Maybe I should've been a little more than suspicious after the mind boggling conversation Wednesday night with the even more mind boggling Oliver Remmer. But somehow, I'd come to the conclusion not to jump to conclusions. Oliver was his own man and he had his own shit that I had no right to push my way into.

That's why instead of pestering him about this friend-hang he had that had taken up a week of his time, I'd simply smiled at his when he'd sat beside me at lunch that Friday.

I watched his pale hand as it placed an apple in front of me, the unmistakable bandage wrapped around it being the cause of my worry. But instead of bothering him about it, I just pointedly stared at it, his body fidgeting under my gaze and proving that once again, Oliver was beaten a little and bruised in other places.

"Where?" I'd questioned when he seemed to struggle with breathing as he sat himself in the seat that had somehow became his along the way.

Oliver sighed, shrugging and digging in his bag. When he pulled out a bag of gummy bears, my smile became a little less fake; I took his wrist in my hand, seeing gauze wrapped around his knuckles and a weird white bandage on top of his veins, "Just my ribs and hand, I'm fine."

"What's this?" I'd asked, assuming the worst when I'd seen the faint white lines on his right wrist but I was put at ease when a grin slapped on his face. Oliver smiled, peeling the bandage back a bit and showing off a little black arrow.

He'd gotten another tattoo and it looked kind of beautiful on his skin. The darkness of the black ink was bold against his arm and his smile was too blinding for words.

I nodded in approval, "it's nice."

Trying to ignore the slight blush creeping up his face, Oliver pulled the bandage back to its original position before opening the back of gummy bears.

It was then that I realized how quiet my table was and I'd noticed the new kid at the table. Luca was staring down in his lap as Sid smiled over at him, his expression slightly uncomfortable.

"Hey, Luca," I greeted, my eyes focused on Sid who was eye-molesting the side of his face.

I nudged Oliver, trying to get him to speak which might've been my most desperate move that day. Oliver Remmer was quieter than all of us so asking him to speak to prevent awkwardness wasn't my best move.

I watched the adorable way he looked caught in the headlights as he thought of what to say to Luca, a guy he'd almost mutilated over an accident. And when Oliver glanced at me, he sucked in a breath before turning back to the foreign boy in front of us, "I'm -uh- sorry I almost punched you."

Luca blushed, ears red as we all noticed how completely uncomfortable both boys were at this seemingly forced interaction. Oliver's eyes stayed downcasted as he picked at the lining on his gauze, Luca's nervous response making it ten times more awkward as he wet his plump lips, "It is fine, n-not a lot of students are pleased with me."

It was so noticeable that he wasn't from America with the harshness of his French as he all but butchered the English language , words coming out a bit off and the sentence seeming to drag on a little longer than normal as he seemed to be trying to find proper words.

I'd never really noticed that.

"I like you," Sid had said, confusion written on her face and in that moment, I wanted to slap my best friend for being so forward on this obviously-shy guy.

January must've felt the same because when he leaned over, his voice was calm and his smile friendly, "What she means is, we like you."

"That's not-" Sid tried being immediately cut off by January with a glare.

"Shut up and thank me later."

She looked like she wanted to say more but with a creak of the table and a familiar boy sitting down beside my blonde best friend, she stopped. Jackson smiled as his butt came in contact with the seat normally reserved for Kat; his dimples caving in cheekily as he grabbed for Jan's indistinguishable fruit cup.

"You can't sit with us," Sidney barked, snatching the fruit from his hand before using a plastic spork off of Luca's tray and opening it, taking out what I could only assume to be a slice of pear.

I watched as my brother pretended to flip hair off his shoulder, pouting when January laughed. They looked kind of adorable, Jan smiling down at him, both their dimples on show. Oddly, it looked like the ship was sailing smoother than usual, "Is it cause I'm black?"

"Definitely," I snorted, rolling my eyes at the joke, lips pulled up into an amused smile. Luca looked uncomfortable and Oliver seemed to be holding back a laugh; at that point, the table was pretty diverse. We were all pretty different and it didn't really matter.

Jan, meanwhile didn't even blink, eyes lingering on Jackson as my little brother focused his attention on another fruit cup he'd stolen off of Luca's tray. Poor guy didn't know what hit him when he decided to sit down with us. We were a grabby bunch, never one to hesitate before taking someone else's food, well, all except Oliver.

"I could've sworn mom changed your schedule around for that D you got in Lit. Aren't you supposed to be in class?" Sidney snorted, knowing my family business as usual. She was over there so much, she ended up calling my mother Mom and my father, Pops.

Rolling his eyes, Jackson shrugged, licking his lips before taking out some carmex. My brother never stopped putting on the stuff and I was sure that by his fifteenth year of life on Earth, he'd never have to worry about chapped lips, "So what if I am?"

"You're gonna get in trouble..." I warned, eyebrows furrowed as I worried about my brother momentarily. Sure, he was only a sophomore but with his below-passing grade in Lit and no extra-curricular activities, he seemed to be going down the same path I was around his age. I was worried for him and I didn't want him to go through the same stress as me.

He didn't seem to get it though, "I got this, Em."

Nibbling on my bottom lip, I made sure to make it a priority to stop being a shitty sister, talk to him later, and find out what was going on. Jackson was changing pretty quickly, skipping classes, getting moody, all this and it was just occurring that something might be wrong. He wasn't even talking about football and that shit was his life a few weeks prior.

Before his ankle was twisted.

"So, Olive, why weren't you here? You look fine to me." Sidney questioned, stopping the one-sided stare off I was having with the side of my brother's face. I must've been tense because Oliver's hand had found mine, somewhere along the line and I had to suppress the goofy grin that was fighting it's way onto my face.

"I -uh- had to deal with some stuff," he cleared his throat.

And I didn't want to judge him but that sounded shady, his eyes had failed to meet mine when he glanced over at me for a quick save. I didn't have to however when Ceaser Finnigan had settled himself in the seat beside my brother.

Oliver visibly tensed, his hand tightening around mine but not enough to hurt me as the curly haired, half-hispanic boy uttered out a simple, "Hey."

"Uh, hi?" I found myself retorting, suspicion on my face as Sidney glowered at him.

"Listen, Em..." He trailed off, fiddling with his fingers as he looked up at me with sincerity in his brown eyes,

"I wanted to apologize..."

It felt like we'd been down the same road before, my eyebrows furrowing at the fact that he was apologizing for something so far gone.

Oliver grunted and I could basically hear him rolling his eyes, "You already did, now fucking leave."

"Damn, ma, put your guard dog on a leash."

Oliver raised a brow at that as I heard a sharp intake of breath, one that I could only assume to be Luca's.

Sid snorted at that, her hatred for Ceaser showing in the way she smiled at the clench in Oliver's jaw. We all knew that that couldn't be good, "You're really trying it today."

"I just came so I could set the record straight with you and I'm honestly feeling so attacked right now." Ceaser had joked, lips in a playful smile as he bit down on his plump bottom one.

"You doing anything this weekend?" Ceaser had asked after a brief moment of silence and I literally questioned if he had forgotten what had happened at his party of he didn't care. Oliver had made it clear that was were a thing and to have Ceaser purposely seek me out and ask me an irrelevant question as if we were on okay terms, I had to laugh.

"Actually I think I have plans, sorry," I rejected, echoing the words that Oliver Remmer had said to me on our second encounter. I looked over at his old table briefly, it being completely barren. It was as if people didn't even want to go near the isolated space.

I tore my eyes away from the glass window-wall, focusing on Ceaser's look of confusion.

"With who?"

"Why does it concern you?" I'd laughed, eyes rolling at how he thought I'd just jump at the chance to get my heart broken again.

Ceaser's thick eyebrows furrowed as he pulled his plump bottom lip into his mouth, confused in a way I used to think was cute.

"I'm not yours anymore," I shook my head, focusing on how his pout had no affect on me. I found Oliver's hand under the table, giving it a squeeze, "We broke up. I moved on."

"You're with someone," Ceaser has announced as if he hadn't directly been told the night of his party that I was more or less dating Oliver.

"I am."

Still he continued, "You have plans with them."

Sid snorted and I could hear her false confusion, "Are you really that dense?"

Ceaser rolled his eyes, choosing not to respond and still focused his attention on me, "Who do you have plans with? I bet this nigga ain't shit."

I could feel the boy beside me chuckle, "I have plans with..." I'd trailed off, my eyes flickering over to catch the amused look on Oliver's face.

Oliver raised his hand, my index finger pointing towards him, "with my boyfriend." I stretched my words and the truth, an amused smile playing on Oliver's lips but it was gone when Ceaser leaned a little closer across the table.

"Cancel them, I can show that ass of yours a better time than he could."

"Not interested," I deadpanned, frowning at how silent Oliver had gotten, just observing. He seemed to be trying to avoid confrontation but with the way he clenched and unclenched has left hand around my right, you could tell his patience was wearing thin.

Maybe Ceaser was just stupid; maybe the little bit of intelligence he had was knocked out by the multiple concussions he'd had when he used to play basketball or maybe he was always that dumb. Maybe I was attracted to his face rather than his substance when I dated him, "Ouch, baby, hurt my ego." Placing a hand on his chest, he pretended to be wounded.

Still, I could only barely tolerate his jokes, "I hope it did."

"Don't be like that."

January must've gotten tired of his presence already, blue eyes rolling back in his head as he loudly and dramatically sighed, "Alright, are you that stupid? She doesn't want you-"

"Can it, fucking faggot."

January looked hurt, Sidney looked pissed, and Jackson was a split second from introducing Ceaser's face to his fist and to be honest, so was I.

Oliver stayed silent before swiftly reaching across the table and slamming Ceaser's face down into the hard surface.

"I don't tolerate name calling now get up and fight instead of throwing around slurs."

Let's just say shit was unraveling.