22 | ≠ attack

There's something about Elliot which I don't like. Maybe there are multiple things.

Maybe it's the fact that Ali's face falls drastically, her glow dims like a bulb being switched off whenever she sees him. Maybe it's the fact that the two of them seem to have some sort of history which I don't know of, making me feel like an outsider. Maybe it's the fact that he looks at my girlfriend like he in some twisted form like he owns her. Whatever it is, I don't like the dude. I've never been the jealous kind, the possessive kind, but something about him makes me want to protect Aliana from him, and that is exactly what I'm going to do.

Walking to my morning lecture, I smile at a few people around me, who smile back at me as they move past me hurriedly to their respective destinations. The cold in the air has increased tremendously, only a matter of time before air from our mouths starts coming out in vapours. I pull my coat around me as I quickly make my way to the warmth the classroom provides. Walking to my familiar seat in the second last row, I keep my bag and fetch my laptop out of it. My phone pings in my back pocket and I quickly remove it to find a text which brings an instant smile on my face.

Grasshopper:

I really need my tea. It's so cold what is this life. Morning by the way xo

I chuckle at the familiar morning text and shake my head before typing my own reply,

Make some tea and get your ass to the lecture. Meet me after?

Almost immediately my phone pings and I look up ever so slightly to see the professor enter and back to my phone.

Obviously. Meet you in fifty long minutes xx

"Time for the annual project guys," the professor announces loud and clear, grabbing all our attention as we tune in to him attentively. He explains everything in detail, making us take notes and everything occasionally until he says something none of us expected.

"Unlike last years, this is a partner project, which obviously means you're going to be assigned a partner instead of you all choosing one. I will call out the pairs and you all can get started with your projects. You have two months for this project. Listen up now and find your partners."

I look around the class and find not a single person looking anywhere but the professor. I chuckle before turning back to him just in time to find my name being called out.

"Nathan Wright and Noah Jackson."

I frown, the name unfamiliar to me before looking around. My eyes find a guy unrecognisable to me with dirty blonde hair looking equally confused as I am. I quickly grab my belongings and shove it in my bag before waiting for the professor to finish calling out the pairs. When he's done, he dismisses us and we all get up to find our project partners. I quickly walk over to the blonde dude and he looks up, his confusion turning into quick realisation.

"Nathan Wright?" he asks in a heavy Australian accent. I nod and extend my hand to him. He flashes me a friendly smile, getting up and shaking my hand.

"Noah Jackson. I just transferred to ISU," he says.

"Makes sense as to why I didn't recognise your name," I reply, "Let me take a wild guess and say you're not from around here."

"Nope. I'm not. I just moved to the states from 'Stralia because of some family issues and today is actually my first day here," he says, his blue eyes scanning the room around him nervously.

"Well then," I start, making him look back at me, "You've met the right guy. Let me give you a tour of the college, but before that, I gotta meet my girlfriend. Wanna come along?"

He grins and nods, both of us walking out of the classroom to the chilly cold again and we use the time we have to reach the Bakery, where Ali and Mia will be having their tea and coffee respectively. I don't know where Eli is, but guessing on the fact that Mia is probably with Ali, I'm guessing he's not too far from them.

"So, let's meet up at one of our apartments and we'll think of project ideas and get on with it," I say to him as we're talking aimlessly about random stuff, getting to know each other.

He immediately grimaces when I say this, making me furrow my eyebrows. Shaking his head, he blows a raspberry, "I don't think my apartment is the right place, mate. I live in the dorms and my roommate is the biggest bogan I've ever seen. I don't think I could've got a worse roommate."

"Eli and I had this misfortune in our first year. We moved out pretty soon. He was the most unhygienic-"

"No no! I would've loved your unhygienic roommate if it meant switching him with this asshole. I've never met a guy who so blatantly disrespects and uses people for his own good. His friends are equally, if not more of assholes. I'm warning you already, I'm going to be at your apartment a lot more than I'll be in my dorm room."

I laugh when I look at his distressed facial expression, rubbing his hands together to desperately get some warmth into his body and slap his back, "Just get us food and we'll be good to go."

He laughs with me and nods, "Anything mate."

We soon reach the Bakery, walking in to see Ali, Mia, and Eli sitting at the familiar corner table. I quickly walk over, with Noah following behind me and Ali instinctively looks up at us. Her lips pull up in an excited smile, getting up and quickly kissing me. I peck her lips once again before moving away from her. Her eyes land behind me, and she returns her eyes to mine with a question in them.

"Everyone. Meet Noah Jackson. He's my assigned project partner and he has just transferred from Australia and desperately needs friends," I tease, making him glare at me mockingly.

Almost immediately, Eli gets up and walks over to him, "Hey man. I'm Eli Adams."

Noah immediately extends his hand and I know Eli's signature move before he does it. Grabbing his hand, he shakes it with a lot more force than required, making Noah wince. From the corner of his eye, Eli glances at me and smirks as we wait for Noah to ignore the pain and move on. It's our special way of knowing whether the person in front of us is genuine or not. If he winces but doesn't say anything, it means he's either shy or just trying to make a good first impression and we respect that. But if he calls Eli out on it, we know he doesn't care about first impressions. It's a stupid thing we had come up with out of the blue and till now it has stuck with us for god knows what reason.

Just as we think Noah's gonna ignore it, he speaks up, "You Americans have weird handshakes mate. I don't think a handshake has ever put me through so much pain."

This causes the girls to burst out laughing, by now used to our weird antics. Noah's expression turns from excruciating pain to confusion, looking back at Eli who's just smirking at him.

"Oh my God, we're going to be the best friends ever!!" Eli exclaims in the girliest voice he can muster, pulling Noah into the tightest hug ever.

"I hate you all already," Noah grumbles under his breath as we all laugh a little louder, all three of us pulling our chairs out and joining the girls. Mia and Aliana introduce themselves and they promise him to introduce him to Shaye with a particularly mischievous tint in both their eyes, making Eli and I glance at each other in the realisation of what they're planning to do already.

⋈ ⋈ ⋈

Today's match was lost by us. Badly. We were all excited, me about the fact that both Aliana and mom are here for their respective good luck charms and the rest of the team just for the pure adrenaline there was in the locker room before the match started. But no one knows what went wrong. And the atmosphere in the locker room is a stark contrast to what it was just a few long hours before. The air feels suffocating, physically with the stench of sweat and mud, emotionally with the immense guilt in all of us.

Mr Patel, our cool and collected coach walks in and his hawk-like vision looks right into all his player's souls before his eyes connect with my own.

I know what he's saying even though he will never say it aloud.

My head wasn't in the game. My brain never stopped working the entire duration of the game, but not in the way it should've. I was coming up with the worst scenarios I could imagine of Elliot and Ali's past. I had to physically tell myself to stop and focus and even that wasn't enough. I don't like the fact that a random dude from Aliana's past is bothering me so much, but there's nothing I know and guessing by how Ali closes up whenever I try to ask, I'm guessing she isn't going to be of much help either.

"Let's be real. I would've said that you all tried your level best, but today none of you all did. I have no idea what went wrong with everyone today but get your shit together on the field. Keep your personal life to yourself," his loud voice booms around the entire room, making us nod at every word he says.

He cracks a small smile and the tension around us dissipates to a certain extent, "Now, we can't change the past but we can determine what our future is going to be like. Let's do better in the next game, yeah?"

Immediately, a loud cheer, obviously initiated by Eli sounds around the room, everyone taking the loss in stride and vowing to do better next time. Mr Patel's eyes meet mine and he gives me a barely noticeable nod, which I reciprocate with equal determination. Nothing from my personal life is going to affect how I play, I'll make sure of that. He walks away, leaving us to get fresh and leave to go home.

We all quickly get busy with our after game routines, all of us telling each other what they think we can improve on and passing it on to me. That's when I hear someone with a heavily accented voice shout out from the other corner of the room, "Hey captain! Your girl ain't giving you what you want?"

I freeze as everyone stops talking at the same time. I hear a distant What the fuck? and I hardly hear it, rage and confusion already plaguing my senses. I turn in his direction, the newest addition to our team, a young lanky dude who just transferred from a different college in this semester. He has a stupid smirk on his face, looking around the room and back at me.

"What?" I ask calmly, trying my best to not react to his words.

He has the balls to smirk as he leans on his locker, "You heard me. What, that little bitch can't satisfy you? Or worse, that bitch cheating on you? Is that why you took your whole team down with ya?"

All I see is fury before my eyes. I see Eli and Jason walk towards him defensively from my sides but I stop them with my hand.

Taking a calm step towards him, I growl in a low voice, smirking at him dangerously, "Say that again, newbie."

His smirk falters before pulling it back up again, "That bitch-"

Before he can complete the sentence, I move fast, grabbing his jersey collar and push him into the locker, a loud bang resonating around us. No one even attempts to pull me off him, and that scares him, judging by the look on his previously smug face.

"Complete that sentence," I say in a low voice.

He gulps visibly and doesn't open his mouth. I push him harder against the lockers, "Complete that fucking sentence. I fucking dare you."

"Shit mate, I don't want any beef," he says, his voice shaking as I tower over his lanky frame.

"Should've thought about it before you started spewing fucking bullshit buddy," Jason says from behind me, anger evident in his tone.

"I just believed what a dude in our dorm is going around telling people. Says the Aliana chick is-"

"Is his name Elliot?" I ask, loosening my grip on his jersey, blood pumping angrily in my ear.

"Yeah! How did you know?" he asks and I completely let go of him. Turning around, my hand goes to my face as I cover my mouth and let my head fall in it. My body can't stop shaking with anger as I rehear his words in my head. That fucker. I hear everyone telling newbie to fuck off, Jason's we're family and our close friends and partners are also a part of this family. Think twice before saying anything like this falling on my ears. I ignore it, distracting my mind by focusing on other things. Like how beautiful my helmet looks and how it will look even more beautiful when I bash Elliot's head with it-

"Stop imagining smashing that guy's head with your helmet," Eli interrupts my thought process as I look at him with a perplexed expression.

"How the fuck-" I start and I'm interrupted again by Jason, who walks to my side and smirks.

"We read minds," he says cheekily and I glare at him.

Eli studies me for a second before sighing, "I leave town for two days and I miss a completely new character in the story. Who the fuck is Elliot?"

Jason's expression mimicks Eli's and I look at the two of them, sighing before starting to tell them everything from the very beginning. I tell them everything, not missing out on a single detail and they absorb all my words, nodding occasionally. When I'm finally done, I feel a lot lighter and Jason and Eli both seem to be nodding in deep thought.

"Alright. I'm on his case. I'll try finding out everything I can about this asshole. Aliana will tell you, just give her time. I won't ask her, but she'll tell me cause I'm the smooth talker between the two of us and girls tells me their secrets," Eli replies. Jason chuckles and slaps my back.

"Count me in. Aliana is like my sister and I think everyone here knows how protective I get of my sisters. I'll tell Amanda to also find out stuff about this new dude."

Eli turns towards Jason and raises an eyebrow, "Amanda, huh?"

Jason's cheeks turn a slight pink and he just flips both of us off, "We're just really good friends."

"And pi is a rational number," I say, feeling a lot better than I was just a few minutes ago. Both my best friends turn to look at me with an expression which does not read impressed and I hear Eli faintly mumble, that's why you shouldn't hang around too much with a math major.

I roll my eyes and flip him the bird, "Fuck off mate."

He chuckles and grabs my head in a headlock, "Noah is rubbing off on you. By the end of senior year, we're gonna learn that Aussie slang."

We three laugh and grab our bags, making our way towards the main door.

As we're walking out of the locker room, us usually being the last three people to leave, we all pause in our steps when we see the newbie standing at the door, leaning against it. As soon as he hears us, his eyes find ours and I feel Eli and Jason tense beside me. I can tell Eli wants to punch his face, not one to forgive someone for bad-mouthing his close friends and I take one step ahead of him to signal him to let him know that I've got this.

"What is it now?" I ask.

He seems nervous and finally, after a second of extra pondering, he speaks up, "I gotta apologise to you. I didn't know better and I don't think before saying shit."

I nod for him to continue and he does, "I also overheard a bit of your talk back there. I mean, I can help, I guess?"

Eli scoffs, "We're okay. We don't want your stupid ass to help us."

Newbie winces and replies, "Look, man. I really got off on the wrong foot here. Give me a chance, I'll prove it to you that I'm fit to be on this team."

Jason laughs dryly before covering it up with a fake cough, and Eli and I both turn to give him an amused look before nodding slightly.

We turn to look at the newbie, who's running his hand through his hair and bouncing on his heels nervously, and I say, "Fine. Get us everything you can on this Elliot. And stop believing in random bullshit. Not a single word of this gets out, you get me?"

He quickly nods and we reciprocate it, "Won't let you down captain. Oliver Jackson at your service."

Eli and I snap our heads to him and we both say simultaneously,

"Wait do you know-"

"You're fucking related to-"

"Noah Jackson?" we end at the same name, causing Oliver's eyes to widen in surprise and stone-cold fear.

"Fuck. Don't tell my brother about today."

We smirk at him, Eli replying, "If you're smart enough, nothing will reach Noah."

He nods quickly.

I look at Eli and Jason and back at Oliver. My mind immediately thinks of Aliana, and that fuels the determination in me tenfold. I don't care what her past is with Elliot, but I won't let him do any more damage than he has already done.

"Boys," I smirk at all of them, "time to get this bitch on a leash."

⋈ ⋈ ⋈

As I'm typing this, so late from my usual upload time because I'm late yet again, we have hit 10k reads and I'm not even ready to accept it. This book, this baby of mine, has reached this milestone and I feel like an extremely proud and overwhelmed mother. Gosh, I can cry. I really can. I'm gonna control my emotions right now and say a huge sorry for being so late to update.

I'm not the most satisfied with the end but we're gonna roll with it for now. Don't hate me. I'm so sorry again. I'm gonna ask the question of the week and then we're gonna get real sappy.

Q. Think of the happiest moment(s) of your life and tell me all the emotions (except, obv, happiness) which you went through. I wanna know them.

Thank you so so so freaking much. I can say a thousand thank you's and they still won't be enough. I never in my life expected 10,000 reads and now that I'm here, I cannot contain my happiness. Thank you. I love you. I'm gonna go now cause it's a long enough chapter. Give me your feedback if you've read till here. Okay, Ciao! Thank you again my bitches.

Love,

Anya <3