"Did you hear about the fight?"

"They all got suspended."

"Apparently Zeke is in hospital."

"I heard some got arrested."

I feel like I am going to be sick. All day at school Ive been hearing things like this.

Zeke, Isaac, Jordan and some of his friends were apparently all in some big fight, and they all got suspended.

I want to know why, and I want to know if Zeke and Isaac are okay. He's in hospital. That's another one of the many rumours that have spread over the past couple of hours. I need to know if he's okay, but then again, so does most of the girls here.

His dad. Oh god, I really hope his dad somehow doesn't find out about this.

Standing at his locker, I notice a familiar figure with tattoos running up his arms. "Is it true?" I ask Brandon. "The fight?"

"Sure is," Brandon smiles a little.

"You weren't involved?"

"No. I was busy eatin'."

"Is Zeke okay?"

He shrugs, "Why don't you ask him?"

"We're not exactly friends anymore."

Brandon chuckles. "You and your relationship drama."

"It's not relationship drama-" I decide not to get into this. "Why did he get into a fight with Jordan?"

He shrugs again. "Jordan just said he came at him all pissed. He made himself out as the victim, but we all know Jordan would have said shit to provoke him."

"So who won?"

He laughs. "No one won. They both got fucked up pretty bad I guess, but considering it was six against two, I have a feeling Blakely and Wilson got it worse."

No, no, no. I need to know how he is. I need to see him.

But he doesn't want to see you.

I'll just wait until I see them at school, then i'll know he's okay. So all weekend I try my best not to think about him or the fight. I text Isaac asking how he is, which he replies saying he's fine and that it wasn't him I should be worrying about, which made me panic even more. I still hadn't worked up the courage to text Zeke though.

It's Tuesday when they're all back at school, and when I see Isaac in the parking lot, I almost run over to him. His face is bruised up pretty bad, but it isn't as bad as I had expected.

"You're back," I say, stating the obvious because I don't know what else to say. I want to ask about Zeke but I feel like people are sick of me talking about him.

"So is Zeke," he smirks at me, knowingly.

Where is he? Is what I want to ask, but I decide against it.

Maggie appears beside Isaac and she takes his hand. She doesn't say anything, but I look at her expecting her to. She's a really chatty person, but just now she looks as if something's bothering her.

"Are you okay?" I ask her.

She nods once, then her eyes focus on something behind me. Butterflies erupt in my stomach as I think of who it could be, and when I turn around, it is.

Ezekiel Blakely, limping away from his car, his eyes focused on the ground.

Hesitantly, I walk over to him and block his path. I have no idea what I want to say to him, but my legs took me over here.

I notice straight away that both of his eyes are surrounded by dark bruising, and his swollen lip has a cut in it. Not only that, but his entire face isn't it's usual flushed colour. It looks grey.

He looks like he is in pain just by standing up, judging on the way his posture is slouched, different from his usual alert one. He is holding an arm over his stomach and from the way he was walking, it must be his left leg that is hurting him.

He stops short at the sight of me and looks down my body, then back up to my eyes, and then he sighs.

"Wow," I say without thinking.

He presses his lips together and just looks at me for a moment. "What part of stay away from me didn't you understand?"

I don't know why his words shock me. What was I expecting? To come over here and talk to him and everything would be perfect again? He doesn't want me in his life anymore. I need to get that through my head.

I turn and walk away before he can walk away from me. I won't let him do that again.

+++

"What's up, toy?" The familiar voice sends shivers down my spine.

I step back from my locker enough to see him. The devil himself; Jordan. I am quite pleased by the injuries present on his face, and I also notice his neck is red, looking as if it's been burned. Go Zeke, I want to chant. But then I remember I hate him and Jordan probably wouldn't appreciate that. Not that I'm scared of him, I'm more pissed off.

"What do you want?" I roll my eyes.

"Is that attitude you're giving me? You better watch it, sweetheart."

"Or what? You gonna get me drunk and rape me?" I snap, referring back to what he did to Vanessa. Although apparently he didn't rape her – she agreed, which I would never do.

A smile tugs at his lips but he clears his throat to cover it up. "Listen, sweetheart. Blakely's the one who attacked me."

"You probably gave him a pretty good reason to. And plus he looks way worse than you do."

"You can't blame me for that. His dumbass self fell to the ground and my friends' feet took care of the rest. So really, it's his fault."

"You are sick," I scowl.

"Marnie, what are you doing?" Maggie says as she stands beside me.

Jordan's face lights up. "Oh look, it's my two favourite girls."

I almost throw up in my mouth. "Let's go," Maggie says.

I oblique, closing my locker and walking with her away from Jordan.

"I'll see you guys later!" He calls after us.

"He's disgusting," I say to Maggie.

"You need to stay away from him."

"He came up to me."

"I know, but next time he does you need to walk away. And make sure you're not alone."

Wow, people talk of Jordan as if he's an insane murderer. If he was that bad, wouldn't he be kicked out of school by now?

"Why did Zeke even get into a fight with him?" I ask.

"I don't know, he wouldn't tell me anything."

"Did, uh, did your dad come home?"

Her walking slows and her eyes fall to the floor. Probably not a good sign.

"Maggie?" I urge her.

"Yes, he did."

"What happened?"

She stops walking and stands outside what I assume is her next class. "All you need to know is that a lot of Zeke's injuries weren't caused by Jordan."

My heart skips a beat. No. No, no, no.

Fucking Paul.

+++

I feel like I deserve a medal when the week ends. I didn't cry once. Not once.

At lunch the next Monday, I keep working on not looking at Zeke and Isaac at their old table. It's something i've been struggling with. Cole sits with Zoey and I still, Isaac would sit with us but he cares too much about Zeke to leave him alone, since he has randomly decided to be completely done with our friendship.

My anger has been building with him. The way that he just walks past me as if we're strangers and he doesn't even look at me anymore. I'd know since I stare at him twenty-four/seven.

"Jordan's looking at you again," Zoey pulls me from my thoughts. I don't bother checking because I know he will be. I've managed to avoid him by walking the other way when I see him approaching, and leaving the room whenever he's looking at me. I don't bother leaving this time. He can't take my food away from me like that.

"Let him," I take a bite of my sandwich.

"You should tell Zeke about his stalking issues before it gets out of hand," Cole says.

"What good would that do? Zeke and I don't even talk anymore."

"Yeah, but i'm just sayin' it's definitely a way to get his attention."

I look at Zeke, innocently eating his hamburger and listening to something Isaac is saying. I wonder if Zeke knew about Jordan's fascination with me that has evolved recently, he'd come running back acting like my hero. He once told me never to forget that that was what he was.

"I don't want his attention," I decide. I don't care if Zeke would care or not – I don't want him to.

Cole groans and I raise an eyebrow. "I'll just tell him."

"Don't."

"He should know about this."

"No he shouldn't, Cole. It has nothing to do with him."

"It has everything to do with him."

"How?"

"Jordan's only gonna keep buggin' you 'cause of the fight. He thinks that's the way to get to Zeke."

"Well it's not. Can't he see that we don't talk anymore?"

"Pretty sure that's why he hasn't done anything yet. He's probably gonna do somethin' to test if Zeke still cares about you."

"This is so annoying," I drink my chocolate milk angrily.

Why did Zeke have to make my life so complicated?

+++

"I'll give you and your parter a room to do your calculations in. I have already asked all of the teachers if it is alright for you to be there, as long as you don't disrupt the class." Mr. Harrison, my math teacher is making us measure out the area of certain rooms in the school, then do calculations on them all later. It's easy work – things we learned years ago – yet he's making us do it, probably because he's too lazy to teach us anything new today. He begins to walk around the class, assigning us all a classroom to work in.

"The gym hall," he says to Zoey and I, and I nod in response.

Zoey smirks at me. "Oh goodie."

"What?" I furrow my eyebrows and stand up, collecting measuring equipment.

"Nothing," she says sweetly and follows me out the class.

"I really hope there isn't anyone in here," I say as we walk to the gym hall. They would probably just stare at us while we measure the hall and think we're freaks.

"Ah, that's the thing."

"What?"

"Zeke's class is in here."

I stop in my tracks. "What? How do you even know that?"

"Oh, Marnie, Marnie, Marnie," she puts a hand on my shoulder. "I know everything."

It's true. If there is any sort of gossip going on in the school, Zoey will know all about it. Hell, she'll have studied that shit as much as I study chemistry.

I really need to stop swearing.

"Can we ask for a different room?" I suggest, hopeful.

"Definitely not."

"Whyyyyy?" I pout.

"This is a perfect opportunity for you and Zeke to talk and sort this all out."

"Zoey, I am not going to embarrass myself anymore by trying to get him to be my friend. I'm over him. I don't even care about this anymore," I lie, even though Zoey won't believe a word i'm saying.

"Yeah, sure. Let's just go," she pulls me along by the arm and we step into the room.

Around twenty boys fill the hall playing basketball and wearing different coloured vests. A couple others are sitting on the benches. One of them I recognise as Jordan. Great.

Zeke and Cole are on the court, talking to another guy and none of them seem interested in the game.

"Hey, girls," Coach Black says as he approaches us. "How can I help you?"

"We're here to measure the place 'cause Harrison can't be bothered teaching today," Zoey says.

He laughs. "Ah, that. Well have fun. Just be careful around these guys. They can get competitive."

"Okay, thanks dude," Zoey says before strutting over to the corner of the room. Coach Black gives her a weird look at the word 'dude'.

"Why is Jordan in this class if he's a senior?" I ask Zoey when I get to the corner.

"He failed P.E last year," she rolls her eyes. "Moron. Who fails P.E?"

"Me," I freeze at the sound of Jordan's voice. He throws an arm around my shoulders. "What's up, hot stuff? I missed you. Have you been avoiding me?"

"Don't touch me," I push his arm off of me and look over at Zeke. I'm relieved when I see that he's watching, his fists clenched, but then he looks away and pretends to focus on the game.

"Man, I was hoping for more of a reaction," Jordan says, also looking at Zeke.

So was I.

"Come on, Zoe. Let's just get this done." I take the trundle wheel and start walking up the side of the hall, rolling it on the ground.

"If that ball comes anywhere near me, I will make sure all of these people are hurt so bad that they can't have children," Zoey says, walking beside me.

I look at Zeke as we walk – he has the ball now, about to throw it in the net. He gets passed everyone easily – he's good at this. I wish he could see that he is good at a lot of things, but instead he just thinks that he has no hope for the future. He aims for the net and throws, getting it in.

Suddenly, pain spreads across his face and he squeezes his eyes shut. His hands go to his stomach and he leans over, trying to recover.

I stop walking and watch, worried about him. Cole pats him on the back and Zeke stands up straight again, then pretends that the pain is gone but I can still see it in his features. I wonder if the injuries on his stomach are from Jordan or his Dad.

"Marnie? Come on," Zoey waves her hand in front of my face. I shake my head in an attempt to put Zeke out of my mind and continue pushing the trundle wheel up. It doesn't work, of course and I fight the urge to look at him again.

We get to the end and I write down the number of metres in my notepad.

"Zoey!" A voice that sounds like Cole's shouts and we both look. Before Zoey can process what's going on, she is hit in the face by the ball.

She stumbles backwards and rubs her face. "Cole you fucking cunt!"

A lot of the guys are laughing, Zeke isn't though. It's as if he's too deep in thought that he didn't even notice what happened.

"Zoey, watch your language," Coach says. "And Cole, you have detention."

Cole shrugs. "Worth it."

Zoey stomps over to Cole, then lifts her foot and kicks him between the legs.

"Ahhhh! Zoe!" Cole falls to his knees and holds his hands over his crotch. A lot of the other guys take in sharp breaths and say "ouch" just from watching it. Even the coach looks like he's in pain.

"You are literally the worst," Zeke says, scowling at Zoey.

"Don't start with me, Zeke," she warns.

"What makes you think you can just come up and kick someone in the balls like that?"

"He hit that ball in my face!"

He rolls his eyes. "I can't stand you."

"Zeke, dude, calm down," Cole stands back up and takes Zoey's hand. "I forgive you, babe."

"Blakely. Sanders. Would you mind joining in on the game?" Coach says, impatiently. "Zoey go help Marnie."

"Why do they even need to be in here? Its fucking annoying," Zeke says but coach just rolls his eyes.

They? Excuse me but i've been quietly sitting here doing our work, asshole.

"He is a dickhead," Zoey says when she gets back to me.

"We should have just asked for another room. We're obviously annoying him too much," I run a frustrated hand through my hair and sigh.

"Ignore him. He's just on his period or something."

I can't ignore him though. All I want to do is get out of here and stay away from him. I hand Zoey my notepad. "I'm going to the restroom – I'll be back in a sec."

She nods and gives me a small smile and I walk out of the hall, keeping my eyes on the floor. As I walk down the corridor, I take deep breaths, ranting in my mind about the asshole Zeke. Who does he even think he is? The Queen?

I stop and lean against the wall. I'll just wait here for a couple of minutes then go back. Why did Mr. Harrison need to give us the gym hall? And why at the time Zeke's class was in?

Out of the corner of my eye I see a figure, and immediately snap my head round.

"Miss me?" Jordan smirks.

"Get lost."

"Why are you so mean to me?"

"Because you're a horrible person."

"You don't know me," he stands in front of me.

"I know about you."

"Let me guess, Zeke has told you many stories about how i'm the bad guy."

"No, actually, he hasn't. He doesn't talk about you."

"That's a shame. I thought he was my number one fan." He steps closer and I start to feel nervous.

"I'm going back," I say and am about to walk away from him when I'm stopped by his two arms going on either side of my body, making me stuck between him and the wall.

"Why so desperate to get back?"

I press my body against the wall. "Leave me alone." I sound pathetic but I don't know what else to say.

"What if I don't want to?" He moves in closer to me and I can feel his breath fanning my face.

"Get the fuck away from her."

+++

raise your hand if you hate jordan 💁🏼

teaser: Zeke and Marnie start talking again, but Marnie is too stubborn to let everything go back to the way it was.

ly

-e