C H A P T E R - X

"Lara Bear" Nate whispered, his voice dripping with concern and worry and I swallowed down all my tears and memories. I was fine. I was ok. I was strong.

"I'm extremely sorry...I-I didn't know..I'm so sorry" Nate stumbled upon his words cupping my cheeks and I tried to ease his worries by giving him a fake smile.

"You have nothing to apologize for, I just got nervous, I'm fine," I said convincingly and Nate engulfed me in his bear hug for the second time, me hugging him back. I liked being hugged. It felt nice and warm.

"I'm so sorry Darlin, I shouldn't have shouted at you", I shook my head and paused his sentence.

"It's fine Nate, it's all fine," I said hopefully convincing him and shot him a genuine grin.

Nate finished making my tie and then laughed at how adorable I looked. His words not mine and he continued pulling my cheeks. We both got startled as the door slammed open and we both screamed a little making the person shout at us to shut the f up. It sounded familiar, oh- it was Elijah.

He looked at us with slightly wide eyes before he grumped shaking his head stepping inside the room. Nate and I looking at each other and I asked him what happened with my eyes while he just shrugged, shaking his head with a confused expression.

Elijah had a deep permanent scowl on his face as he aggressively took off his shirt and I immediately averted my gaze, my cheeks heat up and Nate gave me a sly smirk and suggestively raised his brows.

We didn't know what to do at this particular moment so we just resort to staring at him as he took got himself dressed in his uniform, like creeps.

"Can you stop creeping me out for fuck's sake?" We jumped at Elijah's loud voice and gulped.

"Uhm- where-where-where were you?" Nate stumbled upon his words crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes at Elijah who rolled his eyes and told him to fudge off.

Nate scoffed at him and turned away his head towards me, his nose up in the air, as he flipped his 'hair' like a diva.

"Let's go Lara bear" As if one cue, Elijah's head snapped up towards me, I think he may have broken his neck at how fast he snapped it, and scanned me up and down, his scowl replaced by the soft look and a minuscule smile on his face. His dark eyes became light again as he continued to look at me. I shyly tucked the loose strand that escaped my braid and played with my fingers.

Nate who saw this whole scenario smiled, his eyes twinkling with mischief. He grabbed my arm and started to drag me out of the room slowly, looking behind him from the corner of his eyes. What is the actual chicken drumsticks is he doing?

"Wait for me!" Elijah shouted frustrated with Nate, quickly wearing his shoes. He stood up picking up his bag and he looked down at the floor, shaking his head before leaving for the closet.

Nate grumbled and tapping his foot impatiently, continuously looking at his wristwatch which wasn't working btw. Elijah came into sight with a box of shoes, why doe- oh- I forgot to wear my shoes. Ugh, such an idiot.

I blushed red in embarrassment and quickly bent down to wear them. I stood and noticed Elijah already had scooped up my bag effortlessly on his shoulder. Awh.

"Let's go!" Nate shouted as he grabbed my arm and started running away from Elijah who chased after us cursing at Nate who showed him a middle finger.

How lovely.

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I shared English, physics, and math with both Elijah and Nate, Chemistry with only Nate, P.E, and History with Elijah, and Arts and Spanish alone. Like I have eight subjects, they only have seven because they took extra classes in their previous years, I however had a different system in my previous school so I have to take eight classes. Ugh, I wanna die.

This was gonna be literal torture!

Right now, we were on our way to the first class which was English and I took a deep breath trying to calm myself down. Nate and Elijah were on either side of me as my personal bodyguards, scaring all the other boys off. I felt safe and secure but at the same time, I couldn't but feel like a baby. I was being too dependent on them.

My pants legs unrolled and I went stumbling on it about to fall and crack my head open, but Elijah grabbed my waist before I could. Tingles burst where he grabbed me, and I swallowed down all the inhumane noises.

"Careful Angel" He whispered slowly in a soft voice, steadying me on my feet before bending down and rolling it properly. My eyes widen as I look at him shocked and turned to look at Nate who gasped, his eyes like saucers, and mouth wide open as he looked at Elijah who ignored him and continued to roll. He put his hand over his mouth looking at him with a still shocked expression etched on his face.

Elijah stood up brushing off his pants before his eyes fall on the shirt I wore, practically drowning in it with a smile on his face before shaking his head. He looked at Nate giving him a blank glare and dragged me to our class.

"You-you-you-" Nate stumbled not finding the words to say and continued walking with us speechlessly.

"Shut up" Elijah grumbled hiding his smile looking down at me with a soft look and light hazel eyes.

I looked down shyly feeling giddy and a wide grin made its way onto my face.

The whole class paused in what they were doing and turned to look at us as soon as we stepped inside. More specifically me.

Although, I wanted to hide behind Elijah and Nate but I didn't. I need to have a backbone, so I stood my ground no matter how hard my gut was wrenching and chest tightened. It was ok, it was fine. They aren't gonna eat me.

We walked through the rows, everyone murmuring to each other and we made our way to the last seats. Perfect.

"Ay, what ya looking at fuckers?" Nate hollered at them and everyone immediately adverted their gazes pretending not to look at us, Nate snickered and sat like some royal dood as he put his feet up on the desk making me cringe.

"Put your feet down" I scolded him while he just looks at me and ignored me.

"Put your fucking feet down" Elijah growled at him leaning over to shove his feet off the table and slapped the back of his neck while he glared back slapping his shoulder back.

"Stop!" I shout at them making everyone turn to look at me like I was some alien but turned away, courtesy of the boys' glare.

"Sorry" They mumbled simultaneously brooding in their seats making me giggle. They were like little kids. And I was glad to have them as my friends.

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