I woke up in someone's arms around me that morning. They were Jay's.

I sat up suddenly and memories flooded my mind. I remembered the hard slap of my dad's hand on my face and when I ran out of the house crying. I remembered the bright light that shone through the doorway and I remembered when I walked up the staircase inside Jay's house. I remembered how gently he had wrapped his arms around me, how protected I felt. I breathed heavily as every sudden memory crashed into my mind.

Suddenly, a cool feeling washed over me. The blanket that someone had put on me last night—probably Jay—had fallen off. I looked around the cold room. It was a white room that had a nightstand with a lamp and a digital clock that read 4:30AM on the right side of the bed. There was also a small trunk at the bottom and a rocking chair on the left side. Other than those things and the bed it was quite bare. I looked at the curtain that covered window and saw that there was no light coming through it. It was still night.

I looked beside me at Jay. He was still asleep, his arm covered the side I had laid on. I got up and walked out of the room. I looked through every door until I had found the bathroom. I walked inside and locked the doors. When I looked in the mirror, I gasped.

The girl I was looking at was disgusting. She had bruises on her face and tear-stained cheeks. Her eyes were puffed up and her hair was a mess. I ran out of the washroom and back to the room where Jay was asleep. I looked around and found my duffel bag on the rocking chair. I grabbed it and ran back to the washroom. I locked the door and emptied all the contents of my bag onto the floor. I looked for my concealer, powder and eye shadow kit. Once I found them, I grabbed one of my make-up brushes and I started to cover up the remnants of last night.

Even though I hated make-up, I was a professional at concealing my wounds. I knew exactly how much concealer to put on and how much powder to use so I didn't look like a pancaked freak. I grabbed a small cloth from my bag and drenched it in hot water. I pulled in close to my puffy eyes and applied it to the puffy area's. I had learned online that applying a hot spoon to your puffy eyes helped bring the swelling down, but I learned through personal experience that a hot towel would do just fine. I held the towel there for about 5 minutes until I was satisfied with how less swelled my eyes looked. I applied concealer and primer then pulled out my eye shadow kit. I applied some dark eye shadow and applied a smoky eye. I hoped this makeup look would distract everyone from the fact that I may or may-not have had bruises on my face.

I grabbed all my stuff off of the floor and opened the door of the bathroom. I walked straight into something hard and tall. I grabbed my head in pain and looked up. I glared at Jay, and he was glaring at me. But his face became less mad when he saw my face. His jaw dropped slightly as I continued to glare.

"Close your mouth," I said and side-stepped him. He shook his head as if to get out of his dazed state, and turned around and looked at me.

"Uh, sorry, I was just surprised to see you awake," he lied. He was a terrible liar.

"You could learn to lie a little better," I said as I packed all my stuff into my duffel bag. "You're quite transparent, and that's not always a good thing."

"Give me one good reason to learn to how to lie," he challenged me and crossed his arms in a gesture that said let's see what you got.

"What if you want to play poker? You need a poker face to play poker," I said.

"I don't gamble," he said simply.

"What if you had to lie to your parents about going out so you could go out with a girl?" I said, challenging him more.

"My parents don't care if I date; they even encourage it," he said. He had a stupid grin on his face.

"What if you had to tell a white-lie to a person, about how amazing and wonderful they were, who—hypothetically—wanted to kill themselves?" I asked, more serious this time.

His eyes softened when they looked at mine after I asked this question.

"Why would I tell them a lie? I would never lie to a person about how amazing and wonderful they were. I wouldn't be friends with them if I didn't think they were amazing. So I wouldn't have to lie." He said this so matter-of-factly that I believed him. My tore my eyes away reluctantly from him. I finished packing my bag and zipped it up.

"You want to eat breakfast?" I said. I tried my best to put no emotions into my voice as I spoke.

His face flinched when he heard the sudden change in my voice, but he didn't say anything.

"Yeah sure, I'll go cook something."

~~~~~

After breakfast that morning, Jay washed up and we left for school. We went our separate ways during first period, but we met up again at Math. We walked into class and sat down. But when we walked into class, all the girls seemed to have been staring at us—but of course Jay was oblivious. I stared back at them, and they all looked away. What was up with girls? I didn't do anything to them.

After Math I went to my locker, when someone grabbed my wrist.

"I swear to—" I turned around and guess who I saw? Jay. "You have got to stop doing that because one day I will actually kick your ass."

"Fine, I'll hug you instead of grabbing your wrist," he said and smiled.

"Haha, very funny. You're not touching me at all." I walked away from him to my locker when he grabbed my wrist again. This time, I punched him straight in the chest. He folded in on himself and leaned against the wall for support. He clenched his chest tightly and groaned.

"I learned Martial Arts when I was younger," I said and walked away.

"You said you would come eat with us today!" he screamed from across the hallway. I turned and looked at him. I guess I did, but I didn't really want to. But since I punched the guy, I decided I would go.

"Fine, I'll fine you guys in 5 minutes," I said as I unlocked my locker.

Still clutching his stomach, he gave me a thumbs up.

~~~~~

Daniel whistled when he saw me walk through the cafeteria doors and over to them. Jenn, Matt, Daniel, Trevor and Jay were all sitting at that table.

"You look really good in make-up," he said looking me up and down.

"Shut-up," I said and sat down beside Jenn.

"He's not lying," Jenn said. She looked up from her burger and smiled at me. "A smoky eye really does suite you! We should spend some girl time together! How about this weekend? Yay we're going to the mall this weekend!" She said and didn't even take a breath during that sentence.

Daniel leaned over and whispered loudly to me, "She gets hyper when she eats meat."

Jenn had heard what he said and slapped him playfully on the arm. I sighed and shook my head slightly at the shenanigans these two were playing. I saw Jay laughing across the table and Matt staring at Jenn and Daniel intensely. What was up with that guy?

"I'm not going to the mall with you Jenn," I said bluntly, but she didn't seem fazed.

"Yes you are, even if I have to go to Jay's house and drag you with me." She must have seen the surprised look on my face and laughed.

"Yes, Jay told all of us about your dilemma last night."

I stared daggers at Jay, but he gave me a reassuring smile that told me he didn't tell them what really happened last night. I calmed down a little bit.

"Hey you," called a girl from across the cafeteria. "Yeah, you. Do you mind coming over here for a second?"

I looked back at the guys and Jenn, then got up and walked over to her. She sat at a table at the other end of the room. I stood in front of her and my arms crossed .

"What?" I said in an annoyed tone.

"You're make-up looks really nice." She said in a perky voice.

"Thanks," I said

"You look just like an ugly crow," she said and the girls around her snickered.

I rolled my eyes and started to walk away from her when she grabbed my hand. Out of instinct, I shoved her to the ground.

"Don't touch me," I said, my voice dangerously calm and steady. I looked at her dead in the eye and said, "Touch me again and I will do something I regret."

And she did just that.

She moved her leg and tripped me. I fell onto my bottom hard. She was laughing as she got up and shouting loser at me. I got up immediately and punched her on the face. I pulled my arm back for another punch but they were locked at my side. Jay's arms were around me before I knew it and he dragged me away from her.

"Let go of me!" I screamed and kicked. He pulled me outside of the cafeteria and out into the yard. I kicked him in the knee and he let go.

"What is wrong with you?!" He screamed. "You can't punch people like that!"

"She provoked  me," I said as calm as I could.

"Still! You can't go around punching people."

"I've had to learn to protect myself! If someone even touches me I tense up! It's just who I am," I said and walked away from him.

"Ray, don't walk away," he begged as he jogged towards me.

"Well you obviously think it was my fault so what's the point arguing with you?" I said as I continued walking away from him.

"Ray," he said, "I believe that it wasn't your fault. I just personally think that punching her wasn't the answer to your problems."

"Your lying."

"I told you, I don't lie. And if I tried you would know because I am apparently so bad at it. Tell me Ray, am I lying?"

I looked at him. I looked at his eyes and they told me the truth, just the way eyes always tell you the truth.

"No, you're not."

He walked up to me and grabbed my wrists. I didn't pull them away.

"Ray, you are not ugly okay? She was just jealous of how amazing you look right now. You are strong—and you definitely showed the entire school that today. You are beautiful and do not look like a crow. The reason why my mouth was wide open this morning when I saw you was that you just blew me away. You looked so badass and beautiful, and you are badass and beautiful."

"You are," said a voice from behind us. It was Jenn, and the guys were with her. "And don't worry about Maddison back there, you broke her nose. But she had it coming, 'cause Karma is a bitch."

They all smiled at me and I smiled back slightly.

"Thanks guys," I said.

"But you should be worrying about me right now, Ms. Carter," said a voice from behind the group. It was Mr. Simon's, our principle. Along with him was Maddison, holding her bloody nose.

"We're going to have a chat," he said.