Monday morning came and I was sore everywhere it counted. I walked down the halls like a rusty robot and I felt like I creaked as much. Sawyer and I had been deep into painting, with a healthy distance between us, when my family came back from purchasing what should have been two key pieces of furniture and ended up being a full room's worth of junk. With papa joining the effort, we finished the walls pretty quick and moved on to begin putting together the furniture. It was close to midnight when we were done and were able to admire the results.

My throat worked with difficulty, and it wasn't just the paint fumes. The crib was in the corner, all white and pristine waiting for my baby niece or nephew. We hung an adorable mobile with shimmering stars and moons on top of it, to teach the baby to dream since the beginning. Toni's new bed was to the side, but on the opposite end we had a rocking chair where she would sit down to feed the baby and rock her or him to sleep. Next to it was the changing table, which also served as a storage unit. Mama and Toni had already begun buying toys that were carefully strewn about the room around the plush rubber carpet. Somehow they found the entire ensemble in white tones that made the room feel both unisex and angelic.

As we all gathered together to watch it, tears streaming down our cheeks while hugging each other, the Martinez Fernandez family realized for the first time that what we'd all thought of as a curse, was in reality the biggest blessing of our lives.

Sawyer left shortly after that. Mama was all too eager to see him go but for me it was the first time that I felt dread in my bones at having to say goodbye to him. New fears were taking root in my mind. Fears like what if, despite his reassurances, he did grow tired of dealing with someone as particular as me? If that happened, good riddance to him, but I didn't know how I would come out from the other side of a heartbreak. I had a feeling I would be even worse of a person than I already was, and that was the truly scary thought.

The other fear was even worse. I couldn't help but think about the bruises and cuts all over him that he'd always passed off as the results of random fights. Now that I knew the truth, I worried that one day it would be worse.

And that one... that one was the crippling fear.

I was so relieved when I saw him walk down the hallway that morning that I left the girls mid sentence to meet him halfway. Sawyer froze, staring at me and then all around as if wondering how to react.

"Are you here to talk about this week's tutoring?" he asked, loud enough for the whole school to hear.

What a save. I hadn't been thinking at all. It was almost November and people were still talking smack about Sawyer and I, and we just didn't need the extra scrutiny. I took a step back and tucked my hair behind my ears.

"Yeah, about that," I said and turned, motioning him to follow. I led him down to my locker where we stopped so I could finish putting my stuff away. In low tones, to prevent even my nearby best friends from eavesdropping, I said, "I think you're right. If I paint a mural in the baby's room it's going to be the final touch. And I have just the right idea for it."

His lips stretched into a smile that made his full charisma bloom. Sawyer didn't look like he had a care in the world, because it was his oyster. As he leaned his arm against my locker, it almost seemed like we were going to kiss and oh, how I wished I could also be without a care.

"That's great, princess," he said. "Do you want help?"

My eyebrows went up. "Well, I don't really have a lot of money to pay for your valuable painting services, you know. What little savings I have will go directly to buying the materials."

The sweetness in his smile turned into something a bit more saucy. "You could pay me in other ways."

I put my hand on his chest, intending to push him away, but somehow it just squeezed the fabric of his hoodie and pulled. As if I wanted him closer. Which I did. Except it wouldn't help abate the rumors once and for all.

I caught myself and jumped back, slamming my back against the lockers. A few onlookers flinched and turned away, pretending as if they hadn't been riveted by the drama.

"Sorry," Sawyer said with a sigh as he ran his hand through what I now knew were silky strands of hair. He pulled away from me. "I'm trying to be a good boy but it isn't my forte."

"Ha, ha," I said, enunciating each syllable with care. "You haven't been a good boy in years, you panty dropper."

His reaction was to wiggle his eyebrows. "Is it working?"

I wanted to laugh, I really did. But that was not really going to help me stay away from him. And that was what I needed to do. I looked all around, but Courtney and Lina we now too far for me to make a discrete trek back to them all across the hallway the nearest escape route from Sawyer's pheromones was the girl's restroom.

"Listen," I told him as if he were a feral animal. "I'm going to back away from you very discretely."

"Okay," he said, eyes twinkling.

"And you're going to let me. I'll say something about studying, and you'll pretend to be annoyed. Got it?" I did just that, moved closer to the girls' restroom door and loudly declared, "And don't forget your books, you hear me?"

He mock saluted. "Crystal clear, captain."

But not before giving me a wink that made me weak in the knees. Dang him.

There were a few girls inside the restroom that I ignored as I made my way to the sinks to wash my face. The cool water helped bring the redness down, and as I patted my face dry with paper towels somebody came out of a stall that I really didn't want to have to engage with.

I remained silent as Lexie Cooper stood by the sink next to mine. She put something in the pocket of her jeans before setting out to wash her hands. A blue splotch in her hand caught my eye. It looked like the kind I got when I spent too much time drawing with my pen. I looked down at the thing in her pocket and saw that it was a marker. Who the heck went into the bathroom with a marker?

And then it clicked.

My back grew ramrod stiff. I couldn't move, even though I wanted to dash inside the stall she had vacated and see the proof for myself. Some younger kid came in and went directly in it, and I had to swallow my irritation.

As she dried her hands, Lexie said, "I saw you and Sawyer earlier. You guys look chummy chummy. Are the rumors true?"

I looked at her, really did. Although she was beautiful, the perfect picture of a high school sweetheart, there was an ugliness in her eyes that couldn't be denied. You felt it like a burn on your skin when she directed her attention your way, and the heat was on me now.

I lifted my chin and point blank asked her, "Were you the one who started the rumors?"

The question caught her off guard, but then she started laughing. It sounded pretty and twinkling and still grated on my nerves. "What does it matter if everybody believes them?" She folded her arms and scanned me up and down and back up. The expression in her face dismissed me as a lesser specimen. "At the end of the day, you're not really Sawyer's type and he's going to get tired of you pretty soon. And then I'll be there for him."

My skin crawled with the comment. I shouldn't let it get to me, yet it did. Because even though I'd spent years putting Sawyer in an other category, completely separate from my clean and orderly world, I'd always really known that I just wasn't the type of person who was in his radar. It was hard to compare myself against someone as drop dead gorgeous as Lexie or even Courtney and come out with an unscathed ego, and I'd never found Sawyer worth the effort.

Now I was having my doubts, and I hated doubting my worth.

I was not going to let her plant that poisoned seed in my mind.

I faked an amused smile I didn't feel. "Well, maybe if you're trying so hard to get me out of the way with underhanded methods, it's because you actually feel threatened by little old me."

"Whatever," she said, but she didn't like the comment one bit. She tossed her wad of tissues on the bin with a lot more force than necessary. "Enjoy it while it lasts, bitch."

On her way out she banged the door shut. I turned to the stall she'd left and knocked on the door, clearing my throat.

"Excuse me, will you be there longer?" I asked whoever was in there.

She replied, "Um, is she gone? She's scary."

No kidding.

"Yeah, she's gone."

The girl was probably not older than sophomore. She expelled a breath as she opened the stall's door and came out. "She's the captain of the cheer squad and she hates me."

I could see why. This girl was super pretty already. "Just, don't outshine her and you'll be fine," I said, as all means for advice. I hoped that would cut the conversation off and that I could confirm my theory, but the girl wasn't quite done yet.

"She talks about you sometimes and how she's going to steal your boyfriend."

"He's not my-" I cut myself off.

She grimaced as she washed her hands. "It doesn't matter. She's obsessed and you should watch out."

Before leaving she gave me what sounded like a sincere good luck that just made my heart beat faster. What the heck, I didn't have any time to worry about Lexie and her whims when there were bigger things afoot, and yet I still locked myself in that stall and inspected every writing on the wall. And there I found it, all the scribbles I had scratched through or tried to debunk replaced by a big, bold, blue line that read Rory Martinez is a slut and she likes to suck Sawyer Logan's cock.

I read and reread the words over and over. Even when the school bell chimed, even when I grew tardy, I remained there. The letters were slightly smudged in places, as if whoever wrote them didn't have the patience to wait until the ink dried before dotting the i's and crossing the t's. That would have been how Lexie got the smudges in her hand.

I boiled with so much rage that I didn't know what to do for the longest time. My cellphone started buzzing in my pocket, probably Lina and Courtney freaking out about my disappearance. But I could only think about one person at that moment. I sent out a text, and in a matter of three minutes Sawyer burst into the girls' bathroom like he belonged here.

"Are you okay?" he asked. I figured that randomly receiving a text from someone that called for help and a location would worry people.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said as I opened the stall door and ushered him in.

He gave me a weird look but tried to lighten the mood by asking, "Is this a booty call?"

"I'll refrain myself from punching you," I muttered. We crammed in the stall as best as we could and I locked it. I pointed at the series of graffitis that featured his name and now mine. His grey eyes darkened as he read the progression of comments from milder to this last one.

"What the fuck?" he asked.

"It's Lexie," I said, without pulling any punches. "I saw her come out of this stall with a blue marker and ink smudges in her hand. And look," I said, pointing at other graffitis around the walls that had what I now recognized as the same handwriting. "She's been at it for a while. She's the one behind the rumors."

Anyone else might have questioned what I was saying as circumstantial evidence, Lexie was innocent until proven wrong. And they had history, too. Some people didn't like to hear others talk smack about their exes because it reflected badly on them, it meant they made a mistake.

Sawyer was not this kind of person. He slumped against the door and said, "Yeah, that one night stand was definitely a mistake."

"I mean, I'm not blaming you for that," I clarified. "You were just a dumb, hormonal boy. What were you going to know that the girl you tangled with would turn out to be off her rockers?"

Sawyer shrugged. "The problem is that she's directing her anger at you, and not at me. You'd think she'd want to hurt me for rejecting her every time she comes onto me or stalks me, but it's you she's gunning for."

My jaw dropped. "She's stalking you?"

He winced. "Well, she seems to show up wherever I am."

"That—Sawyer, that's really scary," I whispered. He pulled me against him and wrapped his arms around me. I felt him rest his cheek on the top of my head and I sighed. Right there, it didn't feel like anything bad could happen. Other than our clothes falling off, that was.

"I'm not going to lie, princess," he said, his chest rumbling against mine. "I have no idea what to do. Anything big would probably set her off. But whatever you want me to do, I'll do. If you want us to fake being complete strangers, so be it. But I'll do all I can to keep you safe."

Something warm exploded in my chest and expanded all through my body. I hugged him back and gasped for air as if I'd previously been drowning and had now broken the surface. I had always feared for my reputation, but at that moment I also feared for his. Maybe he didn't care for it but he didn't deserve this crap either, and for the first time I wanted to protect someone other than myself.

I vowed to find a way to clear our names.

or did y'all forget about Lexie?