"Clam up your mouth and be silent like an oyster shell, for that tongue of yours is the enemy of the soul, my friend. When the lips are silent, the heart has a hundred tongues."

- Rumi

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"How could you do that?" Camila's angry voice startled me awake.

I looked over at my nightstand to see what time it was, I felt like I had slept for a year straight but it was actually only 5:32 in the evening. And yet I was still extremely tired.

After my all but healthy breakdown in the shower, I somehow found the willpower to drag myself out of the bathroom. I felt exhausted, mentally and physically and I had pretty much had cried all of my energy out. Which for the most part forced me into a not so pleasant sleep.

Every time I closed my burning eyes all I saw were his cold, hard blue ones. I could feel his rough hands exploiting my body. I felt like I was suffocating from the inside. Kind of like I was drowning and as soon as I got close to the surface to inhale the much-needed air that aching lungs needed, I suddenly get pulled back down.

Honestly, I wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep but when I heard the loud thud in the hallway outside my door I knew that wouldn't be an option.

"You need to calm the fuck down." Axel's equally angry voiced boomed.

I tensed up at the situation, I hated confrontation. I especially hated the amount of rage inside of Axel's and Camila's voices, what the hell was going on? Still drowsy I sat up in my bed, trying to concentrate on their argument.

"Noah promised to stay out of your way, what the hell is your problem!" Camila screamed.

I listened to them go back and forth feuding about someone named Noah. Another loud bang against the wall made me jump slightly off my bed.

"Stop hitting the wall, you psycho bitch! And it's not my fault your boyfriend is a fucking rapist!" Axel seethed.

"Oh no, don't you even try blaming him! He told me all about how "Little Misfit" in there came all over him." She shouted back.

"You hear that Mia? I know all about your slutty ways!" Camila continued, now pounding on my door.

My heart sunk to the floor. The boy from the side of the school was Camila's boyfriend? My breathing was starting to get hard to control, I took deep breaths trying to calm down. Wait? Does she think I came on to him? Noah was not only a piece of shit but, a lying piece of shit.

Calming my anxiousness I stand and walk to the door, I need to explain everything to her. She needs to know who her boyfriend really is, for her own safety. I take one last deep breath and swing my door open, revealing two very angry teenagers.

"Oh look who it is." Camila taunts. "The slut herself." She continued.

"Mia, go back in your room," Axel say through his teeth.

I swallowed hard, ignoring his obvious demands and looked over to Camila. What am I supposed to say to her?

You probably should have thought about that before you decided to march yourself in the middle of this.

"You couldn't even wait one day could you?" She asks, shaking her head in disbelief.

"It's not what you think," I told her, my voice coming out more confident than I felt at the moment.

"Save it." She interrupted. "You're lucky I don't beat your ass right here and now." She laughed angrily.

"He came onto me! I tried begging him to stop if it wasn't for Axel, who knows what would have happened!" I tried explaining to her, hoping to talk some kind of sense into her.

"Stop lying, Noah wouldn't do that!" She yelled, lunging towards me.

I immediately threw my hands over my face, prepared to block my head from her attacks. But they never came, I slowly opened my eyes to come face with Axel's back. He had Camila wrapped tightly in his arms away from me. Axel blocked me from her, his breathing ragged as she thrashed in his arms still trying to get her hands on me.

"I'm going to tell you one more time to fucking stop." Axel's voice was surprisingly a lot calmer than before, and somehow his calm persona was even scarier than when he was angry.

"Or what Axel? What exactly are you going to do?" Camila said trying to remain tough, but I can tell the coolness in Axel's voice frightened her just as much as it did to me, and he wasn't even talking to me.

"I might not hurt you, but I have no problem paying your sorry excuse of a boyfriend another visit and continuing where I left off." I could practically hear the smirk that I knew was plastered on his face. Goosebumps ran up my arms as he laughed to himself when he saw the worried look that made its way onto Camila's face and stops thrashing in his arms.

"What the fuck is going on?" Rylan's confused voice erupted out of nowhere coming up from the stairs.

"Doesn't matter, just get this lunatic outta here," Axel said, pushing Camila out of his grasp and towards Rylan.

"Are you okay?' Rylan asked, looking me over.

I nodded my head, I really wasn't but I would never admit that to him. I don't understand what exactly happened. He shot me a look of disbelief, he knew I was lying, and I knew this conversation wasn't over. Camila honestly believes I tried to make a move on her boyfriend, which I guess I now know is Noah. She's either really blinded by love or is seriously ignorant. All things considered, I'm still afraid for her. Her boyfriend is a freaking borderline rapist!

"I can't believe I ever wanted to be friends with you." She spoke, shaking her disappointedly.

I opened my mouth to say something but I knew it was no use and shut it. She wouldn't believe anything I would have said anyway.

"Now, Summers," Axel said, pushing him to get Camila away from him. That's when I noticed the dried blood that was still on his hands. He has yet to clean up from his fight with Noah. The sad part was I wasn't sure whose blood it was.

"Puta," She sneered at me in Spanish before allowing herself to be dragged away by Rylan.

I had absolutely no idea what she said to me, but I'm guaranteeing it wasn't a compliment. If she was going to insult me couldn't she at least do it in a language I could understand?

I watched as they disappeared down the stairs, out of my sight. A sigh of relief left my lungs, I knew this was far from over but it was done for now. I glanced over at Axel just to see him already looking at me, his dark eyes somehow looked even darker than normal. I looked away from them, I was too scared that if I kept staring into those big brown eyes for too long I would see the devil dancing in them.

Shaking the thoughts from my mind I reached down a grabbed his wounded hand without thinking. I froze and he tensed up from my actions.

"What the hell are you doing?" He asked pulling his hand away from me.

"You uh, you need to clean that," I told him, ignoring the feeling of wanting to rocket off into space.

"No, I don't" He grunted out.

"Here just let me clean it." I persisted, I mean it was the least I could do.

He gave me a weird look, furrowing his eyebrows in the progress. Why does everyone make it impossible to do the right thing?

"Why?" He asked still looking at me.

Why? Good question, I don't really know why I offered. I just felt like I at least owed it to him to see that his hand heals properly since it was my fault in the first place.

"Because how can you teach me to defend myself if your hand gets infected?" I decided to say after some time.

He still didn't seem to be completely convinced by my words, why can't he just accept my help?

"Listen this doesn't mean we're friends," I repeated what he said from earlier today.

"I promise my motives are nothing but completely selfish," I assured him, looking back to his face.

The dark, faraway look in his eyes was now one of amusement. It shocked me, to say the least, for the past 2 weeks I never saw any emotion out of him, other than anger of course.

"Okay, fine," Axel said, walking towards the bathroom. He then stopped outside the bathroom and looked towards me.

"I'm ready to be doctored, nurse Mia." He smirked before walking into the bathroom.

Flabbergasted by everything he just did, I followed after him. Is he actually going to let me help him? I felt like someone threw me into a tornado and I landed somewhere completely different. Did he just call me a nurse?

I walked into the bathroom to see Axel sitting on the counter waiting for me. I swallowed hard and got a cleaning cloth from the cabinet.

"Is there a first-aid in here?" I asked him, looking everywhere but him.

"Over there in that drawer." He pointed out.

I nodded slightly and pulled the ad-kit out and walked back over to Axel, who was surprisingly being very patient. I wet the cloth with warm water, and grabbed his hand and began cleaning his knuckles. Axel hissed as I rubbed the wounds.

"Sorry." I breathed out, stepping away from him.

I made the mistake of looking up to meet his stare, our closeness was messing with my head. His brown eyes kept me frozen in my place. Something about Axel in this moment was different, the usual badass exterior melted away. I searched his eyes trying to understand the strange change. But I couldn't exactly pinpoint it. That's when an undeniable emotion crept onto his face, one I knew all too well. Vulnerability.

I coughed awkwardly and looked away from Axel. I wanted to ask what was on his mind, but I already knew he wouldn't have told me. So instead I went back to work cleaning his hand.

I was just about to put the band-aid on his wounds when I felt fingers brush my hair behind my ear. My head snapped up to Axel's.

What on earth is he doing? The small action felt so foreign but yet, he didn't make me feel uncomfortable. In fact, it reminded me of when my mother used to do the exact same thing.

I quickly placed the band-aid on his knuckles and drew myself away from him. I was so confused by Axel's sudden change.

"Well there you go, all clean." The words rushed out of my untrained mouth.

I practically darted out of the bathroom in a daze, needing to be at least a thousand feet away from him.

Against my better judgment, I looked over my shoulder to get one last glance at Axel before making my escape out of the room.

He was still sitting on the counter but now he was staring down at the floor now, he looked as if he was in a deep thought. His eyebrows were furrowed and small frown made it's was on his face. I swore I could even see his eyes harden back to the way they were before.

I tried to get the image out of my head but I couldn't help but feel responsible for the long look on his face.

I opened my bedroom door to already see Rylan sitting on my bed waiting for me. I knew what he wanted; an explanation. But I'm not too sure I can give that to him, not now anyway.

What if Rylan doesn't believe me like Camila doesn't? I don't think I could handle Rylan hating me too. He's the only person here that I somewhat trust here.

I could feel my eyes starting to water, I never wanted to any of this to happen. Don't get me wrong I knew I didn't do anything wrong but I couldn't help the guilty feeling that was resting in the bottom of my stomach.

"Please don't hate me," I muttered, not looking at him. I didn't want him to see my teary eyes.

"Mia? What's wrong? I could never hate you." He started getting off my bed and walking towards me.

I flinched when I felt his arms softly wrap around me, pulling me closer to his chest. I just stood there in his arms, not knowing how to really react to his caring nature. I hate how Rylan always seems to see me like this, so emotionally unstable. Always the girl crying over everything.

"Tell me what happened love." He whispered, resting his cheek on the top of my head.

How am I supposed to tell him what happened? How was I supposed to tell him what Noah tried to do to me? Or why Camila hates my guts overnight? And I especially didn't know how to tell him how Axel out of all people was defending me.

I just shook my head not answering his question. What will Rose think? She'll probably want me out of her house. I wouldn't blame her either, I've been here less than a month and already made trouble for everyone.

"Mia, why are you crying?" He asked in a soft but somewhat demanding voice.

"Let me help you, whatever it is I'm sure it's not even that bad darling," Rylan spoke again, trying to get a response out of me.

I shook my head again and pushed away from him, his arms fell and I quickly wiped my eyes clearing the stupid tears that fell. He wouldn't understand if I told him, I could already see the dirty looks and disgust that would be so clearly visible in eyes if I told him the truth. And truth be told I don't want Rylan to think differently of me, I like him. Well, I like the idea of having someone I can trust maybe even a friend. But I learned my lesson before, so I don't get my hopes up. No one is ever truly the person they perceive themselves to be.

"You're right it's not even a big deal, I'm fine." I offered him a smile, trying to get him to forget what happened.

"You know I don't believe that." I'm pretty sure that even if I was blind I would still have heard the sad look that was on Rylan's face. He tries so hard to talk to me and make me feel comfortable and safe but yet I keep deny every move he makes at friendship. Seem like that's all I do nowadays, make people feel awful. First Camila, then Axel, and now Rylan.

"It's okay if you don't want to tell me but please don't act like nothing is wrong. You wear your heart on your sleeve Mia, it's obvious when something is upsetting you." He said looking straight at me.

"I'm sorry, I just can't." I felt so guilty looking up at him.

"I understand." Rylan nodded his head, stepping away from me.

"Rylan?" I called out to him as he reached my door.

"We are friends? Right?" I asked looking over at him.

"Of course sweetheart." He smiled lightly before walking out of my room completely.

I smiled to myself, I was glad that Rylan thought of me as a friend but I couldn't stop feeling guilty for not telling him the truth. Friends don't keep secrets from each other.

I took a deep breath and lazily made my way to the door, I really had to pee. I was about to open the bathroom door when suddenly, I was pressed up against the wall. I gasped as Axel put both arms on each side of my head, trapping me in place.

"Why didn't you tell Summers what happened?" he grunted, his eyes boring into mine.

"Why were you eavesdropping!" I accused, narrowing my eyes at him.

"Answer the question." He stated.

"What exactly was I suppose to say, Axel?" I shouted, now furious.

"That I was almost raped? And oh yeah my attacker was Camila's trash bag boyfriend so now she hates me too because she believes I wanted it? Oh, and to top it off the person that saved me hates my guts. So I don't know Axel why didn't I tell him what happened?" The words fell out of my mouth with a vicious tone.

He looked at me surprised, honestly, I was surprised too.

"I'm sor-" I began, feeling bad about yelling at him.

"I don't hate you." He spoke.

"What?" I asked confused.

"I don't particularly like you but, I don't hate you either." He repeated, looking at me inquisitively.

"Well thanks, I guess," I muttered looking away from him.

He really knows how to make a girl feel special.

"You have a week." He stated, removing his arms.

"Week for what?" I asked, not following.

"To tell them at least rose." Axel's eyes never left my face as he talked to me.

"I can't," I told him starting to feel anxious.

"Then I will." He shrugged his shoulders and started to walk downstairs.

"NO." I ran to him grabbing his arm to make him stop.

"I'll do it within the week," I told him looking down at the ground.

"Good now let go of me before I do something I'll regret." He narrowed his eyes at me.

I quickly dropped his arm and backed away from him. He smirked to himself when he noticed how easily he had intimidated me.

"You never answered my question." I pointed out.

"Why were you listening to Rylan and I's conversation?" I asked him again.

"The door was open." And with that, he walked into his room and shut the door.

What a dick.