It is probably the first time Zeke has had lunch in the cafeteria. It's not like he's popular or something, but he has a reputation. People do fear him—because they misunderstand him—and know he is not one to join crowded places. So when he walks inside the cafeteria with me by his side, many glances are on us. I hear murmurs and some people don't even try to hide their surprise. I take a glance at him and he looks super serious, and that's his way to state he doesn't care. He does what he wants. Although I'm pretty sure that being here is not what he wants, but I asked him to have lunch with us. Sam is already waiting for us, I went looking for him after class and I had to beg a little bit. We are friends now, we get on so well so it's just normal that we have lunch together, right? That's what I've seen in films, at least. Friends eat together.

I smile widely and hold my head higher. It makes me happy that he's here and that he agreed to this. He notices my smile and turns to look at me briefly, giving me one of those amazing smiles that lights up his whole face. My chest does that funny thing again.

We buy something and I notice Zeke just asks for a sandwich. No wonder why he's so skinny.

"That's not good for you," I say, as we keep moving in the queue to pay. "Balanced meals are essential for a proper and functional body."

He chuckles lightly. "I don't like cafeteria food," he replies and I snort.

"Then bring your own food. You need to feed properly or you'll disappear. You're super skinny," I tease him, grabbing his arm to illustrate my point. He is skinny but he's not soft and it's not because I'm touching his bones, it's because his muscles are defined.

"I try to make the best out of every second of sleep. I can't wake up earlier to make lunch and no one else is gonna do it for me," he replies and I pout.

"Then you should be less picky. I'll share with you today," I offer and I ask for a larger portion even if he complains.

Then we head to where Sam is waiting and Zeke greets her kindly. She teases me because I bought too much food but then I tell her I'm just looking after Zeke's nutrition.

Even if he complains, I make him eat part of my steak and smashed potatoes. Even Sam tries to help me feeding Zeke and we end up playing, with the whole 'here comes the plane' and other childish things. When he laughs one of us shoves some food in his mouth.

We actually have fun, Zeke laughs a lot and we are completely oblivious to the commotion around us. It seems we are being louder than normal and people are staring at us. Saying they look shocked is an understatement.

When we are leaving the cafeteria with its murmurs behind, I tell Zeke, "we are indeed ruining your reputation. The bad boy was laughing at lunchtime!" I exclaim in fake horror and Sam mimics me.

"Now the kids won't respect you anymore! The bad boy can actually smile. That's what they are all saying," Sam continues the joke and Zeke looks at bit embarrassed, but the smile doesn't leave his lips.

"You're gonna be the end of me. I should've remained friendless," he sighs and Sam and I look at each other—Zeke walks in between— and after a nod each of us grabs one of his arms.

"Too late," I sing making him laugh again as he shakes his head.

A loud thud stops our game and we stop cold on our feet just to see Butch cornering a girl against the lockers and two guys by his side. She's short with jet-black hair, a bit overweight and a frightened expression. In fact, she looks close to tears and I squeeze Zeke's arm without noticing it.

"Oh, little rat, are you scared?" Butch snickers. "What did I tell you? You worthless little rat, the only thing you'll ever accomplish is buying me food so if you don't bring enough money, you're failing. Again." She can't look up and it seems she only wants to disappear. "I'm just trying to help," he continues, in a disgustingly sweet tone as he approaches more, his face centimetres apart. "You need to go on a diet and I'm just helping you to avoid temptation." The poor girl shuts her eyes so tightly trying to keep tears at bay, he whole body is trembling and Butch and company are only laughing. "You exist to give us your money. If you fail at that, you're better off dead."

I gasp at his cruel words and I can't believe someone can say something like that to another human being. I can't believe what I'm seeing and I can't believe I'm standing here when a poor girl is scared and crying because someone else is bullying her.

I let go of Zeke's arm and step forward, rushing towards the scene before someone can stop me. I go and push Butch away from the poor girl. I'm not strong and he's a big guy, so I barely move him, but at least I startle him and he ceases harassing the girl.

"Stop saying those things to her!" I shout. "No one can measure human worth so you have no right to tell her that."

Butch takes a few seconds to take in what's happening and once he does, his face shows only amusement.

"Look what we have here, a little rat fighting for another worthless rat. How brave, you should learn from this white rat," Butch tells the girls and she looks terrified. "Or maybe this white rat wants to take the other rat's place," he muses and I clench my fists.

He steps forward, his hand stretching to reach me but before he accomplishes that a fist collides against his cheek, throwing him to the floor.

"Don't you dare touch her," an angry voice roars and I see Zeke by my side. "Do or say something  to her and I won't hold back anymore."

My eyes widen for Zeke's voice sounds scary, lethal. His fists are clenched and I see the veins in his neck pulsing. He's beyond mad. I instinctively take a step back. Zeke doesn't notice this, he's still in a glaring contest with Butch, but he still says to me, "Allie, take the girl with you. Make sure she's fine." This time his voice sounds a bit more collected but his tone is still dark and dangerous.

I nod even if he can't see me, I turn around and look for the girl who's shaking against the lockers. I approach her slowly, trying not to scare her any further. "It's okay, I won't hurt you," I say although I'm not sure that's what you say in these situations. I must be right because she takes my hand and I pull her against me, shielding her.

"Oh, so Zeke has a protégée now. How fun," Butch sounds delighted. "I think I found a new toy."

"I'm warning you," Zeke's lethal voice makes me shiver. "I'm so fed up with you and your attitude."

"Oh yeah?" he defies Zeke. "And what are you gonna do?"

Then Butch tries to grab me again but Zeke punches him across the face once again, throwing him against the lockers. The girl and I scream in surprise, even more when Zeke grabs Butch by the collar and holds him against the lockers.

"You're pathetic, bullying other kids to feel like a big man but you're nothing but a child. Grow up and solve your confidence problems instead of picking on others," Zeke spats, he sounds disgusted.

I look around and I see Sam waving at me to approach her and get out of here. I also see the other students with their mobiles, recording this fight. I don't go to my friend, instead I urge the girl next to me to step away and I stay where I am, scared of and for Zeke.

Butch growls, humiliated and pushes back, making Zeke lose his balance, but he manages to stay on his feet. Then the bully launches toward and Zeke attacks, too, a fist lands directly on Butch's stomach whilst his collides with Zeke's side. I flinch in empathy.

More fists fly around, the two guys fighting with burning rage and I don't know what to do, how to stop this.

"Zeke!" I call out. "Stop, please!" But it's futile and I even try to step forward but someone grabs me by the shoulders. One of Butch's friends.

Thank goodness a teacher comes running to stop the fight, but he doesn't have it easy for the two guys are beyond a sensible state.

"What's going on here? Why is it always you two?" the teacher cries out and then his eyes find me. "You too?" he asks me and my eyes shoot wide open.

"No!" Zeke replies for me and the teacher glares at him.

"She’s totally part of it. She pushed me first," Butch says with venom in his voice. "That's why my mate is holding her back. She's dangerous."

"It wasn't like that!" Zeke tries to defend me but the teacher clearly doesn't want to listen to him.

"That's enough! You three come with me. Now!" he demands and pushes Zeke and Butch forward, towards the headmaster's office—I presume. The guy holding me pushes me too and I stumble forward. Zeke tries to grab me but the teacher makes him walk ahead. He then looks at me with disappointment in his eyes. I don't know this teacher, does he know me?

Zeke turns to look at me over his shoulder and I can see he's worried sick, and not for him. This is the first time I get in trouble and I'm still shocked. I'm not fully aware of what's happening until we are in an office. Butch sits down as if it were his home, completely comfortable. Zeke offers me the other chair and I follow his instructions automatically. The headmaster is staring at me confused until the teacher clears his throat.

"These three students were caught fighting. Again." The headmaster sighs heavily and I remember other occasion where these two were sent to the headmaster's office. I think they are kind of regular here already. "And yes, this girl, too."

"Pardon, sir, but it wasn't quite like that," Zeke speaks with a polite tone. The headmaster raises his eyebrows in surprise. "She was trying to help another girl Butch was bullying."

"It’s good to finally have you saying something, Zeke, but she should've called a teacher instead of taking it in her our hands. Violence is not the way." The headmaster sighs again. I'm still dumfounded, I can’t believe I'm here. That I got in trouble. "Zeke, Arnold—" oh, so Butch's name is Arnold "—this time you are suspended. Two days. And you miss, we'll call your parents."

I gasp and horror washes over me. "My-my parents?" I mutter and the headmaster nods. I feel Zeke's hand in my shoulder, squeezing. "But I—"

"Be thankful I'm not suspending you, too. Now leave. Tomorrow show up with your parents."

I want to protest but the teacher grabs my arm and makes me stand up. Butch is the first to leave but before he crosses the door he looks at Zeke and I with a triumphant smirk. For the first time in my life I feel rage. But then I remember my parents have to come. They'll find out I got in trouble. In a fight—sort of.

"Allie," Zeke calls my name and only then I realise we are out the office and without the teacher, just the two of us in the hall. I turn to look at him and he must see the panic in my face because he grabs my shoulders and pulls me to a tight hug.

"I'm sorry, Allie. I got you in trouble," he apologises but that's not quite like it. That's not the problem.

"My parents are gonna kill me," I mumble, limp in his arms.

"I'm sorry," he repeats hugging me tighter.

I hug him back because I don't know what else to do. I've never got in trouble before so I don't even know what to expect, which makes it scarier.

"It's my fault. I knew I should've stayed away," he laments once again and this time his words reach me and I snap back to reality.

"What? How is this your fault? It's Butch's for being a bully! And I pushed him first. You just came to help me," I protest pulling back to frown upon his words.

"Yeah but I just made things worse by actually punching him. I'm sorry, I just—ugh, it's that Butch's drained my patience. I can't stand him and when I saw him picking on you… I saw red."

"It's not your fault, but it's true you should've controlled yourself instead of lowering to his level," I condemn him. I accept he's not innocent because as the headmaster said, violence is not the answer. "Now you got suspended. You have to be more careful," I tell him and he sighs heavily. "Anyhow, all what we can do now is deal with the consequences. When they experiment fails, we can only clean the mess and try again, making sure not to make the same mistakes. We can only learn from a failed experiment, dwelling on it doesn't fix anything, right?"

He chuckles and ruffles my hair before pulling away and breaking all contact. For some reason I feel weird when he's not touching me and only then I realise he hugged me.

My heart does that funny thing again and I feel like someone is pressing my sternum.

"You and your geeky analogies. But you're right. Still, I'm sorry."

I nod, accepting his apology even if it's not his fault, just so we can leave this behind.

"Let's go and see how Sam is doing," I suggest and he shakes his head.

"I'm suspended. I have to leave immediately. I know the procedure already," he tries to joke but I frown. "It's gonna be fine, don't worry about me. Go with Sam and make sure the girl is fine. I'll see you around," he tells me but I don't want to say goodbye.

However, I still nod and wave goodbye before turning on my heels and walking away. My chest still feels tight and I'm getting curious about this weird reaction. I wonder if there's something wrong with me.

-:-:-

A bit longer as an apology for the delay.

Bel, xx