[Revised]

"I just want to talk."

At this, Aurora whipped around and crossed her arms. "About what exactly?"
Brad's eyes darted around the room, like a mouse trapped in a corner looking for an escape route.

Orion stood up.

"You better go before I punch you to the ground. You still owe me one," he cracked his knuckles and his neck, then he grunted.

Brad visibly recoiled, almost bumping into the person seated behind him.

"Please, Aurora. It-it will be quick." He wanted to place his hand on Aurora's shoulder, but Orion stepped out from behind the bench and began to make his way towards him.

"What's your problem, man? She obviously doesn't want to have anything to do with you," Orion shoved him, and Brad stumbled backwards, causing a stir amongst the surrounding audience. A few murmurs rippled across the crowd, and a few of them even began to take out their phones to film the scene.

Aurora was behind Orion in a second, wrapping her arms around his biceps in the attempt to pull him back. "It's okay Orion," she whispered in his ear, "I'll see what he wants."

"You don't owe him anything," Orion snarled. He attempted to shake her off, but Aurora held her ground.

When Orion didn't show any signs of standing down—he was practically growling now-Saffron also jumped up from his seat and in two strides he was by his side. He wrapped both arms around his torso so he could also restrain him. "Don't get involved Orion. He's not worth it." Aurora pressed, tightening her hold on his arm.

Orion's anger simmered down until only his hands were shaking with the remnants of his rage.

"Alright! I'm calm. Get off me," Aurora and Saffron simultaneously let him go-Saffron returned to his spot at the table while Aurora stepped forwards and grabbed Brad's hand.

"This better be quick." She hissed, dragging him behind her.

Zara, who up to that moment had been silent, finally spoke up. "I think he was high."

"Unsurprising," Saffron muttered, his attention once again on his phone.

Orion lumbered towards the table, grinding his fist against his temple. "I need a smoke," he announced. He grabbed his backpack and swung it over a shoulder, muttering a 'see you' under his breath as he left for the courtyard.

And then there were two.

Zara drummed her fingers against the table, annoyed at Saffron for not investing any of his usual attention in her.

She tilted her head to one side and adjusted her glasses, resting her chin on the palm of her hand. She looked over at the table again—only Max and some chick were there. She was holding his hand and saying something to him. The other two were gone. Zara couldn't stand the sight, and decided to leave rather than sit there and be a wallflower or a peeping Tom.

"I think I'm gonna go..." Zara began, expecting Saffron to do something rash like, stop her or something. Instead, quite frustratingly, he grunted without looking up from his device.
Zara snorted and stormed away, unable to deal with him any longer.

-:-

Max sat in the cafeteria surrounded by the three stooges, his eyes trained on the Coke in his hand whilst his thoughts ventured elsewhere. To his displeasure, Zara kept crawling back into his mind, no matter how many times he attempted to subdue her. It certainly didn't help that she was sitting just a few tables away from him. When he walked in, he had made sure that he was seated so that she was in his peripheral vision. For some unknown reason, he wanted to keep an eye on her—after hearing about Zara's morning incident with Robert, it wasn't impossible that he was going to attack her as soon as everybody's backs were turned. The moron was also a coward.

He couldn't afford to have anything happen to Zara. Her wellbeing was the key which would open the door to his freedom. After that, he didn't care what happened to her. She could jump off the Empire State building for all it mattered. 

Max took a sip from his drink and involuntarily turned his head to her table, his forehead crinkling with perplexity when he noticed how immersed she was in herself. He wondered what she was thinking about.

"Yo Max, what's up? You seem a little distant bro," Sebastian asked. When Max didn't respond, he also turned his head towards that table, his eyes narrowing when he realised what he was looking at.

"Don't tell me you actually like her. I thought we were just messing around in English." Before Zara could catch him staring, Max tore his gaze from her silhouette and instead glowered at Sebastian.

"What makes you think that?" He asked, testing the waters. The last thing he needed was this idiot to start interrogating him.

"The way he looks at her," Samantha butted in, a toothy smile cracking her foundation-caked face. "It's the same way Robert looks at me."

"Oh please," Max let out a forced laugh, "he looks at other girls' asses like that too." The three boys guffawed.

"Yeah I knew you were just playing!" Jeremy exclaimed after sobering. "Let's face it, she's too much of a loser for you anyway."

A loser that could kick your teeth in and make a necklace out of them. 

"Anyone is better than her, even Samantha. Speaking of which, how come your tongue isn't down your beloved's throat?" Sebastian intertwined his fingers and rested his chin on them, looking at Samantha with a mischievous grin on his face.

"I'm thinking about breaking up with him," she said, picking at her nails.

"Hold up. A moment ago you were acting like you were in love with him, and now you're breaking up with him? You like being a hoe, don't you?"

"You're just jealous that I get fucked and you don't." Samantha stuck her tongue out and Sebastian turned beet-red. He walked right into that one. 

"Anyway," Samantha continued after flipping her hair over a shoulder, "after that bitch punched him in the face, I decided to reconsider my priorities." She reached over to Max and ran a finger down his bicep, licking her lips. Max looked down at her hand then at her, a smirk on his face. He liked where this was going.

"Right." Sebastian and Jeremy exchanged a look. "You know Bob is going to hunt you down for that right?"

Max shrugged, slipping his hand under the table to run it up Samantha's thigh. "He can come at me with all the sluts on his team. Not only will I kick his ass, but I'll also bang his girlfriend. See how he likes that."

Samantha giggled and bit her lower lip. He grinned at her. Doing someone else's girlfriend was just what he needed in order to find himself.

"Moving on. Robert's throwing a Halloween party this Friday. We going?" Sebastian pulled out a flyer from his backpack and slipped it across the table.

Max kept rubbing Samantha's thigh, his hand slowly moving upwards until he could trace the outline of her panties with his finger. He withdrew his hand though when he heard a shout from across the other side of the room. Brad was on the verge of getting his ass kicked by Orion.

Jeremy howled, Sebastian hooted, and Samantha scooted closer to him so she could wrap her arms around his waist. He could feel the muscles in his back relaxing as she ran her hand up his shirt. It was exactly what he needed.

Jeremy slammed the palms of his hands against the table and jumped back, stretching like a cat. "Aight, I'm out lads. Gonna go for a smoke. You coming with, Seb?"

Sebastian nodded and collected his stuff, but before he joined Jeremy, he said, "By the way. There's this new girl, Melissa. Haven't seen her yet, but, apparently, she's hot. Give me the run down if you see her." He winked, swung his arm over Jeremy's shoulders, and the two of them sauntered away.

Max turned to Samantha and went to stroke her cheek with the back of his hand, but she grabbed it and intertwined his fingers with hers. "I don't want to smudge my make-up."

Turn-off, much.

"Hey, we should go to the janitor's closet...I'm feeling a little-" she stopped mid-sentence when something caught her eye, "it's her." 

Max's brows furrowed, and he followed her ogling with his own. The girl, Melissa, strolled over to Saffron and tapped him on the back. When he turned to face her, he stood up and wrapped his arms around her.

Mierda.

-:-