Day One

"It was brave what you did back there." Mark praised as we ventured out of the Theatre complex and into the Lawn of Misplaced Flowers, a stray patch of grass bordering one of West Burrow High's many clean kept cement pathways.  The Lawn had grown progressively wilder throughout my sophomore and junior years at WBHS, but this year it had definitely broken the record for the messiest patch of nature on the two hundred fifty acre wide campus.

I glanced over at him, his black Converse high-tops laced with stubborn fox-tails, an annoying token from the Lawn. His slender, pale fingers combed through a section of chocolate brown hair before retreating to the pockets of his Varsity jacket.

"I've never been one to turn down a challenge." I smirked. 

"Fair enough."

For a few paces we tread in comfortable silence. Mark frowned up at the sky, where ginormous black cumulonimbus clouds loomed with the silent promise of a thunderstorm. My gaze drifted to the Lawn, where a patch of scarlet flax and the crisp nip in the air between them tickled my bare ankles.

When Mark's eyes met mine, I could tell something had changed, as if the sight of the oncoming storm had altered his mood.

"Think you can pull it off?" Uncertainty flexed through his tone and lingered in his dark eyes.

"I hope so." I pursed my lips, accidentally squashing a slew of Chinese Forget-Me-Nots underneath my shoe. "I'm more worried about Zak than anything. The guy is a brick. Do you know how hard it is to be intimate with a brick?"

I'd expected to get a laugh from him, only to find his brows furrowed and teeth nibbling at his lip piercing. I nudged his shoulder. "What?"

"There's more to him than you think," he muttered, fixating on a point in the distance.

"What do you mean?"

"We used to be friends." His tone was clipped.

"Seriously?" I smiled, humored by the idea that someone as lively and raw as Mark could be associated with someone so intensely into their image as Zak was.

"Surprised?" His eyes flickered to mine.

I widened mine, nodding repeatedly. "Were you guys close?"

"Too close, if you ask me."

"Well, there must be more to him than his brick-like shell if you two managed to be friends. More than just on the surface."

A certain light returned to his eyes as a smirk broke through the corners of his lips. "If you were hoping you'd get personal info on the dude from me, you're sadly mistaken."

"What?" I laughed. "Why not?"

"Gorveau already doesn't like me-"

"For good reason."

"You didn't let me finish." He chuckled, bumping his shoulder into mine.

I raised my hands in surrender as he cleared his throat, "So I don't want to make him even more upset, which I would if I were to give you all the details about Zak."

"Come on, Mark. Just tell me something." I pleaded, weaving my arm with his Varsity jacket sleeve and resting my head on his shoulder. Once he made contact with my puppy-eyes, he caved.

"Fine." He sighed. "Dude plays water polo and lacrosse. He's also got this weird obsession with astronomy, you'll have to ask him about it. He'll go on and on, trust me."

"See? That wasn't hard." I grinned, unlocking our arms.

"I'm not telling you anything else," he said, brown eyes shimmering with amusement. He wrapped a friendly arm around my shoulders, warmth from his torso spreading through my body.  "You don't really need to know much else.  The whole thing is an act, anyway."

That's when it struck me - he was right. This was more about me than Zak. All I had to worry about was my own stage credibility in a singular performance - the one for Gorveau hours before opening night. Piece of cake.

By then, we'd reached the end of the Lawn and the inevitable merging of the stone pathway.

It was also then that a husky, deep voice hollered my name from behind us.

I turned around and squinted into the distance, where a huge figure was struggling through the Lawn to catch up to Mark and I. I hadn't seen the guy around school before or I would have remembered it, seeing as he stood at a height well over six feet tall. He drew nearer and nearer until he finally caught up to us, panting heavily.

"You deaf or somethin'?" He wheezed, placing his gargantuan hands on his thighs.

"What's it to you?" Mark asked, sizing the guy up in a quick glance.

"Been callin' your name--" He panted, "this whole God damn time."

"Uh..." I looked to Mark then back at the guy. I didn't know whether to offer him my inhaler or just stand there and stare, both of which were decently awkward.

Before I could decide between the two options, the guy rose to his full height, capturing both mine and Mark's attention with his tremendous presence.

Aside from his towering height, his features were relatively normal. His close cropped ebony hair was stylistically similar to a military haircut. He had a prominent jawline but what struck even more so was his eyebrow piercing.

Apparently, he'd been sizing me up as well. "You're not what I expected." He snarled, his tone condescending. "I'm disappointed."

"Dude, back off." Mark warned, his arm muscles flexing and tensing against my shoulder.

"Oh, pipsqueak's got an attitude." His eyebrows raised, taking the piercing with them. "Keep it up. I ain't scared."

I knew Mark would start something with him if the shenanigans continued, so I narrowed my eyes and mustered enough courage to say something for myself.

"Is there a reason that you're here?" I asked, propping my hand to my hip. "Because we have to get to class pretty soon."

"Oh, this won't take long." He grumbled. Darkness swarmed in the pools of his eyes, resembling the temperament of the sky.

"Name's Damon. You'll be seeing a hell of a lot of me for the next two weeks."

"Really? Why's that?" Mark interjected through gritted teeth.

"Gorveau forgot to mention a teeny tiny detail about the chemistry test." He gave us a sardonic, close lipped smile before continuing, "See, buddy," He clapped one of his prodigious hands on Mark's shoulder, "Gorveau doesn't want you screwing things up for Zak and adorable little Zoe, here, so he's given me a task. Drum roll, please,"

Mark's squinted eyes drifted over to mine as an awkward silence passed over the three of us.

"No drum roll? That's fine." He puckered his lips.

"Get to the point." Mark grumbled, wiggling his shoulder out of Damon's grasp.

"Say hello to your personal photographer for the next fourteen days. Whenever you two are together, I'll be there, too, filming your interactions to make sure that nothing gets in the way of Zoe's relationship with Zak. Day or night, rain or shine. You'll see me at lunch, in between classes, the whole shebang."

"That's absurd,"  I cut in. "Mark and I are just friends."

"You know who else Mark was friends with?" Damon's eyes glistened knowingly at Mark, who had become uncharacteristically quiet.

"No guesses? Damn, tough crowd." He heaved a sarcastic sigh. "Zak. And they ain't friends anymore. Do you know why?" His close-lipped smile returned.

I shook my head, locking my eyes on Mark. His eyes had quickly filled with enraged hatred, his arm around me unrelentingly tense.

"Well, I do. We can't have it interfering with the chemistry test. Nothing can interfere, and nothing will, so long as I'm here."

I almost shoved him away when he leaned into Mark's ear and whispered, "That's right, Galassi. I'll keep you in check, alright."

With a sadistic smile, he added, "See you at lunch.", and retreated through the Lawn.

"What the hell just happened?" Mark spat after Damon was well out of earshot.

"We've got a third wheel on our hands."

It would've been funny if the situation wasn't as heavy. I tried to wrap my mind around it, that Damon knew something about Mark that even I didn't, and that there would be no possible way to get rid of him until the chemistry test was over.

The entire thing hardly made any sense to me, but I knew one thing for sure; these next two weeks were going to be a pain in the ass.

--

I'd never been more grateful for lunch.

Mark had saved a table with a couple other acquaintances of ours from Theater while I waited in the tedious lunch line.

Across the cafeteria, I locked eyes with the stormy pools that were Damon's, yet now he lugged a large black camera with him.

It wasn't that I doubted the truth that he'd been assigned by Gorveau to film Mark and I, but seeing the camera for real was definitely a reality check. The chemistry test was in action, and there was no backing out of it now.

"Ah, your paparazzi, I assume?" Asked a silky voice behind me, derailing my train of thought. I whipped around to meet Zak's electrifying gaze. His fifth period must have been Aquatic P.E., judging by his disheveled, dripping hair and the familiar stench of sunscreen and chlorine.

He offered me a wide acting smile, with which I returned one of mine. "So you've met Damon, then?"

"Yeah, real nice guy."

I couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not, so I offered a close-lipped smile and nodded.

Zak had quickly become preoccupied with applying condiments to the hamburger situated on his Styrofoam platter. He drizzled ketchup over the patty in an artistic swirl before setting the bottle back in place.

"Excuse me." He grinned, raising his dark eyebrows as he brushed past me. I watched as he made his way over to the overcrowded lunch table in the center of the cafeteria, situating himself in the middle of everyone, his attention immediately craved by several of the people swarming the area.

I'd been staring for a good thirty seconds when the grumbling voices of hungry students ushered me to hurry up. I snatched my salad tray from the counter and mumbled a couple apologies before speeding to our table.

The whole lunch period I couldn't help but obsess over the fact that Mark and I were being filmed, and that we would continue to be filmed whenever we were together for an entire two weeks. The thought itself brought on a wave of nausea. I forced myself to ignore it, hardly able to touch a leaf on my plate.

Most upsetting of all, I was left with more questions than answers. What information could Damon possibly know about Mark's past? And how did he find out? Also, there was the whole issue of Zak, which I couldn't avoid forever.

If I couldn't pull it together soon, Lord knows what the repercussions could be.

Everything was on the line.