Lovestruck (EDITING)

64: Protection

Classes are slow on Monday morning, as always. When the bell rings after Spanish for lunch, I spot Shana leaning against the lockers outside my classroom. It's just like things are back to normal.

"Mind if I join you for lunch?" She skips towards me as soon as I pass through the doorway.

"I don't think all my other friends would mind too much." We both laugh and head up the hallway to my locker.

I toss my notebook into the pile of empty binders and loose paper that has already formed in my locker since the beginning of semester and slam the door closed before following Shana into the cafeteria. As we join the lunch line, I spot a group of letterman jackets towards the front. The jocks. Tyler. I feel sick even thinking his name.

"Ooh, I'm getting cheese fries." Shana's announcement interrupts my thoughts and I stop glaring at the jocks for a moment in acknowledgement.

We reach the front of the line quickly and take our trays to sit down at a table near the door. Who knows if I'll need to make a quick exit. I take a bite of my turkey wrap as Shana picks at her fries. It's strange to be back to normal like this, after wanting to kill each other just a few days ago. It's a relief to finally put aside our differences, but it's hard for me to not think things through beyond that point. I'm still hurt by what she did to me. I don't know why she did it. She has always been a jealous person, but I still can't wrap my head around why my best friend would go out of her way to hurt me the way she did. And why she would use Landon to do it...

"Are you okay?" It's not until Shana's voice breaks the silence that I realise I've been staring.

She looks concerned and I don't know what to say. I need her as a friend right now. Perhaps even more than she needs me. It's just so tough to be friends with someone who you just know is going to inevitably hurt you. It's hard for me to only invest myself half way in this friendship because I'm too scared of what she might do next. Shana has always been unpredictable. She can be so heartless when she wants to be. I can't trust her. Despite how much I need someone to trust right now.

"Yeah, sorry. Just a bit zoned out." I force a laugh and take another bite of my wrap when I catch someone's eye at another table.

Tyler is shamelessly staring at me from his table full of jocks at the back of the cafeteria. It makes me sick to feel his grey eyes burning holes through me, one of them surrounded by purple bruising. I break eye contact and stare down at my table but continue to feel his eyes on me. Every fibre of my being wants to run out the door and never return to this school, but I can't let myself run anymore. I wish I never had to hear that asshole's name ever again, let alone see his face. Too bad he's Tyler fucking Clarke, proud owner of the most spoken name at Douglas High.

"Oh my god, Skye." Shana kicks me in the shin to get my attention and I wince.

"Ouch. What?" I rub my leg as it throbs with pain, frowning up at her.

"Okay, don't freak out. Tyler Clarke is coming over here." Her words are just louder than a whisper but she might as well have screamed them in my face. They would have hit me just as hard.