"I tell my love to wreck it all."
-Skinny Love, Birdy/Bon Iver
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I wake to the sun's rays smoothing over my face from the large windows of the infirmary. My eyes inching open, I wince at the cramp in my back from lying forward in my chair to rest my head on the edge of Jasper's bed.
I stretch my arms above my head, gazing around to see some of the other students are sitting up in their beds, eating breakfast happily from trays on their laps. I see a girl with rich red hair chugging down some orange juice with one arm, her other arm locked in a thick white cast.
"Morning."
I turn around to see Jasper smiling at me with that heart-warming smile. The one that puts butterflies in my stomach.
"Sleep okay?" I ask, running my fingers through my hair to try and smooth it out. Jasper is the last person I want to see me with bedhead. Especially since he woke up looking like a Greek god.
"Best sleep in a while."
I smile weakly, remembering I need to tell him about how I feel about him and Alec. He has a right to know, but he's in such a good mood, even after what happened with Jacob. I don't want to ruin it, but it'd be selfish to keep it from him any longer.
Like I said last night, I don't want anything to hurt him. Not even me.
He notices my change in mood, and frowns, confused. "Are you okay?"
I hesitate.
"Jasper," I start, giving up on my hair and sitting forward in my seat. "I need to talk to you about something."
He sits up a little, and nods for me to continue.
"I—I feel like..." I fumble for the right words. "I like—"
Before I can finish, we are interrupted by a new voice beside us. "Morning."
I turn to look up, and find the need to swallow a huge rock sitting in my throat when I see Alec staring back down at me.
"Alec. Here to break another rib?" Jasper asks, raising his eyebrows.
Alec rolls his eyes and folds his arms across his broad chest. "Don't be so melodramatic, pretty boy. I'm not here to watch your dramatics."
"Then why are you here?" Jasper snaps.
"To apologise."
I need to retake.
Alec. Apologise to Jasper.
"I'm not buying it."
"I'm not asking you to. But I think you should at least hear it," Alec replies casually, and I notice a thin cut beside his right eye. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have broken your rib."
Jasper shoots me a disbelieving look, before frowning at Alec, waving him off. "Whatever."
"Jasper," I warn sternly. This is obviously difficult for Alec to do. I mean, I would find it hard to apologise if I was in Alec's position.
He sighs and nods. "Alec, I apologise for starting on you and your...gang. Dick move. I'm sorry."
"Cool," I say, clapping my hands together. "Glad you guys have sorted it out. Now, breakfast? I'm starving."
Jasper shakes his head. "No can do, I'm gonna be in here for a couple days until they let me leave."
"It's fine, we can go together," Alec says, not averting his eyes from me.
I nod. And what's more, I might meet his friends and be able to find something out about what happened to Jacob. And I'm one step closer to putting myself into the clear.
I stand and am about to follow Alec when I spin around and lean in to Jasper. I press my lips gently to his cheek, and murmur, "I'll see you later."
He grins a more heart-stopping grin instead of a heart-warming one.
I take a few steps away from Jasper, but he calls me back, "Olivia?"
I spin around and nod.
"What did you want to tell me?"
Alec is calling my name from the door of the infirmary, and so I reply quickly, "I'll tell you the next time I see you. I promise."
***
"I'm sorry for hurting him, I know how much Jasper means to you," Alec says quietly as we approach his table where the Fighters are sitting. There is less energy today, no one is play-fighting and no one is speaking very loudly at all. It's a Saturday, and I have no idea how I'm going to fill my day.
"Don't worry about it," I say as Alec sits in his seat at a full table of Fighters who are talking in hushed voices.
When I sit down, a lot of them give me odd looks.
"This is Liv, a good friend of mine," Alec introduces.
A few mutter half-hearted hellos, others don't say anything at all. Fair enough.
"She's a Socio," a girl from opposite the table grunts, picking at her food with as much life as a corpse.
Bad analogy, the voice warns.
"She's my friend," Alec repeats. "Doesn't matter."
The girl has long brown hair that comes together in pretty bangs at the front. Her skin is a soft tan, and her eyes an even softer hazel. But life has hardened her features, almost brutally so. And with her broad frame, she looks even tougher. "We can't trust any one of them."
Others around her nod in agreement.
"Naomi's right. They accused us of killing that Jacob kid. Anything that comes out of their mouth is bullshit," a small girl with a tight braid mutters from her side.
Alec frowns at them all, before sighing to me in apology. "Don't listen to them."
"Actually..." I turn back to them, and ask quickly, "What the Socios said- it wasn't true?"
The girl with the bangs- Naomi- looks up and shoots me an unreadable look. "You're kidding, right?"
"No, I figured it makes sense for some of you to be angry after what happened to that girl last year," I whisper, staring back down at my food.
Naomi smacks her hands onto the table, making me jump. When I look up, she's standing up, glaring. "So because we're Fighters it means we'd go around killing people for something that happened ages ago?"
I scowl and stand up, because that's not what I was saying. "That's not what I'm saying and you know it."
"Listen, girl, you may have Alec wrapped around your finger, but I know your type. You play everyone around you just to get what you want. You're not a Fighter, a Wallflower or even a Socio for that matter. You're a Player. You're own special type of madness."
The sting in her words forces my eyebrows down further. I press my hands onto the table and lean forward aggressively. The others are looking a little more alive now. Alec stands and puts his hand on my arm, but I shake it off. "Are you going to tell me what you know about Jacob's death, or are you gonna stand their like a little bitch glaring at me?"
If I can provoke her enough, Naomi could spill something on what happened to Jacob. "I know a lot more than you can possibly imagine, but I'm not feeling very charitable today," she snaps, gaining the attention of most of the boys and girls around us. "I could kill you without thinking twice about it if you keep this up, flower."
"Liv," Alec mumbles, but I ignore him.
I lean forward and hiss in a smooth but harsh voice, "Oh, I bet you could."
She bares her teeth, and snaps, "I'd kill you so quickly and easily you wouldn't even know you were dead until you found yourself rotting in Hell."
And despite everything, I find this pretty funny. However, I keep my face serious and snap, "Prove it."
In a second, she leaps up onto the table, and wraps her arms around my neck before I can even think twice about what is happening. Her hands crush my neck and stop the air from flowing. Alec throws Naomi off me, and she is sent sprawling across the table.
"Are you alright?" Alec asks as the crowd cheers.
"I'm fine," I say, rubbing my neck. I turn to Naomi, who is glaring at me. "You must be able to do better than that."
"How about I show you?"
"Then I'll make you a deal you can't refuse."
"Liv," Alec warns, putting his hand on my arm. I don't back down. Not now.
"Tell me," Naomi urges rather eagerly.
"We can fight. Properly. If I win, you tell me what you know about Jacob's death."
She considers it, before nodding and mumbling in return, "We can do it at the party tonight in the woods." She pauses before grinning menacingly. "And if I win?"
I shrug.
She grins darkly, pushing the bangs out of her eyes. "If I win, I want you to go into Rosa's office and get something for me."
"Steal something?"
"Right."
The crowd gasps a little, some of them laughing in disbelief. Alec shakes his head.
"No, absolutely not," Alec says before I can reply, grabbing my arm tightly. "Are you trying to get her expelled, Naomi?"
She shrugs dryly.
I shake his hand off and smile sweetly back at Naomi, who is daring me to back down.
"Deal."