A sharp jolt tore through her already trembling body as his glare seeped through her, sending a painful, tingling sensation throughout her body and she felt as if she were under a trance, for his stare had intimidated her so much that she couldn't even will her limbs to move. His lethal eyes hardened as he watched her quiver under his stare and a somewhat darkly amused laugh emitted from his smirking lips. Her body trembled, not because of the breeze that suddenly grew cold or because of the fact that his snickering friends were emerging from the objects situated behind her but because of the way Michael had been staring at her. Although an outsider probably wouldn't have been able to see it, the message was loud and clear in Alex's eyes.

He had a fatally lustful glint in his eye that hardened as he drew closer to Alex, his cigarette perched between his lips. The way he stared at her with so much desire, so much want, so much need...

Michael would never think of me in that way. He's just a bully. A horrible and cruel bully!

Inside her head, she silently prayed and begged for God to send down a legion of angels to protect her from this menace, to help her become witty and quick enough so that she may embark on her journey home, do something that would be useful to her advantage! Her gut told her to run, run as fast and as far away as she possibly could from him but her feet wouldn't budge. She was surprised that she was still able to stand her ground with the fear surging within her and her legs threatening to break from beneath her.

No words could describe how much Alex wanted to return home.

"I'm glad you could make it, Alex," he began in his naturally malign voice. The smoke that escaped from his lips stung slightly in her eyes and caused her to cough lightly and for her eyes to blink multiple times. He smirked in response then scanned her attire, his smirk gradually growing wider once he noted the brown stain on her jeans.

"My, my, my. What a lovely outfit you are wearing," he joked darkly and a fit of laughter pierced her ears.

"Please, Michael," Alex practically begged him, "I gotta get home."

She began to strode past him in an attempt to take off into the direction of her home and for a moment, it seemed as if she had actually convinced him that she was busy but once he had stepped directly in front of her, it showed her otherwise.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Michael asked as the tips of his fingers rubbed lightly together.

Quickly and hastily, she slipped her backpack off her shoulders and shoved a hand inside it, soon enough retrieving five one dollar bills and a handful of loose change. Once they took notice to the amount of change in her trembling hand, they exchanged strange looks and erupted into laughter.

"She must've just robbed her mommy's piggy bank just to pay us," Michael said in between fits of laughter.

"Or maybe that was her allowance!" a boy added, doubling over and multiplying their uncontrollable laughter.

Alex hung her head low in shame not because they were laughing at her lack of money or that her change barely managed to make up to a dollar but because her mother was no longer on this earth with her. She had died when she had given birth to Alex and even though she didn't have a single dime(or even a penny) to her name, she knew that she was a great and loving woman at heart just as her aunt had described her. Besides, she couldn't rob something that was never there.

Michael snatched the offered money from her hands and as he began to count the coins, he said in a bitter voice, "Alex," he began coldly, "you have ought to be the sorriest bitch I have ever met. Not only are you ugly but your broke too."

The words were like sharp knives to Alex, stabbing her directly in the heart and she gently shut her eyes to hold back the tears threatening to burst from her eyes. She could still feel their stares lingering on her, mocking her, taunting her, judging her.

"Mommy, I'm gonna cry! Michael and his friends are being mean to me again! Nobody likes me!" Michael whined adopting a high-pitched voice like he had yesterday.

As he mocked her, Michael's face twisted into one of mocking sorrow and sobbed uncontrollably. His friends howled in uncontrollable laughter as Michael began to bawl louder and louder. Him and his friends slapped each other's hands after Michael's wicked performance and turned back to Alex who was still managing to hold her tears back. Michael smirked at her.

Alex hated them so much. She hated how much power they had over her. She hated how they knew her weak spot. She hated how they could get one tiny little thing and use it against her. But what she hated more than anything else in this world was that stupid smirk on Michael's face. It was a vicious sight, ripping through Alex more sharply than any words could possibly do. Michael's smirk made Alex want to crawl into a hole and never speak or be seen by another living soul ever again. She could see how pathetic she was in his eyes and to the rest of the world. She could see something else in those dark eyes, though, something that frightened Alex just as much as it enraged her.

In those dark, onyx eyes, Alex could see the pleasure he felt when he humiliated her.

"Alright, boys. Time to knock some sense into this slut." Alex jolted in surprise.

She was about to attempt to break off into a sprint but a boy had already pinned her arms behind her back and restrained her from movement. Panic surged within her as she came to realization of their intentions. She tried to scream, to struggle, to fight back but it was all together useless under the boy's iron grip.

"There ain't no use in struggling, honey," Michael remarked as he took a step towards her. She ignored his remark and proceeded to struggle as he drew closer to her.

He tossed his cigarette aside and stomped on it and for a moment, a surge of pain shot through Alex's left foot, giving her the time to recall the moment when Michael had stomped on her foot earlier that day. He pressed his body firmly against hers and she involuntarily shuddered against him. He cradled her flushed face in his large, surprisingly soft hands and roughly yanked her head up to his face, the inch of space and Michael's words between them being the only things keeping himself from taking her lips with his own.

"It's too bad I'm gonna have to break your face in," he whispered viciously.

The familiar lustful glint flashed in his eyes and his glare hardened as he rose a hand to start off the proceedings. Alex squeezed her eyes shut and tensed her muscles so that she could brace herself for the upcoming pain.

Michael was reluctant to strike her for a moment and a few of his friends noticed and were beginning to become quite impatient with him.

"Stop hesitating and hit the bitch already!" Alex heard one of them shout.

"If your so impatient, then how about you do it yourself?" Michael shot back in a placid tone.

"Fine. I will!" Alex heard a set of stomps storming her way and she felt her muscles tense all the more at the sound.

The first blow landed on her face and she knew that it was powerful enough to knock the wind out of her. Michael took a step away from her and murmured several words of instructions amongst his friends before he let them get their chance to take a hit at her. She could hear her bones crack and snap under the brutal force of the blows. Her legs were folded beneath her but she was held aloft by the one who was holding her up.

Through her swollen eyes, she spotted Michael staring at her, anxiously biting down on his lip and clenching his fists so hard that they turned pale. She noticed the glint in his eye, the fear that he felt, for what? Alex didn't know and wasn't even able to attempt to think with the punches and kicks shattering her thoughts. She knew that his friends wouldn't stop until they either grew tired or that if Michael ordered them to stop and by the looks of it, neither one was getting close.

Michael gave her one more final glance before slipping away out of her sight. Her only hope was gone with the wind and she was left with only that compassionate look to console her.

The boys showed no signs of slowing, even when the sun began to set. And even during that beating, she didn't make a single sound, maybe because she wasn't sure she would have been able to say anything at all. All she was able to think, all she was ever able to hope that entire time was seeing the smiling face of her aunt. At least when she endured that final blow, she would be able to return home and rest.

Then suddenly, she collapsed to the ground and her body was so numb from the pain that she didn't even notice that she was lying on the ground until she felt the vibration of footsteps frantically approaching her. Her eyes darted around wildly and what she saw standing fiercely only a few feet away from her was a miraculous sight.

She heard yelling, shouting, bickering. Their voices seemed to be thousands of miles away when in truth, they were hovering right above her. Her ears were ringing frantically as if a phone had been shoved inside her head and the ringing became so loud that it seemed to drown out the shouting voices.

She finally gave into the urge to fall limp and she gently shut her eyes and almost instantly, darkness overcast her into a deep slumber.

Alex struggled to open her heavy eyes and once she did, everything was blindingly bright. It was so bright that her eyes instantly slammed shut. She slowly cracked one eye open, followed gradually by the other. She noticed that her face was nuzzled in a bundle of soft locks that smelled of something sweet, almost like vanilla, probably even sweeter and once her eyes had fully adjusted to her bright surroundings, she saw that she was situated on someone's back.

Their lean, muscular arms were wound securely under her legs and when they felt her shift against them, they came to an immediate halt.

"Thank you..." she whispered to them and they craned their neck to look at her, surprised by her sudden capability to speak.

"Thank you so much..." she said again, sobbing into their shoulder. She wasn't crying because of the pain or the sadness that she felt but she was crying because of the overwhelming sensation that everything was going to be okay.

The person didn't reply back to her words of gratitude but only proceeded to continue their walk down the barren sidewalk.

He didn't know how long he had been standing there, locked inside his private bathroom, turning the shower head on full blast and stepping in without even bothering to take off his own clothes. He just stood there, wet, soaked, and ashamed. The only sound he was able to hear was the water pelting against the shower walls, thundering against his ears, himself silently hoping that it would take something away from him, his anger, his rage, his guilt.

Perhaps, it was a cliché attempt to wash away his sins or maybe he was just absentmindedly making an attempt to unconsciously drown himself. Either way, neither did any good.

Slowly, the water began to lose it's heat, causing Michael to shudder beneath his drenched clothes. Once he switched the water off, the room was settled in agonizing silence, the only sound coming from the water dripping off his clothing.

As he slipped off his soaked clothes, he unceremoniously tossed his clothing onto the marble floor with a loud, wet plop. Wrapping a towel around his shuddering body, he breathed in the damp air.

Everything came rushing back to him.

Glistening gray eyes, long ebony hair, full pink lips...

That stupid little bitch!

He shoved a hand through his damp, disheveled hair.

Dammit. Dammit. Dammit!

Clutching hard onto the sides of the porcelain sink, he rose his head and stared back at his pale reflection; muscular yet lean, weary yet energetic, intent yet distracted...

Why was she always on his mind? Why couldn't she just leave his head? Why couldn't she just leave the school already? Then again, he probably could have her kicked out. He practically owned the school after all. A little wave of his finger and she would be out of the school. All because of the huge amount of wealth his family owned. No one dared to defy him. No one.

Except her.

That damn, low class, good-for-nothing slut!

He clutched the edges of the sink until his knuckles turned white.

He could still see that scared look on her face once she first met his piercing gaze. He could still see that pathetic look on her face as he watched his friends throw those inhumanly strong blows on her already weak body. He could still hear the small cries for help coming from her heart.

No. I can't... Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!

He couldn't think about that right now. It was too frustrating, too confusing, too incomprehensible. It drove him crazy to the core to think about her stupid face and her stupid voice and even her stupid eyes, those stupid, unnaturally gray eyes! He knew why he thought about her so much but he was too stubborn to say it out loud, too stubborn to even think it to himself or to even accept it. And yet, he still wondered...

How are the guys treating her right now?