"Conor?" I blurted out a second after hearing my surname. He stepped into the light, his face bloodied and bruised. A moment after, almost as if he read my mind, the other guy stepped forward to reveal himself. "Liam?!" My jaw dropped, thousands of things spun round in my head but nothing seemed to make sense. "What the hell is going on?"

"It doesn't matter. Let's just pretend this never happened." Liam smiled his signature smile that would normally wipe the sense of any girl in a mile radius, but I wasn't having any of it.

"It doesn't matter? Two supposedly great friends fighting twice now to the point of injury? Why here?" I kept questioning, my tone proving that I wasn't giving up. Liam sighed and looked around in frustration.

"We might as well tell her." Conor hissed at him, hatred lacing his words as he scowled.

"Why?" Liam snapped back.

"She'll find out one way or another. We can trust her not to say anything." Conor looked at me with pleading eyes so I gestured to zipping my mouth shut and nodded. They hesitantly looked at each other before Liam walked closer to me, putting an arm around my shoulders.

"Look, it's nothing against you. It's just... complicated." He sighed again. "I'm currently in a war with Alastair, he's got some information that will completely ruin me and Conor so we're having to hide our true feelings to avoid the exposure." I stared blankly between the two of them, trying to compute the tiny amount of information he had given me that didn't make any sense. Conor shook his head and walked to stand in front of me.

"He and Alastair are competing in a 'best popular guy' type contest. The colleges are against each other, ours and theirs being the top two in the fight. Some blogger does it every year and the ones that win get a huge blog written about them and how great they are which in turn makes younger aspiring popular people choose that college. It's been a thing for decades." Conor filled me in more helpfully than Liam had. "Anyway, Alastair has cheated and thrown information in the mix that is incorrect but we can't dispute it because he's threatening to release some pretty damning information on us which would not only ruin the schools reputation but also our future reputations." Once again silence filled the air. I took the information in but I was still computing it. What information could he have that would be that bad?

"And you care about some reputation school blog thing?" I pulled a confused face, my eyebrows furrowing.

"Yes. It has been a process that has happened every year for decades. Our colleges are currently tying with 9 wins each. If we win, the next intake of college students will be great; our football teams, debate teams, scholars... we'll have a fantastic team to go to all the different competitions. We need to keep winning against them." Liam sounded the most enthusiastic he had since this conversation began. Clearly his heart was set on this and impressing the college.

"And what information does Alastair have that could ruin it all? Like, are you being dramatic or could this genuinely ruin everything?" I quizzed further.

"Ruin it all." Conor answered this time, his voice low and sinister. "Our reputations, the college's rep, how people judge us in the future... Especially Liam" Liam shot him a look but Conor just offered a smirk.

"Shut it." Liam hissed.

"Look, if you were serious about Loraini being such a nice girl that you want to date, you'd better be up front with her. She's not like the other dumb idiots you normally date." I held back a loving smile that I wanted to present, purely because this was the wrong time for it. Once again, Liam hesitated, looking at me whilst in thought. He seemed to deliberate with himself for a while.

"I really want to, believe me, but I don't want you to think less of me. It was a mistake that I wish I'd never make. I'd turn back the time if I could..." Conor seemed taken aback with his comment, looking over at him in disbelief. Liam shifted uncomfortably before turning on his heels and beginning to walk away. "I'd better get going. Got a date tonight." He said without looking back, disappearing into the shadows. I stared blankly into the shadows for a second before moving my gaze over to Conor, who was also staring back into the shadows.

"How is he going to explain the mess his face is in?" I asked out loud, unsure as to whether I wanted an answer or not.

"Popular guy fight. He'll say he won." Conor said shortly before turning his attention to me. "I'm sorry you had to witness that." He said softly. "It's complicated." He shrugged. I put a hand on his arm.

"I'm sorry you two have to be like that. Whatever happened must have been awful and now this Alastair guy is rubbing it in your face." He put his hand on mine and rubbed his thumb over my knuckles.

"Yeah, it's pretty bad but there's nothing I can do. In a way I want to throw him under the bus but then again I also want to protect him. We've been friends for so long, I hate him sometimes but I just can't find it in me to go as far as ruining his life." Conor looked down at the floor, deflated. It felt like the walls were closing in on us as I witnessed this soft side of him.

"You're a great guy, Conor. You'll figure out the best way but remember to put yourself first. The only person you truly need to look after is yourself." Our hands parted reluctantly and he stepped away from me. His eyes were looking at me longingly but he was keeping his distance to make sure he didn't do something he may regret.

"Loraini..." he spoke softly. "I can't lie to you, I have to tell you the truth. Meet me on Sunday while Rae's on her date. I'll text you." He took off in a jog as a van made its way down the alleyway almost perfectly timed. I watched as Conor faded into the distance with a dull ache in my heart but an excitement burning in my stomach. He wanted to tell me the truth. I was about to find out something no one else knew.