Fatal Attraction

"There's that girl, the one who's parents died in a car crash."

"Isn't that the girl who's brother overdosed on heroin?"

"Mayella Dunham, that's the freak who's aunt and uncle killed themselves so they wouldn't have to take care of her."

"Don't you know she attracts death?"

"Didn't her best friend get raped and murdered?"
"Something like that."

I held my head up with pride, not letting their words phase me. I walked passed them and down the hall of the high school. My locker was located near the window. It was raining. Little drops of of clear water fell from the clouds and created puddles on the ground. I always thought that when it was raining, which it rarely did since this is San Diego, that it was my family telling me that they were at peace now.

I opened my locker and pulled out the books I needed for my morning classes. The sound of my locker slamming shut echoed through the hallway. Some people looked; others dared to make eye contact. My lips curled into what looked like a snarl. I could hear my magnets fall to the bottom of my locker. I could clean those up later.

As I turned, I came face to face with a boy. He was gorgeous. Brown eyes, snakebites, plugs. He was perfect, to me that is. His lips broke apart and he smiled at me. A pure smile; my heart melted to the floor. "Can you help me?"

I opened my mouth but suddenly, there was a girl curled around his arm. She purred, "Sweetie, you shouldn't talk to her. She's dangerous. You'll die around her." Her eyes never left mine, and she spewed venom. Her long fingernails stroked his arm, like somebody would do to a cat. Stephanie Jenkins knew how to lure guys in and snatch them away. She steered the stranger away, him looking confused and out of place.

He turned around and our eyes met. I want him, bad. Hopefully he won't turn out like the others.