bad for you

TWO.

CHAPTER TWO.
"BURNING UNDER MY SKIN"
The Only Reason - 5 Seconds of Summer

The boy still had her phone, which made Ariana even more terrified. What if something happened at school and she needed to get a hold of her parents? Or what if she forgot her textbooks at home and needed to text her mom to bring them? What was she going to do when she finished all of her work in Chemistry? All of these made up scenarios played over and over in Ariana's head as she rode to school in the passenger seat of her older brother's Jeep.

They arrived at Williamsburg Prepatory High School 10 minutes early. She headed to her locker after telling her brother goodbye, and leaned her forehead against the cool metal. A hand was placed on her shoulder and Ariana jumped as she turned around. Startled, she placed her hand over her chest and sighed out in relief.

"Jesus, Luke. You scared me."

"Sorry," the curly headed blonde said, chuckling. "You looked to be in your own world for a minute there."

Ariana loved Luke. They had been best friends since freshmen year, when Luke moved during the summer. The two had been partnered for Chemistry that year and had been best friends since.

"Something happened this morning, and I just..." She trailed off. "Anyway, hi. How was your weekend?"

"It was good! Jack was out with his girlfriend all weekend so i basically had the place to myself," he said, smiling brightly. "Gia came over. It was chill."

"I wish I could've came over," Ariana said, reaching into her locker to pull out her History textbook. Luke frowned. The plan was for the three friends to watch movies at Luke's all weekend, but Ariana wasn't allowed. She had important family things to attend to, which mainly dealt with signing papers and sitting in a law firm all weekend. "Is our chem test today or tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow."

"Oh thank God, I forgot to study," she said, shutting her locker after grabbing her notebook for second period.

"So what happened this morning?" Giovanni asked, looking up from her phone. Ariana looked up at the blonde haired girl, raising an eyebrow. "Luke said something happened to you this morning. He didn't tell me what."

"She didn't tell me either," Luke said, looking up at Ariana. His head rested on Ariana's legs while the three of them sat around the oval on the soccer field during lunch. The Italian girl rolled her eyes, leaning back on her hands.

"You guys are gonna make a big deal of it," Ariana said, earning a few looks from her friends. "I went for a run and met this guy. That's it."

"Yeah, but you were all weird. Like you'd seen a ghost or something," Luke explained. Gia looked up from her phone, staring at the girl.

"Just tell us," Gia said, reaching over to grab a chip from the bag that Luke was currently eating out of. Ariana sighed.

"Fine," she said firmly. "I went on my run this morning, I got kinda lost. Somehow I ended up in Brownsville."

"Woah, you were in Browns? Ari, you know that's one of the most unsafe neighbourhoods in Brooklyn. You breathe in the wrong direction and you could get killed," Luke said, sitting up. Gia fixed her attention to the girl too, both of them concerned.

"I know," Ariana said with a sigh. "But that's not the full story." Luke and Giovanni were Ariana's best friends -- she trusted them with her life. So she didn't hesitate in telling them the full story, including the blood and gore. When she was finally done, Gia stared at her with a blank expression while Luke's jaw nearly hit the ground.