love bites ~fransykes~

5

"Mate, everyone's talking about you!" Jordan smiles as I sit down opposite him for lunch. As always, we sit on a small table in the corner of the room, just the two of us.

"Huh. Why?" I ask, swiping one of Jordan's chips before shoving it straight into my mouth, feeling it burn uncomfortably across my tongue, scolding off my taste buds. Karma is a bitch.

"PE! Apparently Josh teleported across the pitch to save your clumsy arse from hitting the ground." Jordan wiggles his eyebrows.

"That's not exactly what happened. And I'm sure he didn't teleport." I roll my eyes, glancing discreetly over at the popular table where Josh is sitting next to Riley. To my surprise, he's looking right back at me, not even flinching as Riley runs her fingers across the arm of his blazer. I blush, looking away as soon as our eyes connect.

"Jakes not happy. He betrayed his friend to stick up for you."

"Since when do we care what Jake thinks?" I snort. Jordan shrugs, throwing another chip at me that I catch and eat. He rolls his eyes, stealing some of my skittles in retaliation.

"Since Riley invites us to his party on Saturday." Jordan smirks, his voice casual. I choke on my chips, certain I've heard him wrong. Riley whose been picking on me since the first day of year seven has invited the two quote on quote emo freaks to Jake's party?

"Can you repeat that please? I must have misheard you." I say, confused.

"Riley invites us," he starts, his voice slow and childish as he points between us in an exaggerated manner. "to Jake's party on Saturday. At Jake's house, and we are totally going."

"Are you insane! Of course we're not going!" I glare at him. Jordan rolls his eyes, licking ketchup off his fingers. Gross.

"Why not? We've never been invited to a party before." He groans. "Stop being such a wet wipe."

"This must be some sort of set up."

"Or, maybe, just maybe, it's hot something to do with the new guy over there." Jordan says, pointing over his shoulder at where Josh is still staring at us. I sway his hand down, ducking my head with a blush. Josh must know we are talking about him now, great.

"You've changed your tune. What happened to 'stay away from him, it's for your own safety'?" I mock him. Jordan sighs, leaning forward in his seat, his elbows bending across the table.

"Our social mobility, that's what happened. We're cool now." Jordan whispers, swiping one of my chips to scoop up the remainder of my ketchup.

I snort, stealing the chip from between his fingers before it can reach his mouth, putting it in my own. "No one cool has ever said they are cool, the word itself is uncool."

"Whatever. We are going to the party whether you like it or not, plus Sunday is a full moon so we won't be able to hang out any other time at the weekend." Jordan practically begs, hell bent on dragging me to this party.

I hum, still unconvinced. "Course, how could you miss your family tradition of stargazing at the campground during a full moon. Sounds like such fun."

"Oh believe me, it is." Jordan replies in a bored tone. "Wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Maybe I could come one time, keep you from loosing your mind to boredom." I suggest as we get up from the table, collecting our stuff before walking towards the bin, the bell set to ring at any given moment.

"Uhh, dads pretty strict that it's a family thing. Sorry, you know how he is sometimes." Jordan shrugs, fingers fretting at the ends of his blazer sleeves, something he often does when talking about his family. His family life is complicated, from what I can gather, not to mention built on secrecy. I've never even step foot in his house before, despite us being friends for years, and him spending so much time at my place.

"That's okay, mate." I shake off my disappointment, shoving my empty chip box and milkshake bottle in the bin. "Think I'm going to nip to the toilet before class."

"Okay." Jordan nods, waving goodbye as we party says in the corridor. I sigh heavily, making my way to the one slot of toilets that never had anyone in it. When I get there, I pull down my blazer and trace the wound above my shoulder blades, the cut stinging to the touch. I run the hot water tap, waiting until it became somewhat warm before using it to soak some toilet paper that I then stuck on my wound. Instantly, the thin paper became blood red.

"Fuck." I mutter to myself as the sound of the door creaking open fills the room. I quickly pull up my now damp shirt, throwing the blood socked toilet paper into the sink.

Spinning around, the tension in my shoulders instantly drops when I notice it's only Josh. He looks at the wet patch over my shoulder with curious eyes, never moving to use the toilet like I'm presuming he came here to do.

"Your shoulder still hurting?" He asks, nodding towards the cute that peaks out from under the collar of my shirt.

"Yeah, I guess." I shrug. "It's no big deal."

"I know, I just...feel guilty." He admits, looking down at the ground with a guilty look in his eyes.

"It's not your fault, you said you had nothing to do with it." I smile lightly.

"Right, i did." He nods, looking back up at me. Somehow I'm startled by the intensity of his gaze, despite being under it many time's in the last few days. He reached into his backpack and pulls out a small glass bottle containing some kind of cloudy liquid.

"Here." He says, passing me the glass bottle. "It's a healing remedy, my aunt made it when I told her about your, uh, strange cut. You just apply some before bed and in the morning."

I grin, ear to ear. "You told your aunt about me?"

"How could I not?" He smirks. I blush, bashfully looking away and instead distracting myself with the glass bottle in then hands, slipping it carefully into my blazer pocket for later. I don't remember the last time anyone did such a sweet gesture to me.

"Everyone's talking about what happened in PE, according to Jordan." I say, changing the subject entirely. Josh rolls his eyes, picking up the tissue paper in the sink and flushing them down the toilet for me.

"I don't see why, it wasn't that big of a deal." He shrugs.

"Jake's always picked on me. No ones ever had the balls to stop him before." I explain.

"He'll get what he deserves if he thinks he can pick on you whilst I'm around." Josh says, a dark yet mischievous glint in his eyes. I raise my eyebrows, leaning back against the cold stone of the sink.

"I'm not some damsel in distress you know, I can look after myself." I groan, rolling my eyes. I turn around to face the mirror, watching through the glasses reflection as he moves closer, leaning against the sink next to me.

"No offence, sweetheart, but you seemed pretty 'in distress' when he was about to tackle your arse to the ground this morning." Josh grins playfully, banging his shoulder against mine. I smile too, giddy from the contact for some reason, somehow drunk off of his simple touch.

"Oh please, you just wanted to play the hero in front of everyone." I shake my head, sighing as the bell rang, interrupting the longest conversation we've ever had. I grab my backpack and throw it over my non-injured shoulder, brushing past Josh on the way out. He follows behind me, his footsteps reminding me of his presence though I am determined not to give him the satisfaction of looking over my shoulder.

I stop by my locker, putting in the code before shoving my heavy biology textbook in their, groaning in annoyance when something falls out from amongst the pages. I dodge other students passing through the heavily trafficked corridor to pick the paper up, frowning in confusion when I read the unfamiliar handwriting.

See you at the party.

My heart races, wondering whether to feel threatened or complimented. How did this end up in between the pages of my textbook...someone must have slipped it in during class. Was this some kind of joke, or an actual sweet gesture?

I look around, expecting to be met with the face of the writer of this ominous message. I guess Jordan was right, I will have to attend the party after all, though obviously only to get to the bottom of this note. As I pull the locker shut, I spot the deep red of rose petals standing out against the bright red of the metal door. I pull the delicate flower out, my fingers tracing the velvety petals that lead to the sharp thorns of the green stork. Beautiful but deadly.