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AMAYA

I 'm glad I have no idea how long I've been here for, or what day it is. With no clue how long I've been shivering in my, once again, soaked clothes, I force my ears to tune out the horrible music drilling into my brain.

The light today isn't white. Oh no, they have different fucking settings. Today, bright pink and purple are set on a strobe like setting, effectively making me want to vomit. Which I've done twice now.

Swollen from the powerful hose, my tongue makes breathing difficult. With the taunt of fresh water, I opened and gulped as much of the liquid as I could, and I still hate myself for giving in to the temptation of thirst.

I've bought myself more time, yet I'm still so damn thirsty. Again I ponder what would be better for my bonded alpha—this suffering or my death?

Unfortunately, I'm too weak to allow myself the mercy of death. But I am strong enough to distract myself.

10 Years Old

The girls are at it again. I'm not sure if they want to be heard whispering about the boys, or if they're just dumb, but Laura's giggle can be heard across the classroom.

"He's so cute!"

"I saw him first," Mandy says with a pout and pushes Laura. Childish .

A poke in my side forces my jaw to release its annoyed clench. "What's the matter?" Oliver asks, eyes moving all over my face.

Grumbling, I say, "Nothing." If he didn't hear the girls, then there's no way I'm going to bring attention to their crush on him. Them . I swear all my classmates drool over my friends; it's why I only have three of them. Sammy, Oli, and Emmett.

All I hear every dang day is how cute they are. Nobody wants to be friends with me for me . They just want to get Oli's attention and the other two if they're around. Oli and I are in the same class, while Sam and Em are a grade ahead, which only adds to their coolness, I guess.

Ugh, I don't know why I'm mad.

"Maya?" Oli nudges my arm. I glare down at the pencil slash through the last few lines I had written in my paper. He chuckles, seeing how he messed me up. "Oops."

My jaw aches again as I twirl my pencil around and begin erasing. "Like that wasn't on purpose," I mumble.

"Why are you so cranky?"

I sigh, feeling a little bad that I'm bringing Oli's mood down too. My pencil clicks against our shared table. Before I can explain my embarrassing feelings, Laura laughs loudly again and tucks her hair behind her ear when Oliver looks over.

I know my face is probably not looking friendly at all, but really ?

"Oh," Oli whispers and tugs my arm off the table. Softly, his hand grips my forearm. "They're annoying."

My head darts over to him and seeing him working on his essay like he couldn’t care less about the other girls makes me feel so much better.

"Yeah, they are," I agree, my cheeks heating. Blinking at my friend a few times, I can't help but smile. I'm so glad he doesn't like them , especially not like like them.

"Oli," my voice wavers, "do you have a crush on anyone?"

Oh no, OMG why did I say that?!

My hands prickle with sweat and my butt feels hot against the plastic chair. Crap, what if I leave sweat marks on it?!

Then Oli's freckled cheeks turn bright red, and his hand squeezes my arm a little. "Ah, no. No crushes."

I feel bad again for making him feel weird. But butterflies flutter in my belly since he's clearly hiding something.

I wonder who he likes!