"malachi- why'd you need to call?" arabella asked immediately after he answered the call. her eyebrows were furrowed in confusion. serena watched from afar as arabella paced up and down the sidewalk slightly.

"stay away from him."

"stay away from him?" she said with a scoff back before realizing the tone of his voice and stopping. "oh shit, you're serious?"

"of course i am! i don't lie to you. ever." he replied back. his voice sounded slightly glitchy cause if the condition they were talking in.

"still why do i need to stay away from him-" she said with a slight accusation in her voice, making it louder. people gave her a weird look.

"i knew him as a freshman! he's a playboy."

"so?"

"so, i don't want you to get hurt."

"simple, i won't. besides, why do you care so much?"

a silence defined between the phone call. malachis breath hitched as he thought about an answer, as it was one that he could not answer without a rejection or acceptance.

"i care about you-"

"no. the real reason." arabella interrupted. her heart was beating lightly against her chest. before she could hear anything said from the other side, the phone hanged up.

she scoffed muttering to herself. "shit.." she looked around for serena, immediately going to her.  she looked around before continuing.

"well, what happened?" serena asked, clearly curious on how it went considering her and malachis conversation earlier in the day.

arabella opened her mouth to say something before getting cut off by a lot of commotion behind her. some people hollered.

serena looked behind arabella, seeing what was happening, her hand went slightly to her mouth with a light laugh. "you might want to look behind you..?"

the red-headed girl rolled her eyes, but accepted her fate, doing it. once she finally saw what was happening she was quickly drawn to it.

"hey!" she shouted going through the crowd of people to where the two boys were. "hey, stop!" she shouted again, holding back malachi who was already on top of carter on the ground.

malachi had a bruise on the side of his right eye, as well as a bloody nose. "dude, what the hell!" arabella said to him, getting a kleenex out of her bag before malachi punched carter in the nose once he got up. "malachi!"

"yeah, we need to get going." serena said immediately, grabbing malachi and serenas arm, already on her way out of the crowd. carter sat there bloodied up as people took photos of what had just happened.

      once they were back at serenas place, malachi and arabella were in the bathroom- practically arguing about all of it.  malachi sniffled as he dabbed his nose again, the kleenex already red with blood.

"i still don't get why you did it." arabella said to him as she looked away, grabbing something to help him with his nose.

"did what?" he acted dumb. arabella scoffed lightly. he smiled a little at her. she then cleared her throat trying to act mature.

"don't act dumb. i'm being serious." she said quickly after. his expression dampened, as if he was holding something in.

"you."

"what?"

"for you."

malachi looked down his face in a somewhat scrunched up expression. dealing with the pain in his face, and the fact he'd said those things.

"look, it's okay. just don't do it again." arabella said with her head being shaken. malachi looked to the side, looking at her with a nod at what she was saying. "also," she said before kissing his non-bruised cheek lightly. "keep that in mind."

arabella walked out of the bathroom, giving him some room for his thoughts. his expression gained light as he grinned.

the small yet adorable gesture seemed to go on in his thoughts forever, not leaving it once. he then got his phone out, texting her about it.

malachiii ⭐

its like a reward
seen

LONDON SPEAKS !!

ha ha ha not yet !!

anyeays thought id include this trope causd i find it fun and carter had it coming

ALSO THIS BOOK IS SO CLOSE TO 1K READS WHAT ???

heh...

y'all better like this or else 😜😜