I'm staring at him in shock. When he looks at me he stops shaking my hand and abruptly pulls me into a tight hug.

What the hell. I push my way out of his hold.

"Hi. I'm Blaze," he says cheerfully.

Blaze, that name sounds so familiar. At least now I can stop calling him B P.

"Have we met before? You look so familiar. I know I saw you at that Halloween party but have we met before then?"

"You don't recognise me?" He asks looking slightly dejected.

"Like I said, you look so familiar but I just can't place you. Care to tell me?"

"Nah. You'll figure it out and when you do things will start to make sense."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It means I'm not going to tell you when we met or who I am, you have to remember," he says looking annoyed now. "To be honest I'm a little offended you can't remember me but it has been years, I've probably changed."

I'm so confused. What the fuck is this guy going on about.

"Anyway I have gym first period. Care to tell me where the sports hall is."

"Right. Okay. Follow this corridor all the way down. You'll see a door on your left. Go through that and walk down a bit. Then you will have reached your destination." I laugh a little at the end, I was mimicking a gps and it sounded pretty funny.

Blaze laughed a little to, at least I managed to lighten the mood.

"Alright thanks. I'll probably be able to find my way around until lunch. Can I meet you in the canteen then?"

"Sure. Anyway we better get to class. I've got Dr. Phillips first and I don't want to be late."

He chuckles "Alright. See you then." He waves and walks off.

I start making my way to chemistry, I've still got a few minutes, luckily I got here early this morning.

He seems nice. Stephanie did say that she used to be good friends with him. What could he have done that was so bad? Maybe it's something different entirely. I really don't know what to think right now. All I know is that I need to get to the bottom of this.

~*~*~

Lunch

"Hey Steph! How was English?" I call across the canteen.

Stephanie snaps her head towards me at the sound of my voice and starts making her way over to me.

"You know, same old same old. I honestly do think that I'm going to get RSI though. Like seriously what teacher in there right mind can make a student write that much in one lesson, it's just plain torture."

I laugh a little because I know she's over exaggerating. However she isn't by that much if I'm being totally honest. I know that because I had her English teacher when I was doing my GCSE's and she does make you write a crap tonne. Honestly, I couldn't move my wrist after English lessons sometimes, it was horrid. I did end up getting and A* though so all's well that ends well I guess. Her teacher makes you work so fucking hard it's ridiculous but she's so good, she got me up from a predicted C+ to an A* in the three years she taught me, unbelievable.

We wait in line together for lunch. Luckily, the queue isn't too long as we both got let out a little early, thank god I wouldn't have lasted much longer without food.

We go to sit down with Lucas and Tyler, they have packed lunches so didn't need to wait.

Steph and Tyler immediately begin to go on about a previous discussion so Lucas and I make general conversation. Since people think we're dating it's expected of us to talk to each other a lot and be around each other most of the time. Luckily, we're usually together anyway because of our best friends and we never really run out of things to talk about which is nice, there's never a dull conversation with Lucas, he's just so bubbly and full of endless amounts of energy.

"Krystal!" I hear someone call from across the canteen. I turn around in my seat and see Blaze making his way over to me with one of his friends, his name is Kole and he's one of our best sports players, Blaze probably met him in gym.

"Hey!" I call back, gesturing with my hand for them to sit down.

I feel Steph tense up beside me but it's only for a few moments, she's quick to compose herself.

"Krystal, who's this?" Tyler asks.

"Hi. I'm Blaze nice to meet you. I'm new and Krystal has been showing me around." He says shaking Tyler's hand.

"Hey I'm Tyler. That over there is Lucas, this is my girlfriend Stephanie and of course you already know Krystal."

Blaze tenses a little when Tyler says girlfriend and gives Steph a stern glare but no one seems to notice except Steph and I.

"Hey," Lucas says in a friendly manner.

Blaze just gives him a nod. What does he have against Lucas, he was acting hostile at the party and he still is, I wonder why. I make a mental note to ask him later.

"Stephanie, long time no see," Blaze chuckles. "Before that Halloween party I hadn't seen you in like seven almost eight years."

Shit that's a long time.

Oh that makes sense, no wonder I didn't know about this this guy. She was friends with him around the time I came here. Damn, I've been in this world for ages. I wonder how Lucas must feel, he's never even visited the realm, well once but he was a week old so it doesn't count.

Maybe one day when this whole 'family taking over the world' thing is over we can go together.

Who am I kidding, I can't go back there, my so called parents hate me. But still, I'd love to go back, just for a visit, I'm sure Lucas would love it too.

Snap out of it Luna! Get Lucas out of your head. You can't think about him until you get to the bottom of the Stephanie and Blaze situation.

Once that's over you can think about him and you'll probably have to talk to him too. By then I'll hopefully have worked out my feelings and know what to do.

Back to reality. Luckily even though it seems as though I had spaced out, that inner turmoil was only a few seconds long so I didn't miss Steph's reply.

Steph inhales a sharp breath, "Yeah, I guess time flies but everyone has a reason for what they do."

Yep, I'm definitely missing something, I think they are arguing about something from seven to eight years ago.

"It's not right to come waltzing back into someone's life after so long when you know they didn't have a choice in the matter and blame everything on them. You're just as much to blame as me Blaze. Just leave it at that, we don't need to discuss the topic further."

He clenches his hands into fists and his knuckles start to go white. "Don't you dare try and say this is my fault, I get that you didn't really have a choice but you could've at least stayed in touch, instead of cutting me off completely. She doesn't even know anything about what's going on, how is that right?"

"You think I would have been a good idea to tell her," she chuckles humourlessly "think things through for once in your life. If she knew she'd be distraught, it's better this way, she's happy and safe."

"It's not better like this!" he banged his fists on the table, raising his voice a considerable amount "it's not right. You might think it's better for her but it's not. And not only that, it's terrible for you! Keeping this from her is driving you insane. It's not healthy and you know it, even though you're good at hiding it, all these secrets are taking their toll on you." his voice softened at the end, genuine concern laced in his words.

Steph scoffs, "like you care, all you've done is shout at me," she sounds bitter by this point "do you have any idea what it was like seeing you after all these years? No, I don't think you do. About a million emotions hit me like a truck all at once, putting my brain in overdrive. It's taken years to suppress all these memories but I was finally managing it, moving on with my life, but of course that can't happen. When I'm finally happy you had to come charging your way back into our lives like nothing happened. I'm sure your intentions were pure but you have to understand that this is all too much. Both of us were finally in a good place, please don't ruin that," she too softened her tone by the end, seeing the hurt in his luminous blue eyes.

"The truth always comes out Stephanie," he put extra emphasis on her name, "whether you like it or not it always escapes, the longer you leave it the greater the damage. Don't you understand?" he's beyond frustrated by this point.

Before Steph could concoct her rebuttal Tyler cut in, "Okay guys that's enough. You're both putting each other on edge and I thinks it's best we just leave it at that."

Tyler, always so rational, putting other people's needs before his own. He's right, we shouldn't be letting them argue and stress one another out.

He did the selfless thing and stopped it, whereas I would just let the whole scenario play itself out for my benefit. What kind of best friend am I? A selfish one, who cares more about understanding the situation than what my best friend needs. I hate myself for it but that's who I am. I'll never be selfless, I just won't.

"You're right Ty," Stephanie replies quietly. With that both her and Tyler walk out. I'd follow her but she needs to be alone right now or just with Tyler. He won't bombard her with questions whereas I will.

Blaze gets up and begins to make his exit the other way, scraping his chair along the floor as he does, making me wince. "Sorry Krystal," he murmurs quietly "this will all make sense soon. I just hope you understand." With that he walks off.

What a lunch. I think it's best I don't think about the questions exploding in my mind. Steph clearly doesn't want to talk about it so I'm not going to force her to. And Blaze doesn't think it's the right time so he won't explain it. Those are the only two people who have a clue as to what's going on right now so I guess I'll just have to wait until the time is right.

Urgh. This is so annoying, I'm not a patient person but for Stephanie I'll try.

~*~*~

Thought I'd throw in a few gifs of people arguing.

What's going on with Blaze and Stephanie? Why do they seem to hate each other? And what the hell were they arguing about?

I hope you're prepared for the next chapter...

Bye for now 👋