Chapter Three

After yesterday, my head was swimming. He just hugged me and walked away! OK then. I walked Hana to school and was making my way to my first class when I saw Josh.

"hay Alec" I sigh

"yeah what's up"

"we need to talk about what happened yesterday "

"there's really nothing to talk about" he rolled his eyes at me.

"nothing! I saw you hug the little bastard!"

"so, that's none of your concern"

"Alec you're my best friend, I'm just trying to look out for you!"

"look out for me? Really? You're trying to protect me from the smallest kid in our grade. He's completely harmless!"

"You don't know what he's capable of"

"yeah whatever man." I shrug my shoulders at him and let a small laugh escape my lips. I walked past him, but he grabbed my arm and spun me around.

"I'm telling you man, that kid isn't what you think, he's all… twisted" he let me go and I continued to my class. Sure, more like misunderstood. And no one tries to understand. I'm up for the challenge!

When I walk in Mr. Ricks is setting up for the day, and a small boy is sitting reading a book at his desk. I say hi to Mr. Ricks and walk to the boy. He doesn't notice as I sit in the seat in front of him facing him.

"what you reading?" I whisper in his ear. He jumps and looks at me. He opens his mouth to speak, but no words come out. I laugh lightly, and he tries again.

"i-i um I'm uh-" this boy can't even speak a full sentence! But Josh wants to look out for me!

"it's OK I don't really want to know" I smile at him. "I'm Alexander. But you can call me Alec if you want" I don't know why I gave him my full name, I never give that to anyone.

"J-jason" I nod

"can I ask what happened?" I brush my hand across his cut cheek. He looks down.

"i-i uh f-fell" right I don't believe that. I grab his arm. He hisses and pulls away from me.

"You have a bruise on your arm. Did you fall on that too?" My voice came out harsher than intended. He flinched.

"i-i why d-do you c-care?"

"am I not supposed to?"

"w-well"

"that's what I thought" the bell rang, so I moved to my seat. I looked at Mr. Ricks as he waited for kids to pile in. He meets my eyes and raises his eyebrows at me. I have no idea what he's saying. The class moves on, but I don't catch anything he's saying. I'm passing all my classes except this one. It's just, math isn't my thing. As the bell rang I grabbed my things eager to get away from numbers and letters being mashed together.

"Alec could you wait for a second?" Mr. Ricks voice pulled me from my escape. I turn and face him.

"Your performance in my class is bringing down that 4.0 you would have. " I sigh

"Yeah I know, I'm trying, really I am!"

"Well I've got a peer tutor who's willing to meet you after school in the library"

"Yeah OK, but I need to pick up my sister after school, so I don't know if that will work. "

"Don't worry if anything I'll have the boy come to your house, you'll be a lot more comfortable in your home. " I nod and he lets me leave.

The day roles on. I text Hanna i'm going to be a little late, and soon I'm pulling out my lunch. I ignore Josh, but that also means I really don't have anyone to be with… unless. Oh crap I forgot… I have a girlfriend. That was also Josh, in case you were wondering. I put my stuff away, and got up. I scan the quad looking for her blond hair. Then it's coming at me.

"Hay Alec~" she purs out my name, making me shudder. I really don't like how she says my name. She wraps her arms around my neck and kisses my lips.

"I heard you're mad at Josh. What he do?"

"He's telling lies"

"About?"

"Just some kid" who's like a lil cinnamon roll!

"You know Josh he's always right" I scoff

"Right" she laughs and pulls me towards the other side of the quad.

"Where are we going?"

"To make up" I groan. "Oh come on, you can't stay mad at him forever!" bitch you don't even know! She steers me towards Josh, who has a small body pressed against a wall. Damn it!

"Josh!" He lets go and Jason slides to the floor.

"What Alec?" he rolled his eyes at me. Gods he has the worst attitude!

"what did I tell you! Stop this, you're hurting him, and yourself. "

"Really because I'm pretty sure it's just him. " I huff and walk up to him, like in going to punch him. I walk right past him. I hold out my hand to Jason. He looks up and his nose is running with blood, the back of his hand already stained red as he tries to stop the blood flow. He takes my hand and I pull him up. He whimpers as I pull on his wrist.

"Alec I think you should put that thing back on the ground" my blood boils as my head turns to Kathy. "If you and Josh were fighting over him, then whatever Josh said was right. " I can't believe this!

"See Alec! Listen to your girlfriend!" I growl and move away from them both. My arm snaked around Jason's body so he's attached to my side. No ome stops me as I walk him towards the bathroom, to help him clean his face, which Is all bloody. He tries to stop me but I pull his wrist down to stop his hands. He hisses in pain.

"l-let g-go" I do.

"Are you OK?" he pulls in his hand, and nods.

"w-why did y-you help me?"

"was there a sign on that wall that said 'don't help this small child'.? Because I didn't see one" he opens his mouth to argue but shuts it, because he knows I'm right. I finished cleaning his face and he looked up at me.

"T-thanks"

"No problem" there's a question on his face. " What's your question?" He jumps slightly.

"i-i um w-was won-ndering about t-that girl um-"

"Yes we're dating" I swear I saw his face drop even more than usual. "why do you care?" He shakes his head.There's a hint of amusement in his emerald green eyes. I smile at him.

"Of course I care what you want " I say sweetly. He turns red as his face flushes. The bell rings and he gets up.

"s-see you l-later" and he ran off. Later? Well if you insist. I smirk.

At the end of the day I walked to the library. If there's any chance I can pass this class I need to take. I walk in and I spot Mr. Ricks, he's talking to a small boy with jet black hair. This is what he meant by later! This kid.

"Mr. Hamilton, nice of you to join us" what's with that grin.? He's kind of scary!

"hi" smooth real smooth Alec.

"This will be your tutor, Jason Summ-"

"Yeah we've met" I growl recollecting myself.

"Good, now Jason can accompany you home" another smirk from my teacher. I gulp silently, and nod. Jason says a small goodbye and follows me out the door.