I sighed when I got to my room. Taking up the drawing I did last night of the stranger, I tried to imagine what he would look like, but my eyes couldn’t focus. My eyelids were heavy. Soon, although it was early in the evening, I fell asleep. I had already been tired and being angry at Maria drained the last of my battery.

When I woke up, it was dark, and I was still in the clothes I had worn to school. I checked the clock. 9:33 PM. I got up and went downstairs with my stomach making noises it shouldn’t be. Fixing myself I sandwich. I sat and ate, reflecting on the eventful day.

With a stretch and a groan, I washed up and returned to my room. When I got there, someone in a dark hoodie was sitting on my bed with my sketch pad in hand, looking at the drawing I had fallen asleep thinking about.

“Hello, Nina,” he said lowly. Last night when I saw him, I was scared but by now I knew that he wouldn’t hurt me.

His voice sounds so familiar now, I thought. “H-Hi,” I said, inching closer to him.

“You’re not afraid anymore,” he noted, standing up. “I was kind of hesitant to come see you again after… you know,” he said, rubbing the back of his head through his hoodie.

“I’m glad you came,” I said. “I was actually thinking about you,” I admitted shyly. “Would you mind waiting while I go take a shower?”

“Umm… No, go ahead,” he said, sitting back on the bed. I took out night wear and went to the bathroom to take a hot shower. When I was done, I got dressed and went back out to see the guy flipping through the sketch pad. I cleared my throat and he put the book down. “I’m sorry. Was this personal?” he asked, referring to the pad.

“Not really. I doodle, but it’s nothing serious. I was just thinking how you still haven’t told me your name.” Swallowing everything in me that was telling me to call the police. This had to be a felony he was committing by sneaking into my bedroom. Even so, I inched closer to him and sat on the opposite end of my bed.

“Yes, I did.”

No, I couldn’t remember that he had. “Tell me again then,” I said.

“You’ll remember eventually. It won’t make sense telling you again.” I looked down at his hand on my bed. His hand was so big compared to my smaller one. “Who’s the guy in the drawing?” he asked, amusement clear in his tone.

I picked up the sketch pad and looked at the drawing of the shadowy figure. “It’s you.” Taking a deep breath, I passed the pad to him. “You don’t show me your face. Why?”

“It wasn’t on purpose the first time, but after some contemplation, I think it’s best if I don’t,” he explained. His dark hair fell across his face and I could swear I saw light eyes staring at me from under his hoodie. We stayed up quite late talking. He didn’t reveal anything at all about himself, being very careful with his words. We spoke about random things, and soon it was time for him to go.

In the morning, I put on my uniform with a blue vest. It was going to be a cool, windy day. I pulled my hair up into a ponytail, grabbed my shoulder bag and headed downstairs to find Leanne and Cristóbal.

“Good morning Cris,” I said. “You okay?”

Cristóbal shrugged and leaned over to give me a side hug. I took that as a yes.

“He wants to go back to school,” Leanne said once I was seated with a bowl of cereal.

“Really?” I asked him seriously, surprised. If I had asked him a week ago, he would’ve run to his room and locked the door until I dropped the subject and forgot about it. He nodded his head in reply and continued to eat his breakfast.

Leanne said she would take care of his reenrollment into Silver Stone. I didn’t want Cris to start school again before he was ready. I knew how much he shut down after our parents died. No one seemed particularly chatty, so I had my breakfast and headed to school.

Walking to my locker, I spotted Jack leaning against it. After what happened yesterday, I didn’t really want to see him, but he couldn’t seem to stop sticking around. “What do you want?” I said flatly. He turned to me, and that’s when I noticed he had a bandage on his neck. “What happened to you?”

He reached up to touch the bandage and looked at me in… confusion? “I don’t know,” he said. “Look, I’m sorry about yesterday. Ty gave me a blunt during lunch and-”

“You’re using again?” I whispered. Jack looked guilt stricken. He got hooked on some crap he tried at a party over the summer, but he promised he’d stop when I caught him and talked to him about it. “I can’t believe you. You said you wouldn’t do that shit anymore.” Just the thought of any kind of drug made me uncomfortable.

Tyler was his best friend and starting kicker on the football team. He was also a known druggie. I didn’t know how he hadn’t been expelled when the whole school knew about him doing drugs. The only reasonable explanation there could be was that Tyler’s father was very well known, loaded, and contributed a lot of money to the school every year.

He closed his eyes briefly, taking a deep breath. “Nina, stop giving me a hard time over nothing,” he growled. “Maybe you should try it since you’re always so tense.” He held my hand and dragged me around to the back of the school. Before I knew what he was planning to do, he tried to kiss me.

“Stop!” I shouted but he covered my mouth with one hand, while pressing his body against mine.

Flashbacks of that night crossed my mind. The way that man touched me and laughed at my discomfort. My body was going into panic mode, and my breathing picked up. Unlike the other times though, a fire burning in the pit of my stomach started with it. After what I learned about Cristobal the evening before, fear wasn’t the only thing that started to consume me at the memory of my night in the alley. I was pissed.

“That’s enough,” someone said lowly. He hadn’t said it loudly, but Jack heard the voice clearly. It was Daniel. He pulled Jack away from me with unexpected ease and looked him dead in the eyes. “Get lost.” Jack took off and Daniel just stared at me icily. “Do you usually get yourself in such sticky situations?”

“He must be on something. I-It’s messing with his head. Thanks, by the way,” I said and ran to class. I stopped short at the door when I saw Daniel sitting in his seat with his feet up on the table, spinning a pencil between his fingers. I shook my head and sat in my seat. I just left him behind the school. How could he have gotten here so fast?

The day went by agonizingly slow and by fifth period, I had a terrible migraine. Damian and Daniel sat with me and Natalia again at lunch, and neither of us ate anything. Not that I saw either of the twins eat anything at all since I met them yesterday.

The boys and Natalia cornered me between sixth and seventh period and demanded for me to tell them what was wrong with me. Aside from my headache, I just wasn’t up for school today. I felt lethargic, and miserable, and the blue walls of Silverstone Academy were depressing me further with each painted hallway. “I just have a headache,” I said when they asked. “I have to go,” I said shakily when the pounding in my head got worse. Maybe I could stay at the nurse for the rest of the day.

Walking down the hallways, I accidentally bumped into someone who looked oddly familiar. Really tall, black hair that was always spiked at the front, faint scar on the right cheek, tattoo around his upper arm, light brown eyes. “Zayne?”

“Nina, baby!” he exclaimed, giving me a hug.

“Damn, I was supposed to get back to you yesterday. I’m so sorry.” I hugged him back tightly, inhaling his familiar warm scent. “Gosh, I missed you.”

“I came to sneak you out early. Wanna go?” he asked, rubbing his hand up and down my back.

“Definitely,” I said eagerly.

He grinned, grabbing my hand and leading me through the front doors of Silver Stone Tech. “Gee, Nina, you haven’t grown an inch since the last time I saw you,” he teased, ruffling my hair.

“Screw you, Z-boy,” I said, getting into my car. Zayne had apparently taken a bus because he knew I drove to school. He had graduated from Silver Stone Tech the previous year. We left the school and went to my house where his bags were found in my bedroom.

On the way to the house, he’d told me he was moving in with me per Leanne’s invitation since his parents were going to be leaving their apartment and moving once their lease ended in a few weeks and he needed to stay in the city for school. He figured he would save himself from unpacking and repacking and just move out now.

“You are so sleeping in my room tonight,” I said, dropping my book bag and jumping onto his back. “I won’t take no for an answer.” I used my foot to kick my bedroom door closed.

“So, you want to sleep with me? Sorry baby, I love you, but I don’t want to have you hooked on me and ruin our friendship. I’m going to have to turn you down,” he said teasingly with that adorable smirk of his.

“Please don’t make it sound that way, like we’re planning to jump each other’s bones.” He smirked showing his amazing white teeth. He pulled me off his back, holding me in front of him with my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck. His hands rested on my hips as he sat on the edge of my bed with me straddling him. “This should be no big deal. I mean, unless you’re falling for me.”

“You wish.” He smiled at me. “I’ll be nice and sleep with you tonight. Robbing you of my company would be mean when we’ve just reunited.” The smirk on his face returned.

“Stop saying it like that,” I complained and hit him on his chest. It vibrated with the sound of his contagious laughter. I couldn’t help but laugh too. I had missed Zayne so much while he was away. Seeing him was the highlight of my day. My headache had definitely dulled, and the good mood I hadn’t had all day was here.

We talked for a while and eventually fell asleep together. I wasn’t sure if I fell asleep the way I woke up, but I woke lying on top of a sleeping Zayne, and we were both covered by my blanket. Sitting up, I rubbed my eyes. This had to stop happening. Not that I had homework or anything of the sort, but the habit of falling asleep when I got home and waking up at nightfall was not going to work. I’d only end up throwing my sleep schedule off.

Heading downstairs, I saw Leanne sitting at the island in the kitchen eating yogurt and tapping away on her phone with her thumb. Tip toeing the rest of the way, I was just about to say ‘boo’ when she spoke. “What are you doing up? I thought you went to bed for the night.”

So much for making her jump. “I’ve got the midnight munchies,” I said peering into the refrigerator. “What are you doing up?”

“I just came in about half an hour ago. I skipped lunch at work so here I am eating fro-yo,” she said and dropped her spoon into the cold, creamy treat. “Nina, do you think I’m fat?” she asked suddenly, and I almost bumped my head on the door of the refrigerator turning to look at her.

“Why would you ask that?” I asked. Leanne had long, tanned legs, perfect posture, incredible hair, and she slayed everything she wore. She would be one of the only people I knew that could wear the ‘I woke up like this’ shirt and it would be a hundred percent true.

“Because I think I’m eating a little too much, and getting a bit chunky,” she said looking down and patted her flat stomach.

I stifled a giggle and shook my head. It wasn’t like Leanne to be self-conscious. “No, you aren’t fat,” I said as reassuringly as possible. “You’re sexy.”

She grunted and spooned a bit of yogurt into her mouth. “Can I have your leftover Chinese food?” I asked burying my face back into the coolness of the fridge.

“No, you cannot have my food,” she said.

“Weren’t you the one worrying about getting fat just now?” I teased.

She went silent for a few seconds before she spoke again. “I’m fat. Eat it all. You can have it.”

I laughed lightly and took the box out, placing it into the microwave. “You’re not fat you loon. You’re okay. Anyways, tell me about your date with Michael.”

She launched into the story giving as many details as possible about her date with her co-worker. Apparently, it went awful and not how he had planned, so he ended up embarrassed afterwards. She had fun though, and she made sure to let him know. “The worst thing about that night was the fact that it rained and messed up my makeup,” she finished.

“It rained?” I asked as I twirled the noodles around my fork. Was I that sound asleep?

“Yeah. Not hard but it did rain.”

After our conversation, we both went back to our rooms. Pushing Zayne over a bit, I crawled in beside him and under the sheets. He immediately stuck out an arm to wrap around me, though I wasn’t quite sure if he was conscious or not.

I heard a throat clearing from behind me that made me jump, praying that Zayne didn’t wake up. I sat up to find a growingly familiar hooded figure leaning up against the open window of my bedroom. “Am I interrupting something?” he asked.