The next morning while I was walking up to the little brick building for my extra class, I was still sleepy and barely managing in keeping my eyes open so that I wouldn't fall into a ditch or trip over my own feet.

On such special moments in my life (usually early in the morning), I couldn't help but contemplate all my life choices. God, why did I have to be so uptight? What career? What future? Who wanted to be responsible? All I wanted was to curl up in some warm corner and go back to sleep like a furry little animal.

Plus it did not help that Ash kept me up all night planning for tomorrow. Her mom was quick to agree after she learned that I'll be going too, and so we had almost pulled an all-nighter planning about the weekend ahead on a video call. My mom had a harder job than usual to wake me up today since there was no wake-up call from Ash. I assumed she was still sleeping, ugh...lucky.

When I got to the class I let out a groan when I saw the professor for the day hadn't even come yet. I was already 20 mins late and he still wasn't there! I quickly scanned the room for Tyler, Ryan, orJace, but I didn't spot anyone. There were some guys I didn't recognize sitting at the corner of the class and laughing at something. How could someone even laugh so early in the morning? Everyone said that I had a resting bitch face every morning.

I turned around to walk out of the class when I bumped into someone, really hard. Rubbing my forehead I looked up glaring to see who it was, and found Tyler.

"Whoa! Who spit in your cereal today?" he asked, looking at my murderous expression.

"I didn't even have my breakfast!" I almost sobbed when I remembered that.

I moved around him and walked out of the class. He followed me to a bench under a tree, outside the class, and took a seat at the far-end corner, eyeing me curiously.

"So are you hungry or sleepy?" he asked.

"I was only sleepy and angry but now thanks to you I'm hungry too."

He chuckled. "Why are you even here? The session is on Arts today, are you interested in that field?"

"No! I forgot to check my schedule beforehand." I sighed. "And why are you here?" 

"Football practice. I just finished it. I was walking back to my jeep when I spotted you being all grumpy." He smiled. "Come on, Let's go!"

"Go where? The class hasn't begun yet."

"Maybe it'll be canceled. Maybe not. Either way, we are skipping today." He got up and looked at me expectantly. I just stared up at him, a little reluctant to skip a class, even if it was totally useless to me.

"It's not like you will miss anything. Let's go get you some breakfast," he said and started walking towards the parking area.

I quickly got up to follow him. He had me at the mere mention of breakfast.

Tyler drove us to a cafe 20 minutes from school, which he promised served the best donuts in town. He said and I quote - "You'll go nuts after eating their donuts." I couldn't help but laugh at his sudden child-like excitement over something like donuts. He had a mile-wide smile as soon as we pulled up near the cafe.

"Who knew that the way to Tyler Crosby; AVM high's multi-talented heartthrob's heart was donuts!" I teased him as we got out of the jeep and headed to the cafe.

"Food in general, but yes donuts too." He grinned.

"Maybe I could sell this little piece of information to some girls at our school, and make some money." I winked.

He chuckled and opened his mouth to say something, but he spotted something inside the cafe that had him abruptly freeze in his tracks. Pure anger and hatred replacing his features. I followed his line of sight and soon enough found out the source of this sudden shift in his mood- Max and his entire band of friends from Edgewood high were at the cafe too.

"We can go somewhere else if you like?" he muttered.

I took a deep breath and looked at him. "No. Why would we? Let's go." I said tugging at his hand.

"Veronica wait. Paul is in there too." He looked at me, trying to search my face to make sure I was really okay with facing them.

You must be wondering, who the hell was Paul now? Paul was Max's best friend. One of the reasons why the whole fucked up mess with Max happened in the first place. One of the reasons why last year was a total nightmare for me.

"I don't care Ty. I'm not afraid, " I said looking into his eyes and holding his gaze. When he realized I really meant it, he nodded, reaching for my hand to give it a light squeeze and led me inside.

When we entered, the bell above the door jingled announcing our arrival and making a few heads turn in our direction. I internally cringed as I could feel the entire Edgewood high crowd suddenly go quiet.

Well, there goes my idea of making it out of this place unnoticed.

I didn't look at anyone and Tyler led me straight to the barista to place our orders. I knew that if shit goes south, we would be the hot topic for weeks because it was not just me this time, Tyler was here too. Max and him, being the football team captains of two of the most reputed schools in town had been competitors at almost everything since we entered high school.

Their rivalry was legendary, both on and off the field. 

Throw me into the mix, the girl who supposedly 'assaulted Max stone' and God, this situation had 'fight' written all over it.

When we turned around to find some seats, Max was already behind us blocking our way, with a huge grin plastered on his face. When his green eyes fell on me, I fought to repress the chill that ran down my spine.  

The asshole was huge, maybe a little bulkier than Tyler. But Tyler was slightly taller than him and with his aggressive stance right now, he looked much more intimidating.

Max looked behind us and called out to the cashier. "I'll take care of their bill too, " he said and handed him his credit card.

"Their bill is already taken care of, sir," the cashier replied politely.

"Oh, that's too bad." He looked at us with that same stupid grin. "It's been so long. I missed you guys."

"I wish I could say the same," I said wearing an innocent smile and he laughed. 

Tyler being the no-nonsense guy wasn't amused by any of our antics.

"Get the fuck out of my face Max, " Tyler snapped.

"Whoa, why are you always so tense, man. I'm just trying to be polite here."

"Aww, that's so sweet of you. Umm...Tyler? How do you politely ask someone to fuck off?" I asked keeping my fake smile in place.

"Once a bitch always a bitch." Max glared.

"I'm nothing but consistent," I retorted back sweetly.

I knew I was getting on his nerves now, as his nice-guy facade slowly wore out. Good. There was no way in hell that I'd be intimidated by him. Even if I was, I would die before I would let him even get a hint of it.

Before Max could say another word, Paul walked over to us. He looked at me and gave me a small smile which I didn't return, and then turned to Max. "Let's just go, man, people are starting to look at us now."

"As if I care," Max snapped and then looked at me, "Listen here you little bitch don't even think for a second, that I'll forget about what you did last year," he glared at me and stepped closer, but Tyler quickly stepped in between us.

"Leave. Now," Tyler spoke in a dangerously low tone.

"Oh, so you're her little bodyguard now huh? Why do you care anyway? Did she open her legs for you too?" Max smirked and that was it. All hell broke loose.

Tyler pushed me slightly away from the spot and landed a punch on his face that had him on the floor in a second. But before Max could recover and respond to his punch, Tyler was on him punching him mercilessly. 

I watched in horror as Max managed to land a punch on Tyler's nose which had him lose his balance for a second, but that was enough for Max to take control. 

I looked around desperately when I spotted the cashier quickly grabbing the phone to call someone. 

Cops! I thought, and my mind instantly switched from horrified to panic mode. I quickly went to help Paul who was already trying to haul them off each other.

"Tyler! Stop! We gotta go, please," I yelled, and tried to get a hold of his hand, all the while being careful to not get knocked out by either of them.

Finally, some of Max's friends managed to pull them apart, and I quickly pulled Tyler out with me before they attacked each other again, or worse the cops came by. When he resisted a bit and tried to pull away from me, practically fuming with anger, I placed a hand on his cheek and forced him to look at me. "Please, " I said, softly. 

He looked at me for a long moment, his chest heaving, before he nodded and quietly followed me out. When we got back to his jeep, I finally relaxed. 

I turned to look at Tyler when I noticed that his nose was bleeding.

"Damn it, you're bleeding." I tried to take a closer look but he batted my hand away.

"I'll be fine," he said and wiped his nose on his jacket sleeve.

"Get inside the jeep." When he just looked at me, surprised at my bossy tone, I snapped, "Now!"

He rolled his eyes but got in without another word. I looked around for any piece of cloth but didn't find anything.

"Take off your jacket," I said.

"What?"

"You have a T-shirt underneath, right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Take off your jacket, unless you want to hold your hand against your nose for a few minutes."

"Fine," he grumbled and pulled it over his head.

"Now hold it against your nose, for a few minutes. Try to look down while doing that. It'll help with the bleeding,"

"I'll be fine, let's just go."

"Come on, just do it. Your jacket has some blood stains anyway so it's not like you'll ruin it. "

"Fine."

"I'll be back in a second, " I said getting out of the jeep.

"What? Where are you going?" He yelled after me, but I didn't reply and headed back to the cafe.

I spotted Max walking back to his car with his friends and Damn! His face looked mutilated. I smiled to myself and headed inside the cafe. 

The cashier, who looked really young, glanced up at me and got a weary expression on his face. Poor guy probably wasn't expecting so much drama so early in the morning.

"Hey I'm so sorry about earlier," I apologized, as I walked up to him.

"Oh, it's okay. I hope it doesn't happen again. I almost did call the cops." He gave an awkward smile.

"I'm glad you didn't though. Hey! Can I get my order now?" I asked him.

"Oh shit! Yes of course. Sorry, I forgot about it." He rushed over to get our order. After a few minutes, he came out and handed it to me "Have a good day!"

"You too!" I smiled and headed back to Tyler. He was leaning back on his seat with his eyes closed. 

When I got in, he opened his mouth to ask me something, but then looked at the package in my hands and burst out laughing.

"You went back to get our food?" He laughed.

"Of course, I did," I said opening the pack and handing him a donut and settling in to eat.

"Veronica, can I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

"What exactly did happen last year? I mean I know some of it, but I know for a fact that most of them are false rumors. So if you don't mind me asking, I want to know the truth."

"Umm okay..." I started, but he interrupted me again.

"If you aren't comfortable it's totally fine, I won't push you," he hastily added.

"No, it's fine." I sighed. "Okay, so where do I start?"

"Beginning?"

"Alright. It's storytime!" I said, as I turned to him and sat cross-legged on the seat to settle in.

***

A/n- It's storytime! Time for a major flashback :)