"He...he...he's dead!" I cried and stumbled backwards.

I ran into Hayden's hard chest. He protectively put his arms around me to stop my body from shaking..

"Oh my god...what-what do we do?" I stuttered, not being able to take my eyes off of the dead man laying in front of us.

My hands were shaking and a constant shiver went up and down my spine. I hadn't quite comprehended the fact there was a dead person in front of us. I had no control of my body or my thoughts. It seemed as if my mind just stopped working.

Hayden turned me around to look at him and covered my hands with his to stop them from shaking. The warmth from his hands traveled to mine and I relaxed a little.

Everything would be fine. I'm not alone in this.

My eyes glanced nervously around to see if anyone saw us and thought that we killed him. Or if the person that killed him was still out here and waiting to kill us.

"K.C.," Hayden spoke in a strong and firm voice.

I wasn't able to respond however. My mind was still numb and I was still in complete shock. I started shaking again.

"K.C, look at me," Hayden spoke again.

He seemed far more relaxed than I was. I was a nervous wreck and if he wasn't here I would have probably already started bawling my eyes out.

I tried to look at him but my eyes wouldn't obey my mind and they just kept on glancing around.

"Hey," Hayden said and put a finger under my chin to turn my head towards him.

While jumping around, my eyes locked with his and I found myself relaxing again.

"It's gonna be fine. You're gonna be fine," he reassured me.

"But...what--"

"It's gonna be fine," he pressed on, slowly making me believe his words. "Take a deep breath," he instructed.

I did as I was told and took a deep breath, exhaling slowly.

"I'm going to ask you to do something, okay?" he asked me.

I gulped and nodded my head, even though I had no idea what I was agreeing to.

"I need you to go back to my place. Make sure you don't get seen. I'll be right behind you. I just need to do something."

"Okay," I breathed.

"Okay...." Hayden said in a low tone. He kept on looking into my eyes, not letting go of my hands.

Looking at him made my short and nervous breaths slow down. I felt the shiver on my back slowly going away.

"Now go," he said to me and let go of my hands.

I stumbled away, my legs still being a little shaky. Once I got off of the street and onto the shortcut I had taken before, I looked back to Hayden. He was kneeling in front of the guy and checking out the wound. Blood ran down Hayden's hand and I felt like I was going to be sick.

Quickly, I made my way back to Hayden's house without being seen. Luckily the door was open from when he had run through it when we first heard the gunshot. Once I walked through the door, I walked over to the couch and sank down in it. I placed my head in my hands and took deep breaths.

Why was this so hard for me? It's not like I've never seen someone hurt. But he was dead! But it's not like it was my fault that he was dead. So why was I panicking so much?

As more and more thoughts filled my head, I heard the front door open. I looked up and saw Hayden walking through the door. His hands were covered in blood.

He walked into the kitchen and then I heard the faucet running. A few seconds later he came back out and kneeled down in front of me.

"K.C.," he said.

I looked up at him, not knowing what to think.

"You can't tell anybody about this," he told me.

"Why?" I asked with a shaky voice.

"Because it'll get you into tons of trouble," he explained. "It's best for everyone to think that we don't know anything."

"The guy is dead!" I exclaimed. "Somebody has to say something! He might have a family or...or....!"

Tears started brimming my eyes. I was really starting to panic now. My mind was slowly processing that we had found a dead guy on the street that we had seen just moments before completely healthy.

"Hey, people are gonna find him in the morning. Then word is going to get out and we'll pretend as if that's the first time we've heard of what happened," Hayden said.

"Hayden...I...I don't--"

"It'll be fine," he said and grabbed my hands, bringing them closer to him. "Nothing is going to happen."

"But what if people find out that it happened tonight? Max knows that I left and what if he thinks that I killed the guy?" I asked in a panicked voice. I was thinking about all the possibilities that this could be pinned on me.

"Then you play the innocent girl. Make him believe that you would never do something like that."

"You're making it sound like I actually did kill him," I chuckled and felt a tear rolling down my cheek.

Hayden chuckled and wiped away the falling tear with his thumb. "Come on. Let's get you home."

_______________________

The next day, the whole school was buzzing about two topics. Scratch that. The whole town was talking about two topics.

First of course still, who Hayden was with after the fight and second, about the dead guy that was found last night.

The police had found him early in the morning and took him to the morgue or wherever they bring people here when they die. Any statements regarding murder still had to be made. To be exact, the only people who knew that it was a murder were Hayden and I.

I hadn't seen him yet. Marie had been dragging me from friend group to friend group to find out more about the dead guy.

"And you're sure that's all you heard?" Marie impatiently asked some other girl dresses in a soft green church dress with a pink sweater tied loosely around her shoulders.

I was leaning against the wall of the building we were standing next to, dressed in blue jeans and a white flow top since today was a little warmer, completed with my black converse. I had been leaning against this wall for the whole break, being bored out of my mind as Marie kept on blabbing on about the 'dead guy'.

Trying to occupy myself, I looked up at the blue sky. But pretty soon this turned boring and my eyes started to hurt from the bright sun.

As I looked back down, Hayden and two other guys walked past me.

He looked in my direction and we locked gazes. Just as quickly as our eyes had met though, we broke contact and Hayden looked forward again.

I watched him walk away. My eyes roamed all over his body. His arms were exposed since he was wearing a muscle tee. His biceps looked great. So did the rest of his arms. His ass didn't look too bad either in those jeans...

"K.C.! What are you doing?" Marie interrupted my thoughts.

She looked in the direction that I was staring at and rolled her eyes. "Seriously? Hayden Warren? He's not you're type."

"How would you know what my type is?" I questioned her with a raised eyebrow.

"Because," was all that she said. "Now," she turned back around to the other girls, "how do you think he died?"

I rolled my eyes and let out a deep sigh.

Not wanting to just stand around anymore, I picked up my backpack I had put on the ground and walked away from Marie and her friends. Thankfully they were too caught up in their conversation and didn't notice.

As I walked around the corner of a building, a voice came on over the speakers of the school.

"Good afternoon, students. Could everyone please make their way into the cafeteria, thank you."

Students started walking towards a building. Since I still didn't really know my way around here, I just followed everybody else. I waited until the last few people had walked through the doors before I walked in so that I could stand in the back.

I walked into the cafeteria. It was buzzing with the voices of all the students. I leaned against the back wall and crossed my arms over my chest, waiting to see what this was all about. As I waited, I checked out my surroundings.

And I noticed something.

The two groups were even more divided today. Usually they sort of met int the middle but this time was a clear separation between the Bandits and the Elites.

I'm guessing that they blamed each other for the death of the guy even though he was a Bandit.

I heard the door closest to me open and I watched as Hayden walked trough the doors, alone. He walked to the wall where I was standing and leaned against it, several feet away from me.

This time however, he didn't even glance in my direction.

I was kind of hurt but I guess it was too dangerous to do some sort of recognition since someone could see.

"Hello, students," a loud voice said.

I looked to the front of the cafeteria and saw our principal standing on the small stage at the front with a microphone in his hand. He was wearing some brown slacks and a dark green polo t-shirt. Obviously an Elite.

"I'm sure that you have all heard about the recent death of one of our students, Joseph Contero," he spoke.

Murmurers went around the cafeteria before the principal quieted them.

"The cause of death has been found and I would like to inform you all about it."

I took a quiet deep breath.

Here we go. Let's see what was going to happen once people knew he was murdered and I wasn't home.

"Mr. Contero had consumed too much alcohol and was on his way home when he tripped and fell onto to ground, suffering from a severe headwound that was sadly so bad, that it took his life."

What?!

Everyone started talking to another about the new information.

I looked to Hayden who was also looking in my direction. He had a look on his face that showed he was just as confused as I was.

"My place. Seven," he mouthed to me before walking through one of the doors of the cafeteria.

_______________________

Why would they lie about the cause of death? What's going to happen now? Are K.C. and Hayden going too come clean about what they know?

Hopefully you liked the chapter! Remember to comment and vote!

Love you!

Emili