MASKED

CHAPTER 1:

Strong people stand up for themselves
But the strongest people stand up for others
You get to choose.

°^°^°^°

I ducked my head, not wanting to draw any attention to myself. However, it was nearly impossible. Whispers trailed behind me making my breath come out in a panicked state.

Attention...

God, I loathed it!

It's people's job to whisper, gossip, hurt.

Why did they do it? I never could understand.

What satisfaction could they possibly get from it?

Pretending to ignore their stares, I walked towards my locker. I stared straight ahead at the metal as I inserted the combination. Pulling the door open, I took out my calculus book and shut it again.

"Guess who?" A chuckle came from behind me as warm hands covered my eyes.

Almost involuntarily, a smile crept upon my face.

"Hmm, I don't know who you could possibly be..." I trailed off innocently.

"Think harder then," he huffed out playfully.

A laugh escaped my lips as I held the hands and pulled them off before turning around and smiling at him.

Lucas Fields, aka, my best friend in the whole damn world! In my whole world filled with darkness, he was a ray of light, my ray of light.

I gave him a once over. He'd grown taller during the summer and his perfectly dimpled smile greeted me as usual. There was no denying his good looks, no matter how much it killed me to do so. His light blue eyes complimented his slightly tanned features. He had dark chestnut brown hair which was messily sweeped to one side. He was wearing the school's jersey so I guess he had morning practice today.

I couldn't help but stand on my toes and hug him. He laughed softly before putting his arms around me.

Nowhere in the world could I feel safer than in his arms. It wasn't a familiar feeling for me, it was pretty rare. He was one of the people in my life who understands me. I love him for that!

For being my friend when nobody else was.

"I missed you shorty!" He chuckled in my ear as he ruffled my hair.

Of course, with his insane basketball skills he towered over not only me but most of our classmates as well.

Damn athletic bodies with their intimidating height!

"Hey, I grew two whole inches this summer," I said pulling away from him, not really helping my case.

"Yeah, sure." He drawled out lazily, looking down at me, quite literally!

The grin on his face disappeared slowly as he took in my appearance like I had done with him and his eyebrows scrunched up in worry. His expression then turned serious, "How are you now?" He asked me with concern in his eyes.

"I'm fine, I guess," I replied softly tucking my hair behind my ear, feeling unsettled talking about my health.

My paranoia and constant fears weren't something that was unknown to Luke. He was away when the doctor told me that my overweight could have serious repercussions in the future and I would have to do something to get back to normal. But my very much worried mother immediately confided in Luke as he was after all my only friend. He was adamant on coming home and putting some common sense into me but I promised him that I would become alright and that he had to stay there. The summer programme he was attending was important for him to get a scholarship and there was no way I could live with the guilt of holding him back.