"Hey, Vee."

I fought the urge to spin around in my chair and break the pencil Brice Rolland was continuously stabbing into my right shoulder blade. He was clearly fascinated by my inability to react to him and was doing everything in his power to push me to my limit.

"Vee." Brice jabbed my shoulder again.

Whirling around, I ripped the pencil from his tight grasp and snapped it. I tossed it on the desk, happy to earn an astonished expression from both boys. Brice picked up the eraser and held it in between his index finger and thumb, head cocked a fraction.

"What do you two want?" I crossed my arms over the back of the chair, staring between the two imbeciles in front of me.

"Where's Puck?" Nick's dark brows rose. "Planning a shooting?"

I slammed my hand against the table so hard it shook a bit and startled half the class out of their tired dazes. Every pair of eyes fell on me for a minute expectantly before they returned to their own projects and work.

"You really are an ass, Rollins." I shook my head, lips pursed in disgust. "I can't believe you beat the shit out of a kid who can't fight back, then continue to kick him while he's down. You're disgusting."

Brice fell back against his seat, arms crossed as he looked toward his best friend for an awaited answer. The look the two boys shared confirmed my suspicions on who'd beaten the

"I'm disgusting?" Nick leaned across his desk, so his face was only inches from mine. "You're disgusting for believing he isn't dangerous. You're not only putting yourself in danger by not reporting him to the principal, but the entire school."

I stared at the boy in confusion. "Report him for what?"

"You know he's planning something, Ronnie. Don't sit here and play innocent."

"The only thing that boy is going to be planning is how to successfully kill himself. Don't flatter yourself by thinking you play a big enough part in his life for him to do something that inhumane." I said. "Why don't you go back to being the guy that actually minds his own God Damn business?"

I saw anger ignite in his eyes, but a large hand slammed against the table between us, cutting off anything he had been about to say.

"How about you two finish discussing this later in detention?"

Nick and I exchanged a look before turning our anger and irritation on to our middle-aged Psychology teacher.

"I'm not sitting in a room with him for an hour." I muttered.

Nick mumbled under his breath. "Feel's mutual, Harper.

"A week?" Mr. Collins questioned, eying both of us wearily.

I turned my back to her and refocused my attention on my notebook before I finally snapped and threw myself across Nick's desk to beat him senseless.

*

Apparently keeping a clean record outweighed the thought of a torturous hour spent with Nick Rollins in detention. I forced myself to think of the bright side of the situation; there would be more than just the two of us locked in the room.

Unfortunately, my optimistic outlook fell short when I found nobody but Nick in the classroom. The teacher had even stepped out for a few minutes to find something to keep him occupied. I slipped into the desk at the front of the classroom, as far from Nick as possible. He seemed just as pleased with the arrangement when I shot him a dark look over my shoulder. He had kicked his feet up on to the desk in front of him, hands behind his head as he leaned back in his chair with his eyes on the gray ceiling.

"You're oblivious." Nick spoke aloud. For a moment I thought he was talking to himself, or possibly into his phone, but found his wide brown eyes on me when I looked again. "You do know that right?"

I turned in my chair and flipped him off. "If this is another conversation about Chase, why don't you shut your mouth and save us both time and brain cells. Not that you have many left."

He laughed at the insult, a genuine laugh that shook me out of my irritable daze.

"Why are you laughing?" I snapped defensively.

He touched a hand over his heart. "Your weak insults fuel my life, Ronnie, they really do."

"What am I oblivious to?" I redirected the subject back to the initial conversation starter.

"Everything." he smirked. "I mean, you literally live so deep in your own God Damn head you don't see anything going on around you."

"At least I'm not an asshole with a superiority complex."

He pushed back from the desk and found a new place to reside at the front of the classroom in the chair at my right, lips curved into a forced smile.

"I'm the asshole with the superiority complex, huh?" he yawned. "I seem to remember you saying the exact same thing about Chase Parker not even six months ago. But Suicide Boy has weaseled his way into your little heart so nothing you said in the past matters now, does it?"

"Why the hell do you hate Chase so much?" I demanded, slapping my hand flat against the desk. Cursing under my breath, I hugged my hand against my chest and awaited his answer.

Nick stayed quiet for so long I almost believed the entire school had been blessed with him being rendered speechless. When he finally recollected himself and his thoughts, he lifted his head a fraction and met my eyes.

"Because he gets the attention, I've been wanting from you for thirteen years in a week." he whispered. "If I had known being depressed and suicidal was all it took to get your attention, I would have given you my life's story years ago."

Dumbfounded by his words, I found my lips moving but no words able to slip passed the surface. I leaned forward in my seat, training my eyes on the desktop under my fingertips. I couldn't bring myself to look at the boy I shared the room with, not after a confession that had been far from the answer I'd been expecting.

I wasn't oblivious to the fact that Jordan was in love with me. I had been the one that broke thinigs off back in middle school, but I always knew there was still feelings on his side there, even if he had thrown them away in order to keep our friendship. As freshman year approached, I had noticed them returning but had brushed them off as him just being friendly. He knew where I stood, and I knew deep down that was why he didn't want to talk much about the subject even though it was killing him inside every day.

But Nick Rollins? The idiot who hadn't stopped talking since he started, I had not even the slightest of an idea he'd had any sort of feelings toward me, good or bad. I'd always just felt we had this unspoken compromise that we'd offer a greeting and possibly a smile in the hallway, then acted like we didn't know each other other wise.

"Chase treated you like shit before his attempt. You didn't care. You hated him before he became a suicidal mess. Now you can't keep your hands or eyes off him." Nick's quiet whisper pierced through the silent room, bitterness dripping off the end of every word.

I couldn't find the right words to say, because I knew no matter what it was that left my mouth, he'd find a way to deflect and conjure up a snarky comeback to.

What shocked me even more was that he was right. I had despised Chase before all of this happened. I'd never wished death on him, no, but everything except it. I had told Chase exactly that in the arena a few days ago; that I hated Puck, but a part of me truly did care for the broken boy that had crawled out from the shell that had been cracked when he hit the bottom of that cliff.

"I try and try, Ronnie." Nick whispered, eyes on the door as we waited for it to open. "To keep going, to keep trying. To force the smiles and like I'm happy. But I'm not. I never have been."

I thought about comforting the boy next to me, but he jerked away, as if he knew exactly what was going through my head.

"At the end of the day I don't hate Puck because he gets all your attention." He continued. "I hate that he had everything I've prayed to have since grade school. Just to throw it all away."

He met my eyes as he stood, and it took everything in my power not to chase him down the moment he walked out of the classroom seconds later.

"I hate that he had the balls to do what I couldn't."

"What do you mean, Nick?" I breathed, the first words out of my mouth since his confession.

Even though I knew what was coming I still recoiled at the words. "Even if his attempt failed, he still tried. Every time I try, I fail. I can't do it. And that's all I'll ever be. A failure. And not even love and attention from you will change that."

"Nick Rollins told me he was in love with me today." I stirred the soup in front of me, my stomach churning at the thought of even forcing a sip.

Jordan raised an eyebrow. "Well, I mean, it was pretty obvious, no?"

I blinked, shocked. That hadn't been the answer I was expecting.

"You knew?"

"Vera, mi vida." He stretched his arms behind his head, grunting. "Everyone knows. He follows you around like a lost puppy. He bugs the hell out of you just to get a rise and your attention."

I gnawed at the inside of my lip. "I'm scared."

"Of him?" Jordan laughed, "Oh, Vera, I promise he's harmless."

"Not of him, Jor. For him." I averted my eyes to my half empty glass of water. "He went on about how much of a failure he was. That he couldn't even go through with his own attempts."

"Attempts?"

I swallowed. "Suicide attempts. Like what Chase did."

I had Jordan's full attention now. He leaned forward, his elbows resting on the table as he met my worried expression with one of his own.

"You attract some really fucked up people, you know that?" Was all he said.

"What does that say about you?" I retorted. A smirk broke out across his face, but it faltered when he saw just how uneasy I was. Jokes aside, I was terrified.

I was terrified for Nick Rollins and what he was going to do to himself now that he had finally confessed what he'd been keeping bottled up for so long.

I was terrified for Chase, who was continuously being beaten down, even by his own father. He had no one, no where to turn, nothing. Everyone had outcasted him, left him to fend for himself alone when he needed them the most.

"Vera." Jordan touched his fingers to my cheek. It wasn't until he brushed his thumb under my eye that I realized a stray tear had escaped it. "I know this is all a really shitty situation. But, mi amor, it's not your problem or your fault. The decision they made or choose to make from here forward, are not because of you.

"But I helped him, Jor." I didn't have to specify I was talking about Chase. "I feel obligated to-"

He cupped his hand over my mouth and shook his head. "No. No. No. This is why I told you to stay away. You cannot help people who do not want to be helped. You cannot save people who don't want to be saved, mi vida. Whatever decision Puck makes, whatever decision Nick makes, they are not on you. Please understand that. In love with your or not, needing you or not, you need to think of yourself first. You can't help everyone."

I started to stand, rubbing the heel of my hands under my eyes in hopes it would push back the flood of tears starting to pool in them. "I can't do this. Not right now, not here."

I never cried or broke down. And in the middle of a quiet family restaurant was the last place I wanted to do it.

"Vera." Jordan caught my arm. "Please, stop. You can't keep doing this. You may think you are helping. That you are doing what nobody else wants to do, but you're only hurting yourself."

A sadistic laugh escaped me before I could stop it. "Hurting myself?"

Jordan took my face in his hands, and for the first time all night, I saw a few pairs of eyes fall on us. I wanted nothing more than to sink into a hole in the ground.

"Yes, hurting yourself. Because when he does this again, which I can promise you he will. When he finally snaps from all the pressure, the bullying, abuse, all of it, whether he succeeds this time or not, he will be taking you down with him." My best friend looked just as helpless as I felt as he stared down at me, hazel eyes glistening.

"Jor-" I tried to make a gesture toward the few families around us who'd turned their full and undivided attention to us. But it was my best friend's turn to be caught up in his emotions.

"And, mi vida, no matter how hard you try, you can'tsave him."

***AN***

*Unedited*

Sorry for the short, uneventful chapter. It will be extended once I edit! 

I hope you guys enjoyed nonetheless!

Let me know what you think/thought!