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1.

Colton

Walking into the field where the bonfire is being held, two things hit me. The first, I had been away from home for far too long. The second, is the wariness in every set of eyes I meet. Yeah, I don't have the best rep around here, I've been labeled the "bad boy" because I fight and defend people I care about. Like last year, half way through our Junior year, my best friend's twin sister was being picked on and tormented because of something that I said. I'll admit, it wasn't nice, at all. I was drunk when I made a comment or two about her possibly being obsessed with me. I called her a freak and a nerd. This was at a Halloween party. How was I supposed to know that things would get out of hand. I thought that Danny's rep would have protected her, shit I thought her own zero fuck's given attitude would have protected her. God, had I been wrong. The worst part was that she hid it and she hid it well for months, the bullying. Until she couldn't.

Danny and I were meeting her and her best friend, Jasmine, who is the same girl that Danny has a thing for, in the parking lot after school one day. Jasmine was there, Tayla wasn't. Jasmine and Danny fell into easy conversation while we waited for her. I was leaning against the car soaking in the midwinter afternoon sun when I got an alert on my phone about a live video. I opened it and saw a small group of guys surrounding Tayla outside the green house around the back of the campus. I didn't hesitate, I took off running.

When I got to them, two guys were holding her back while a third was in her face talking about her being out of her league. She had zero expression showing how she was feeling. She had shut down. She let her head fall back and her eyes clamped shut as he reached for her, sliding one hand down the front of her and the other over her hip. I realized she was tired and done fighting.

I lost it.

I ripped him away from her, I stepped in between them. I checked her over but she wasn't there, not really. The dipshit behind me said something, I'm not even sure what he said, next thing I remember that happening was Danny and three others hauling me back. My eyes caught hers and nothing. Tayla, my best friend's twin sister, the girl I vowed to protect when I was younger because of what she meant to him, what she meant to me, was gone. I froze when it hit me, it was my fault.

Now, it's the night before our first day of senior year. Danny talked me into coming out to celebrate being home. I had been gone for six months to an anger management program because of how much pent up rage poured out of me while I beat the shit out of Max Davis, the motherfucker who had put his hands on her.

"Where's your head at, man?" Danny said appearing in front of me.

"Nowhere." I smiled and pulled him in for a bro hug. "How was your summer?"

"Not bad, kind of boring. Dad had me and Tayla working at the shop. Jasmine was around, but they are a package deal." He shrugged.