I nestle my scarf tighter around my neck as I walk to school, my two best friends on either side of me.
Kai's shoulder bumps into mine as he avoids a significantly large patch of gum splatter on the pavement, wrinkling his nose to show his distaste.
We near the school and my lips part as my eyes focus on Haze.
He is strolling unhurriedly towards the gates, his hands dug deep in the pockets of his leather jacket. His dark hair is pulled back into a messy bun, with a loose tendril falling down the side of his face. The bright, morning sun appears to cast a glow on his pale skin, highlighting its marble-like texture.
"Look at her," Kai groans, waving a lethargic hand at me.
"It's so cute," Heidi gushes, clearly getting the wrong signal from Kai.
He casts an annoyed stare in her direction, but I'm hardly paying attention. My pace picks up and I don't even realise, until Kai's fingers grip my wrist.
"Hey, where are you going?"
I reluctantly drag my eyes from Haze. "I'm going to go talk to him."
"No, stay here," he insists.
"I will just be a second," I assure him, before I pick up a jog.
I fall in step with Haze and offer a glowing smile. He sighs through his nose at me, not looking my way.
"Hey Haze," I chirp. "How's your morning been?"
"Peaceful, until now," he drawls, his cheeks light pink from his body heat.
"I was thinking; we should exchange numbers."
He draws a dark eyebrow up and flickers his magnetic, blue orbs in my direction.
"You want my number?"
"Yeah," I grin. "So, I can text you? For the party?"
He rolls his eyes, clearly seeing that as my excuse to ask for his number. "The party that isn't held until next weekend?"
I feel my cheeks warm as I realise that it is a bit lame. My smile widens as I pretend to not be mortified. "Yep."
"Why do I have a feeling you'll start harassing me with messages if I give out my digits?" he asks flatly, pulling his finger-less gloved hand from his pocket and brushing the bit of escaped hair behind his ear. I bite my lip, finding the act incredibly sexy.
"That's a risk you're going to have to take," I tell him.
He rubs his fingers over his forehead. He has slight bags under his eyes. I let my eyes drink in his high cheekbones, long lashes and strong jawline. He is devilishly handsome.
"Fine," he gives in after a few moments.
I can't wipe the grin off my face as I pull out my phone. We swap numbers and he flat-out refuses to let me take a selfie in his phone under my contact name.
"Why not? You might forget what I look like?" I tease.
"Doubtful."
I meet his eyes and wonder if he means that as an insult or a compliment. It's hard to tell – his expression is completely impassive.
"Want me to walk you to your locker?" I ask him, even though I can feel the glare of Kai burning holes in the back of my head.
"You're a weird person," he replies with a head shake.
"I'll take that as a yes. How was your evening?"
His face hardens immediately as we begin to walk inside. "Next."
"Okay..." I trail off. "Are you excited for the party?"
"I'm excited for you to shut up about it," he offers.
"Do you know what you're going to dress up as?"
"Myself, that's scary enough."
I let out a laugh. His expression remains the same as he keeps walking.
"May I ask what you like most about school?" I ask.
"Nothing. I hate school," he bites out sourly. "I only attend because I'm forced to."
"There must be something you like. A class, a teacher?"
"I think you know the answer to that," he snaps. "Why do you keep pestering me with useless questions?"
"Haze, there's no need to be rude. I'm trying to get to know you."
"You want to know me? I am the opposite of the person you should hang out with. Do us both a favour and go back to your other friends."
He stalks from me and my jaw falls open. Suddenly feeling angry, I stomp after him. He gets to his locker and opens it. I reach around him and slam it shut, the definite sound echoing through the hallway.
"Trying to push me away won't work, Haze. It will only make me more curious," I snap, my voice having an edge to it that I've never heard before.
"For fuck sake," he groans, sinking his long fingers into his dark hair. "Most good-girls would freak at the look of me. Or, when I said I've been to Juvie. Why the hell are you so interested? Do you think I'm some project or something?"
I open my mouth and close it a few times. He waits for me to answer, eyebrows raised.
"Well?" he presses.
"There's something about you," I murmur, my eyes connecting with his. "I can't leave you alone, Haze, because I don't want to."
He looks taken back by my response. He is rendered speechless and even though I don't show it, I do a victory lap in my mind, waving invisible pom-poms.
"I'm not asking anything of you, except friendship. It would really mean a lot to me." I continue, even though it's completely transparent that I want more than that.
His eyes narrow slightly, as if he's trying to calculate what ulterior motive I might have. When he comes up blank, he closes his eyes.
"Okay."
"Okay," I echo with a smile. "Now hurry up, we need to stop by my locker before class."
I notice that he fights off a smile as he turns to his locker. He removes his jacket and I scan over his dark tattoos. He yanks his gloves off and throws them into his locker.
"You'll need that textbook for class," I point out.
"Right," he sighs, withdrawing the book and pressing it against his chest.
The door swings shut, before we make our way to my locker. I key in the code, tugging off my coat and scarf. I run my fingers through my hair, smoothing it out and grab what I need, while Haze lazily leans against the locker beside me.
"Did your tattoos hurt?" I question.
"Some more than others," he answers after a moment.
"Do you think I would suit a tattoo?" I ask him with a coy smile.
His lips quiver slightly as he, once again, suppresses a smile. "No."
We walk into class together, immediately drawing eyes. I understand that most people would think I'm crazy. He is so, so different to anyone else at this school. By rules, he's meant to be an outcast. I don't know why I have become so insistent on being around him, but I can't fight it. Well, I don't want to, really.
We take a seat and he picks up his pen, rolling it in between his thumb and forefinger.
"Everyone is staring at you," he whispers.
"No," I reply, turning my head and rest my chin in my palm. "They're staring at you."
***
Ellie: Hey!
I chew my lip as I send the message. Within seconds, my fingers are tapping restlessly against the wood of my desk. I shake my head quickly and try to re-focus on the case-study assessment I am meant to be doing, even though I know I won't be able to now.
Just as I'm picturing his slanted lips or those crystal-blue eyes, my phone vibrates.
Haze: This would have to be Ellie. No one uses exclamation points anymore.
My grin only widens.
Ellie: Of course they do. How else would people know you're excited?
Haze: There is this strange invention called emojis and people use them to show what they're feeling.
Ellie: Alright, smart alec. I get the point!!!!!!!!
Haze: Overkill.
Ellie: Sorry, I should have sent a smiley face instead.
Haze: Didn't I say you were going to start spamming me with messages?
Ellie: Your own fault for giving out your number. Hey, I have a question.
Haze: Great. More questions.
Ellie: What are you doing right now?
Haze: Laying in bed.
Ellie: Great stuff. Want to come for a run with me?
Haze: What makes you think you could keep up with me?
Ellie: Challenge accepted. I'll be there in ten minutes.
Grinning, I throw my phone down and begin to flounder around my room, finding my exercise clothes. I yank my tights up my legs and fumble to grab my crop-top.
I don't bother to call out to Ma as I go past, she is busy going over paperwork with Pa. They probably won't even realise I'm gone.
I stretch briefly, before I power-walk to Pine Avenue, wanting to conserve my energy, in case Haze is as good as he says he is.
When I reach his driveway, he is walking down it already. My lips part as I take in his attire. It's interesting to see him outside of our school uniform. He is wearing a pair of faded, overused Nike track pants and a singlet, bearing his muscled arms in all their glory. The temperature is cold out, but we clearly both get hot when we run.
"Hey, hey," I greet him, and he gives me a deadpan expression.
"You manage to out-geek yourself each time I see you," he grumbles, and I roll my eyes playfully at him.
"Yeah, yeah. Let's go."
"This way," he says to me and inclines his head towards the way I came in.
"Why's that?" I ask, peering over his shoulder as the road continues down Pine Avenue.
"Because the further you go, the worse it gets," he states, before taking off at a jog.
I don't have time to respond. I increase my pace to catch up with his longer strides. I want to keep talking, but I'm soon out of breath. We run together in silence – the only sounds around us are the steady footfalls of our runners hitting the cement and our laboured breathing.
We run for a long time and I let him take the lead. We run through the path near the forest and when I usually would have turned by now, he continues going down along the river. It's pretty at this time of the afternoon, as the sun is beginning to sink into the horizon, leaving an illumining orange glow in its wake.
"Time out," I eventually pant and make the symbol with my hands.
"Knew I'd break you," he breathes as we slow to a walk. "You did better than I expected, though."
"Thanks... I think?" I reply with a laugh, dragging my hand across my forehead, removing the excess sweat that has accumulated.
He sends a hand through his hair and I look away as a bit falls. I find everything he does so attractive. Even if it is only touching his hair.
"This is nice," I say to him as I plant my hands on my hips, my chest still heaving. "I enjoyed that."
He sighs.
"What?" I ask, raising an eyebrow at him.
"Look, I don't mean to be rude, but I really don't want any friends right now. You're cool... or whatever, but I just don't. Okay?"
"No, not okay," I shrug. "I want to be your friend, Haze. Everyone needs a friend."
He rolls his eyes. "Is that so?"
"Yes. And if you really didn't want me to be your friend, you wouldn't have come with me this afternoon."
"You didn't give me much of a choice."
"There's always a choice," I argue.
He looks annoyed as he shakes his head.
"Why don't you want to be friends? What's the problem?"
"I don't want any attachments or any reasons to stay in this place," he eventually mutters and I'm surprised that he answered me with something honest.
"I see your point, but I think you should just go with it and whatever happens, happens," I reply.
He shrugs. "Maybe."
We continue to walk along the path. Our shoulders graze and I chew at my lip, trying not to get too excited about it.
"That's my rock," I blurt suddenly.
Wow, smooth Ellie.
"Huh?"
"See that rock?" I say and point to it, hoping my voice sounds cooler than I think it does. All the rocks along this walk have been coloured or written on by residents. I wrote on this rock with my father, many years ago. "I wrote that."
I follow his gaze as he stares at it. The rock has been painted light blue, curtesy of Pa, with dolphins around the border. I had a big obsession with dolphins when I was younger. And when I say 'younger', I mean I am still obsessed. In the middle of the rock, has Ellie Browning with love hearts around my name.
"Cute," he smirks.
"One day, we'll find you a rock," I say to him and he lets out a laugh.
"Right. Let's do that." He is very sarcastic as he says that, but I ignore it.
We reach the point in the rocks, where someone has dug out a sandy path down to the river. I skip down it and am glad that Haze follows me. I pick up a handful of rocks and go towards the edge. I throw it towards the water and the rock skips once, before sinking.
"Rats," I mutter.
"Rats?" Haze snorts beside me.
"Shut up and like you can do any better!"
He quirks an eyebrow at me, before taking one of the rocks from my hands. I bite my lip softly as his fingers graze over mine.
"Watch and learn," he smirks, before throwing the rock.
It skips across the water surface five times before it sinks. My mouth falls open and I swivel my eyes to him, wanting to wipe that smug grin from his handsome face.
"That's unfair."
He chuckles. "How?"
"Because you're stronger."
He rolls his eyes. "That has nothing to do with it. It's skill."
Frowning, I attempt again and have the same outcome. I let out a noise of frustration and throw my last rock back down onto the sand.
"Ellie Browning, are you a sore loser?" he questions with a smirk.
"No."
He grins and I am taken back by how beautiful it is. I blink a few times and try to form a reply in my mind, but I'm too entranced. His smile quickly vanishes and he clears his throat, stepping back from me.
"I should go. It's late."
"Oh... yeah. I suppose it is," I murmur, smoothing over my hair.
"See you tomorrow," he mutters.
"Wait!" I call out to him as he begins to walk from me. "You're not going to run back home with me?"
"You'll be fine," he says tersely, before running up the path.
I watch him go with a slight frown.
He is damn mysterious and confusing.
But intriguing as hell.