To Keep You

Chapter Eight: Trouble-

A/N: cute little picture of Rob and Jaime on the side! Aw their lil faces are adorable. Again, edited this on my phone so I hope it's okay!

 
      I walked with Connor around the perimeter of the school grounds. Most of the students stuck close to the buildings during lunch, so it was quiet with barely any passer-byers.

      Connor still seemed to be on the lookout for something, or someone, constantly on alert and glancing over his shoulders. He was tense, as though he expected to be ambushed around every bend.

      I scrutinized him, trying to decide whether or not to ask the question. Eventually, I did. "Those guys I heard shouting before, were they looking for you?"

      Connor's expression fell to one of guilt. "The ones shouting about where the hell is the little shit and so on and so forth?" I nodded. He sighed. "Yeah. I'm not so popular around here. I have little to no filter when it comes to the stuff that pours out my mouth, which, uh, tends to get me into a lot of trouble."

      "So, why were they looking for you? They sounded pretty angry."

      "Well if I had to take a guess, they wanted to shove my head down the nearest toilet." He shrugged easily and then went on to say, as if only just remembering, "Oh, and I guess they want this as well." He dug out a mobile phone from his pocket. "I accidentally stole it."

      "You accidentally stole it?"

      He stumbled over a reply before managing to say, "Well, maybe not so accidentally and more so on purpose? Very much on purpose, that is." There was a coy smile on his lips before he continued. "In my defence, it was half-way out the lad's pocket anyway, practically begging to be nicked if you ask me."

      It was then that I realised how often I seemed to attract people who had a tendency towards trouble. Always finding myself falling in with the wrong crowd, or perhaps the right crowd that just found themselves occasionally doing the wrong things.

      I just knew that if I stuck around with this guy, he was going to drag me through the damn bushes alongside him, leaving me with dirt on my face and bruises around my eyes, if his earlier words were anything to go by.

      I mean, this kid might be used to that kind of rough treatment but I certainly wasn't, and I definitely didn't feel like becoming accustomed to it, either. I raised by brows at him and forced myself to say, "You're going to return it, right?"

      Connor looked sheepish. "Oh, sure. As soon as I've replaced all of his pictures with those of naked men." He grinned, about ready to burst into a fit of laughter.

      Myself, on the other hand, was just standing there utterly astounded at what I'd just heard. "You're so weird." I managed to say as my brows gathered together in an unbalanced mix of confusion and disbelief. A laugh still seemed to bubble its way up my throat, however, as I continued to watch Connor.

       Despite my doubts about him, I stayed with him until the end of lunch. He was the first guy I actually got along with straight off the bat, and it was nice. It made me relax a little. It almost made me wish dinner would last the rest of the day.

      But it didn't, obviously. The bell rang for fourth period across the grounds of the school. I asked him if he could show me to my next lesson and his response was, "I will, but only if you promise not to avoid me."

       I looked away, smiling. "Alright, I promise." And it wasn't a lie, even if I was condemning the rest of my school years to being chased and hunted by the people Connor pissed off.