Nicole's POV

Sam breathed heavily as I pushed Wes away from him. I turned my focus to Sam as I scanned his face for injuries. When I saw that he was fine and just had a bleeding nose, I exhaled a sigh of relief.

I turned to Mia and told her to take Sam to the school nurse. She nodded her head and did as she was told. I gave Wes a blank look as he simply stared at me with an expression I couldn't really explain. A crowd had formed around us as I spoke up, breaking the silence between us, "Why were you punching him like that? You could have hurt him more than you did already."

Wes simply looked at me straight in the eyes. Anger and frustration swam in his blue eyes. I had never seen that emotion in his eyes before. It made me frightened that he might just pounce on me and beat me up too. "I do what I want, Nicole. You're not the boss of me." He snarled.

I stared at him in shock. Is this the same person I was talking to this morning? What made his mood change all of a sudden? I tried reading his body language but that was impossible, "Look, Wes, whatever made you mad doesn't need to be expressed with physical violence. Use your words."

"I prefer my fists." After he said that, he walked away. I was so confused right now. I don't know what Sam did to him, he's such a sweetheart and I know that because we have the same English class. He wouldn't hurt a fly, yet alone do anything that'll make Wes mad.

I decided to talk to Sam after school, to find out what happened. I bet Wes is in no mood to talk. I shook my head in disbelief and turned to Max, who didn't seem shocked at the whole situation. Come to think of it, he didn't say anything about what Wes did.

"You didn't even say anything. You just watched like a spectator." I said unamused.

Max simply shrugged his shoulders, "He's the school's latest bad boy, what do you expect?"

I gave him a confused look, "Even if he's a bad boy," I said making air quotes when saying bad boy, "that doesn't give him any right to bully anyone in this school. There hasn't been a bully in this school for the past 2 years. Excluding Freya, she's not a bully, she's a witch."

"Well, things change." Max grumbled as he turned away and walked towards the cafeteria. He turned back to me and motioned his head towards the door, indicating that I should come with him.

I wasn't exactly happy with his reply, but I just ignored it because I was hungry. I walked into the cafeteria and ordered the day's special.

Spaghetti and meatballs.

It's a classic that you can't go against. It's loved my everyone of all ages. But I think Mac N cheese is more loved.

"Are you still shocked about Wes' sudden outburst?" Max asked as I scoffed.

"Oh please, I couldn't care less." I lied as Max handed me a look saying that he doesn't believe me. He must have noticed because I was just playing around with my spaghetti. I sighed in defeat, "What do you think triggered him to act like that?"

Max shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know but I suggest you get used to it."

I arched my eyebrow at him as I spoke up, "What do you mean?" He sipped his chocolate milk slowly as he kept me waiting, "You know, for the past 15 minutes every word that came out of your mouth has been confusing."

He placed his milk on his tray and licked his lips before speaking, "Wes has many sides. He can be smiling at this moment and before you know it, he's beating someone up at a corner."

"So, like mood swings?" I asked.

"Yeah, you could call it that." Max said, eating his last meatball. I stared at my food. I don't know why, but I lost my appetite. "Aren't you going to eat that?" He asked as my eyes locked with his. I shook my head. He quickly got up from his seat and sat next to me. He picked up my fork and placed a meatball on it. I stared at him trying to figure out what he wanted to do. He placed the meatball on my lips, "Eat it."

I opened my mouth and bit the meatball. He smiled at me as I chewed the ball and swallowed it. Max was about to feed me another meatball when someone banged their hands on our table.

I looked up and saw Freya standing there with an irritated look on her face. I rolled my eyes, " What do you want, Freya?"

"What do I want? What do I want! I want you to get your disgusting self away from my Maxy!" Freya yelled as I glanced at Max, who was rubbing his temple in annoyance.

"Your Maxy?" I chuckled softly as I turned to Max, "Max, you didn't tell me you were dating her." I said in a fake shocked voice.

Max glared at me as I laughed some more while Freya continued to stare at us with her arms folded across her chest. "Freya, just because I bumped into you in the ice cream parlour yesterday, doesn't mean we are dating."

Freya batted her eyelashes as her eyes stared at Max lustfully, "Don't forget you also bought me rocky road." Max rolled his eyes as I stiffled a chuckle.

I heard the bell ring as students got up and exited the cafeteria going to their next class. I got up from my chair, "Well, I guess I should leave the two love birds alone..."

Max suddenly shot up from his seat as he grabbed my forearm, "Don't you dare." He whispered as he turned around and pulled me towards the exit.

"I'll see you later, Maxy!" Freya cooed as I giggled. Max instantly shot me a glare making me shut up instantly.

I shrugged Max's hand off my arm as I instantly remembered Sam. Max stopped walking to stare at me, "What's wrong?" He queried as I glanced at my silver wristwatch.

"Can we go check up on Sam? We still have a few minutes before class officially starts." I asked Max as he nodded in understanding.

We ran to the nurse's office and opened to the door. Mia was sitting on the bed where Sam was currently laying on. He was unconscious. "Is he alright?" I asked as Mia's eyes met mine, "What happened to him?"

"Nothing too serious." Mia stated as my eyes popped a little.

"Nothing too serious?" I scoffed, "He's unconscious."

Mia rolled her eyes at my sudden outburst. She knew that I usually get a little bit aggressive when I'm worried. "He had a headache so the nurse advised him to sleep after giving him pills."

I let out a sigh of relief, "Sorry. I was just overreacting...again."

I felt my heart beat return back to normal as I heard the news. At least, he is safe. I smiled to myself as I glanced at Max, who was watching me with a smile on his face.

I took a glimpse of my watch and noticed that we had 2 more minutes before class starts.

"Sorry Mia, we have to go. We have Physics class to get to." I said as Mia nodded in understanding.

I grabbed Max's hand and pulled him alongside me as we ran to Physics class. Adrenaline pumped through my body as I ran. I definitely didn't want to be late.

I pushed the door open as Max and I heaved a sigh of relief.

"We made it." Max panted. Suddenly, someone loudly cleared his throat as I turned to Mr. Ethan. He eyed the both of us suspiciously as I suddenly felt small under his gaze.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Ethan." I croaked out.

"Nicole." He greeted as his gaze never left Max's, "Why are you both late?"

"We had to go to the school nurse before coming here, my apologies." I said with a smile as he continued to eye us.

I followed his gaze and saw that Max and I were still holding hands. I quickly let go of Max's hand as a deep shade of crimson red rose to my cheeks.

"Are you sure that you went to the school nurse...or is there something else going on?" Mr. Ethan asked.

My eyes widened as I suddenly blurted out, "No!" I covered my mouth because my voice came out louder than I expected.

Mr. Ethan simply nodded his head as he motioned his hand, indicating that I should go and sit down in the free seat beside Wes.

I sighed as I dragged my feet and sat down beside the blonde. He smiled widely as I stared at him in confusion.

I guess those mood swings are serious. I thought to myself as I pulled my attention away from Wes and concentrated on Mr. Ethan. I didn't want to get distracted in anyway...and well, I also didn't want to talk to him.

"What's wrong, lil lady?" I heard Wes whisper as I continued to ignore him.

I found the whole situation funny. Just a few minutes ago, he was fuming and beating someone up in anger and now, he's acting as if it never happened.

"C'mon Nini, you can't be that mad." He said as my head snapped to the side.

I glared at him. The glare was so intense, it could have melted my glasses. "I told you before and I'm going to tell you again." I snarled, using the exact same tone he used with me, "Only my friends call me Nini."

Wes' lips suddenly curved down as he stared at me with shock. I turned back to Mr. Ethan, who was trying to explain the refraction of light, completely ignoring Wes' stare. I glanced at Max, who was sitting a bit farther away from us. He looked like he heard everything that I said to Wes. He simply took in a deep breath and pouted at me.

At first, I didn't understand but then I processed it and realized he was telling me to take a deep breath and calm down.

I actually felt kind of bad using this tone on him but he hurt me. The way he spoke to me, the way he looked at me and his actions towards Sam, they all hurt me. Honestly, I didn't want to talk to him like that but it just came out. I'm nice and usually have a smile plastered on my face but when I'm mad, it can get really ugly. You know what they say, fear those who smile a lot.

I don't like showing off my aggressive side but these days it's like it's begging me to set it loose.

When the bell rang, I picked up my bag and stormed out of the class, trying to move as fast as possible. I didn't want to speak to Wes. I wasn't in the mood. His locker was directly beside mine, so I wanted to get there as fast as possible before he does.

I opened my locker and stuffed all my books in my bag. I slammed it shut and was about to walk away when I bumped into Lilac.

"Where are you running off to Nicole?" Lilac asked as I adjusted my white rimmed glasses.

"Just need to head home..." I lied with a tight smile, "it's urgent."

Lilac eyed me suspiciously, pushing her braids out of her face. She smiled again as she locked eyes with someone across the hall. I followed her gaze and rolled my eyes after noticing she was staring at Justin again.

"Did you talk to him?" I queried, looking around for any sign of Wes.

Lilac nodded with a usual lovesick grin, "We exchanged numbers. He told me to meet him up at the public library after school."

I smiled at her. She's been gushing over Justin since we were in middle school. If her happily ever after wants to show up now, it's long overdue. "Just make sure you're not a mumbling mess." I advised.

Her gaze fell back to me as she slapped my shoulder playfully, "If you didn't know, Nicole, I said a full sentence to him without stuttering."

"Oh yeah," I challenged with an arched eyebrow, "and what sentence is that?"

"Hello..." She mumbled as her lips curved to a lopsided grin. I waited for her to continue but when she began rubbing her forearm awkwardly, I realized that Hello was the only word she managed to get out without stuttering.

I stiffled a chuckle, my hand landing on her shoulder giving it a small pat, "Baby steps."

She rolled her eyes, "I heard what happened to Sam? Is he alright?"

My smile fell. I rubbed the back if my neck awkwardly, "Yeah, he's fine. Mia took care of him."

Lilac nodded her head slowly, "What about Wes?"

I arched my eyebrow, "What about him?" I said bluntly.

"Why do you think he did why he did?" The dark skinned girl asked, tilting her head to the side.

My eyes scanned my surroundings again, only to land on a familiar ash-blonde boy walking towards my direction. Our eyes locked for a few seconds before I looked away. "Speak of the devil." I murmured to myself, turning back to Lilac quickly, "I have to go, I'll call you later."

Lilac nodded, waving goodbye to me. I walked out of the school building and headed towards my house.

It was silent. Well, not actually silent silent but that kind of silence where you just block out all the unnecessary noise and concentrate on only one sound. The only thing that could be heard was my feet hitting the pavement. Car horns were beeping and people were murmuring all around me but I decided to cancel it out and focus on my walking. It was a way of calming myself down.

It was a quiet walk to my house. I unlocked the front door with my house keys and walked straight to my room. I removed my glasses and placed them on my bedside table before landing face first on my soft bed.

I rolled onto my back and ruffled my hair a little before letting out a sigh. There was only one person on my mind.

Wes.

It was like he was stuck there. I couldn't forget the way he looked at me with so much anger. I was drawn out of my thoughts with the sudden beep of my phone. I got up and put on my glasses again before grabbing my phone and staring at the text. It was from Mia.

Why did you leave so early?

My fingers hovered above my phone's keyboard, thinking about what to reply.

You should know...

Her reply came in two seconds flat.

Can you just stop thinking about boys for one second?! You're turning to Lilac.

I furrowed my eyebrows at her text. Yes, I was thinking about Wes but it's because I was confused about his true character. I wasn't thinking about him because I liked him or something.

I wasn't thinking about boys...I was thinking about Wes. And I wasn't thinking about him in the way that you think.

As fast as the text left, her reply came. I wonder how she can type so fast.

He was looking for you...eagerly. Said he needed to talk to you, but Lilac told him you left immediately the bell rang. Wanna talk about it?

I pressed my lips together. Deep down, I was hoping she wouldn't ask me any question concerning Wes. But she's one of my best friends and I tell her everything but I wasn't in the mood to talk about it. After two minutes or so, my phone beeped again.

I understand that you don't want to talk about it...so I won't push you. Get some rest. :-P

I smiled at Mia's kind words. She knew I wasn't in my best frame of mind, so she brushed off the whole topic. Tough on the outside and soft on the inside. I glanced at the clock and saw that it was five minutes past six.

I decided to take a shower to clear my head. After taking the shower, I put on my pyjamas and headed downstairs to microwave the leftover chicken from last night. It was almost eight o'clock and my parents weren't back. I was getting worried a little but I simply brushed it off.

I wasn't suprised when the front door opened to reveal my mother and father.

"Good evening parents." I chirped as I push the buttons on the microwave, "Why are you back so late?"

My parents walked into the kitchen with a small smile. "The car broke down on the way here." My dad replied, taking out a bottle of water from the fridge and gulping it down.

"Your dad tried fixing it but somehow made it much worse, so we had to call a mechanic." My mom said, glaring playfully at her husband, who simply shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, at least I tried fixing it." My dad contradicted as my mom playfully punched his shoulder.

"I'm going to go take a shower." My mom said kissing my cheek and walked towards the staircase, "Make sure you go to bed early." She looked back at my father and I, "Both of you."

I chuckled as my dad rolled his brown eyes at her antics. He looked back at me with a smile, "So, how's school kiddo?"

I frowned a little, my mind drifting back to Wes. I smiled forcefully, "It's going great. Working harder than ever."

My dad smiled at me and ruffled my afro curly hair, "That's my girl." He turned towards the staircase and walked to it, "I better go freshen up before your mom scolds me. Good night kiddo."

"Good night dad." I smiled as my eyes watched his figure run up the staircase. The microwave suddenly beeped.

I brought out my dinner from the microwave oven and smiled at the piece of meat on my plate, ready to devour it whole.

A/N;

Hey guys. A chapter for this year.

Thanks for keeping up with me even though I haven't been constant with updates.

Don't forget to vote on this chapter and comment your thoughts. The next chapter will be in Wes' point of view. I hope you guys like it. I'm already working on it.

Til my next update....

Ciao!!!