I take it back. Great people my ass. She didn’t let me get a blink of sleep last night.. She kept joking around, making me play games with her and watching scary movies.  Whenever I fell asleep, she pinched me awake. Heck! She even dumped a mug of cold water on me.

And thanks to her, I can't keep my eyes open, let alone thinking straight. She dipped school apparently " to catch up with her sleep". What about my sleep?! That cunning jerk.

After reaching school, all eyes were on me. People were whispering.  I know yesterday's incident has already spread through the whole school. But none of them dared to come up to me or say anything mean to me atleast. I just ignored them and walked straight to my locker. I had more serious things to worry about.

I somehow took my books , slamming it shut I started to walk down the hallway when I bumped into someone.

I looked up to see stunning baby blue eyes. What was with people having stunning eyes these day. It was a guy who clearly was way taller than me and towered over my small body easily. He was fairly handsome and had cute freckles. He looked like a handsome teddy bear who'd also be really good at cuddling.. I'm not making sense, my brain hurts. Realising the guy was saying something I came back from my train of thoughts.

" um..what was that? I didn’t get you"

" I said are you alright? I wasn’t looking, sorry".

" oh. Yes yes. I'm Alright. I wasn’t looking as well. It's okay"

"  You looked really deep in thought just now. What were you thinking so much about that it made you not hear what I said?"  I stayed silent. I certainly couldn’t tell him I was checking him out..But he seemed to understand the meaning behind my silence.

" I know i'm hot. But to think I made you daydream is an honor,madam " he said winking. I tried to cover up the fact that he caught me by rolling my eyes.

" Neh buddy, don’t think soo highly of you. I wasn’t thinking about you. " yeah right.

" Oh really?  What were you thinking about? " he smirked. Amusement dancing in his eyes.

"I was....." what do I say..shit.

" yes, you were...? Keep going" man I wanted to slap that smirk of off his face.

"I was...Thinking about how the earth and life came to existence and if humans had existed all those years ago when the meteors hit the earth, would we be one of the extincted  species? What if the meteors hit the earth again. These are very very important things you know. We need to think about these" i blabbered out whatever came to my mind.

The guy stared at me and looked like he was trying hard not to laugh but then started laughing which made me blush at my stupidity.

" Yeah yeah. Right. You were thinking about that. Sure sure. We should think about these. It's veeery important " he said mocking me.

" hey! It is important. Stop laughing"

" Never said it wasn’t. Nice cover though. I'm Connor by the way. What's your name?"

" I'm Alyssa" I gave him a big smile.

" Okay, miss Alyssa of the earth and life research Institution, I shall proceed to my class now. But if it is possible, we shall talk again during lunch break, what do you say? " he said wiggling his eyebrows.

"Hey, stop mocking me already.  And, I would like that. But..."

"But what?"

" Are you sure you wanna hang out with me? I mean.. I'm sure you know what happened yesterday. People are already gossiping about it. You might get pulled into the drama as well. I don't want that.."

" Listen here girly, I don't give two shits about what people have to say about me. Other people’s opinions don’t matter. I make my friends based on their personalities, what other people say doesn’t matter. I think you're quite fun and It'll be fun to hang out with you. If it makes me a topic of their gossip so be it" he said these looking so nonchalant.

"Thank you" I gave him the widest smile I had.. It would be nice to hangout with someone other than just Rae, specially when She's not around..

" So, wanna meet up? At lunch?" he said returning my smile with same energy.

" Yeah, Let's meet up" with that he waved at me and he was out of sight. Me on the other hand, felt like I achieved the biggest achievement in my life. I made a new friend! I wanted screamm.
----------*****----------

The classes went on smoothly. During lunch break I was eager to go to the cafeteria, but was stopped by Damien, just my luck. He pulled me into an empty room, I tried to make a commotion, but he warned me if I made any sound, the pain would be double.

" So, the bitch went on to arouse men outside of the school didn’t she?" he said stalking towards me slowly. Suddenly I went flying to the wall, the pain in my stomach making me tear up. He punched me. He came near and pulled my hair making me look up at me.

" I didn’t know you liked older men. But seriously though, Mafia? You're that desperate? What a damn big slut" he smashed my head to the wall, I started feeling dizzy.

" What, the dicks in the school's not enough to satisfy you? Or you need a professional in bed to pleasure you, ms. cutie whore? " another kick, this time it knocked the air out of my longue. It hurt so much.

He came near me and started to play with the hem of my shirt..

" If you wanted a dick so bad, you could have come to me you know. I could fulfill your wishes. I'm pretty good at bed as well. If you want, I can fulfil them right now, right here. You'll be screaming my name in pleasure in a few seco.." I spat directly on his face. He was soo disgusting. How could he say such things. I can't believe I once liked this pig.

He looked furious.  He started kicking me nonstop. I curled up on the floor in an attempt to protect myself.  But the attacks didn’t stop. Some kicks landed directly on my chest. They hurt like hell.

" You bitch! You should be glad I even notice you! How dare you! Spitting on me! Me! How fucking dare you!" I felt like I was gonna black out. By now I was coughing blood. But suddenly it stopped.  Everything stopped. I heard fighting sounds.

I managed to open my eyes to see Connor was holding down Damien by now. They were fighting, but Connor was clearly winning as he kept on punching Damien. I was never more relieved. It was satisfying to see Damien lying on the floor.

Connor came running to me. He looked so worried.

"Hey, Alyssa? You alright? Hang in there buddy. Alyssa!"  even in that moment of blur I found his worry very cute. Everything started fading away until it was all black.

I woke up in the nurse's office. My body ached and I couldn’t move.

" You're finally awake" I looked to see Connor sitting beside me. I tried to get up, that's when I noticed I had been bandaged properly. It's been a while since someone had given my aching body medical attention.

" Hey. How are you feeling?" he spoke in a soft voice. I gave a squicky laugh.

" I feel like literally dying. It sucks man" suddenly he looked serious.

" So tell me, what's happening?  Why was he hitting you? Why you? A girl?" i didn’t wanna tell him. I just met him today. What would he think about me. Would he stop hanging out with me if he knew I'm being bullied..

" I can't tell you"

" Why not!"

" I just met you today! How can I tell you!"

"  I just saved your ass. You don’t trust me yet!" we both were yelling.

" it’s not about trust issues! You wont get it!"

" Then what is it about!  Make me get it!"

" You'll leave me!"

"....Whatt!!"

"You wont be my friend anymore if you know i'm being bullied! "

"............" he stayed silent.. That made me even more sure that I was right.

"You really think people would leave you if they found out You're being bullied! Are you dumb!" his voice boomed in the empty nurse room.

" Don’t they!"

" No they Don't!  The people who leave were never real friends to begin with. They would've left eventually anyways. People don’t leave just because someone is bullied. "

" They really don’t? "

" Nooo dummy! Why would they! Bullying is a crime. It's the bully's fault, not the one's who is bullied! They wont leave you for that"

" You just met me today. You sure you wont take back your offer of being friends with me? The offer will still be valid?"

" What offer? We're already friends you idiot. And I'm not leaving. So spill" with that I burst into tears. That was all I needed to open up, I really wanted to open up. It was hard to carry all these by myself.

After I was done telling him the whole story while crying like a baby, I felt really better. I felt like something heavy has been lifted off my chest. But Connor looked angry.. Like really..really..angry.

" How long?"
" Huh?"
" How long has this been going on? "
" I lost count. Probably for 8 months now" I whispered.

" This is unacceptable Lyss! This needs to stop! He deserves to be punished!"he was pacing around in the room probably trying to calm down.

" I know! But how will you do it. His mom's the principle here. Even if we manage to show proof, she will deflect it. Or punish us for false accusations instead. She might even transfer or worst, expel us. I can't afford another school Connor"

He stayed silent. He knew I was right.