"So baby girl, let's make a deal. Be mine for one day," his mouth just a mere inch from me, "and I'll leave Jessica."

My eyes widened by his words and my jaw tightened. "In your dreams!" I spat on his face and jerked his hold away. How could he even say such a thing? He was a complete asshole! I hurriedly went inside the school but didn't miss the way he laughed and then his last words rang in my head.

"You can't escape me, Ella Anderson, I'll get you, baby doll!"

He was a bastard, a psychopath. The nerve of him to talk like that! I gritted my teeth in anger. I hated it. This was the biggest reason why I hated boys. I knew all boys were just like him. The only difference was, he showed it out while the rest had them hidden.

"I'm gonna kill that bastard!" I was fuming with anger. I clenched my fists and my eyes were blazing with rage. "I'll surely kill him."

"So whom you are killing?" I slightly jumped by the sudden appearance from behind me.

"God! You scared the hell out of me," I placed a hand on my heart to slow down its accelerated pace. For a moment,  I thought it was that bastard Mike following me.

"Sorry," he chuckled. His laugh was a gentle and sweet one. It was funny how a slight laugh of his, made me feel a bit at ease. Seeing him, my mind started debating whether all boys were really like Mike or were they different.

I went to the cafeteria and sat at a vacant table. He sat in front of me which made me looked at him oddly. "Why are you sitting here?" I raised my eyebrows.

"Can't I?" He retorted with the same expression which made me look at him with a serious one. "Usually you don't sit here and especially with me. So, why a sudden change?"

"I just feel like sitting here today. And besides, you are all alone now and I can't seem to just leave a pretty girl alone by herself." He smiled but I could sense a mischievous glint in his eyes. Pretty girl? I tried my best to suppress a smile at his joke. That was a joke. Right?

"Are you trying not to smile?" He tilted his head to the right and looked at me. I knew he was teasing me. I knew it but the way he was smiling and looking at me... It was making me feel warm and all comforted which I didn't want to feel it, at least not from him.

"Why are you teasing me? And when did we become so close to talking like that?" I openly asked. I was not in a mood to beat around the bush because I wanted to escape from this feeling as soon as possible.

Ella! Now you're being rude! He seems nice. He didn't say anything wrong. Did he? Why you're being rude to him?

My mind asked and I knew it was right but I wasn't in a mood to listen to my so-called smart brain. I knew he didn't say anything wrong but still, he shouldn't be here beside me or in front of me. So, he needed to leave.

Before I could utter another word. He quickly whispered, "Sorry." His expression suddenly changed to a grim one. He got up from his seat, grabbed his books and headed out of the cafeteria. The moment he turned around those doors and vanished from my sight, I felt bad. This was puzzling. One moment, I wanted him to stay away but the next, I didn't want him hurt. The way his expression changed, he seemed hurt.

Was I that harsh? But why was I being so concerned about him? I shouldn't care. It's good he was gone. My heart was finally returning to its pace but my conscience was making me feel bad.

Ella, he was just trying t make you feel better. You were alone and he came to accompany you and look, how rudely you treated that boy. 

Did I? But I didn't do anything wrong. It was all his fault! He made my heart beat rapidly, my body temperature to rise, and my cheeks to warm up. It was all his fault, not mine.

You should apologize. That's no way to thank someone. Remember, how he helped you yesterday?

It wasn't practically a help. It was just... I felt relaxed.

Still, you should apologize to him.

My mind sounded right, making me frown. I huffed in defeat and listening to my conscience, I took my bag and headed the way Xaiden went.

Xaiden's POV.

I didn't get it. What was wrong with her? Why couldn't she just talk with me, politely? Why couldn't she laugh and enjoy herself around me like she enjoys herself around others? Why was she always giving me a cold shoulder? And damn me as well. Why I had to keep going after her? Why I wanted to spend my time with her? And why was I interested in her? I shouldn't have cared to talk to her in the first place. I shouldn't have followed her in the first place. I should have just kept myself low and focus on what I came for.

I was just trying to act a bit friendly to make her feel better. I thought that maybe we could be friends. Yesterday the talk and that little time we spend, I enjoyed it and I thought, she did too. Although we didn't talk that much but I even enjoyed the silence I shared with her. There was something in there about her that made my heart drew towards her.

Yesterday was the first time she talked to me. Her voice was sweet and gentle and she looked, innocent and delicate, sitting in that corner, trying to hide. Her blonde hair and those green emerald eyes... I felt my breath taken away.

My heart would always race whenever I would be around her. I believed, it was just a mere attraction felt by two opposite genders but then, it confuses me. I had felt this way for the very first time. I knew I hadn't known her for that long but a strange feeling was lying there, deep down in my heart. The moment, my eyes met hers - the first day - her eyes told a thousand untold stories. When I saw her playing that piano, the way she got lost in the world of rhythm like it would fly her away from this world. She felt like me. 

It felt like she would understand me. It felt like she would understand the things I had been through. I felt as if she was the one there for me. She looked innocent, pure and just right. She felt just right to be that important person for me. It felt like Ella was that slightest spark of light that I had always yearned for.

Ella!

Even her name rolled damn good on my tongue. What had she even done to me?

I knew, whatever she was doing to me or had done to me was not good, and the way she wanted to escape from me was also not good. But maybe, I was wrong. Maybe, she wasn't meant to be someone dear to me, and maybe, I should stop trying. I should just focus on my main goal and my sole reason for my visit here.

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