Drake watches in the distance as Elizabeth is studying. He hides himself so it’s not noticeable that he is watching her. It’s not stalker-ish but he can’t help himself. Drake is too shy to go up to her and have a normal conversation. He will be so nervous, his body will freeze up and his mind will go blank and it will be very awkward. He dislikes those awkward situations and does not want to put Liz through those situations since it will make him look bad.

Liz gets up and asks the person across from her to watch her things while she goes to the bathroom. The person nods their head and Liz heads towards Drake’s way. Drake puts his head down and waits until she is past him. He pokes his head up and sees that the person took her books and starts to walk away. Drake is filled with anger and wants to protect Liz’s books, but is stricken with fear and is very apprehensive. He gets up and gathers up all the courage that he can and walks up to the guy. Drake tells the guy to give her books back. The guy denies taking anything from Liz’s desk. Drake yells ” I saw you take it! There are other witnesses here! Give it back to her”! Liz is coming back and sees the altercation near her belongings. She rushes over to see what is going on, worried about her things. She asks what is going on. Drake tells her that the guy took her books but then the guy is denying it. She yells at him saying that her books are missing and She entrusted him to watch the things. He denied even Liz asking about watching her books and then runs away. Liz starts chasing after him and then Drake chases after him. Liz loses her breath and then Drake continues on. He is pushing his body more and more since he does not want Liz to be unhappy. He tackles down the guy and then finds the books. He punches him and tells him not to mess with Liz. The guy apologies and gets up. He says he just wanted to sell the books since he was short on cash. Drake tells him to not to steal anymore and just to get a job.

Drake brings back the books to Liz and she thanks him. Since Liz is happy it fills Drake’s heart with some warmth and brings a smile to his face. She gives him a hug and asks how she can repay. He says “it is really nothing.” He does not want to take anything from Liz and does not want Liz to owe him anything. Liz keeps on pleading that she must take him out to lunch or something to repay him for getting her books back. Drake concedes and says ok, and they set a time and place to go to.

Drake goes home and ponders about what to do. Since he is very shy, he wonders if she will feel awkward. He tries to think of different conversations to bring up and try to keep conversations going. He searches through his clothes and wants to dress not to impress her but up to a certain point where it’s decent. He finds that he has several possible options to go to and tries them all on. He looks at the mirror and realizes that a pretty girl like Liz will never look towards his way. As he tries on all this clothes, his heart sinks. He realizes that he will not have a shot with her since she is out of his league. He storms out of his room and into the streets. It is still early and decides to get his haircut. He decides to get his haircut very short, and try to look cleaner for Liz. He debates with his mind whether or not he is making too big of a deal for just a simple lunch meet. He doesn’t care and will do whatever it takes to try to have Liz look towards his way ( like him). Little does he know that Liz has a boyfriend.

Liz is walking back home and her boyfriend, Alex , picks her up in his Benz. He asks her how her day was and Liz takes Alex through the day and Alex is filled with rage, anger and wants to find the guy who hurt his girl. Liz says it’s ok and she met a nice guy Drake who protected her books and her. Alex is relieved and is a little suspicious and tells her not to meet Drake for the lunch. Liz yells and says she owes him at least a lunch for saving her books. Alex says Drake might like her and got her books back because of that. Liz yells back and says that he can just be a nice guy and helping out a fellow student. Alex is still not swayed by that idea. He says ok and says she can go to lunch with Drake. She says that he cannot control her anyway and tell her what to and what not to do. Alex drops her off and says to watch out for Drake the next day.

Drake can’t sleep since tomorrow is a big day. He has had a crush on Liz ever since he laid his eyes on her since the beginning of the semester. He will want to initiate conversations but he thinks it will be so random that she will just walk away due to the randomness of the situations. He always tried to think of situations where there can be at lease some conversations but they always did not go so well in his head. He finally went to sleep and thought he will just have to wing it.

The next day, they meet at the local sushi place. Liz loves sushi and she felt very happy. Drake liked sushi and thought it would be just a nice friendly time with Liz. It would be very nice to get to know her at least. He let go of the crush that he has and thought it would be better to be her friend. They start talking about school and just the basics of getting to know each other. They ask each other where they are from, what major they are, what kinds of classes they are taking. It starts to be a decent conversation and Drake is no longer nervous. The conversation is just picking up and there are no awkward pauses. He is surprised since he knows what to say and it is just on instinct. He does not try to think about it and just lets it be.

Alex walks by and sees Liz in the window of the sushi place. He walks in and wants to see who the chum was trying to get his girl. He looks at him and laughs to himself since he sees that he is not much competition. He is settled down inside and just wraps his arm around her shoulder. Liz introduces Alex to Drake and Drake’s heart drops. He tries to show that he is okay with it but inside he is hurt. They exchange phone numbers just to hang out and Alex just allows it.

They start having a nice friendship between them. Liz does not realize that Drake has feelings for her but he does a very good job at hiding it. He does not try to give the impression that he has any kind of feelings and wanting any more out of the friendship. They would talk about school, their families, their likes and dislikes. They would go on texting for hours filling Drake with warmth and butterflies. Liz thought it was nice for once to have someone just to talk with, she has her girls but she believes they will just gossip and can’t really trust them about anything. She feels she can talk to Drake easily and tells him she has not told anyone even her boyfriend Alex. Drake is comfortable and accepts his role and friend and nothing more.

One day, Liz calls Drake crying and sobbing. He asks “what’s wrong”? Drake can barely understand her with her continuous crying but made out that she wants to meet up and talk. They decide to meet at the park near Drake’s house. Drake walks to the park only to see Liz sitting on the bench drenched in tears, hair messed up, in a hoddie and sweatpants. He asked her what was going on? He was worried for her and was wondering what upset her this badly. Liz told him him what happened.

Liz and Alex were at her place just talking. Alex happened to stumble upon Liz’s phone and saw that she was texting an enourmous amount to Drake. Alex asked her what is going on between you and him. He was getting frustrated and he slapped her with his backhand. He kept yelling at her and saying that she belonged to him. He questioned his love for her and hit her agian. He threw her phone at her and said why has she not been spending more time with him. He asked if she was spending it with Drake and not him. Liz already in tears, pleaded with him and said that she did love him and only him. She said that Drake was only a friend and he was easy to talk to. Alex screams and yells “then how come she can’t talk to him about it”? They fight and Liz leaves in a hurry.

They are at the park and Drake comforts Liz holding her and just listening to what she has to say. Liz is comforted by Drake, feeling warm and cozy in his arms. She starts to smile and embraces where she is. Drake is very nervous and does not know what to do in this situation. Should he take advantage of her in the emotional state that he is in?, or should he just be a friend?

Alex is driving around looking for Liz. He tries to check all her favorite places and where she might be. He calls her friends that he knows but they say they don’t know where she is. He is angry because he knows that she might have called Drake. He is driving furiously and tried the park since he remembered that she likes it there. He drives around and sees Liz in Drake’s arms. He steps on the gas and heads towards them. He stops just short of them and gets out of the car heading towards Drake. He lifts him up and punches him. He tells Drake to stay away from his girl. Drake gets up and is furious. He tries to punch Alex but is overpowered by Alex’s brute strength. Alex knocks Drake down and starts kicking him constantly. Liz is pleading with Alex to stop and apologizes for running away. Alex shoves her away and she falls to the floor still crying and ruining her make up and getting dirt on her clothes. Drake is on the floor taking in the kicks and trying to block the but to the best of his effort he cannot.

Alex kicks Drake a few more times and picks up Liz to take her back home. Drake is on the floor bruised and bleeding trying to hold back tears and covering up his pain. Alex tells Drake to stay away and this is one final warning otherwise he will unleash a worse beating than Drake got now. Liz is crying, sobbing, and apologizing constantly to Alex and tells him to stop and she will not see him or talk to him anymore.

Alex drives away with Liz and Drake is heartbroken. Drake does not know what to do, he cannot see the love of his life and his life is on the line if he does. He is still determined to take Liz away from Alex since Liz deserves more than the jerk of a boyfriend that she has. Drake is frustrated since he knows that he can’t overpower Alex and wants to work out a lot so he can at least put up a chance against the well-built, muscular, tall Alex. He does not want to fight Alex but he does want Liz to be safe in his own arms and not in the arms of the horrible, and mistreating Alex.

Drake gets into his car and starts chasing after Alex to rescue the love of his live. He follows Alex and he finally caught up to him. Drake rams the back of Alex’s car and both cars come to a crashing halt. Drake, hurt by his bold attempt at stopping Alex, gets out and heads for Liz. He opens the door and takes her out of the car and into his. Alex is hurt and his head is on the steering wheel bleeding. Drake drives away with Liz in the car. Liz is crying and does not know what to do. She tells him to go back and help Alex or at least call 9-1-1. Drake says that he can’t do that since he will get in trouble for causing the accident; it’s better to run away from it all. Liz asks him what is the plan now? They are fleeing from the accident and will get in trouble. Drake says as long as they are together, they will be fine. Liz is starting to doubt about what she is doing and does not know what to do. She is very uncomfortable and wants to see if Alex is okay. She still has feelings for him. Liz begs Drake to go turn around and drive back. Drake yells at her that he can’t and that he will go to jail. Liz opens the door while the car is in motion, jumps out and rolls onto the road. Drake stops the car abruptly and says “what are you doing”?! Liz runs back to see Alex. The car is filling with gasoline and she tries to pry him from the seat belt. It is stuck and Liz is trying furiously.

Drake is still in his car, contemplating on what to do. He sees that she still has feelings for him and she will not feel the same way for him. He watches from the distance as she is constantly trying to break Alex from the wreckage. Drake has seen enough. He gets out from the car and starts heading towards Liz and Alex.

Liz is crying and the tears are running down her face. Her hair and make up is a mess. She’s trying to free Alex from the stuck seat belt and is constantly apologizing. She sees Drake and yells for help. Drake opens the seat belt and pulls Alex away. Drake carries Alex to the backseat of his car. Liz is behind and holds Alex in her arms. Drake says they will go to the nearest hospital. As Drake looks up the nearest hospital in the GPS, Liz is in the back holding Alex and wiping away all the blood with a towel. She is in tears and hopes that Alex will be okay.

Drake drives off and watches the two in the rear view mirror. He thinks to himself that someday he will have that. He does not want to disrupt what they have. Even though Alex abuses her, she still has feelings for him. He has to let go. They drive off into the road to find a hospital and save Alex.

To be continued . . .