A LITTLE TOO LATE, OR IS IT?

LIA'S POV

"Hey! Give me your money! Pull out the money!" I saw two men dressed in black pull knives out of their pockets and point them at a guy.

I watched them from behind the alley wall, unsure of what to do.

"I don't have any money. I really don't!" The guy replied, calculatively watching their hands.

"Hey! Don't try to be a hero, or else!" One of them warned, brandishing his knife in front of his face.

"We weren't born yesterday, that watch costs a ton. Pull out the money, dumb ass!"

The guy moved quick, towering over the two men in height, he grabbed one's hand and elbowed him in the face, while the other one swung his knife, slicing through the air near the guy's face, but he raised his hand to block and the knife cut his palm instead.

Suddenly the sound of sirens blared through the air and the two muggers scrambled and ran away.

I appeared from the dark, flagging up my phone from where the siren sounds blared, as I rushed to the guy's aid.

"Are you okay?" I asked him.

It was just luck that I was around that neighborhood at that time. I knew the place all too well, and how rough it could get for elites.

"Yeah, you saved me. Thank you." He smiled at me.

As soon as we walked into the light, his face came into view and so did mine.

I stared into the deepest blue eyes I had ever seen that night, and my heart thumped away carelessly. And then it hit me. I let out a gasp despite myself.

"What? Are they back?" The guy panicked, looking around.

"No, you're...you're Elian Dunst." I muttered stupidly, in a low voice.

He snorted out a laugh, at my incredulity.

"Last time i checked" he replied coolly, sweeping back his sweaty blonde hair from hovering over his forehead, almost ignoring his injured hand, like it was a habit.

That night should have been our last encounter had I been any wiser, but fate had other plans.

"Get over here, baldie!" The high school bully, Rachel and her minions grabbed me and slammed me against a random locker door one afternoon at school.

"You reported us to the P.E teacher, didn't you?" Rachel spat in my face, and I winced.

"You must have grown an extra tail or something...or was it, hair?"

They all laughed as Rachel pulled the dark blonde wig off my head, revealing my baldness.

Tears lingered in my eyes, as the students in the hallway erupted with laughter and finger pointing.

With the number of phones that were raised up at me, I was certain I would trend for months.

"Oh lookie here, it's santa Claus without hair!!!" Rachel joked and the students howled with laughter. The tears I tried to hide, flowed in torrents. I was sick of being bullied, but i was also small and weak, and poor...with alopecia.

"People like you should crawl into holes and just die!!" Rachel spat and slammed me into the locker again.

"And people like you deserve to be crushed under a moving van."

The voice that spoke sounded bored and angry at the same time.

Suddenly, the hall went quiet and everyone reduced their voices into hushes.

It was Kingston High's golden boy, standing there, in his gym shorts and white t-shirt with a towel over his neck, sweat trickled down his side buns, glistening on his skin like oil.

I thought I would die from embarrassment in that moment. I prayed with everything that the floor would open up and swallow me - but it didn't.

Elian Dunst cocked an eyebrow at Rachel, waiting for her to release me...and she did, with a thud.

"What are you going to do now, Elian Dunst? Report me to the school principal? My mother literally owns this school." Rachel boasted.

"No, i would beat you up right here, and then, make sure you get arrested for assaulting another student. You might get out, but you will never forget the stench of jail time on your skin."

"Your choice."

My mouth fell open in surprise and so did that of everyone present.

Elian Dunst was threatening to beat up a girl for a lower class? That was unheard of.

I shielded my face from everything, listening as Rachel's feet shuffled uneasily, before she made the difficult decision of walking away with shame.

The other students dispersed as quickly as they had gathered, and before he approached me, I overheard Elian tell one of his friends to make sure all the videos were deleted.

God, could he be anymore perfect? I thought to myself.

At the sound of his feet approaching me, I panicked and got up to run, but he grabbed my hand.

"Stop. Here." He handed my wig to me and helped me put it on.

"There, you look..." Elian paused, he reached up to touch a cut on the side of my neck, and I winced in pain, before noticing there was another on my palm.

I stole a glance at him and caught his jaw flex. He was mad. On my behalf?

My heart hammered excitedly as though it would burst out of my chest any minute, was this what being in love felt like? I thought.

"Come on," he pulled my uninjured hand.

I resisted, and looked up at him.

"Where to?" I asked in a shy voice.

"School's over anyways, let's go to my house, it's close by. We'll get your wound fixed up, our maid is really good with things like that." He said and pulled me along before I could protest further.

My eyes flared wide at the luxurious mansion that was the Dunst family house. I had lived in Garden city, Long Island all my life, but I had never been to any house that luxurious on the Island.

They had their own overview of the sea, a yacht just sat there and you could see it while driving towards the house on the hilly road.

Plush gardens, wrot iron gates flanking gem stones. The house was made for stars. Elian chuckled at my amazement, and it made me flush with embarrassment.

"This is your house?" I gaped.

"Yes, but my parents aren't home right now. They are almost never around. Anyway, like i said, our maid will fix you up."

The absence of his parents was more than comforting news for me, and a knot i didn't know had formed the minute we drove through the gates, loosened in my stomach.

However, what shocked me more than the luxurious house and the cars, and the yacht and the gemstoned gate, was the maid herself whom we met upon entering the house.

"Lia?" A stunned middle aged woman called, with eyes widened in complete shock.

"Mom!" I froze.