Xavier entered Royal high school anxious for the first time in a long time. He had heard from his Secretary that the girl was back at her residence, and that she had recovered from her sickness. The only reason he had let Zach take her , was because as he so rightly said, He had the best doctor in the world ..and Xavier couldn't argue with that.

That arrogant fool had forced Doctor Lee from Singapore to actually sign a Non-disclosure agreement, so that he would only ever work for the Williams family. And in the group of elites, he was definitely the most sought after expert.

He entered Ms. Francis class, staring around, there looking weak and showing hints of having just recently recovered from ill health sat Leila in the front row. Her eyes met his, and then she quickly bought her gaze down. I wonder how much does she remember? Xavier thought to himself. His eyes searched the classroom, Nico and Taylor were already at the back, scrolling through their screens, and much to his surprise, Zach was also seated at the back for once. Playing with a cigarette in his hands, while staring at Leila's back.

"Mr Royal Heir..." Nico greeted his friend, doing an over the top bow, and Taylor and Xavier started laughing.

"That bitch is back, I wish she would have just died on Tuesday.." Xavier heard Pearl say a little too loudly. It irritated him ..but yet he couldn't put a finger on why it irritated him.

Should he go talk to her, or let her fully recover first? He stared at Zach, he knew his ex-best friend like he knew himself. Zach had a maniac expression on his face, and that was usually a sign of some destructive behavior on its way. Zach turned to look at Xavier,

"Am I that beautiful that you keep staring at me?" Zach asked sarcastically

"Its my eyes..i can stare at whomever I want" Xavier replied using Zach's famous line, Zach eye rolled at him "how about being an original for once ex-bestie?" he asked

"what's wrong with you?" Xavier asked, he could sense zach was unhinged, and when zach was unhinged, there was literally no one who could handle him...except for Xavier ..Zach's eyes darkened, irritation etched across his face. Xavier knew that Zach hated how Xavier could read him, his eyes darkly flickered at Leila for a second before turning his attention back to Xavier

"Mind your own business" he said, with no hint of laughter in his voice,

"What happens In Royal High is my business.." Xavier responded sardonically

Zach didn't look amused, Xavier tried to read his face carefully , Zach had dark circles under his eyes, could it be from the lack of sleep when he was tending to Leila? But there was something more than innocent tiredness...something more sinister..it was almost as if he was vibrating angry energy off of him

"You talk too much " Zach said angrily, grabbing his bag, and walking down the stairs, he roughly grabbed the chair next to Leila and squashed himself into the uncomfortable looking chair. Leila glanced up at him nervously, and quickly looked down again.

Something was wrong with his ex-best friend...and last time he looked this manic they had both gone into prison...and a mall was burnt down. The truth be told..Zach Williams and Xavier Johnston didn't have limits...

*****

He came aggressively to sit down next to Leila. After their previous encounter, Leila didn't know how to approach him, however Ms Francis hadn't yet arrived in class, so she better take this opportunity now.

Leila received the video from Justin..and it was really horrible to see herself in that way. He was right, she was definitely ill, she was on oxygen supply and her fever continued fluctuating ..Zach was lying on a couch in the far corner on his phone, it didn't look like he got any sleep judging by the video, he kept yawning and drinking coffee.

Leila turned slowly to look at him, she cleared her throat awkwardly, he looked up to her with one eyebrow raised. "err....i just....errm...wa-wanted...to say..t-t-thanks..for assis-assistng me..to recover ..fro-"

"you're thanking me?" Zach asked cutting her off, staring at her dead in the eyes

"yes.." she said slowly, he chuckled

"You shouldn't" he said

"wh-why not?" she asked slowly

"cause im not a good guy..." he said in a matter of fact manner

"oh....ermmm....well I can thank bad guys too...can't I?" she asked, smiling her best smile...but her smile faltered, when she saw the look on his face

"bad guys ..dont want 'thank you's' " he said

"oh what do bad guys want then..?" she asked feeling almost tricked into asking this question..

"we want repayment..with interest.." Zach asked staring at her unabashedly

"oh...err repayment...I see......ho-ho-how can I repay you?" she asked

Zach smiled, "Oh no....I might ask for something you wouldn't want to give me.." . The way he was staring at Leila made her blush.

"And how do you know that I wouldn't be able to ..?" Leila asked stubbornly

"because as I said Leila....at this stage there's nothing I don't know about you.." He whispered back.

"Well...if it means anything at all...I don't think you are.." Leila replied, Zach raised his eyebrows

"you don't think I'm not what?"

"bad guy.."

"oh really? Do I look like your Prince in charming then?"

"- DEFINITELY not"

"So..im not a bad guy..and im not a prince charming.....what am I then?"

Leila thought about it for a second, she wanted to be as honest as possible " a good guy...with some really really bad characteristics.."

"or I could just be a bad guy with one or 2 odd moments of good.." he replied smirking

"hmmm... and I have yet to see these odd good moments though.." Leila said

"so how can you be sure that im not a bad guy in that case?"

"lets just say..although I don't have a clinical psychologist at my disposal..i do have one very good source..which perhaps even you don't have"

"and what source is that"

"my intuition"

Zach snorted. Leila rolled her eyes "what...?" she said visibly irritated

" no ..haven't smelled so much rubbish since I dumped dear Walter into the rubbish..hold up...I may vomit .." zach said theatrically, while Leila stared at him unimpressed.

Suddenly Zach caught Leila's arm gently staring at a small bruise showing on her arm, Leila quickly pulled it back and yanked her jersey back trying to cover the blue spot

"What happened to your arm.." he said with too much meaning

"no-no-nothing" Leila replied hesitantly

Just then the big wooden oak doors of the classroom opened up, and Ms Francis walked in. Leila glad to turn her attention away from Zach's intense gaze, stared intently on Ms Francis, who took out her notes from her briefcase and started to make her way to the chalkboard. Zach took a cigarette out of his pocket and started playing with it, and Leila knew that he was off into his own world.

She would have to talk to him during lunch about his 'repayment' of course he would want repayment, and she hated being in debt. Rich people never do anything out of the goodness of their heart....how did she even allow herself to think about that in the first place. Disappointment and irritation fell upon her. He was right...thank you's aren't for the bad boys.

*****

Leila waited for Justin at her locker, staring around the corridor, she saw Zach and a small crowd had gathered around one of the senior beggars who Leila recognized from their lunch table. Nico and Taylor had also joined in the fun it seemed. Leila didn't want to wait to watch them torture him. Looking around she saw Justin's curly haired head bob up and down as he made his way to her locker

"Hiya Leila" he greeted her enthusiastically panting "glad to see you've fully recovered !" he said

"Hi Justin !" Leila replied back with much affection. From the corner of her eye she could Zach had stopped abusing his victim and was staring at the 2 of them. "Come on ...lets go" Leila said hurriedly. They walked in the direction of the cafeteria at a slow pace catching up with each other,

"So ...you're aunt wasn't worried about you when you had disappeared for 2 days ?" Justin asked Leila carefully

" Err..not really .." Leila finished awkwardly with her whiplashes still burning on her back, "how are things going for your parents? Are they still happy working for the Williams ?" Leila asked quickly to change topic, "Oh yes !" Justin said brightly "My mum got a promotion actually ..she's starting her new position this week..look she even bought me some cool new stuff like my new bag.." Justin said smiling and turning around to show Leila his new backpack he had on.

It had a big print of a puppy on it. Perfect for an 8th grader. Leila beamed at him, happy for him and his family "That's really great !" Maybe she keeps misunderstanding that lunatic, I mean Justin's parents even got a promotion..or maybe they were just good at their jobs? Somehow that didn't strike as the reason why they would get a promotion at the Williams group of companies though..

Leila and Justin walked into the cafeteria, today it seemed there was a themed lunch, there was elaborate décor on all the tables, tiffany chairs for a change instead of their leather chairs, beautiful center pieces on all the tables..it was really a breath taking sight...all the tables looked beautiful except of course the Beggars table, which like usual was the normal grey plastic tables, with chairs sallotaped together, another ugly placard on the table which read "Beggars" .

Leila tore her eyes away from the other tables, and sat down depressed on her ugly seat. Today she felt more down than usual ..maybe just one time...just once, she wanted to experience what it would feel like to actually choose where she could sit.

"And so my father bought a new car ..well it was kind of a surprise for my mom actually, I had a ride in it last night for the first time...pretty neat, it even has a LED screen which shows your cars location on a map like system ..." Justin was busy telling Thomas about his dads new car.

Leila turned to look at the cafeteria row, today it looked pretty empty , she turned around to look and she could see each table had waitresses..Oliya was busy reading from the menu..she was making an ugly face at the waitress, no doubt talking down to them. Leila sighed, she knew there would be no such waitresses for their table, "I'll be right back" she said turning to Justin and Thomas. "Okay sure, I'll join you soon Leila" Justin replied. Leila walked to the table, and today there were no variety of foods, just plain oatmeal porridge.

Well, beggars can't be choosers, quite literally she thought to herself, as she laden her bowl with the stiff porridge.

Leila was busy trying to loosen old sugar in the jar, when from the corner of her eyes she saw him, and her heart sank. She knew something was wrong ...very wrong..it was as if all the eyes of Royal High were onto him....he walked in the cafeteria with a baseball bat in his hand, and his face was hard with menace on it.

He eyes looked straight ahead deadlocked onto Justin, and Leila felt her bowl slip from her fingers........

"don't mind me Justin...I Just have some anger issues.." Zach said angrily as he roughly grabbed Justin by the collar and dragged him center of the cafeteria, and with one strong swerve he swung the bat onto Justin, blood splattering onto the nearby table, and someone shrieked, and quickly ran out of range

"What the bloody Hell Zach !" a girl shrieked Leila could see blood splattered onto her table "can't you do that somewhere else! You are totally ruining the decor !"

Zach didn't bother looking at the girl, Justin was swaying about to loose his balance, his head was bleeding profusely

Zach searched the room till his eyes met with Leila, then without further ado he swung his bat and hit Justin on the head again and again and again..

"Nooooooooooooooo....noooo...stop it !" Leila screamed, from the food row, Zach had small splatters of blood on his face

"You want me to stop it?" Zach asked , Justin collapsed onto the floor, Leila rushed towards him, just then two boys she didn't recognize got up from their table, and blocked her way, she tried dodging them but they kept blocking her

"stop...PLEASE ...IM-BEGGING-YOU!" Leila cried out

"I told you..bad boys don't want 'thank you's' Zach said, and he started hitting Justin on the knees with the bat, and then realization hit Leila, she knew then exactly what Zach was talking about..she tried to dodge one of the guys again swerving to the left, and then to the right quickly, but the other one grabbed her by the hand, she quickly went to bite his hand "aargghhh !" he screamed trying to re-catch her, but it was too late, she had already dodged him, and she rushed into Zach's arms, embracing him

"Please! stop" she said crying "I'll...I'll...do ..it Zach..." she said not letting go of him for fear that he may try to harm Justin on the floor again, she could see shock etched in his face staring at her intensely "I'll live with you Zach.." she whispered softly..holding on tightly to him

********************************************************************************************

Zach felt as though he was about to burst with happiness, he could feel her soft body holding tightly onto him, and like that ...I made you come to me he thought to himself.