Nocturnal

One week crawled by like a slow breeze. I wasn't used to this small town pace yet, not that I thought I'd ever get used to it. One thing I was sure, I'd never forget getting up and seeing the ocean view—Haven Hills couldn't compete with that. The sound of waves crashing by the beach, rolling into the sand—howling alongside the wind in stormier days... I missed all that, and would probably miss it for a long time after seventeen years of it. But nothing was eternal—unless we were talking about my recurring dreams of running through trees in a haze of fear and anxiety. The sound I could recall better when I woke up was the thunder. In my nightmare it sailed across the sky chasing me, getting closer and closer until a bolt would crash down hitting a tree. The same old pine tree—in the middle of tons of pine trees that all looked alike. Pine smell, lighting and... a boy. Someone—something, that chased me, put me in danger. Why else would I run from it?

Shaking my concern over dreams I hoped wouldn't turn out to be true, I got inside my old Toyota. This car had definitely seen better days—maybe ten years ago it would've been a sight. Now, it was just a piece of junk to me—I just couldn't let my dad know. He loved this car. He bought it when he and mom got married and kept it for his kid, he must have had a strong conviction that I was going to be a boy... he actually tried teaching me some stuff on car engineering, it went without saying that had been a total epic fail. I put the car in reverse pulling out of our driveway. The motor made a gagging sound before purring a little signaling I was good to go. I drove through the long lane of houses that seemed alike in every detail, they either had two floors like mine, or another one—I think they were attics because they were way too small to be another house level. The walls were white, the roofs were black, the bushes were cleanly cut near the porches—I had to say that seemed to be the only difference between them all, the décor out on the porches.

When I reached the end of my street I made a turn left on Madison Avenue—this Avenue went on for miles, I wasn't exaggerating and it was the only name I knew—besides my own street and home address. It was a straight line and two rights until I pulled into Julian Ivory's parking lot—yup, that was the name of my high school. I think Julian Ivory was a big mayor for the town years ago, not like I had History so what did I know? Mom was the one who mentioned it a few days back.

The minute I slammed the door I jumped five-feet, back pressing onto the white painted metal. Books were spilled on the parking lot's asphalt ground. I heaved a tight breath pinning my tawny waves from my face.

"I swear, I'm gonna tie a bell around your neck." A nicely watted smirk played over a set of perfectly full lips.

"I said hello." Phillip swatted his hair aside, glancing down. "My bad," he crouched before I waved my hands in front of his face, clearly saying it wasn't necessary. I shouldn't feel bad but I did, because if I wasn't such a scary-cat my books wouldn't have fallen—so I crouched beside him. "What are you doing? It was my fault." He muttered grabbing my Trigg book—I frowned.

"I was going to get that one." His stunning water-lake eyes shone with taunting. I shifted my eyes to where he was looking, my English notebook—then our eyes met, his flamed with... challenge?

"Bet you can't get it before I do." He was daring me, it wasn't that big of a deal—it was probably true what he was saying. I knew that just by looking at those strong biceps, still...

"What... are you doing?" A voice called from way up—it was strong, laced with a sexy velvet. I groaned inwardly—the jackass-twin had a arrived, hurray.

Phillip's head tilted up so he could glimpse at his brother.

"Helping with her books."

"Why? It's not your fault she's a klutz." I buzzed with irritation and the day had just started. I could feel a headache coming on already and it wasn't because I was lacking three hours of sleep.

"I scared her, she dropped them. It wasn't her fault." The copper haired brother threw back before I had a chance to talk back. Apparently Cam would go away if I didn't talk to him, according to Phillip. So, he was doing everything in his power for that to happen—including talking in my defense.

Cameron was quiet, but he moved. He walked around Phillip, towards my notebook—

"There, that's your last notebook. We can go now." He chucked my notebook at me—at my head!

"Man," Phillip sighed placing the rest of my stuff on the hood of my car. I was busy rubbing the hurt spot and glaring vigorously at Cameron to see Phillip's hands wrap around my arms. An explosion of fire made my skin crack. Flames danced along my skin, prickling me nicely—how could that be? How could something so hot feel good... really good? "Go, I'll catch up to you in a minute." He glared at his twin helping me on my feet.

Cameron's shiny obsidian eyes slitted at his brother.

"No. I'm not leaving, not while you're alone with her." Gee, what did he think I was going to do? Phillip was 6'2'', I reached, like two inches above his chest—both their chests since height was another common factor. And what did this jerk think I was? A serial killer?

"Yeah, Phillip, be careful I might go psycho and paint you with my markers. I don't think they come off in the wash." I dropped with tons of heavy sarcasm. "Douche-bag..." I muttered leaning against my car feeling safe enough with Phillip separating us.

Cameron kept his mask of coolness, not moving an inch, but I'd seen his jaw grow tighter. He didn't like me, I didn't know why, but since I wasn't going anywhere boo-freaking-oh, he had to put up with me just as much as I did.

"We've talked about this already." Phillip gave Cam a glance over his broad shoulder.

"You talked while I pretended to listen. That's what big brothers do." The rusty haired twin made a face of hopelessness for a minute. "You have one minute before I come all the way back and drag your ass inside. Got it?"

With a fake-cheery salute that had me giggling on the inside, Phillip said, "Yes, sir." But not even that changed Cameron's demeanor, you'd think he'd smile every once in a while? Phillip smiled, really smiled—not smirked arrogantly ticking everyone off. Or grinned like he was about to unleash hell.

Before leaving us in peace once and for all, he tugged on his brother's arm—Phillip's hold on me vanished, my heart cried out in protest. In the chilly weather it had felt heavenly, the hotness his touch aroused in my whole body. It wasn't just because I felt warmer on the outside, it happened on the inside too. I couldn't even wrap my head around why that was or what it meant—not yet. Cam mumbled in his brother's ear before stalking away, not giving me a last glance.

"He's really warming up to me." Phillip smiled gently with an hint of sadness. "I didn't even know I had it in me to be this sarcastic." I muttered stuffing the books back in my backpack, making sure it was closed all the way this time.

"Yeah, Cam can really bring out sides of person just by being himself."

"You mean a pain in the ass?" I crudely put regretting it right away. "Sorry, I know he's your brother and all..." he shrugged leaning on my car's side avoiding the part where rust was slowly building up. I should at least pay for a paint job.

"He has a hard time warming up to strangers." Okay, I'd give him that—maybe he did, although I believed he just like screwing with people's heads, make them feel uncomfortable—so it was just his f-ed up personality. But even if it was how he said, why the hell did Cameron want me away from Phillip? It completely blew that shy theory to pieces.

Onto another thing... "You talked about me?" I followed him to the steps that led to the double doors. Phillip gave both a charming and timid glance—God almighty those were two sexy dimples.

"I admit, you've been a discussion topic once or twice at the Leale household. I thought you deserved a friend at the enemy camp since you've been putting up with whole week of insults." It was true, since day one Cameron made it his job to shove me from... well, everywhere. Anywhere he saw me he'd bully me with striking comments. Sometimes it wasn't what he said, but the way he said it, like a cold blizzard was rushing behind him prepared to freeze me to death. How could someone so incredibly hot be so... despicable? Phillip wasn't a rotten apple on the inside, at least.

"By the looks of things you lost the battles." I pointed out, my lip corners tipping down. "Guess I'll just have to suck it up." I blew out a sigh reaching the stair's top.

I nearly outbalanced myself when a hand—warm and soft—touched a little above my jean clad hip.

"I won't leave you for dead if that's any consolation." I wasn't going to lie and say it didn't make things more bearable. I detached myself from his side, squinting my eyes. "Nina?" he asked really quick. Phillip's face blurred, the outlines of everything became faded like I was seeing everything through distorted glass.

"I'm fine, it's fine..." I got out feeling my hands trembling. I was alright, this wasn't strange for me. Lack of sleep made my body—especially my legs—all weak and jelly-feeling. I'd gotten pretty good at hiding the chills and trembles, this time it had been stronger. I couldn't have kept standing as if nothing was happening, trying to tear me down. "I didn't eat very well this morning." It wasn't a complete lie, eating half a bowl of cereal wasn't my regular breakfast, plus, I ate it while rushing out of the shower to get dressed. Like most nights, I woke up and couldn't sleep for a few hours, when I managed to close my eyelids... the alarm went off. I pressed the snooze button so many times I nearly slept in. Speaking of which— "We should get to class. I rushed all the way here so I wouldn't get a tardy slip."

His eyes studied me strongly.

"You're sure everything is fine? Maybe you should eat something else before going in. I'll go with you to the cafeteria."

I shook my head taking a tentative step forward, into the school. My foot didn't protest—much.

"I can make it, I'm not going to double over." He made a face but nodded. "Have you seen Dawn? She was supposed to meet me here..." I nodded to the parking lot. There wasn't a sign of her.

Phillip laughed, "Don't worry too much, she'll be here. This is typical."

"Typical?"

"Dawn runs late most of the time. You've been lucky so far, seems like she doesn't want to leave you hanging in the middle of strange territory." Oh. During this week Dawn had become a life-saver, my safety boat in the midst of it all. It wasn't just because she liked having me hanging around—it was because I liked her, too. She spent hours of each day trying to convince me life here wasn't as boring as I made it out to be. Dawn took me to several street stores around town's square—God forbid there be a mall in this place. She even tried to influence me into having a manicure and pedicure—I didn't take her up on the offer, not that I didn't want to—I did, but what she was doing was so... nice? I wasn't used to it. We had things in common and I never made a friend so quickly before, I was taking things slow. Her happy personality was extremely welcome, she managed to uplift me every time something great when Cameron ticked me off. "I showed up. Nice change in the routine?"

My insides chimed with happiness. Starting out a school day with a smoking hot boy at your side was a little better than a friend with a bouncy attitude.

"Sure, I loved it—especially the part where my stuff flew from my bag. That was the highlight of our morning."

"It could have been worse," I gave a skeptical glare. Was he also forgetting the part where his twin smacked my head with a hardcover notebook? "No one drove over your stuff." Huh, that was a good thing. Books were expensive things, mom wouldn't like it if I had to get new ones right before using them.

I sat in my seat right before our English teacher strolled in. I fixed my eyes on my table, avoiding Cameron's eyes. He hadn't stopped staring at me since me and his twin walked in. I shook my hair making it shadow my face. He only gave up when his name was called out—I sighed feeling thankful for role calls. Leale—that was their last name, I'd found out in my second day when we had English together for the first time. When I asked Phillip what it meant later, he said it was Italian for 'loyal'. These twins had everything, didn't they? Tall, handsome, exotic—Cameron lacked in the friendly department—but heck... they were near perfection. How could people like that exist? They just made other boys look pitiful.

"Ms. Crawford, I was just about to call out your name. Good to see you've made it to my class today." My eyes shot from my scattered pens, finding the mysterious girl who I'd met five days ago in the cafeteria. I had no idea she was in my English class—I hadn't seen her since Monday. "I hope you're doing better, as do we all but I won't be lenient to sloppiness." Wow, this Mr. Carter seemed cold blooded. While I didn't know what happened I could see it had left its scars on her—not on the outside but on the inside. If even I, a newcomer, saw it how could he be so cold? "You are still like every other student in this class." There was stiffening in her stance, her smooth jaw clenched. "Do we have an understanding?"

"Can I just sit down?" she exhaled more calmly than I would've. The dark haired teacher nodded taking his eyes off her.

Vanessa looked painfully shy when she reached an empty seat. It didn't take me long to figure out it was because of Cameron. The seat was right beside him. Their eyes crossed, he pretended it didn't happen—that she wasn't there. Only looked straight ahead. Vanessa closed her eyes pulling her chair closer to the desk, placing her elbows on the table. This was all but normal behavior. I didn't know what was worse, the way Cam acted towards me or the way he acted with Vanessa. She seemed turbulently upset by his attitude. They weren't strangers, they had history, they had to... but what happened to her?

Out of the blue, our eyes met. Mine and Phillip's—it was surprising because he was sitting in front of me. He kept looking over his well-formed shoulder. Phillip's eyes danced with mine to a mute melody, we just... looked at each other and it felt nice—amazing.

"Something I can help you with?" my voice came in a short whisper, I tucked a wavy lock behind my ear.

He thumped his fingers on the side of his desk, "I was wondering what you're doing after school?" Huh. What?

"Nothing," I answered sounding like a naive girl who never got asked out—which, yeah... I hadn't. It didn't mean I didn't know what this was for. "What are you doing after school?"

The left corner of Phillip's mouth lifted, "You're funny," he thought I was kidding—nice. "I was thinking of going to the Lighthouse—it's a place we hang out after school."

"I know, Dawn dragged me there two days ago."

"Of course she did." He looked a little let down, it didn't linger more than a second. "I bet I'll be a better company than her." I shook my head at his cockiness. "Just don't tell her I said that—" A book smacked Phillip's wooden desk causing him to whip around, and I had to say... it was like he didn't move at all, like he'd always been staring to the front.

"Mr. Leale, why don't you share with the rest of the class what you've been discussing with Ms. Cortez?"

I couldn't see his face but I'm sure it was something like mine—caught off guard.

"It was nothing." He shrugged, voice laid-back.

"I'm sure it must have been something interesting, after all, you've been ignoring our rehash about Dante's Inferno for five minutes." Mr. Carter didn't pick up the worn copy of D.I. from Phillip's table. He continued eying the younger twin with a mocking glare.

"I'm pretty sure that's the book where the guy goes to hell." I moved a hand to my mouth so Mr. Carter wouldn't see me smile.

"You're knowledge of literature leaves me stunned every time, Mr. Leale."

"I try my best."

"Let's hope that's not your best, or you'll end up with an F—for failure." The youthful teacher spun on his heel, taking the book.

Phillip gave a dashing wink turning around just as quickly as before—he was crazy fast... I only seemed to care about how his impossibly beaming eyes stroke my core leaving me all kinds of speechless.

Ten more minutes into class, the door smacked wide. A panting Dawn stood bent, hands on her knees. Her hair was curly like every other day, the bag hung limply from her hand.

"I'm... I'm sorry, Mr. Carter—I was chased all the way here by a—"

"Get in, Ms. Villars and spare us the old excuses and antics." Dawn skipped all the way to a seat in the front. "You'll have a tardy slip—"

"I'm used to it—so go on, don't let me stop your fascinating explanations about..." she stopped leaning over stealing a glance of a book copy. "This depressing-sounding-adventure." She cheered shrugging softly, resuming pulling out her stuff.

Mr. Carter definitely had stuff to say about Dawn's big entrance, he pinched the bridge of his nose before carrying on with his boring view on the nine circles of hell. It had to be the most boring subject I ever heard—who wanted to hear about tortures, dammed souls, demons and everything in between? I didn't. This book talked about freaky, freaky stuff—things I wanted to get away from. Apparently I was stuck reading it for the rest of the semester.

"Goody, like I haven't enough nightmares..." I muttered to myself watching my young, stern teacher walk back and forth—he was talking about limbo where the ones who didn't accept Christ resided—I took a pen popping its cap off.

The classroom became distant, far from my sight, from my mind. Mr. Carter's strong voice was reduced to a hum, getting lighter and lighter, duller and duller. I could barely identify any words—were they words I was hearing? To me they were muffled rattling sounds and they kept fading—until I was alone. I was by myself. The only thing I was aware of was the pen in my hand, my hand... it felt light—almost like I had no power over it. Around and around it went, drawing something—my eyes only showed me haze as I tried to focus on the page below.

A shock rippled over the surface of my skin, ripping me from my little corner. A twisting began inside me, a pull I couldn't avoid—it was beyond my control and, finally, my eyes were focused. Now though, I was looking the wrong way. I was staring at Cameron's swimmer's back. I flinched—the black pen rolled from between my fingers, toppling. I held my hand to the level of my eyes, never tearing them from him—it was like I was glued to him and... had I just been shocked? Like, electrocuted? It was a tiny spark but... why the hell would it happen? I was just touching the pen, drawing... numbers?

An eyebrow knitted. What did the numbers 16 and 9 mean? To me, nonetheless?

"Hey," a girl next to me whispered. "You dropped this." She held out my pen—I stared at it. Nothing weird about staring at an animate object like it was a knife about to strike my heart. Giving me a squint of her eyes—calling me freak in her mind—she tossed it to my table.

So much for a new reputation, I sighed shutting my eyes. My fingers traced over the numbers I'd written over tons of times. I hadn't thought about drawing them, I hadn't thought about doing anything really—I hadn't wanted to pick up the pen. But I'd done all those things. Shaking my head, I glanced up determined to stick to what he was preaching—Cameron glared at me from out the corner of his eye. I felt my heart stop seeing Vanessa watching the whole thing, and I couldn't read the emotion in her face.

***

I crumpled the piece of paper tossing it into the trash. I'd spent hours thinking about those two numbers—I figured it was all a stupid result from my sleepy mind, they probably meant as much to me as school spirit. I wasn't the cheering-type, you'd never see me in a shorty skirt, pompoms in hand looking perky.

"I think Mr. Carter wanted to murder you." Dawn wiped her head to me, so did Phillip. "Both of you."

"Well, when you're as good looking as I am you're bound to be envied—to top it off," Phillip lowered his voice at the same time he placed down his water bottle. "I was talking to a pretty girl." My cheeks went into red-alert. I saw auburn curls jumping about—was she really bouncing up and down in her chair? "She can embarrass you to death." He commented in my ear, a shiver caught up with my spine.

My happy-sunshine friend smirked.

"Don't detour this conversation, Philly—" the younger twin groaned, something told me he hated that nickname. I stifled a giggle. "You just called my girl 'pretty'."

"So? Anyone can see Nina's pretty." Had he any idea what he was doing to my heartbeat? I think not. "The people who don't need eye surgery." His adorable dimples made an appearance. If he didn't stop soon, I was going to break into a happy-dance and then Dawn would lose the title of 'Queen of Embarrassment' passing it on to me.

My new friend's nudge made me recoil—who knew what was going to come out of her mouth now... She leaned in when Phillip bit into a slice of pizza, I scooted to her so she'd speak very lowly.

"He's completely flirting with you!"even her hiss of contentment managed to sound like a yell, I sighed. "I've been friends with him forever—and I don't think I've ever seen him so... outgoing." That was hard to imagine, by all the cheekiness he dished out. "They keep to themselves most of the time, you know, when it comes to girls." They—meaning him and Cameron.

My eyes wandered off our table. There wasn't a single leather-jacket-wearing-boy here. There were guys with football jackets, baggy hoodies with tacky letters—but not one of them showed Cameron's impeccable fashion sense—Phillip was the closest one, but even him was different. While Cam wore dark colors, leather jackets and boots, Phillip wore light colors—white was the one for today. A white tight T-shirt, though plain it looked expensive as I did the bleached jeans.

"With that attitude I'm surprised he finds girls." I said threw my teeth, wishing I could hit Cameron's head with something hard—maybe a piano?

"Being the quarterback helps—" quarterback? He was on the football team? He could definitely be in it—with that lean, but strong-looking built—but he didn't strike me as a jock. Though he was a jerk, so yeah.

"Really?" Dawn nodded. "Why doesn't he hang out with his teammates then?" I bit with more bitchy-snark then intended.

"He does when he wants to." She shrugged. "These two are weird like that, they could have the whole school falling at their feet but they choose to stay in the shadows as much as possible." I saw Phillip rolling his stunning eyes. "Anyway," Dawn batted her lashes at me, making me back up. She simply leaned closer, chin resting on her hands. "Phillip is a great basketball player. Too bad the season hasn't started—you'd love to see him play! He's like a pro, freaking super-boy."

"Dawn's making a big deal out of it. I'm not that good—"

"He's NBA material." She sing-songed.

"NBA material?" I asked. I knew little about sports in general—but from what I did know about basket, was that NBA was the big league.

"No—she's overselling me." He looked rattled and uncomfortable. I had to say, it was cute. "Don't you have anyone else to bother? Where's Zeke?" my eyes jumped when he mentioned Zeke. He wasn't what you'd call a tough guy, not at first sight. He wore baggy clothes, even loose denim jeans. He seemed the typical football player, with his blond hair blown and spiked in every direction.

Dawn flicked her hair aside—it sprung back into place immediately. "In the jock table—he's the one laughing like a maniac, probably over a stupid thing." All in all, Zeke had seemed alright the few times I'd been around him—the typical American guy only with a nice streak. It was true what they said about people in small towns they were all nice. Well, there was one exception to the rule out here, he wasn't worth thinking about.

Vanessa's face popped up when I saw a girl with dark hair walking by. Mr. Carter had really been a jerk to her. I hadn't spoken about her to Dawn, though I was dying to know what happened to her. She felt like a fragile glass that could shatter. Steering my soda I glanced to Phillip.

He pulled a piece of pepperoni from his second slice—he sure ate a lot. Those two pieces were huge.

"You don't like peperoni, what's wrong with you?" I asked holding up the vegetable between my fingers.

"With me? You're the one who doesn't eat ham and there's a problem with me not eating vegetables?"

"Vegetables?" I noticed the plural.

"Huh-uh, I don't eat anything green. You're not a vegetarian are you?" nope, I shook my head. He placed a hand on his chest, heaving out of breath like he'd dodged a bullet. "For a second there, I thought you were going to pull a protest sign from under the table and a megaphone from your bag."

"Hmm, then I'd chase you down with a mob of angry vegetarians wielding torches and forks yelling 'animals are people too'." I entertained his idea twirling a strand around my finger. "But seriously, why don't you eat vegetables?"

He shrugged, "They're just... yucky." I chuckled at his five-year old response.

"Not even my brother uses that excuse—and he's ten." I said stuffing the yucky thing, like Phillip said, into my mouth. He made an outraged grimace as I chewed it.

"You have a brother?" I nodded swallowing down the food. Dawn already knew about my brother, my whole family situation—that my parents were divorced, my mom remarried and we moved here for a fresh start—I left out the part where mom believed I was a junky or hanging with stoners. Phillip hadn't a clue, because in the last week I'd seen him sporadically. I don't know where he disappeared to, but between classes and sometimes lunch, he was nowhere in sight. Cameron normally was.

"I do—well, he's my step-brother—his name's Henry."

"Your parents are divorced?" Phillip tread into the parental territory carefully, afraid he'd trigger something unpleasant. I understood, for many teenagers divorce was a hard—for me it wasn't. Mom and Dad argued most of the time so they decided to spare themselves—and me—the pain getting a divorce. Sure I didn't welcome it at first, but with time I understood them. I saw how they were happiest apart—that sometimes hurt, I could deal, though.

"Since I was fourteen," I ate another of his rejects enjoying grossing him out—it was fun. "Mr. Carter is kind of... a jerkoff, isn't he?" wow, I surprised myself with the sudden turn of subject—I'd just been dying to ask.

Dawn tuned into our "private" conversation like a woman on a mission.

"He is the biggest prick in the history of mankind! I swear, he's the only teacher who doesn't buy my excuses—he doesn't even let me say anything, how does he know if I'm lying?"

"I don't think he'd believe you got attacked by a swarm of bees." That had been her excuse, she'd told me after we left class. "Do the other teachers believe you?"

"They do." She nodded proudly. "Of course being this adorable helps." She made a kitty-pout my way, I found myself wavering into a smile.

"Mr. Carter is a know-it-all kind of guy. He loves books, loves what they teach. The dude's a known workaholic and if you don't take his class seriously—" he made a slicing motion in front of his neck. "You flunk."

"How come you haven't flunked? He didn't seem to like you and you definitely don't take what he says seriously."

"Because I have my very own mentor," my eyes rose as I drank my last bit of soda. "Cameron beats everything into my head right before tests, quizzes—all that shit." Cam was a jock, studious and he had the local bad-boy's rep? Man, he was a strange guy. "He needs to get laid."

So I wouldn't spit the remaining soda, I swallowed coughing, "Cameron...?" I asked meekly.

Both of them broke into a steady laugh. Phillip ended it first giving a firm head shake.

"Mr. Carter," he cleared up. "Cameron does fine on that field." He did? So he didn't make every girl feel like dirt? Now, that's impressive, the thought tasted stale in my mouth.

"I heard he gave Vanessa crap because she was there after the first bell." My attention picked up. Phillip shrugged not bothering with telling her what happened. "Speaking of which... do you know where she is? I was going to talk to her after class, she just disappeared."

The younger twin scratched his neck's side with a finger, looking past Dawn's shoulder.

"I think she's in the library."

"You mean she's hiding there?" Phillip coiled his shoulders at her hard voice. "Unbelievable—I'm the best friend but I know absolutely nothing. I have to ask her ex-boyfriend's twin." Dawn was being super-snarky and—hold up.

"Ex-boyfriend...?" Did that mean...?

"Yes," she said. "Cameron and Vanessa were together for four months until she got—" she stopped the words, something horrible passed her eyes. "Something awful happened and when she needed him he broke up with her." Sounded possible from what I'd seen. He didn't give a damn about her—or anyone. Dawn's chestnut eyes shone onto Phillip, who's face was guarded. "The weirdest part, is that now she hangs more around you than me. Your brother was a cold blooded jackass and she talks to you."

A tickle ran down my whole spine, making me snap my head to the side. There he was, just behind me and Dawn.

"Dawn," Phillip muttered under a breath. He knew Cam heard what Dawn said. She glimpsed over her shoulder Cameron marching away—deadly-swagger and all. "Nice going." He got up.

"I just said the truth. He might be your brother but what he did was wrong—he left Vanessa when she was vulnerable—so on top of what she had to deal with—still has—she has to handle heartbreak." Her gaze was furious, pupils wide pleading for him to see her side—maybe tell Cameron he'd done wrong. "How's that fair?" she added in a smaller tone.

The electrical blue I knew took on a more icy-front.

"Don't talk about things you don't know." And that was that. He grabbed his jacket leaving—maybe going to check on his brother.

"Phill—" I cut myself out eying the cafeteria's door, he'd left already. "He forgot his backpack." I shared softly, but Dawn didn't hear or if she did, for the first time, she ignored me.

Biting my lip, I stood, slinging my own bag over my shoulder then picking his up. If I hurried I could still catch him, he couldn't have gone far. I took my first steps to the door, my foot wavered a few times. I stopped pressing my eyes shut, making the sleep go away.