Hadley was a little out of breath as she plopped herself down in the chair opposite me at my regular table in the corner of the cafeteria. She had one hand stuffed in her bag, the other pushing her tray of food toward me.

This was a lot like the other day where Hadley had simply invited herself to sit down at the same table during lunch, but unlike that day, I wasn't necessarily all that annoyed to see her.

Weird.

I took one of the fries from the tray and took a bite. "What, that excited to see me?"

"No, don't be stupid," Hadley said airily. "I need to show you something."

"What --"

"Look!" Hadley had found whatever she'd been looking for in her bag and slapped it down on the table in front of me. "You need to witness this miracle for yourself."

It was a geometry test she shoved toward me and the reason for her excitement was obvious.

"A B plus?" I said. "You're ecstatic about a B plus."

"Well, duh," Hadley said. "I failed my last test."

She looked like she might've wanted to say more but then thought better of it, heat rushing to her face as she busied herself unwrapping her sandwich.

"Well." I pushed her test back across the table toward her. "Looks like you're not totally helpless. Probably because I'm such a fabulous tutor."

"Don't flatter yourself," Hadley said teasingly. "You just got lucky."

"Yeah, right," I said without thinking. "Me? Lucky? Okay."

Hearing Hadley throw that word around so casually was irritating in a way I couldn't figure out why. When have I ever been lucky?

Hadley pursed her lips as she stared at me. "You're awfully pessimistic. Did you know that?"

Yes. Yes, I did.

"You call it pessimism, I call it being realistic," I said before tossing back a few more fries.

"Right..." Hadley started to frown as she set her sandwich down. "But...well, look. Just one tutoring session and I actually passed a geometry quiz. So maybe my sitting with you at lunch isn't so bad, is it?"

The expression on her face had become surprisingly earnest, her smile full of something that seemed like it might've been hope. Whatever feeling it was that came over me then seeing her look at me like that, I didn't know, but I didn't like it.

"Yeah, maybe for you," I said, perhaps a little too harshly.

Hadley's face fell as she started fiddling with her sandwich wrapper, her gaze fixed firmly on the table now. "Do I really bother you that much?"

I hated the sharp jolt of guilt I felt at her question. I could've simply told her then that yes, she really did bother me, and maybe that would've been the end of it. Hadley and I would go our separate ways from there and that would be that.

But I didn't want to do that because the truth was Hadley didn't really bother me that much. Yeah, she was annoying, but that level of annoyance seemed to be decreasing the more time I spent with her.

Maybe that should've concerned me, but right then, I knew the next words to come out of my mouth were going to be some lame apology because I didn't think I could stand to see that expression on Hadley's face any longer.

"Hadley, just because I --"

"Well, what do we have here?" a slick voice cut in. "Has Archer Morales finally found himself a girlfriend?"

I knew without having to look who had invited themselves into my and Hadley's conversation -- Ty Ritter, JFK Prep's golden boy.

Ritter had been a thorn in my side since freshman year when we'd been forced to do a project together in Social Studies. Naturally he hadn't done his fair share and didn't appreciate that I refused to do his work for him. He'd flunked the assignment and the next day I found a copy of the news article about my biological father being sentenced to life in prison taped to my locker.

If it had been the article alone, I might've been able to eventually brush it off. Except a picture had gone alongside this article, and anybody who looked at that mugshot would've at once seen the resemblance between myself and my biological father.

If it weren't for the fact I'd gotten my mother's hazel eyes, I would be a carbon copy of that sorry excuse for a human being. And if it weren't for Ty Ritter, I might've gone more than a couple weeks at JFK Prep before people found out about what happened to my family.

So, in short, I hated Ty Ritter.

"Can I help you?" I asked, working to keep my voice level.

Ritter ignored me, taking a seat next to Hadley, pulling her fries toward him. "So we missed you at Bennett's party last weekend, Hadley."

Hadley pulled what could only be described as a grimace. "Parties aren't really my thing." 

"Shame," Ritter said around a mouthful of fries. "We're all kind of...bummed we haven't seen you around lately."

Hadley looked like she was going to interject, but Ritter kept on going, tossing back more fries. 

"So, I asked Taylor what's going on and she says it's because you've been spending all your free time with Morales here."

Whether Ritter was telling the truth or not, I was stunned by his comment. Hadley was blowing off her other friends just to spend time with me? The look Ritter sent my way, like I should've known better or something, certainly didn't help.

"That's hardly my fault," I pointed out awkwardly. "Take that up with Hadley."

Ritter finally shoved the near empty tray of fries away, clasping his hands together in front of him on the table. "Gotta hand it to you though, Morales. Maybe there's something...more to you that's special if you can get a girl like Hadley here." He paused to shoot her a wink that had Hadley noticeably scooting her chair away from him. "She's not exactly in your league, bro."

I felt torn between simply getting up and walking away, because that would've been the easiest thing. Remove yourself from the situation -- one thing my mom had parroted my entire eighth grade year.

Except I stayed exactly where I was, meeting Ritter's gaze head on. 

"I'm well aware, thanks," I said dryly. Obviously, I knew a girl like Hadley was out of my league. It had already been established we weren't even in the same solar system. "Anything else you wanna share, or do you just get a kick out of wasting my time?"

"Yeah," Ritter said shamelessly. "I do. But I'm also just looking out for Hadley's best interest here. Well, hers and yours too, because I'm such a nice guy." 

I cut my eyes to Hadley's when she definitely was about to interrupt and tried to silently tell her to keep her mouth shut. It must've worked because she kept quiet, crossing her arms over her chest. 

I'd put up with enough crap from this guy over the years to learn how to throw it right back to him, but this seemed like new territory for Hadley. 

"Care to elaborate?" I asked Ritter.

"Well, me and the guys have all been talking about it," Ritter said, rubbing a hand across his jaw in thought. "And we were thinking — you know, since your old man is in prison and all — that you're gonna wind up there someday too. It's only a matter of time, right?"

I felt myself freeze as those words went in one ear only to bounce painfully around my skull. Because Ritter had hit the nail right on the head.

As if that very thing wasn't one of my greatest fears: ending up in prison like my old man.

 "So, that being said, it's probably best if you just cut your losses now and leave Hadley to us. Practice the whole you must not come within five hundred feet of this person thing, because we both know a pretty little thing like Hadley couldn't possibly —"

"Would you just shut up and leave him alone, Ty?" The loud outburst from Hadley had me struggling not to gape at her. She'd turned to face him in her chair, an angry flush creeping into her cheeks. "Seriously! Could you be more of a jerk?"

Even Ritter looked stunned at Hadley's response, and I used that to buy me a second to get a grip on the surge of anger flaring up in the pit of my stomach. 

"Well, I'm pretty sure she just gave you your answer," I said to Ritter. "Take care."

Ritter had managed to wipe the look of shock off his face by the time he replied. "Well, at least think about it, Morales. Might do you some good."

I waited until Ritter had sauntered off before I rounded on Hadley.

"Don't ever speak for me again." The words came out sharp, biting. "You may think you just did me a favor, but you did the exact opposite. I can take care of myself."

Hadley was wide-eyed, open mouthed as she stared at me. It looked like there were a million things she was dying to say, but nothing was coming out.

I stood up, snatching my backpack off the ground. "So I'll thank you for keeping your nose out of my business. The same goes for your dumbass friend."

I left the cafeteria without looking back. I had no idea where I was going or what I was going to do, but I knew I wouldn't be able to concentrate if I went to my next class now.

Somehow, I was going to have to calm down, but how I was supposed to do that was lost on me.

My feet carried me into the library, and I barely remembered to sign in at the front desk. When I reached my favorite chair hidden away in the back corner of the library, I threw myself down and stuck my head between my knees, willing the anger and now nausea welling up inside me to just go away.

At no point in my life had anyone ever done that -- stepped in to tell whoever had been giving me grief about my biological father to stop -- and so far, I hated it. It made me feel weak, like I couldn't look after myself. I absolutely could look after myself. I'd been doing it for years and stopping now wasn't an option.

Apparently, I hadn't made that clear to Hadley. 

And apparently, I was going to have to fight the urge to go and fix that, to tell Hadley exactly where she went wrong, because she needed to know. Right?

But that was going to have to wait. I knew if I did it now, I'd end up saying something that we'd both regret. The thought of Hadley looking at me with wide eyes, like I'd just given her a verbal slap, wasn't something I wanted to witness again. That was almost just as overwhelming as the anger I felt toward that idiot Ritter – maybe even more so.

I couldn't stand either.