|1| Broken Glass {Paul Lahote}

I

Juliana quickly walked through the hallway of the school on the Reserve, her headphones over her ears and the cord plugged into her phone, blocking out almost all of the noise around her.

She got to her locker and she opened it up quickly, looking inside, carefully for her Chemistry notes. She grabbed them and felt a sudden soft tap on her shoulder at the same moment.

She jumped a bit, causing the laughter, to nearly erupt from all around her, as she found herself looking at Paul Lahote, who held out her Chemistry book. She pulls off her headphones and raised her eyebrows at him. "Sorry, I needed your notes for Chemistry." He said and she rolled her eyes at him, looking through the notes that she had in her locker.

They were messy, a bunch of it was crossed out, and all of the things that he clearly did not understand were all highlighted in red. "Yeah I can see that Paul. Why didn't you just ask me for a bit of help, rather than steal my books from my locker?" She asked and he let a quiet grunt escape, before shrugging at her words.

"You are right, as usual. But, I chose not to." Paul says, crossing his arms as he looked at her, his eyebrows raised.

"I'm not carrying your book bag. I'm your best friend, not your library cart, Lahote." Juliana said to him, smilin' at him, despite herself.

Paul seemed to flinch at the words 'best friend', but since he was usually flinching from anger or annoyance, it was missed by Juliana, who was used to calming him down, from his rages.

"Come on, let's go, Paul. If we aren't on time today, my parents will make me stay late. My mom's the Principal, in case you have forgotten." She said, as he chuckled as she shuts her locker door. "Come on!" She shouted, draggin him away from a group of girls, and at once, she releases him after they were far enough away.

"I wonder what's up. Everyone has been talking about Sam Uley... he did graduate, right?" Paul questioned real quick of Juliana, who, swiftly narrows her eyes in deep thought, trying to be a quick and fast thinker.

"Yep. A year and a half ago. If I remember correctly... he's what, eighteen now, if I am right about the age?" Juliana muttered, cracking her neck a bit.

"That sounds about right." Paul grinned at her and Juliana raised her eyebrows at him.

"What?" She asked, not trusting his grin at all, which usually meant some trouble was coming.

"I'm just thinking how lucky I am to have a friend like you. You're the very smart one, after all." He pointed out to her and Juliana shakes her head at his words.

She didn't notice this time either, that his tone of voice had almost shifted to sound annoyed or something like a bit of a growl, on the word 'friend', as she didn't pick up on it.

"And I'm lucky to have a best friend like you, that will be there always to watch my back." She said and he held out his hand for a fist bump and she'd chuckle quietly, before bumping hers, against his.

The end of the day rolled around again, and Juliana was walking out of the school with Paul, until she heard a whistle coming from the side of the school.

"Hey, teacher's pet!" She heard someone shout at her, before an apple core hit her in the back of the head, as Paul clenched his fist tightly around a strap on his backpack.

"Come on Paul. Let's just forget them and go, or we might miss the bus." She mumbled to him, but he was storming over to the guys already, his face a lot of fury, like a mask of cold fury on his face. "Damn it." She hissed under her breath and she raced after him.

She grabs onto his arm and yanked him back hard, and she yanked him away from them.

"Paul, we need to go now." She said and her tone of voice was completely and utterly serious now.

He was in a furious state and she shakes her head at him now, as he was glaring over her shoulder at the bullies, who were scoffing at them.

"Hey, look at me." She said as he continued to look over her shoulder at the bullies, his eyes burning with a fiery rage. "Paul, look at me." She had snaps her fingers, right, in front of his eyes and he turned to look at her.

"What?" He sounded furious and it was clear that he was itching for a big fight now, after all, it had been, nearly a week since he had gotten into one.

"It is not worth it. Those guys, over there? They are not worth neither of us, or any of the things that you could give up. They are not worth your time or your fists. You hear me?" She asked and her voice was low, and serious, as he nods quickly. "Well, then, let's go and catch the bus." She said as she'd clap him on the back, and they ran off to go and catch the bus together.

On the bus as usual, they were playing 'Would You Rather', since boredom was creeping up on them rather quickly that day, despite all of the action that had occured, that day.

"Would you rather,... go out with a guy that you know nothing about... or would you rather go out with a guy that you know everythin' about?" Paul asked and Juliana raises her eyebrows at him.

"That is a... strangely personal question to ask, Paul Lahote, even for you." She points out, and, he shrugged at her with a unsurprisingly calm look on his face as he crosses his arms over his chest, waiting, being surprisingly patiently waiting for her answer.

"I am going to say someone that I know. I mean, I would like to know at least a bit about the person, like some few legit pieces of information. Why?"

She asked him and Paul just shrugged at her. "It just happened to be my turn to give you one. First question popped into my head, I guess." He said, as she narrowed her eyes, a bit suspicious at him.

"This is our stop, let's go." She said and pushed the button. The bus driver let them out, and then, kicked up a lot of dust as it drove away.