She met him by the lockers after the second period.

Sky was stuffing her books into her locker, trying hard to ignore the stares and the laughs of kids passing by, but who was she fooling, really? It hurt to hear the mean names that were whispered, and it was getting at her. Maybe it had been too much to ask for, to hope that everyone would have forgotten the incident in two weeks, but still she had hoped.

It's never gonna pass. I'm always gonna be the crazy slut, they're never going to stop making fun of me—

"Hi," said a familiar voice, a voice she had longed to hear, a voice that was always a bit throaty, a bit broken. Sky turned around, and closed the locker with a slightly trembling hand.

"Eli—"

"It's Hawk now," he interrupted, looking down at her, and suddenly Sky felt like he had grown - surely he hadn't been this tall before?

"Even to me?" she asked silently.

"To everyone," he replied with a sideways smile. "Eli doesn't really match with the hair."

She raised her eyes to the mohawk, the blue blade on top of his head, the cropped sides. It made him look so different, like not only his hair had changed but his whole facial structure too - his high cheekbones stood up, the line of his jaw was sharper than before.

"Can I?" Sky asked, raising her hand to touch his hair.

Eli nodded, his smile suddenly replaced by such a nervous, serious look. He swallowed, took in a breath, his chest and shoulders heaving.

Gently Sky laid her hand on the side of Eli's head, feeling the soft, short hair against her palm, brushing it with her thumb. With a jolt she remembered how she had buried her fingers in his coppery hair when their lips had crashed together, remembered the taste of his mouth - salt, iron, need.

Their eyes met, his pupils were wide, the blue of the irises was dark like the sea before a storm.

Slowly she slid her fingers upwards to feel the mohawk, and couldn't help a smile.

"It's so... spiky!"

Eli made a throaty laughter. "Lots of hairspray."

He was standing so close to her that she felt the warmth of his lean, wiry body in the air, and there was no space in her mind for any other thought than him. If someone was laughing at her now, pointing fingers or calling her names, she didn't know, she didn't care. The crowded hallway around them had disappeared, and all that was left was the way he was looking at her, like her touch could lit him up and burn him to ashes.

Slowly Sky withdrew her hand, even if breaking the contact between them felt like a small death.

"What happened?" she asked. "Why did you do this?"

"Sensei Lawrence happened." Eli replied with a serious tone. "He told me to flip the script."

"Whatever that means."

"Well, he said that if I wanted for people to stop looking at my lip, I needed to give them something else to look at." Eli said, and for the first time broke their eye contact. "He was right."

Sky wanted to touch him, to take his face into her hands and force him look her in the eye, but her hands were restless and hot and trembling so she stuffed them into the pockets of her jeans instead.

"You know, that lip wasn't the first thing I noticed about you." she said silently.

"Oh?" Eli shifted, his gaze found hers again. "And what was?"

"Your eyes. I thought you had the most beautiful eyes."

His throat bobbed at that. He had such a long neck, a sharp, clearly visible Adam's Apple, and suddenly Sky wanted to kiss his neck, to feel on her lips how he swallowed and that sharp throat moved under the skin—

Her cheeks were burning.

"Eli—" she started, but he interrupted her.

"It's Hawk."

"Hawk, right. I just wanted to say, I'm so sorry about the way I left, after—"

He took a sharp inhale, his cheeks flushed. "No, I'm sorry - about my Mom. That was... not cool."

"It wasn't her fault. I—"

But he interrupted her sentence. "I meant to call you after that, I really did. But I—"

"I know. I wanted to call you too—"

"Sky, I fucking missed you."

Her heart was beating so fast in her chest, that it was hard to breathe, she felt high headed, her knees were weak.

"Let's get out of here."

She took his hand without even thinking about it, and tried the door nearby - there was an empty classroom, it was being renovated, and the door probably should've been locked but it wasn't. The room was dark, there were cans of paint and other things lying around in the corners. Sky sneaked in, pulling Eli with her, and closed the door behind them. Immediately the sounds of the crowded hallway were diminished, the dark shadows wrapped them in like a soft blanket.

—and just like that, his hands were on her, on her shoulders, on the skin of her neck, cupping her face, and—

"Sky, I—"

"Kiss me, Eli...!" she breathed, and for once he didn't correct that it was Hawk, not Eli. He drew in sharp breath and then his lips were on hers.

Just like that time in his bedroom, the kiss grew deep fast.

His mouth was so hot on hers, his fingers were buried deep in her hair. Her lips opened for him, his tongue entered her mouth and Sky was falling, falling into the kiss, into his scent of steel and cotton, into the all consuming flame that was burning in her veins.

A shiver ran through her spine as his trembling hands moved to her back, his long fingers feeling her shoulder blades, the curve of her waist under the loose, oversized T-shirt.

Sky lost the sense of time and place. It felt like she had always been here, forever in his arms, like this was the place where she belonged, the place where she stopped being afraid, where things finally made sense. Her fingers were gripping his T-shirt, feeling the hard, lean muscles of his abdomen under the fabric, and still he was kissing her, his lips devouring her as if he was a man dying of thirst and she an oasis.

And then his hands were under her shirt. Sky made a sharp gasp into the kiss, feeling his hot palms, his calloused fingers on the bare skin of her back.

I have to stop this—

We can't do this, not here—

Her conscious mind tried to break through the fog of her thoughts, but she was drowning in the sensation, drowning in the need to have Eli just a little bit closer, just a little bit—

It was impossible to stop. With every heartbeat she wanted more, not less. More of his hands on her skin, more of his lips on her own, more of his scent in her nostrils, in her lungs. She wanted to breath him in, she wanted to drink the gasps and groans he made, she wanted to have him inside of her feverish body—

Against her lower abdomen she felt his arousal, the hardness of his dick, and her heart leaped towards her throat.

Without even thinking, she moved her hand down, the touch of her fingertips light, barely brushing the fabric of his shirt, the front of his sweatpants—

A sharp hiss escaped through Eli's teeth, and he broke the kiss.

"Sky—!" That was barely a word, just a raspy breath. "Sky, I—"

She palmed him through his pants, and whatever he had been about to say, was lost in a throaty moan. His whole body tensed, he shivered under her touch as she began to move her hand and rub his rock-hard dick through the fabric.

His hands were trembling as he buried them in her hair again, his lips were hot against hers as she sucked that scarred upper lip into her mouth, making him moan. And on her palm, the throbbing hardness of his erection—

"Sky, Sky—" he broke the kiss again, his chest heaving with fast breaths. "If you keep that on, I'm gonna—"

His cheeks were burning, he swallowed to clear his throat. It was fucking mindblowing to see what her touch, her closeness was doing to him. Sky grinned, and gripped him harder, feeling the shape of his large member - it fucking belonged in her hand, she wanted to see him crumbling to pieces, she wanted to make him come all over her—

"Sky, I can't—" he was pleading, his trembling lips almost touching hers. "If you don't stop, I can't control it—"

"Maybe that's what I want." She breathed and saw how he gave in, how he stopped resisting. Eli made a desperate groan, kissed her again, his lips crushing against hers with force—

The school bell rang marking the end of recession, the sharp, loud noise cutting through Sky's fogged senses.

But Eli's fingers were deep in her hair, his lips devouring hers, his dick pressing tight against her palm as he pushed his hips forward to meet her hand—

The bell kept on ringing, and with it came the realization.

What the am I doing?

Anyone could walk in here!

With a gasp Sky broke the kiss, withdrew her hand.

"No, please—" Eli growled, reluctant to let go of her.

"We can't," She exhaled. "We can't. Not here—!"

His eyes were wide, his chest was heaving.

"Then let's go somewhere. My house is empty, my parents are at work—"

"No, shit, Eli—" Sky stepped back, breaking the contact of their bodies, even if it was the hardest thing to do. "No, I can't. I have to go—"

"Sky—"

"Later," she managed. "Call me!"

And then she was at the door, her shaking hand gripping the doorknob and twisting it. She didn't look back as she rushed out of the empty classroom, her heart in her throat, and joined the swarm of kids in the Hallway to catch her next lesson.

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