White dots danced in front of my eyes. While they adjusted themselves to the bright light, two faces peered down on me: Nicolas and Tony.

“Damian!” Nicolas cried, spit drizzling out of his braces, “You’re awake!” He jumped out of his stool and wrapped his arms around me. “I’m so sorry I snitched on you!”

I groaned and tried to push him off, but a sharp pain from the side of my head made me wince.

“You’re suffocating me. Let go,” I groaned. Instead of budging, Nicolas squeezed me harder. I was about to hit him, though fortunately, Tony came to the rescue.

“Easy there,” he said, as he pried Nicolas away from me. “He hit his head pretty hard when he fell. Give him some space, dude.”

Nicolas ran a hand through his disheveled auburn hair and breathed a sigh of relief. His nose was running and his cheeks were splotched with red. I’m guessing he must have been crying. My anger instantly faded away.

Since I grew up with Nicolas, I could deduct he had to be one of the most annoying people on this planet. However, I'm not going to lie: I've always had a soft spot for him, irritating as he can be.  

“Damian, you’ve been out for almost an hour! I was afraid you’d never wake up!” he said. 

Tony rolled his hazel eyes. “Why do you always have to be so hyperbolic? It’s not like he got hit by a damn truck.”

“But I really was worried! This is the second time he fainted this month.”

Right. This was the second time I passed out. And also the second time I changed my number, in the last three weeks. It didn’t matter how many times I dragged my grandmother to the phone company. It didn’t matter how many times I tried to erase him out of my life.

The truth was, Jude Malakai had a tendency to pop out of the blue, always when I was least expecting it.

He’d called me twice this month, and each time it happened, I fainted. It'd always occurred while I was in school. I was beginning to wonder if Jude was doing it on purpose. Calling me in the middle of classes to ensure I lost my focus while falling even more behind in my studies.

Trying to win me back, but unsurprisingly failing in the most pathetic way possible. 

As my thoughts continued to wander, a nurse walked into the infirmary.

She was tall, with long black hair and kind eyes. Holding a clipboard against her chest, she walked towards me, her presence radiating the room. “Damian,” she said in her sweet voice, “I’m glad you’re finally awake. Feeling better now?”

My tongue twisted inside my mouth. Rhea was the most beautiful woman in the school. From what I recall, almost everybody in St. Vanhill Academy had a crush on her, myself included. 

Tony and Nicolas literally tripped over their feet as they greeted her in their nervous ways.

“Hello, Miss Rhea,” Tony said, his voice raised several octaves than usual.

“H-hi!” Nicolas stuttered.

Rhea smiled. “Hello, boys. I see you’ve been keeping your friend company. That was very considerate of you.”

Nicolas put his arm behind his head, a noise sounding more like a snort than a laugh, coming out of his mouth. “Ahh, that’s okay! I-it was no big deal.”

Out of everyone, Nicolas’s infatuation for Rhea was the most obvious; nonetheless, she never did anything to show that she knew about it. 

The school bell sounded in the corridor, announcing the end of the day. After exchanging a few more words with the nurse, Tony and Nicolas grabbed their backpacks and headed towards the door.

“See you tomorrow, Damian!” they said.

Eventually, they left, the loud chatter of students in the corridor gradually beginning to diminish. Rhea sat on the stool next to my bed and crossed her long legs. Never mind the fact that I’d never seen such gorgeous legs in my life, or that behind her square-rimmed glasses, intelligent dark eyes gazed back at you. What genuinely attracted me to Rhea in the first place had nothing to do with whatever everybody was talking about.

“So…” she began, failing to mask her worry, as she adjusted her glasses with one hand. “Was it because of him?”

She was the only one who knew the truth. The only one I could rely on. The only one I could trust.

I looked down, fiddling with my thumbs, trying to avoid her piercing look.

“Yes,” I said softly, my long brown bangs covering my eyes, “Your brother is back.”