If

Chapter 2

My next class was Calculus.

I've always been good at math, it was always my best subject. All the teachers would push me to join math team, which I would never do, because first off, I hate math, and second, none of my friends would have ever done it with me either. We weren't the "it group", but we weren't the geeks or thespians or band musicians. We were just kind of there, in between.

Thinking about my friends makes me miss my old school, but I will probably never go back to that town.

If I ever did go back and visit with my girlfriends, and if they were to post a photo of us or even tag me on twitter or Instagram or Facebook--Who am I kidding, who uses Facebook?--my dad would definitely see it, and then my family, my friends, and even any new friends I may or may not make would all be in real danger. Like people-could-die danger.

Every time I think back to when my mom and I left my dad, I shudder. We were so careless; we left so many clues. He had been asleep on the couch, passed out after a major hangover and giving both me and my mother a pretty good beating.

Who knew if he had been awake or not?

I had also recently found a camera in my room only a few days before that, so he definitely had to have had more in all the rooms.

Lets just hope that the cameras didn't have sound, because then we would be dead before the year was over.

Our dad was the reason for my sleepless nights, my overdoses, my cuts. I've stopped cutting, and I only ever take medicine that is prescribed to me, because I don't really have a reason anymore.

I mean, I worry every second of every day about him finding us, and killing us, and what he would do to torture us before killing us. But it goes in and out of focus, sometimes the center of attention, sometimes it's barely there.

It's like the stress is my finger, and sometimes I'm holding it in front of me, staring at it, concentrating deeply, my eyes probably crossing. Other times I stare behind it, seeing all that surrounds it. The finger becomes blurry, but it's always there.

All of this crossed my mind as I walked to Calculus.

I walk into the room, and there are only 3 other students in the room. A girl I didn't know, a boy I didn't know, and Luke, who was talking to the boy, laughing.

Great, Luke is in this class too?

I hope he doesn't blow me off again. Does he somehow already hate me, even though he doesn't know me at all?

As I walk to sit to the seat diagonally in front of him (if I sit directly in front of him, he'd probably think I'm some creep. I also don't know why I care what he thinks...) I look him in the eye, and he looks back.

"Oh, hi!" he says, giving me a warm smile that would make me melt if I wasn't so confused.

Is this kid like, bipolar or something?

"Uh, hi. You're in this class with me, too?" I say, slightly chuckling.

"Yeah, you're Dallis, right? I'm Luke."

"Yep, and yeah, I knew that." I pause, realizing how creepy I sounded. "Not like that! I mean like you were in my last class, and the teacher told me your name." I start to giggle a little bit, but not too much. I wouldn't want to be that weirdo who laughs too much at their own jokes.

I relax when he laughs even more than I did, and he says, "You're cute. Wo-"

He's cut off by the teacher beginning class. As I turn and sit down, I smile, at both his comment, which gave me so many butterflies, the good kind of butterflies, that I'm surprised I didn't throw up, and the fact that I was probably as red as those cherries that are on Steak 'n' Shake milkshakes.

***

A/N:

so can't figure out how to show the cast list, but here's who I picture for each character (the important characters who we've met).

•Luke Hemmings as himself (obviously lol)
•Liana Liberato as Dallis Mitchell

thanks for reading and I'll update when this gets to 7 votes! :)