I got a copy of their schedules and pointed them towards their classes, then to the other parts of the school like the gym, the media center, the cafeteria, the music room, the labs, the auditorium, and everywhere else. It turns out that they were in the same homeroom and a class or two with me. By the time we were finished with our little tour, it was lunch time which we had together also.

“Where are your friends, Nina?” Damian asked. His voice was smooth, almost seductive. “Surely a pretty girl like you is supposed to have half the school begging to be your best friend.”

“Not exactly,” I responded, squirming a bit at the compliment.

“Then we are going to be sitting together,” Damian said nudging me. He smelled like amber. “Let’s get some lunch, shall we?” he said and led us to the lunch line. Through the tour, he had been nothing less than friendly and jovial. I couldn’t imagine him frowning or having a bad day. He just had that kind of spirit.

“Nina, where have you been?” a high-pitched feminine voice said from behind me. It was Natalia, my closest friend at school. “Oh, hi,” she said when she saw the boys. I could already see the gleam in her eyes at the boys. They weren’t bad looking. To be honest, they were very handsome. Like the guys you read about in books that had the entire female population of the school flocking after them.

“I was showing them around school,” I explained. “Damian, Daniel, meet Natalia. Do you mind them sitting with us?”

“Nope,” she said gleefully twirling a lock of copper-brown hair around her finger and putting on her flirtiest smile.

We all sat down at my usual seat and ate while we got to know each other better. Daniel never spoke. He grunted now and then, shook his head, nodded, but he never said anything. Damian was the outspoken one.

“So… I’m just going to go ahead and ask,” Damian started. “Why are your eyes different? Were you born that way?”

Natalia’s gaze drifted up from her salad to me. My eyes were two different colors. My left eye was blue while my right eye was green. It was a simple case of heterochromia. I was born that way. I explained it to them briefly, trying to change the topic afterwards to no avail. I didn’t like talking about myself.

“Are you from a different country?” Damian asked. “You have an accent.”

“I’m from Bulgaria,” I said. “I only came to the United States two years ago.”

“Wow. Do you like it here?” he asked, leaning forward.

America wasn’t bad. It was very different from what I was used to, but it wasn’t all I had heard it was cracked up to be. I shrugged, my eyes drifting to my untouched salad. I had eaten my pasta and meatballs and left it for last.

“So cool. My family and I travel a lot, so people with different cultural backgrounds are interesting. I hope I didn’t make you feel uncomfortable.”

“No, not at all,” I assured him as I struggled to open the salad container, but the plastic edge scraped across my middle finger and cut me. Blood rose to the surface immediately. I looked around the table where everyone’s eyes were on me. Damian started to fidget a bit and mumbled something before he got up and started walking towards the cafeteria exit. I got up too with a napkin now around my finger.

Daniel and Natalia got up with me. “Is he okay?” I asked Daniel.

“Yeah. He’s fine. He gets a bit squeamish around blood. We both do,” he explained. That was the first time I heard him speak. That voice. Where had I heard it before? “I’m going to go check on him,” he mumbled. He jogged towards the door that Damian had gone through just moments ago. I suddenly didn’t want my salad anymore. The lettuce didn’t look the most appetizing anyways. Disposing our unfinished lunches, Natalia and I walked to the nearest boy’s bathroom to check on them.

Damian came out with Daniel. “We need to get to next period,” Daniel said and started walking in the direction of the lockers with Natalia and I following behind.

When I got to my locker to change out my books for my next class, my boyfriend, Jack, was standing there with a girl I didn’t recognize. It was so obvious by her overly wide smile and the way she was giggling at his every word that she was flirting with him. This always happened and he never stopped them. Sometimes he would even flirt back with them in front of me.

I didn’t know if he was testing me or trying to make me jealous. I was just that girl who thought she could change the playboy, but in truth, I couldn’t tell how we really ended up together, because I didn’t trust him one bit. I used to like him a lot even though I knew his reputation. But I was biased. I was convinced he wouldn’t treat me the way his exes claimed he treated them because he’d like me more than he ever liked them.

Sad, I know. He never invited me anywhere anymore, and even when his friends tried to be nice to me and invite me out with the football team and their girlfriends, he’d tell me that it’d be boring, and I’d only be miserable. Jack never called me unless he wanted something or talked to me unless I texted or called him first. I’d heard rumors that he had been cheating on me, but I wasn’t surprised. I was no longer invested in what was left of our relationship. I didn’t have the energy to care about the girls he let drape themselves over him.

I had never let him touch me the four months we had been together. Our relationship started off on a high. Everything had been great in the beginning, but we moved too fast and now it was as if we’d taken all we could give each other, and we no longer served a purpose in each other’s lives. Sadly, despite his behavior, he was having a hard time accepting that which was why he refused to let me break up with him.

“You should just break up with him so Shelby can have his sorry ass. Why do you put up with him?” Natalia asked me, taking her Calculus textbook out of her locker.

“I have no clue,” I answered truthfully, hugging her good-bye before she walked off to her next class. I walked over to my locker but before I could open it, Jack pulled me to him by my waist, the girl who had held his attention before forgotten just like that.

“Hey beautiful,” he said in my ear. He smelled like cigarettes and suffocating cologne. “I haven’t seen you all morning.”

I cleared my throat as the girl scoffed and walked away. I almost felt bad for her. “Hi, Jack,” I muttered.

He frowned at my hair. He never did like it. “Your hair is way too long. Just cut it.” I didn’t remember the last time I cut my hair. My mother always liked my hair long, so I grew it out. I opened my locker and switched my books, spying Daniel and Damian from the corner of my eye. They were waiting for me.

Slamming my locker shut, I turned to him. “I like my hair this way.”

He trapped me between the lockers and his muscular body. “I haven’t seen you all day. Where have you been?” he whispered against my cheek. The boys were still standing a safe distance away, leaning against the lockers with their hands crossed over their chests just watching us. Hopefully, Jack wouldn’t expect me to engage in PDA with him. I wasn’t a fan.

Jack followed my gaze. “Who are they?”

“They’re just some new students. Castelli asked me to show around school,” I answered. I liked the twins’ their company so far, but I didn’t want to seem liked I cared too much about them. Knowing Jack, he might just make them the target of his unwarranted jealousy.

“Or you’re cheating on me.”

It took everything in me not to laugh. “I told you, they’re new,” I said sternly. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get to class before the tardy bell rings.” When I tried to walk away, he grabbed my arm and pulled me back eliciting a wince from me. “Ow! What the hell is wrong with you?”

“It’s rude to treat a girl like that, don’t you think?” I hadn’t seen him approach, but Damian was suddenly right next to me with a polite smile. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

“She’s my girl, man. You seem lost. How about you run along to find your band of punk rock buddies and stop meddling in our business?”

“Girlfriend or not, she doesn’t look like she wants to be with you. Take the hint, man. Let her go,” Damian said lightly.

“It’s fine, Damian. Go to class,” I said, embarrassed. It was one thing for Jack to be an ass to me in front of someone like Natalia. She knew our history and knew I didn’t care about him anymore. But it was a whole other thing for him to behave that way in front of two people I’d just met. They probably thought I was in an abusive relationship. It was embarrassing.

“Get out of here, asshole, and mind your business,” Jack spat.

“I’m very patient with certain people, but then there are some people who just seriously irritate me,” Damian said, stepping closer. “How about we go take a walk? It might help you calm down.” The tone of his voice changed, and so did Jack’s face. Bravely, Damian threw his arm around Jack’s shoulder and started to lead him down the hallway.

“Damian!” I called. We were already going to be late to class soon.

“Go on without me,” he called.

“Let’s go,” Daniel said, turning to head the opposite way.

I jumped at his voice, completely forgetting he was still present. “Damian shouldn’t get too close to Jack.”

“That’s his problem. Ours right now is not getting detention for being late to class.”

I started off behind him, but I couldn’t help the nagging feeling that Jack could be trying to beat him into a pulp behind the school even though he’d gone along with Damian quietly. Daniel didn’t seem too concerned, so I shouldn’t be either. For all I knew, Damian could handle himself.

I ran my fingers through my hair. A stress-free day when I really needed one couldn’t be too much to ask for I thought, apologizing to Mr. Traina on my way into the classroom. I had never been late to his class mostly because he was one of the few laid-back teachers that were chill with you if you did what he expected from you which wasn’t much.