"You look like shit," my best friend pointed out as we walked to our science class. 

I glared at her. "Thanks."

"Rough day yesterday?" She asked, scoffing as a freshman accidentally bumped into her shoulder. "Watch where you're going asshole!"

The poor kid's eyes widened in fear, his body visible shaking. He gripped his notebooks tightly, scared of Nora knocking them down, even though she never would. He quickly scurried away, tripping on his own feet in the process. Nora sighed before waiting for me to answer her question.

"You could say that," I huffed as we finally reached the classroom.

I didn't bother telling her about Karson because I knew she wouldn't let that one go. I hated lying to her, but I was too exhausted to talk about Karson. I didn't want anything to do with him.

"Was it your mom?" She hesitated, unsure whether to ask or not.

"Yeah," I lied. I shifted uncomfortably as pity seeped through her face, making it obvious she felt sorry for me.

I looked away from her intense gaze and walked to the back of the class, sitting down at the desk furthest away from the board. She followed along next to me, sitting in the chair seated close to mine.

I didn't eat breakfast this morning so I could feel my body shutting down. I felt lightheaded as my stomach grumbled, loud enough to make heads turn in my direction.

"Dakota, are you okay? You look quite pale," Nora stated, her eyes trailing down my pale face.

"I think it's just the lack of sleep I've been getting," I told her truthfully. This was part of the reason why I felt like shit, but it wasn't everything.

"Do you want to see the nurse?" She asked.

I shook my head, not wanting to deal with Mrs. Smith's disappointed gaze. "I think I'll be fine."

She hesitantly nodded before reaching into her bag and pulling out some medication. I seemed to be taking a lot of these recently.

"Here," she placed the medicine in my hand along with a blue powerade. "This should help a little."

"Thank you," I whispered, a small smile tugging at the corner of my lips.

She nodded her head before giving her full attention to our teacher by the front of the class. I quickly took the medication before my teacher saw, not wanting him to think of it as something different.

The cold Powerade made the tablet travel down my throat smoothly, making it easy to swallow. I put the drink down and averted my eyes to look out the window. The gray sky stared back at me as it began to pour. I smiled.

I love the rain.

I loved rainy days. The way the clouds hid the sun, revealing a specific darkness I longed for. The rain made me feel calm, just listening to the droplets hit the window as my tense muscles relaxed.

The throbbing in my head decreased as the medicine finally kicked in. I really needed to eat more. I looked down at my body and frowned, I was so thin. I twisted my hand, studying my small wrist. So thin.

I looked away, not wanting to stare at my insecurities any longer. I tilted my head and looked to the teacher, trying to distract myself. I watched as his mouth opened and closed but I couldn't hear any words come out of his mouth. I pretended to listen as I numbly wrote notes down that were presented on the board.

•~•~•

It was only 3rd period and I already wanted to leave this shit hole. I was drawing on my textbook, erasing it after every drawing so I would have room for the next one.

I laid my head down on one of my arms as my other hand gripped the pencil tightly. I waited until he started the lecture to fully sit up, but for now, I was still slouched down.

"Good morning class!" My teacher grinned. "So-"

The door abruptly shot open, resulting in a loud noise echoing throughout the classroom. Every student turned their head to see Colton, Braxton, and Karson all walk through the door with a smug smirk on their faces.

My teacher looked pissed as he pointed for the boys to sit down. Braxton saluted him, making my teacher's face burn with anger as his cheeks grew bright red. Braxton smoothly walked over to the empty seat next to me and roughly sat down. He sent a wink my way before he looked forward.

I rolled my eyes, slumping back into my chair. I yawned as I watched Colton sit on the other side of me while Karson sat next to Colton. I directed my focus to my teacher as I waited for him to start lecturing.

Mr. Johnson cleared his throat. "Alright class, today I will be introducing a new project." The whole class groaned. "Settle down everyone! You guys will be in partners, researching a historical leader that you think has impacted your designated country the most. I will hand out a sheet of paper that gives out more information. It's supposed to be one of the easier projects this year, so just do it."

Mr. Johnson didn't like teaching very much, so he would hand out busy work, hence this project. He walked around the room after giving a shitty explanation and handed out a rubric to each student.

"Will we get to pick our partner?" One student yelled.

Mr. Johnson stopped and turned around to face the student. He sighed before continuing, "Yes you can choose  your partner."

The class cheered as two students in the front got up and high fived each other. The class erupted into chatter as they tried to decide who their partner would be. I groaned and looked up to the ceiling. I hate group projects. Why can't I just do it by myself?

Someone nudged my shoulder and I raised my eyebrow as I turned my head to see Braxton staring at me with a glint of amusement in his eyes. "Want to be my partner, pretty girl?"

I blankly stared at him as my eyebrows rose up in amusement. "Sure, why not."

"Yes! Ok pretty girl, which leader should we do?" He asked. I usually wouldn't like being called pretty girl by anyone else, but I knew Braxton is joking. Our relationship mainly revolved around joking around with each other so when he called me a weird name, I usually just went along with it.

I've quickly learned over the past few weeks that Braxton was the funny one in the group. He cracks a joke anywhere we are. Although he plays around most of the time, when things get serious, he'll immediately shut down and take things seriously. When the incident happened with Brody, his jaw was rigged and his face turned red from rage. Thinking back to that now, it was weird to see him that mad. If you don't see Braxton joking around, that's when you know you've fucked up.

Colton on the other hand is pretty quiet. He's really sweet the times we've shared conversations, but other than that he doesn't speak much. He keeps to himself most of the time. He wont talk to anyone unless it's his two best friends, Braxton and Karson. I guess I'm an exception now.

Karson is just an ass. He doesn't need any further explanation.

Karson and Colton were partners for this project, not surprising me. I've also noticed that they don't talk to many other people, only a few girls who are willing to give themselves up when the boys need a quick fuck. Girls will quite literally fall at their feet, feeling like a queen if they get to fuck one of them. Karson is the worst out of the three. He'll fuck a random girl and forget her name halfway through, then he'll just throw her out of his house, not wanting his one night stand to stay any longer.

"I don't know, you pick." I told Braxton as I leaned back into my chair, closing my eyes.

I heard Braxton lean forward, suddenly feeling his fingers flick my forehead in return. My body jerked up, glaring at him as a sly smirk crawled onto his face. "Fuck off blondie!"

"Blondie?" He raised his eyebrows in amusement.

"Yeah, that's what I'm calling you from now on," I replied, playfully rolling my eyes. "Has anyone ever told you that your hair looks like shit today?"

He dramatically gasped, putting a hand over his chest. "Wow, pretty girl, you sure do know how to get under my skin."

"It's pretty easy." I smirked as I looked him up and down. "I mean, look at you."

I heard Colton chuckle next to me before covering it up with a small cough. Braxton narrowed his eyes at me. "You're lucky you're pretty." 

I laughed loudly, not able to contain my laughter anymore. He joined me, not able to hold in his laughter either. "I love you already."

"I'm sure you do," I chuckled, playfully punching his arm.

"Will you two stop fucking flirting? It's annoying," an angry voice scolded.

I didn't even look to see whose voice that was.

I definitely didn't forget about what he said about my father yesterday. He knew I wasn't going to respond so he just scoffed, rolling his eyes. His gaze hardened on my face as his chair slightly made a creaking noise, scraping against the tile. "Are you still pissed about what I said yesterday?"

I finally connected my gaze with his and narrowed my eyes at him. "I shouldn't expect anything less from you so no, I'm not mad."

We maintained eye contact, neither one of us breaking our gaze from the other. "You know, Dakota, maybe if you weren't so bitchy about everything, I wouldn't have said those things."

I gave a humorless laugh. "So because you think I'm a bitch, you think it's okay to tell me how you think my dad killed himself to get away from me?"

"I see nothing wrong with it," he smirked.

"You're so fucked in the head, Karson."

He looked taken aback, like my words finally cut through to reach his thick skull. His gaze wavered for a split second before looking back at me. A short glimpse of guilt flashed through his eyes, but it only lasted for a split second. If I would've blinked, I would've missed the slight emotion he showed completely. He covered it with fury, putting on an all too familiar smirk.

"That's enough," Colton growled. "Both of y'all just shut the fuck up."

I broke my gaze away from Karson, looking over to Colton who looked annoyed. His nostrils flared as he glared at both of us, making it obvious he was tired of our arguing.

"Come on pretty girl, let's just focus on the project, yeah?" Braxton blurted, trying to distract me from Karson. He glanced behind me, giving Karson an unknown expression.

I slowly nodded my head before we continued to work on the project. I glanced behind Colton one last time to find Karson's gaze already on me. His painful, dark eyes bore into mine, swimming with hatred. His eyes never held any glimpse of happiness, only hatred or anger. It's so strange.

Several seconds passed as Karson and I stared at each other, confused as to why I couldn't tear my eyes away. It was almost as if I was captivated by the odd glint in his emerald eyes. Colton nudged Karson's arm, making Karson look away first. He stared at the paper with his jaw clenched as his right hand tightly gripped his pencil. 

"Now which house are we going to so we can work on this?" Braxton questioned, an innocent smile pulling at the corner of his lips.

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Hi!!

I'm sorry for the late update and the shorter chapter :(
Let me know what you think of this chapter!! I would love to hear y'all's thoughts on it!

Love you all
- Lauren <3