ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ꜱᴀᴡ ɪᴛ ᴄᴏᴍɪɴɢ

Dove

No. This is unreal. I refuse to believe this is happening. Someone is shaking my shoulders. Someone is shouting my name. Someone is snapping their fingers in front of my face.

I can only imagine what my face looked like: a harsh expression of anger, or sadness? Probably both.

Is this what my mother meant? By don't believe what everyone says? I wish I could take her advice, but there is living proof right in front of me. But that means my mother knew the Maddox family was back. Why would she lie to me? Why wouldn't she just tell me, so I was more prepared?

I come back to reality. I lift my head up. Kite Maddox is still staring at me. His expression is blank, but his eyes say everything: I will make your life a living hell.

"Come on. We don't need to stay here any longer." Alina states, dragging me carefully past Kite. Our lesson is in the opposite direction, but I don't really care. The whole time I keep eye contact with Kite.

We reach the girls' toilet, and Alina places me to sit on the lid of a toilet seat in a stall.

"Take your time." She says, patting me gently.

I nod slowly, trying to calm my breathing down. Lola and Maya say they are going to go to registration, and tell them that me and Alina are in school.

Bless my friends. I really loved them.

I wipe the few small tears coming out of my eyes. I would not let Kite get the satisfaction of knowing he had made a mess out of me.

In other circumstances, I would say Kite Maddox is actually quite attractive. His flop of messy brown waves on his head, gorgeous pale skin hiding his built body. He's aged beautifully, since I last saw him.

But a pretty face was just that. A pretty face. Inside I knew he was a ruthless being, willing to do anything.

I sit there for a few more minutes, and then pull out my phone to check the time. 8:37. I needed to go to registration and see if Kite was there. Knowing my luck, he probably was.

I stand up. Alina holds me by the shoulders, then hugs me. "It will be okay." She breaks apart and exits out of the stall. I walk after her and head to the mirror.

Surprisingly, I look fine. Apart from that dreaded pimple. I touch-up my lipgloss, and then turn around and sigh at Alina. I clearly wasn't fine, but we couldn't stay here forever. She smiles sadly at me.

We exit the bathroom, and head to registration. It's right up a flight of stairs, and as we go up them and turn towards the door, our registration teacher, Mr Wright, comes out the door. He clearly saw us walking up the stairs.

"It's okay, girls." That meant Kite was definitely in that room. He walks back in, and I walk into the classroom first. I keep my head up. I was stronger than Kite would think. I'm not a little girl anymore.

I see all my classmates muttering, staring at me. I death-stare them all back. And then, who I'm looking for. Kite Maddox.

He's sat at the back of the classroom, leaning on his chair, staring at me because that's all he can do. And all I will let him do.

He's reunited with his old friends: Rocky Young, Leo Hayes, Cole Ledger and Hugo Miller. They're all chatting loudly, laughing and enjoying their friend back.

"Boys, be quiet." Mr Wright warns. As if on cue, they all turn around and stare at me. I turn around at Alina. She's shaking her head at Rocky. Those two aren't officially together, but it's become quite obvious over the past weeks.

I move to sit down next to Lola and Maya. I'm guessing that they came late, because we are sat right in front of Kite and his mates. Alina sits down next to me, and then turns around to face Rocky, quietly speaking to him.

Lola pats my leg softly, blonde hair falling softly round her face. I smile at her, then Maya.

"Alina!" Mr Wright shouts. I watch as she rolls her eyes, and turns back around, curls bouncing. Mr Wright gives her a look.

"So, class, today we are welcoming a new student, Kite Maddox!" He begins to clap enthusiastically, and my other classmates clap too. You can tell between the ones faking it, the ones being nice, and the ones actually happy to have him back. I hear Leo sat behind Maya somewhere whistle.

"Thank you." I hear Kite say behind me. I nearly fail to stop myself from snorting.

The final bell goes off for the end of registration, and I get up. I hitch my skirt downwards, and turn to Alina. She gets out of her seat and heads to leave out of the room. I follow her, and feel Lola and Maya behind me.

When we are outside of the classroom, Alina turns around whispers in my ear. "Stay safe, alright?"

I nod at her. "Thank you." I whisper back. She breaks apart and Lola comes and hugs me.

"See you at break." she says.

"You too." I say back. I watch as Lola and Alina walk away. They have the same lessons together for the next two periods, and I'm with Maya.

She sticks close to me, and I'm grateful for her presence. Her brown hair up in a claw clip, dangerously wobbles every time she speaks, but it stays on.

"What do we have next?" I ask.

"Art." Maya says. I hate Art with a burning passion. Too much drawing for me. What a great start to the day.

We reach the Art classroom. To my horror, I see Kite, Hugo and Cole standing outside the classroom.

No.

No.

No.

This couldn't be happening.

"What the heck?" I think the teachers are doing this on purpose." Maya whispers to me, anger in her voice.

I snort. "How funny." I say that a bit too loudly and Kite turns around.

He approaches me, and I brace myself. He folds his arms, and I nearly laugh at how he thinks it makes him look stronger.

"Is there a problem?" Kite speaks, our first interaction in 5 years.

"Is that seriously a question to ask?" I retort back, my voice hardening.

"I'm sorry, I forgot how emotional the West family could become." He says sarcastically.

My heart drops. No. I don't want to deal with this.

"Don't you dare talk about my family like that. Speak about me all you want, but not them." I state.

Kite dares to laugh in my face. "Everyone talks about your family, Dove. People talk about mine too. Grow up."

I can feel myself breaking. Without thinking, I slap him as hard as I can across the face.