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“Nice piercing.”

She turned to look back at me. “Thanks.” She glanced at my neck. “Nice tattoo.”

My one percent tattoo. I doubt she knew what it meant. “Thanks.”

Her eyes hovered for a bit longer on it, and I bet she was trying to work out what it meant. Then she looked me in the eye, and I swear she was looking at me like she knew what my tattoo meant.

She said something under her breath and went back to looking at her textbook.

I wanted to have a conversation with her. “So, what’s your name?” Might as well start with the basics.

“Layla.” She glanced at me. “You?”

“Tyson.”

She turned with a slight smile on her face. “You wouldn’t have a sister, would you?” Her eyes were locked with mine. She was staring into my eyes like she knew me.

“Um, two.” And I found it really odd that she would assume I had one. I didn’t walk around with a sign around my neck saying I had two sisters.

“Hannah?”

“You know my sister?” How did Hannah meet her before me? In fact, how did she meet Hannah? “And how did you know she was related to me?”

Her smirk just got a little bit bigger. “Your eyes give you two away.” She frowned for a second. “Two?”

“Hannah forget to mention she has a twin?”

She smiled. “Two Hannahs, you are lucky.”

I scoffed. “They are nothing alike.” I was not lucky whatsoever. Eve torturing me today came to mind.

Hannah and Eve were opposites. Sure they looked identical, but that was it. Eve lived up to her nickname of Naughty. And Hannah lived up to her nickname of Nice.

She looked back at the textbook with a smile on her face. How well did she know Hannah? Had she just avoided my attention and been here since the start of term and just transferred classes or something?

“So, when did you start?” I asked, really interested in her answer.

“What?” She kept her eyes on the textbook.

“Here at school?”

She glanced up, still with a smile. “First day.” And she looked back at the textbook. “I keep getting lost.”

I stopped leaning back on my chair and straightened. “What’s your timetable look like?”

“Um, I still don’t know it very well. Free before this and next is lunch. Which I can’t wait for cause I’m starving.” She snuck a glance at me. “What’s with the look?”

I was looking at her and was impressed. A woman that eats. That was rare. I thought my sisters and mum were the only women that ate properly. No girl I had ever been with ate.

“Want to escape for food?” My leg brushed hers as I moved to face her.

“I don’t want to pull you from your reading.” Her eyes went to my open textbook.

I wasn’t even fucking reading. “Do you eat meat?”

She nodded her head.

“Hamburger cart around the corner does the best hot dogs.” And I was craving food. I had wanted to escape for food before she showed up. Getting her to come with me was just me being selfish. “You coming?” I asked, getting up.

Food. That was exactly what I needed. And her company.

“What about the teacher?” she asked, not packing up her stuff.

“Trust me, if you walk out with me, he won’t question it.” I could walk out whenever I felt like it without being questioned. First year here I smashed up a teacher’s car because they questioned my doctor’s letter. Which had been real.

That got me on charges. I’d love to say they were my first lot of charges but they weren’t. My record started when I was seven for defacing a vehicle. And it wasn’t my teacher’s.

“Okay.” She gathered up her things, stuffing them in her bag.

She glanced at the teacher as we walked out. But, like expected, he didn’t say a word.