Look out for the <>! And happy Monday!

Stella POV

I sat down in my chair in class and made eye contact with Gray for only a second before we both looked away from each other. I frowned as I looked at my hands, wondering why I was even trying to grab his attention. The memory of him in the field played on repeat on my mind and I couldn't get it out. Seeing him come out of that gate wasn't what I thought about, though. His story haunted my dreams as if that were the only thing that mattered in my mind.

When I woke up the next day, I thought it was entirely a dream, cooked up by my stressed out mind. But I was surprised when I saw him come to class the next day with only a small limp. His face looked completely normal and for a second, I was confident that what I saw was a dream. But when he ignored me, I realized that what he said and what I saw the day before were all true.

Gray told me his story, straight from the source, but I couldn't understand his motive. People needed motive to kill, and he had none. There was destress in his voice as he told me, as if he hated that day just as much as the school hated him.

But he admitted it himself, he killed the boy. Gray was a killer, but I couldn't wrap my mind around it. He wasn't evil by any means, in fact, he cared more about others than I think he realized himself. So none of it made sense. As much as a headache this was, I decided to keep my distance until I made sense of it. He wanted that as well, clearly, and I thought it best for both of us for space. However, in the back of my mind, I still thought about how he danced with me at homecoming and a part of me longed for him to speak to me again and maybe one day, he would hold me like that one more time.

All these contradicting thoughts dizzied me. I didn't understand why was I still interested in him if I knew he was a killer. Maybe because I still couldn't believe it, even when he told me the truth himself.

I snuck a look at him again before more people came into the room. His black sweater looked comfortable in warm. He pushed his sleeves up to reveal pink scabbing on his wrists, which confirmed that he still wasn't healed from whatever happened to him. Unware of me watching, he stared at his notes as he wrote something, a scowl on his face as if something was bothering him. I wish I knew what that was.

"So what is going on with you two?" Alice asked as she sat down beside me, breaking me from my internal thought battle. To be honest, I had this internal battle every time I had a class with him, and time didn't make it any easier.

I shook my head as I quickly changed my attention to her. "With who?" I asked as I pulled out my textbook. We both knew exactly who she was talking about, but I still wanted to play dumb with her. Not wanting to fuel her 'I told you so comments', I didn't want to admit anything. She knew that something happened between us, I was just lucky she hadn't brought it up thus far. It allowed me to get my thoughts in order, or come up with some lie I could tell her.

"You and Grayson. It was like you two were all in love at the dance and now you aren't even making eye contact with one another."

I frowned, knowing that she wouldn't stop asking until she got an answer. "We had a fight." And that response was all she was going to get. She wouldn't know what about or for what reason, but that simple sentence would be enough for her. Already I could see her thinking about what to tell me. She warned me from the beginning to stay away, but I refused to listen to her. She would at least tell me that.

"See, I told you he isn't what met the eye."

Even though I knew it was coming, I didn't need her jab right now. "Thanks for the reminder," I panned.

She nodded, then got her books out of her backpack. "Hey, on the bright side, I know this one football player that is interested in you. Can I set you up on a blind date?"

I shook my head. The last thing I wanted to do was go on a date with someone that Alice set up. Alice was a great person, but I knew the guys she hung out with and they weren't my kind of guys. "I'm not really interested."

"I didn't even say who it was," she pouted.

But it didn't matter who it was, I wasn't interested. I stared at her for a moment, hoping she would catch my clue, but she continued to pout. "I am just not interested in dating right now."

"Fine, but you are missing out," she said as the teacher walked in to get class started.

I nodded with a small smile, happy that she gave up so easily. That was fine because I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything.

Classes passed by in a blink of an eye. Alice talked my ear off about her upcoming holiday plans and Timberlyn invited me to an upcoming party that I really had no intention of going to. Before I knew it, I was waiting for Bec to pick me up from school. With the snow covering almost everything, the possibility of riding a bike was next to none. I was just glad Bec offered to take me home today.

As I waited for her, I looked out the front doors of the school as snow continued to fall down. I never thought I would like the snow, but there was something so beautiful about it. And the cold was not as bad as I thought it would be either. Who knew that living here would be as nice as it had been. Everything that I thought would be terrible was actually not that bad or nice, even.

Breaking my thoughts was when my eyes caught hold of Gray as he walked out the doors. I know I was giving time, but I still had so many questions and mulling them over in my mind wasn't solving anything. Gray needed to answer them in order for me to make a decision. "Hey," I said, unable to stop myself.

He didn't even flinch as he continued walking towards the door.

"Hey, Gray," I said louder, thinking he might have not heard me.

Gray continued to move towards outside without even stopping to look at me.

I frowned, but didn't chase him down. It was clear that he wanted those rumors to live. He didn't want a friend to back him up; he wanted to stay in the shadows in his own self inflected torment and that frustrated me the most. He was just too stubborn for anything to change. If he wanted to be seen as a killer and not be seen as anything else, that was on him.

Anger filled me as silently, he left me alone in the hall.

"Hey, Stella! Come on!" Bec yelled as she rolled up in her small red car, breaking me from my anger and thoughts towards Gray.

I gave her a small smile, letting her know I heard her, then grabbed my backpack and walked through the same doors that Gray walked through just a minute or two ago.

"Hey girl!" Bec said excitedly as I opened the door of her car.

"Hey," I replied dully as she drove off to get back home.

"This snow won't stop. I think the ski season is going to be great," she said as she got onto the main road. "Speaking of which, want to go out and get your ski legs this weekend?"

I nodded as I looked out the window. "Sure," I said, as I thought about how Gray didn't turn back to me. He wanted me to leave him alone, but there was something that told me he didn't fully want that. There was more to the killer story than he wanted to share. How could he be dangerous when he scared everyone away?

"Hey, Stella, what's the long face for?" she asked as she turned the radio down to only a soft hum in the background.

I turned my attention towards her and sighed. I hadn't told her or dad about what I saw a week ago. I never told them I was having problems with Gray either, but the moment felt right to at least share my thoughts about Gray. Bec could at least give me some tips on what to do. Unlike Alice, she wouldn't tell me I picked the wrong person to be interested in. "It's Gray."

"Oh gosh, what did he do?"

At this point, I was trying to figure out what he didn't do. "He's just being difficult. I swear he's just interested in self torment."

"AH, one of those kinds of kids," she frowned as if she spoke from experience. "Don't let it get you down. Sooner or later he will realize what he's missing."

"I tried to talk to him today, he didn't even make contact with me."

"Sometimes, you just need time to have whatever happens play its course."

I nodded as I thought about the week that went by. How much time would he need because I think I already made up my mind; he wasn't a killer. What happened was an accident that he didn't mean to happen. That didn't make him a killer, it made him sad.

Gray POV

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I looked at the textbooks in front of me and once again had a lack of motivation to study. I pushed them away from me, knowing I wouldn't study today. Maybe I would never study again, but that was not what I was thinking about. I rubbed the scabs on my arms as I thought about how Stella still wanted to talk to me. I couldn't describe the feeling of joy I felt but also worry. Even with knowing the truth about how my friend died, she still wanted to talk to me. She called my name, which I didn't think would ever happen again.

I was convinced that Stella wanted a death wish. She knew I wasn't like everyone else, that I was dangerous, but yet she wouldn't give up. I wasn't sure how many times I could push her away until I gave up. She was wearing me down, and that wasn't a good thing.

"Hey Gray, are you home?" Else's voice rang out.

"Yeah, I'm here," I said as I pulled the text book closer to me to make it look like I was studying all this time instead of looking at the table wood grains.

She smiled as she walked into the kitchen, taking off her fur coat gracefully. "The whip wounds are healing nicely," she stated as she looked at my arms.

I nodded as I looked at them, wishing they would heal quicker than they have. Else said they should have healed by now, but they were taking their sweet time as if they had nothing better to do. "It's all the herbs you are using," I said, knowing that without her held, the wounds would still be fleshy and barely scabbing.

"So how is studying going?"

If I passed this test with a C, I would be happy. All I needed to do was pass the course. I didn't need anything more than that. It wasn't worth trying to get anything else out of the course. "It's going."

"Well, if you need any help, I am here to try my best."

I smiled at her, liking that she wanted to help, but knew she could little to help me with these topics. She never attended school here, in fact, I think I was the only person in Churchwell that attended school on earth at all. Else didn't understand what these subjects were about. She was better at other things than these. "Thanks."

For a moment, we were silent as I thought about Stella. I thought ignoring her would be easier than it has been. But time wasn't making things easier, it was making things harder. Stella saw what she shouldn't have, I told her what she shouldn't have known but yet she called me out in the hall wanting to talk. If I never talked to her, I wouldn't be in this mess. "You were right."

"About what?" she asked, confused about what I was talking about.

"Stella. I shouldn't have talked to her. It was easy to stay away."

She frowned as she sat down beside me. "Oh, Gray, I'm sorry."

Even though she warned me, the comfort was still nice. I knew what I was doing was for her; it was to protect her, but it still hurt and I still missed her. I nodded because I was sorry too.