Because She's Different

Chapter Thirty-One: Ice ✓

Ria's POV

"I was expecting this to happen," I roll my eyes.

Cole was sitting on the bed, Julian was sprawled on the floor looking up at me with his chin resting on his hands, Randy was standing with his arms crossed and Brian was laying down on my bed reading a book from my shelf without a care in the world.

They barged in here and I'm surprised that the door didn't break.

"Good. Now what was that?" My brother demands.

"An unwanted reunion," I bluntly reply.

"Who was that?" Cole asked with a slight tone of anger in his voice.

"Someone my brother should've beaten up when I was in middle school if I told him." I answer, looking anywhere but at them.

"What did he do?" I notice my brother's and Cole's hands clenching. Brian was now paying attention since he was actually glancing at us now.

"Remember when I was always packed up with homework?-" my brother nods. "Most of those weren't mine. They were his and his friends'. It's this thing called stupidity that I lost over time. I was blinded by infatuation and I was gullible so I actually thought he liked me back." I explained.

"Meaning to say he used you?" Brian asks, looking up from the book and I just nod in reply. He closes the book and tosses it to me, standing up and before I could nag him he walked out of the room.

Julian sighs. "Can we beat him up?" he pleads and I just shook my head in reply.

"Let's just leave it as it is. I don't want to attract more attention." I sigh and sat on the bed, leaning my head on Cole's shoulder. "I'm sorry," I mumble. 

"It wasn't your fault that we were ignorant." He says as he opens his arms. I got up and hugged him, sighing in comfort. 

"You don't have to tell our parents. I don't want them to worry." I hear him hum in agreement and felt the vibrations on his chest.

"Get some rest. You can come to school on the day you were supposed to." Cole smiles as he stood and helped Julian up. 

"I can't avoid him forever. I'll come back tomorrow then we'll see." I smile back.

The guys nod and left my room right after, waving at me with smiles. I sighed loudly and fell back on my bed, drifting off to sleep. 

  -•-*-•- 

"Look it's her"

"What does she have that we don't?"

"I bet she blackmailed him."

Those were one of the few whispers from the girls since I arrived school. That wasn't the only thing in my mind, even Brian wasn't here. I felt a hand on my back and looked back to see Julian smiling at me, rubbing my back. Behind him were Randy and Cole. 

"Ladies, Ladies. Your stares and whispering are rude," He announces with a grin. The girls gush over it and went to do their business. I smile at Julian as gratitude. The day was almost over and it was Lunch. The odd but good thing was that I didn't see Lance--Not once.

"Have you guys seen Brian?" I ask them before taking a bite out of my cupcake. 

Speak of the devil and he shall come. Yes, it's Brian.

There was something different about him. He had this dark vibe to him, like anger. He sits down on the chair and huffs. 

"What happened to you? Hid a body or something?" Randy jokingly asks. 

"It was almost the first. Any ideas where I could hide a body?" He replies, massaging his knuckles--bruised knuckles. 

"Did you get into a fight?" I asked him, concern looming over me. 

"It wasn't even a fight since the guy was so weak," he scoffs at which I gave him a serious look and he sighs. "Okay yes. But he didn't even get to hit me..that much," he trails off. 

Without thinking twice, I grabbed his wrist and successfully jumped over the table and dragged him to the clinic--well, tried to. Upon getting to the clinic, I immediately got an ice pack from the fridge and wrapped a towel around it. I walked back to him and took his hand, gently pressing the pack onto his knuckles. I feel him wince and I mumble an apology. 

"Who was it?" I ask after a few minutes of silence. 

"Who else? It was the same douchebag from yesterday," he growled, looking away. 

"You punched him for me?" I bit back the smile that was trying to make its way onto my lips. 

"Punched? I beat the daylights out of him." He waved his good hand around to prove his point. "I left last night to tell him not to bother you but he disagreed and challenged me so I waited for him this morning and beat him up. I took a few more hours to try and cool  off." he continued. 

I smiled and hugged him, him hugging back. 

"Why?" I suddenly ask after pulling away and gently pressing the ice pack again. 

"You don't deserve that," he mumbles.

"How would you know?"

"Because you're unique. You're the only girl who approached the table without any sexual thoughts." he explains.

"What if I was just there for my brother?"

"Why would you hang out with us after school and let me drive you home?" he questions me. 

"Now that you put it that way, I do find you as better company than fake girls." I scoff. 

"Let's just go back, I think my hand's better now." He says standing up and holding his hand out to me. I  take it with a smile and placed the pack on the table, walking out with Brian. 

On our way back, we exchanged jokes and funny stories which made us take longer because we had to stop to laugh. Sure, people that we pass by gave us weird stares but we didn't care because it was fun. 

I've never seen this side of him before and I'm glad I saw it.