Blake doesn't return that night. I was waiting for him all afternoon and night to thank him once again for what he did for me. I also wanted to confront him about why he treated me so distastefully and then do something as opposite as protecting me.

I spent the night busying myself with my cryptography assignment for my computer unit. As the night burned on my assignment was creating less of a distraction and I was starting to become more worried about Blake, many what if scenarios kept echoing in my head and my mother was fuming out her ears at his cheek to not even tell us where he is.

I went to bed that night agitated, and it showed in my dreams. I dreamt of that very same dream I have every night, I was in the dark woods and someone was murdered in front of my eyes and I was helpless to stop it. But my dream was different tonight as usually the attacker pounces at me and then I wake up. This time the attacker grabs me around the head and then snaps my neck. I wake up panting and with a cold sweat dripping down the back of my pajama top. In my moment of panic, I was so incredibly glad when I looked over to Blake's bed to see that he wasn't there.

I don't fall back asleep for the rest of the night and I was showered and ready for school before anyone else in the house was even awake. My mother had to leave early for her gym session in the morning, so she wasn't home to yell at Blake when he walks through the front door ten minutes before I needed to leave for school.

He looked disheveled. He had dark circles under his eyes and his hair was sticking up in multiple directions. He looked like he didn't get a wink of sleep last night.

I scrutinised him with narrowed eyes as he walked straight past me in silence. He gives me one enduring glare as he storms into the house and then walks right past me, barely acknowledging my existence. My heart sinks to the floor and the smile that was forming on my lips drops as I realise that Blake was back to his old persona. I jump off my chair and move towards him.

"Blake?" I yell after him, but he ignores me, and I hear the door to my room slam shut behind him. I knock on my door repeatedly, the force of the bang echoed through the entire house. I hear some shuffling and then the door opens. I glimpse his face for a fleeting moment.

"Go away," he speaks slowly and then slams the door in my face. Outrage manifests on my face as my mouth falls open at his behaviour and my hands ball into fists. How dare he kick me out of my own room?

"Hey, you can't kick me out of my own room." I bash on the door in insult.

"Well I just did," he yells from inside my room.

"This is my room," I object fiercely stamping my foot on the ground in defiance. I continuously bash of my door until suddenly the door swings open. It was so sudden that I stagger backwards in fright and then trip over a shoe placed outside. I flail my hands around in the air until I settle myself steadily on solid ground. I glare up at Blake.

"What do you want?" Blake growls with a sneer set on his features. He leans his torso against the doorway with half his body angled away from me and his hands crossed against his chest. Even though his dark mood was infection, I steeled myself to not give into his darkness and plastered a bright smile on my face.

"Thank you for what you did," I smile as I look up at him. He stares deeply into my eyes for a long moment and as we were so close to each other I could see the white specs inside his blue eyes. My heart skips a beat in my chest as we stare into each other's' eyes. It was then that I noticed that he was trying to hide by standing sideways. His right eye was black and bruised and was starting to buff up.

"You already thanked me," he snapped bitterly. My eyebrows pucker as I stare at him in bewilderment. Why is he being like this?

"Now will you leave me alone." He starts to close the door on my face again, but I slam my hands onto the door. I search his broken face, it looked like he had been punched in the face. How did that happen?

"What happened to your eye?" I challenge as I push him aside and storm into the room as I could get a better look at him.

"Leave now," he snaps ferociously ignoring my question and nods his head to the door.

"Why are you being like this?" I question. "I thought," I start to say but Blake roars before I had time to finish my sentence.

"What, you thought that because I helped you yesterday that we are friends now?" He sneered.

"Just because I prevented you from being bullied and tormented doesn't mean that I like you or want to be friends with you." He brings his face closer to mine, so I can see the disgust in his eyes. I stagger a step back from him, I hated this hostility.

I at least thought we had a mutual understanding. But I guessed wrong.

"Honestly I would refer it if you just left me alone," he declares with stark honestly. I stand up tall keeping my back straight and glare back at him.

"That won't be a problem," I snap and leave my room slamming the door behind me along with my newly acquired respect for him.

*

I couldn't help busting out a move as I listened to my new favourite song on my walk to school. The weather was beautiful today, the sun shining down on my cold eyelids from the chilly the air. But I made sure I only did this as I turned the corner and before Blake moved around that same corner and saw me. He walked ten meters behind me all the way to school. I refused to turn around and acknowledge him after what he said this morning, I was furious at him.

How dare he speak to me so disrespectfully and then make my heart do all sorts of summersaults in the next moment? I walk through the green mountainside that lead up to our school and made it into the school boundaries with plenty of time to spare before the first bell. I arrived early to my first class of the day which was English again.

To pass time I pulled out my bible and started reading through some psalms. Soon enough all the other students started piling in the room and luckily Sarah was too engrossed in her conversation with her best friend Helena to bully as she walked in. But that didn't stop her from bullying me as she sat comfortably in the back corner surrounded by her friends.

She started throwing scrunched up pieces of paper at me. I took a deep breath to rein in my anger and closed my eyes imagining that I was somewhere else to prevent myself from spinning around and snapping at her. Probably punching her in the face and getting myself expelled. That would not be good.

Then moments later Blake walks into the room. His eyes immediately are drawn to me and the pieces of paper covering my desk, then towards Sarah and Helena who were holding their stomachs with laughter. His eyes narrow menacingly, and I notice his jaw clenches as anger overtakes his features.

"Hey Blake, sit back here?" Sarah advises seductively. I couldn't believe her cheek, even after what Blake said to her yesterday she still thinks they are friends.

But Blake doesn't listen to her and storms right into the room and then does something astonishing. He sits next to me.

I watch him with wide eyes and my mouth hanging open as he pulls out the chair next to me and sits down. He starts rummaging through his bag to grab out his utensils like this was a normal thing to do. I don't hide my astonishment as I stare plainly right at his face. He ignores me. I notice in my peripheral vision that everyone in the classroom was watching us and had gone silent. The paper wasn't being thrown anymore.

"Psst," I whisper. Blake continues rummaging through his bag, pretending he didn't hear me.

"What are you doing?" I lean closer to him as I speak louder. Finally, he rises his head up from the ground and turns to face me. His face was stoic as he looked at me, his eyes hooded and a flat look on his face. But those blue eyes stare right into mine and I am captured in his dark gaze. I noticed more clearly the red ringed eye of his and the bruising that had formed over his cheek bone. He had been punched but it didn't take away his beauty.

"I am sitting next to you," he replies with a smirk lifting the corner of his lips. I roll my eyes at the obvious answer.

"Well obviously, but I thought you made your opinion of me clear this morning," I grumble. His eyes flash in warning for a moment but he looks away just as quickly.

"Stay away from me," I mimic in the deep tone of his voice and with excessive hand gestures. I notice the shadow of a smile on the edges of his lips.

"Well that advice doesn't count in moments when you are being tormented," he deadpans, and I notice his jaw clench exemplifying the dark bruises around his cheek bones. I tilt my head to the side as I stare at him in wonder, he was refusing to meet my eyes. I really didn't understand him.

"Why aren't you sitting next to her?" I ask curiously with a raised eyebrow. Blake doesn't look at me when he replies.

"Because I am sitting next to you," he states in a matter of fact tone. Well that much I could decipher for myself.

"I thought you hated me," I whisper in his ear as I lean into him and eye him suspiciously. Finally, Blake angles his face towards me so we were only inches apart which makes his next words that much more meaningful as he declares his next words.

"I do hate you." His eyes were burning with a dark intensity, but I didn't understand just what it meant. Although I knew the words were true hearing him admit it made my chest fall.

"Then why are you sitting next to me?" I snap and throw my hands up in the air in frustration. Why was it so hard to get any straight information out of this guy?

"I am sitting here to make sure that she doesn't say anything to you," he proclaimed fiercely, and his words were rushed out as if he really didn't want to admit this. His words made my stomach flip. I stare in bewilderment at his straight long nose and the way his hair curled around his ears, he really is something else. Though I liked this sudden protectiveness I wasn't going to let Blake know about that.

"I can handle it," I cross my hands across my chest in defiance. He diverts his gaze, so he was staring right at me.

"I know you can, I just don't want to see it," He admits starkly. I stare at him fiercely, does that mean he actually cares for me in some mutilated shape of form?

"Again, I thought you hated me." I shake my head as I try to comprehend this.

"Again, I do," he deflected running his hands through his dark hair. I watched the way the curl in his hair settled onto the side of his face.

"Well then you are making absolutely no sense." I grimace.

"Let's just agree that everything I do makes absolutely no sense."

"Now that I can agree with," I admit as I click both thumbs together and point them straight at him. But then drop them because I look like an absolute nutter.

Blake displayed the faintest shadow of a smile as one of his lips turned up at the corners. I found myself staring at it, transfixed. Then suddenly Blake turns his face towards mine and my stomach jumps in my chest as he catches me staring at him. But he doesn't acknowledge this, instead he leans his face closer to mine and my heart starts hammering faster as he does so.

"Rose, you don't deserve that, no one does," he declares staring deep into my eyes.

He moves his face away from me and I am left staring after him in shock and all I can think about is how beautiful and meaningful those words meant to me. I closed my eyes tightly and took a deep calming breath.

"Thank you," I say. Then he spins his head to face me and he gives me a wide heart stopping smile and that is exactly what my heart does.

Ever since he saved me I couldn't stop replaying that moment in my mind. And what it did to my heart.

***

Hey everyone, I hope you are all fabulous.

What did you all think of the new chapter? I would love to know your opinions. Thank you so much for your comments on the last chapter and your encouragement, it is truly astonishing and so motivating :)

Love, Elaine Xx