D U S K ✔

Chapter Three

  Cautiously, I watch as the figure kept through the window, turning its head slightly as a beam of light from the lamppost, flashed onto it's face.

Or should I say his.

  My mouth split open slightly and recognition slapped me in the face, I felt my face pale and the blood rush away from my neck, as I scrambled to the floor, my face pressed into the purple blanket I was snuggling into.

I held my breath, terrified of what would happen if he saw me.

I mean after all, I did just witness Adam Valentino break the law.

Adam was somewhat of a legend in our school, from the very second he stepped foot onto the property, rumours were already flying. I heard once that he had been kicked out of his old school for assaulting a teacher, I heard another one claiming that he kicked the Principal in the balls.

And there was one that no one could seem to forget, it was pretty recent, and had everyone whispering when he walked down the halls.

The rumour that he had spent all of last summer in Juvie, and no one knows what for.

I usually don't believe any rumours, but that one always had stuck with me, reminding me not to get in his bad side, or his good side.

Or any side of him at all.

His overall presence was intimidating, not to mention the threateningly, tense atmosphere that surrounded him with every step he took. Most people cowered away at the sight of him, or even by the whispers that he had been spotted, especially since the incident with Jayden Boyce.

  I shuddered slightly, the picture of Jayden's broken face flashing in my mind, the brutal aftermath of Adam Valentino.

  Rob and I tried to scuttle past the cluster of people, our eyes trailed on the floor, ignoring any of the drama.

  Suddenly, my curiosity spiked as his unmentionable name was bellowed through the air.

  A boy with dark hair that fell onto his shoulders bellowed, "Oh look," the crowd parted slightly, and I grabbed into Rob's shoulder halting him. "Adam's back again!" The dark-haired boy mocked, a grin stuck to his face, as his football team cheered him on.

  Jayden's team laughed; he stepped closer to Adam who was surrounded in the middle, glaring at everyone that had enclosed him in the circle.

I peeked through a gap in the middle of two people, ignoring Rob's protests.

"So, Valentino," Jayden stepped closer to him, "is it true what everyone says?"

Adam's eyes flashed with warning, daring him to continue.

  Jayden ignored it and my heart raced, but for some reason I couldn't look away. "Is it true you were put in Juvie?" He shouted to the crowd, who all inched away slowly, looking at each other with worried glances.

The eyes of Jayden's football team which were previously trained on Adam, had now all quietened down until nothing but hushed whispers jumped around the massive circle.

Adam said nothing, his eyes narrowed on Jayden, as he clenched his fist until his knuckles turned white.

"Do you remember what for, Valentino? Because everyone else sure seems to." His voice sounded like a whisper against the silence of the crowd.

I watched with wide eyes as Adam's jaw clenched, looking at no one but Jayden.

The air turned tense.

"Wasn't it because you kil-"

  Gasps echoed all around and people frantically scattered away, shoving past me and Rob. Within the chaos, I looked back to where Adam stood, hunched over a lifeless figure on the ground, knocked out.

  His knuckles were by his side, pale and stiff, clenched into fists.

  Before I could see any more, I was dragged away by Rob.

  Jayden wasn't in school for weeks after that, it was whispered in school that he had to undergo plastic surgery, rumour had it that Adam broke his nose in seven places.

  And the fact that when Jayden did eventually come back into school, he had an entirely different nose and still some minor bruising to his face, it was said that Adam had only hit him once.

  Once.

  After that incident everyone avoided Adam like the plague, no one dared to cross him like Jayden once had, I mean practically everyone in the school was witness to Adam's fury on Jayden.

  I'm pretty sure even the teachers knew about it, they never pulled him up on it though.

  But I can see why.

  But without another thought, I looked back down at my essay, mentally groaning. And picked my pen up to try to finish it.