‘Um… no, thanks.’
‘Why not?’ he asked, shaking his head in confusion. ‘Has someone else already asked you? Because I put the word out that you were off-limits.’
‘I’m going with my friends.’
He leant closer, reeking of cheap aftershave and sour sweat.
‘Alicia’s going with Luke Hughes. He already told me. What, are you and Katie a couple now?’
I tried again to step past, but he angled me further into the wall. He was tall and heavyset, and I was starting to panic.
‘None of your business.’
‘Of course it’s my business when you’re blowing me off after flirting with me all year. Messing around with lads only leads to trouble. It hurts their feelings.’
‘I haven’t flirted with you!’ I stammered. ‘I’ve barely spoken to you in months.’
‘Maybe not.’ His smirk sent chills across my skin. ‘But I’ve seen you looking.’
‘Back off,’ I said, hating that I sounded so weak. ‘I said I’m not interested.’
His eyes narrowed. ‘Yeah, I think I can probably come up with something that’ll interest you.’
He stepped even closer, close enough to have grabbed me if it hadn’t been for the missile that suddenly knocked him to one side.
After I’d caught my breath, I turned to find Davis writhing around on the floor with Jonah.
Davis was spluttering, his eyes almost popping out of his head.
Jonah was like a wild animal. A jackal.
I vaguely registered the gathering crowd, but no one dared step in to save Davis. They probably thought he had it coming.
‘Mr Barnes!’ the crowd hissed, parting to allow our assistant head teacher through, where he wasted no time in yanking Jonah off Davis, a millisecond after Jonah’s elbow crunched into his opponent’s face.
‘My office, now,’ Mr Barnes yelled, loud enough for the corridor to instantly grow silent. ‘Everybody else, get the hell out of here.’
I would probably have remained standing there if it hadn’t been for Katie taking one arm, Alicia the other as they dragged me outside.
‘What the hell was that?’ Katie squealed, once we were safely in the corner of the field where we ate lunch on warm days.
‘Jonah King launched himself down the corridor, knocking half of Year 10 out the way, and tried to kill Davis,’ Alicia breathed, a little more discreetly. ‘I think he literally might have murdered him if Barnes hadn’t showed up.’
‘I… I don’t know what happened,’ I said, my teeth chattering as the adrenaline subsided.
‘Yeah, not true.’ Katie squinted at me. ‘We saw you. We were on our way to rescue you when the vampire got there first.’
‘That was totallyTwilight,’ Alicia agreed.
‘Only Jonah King isn’t a vampire. Or obsessed with me.’ I rested my head on my knees, trying to steady my vision.
‘Oh, really? Can you come up with a better explanation, then?’ Katie said. ‘Because we’ve seen you giving him that longing look like you’re dying for the chance to save him,’ she replied. ‘It’s like when you got obsessed with Carlos in Year 9.’
I lifted my head, now seeming to weigh about twice as much as the rest of my body.
‘He’s my new brother.’
I think they’d have been less surprised if I’d told them he was a vampire.
