Theo stared down at me and I realized, I was still leaning against him.

I quickly stumbled back, losing my balance, and fell right into Nate’s arms.

“Well if it isn’t Theo, one of the toughest kids in school,” Nate said with a small chuckle.

“What brings you to our side of the school,” he asked as he tightened his grasp around me. I felt extremely uncomfortable in his embrace. I just wanted to escape.

Theo’s forest-green eyes left mine and peered into Nate’s. The two males stood still, staring each other down, while the cafeteria went silent. The tension was built up so thick you could cut it with a knife.

“I know it was you,” he accused Nate, tucking his hands inside his jacket pockets. Bloodstains were still visible on his clothes, he clearly hadn't cared enough to change them.

“Who? Me? What on earth could you be talking about?” Nate said playfully, a puzzled look crossing his face.

“Don’t play dumb. I know you sent one of your little enforcers to start a fight with me this morning. You’re lucky I didn’t kill him,” Theo responded coldly.

“Oh, you mean Neil. I guess I do know what you’re talking about.” Nate smirked.

“I guess he couldn’t beat you up, but I’m glad you didn’t kill him. Wouldn’t want to start an all-out war now, would you? Glad you were able to stop yourself,” Nate sneered in a patronizing tone.

“Stop provoking me,” Theo said sternly. “I’ll kill the next person you send to fight me, peace agreement, or not.”

“Is that a threat, Theo?” Nate scoffed. “Wow, that was a good one. But you, of all people, know that I’m not afraid of you”.

“Please let go of me,” I meekly requested. I could feel a migraine starting to form in my head, and the last thing I wanted to do was participate in a gang conflict.

“I’m sorry, Curly. I didn’t mean to frighten you.” Nate released his grasp on me.

I started to walk away, but Nate grabbed my hand, pulling me back into his gravitational field.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he teased as he tightened his grip on my hand. “We were just starting to get to know each other.” His eyes glinted at me flirtatiously.

“I want to leave. Let go of me,” I snapped back, struggling to free myself from his grip. Clearly, I was no match for his strength, but I was tired of being pulled around.

“Oh, come on, Curly. We were just starting to have fun.” He grinned, not budging against my frantic movements.

“Let him go.” A thunderous voice caused me to stop my weak attempt at escaping.

It was Theo.

Theo walked closer to us, looking at me and then back at Nate.

“And what if I don’t?” Nate goaded. “What are you going to do about it? Huh? Are you going to fight me?”

“Let him go,” Theo boomed, a low growl shook the room.

Another growl? Was I hearing things again?

Nate dropped my hand and paced toward Theo. The two males stood face-to-face, sizing each other up. The tense showdown drew the attention of the crowded cafeteria. Nate returned Theo’s growl. Ryder and his crew hollered, instigating the situation.

The stress of what was happening was overwhelming me, and I knew I needed this to stop. Theo and Nate were too much for me to handle.

“Will you guys just stop?!” I snapped. I couldn’t take it anymore. “What the fuck is wrong with you idiots? Are you guys in kindergarten?! If you’re going to fight, leave me the fuck out of it!” I screamed at their faces.

I grabbed my backpack off the ground and strode through the circular crowd that had formed. I ignored the silent crowd as I headed towards Kash, grabbing his arm in tow, ignoring his shocked expression, as we made our escape through the exit doors. I made my way outside to the patio, opting for some tables near the tennis courts. I guided Kash to the wooden bench and sat down across from him. My need to escape the chaos was the only thing on my mind.

Kash was silent for a while but eventually began to talk, although it was more like he was mumbling to himself. I needed to calm myself down so I grabbed my only sense of peace, my headphones, and started my chill playlist. As the wave of music notes eased my tension, I focused on trying to recompose myself. I watched Kash leave the table in a daze and pace back and forth, throwing his hands in the air, exaggerating his body motions.

Whenever my music skipped to the next song or played a quiet song, I could hear what he was saying, repeating the same thing.

“I can’t believe he just did that. He told Theo and Nathan to stop!” His eyes bugged out. “He told them off. I’m going to die! What do I do? I can’t hide from him, he’s our leader. I’m a target now for sure....”

“I can’t believe he said that!” He continued his cycle of word salad again.

I honestly did feel bad for dragging him into my problems, but I also wasn't sorry. He knew about these creeps in this school and didn’t tell me about them.

After a while, I quickly caved, feeling guilty for dragging Kash into my mess. It wasn't his problem and I felt the need to rectify the issues I created and stopped Kash’s dramatic rambling.

“I’m sorry Kash. I didn’t mean to pull you into this mess. I honestly wanted to try to stay out of any drama on my first day of school too. I understand if you don’t want to talk to me anymore.” I lowered my head, dreading the next words he would say.

He had every right to stop talking to me, especially if this was going to be my new normal, but I really hoped that wasn’t going to be the case.

Kash stopped pacing and sat down on the opposite side of the picnic table. “It’s okay man. It’s really not your fault. I’m sorry I didn’t warn you about them. I’ll figure out something to avoid any further drama. Still friends?” he asked and stuck his hand out.

“Still friends,” I smiled while shaking his hand. I’m glad I was able to meet such a nice person.

The bell rang and Kash and I filed back inside with the rest of the students. He helped me find my next class but we parted ways afterward. The rest of my day went by pretty smoothly aside from the few glances I got from time to time. For the most part, no one really bothered me. After school was over, I met up with Kash to exchange phone numbers and we left through the school gates together.

“We should meet here tomorrow in the morning before school starts,” he suggested and motioned to the dark rusted gates.

“I’ll text you the name of that show I was talking about earlier. See you later man,” he waved as he took off. Turning his back to me, Kash began making his way to hop on one of the bright yellow buses in front of the school.

“Later,” I called over my shoulder and turned toward the sidewalk.

I plugged in my headphones and headed home. Today’s adventure had definitely not been fun. I followed the same path through town and ended my journey back at the same screen door I’d left through this morning. I definitely wouldn’t have left if I’d known today would be anything like this.

I opened the door to a quiet house. I assumed my parents were either busy, working, or in town. Either way, I didn’t really care. The last thing I wanted to do was explain how my first day of school went.

I went upstairs to my bedroom and peeled off my stained, sticky clothes. I turned on the shower in the bathroom, the steamy warm mist engulfing the room. The soft pattering noise of the waterdrops eased some of my stress. I was relieved to have survived the day. Through the foggy bathroom mirror, I could see a small bruise forming on the left side of my chest.

Fucking great. Was one normal day too much to ask?

If this was how every day was going to be, I was definitely reconsidering my decision to move here. I hopped into the shower and tried my best to forget the day’s tumultuous events as the warm water soothed my worries away.

After my shower, I put on my comfy sweats and wrapped myself with my cozy comforter. I needed a good Netflix binge-watching session tonight. My twentieth rewatch of The Office seemed pretty reasonable after the day I’d had.

Unfortunately, my plans didn’t make it far before a message popped up on my phone from Kash.

Here’s the anime show I recommended. I expect you to binge the first season by tomorrow, that is all :P. I chuckled at his demand.

Change of plans, anime it is! :D. I texted back.

Maybe today hadn’t been all bad. I spent the rest of my night watching My Hero Academia and texting Kash non-stop memes until I passed out to the quiet buzzing of my TV.