TARON

CHAPTER TWO

TAYLOR BENNETT, 16
Lunch Break
"You alright in that skirt, Tay?" Estelle asks me as she darts her eyes to my exposed legs.

"If I said 'Yes', I'd be lying." I reply playfully.

Estelle has been my friend for quite some time now.
She was the first person to approach me aside from Miya and Lendl when I had just arrived here, and for that, I will forever be thankful to her, since it's because of her, that I didn't have to go through being the new girl alone.

"Have you girls heard yet?" Lendl says to us over Estelle's shoulder.

"Heard what?" Estelle, Miya and I add curiously. Lendl raises an eyebrow and leans forward even further over Estelle's shoulder, "I hear that Taron's back." she says in a serious tone.

I hold no reaction other than slight confusion to the revelation. I have never known someone that goes by that name, but based on the way she said his name, it seems this 'Taron' isn't well liked and because of that, I doubt that I would like him either.

I'm not a big fan of gossip but my curiosity got the better of me, "Who's Taron?" I ask, intrigued.

All of the girls proceed to look at me with hesitant expressions. "Taron has been a student here since what, freshman year? But he took last year off and he's had to repeat his senior year this year." Lendl replies.

Miya adds "He's rude and nobody likes him except his friends," with an emphasis on 'nobody'.

The girls proceed to divert their gazes from me as they let me process what has just been said.

Is Taron really that bad?
I ponder, then finally ask innocently, "But plenty of boys here are rude, what makes Taron any different?"

The girls' eyes quickly dart back to mine reluctant to keep talking about him but continue to do so in response to my question.

"He's exceptionally rude to the more wealthy students, especially towards Leyton and Estelle. And he fights like there's no tomorrow if he's provoked enough. Taron just has a really, really bad temper." Miya responds.

"Taron is known for other things too." Lendl babbles as she looks up at the ceiling, "He's really tall. Not so much sexy tall, more freakishly tall. I don't know his exact height but he's definitely well over six-foot-tall, maybe even nearing seven."

I am stunned with surprise as I have never encountered anyone who fits such a tall description before.

"He's also known for being exceptionally honest with everything." She pauses, "There was even a point in time where people would approach him to get honest answers to their ridiculous questions."
She laughs and I smile internally. Really? People even began asking him questions because they wanted his honest answers? That's ridiculous.
But it's nice to know that even though he sounds like a snide, he doesn't sound like a liar.
To me, the latter of the two is much worse.

"He's also quite known for his looks. That boy is damn fine but he's a total jerk." Lendl adds as we all look at her with a slightly disappointed look.

"What?" Lendl asks as we continue to stare at her.

"You'll agree with me once you see him, Tay." she says with a smile and a nudge of my arm.

After a moment of silence, "I know you like Anders, but even he doesn't look as hot as Taron." Lendl says, followed by a smirk and a quick raise of the eyebrows.

Anders...
He's the boy who changed my life and he doesn't even know it. That scares me.

I didn't think I'd ever see him again after that night.
So when I saw his beautiful face and shiny blonde hair on my first day here, I was actually happy to see that out of nowhere, he just happened to be at the academy I chose to attend.
The problem is that he doesn't seem to take an interest me. I don't even know if he remembers that night of drunk passion we shared all those years ago.