Memories:-

*Elizabeth POV*

The last night of my summer vacations was at a full swing. Tomorrow, we would have to get back to school again, for the final year. And for same reason as most of the other students of the school, I hated it with my whole existence. I hated being stuck down to a bench and desk, studying. It always brought the worst part of me out. That would be the bored Elizabeth Marshalls. At the least I was happy for it to be the last year that I would be spending in the school. I couldn’t wait for graduation to happen.

Yet, by some miracle I had always been one of the finest students that a small town of rich people school could manage to produce. Not exactly my words but that was what my teachers and other students said. And not to forget a hot one too, according to the boys. We were, with no doubt, rotten, spoilt, rich, bad girls.

And tonight was the night! The party was on and Diana was rocking it. Diana was my best ever best friend, though I had my three other close friends in our small group - Susie, Janet and Lola. We were one of the hottest groups of girls in school. We proudly called ourselves 'The Babes'. The title 'The plastic girls' was already taken by Daisy, Sheena and Emma. Anyway, I hated that title. I agreed that we were bitchy but not that cruel, at least not as cruel as them. Yet there were some girls who hated our guts.

Diana was very pretty with her dark hair which was a few shades darker than mine and her spotless ebony skin. Her magnetic personality and sexy black doe eyes hypnotized many.

Susie was icy blonde with her innocent blue eyes and I always had the urge to pinch her cheeks. Her hair Chanel cut hair style justified her being called as a pixie of the group.

Janet was more of a honey blonde. Her hair always shimmered as if it was made up of gold. Her enigmatic green eyes stood out with her beautiful dimples whenever she smiled.

Coming onto Lola, she was a brunette but not just any brunette but a brunette with unique natural blond highlights. Her hazel eyes were a mixture of amber and blue.

All of my girls were tall except for me and Susie.

I had inherited the genes of my Latino great grandparents. I had almost black hair, eyes almost honey colored and my dusky skin, making me look a blood relative of my great grandparents, though my parents looked more of Caucasian origin.

In my tiny group, I had the honor of been having the biggest name 'Elizabeth', so my friends had their own nicknames for me. Diana called me 'Z', Susie 'Elisa', Janet 'Lizzy' and Lola called me 'LZ'.

Diana chose to host a girls’ sleepover after the mind-blowing party.

We had a little food fight, landing me completely covered with sour cream on my face, jell-o and spaghetti in my hair, Mac and cheese on my bottom and canned beans and a half eaten pizza slice on my top. The others didn't have it so bad. Lola almost fell laughing on the ground after having one look at me. I had become the easiest target after winning the Beer Pong!

They had to scrub me for hours to clean me off all that stuff.

"Darling, these things love you! They just don't want to come out of your head," Diana cracked a joke and the rest of them broke into laughter.

"Ha. Ha. Very funny, guys," I hissed in frustration.

"Well, at least you won't be in a need of a boyfriend when food just loves you like one!" Susie burst into laughter that followed another fit of laughter.

After that torturous bath, we had a pillow fight. The room ended up completely covered in feathers. Janet who was trying to escape Lola’s attack pushed her making her slip over the feathers and falling on her butts. It didn’t end there; Lola pulled Susie along with her who indeed fell on Janet who was facing Diana, both of them tumbled like dominos. Diana pulled the blanked on which I stood, bringing me down on the ground like the final pin of the bowling alley.

"Oh!”

“Ah!”

“Ouch!"

“Shit!” we all cried out in pain together, showcasing the vocabulary we possessed.

All of a sudden, the enlightened Lola asked, "Did this all happen because of me?"

That was all we needed to burst out laughing at her expense.

****

All too soon, it was morning again. Diana was my only company who had still sleeping. And that was the time when Lola thought was an auspicious hour to practice her vocal abilities.

No doubt that she was a pretty good singer only when she was aware that people were looking at her, but in the privacy of her bathroom she always thought that screeching was the answer to everything. Unable to tolerate another failed octave of hers, I opened my eyes at last to throw something at her choking face. Susie and Janet had their fingers in their ears, sitting on the sofa scanning through their mobiles.

That was when my wicked mind worked producing an evil idea. I slowly tiptoed to the washroom and blocked the knob of bathroom door by a chair and secured it with the intention of locking it from outside and began chuckling loudly. Lola immediately stopped singing. "What’s happening out there?" she inquired from inside.

"Nothing! Nothing at all! We aren't checking your cell phone, we haven't seen the pictures of your crushes, and we haven't uploaded that video of yours," I replied in a taunting tone, reminding her of all the time I had messed with a long time ago.

"What? LZ, I'll surely kill you!" she screamed, waking Diana up. The door rattled but the chair stopped it from opening.

“Let me out of here!” All four of us started laughing at her outburst.

"Don't worry, Lola, I haven't sent those clips to Walter. He probably won't be laughing at you right now," I further added, only to infuriate her more. You know, ruffling those feathers a little?

Walter was her longest crush, who was at last giving her all the attention she demanded, or that was what she said.

"LZ!" she shouted, the door rattled some more.

"Let me out of here! Let me out! LZ, I swear, I will kill you when I get out of here!"

"You will only be able to kill me if you get out from there. Bye Lola, have a wicked time mulling over the damage!" I giggled.

"That was wicked girl," Diana commented.

"Yeah," Susie and Janet agreed.

"Will someone let me out?" Lola shouted.

"Bye, guys! Let Lola out, only after you see my car disappear around the corner, or else she will go all hulk on me. See you at school," I shouted running out the room of Diana’s mansion. It was big enough to remain oblivious even if a bomb had gone off at the other end of the house.

My house was just as big as Diana's, but not as full. Her parents lived with her, but mine were finalizing some business deal somewhere around the world at the moment.

Or they could have been in the forests of the Amazon at that moment, for all I knew! I was their only child, but they didn't seem to care much about me. At least I had maids to serve me in my needs but the house always felt suffocating when I was alone.

Deep in my melancholy thoughts, I drove my metallic black Ferrari out of the gates of my house, after getting ready for another usual day at school. I was in my new favorite red mini skirt and white off-shoulder blouse. I paired them up with my white fur boots.

I was riding alone, whistling or more appropriately trying to whistle before I decided to turn the music on. The song Where Have You Been All My Life by Rihanna blasted through the speaker. My head bobbed along with the beats.

I've been everywhere, man

Looking for you, babe

Looking for you, babe

Searching for you, babe

Where have you been?

Cause I never see you out

Are you hiding from me, yeah?

Somewhere in the crowd

My eyes fell upon a guy with a bag dangling from one of his shoulder. He was walking alone on the side road which led to the school. The way had woods on the either sides and was way too dangerous to walk, as the wild animal here included bears and wolves.

I turned the music down, trying to look his face and judge if he needed any help. He had his head covered it with the hood of his dark blue hooded jersey and his hands were hidden away in the pockets.

He had a good physique, an athlete's build with a height of approximately six plus feet. He clothes slightly outlined his bulging muscles, even his with black jeans. They outlined his defined thighs.

"Hey, you there!" I shouted after shaking my head to rid of my head from the idea of checking him out again. I only wanted to help him.

He neither responded nor turned.

"Excuse me!" I stopped the car beside him and got down, almost running toward his fast moving figure. I placed my arm over his shoulder after calling out to him one more time only to stop him. But instead I felt like I froze him in his place.

"Hey, I'm talking to you!" I said slightly annoyed while trying to calm down my ragged breathing from all the running I had done.

He turned to face and I finally I saw his face that caught my breath in my throat.

His skin tone was the lightest I had ever seen. The odor of what I suspected to be his cologne wafted into my system making me an addict of it instantaneously. It resembled something musky and floral with a hint of dark chocolate to it. His luscious caramel hair fell in cute soft locks over his forehead. There was a dimple in his chin and high cheekbones. His flawless skin resembled like the Korean glass skin. He wasn't chubby, yet I still wanted to pinch his cheeks. I had never seen such a perfect face before so handsome. Like a character from an ancient painting had stepped out into this world.

My eyes glided to stare into his captivating ones, blue as the soft azure on the surface of the sea. But the only vibrant emotion that I could make out in them was anger.

Soon his entire face reflected the anger from his eyes; it had spread like a wild fire. I immediately took a step back, scared of that look. He looked deadly, deadly enough to kill.

"Leave me alone!" his words come out in the form of hiss through clenched teeth. For a second I forgot that the stranger was angry with me, hearing his breath-taking voice, more appropriately hiss. I had to blink twice to gain control of my body before I could muster a reply.

"I just wanted to help, this forest isn't safe to travel on foot," it came out in a whisper.

"Then that's my problem, and not yours," he hissed again, acid dripped from his every single word.

I tried looking away to process the words that had left his tempting mouth when I saw a tree branch above him hung loosely, on the verge of falling on us.

"Damn it! Look out!" I shouted, and before I knew it I had pulled him out of the way.

The branch fell in that place where we were standing just a moment ago.

"You okay?" I turned asking him. He had a weird expression on his face, something that could be categorized in agony, as if I had snatched the rainbow colored candy from a five year old kid and he was that kid. Don’t tell me that he would burst out in tear and cry. I shook the thoughts from my head and looked at him.

I just couldn't take away my eyes off him.

"Get inside the car, I'll drop you wherever you want to go."

He quietly got into the passenger seat without making any more fuss.

"I'm Elizabeth Marshalls. My friends call me 'Z', 'Elisa', 'LZ', and 'Lizzy'. You can call me any of these. What's your name?" I tried to start a civilized conversation after a few moments of dead silence.

"Rome," he said, after a long time. His voice was so manly, so deep. I had to take a deep breath to stay in the present and not go singing into Lala land.

"Where do you want to go?" I asked, only with the intension of hearing his voice again.

"There is a school ahead, just stop by the gate," he answered, frustration and annoyance rang clearly in his voice. His accent was so fluent and clear, I had only heard something similar in movies of golden age of Hollywood.

"Wow, what a coincidence! That is my destination too! It's so good to hear," I beamed at him almost exclaiming my sentiments into the words. But he flinched, his eyes narrowed in anger again making me sweat.

Okay, I was scared of him. I didn't have any idea why he suddenly lost his temper. Did I look like an irritating dancing monkey? I peeped into the rear view mirror to look at myself.

No, I looked fine and I smelled fine since I had bathed before leaving for school. I had helped him, the school was a way too far to walk from where I had picked him up, so why was he so aggrieved? I dug myself inside my mind trying to search for an answer, but nothing came up.

Maybe he just woke up from the wrong side of the bed that day, or maybe he was a just testy guy.

"So… Junior year?" I tried to start a conversation again, hoping he would have calmed down. I was scared no doubt, really scared in fact, but I composed my fear in a bored look.

"No, senior," he replied, with only a hint of anger still remaining in his voice. Thank goodness, he was not as infuriated as before and that was when his words registered in my head.

Wow! New student!

The handsome was damn attractive. Why in hell did he have to be so handsome? In the bottom of my heart, it felt like something wasn’t right. Maybe it was just my crazy mind and entangled feelings.

We were finally in front of the big, off-white colored building covered with creepers. The structure looked like another monument from the medieval period.

I stopped in front of the main building inside campus, giving him directions to the principal's office as he got out, even when he never asked. He over his shoulder at me, glaringly. I swallowed hard to wet my throat that had gone dry. Maybe I shouldn't have told him anything, shouldn't have helped him at all! It wasn’t like there was no one else who would've wanted to help him.

He turned around walking away. All the gazes turned towards him, some then oscillated in my direction. They might have thought there was something between us before he decided to ruin it with his hostile glare.

I stepped on the acceleration pedal, driving into the parking space before shutting off the gas.

My four friends waited for me by Diana’s car.

"Hey girls! What's up?" I greeted them casually. They weren't paying any attention to me but stared behind me. I huffed walking closer to them, almost shouting the same thing again, "hey, girls! What's up?"

All of them flinched back to present and looked at me. I hopped to sit onto the trunk of Diana's Mercedes.

"LZ, who was that guy you just dropped off?" Lola asked, still lost in deep thoughts.

"My new boyfriend. I met him on the way and he was eager to reciprocate," I tried to sound normal, but by the word 'boyfriend' itself felt foreign on my tongue. I could feel butterflies flutter in my stomach. I so wished it was true.

"Don't joke, LZ! You and dating? It is one of the rarest events, like a blue moon or even a blood moon!" Lola said. I froze. Was my dating history so bad? I composed myself and tried to think of a good come back, but it looked like my mind wasn't in my head.

"He is a vampire. You still want to meet him? He sucked all my blood through the journey. Do you want to donate your blood too?" I quickly cracked a satirical joke, almost laughing to myself but still reeling back from the last statement from Lola. No one laughed.

"That wasn't funny, Z. Tell us already, who is he?" Diana asked impatiently. I felt anger rush through my veins.

"He's a nerdy freak! Very bad-tempered and a loon named Rome," I spat out angrily from his rude behavior with me.

"But he is so handsome!" Lola said.

"And a douche bag!" I added still annoyed.

"He messed around with you? Wow! That's something new to hear," Janet giggled. I just gave her a sharp look making her shut her mouth, trying to stop the giggle. I noticed that others were trying very hard not to laugh.

"Whatever!" I said in an irritated tone, moving into the school.