Leona

I blew out a puff of air and banged my head against the tufted headboard of my grey sleigh bed. Grey's text couldn't have been father from the truth.

Grey: I don't know anyone else like you.

What was I doing? What would happen when he found out because he was going to find out. There was no way around it.

I decided to get to work on a few projects I had for school. I was used to working at my own pace, and I just wanted to get all of this school work out of the way. I had asked some of my teachers for their plans, homework, and projects just so I could get it all done. Most of them looked at me like I had a thousand eyes, but not Ms. Farr. She gave me a copy of her whole plan for this semester today.

There was a ten-page essay that was due in a few months that I was mostly done with when my phone buzzed next to me on my green desk. I looked down and it was a text from Greyson.

Grey: Hearthstone?

Me: Yeah in a minute

I texted back and pulled up the game on my computer. Immediately, I got a notification that he wanted to play. I accepted and scrolled through my decks. I had created this deck that made him draw all of his cards and I selected on the Druid deck.

After I completely demolished him and he had drawn himself to death, I received a text.

Grey: Witchcraft.

Me: You're the one playing the Warlock, not me. ;)

I winked at him. I had never winked before. What was getting into me? I thought.

Grey: Did you just... wink at me???

Me: No

Grey: Yes you did.

Me: No I didn't.

Grey: Its okay, I had a feeling that you wouldn't be able to resist me once you heard my voice.

I stared at the text, not knowing what to say. We had never flirted like this before, and I didn't want him to get the wrong idea. I was broken. I had panic attacks over silly things and boarded up my heart. I was incapable of any type of real relationship.

Me: I think I'd chalk it up to a typo.

Grey: Whatever you want to keep tellin yourself darlin

Grey: ;)

I laid my head down onto my pink floral pillow and closed my eyes. Instead of words coming to mind, all I saw was his face; his smile.

This was the first night in four years that I didn't need poetry to get me to sleep.

I walked into school the next morning with dread. I needed to avoid Greyson if I wanted to keep my relationship with him online. It was either have him as a friend online or not at all. I had already lied to him and he said that he didn't do liars, so I had to try my best to not run into him for the rest of the year.

I bolted towards my locker, hoping that he wasn't there and...

What was his problem?

Greyson was leaning up against my locker so I stopped in the middle of the hallway causing a few students to crash into me. I was always so careful not to make a scene, but I did just that.

"Watch it, loser!" The voice of a hundred dying cats rang through my ears from behind me. Erica.

I didn't need this right now. I just needed to keep my head down and get to Calc.

I mumbled a sorry to her, not wanting to add more fuel to the already painful dumpster fire unfolding in the middle of the hallway.

"Ugh, she got nerd all over me. Spray me," She demanded one of her followers who then instantly accommodated her.

I spun around and high tailed it to AP Calc before Greyson could stop me. I entered into the classroom, without my textbook, I may add, and sat down in the desk in the back.

A few more students filed in, as did Mr. Bryers. The last student to walk in was Greyson.

I had forgotten that he was in this class with me. He sat down next to me with a weak smile. Class started without a word from him.

Ten minutes into class, Greyson leaned over and whispered something to me. In an attempt to ignore him, I kept my face forward, but I felt something tickle my arm. I glanced down to see that he had put a folded piece of paper underneath my arm.

I looked over to him and he looked away towards the teacher. I unfolded it and read what was scrolled across the top.

Are you okay?

□Yes
□No

I let out a quiet chuckle and quickly forced my smiling lips into a flat line. I placed the note underneath my notebook and continued to look forward. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see him frowning.

Another piece of paper appeared underneath my arm, but I chose to leave it in its place.

For the remainder of the class, I had ignored his silly notes, which I knew must have bothered him to his core.

When class had finally concluded, I gathered up my things and walked up to Mr. Bryers' light wooden desk.

I set the next few months worth of homework in front of him and smiled. He nodded and said thank you to me before I turned on my heel to head to the Library.

Before I left the classroom, I felt a hand on my wrist. I immediately yanked it away and winced as if I was in pain.

The shallowness of your evil eyes bored into my weary soul. The cries of her pleas echoed through my ears. I screamed but no one could hear my wailing tears.

I blinked away the memory before spinning around to see Greyson holding his hands up in surrender. I opened my mouth and shut it closed before walking out.

I didn't do well with people touching me, and now he knew.

My vision threatened to disappear as the air in my lungs escaped for its life through my throat. I ran to the nearest restroom and knelt on the disgusting sticky floor, gasping for air.

The air, filled with hatred for me, burned my throat, causing searing pain in my chest. My tears fell, not paying any mind to the incomers to the stalls. Normally no one even noticed me on the floor, but this time I felt a warm presence on my left shoulder.

"Shh. It's okay. You're okay because this will pass... Breathe. you're safe." The words were an echo in the back of my mind as I came down from the panic attack. The feeling in my body returned and it was then that I realized I was in some one's embrace.

I pushed off and scrambled to my feet to see a very worried Greyson. His dark chocolate eyes searched mine as if he were trying to read my past.

We stayed like this for a moment before the door opened behind him. He jumped and turned around to see Ms. Farr standing in the doorway of the ladies restroom. She eyes Greyson up and down before looking to me.

"Honey, do you need to go home?" She asked, eyeing Greyson with a suspecting glare. I nodded and walked past Greyson, my comforter, and left him in the middle of the ladies restroom.