Eli's P.O.V

I stared at Finley as she stared back at me, eyes wide with an emotion I couldn't decipher and suddenly our eye contact was broken by a teacher roughly grabbing my arm.

"Come on, Sanders," he said.

I shook my arm free from his but followed him. I wasn't sure how he knew who I was; I'm guessing he asked some students because I didn't have the faintest clue who he was. He led me straight to the office and sat me in a chair outside the principal's office.

"You're in a heap of trouble," he said sternly.

I shrugged. Honestly, I didn't care.

"You might get suspended," the teacher pressed.

I shrugged again. This was the first real fight I'd gotten into, so I highly doubt I'll be suspended.

"How are you taking this so lightly?" the teacher cried, throwing his hands up.

I shrugged again, kind of enjoying how aggravated he was getting. His face was turning funny colors as he got more and more irritated with my behavior.

"Kids these days," he muttered under his breath. "I swear, if I was principal-"

"I can take it from here, Steve, thanks," a cold voice interrupted the teacher's rant.

I looked up and saw Principal Mason. He was a cool guy, big, probably a football player back in his old high school days from the way he always talks to the football team about their playing, and he's reasonably fair. I associated this with the fact that he probably was sent to his principal when he was in high school, so he sympathized with us poor delinquents.

Steve, I guess that was the teacher's first name, flushed, mixing his purple face from being angry with red, making it look like he'd gotten punched several times in the face. "Yes sir," he squeaked.

I snorted at that. Coward.

Just then, Principal Mason's eyes fell on me and he sighed. "Sanders, what did you do now?"

"He got in a fight," Steve jumped in. "He beat Trey Fuller up so now Trey's in the nurse's room right now," as he spoke, Steve shot me a nasty look.

I stuck my tongue out at him and he jumped back, a little taken aback that I was smarting off to him.

"Sanders, I swear I'll-" he threatened but Principal Mason cut him off. "I'll deal with Sanders, if you please," he said coldly. "I am the principal, yes?"

"Yes sir," Steve mumbled and he left. As he did so, he shot me a smirk, probably thinking that I was going to get in so much trouble for this.

I rolled my eyes and was quite tempted to flip him off, but I didn't want to make my situation worse.

Principal Mason sighed. "Sanders, get in my office."

I followed him into his office and sat in the uncomfortable chairs on one side of his desk while he got the big plushy one behind his desk. He sat down and sighed deeply. "Sanders, what am I going to do with you?"

I shrugged. "I don't know, sir."

Principal Mason surveyed me from across the desk. "Sanders, what exactly happened?'

"He was implying that he and a bunch of other guys wanted to-" my fists clenched just thinking about it. "To have their way with Finley Collins."

That made Principal Mason raise his eyebrows. "Ms. Collins?" he frowned. "Why was Trey talking to you about Ms. Collins?"

"Finley and I are friends," I explained, my throat tight as I couldn't add the 'girl' in front of friend at the moment.

"You're friends with Ms. Collins," Principal Mason stated, as if trying to believe it.

"Yes," I answered.

"If I may, how did that happen?" he asked, the curiosity getting the better of him.

"I bumped into her in the hallway," I said, smiling slightly at the memory. "And knocked her books to the ground, and I helped her pick them up. And then it kind of... blossomed from there."

"So, let me get this straight, Trey was insinuating that he and a bunch of other people wanted to... as you put it, have their way with her, and you decided that punching him would make it better?" Principal Mason asked.

I nodded. "Yes sir. I shouldn't have punched him, but I didn't like the way he was talking about Finley," I can feel a slight blush color my cheeks.

Principal Mason leaned forward. "You and Ms. Collins are much more than friends, am I correct?" he asked.

And it was with a lump in my throat that I nodded.

Finley's P.O.V

I can't believe Eli got in a fight. He told me that all of those rumors about him fighting weren't true, and now he got in a fight with a boy that I didn't know.

I can't believe this.

The way he looked when the boy said something to him and then he whirled around and saw me, I actually felt... scared. The look in his eye was... dangerous and he had blood dripping from his knuckles. He had someone else's blood dripping onto the floor from his hands. He looked like if someone said one thing wrong, he would beat them.

He looked like he could hurt anyone.

Then Mr. Johnston, my evil English teacher grabbed Eli and pulled him away from me. Eli followed him quite willingly, but I still stared after him, wondering how Eli, my sweet, innocent, idiotic Eli could turn into dark, dangerous deadly Eli in a matter of seconds.

What did that boy say to him?

Next to me, Ashton whistled. "Looks like Eli Sanders up to it again."

I turned to her. "He's not like that. Eli isn't like that at all."

With that, I turned on my heel and strode to my next class.

...

I was at home, safe in my room when my mother decided to breach my security (a.k.a Luke) and enter my room to talk to me.

She knocked then opened the door. "Honey?"

I glanced up at her. "What?" I snapped.

She cautiously takes a step forward, as if approaching a injured animal. "I just wanted to talk."

"Yeah, well, Mom, our little talks just go so great, don't they?" I hissed and turned around, facing my wall with a book held firmly in my hands as I pretended to be reading.

"Finley, I just wanted to apologize."

Those words made me perk up my ears to listen, but I didn't say anything.

"I'm sorry that you and that boy are broken up, " she began but I cut her off.

"That boy has a name. It's Eli," I interrupted, still with my back to her.

"Well, I'm sorry that you and Eli," she tried out his name, testing it, hearing how it sounded to her. "Are broken up. I never wanted that to happen. I just wanted you to be careful around boys like him," she repeated the familiar words and they set my blood boiling and I whirled around, opening my mouth to yell.

"What do you mean, boys like him?!" I yelled. "If by that you better mean sweet, idiotic, adorable boys or no? Probably not, you think all boys are evil heartbreakers," I added bitterly.

Mom swallowed before speaking. "Honey, I've just been with boys that have tattoos and piercings and all they did was break my heart. I didn't want you to go through that pain."

"His only tattoo is of a heart over his symbolizing to love," I said flatly.

Mom blinked. "Well I just..."

"Just what?" I snapped. "Assumed things?" I immediately shut my mouth when I realized I did the same thing to Eli when I first met him.

"Yes," Mom admitted. "I did judge him too quickly, even though when you were just tutoring him I thought he was a lovely young boy. But then... you started dating and I couldn't see him as Eli anymore, I saw him as all the guys that broke my heart."

"He's not, Mom," I said softly. "He's really not."

"I see that now," she stood up and ruffled my hair. "I'm sorry for being so harsh with you and all I can say is I've never seen you happier when you were with Eli."

I smiled slightly. "Yeah," I whispered, suddenly feeling quite nostalgic and sad.

Mom left the room and I stared at the floor, thinking about Eli and what he meant when he yelled at me.

"Oh for God's sake," someone said.

I looked up and saw Luke. "What do you want?" I asked.

"This is getting pathetic," he rolled his eyes. "You need to talk to him."

"No I don't," I shot back. "Besides, he doesn't want to talk to me."

"Well, then it's a good thing-" Luke disappeared for a second and reappeared with Eli. "That I brought him along, and I'm not letting either of you out of this room until you make up."

With that, he slammed the door and I could hear him move something heavy against it and I stared at Eli, feeling my heart drop to my stomach with nerves. Eli scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Hey," he said.

"Hi," I said. "Guess we have to work this out."

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here you go, this is for 10K FREAKING FOLLOWERSE OMG I NEVER THOUGHT I'D GET THAT HIGH AND FOR THE RECORD I DON'T KNOW WHEN I EXACTLY GOT IT BUT I BUSTED MY BUTT UPDATED IN TWO DAYS FOR YOU GUYS YAY HERE YOU GO THANKS SO MUCH I LOVE ALL OF YOU(even if that is all 10k of you) BYE!

LOVE YA!

-T A Y L O R