Maya's PoV

There was something about her. I couldn't put my finger on it but it was there, radiating energy and drawing me closer. She acted out when I'd first tried to speak to her but I knew it wasn't because she was a horrible person. I knew she was trying to get me to back away to save herself from any more pain. That was the obvious part. My brother had done the same; Brad stupidly got drunk and a girl took advantage of him. She spread to his girlfriend that he'd cheated on her and it all went up in the air. He lost his girlfriend, some of his friends and the reputation he'd done so well to uphold for years. Everyone judged him. So he shut everyone out, including us at home, and became a shell. Music was his outlet too, he'd listen to heavy metal all day every day and at best we'd get a grunt as a response. It took a long agonising time to bring him out of that. He tried to run away, argued and screamed at us to leave him be but we fought him on it. Now he's thankful. Now he understands what we were doing and I'm going to do the same to Eva.
Those guys in class were clearly the bullies, you could tell it from the way everyone acted around them. They were a popular girl's dream unless you wronged them, then the grim reaper was in your shadow, following you and waiting for them to pounce and ruin your life. The way three of them had glanced over at Eva before she shrunk in her chair had told me everything I needed to know. She was on the wrong side of them. She needed someone to be on her side and stick up for her and I was going to be that person whether she wanted me there or not.
I followed her out to lunch and sat beside her without caring what her feeling was towards it and weirdly, she was already more receptive to me - even smiling as she spoke to me. Something had changed in her.

"So, what did you do to piss off the kids?" I asked humorously as I watched her shift uncomfortably, taking a swig of water to delay her answer as she thought properly about it.

"I was trying to help but I'm so stupid. I was texting Ashton to help him through a breakup but I never told him who I was." She sighed heavily, her tense shoulders relaxing as she finally got her version of events out to someone. Was that it? Was that even a bad thing?

"And...?" I pressed for more but she shook her head.

"He found out it was me. He flipped." She said honestly. For the first time, my eyes fell to the red mark on her neck. They widened in shock.

"Tell me he didn't do that to you..." I nodded towards the injury. She kept quiet. "My God Eva! You need to tell Williamson or someone!!" She got defensive within a second, shaking her head so strongly her hair flipped in front of her face.

"Absolutely not. Then I'd be in even more shit. Please, keep this between us. I don't want them to do anything worse." The vulnerability she showed me was astounding. She clearly knew more about these guys than I did and they were bad news. She told me everything I needed to know with a single glance.

"...Okay. But know I'm not happy about it. You seem nice, you shouldn't have to be scared around these idiots." I said, opening up to her quicker than I had with any other person I'd met. Like I said before, something drew me in like a magnetic force - the raw honesty you got with her, her eyes that said everything you needed without words. The fact they were a grey blue colour that reflected the London skies only made it better. I'd done this too many times before though, got myself all interested in a girl only to be turned down. It was always apologetic, explaining to me that they only liked me as a friend or that they weren't into girls. I needed to keep away from that awkward conversation this time. I needed to pace myself and wait for her to tell me.

Before I knew it, lunch was over. We'd talked nonstop, changing subjects like the wind but always keeping up. It was a shame when we had to hug and part ways, a part of me missing her as soon as she was out of sight. I headed down to my psych class for the last lesson of the day and was surprised to be greeted by Calum standing in the hallway looking like he was up to no good.

"Maya right?" He spoke to me smoothly, leaning back against the lockers in an attempt to look cool.

"Yeah. What do you want?" I said quickly, not wanting to waste any time. I had a feeling I knew what he was going to say, so I pushed my luck and pressed for it straight away so I could put a stop to it.

"Straight to the point. I like it." He smirked. "I was just gonna see if you were doing anything on Friday night. I wanted to show you what proper company is like, not like earphones." He was trying to tell me who was good to talk to? Trying to get me into his gang so they could all approve of me before he tried to date me? No thanks.

"EVA." I raised my voice to make a point. "Was great company thank you. In fact I've already got plans to hang with her on Friday night. But thanks for the offer." His face dropped and a snarl replaced it. He didn't like the fact I'd chosen her over him. He was meant to be a guy that every girl wanted, the one who you'd swoon for when he asked you out and would have dropped everything to be with. Except I'm not every girl.

"You're seriously choosing to hang out with that loser over me and my friends?" He snapped, looking around to make sure no one had noticed that he'd just been rejected.

"Looks that way doesn't it?" I shrugged, turning my back to him to head into class.

"You've just made your first mistake Maya. I'd be careful if I were you." He hissed quietly into my ear. I spun back to face him, my face inches from his as I spat my response.

"And you'd better be careful that I don't report you for harassment and your dumbass friend for physically hurting Eva. Now fuck off." Calum took a step back in shock, his body taking a second to register before it tensed and he huffed, storming off without so much as a second glance. The problem with these guys is they'd never heard the word no, that's why they thought they were so entitled. If anyone was going to smack them into shape, I'd be more than happy to do it.