Rage

Chapter Ten

Julio wasn't in school for the next three days, and I felt almost worried.

He'd dropped me home after an hour or two of just sitting with our legs dangling off the edge of the building. I'd thought I was going to die, but Julio promptly told me to stop being a wimp and sit my ass down.

Then, we'd talked. He didn't say anything personal, and just gave me his opinion on a bunch of movies and, surprisingly, books. I hadn't ever thought he'd read. I told him about how and why I'd come to town, but his nickname had still stuck.

Afterwards, he'd dropped me off at home but, before he could leave, I'd said, "You do know that this means we're actual, legit friends now, right?"

"I know." He'd said before speeding off into the distance, and I'd appreciated how I'd made a good thing come from a bad situation. Being sent here was the bad situation, but I'd managed to make from really great friends in the process. My old friends and I had completely lost contact, once I'd realized that I was the one making all of the effort and they hadn't called me first even once.

Well, I'd felt good about the whole friends thing until Julio dropped off the face of the Earth.

Which was why, when I walked into school on Friday morning, I did not expect to see him sitting there, wearing his usual dark colors and his head tilted downwards.

"Hi." I said, almost cautiously, as I took my seat.

"Hey." He looked up, and I almost gasped. There was a large, blue bruise on his eyelid that was yellowing at the edges. He even had a split lip. His face, on the whole, looked absolutely disgusting.

"What happened to you?" I demanded, my hand flying to cover my mouth.

"This is what happens when you piss off the wrong sort of people, princess." Julio informed me, a lazy smirk coming over his face. He then winced, showing that it hurt to even do that.

"Is this why you've been out of school?" I was curious. The poor guy looked like he'd been run over by a truck.

"Yeah," he brushed it off.

"Okay, fine. You missed so much entertaining stuff in Physics, though." I told him, my tone matter-of-fact.

"Did I?" He was clearly amused, and I could sense Mr. Barker's growing frustration as not one person in class listened to him.

"Of course not." I stated blankly, and Julio rolled his eyes at me. "And, we need to stop talking before our teacher cries."

Julio turned his gaze to the front of the class, where Mr. Barker was watching all of us with complete helplessness. All of his students were talking and no one heard a word he was saying.

"Shut the fuck up." Julio ordered, loud enough for everyone to hear him. His voice was calm and not flustered in the least, but it was enough for everyone to just stop.

Mr. Barker nodded at him in thanks, and I smiled. The bad boy could be sweet sometimes.

***
Chris was absolutely out of his mind. He had to be. He was so completely insane.

"What do you mean you punched Charlie?" I demanded, my mouth falling open.

"I mean, I punched Charlie." He said calmly, and my hand latched onto his shoulder.

"Are you serious right now?" I couldn't believe it the first time he'd said it, calm as could be over cheese fries (well, his cheese fries and my salad) and I still couldn't believe it now.

"I'm completely serious." How could he be this....... together? There really was something wrong with this boy.

"Why?!" Punching Charlie Melton wasn't something that you did. It just wasn't. I'd known him for, like, a month but even I knew that that was an unspoken rule.