Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Briar
Dylan, Zak, and Marcus are lounging in our regular spot by the front steps of the school when I arrive a few minutes before the first bell rings.
I pull my Mustang into my parking spot. It’s always open; no one dares to park here anymore. Marcus steps closer, toking at his slim, silver vape as he sticks out his hand to shake mine.
Dylan yells out, “You cut yourself shaving or something?”
Shit. I’d been blasting metal on my car stereo, and it had taken my mind off everything—including my run-in with last night’s little trespasser and the brazen memento she left me with. If Marcus had noticed it last night, he hadn’t commented on it but now he’s staring at it with a deep frown.
I grin at him, trying to ignore the aching cut on my cheek. “You know what happens when I look for trouble.”
“You find it?” Marcus says, hitting his vape again.
Zak and Dylan stick out hands for me to fist bump. Dylan even goes as far as to tip his white baseball cap at me, and laughs when I cock an eyebrow at him. Then Zak and Dylan go back to talking about last night’s game. We usually hang out on the weekends but with finals coming up, the three stooges’s parents had grounded them for the weekend.
Bad things happen when parents start talking to each other.
Marcus doesn’t join in on the conversation. He’s staring at nothing, one hand draped over his knee, the other toying with his vape when he’s not hitting it.
I click my fingers at Marcus, and he holds out his vape without looking. It could just be that he’s hungover, but I know him too well. He’s in a slump, and it’s gonna take concerted effort to get him out of it.
I draw deep, grimacing around its sweet taste, and take a long, slow scan of the kids streaming into school.
A pair of girls come closer. I recognize Addison Green from my AP Literature class, but I don’t know who the hell’s with?—
“Prince!”
I snap out of my trance, and throw Zak a scowl. The fucker knows better than to use my first name, but he doesn’t even have the decency to look abashed.
“What?” I snap.
“You get any tail this weekend?”
I stare at him, and then shake my head. He’s the only one in our crew idiotic enough to ask. They all know by now that I keep myself away from women.
It’s too easy to lose control. If I’d had any doubts, last night proved I can’t be alone with a girl.
When I turn back, Addison is only a few yards away.
“What the fuck, man?” I hear Dylan say, but I’m more interested in the girl walking beside Addison than in being interrogated by my posse.
It’s the girl from the woods. This time, instead of some baggy jeans and an oversized hoody, she’s wearing a school skirt that shows off a pair of slender legs. She’s not wearing makeup, and her mess of hair’s been drawn back into an untidy bun.
In daylight, she’s even more petite than I witnessed last night, the shadows under her eyes more pronounced.
As she takes her first step up to the front of the school, Addy points a finger right at me. The girl looks up, spots me, and stops dead.
Behind me, Zak shouts, “Hey, who’s the new chick?”
But those green eyes don’t move. Her face contorts into a scowl. “You?” she yells, and I can’t quite make out if it’s anger or shock creasing her brow.
“Me,” I say, grinning at her.
The girl surges forward. Addison tries to grab her, but she shakes her off without pausing. The little thing charges straight up to me and tries to slap me.
I catch her, of course, my fingers easily wrapping around her thin wrist.
“Easy there, Angel,” I murmur.
She tries another slap, this time with her left hand. I was so busy gloating, I barely see it coming in time. I twist, and she falls forward, thrown off-balance when she doesn’t connect.
Behind me, the guys burst out laughing. Addison’s eyes are so wide, they look about to pop out of her head. But I don’t think any of this is funny.
I grab the girl’s wrists, pinning them together, and haul her against me. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I growl down to her.
“Me?” she barks out in disbelief. Her tits brush against my stomach as she draws one furious breath after the other. “You’re the one that thinks you can just go around raping people!”
There’s a scandalized gasp from everyone within earshot.
I shove her away from me so hard that she lands on her ass and I spot a flash of white underwear before she tugs her skirt straight. But even sitting on her ass in the grass, obviously overpowered and already surrounded by a decent crowd, fury blazes in her eyes.
“The fuck you on about?” I say, hardly recognizing my tight voice.
She scrambles up, fends off Addison when the girl tries to drag her away, and comes back for more. “Could you even stand looking at yourself in the mirror this morning?” she yells. Now there’s an outright challenge in her eyes.
“The fuck?” I scoff, glancing over my shoulder at the guys. But they’re all staring at me like they’re just waiting for the other shoe to drop.
When I turn back to the girl, she’s less than a foot away from me again.
“Let me cut you on the other side,” she says through her teeth. “Then that face of yours will be all symmetrical again.”
This time, when she goes to slap me, I duck under her arm, lunge against her, and force her to the ground. She lands on her back in the grass beside the school steps, and I immediately straddle her.
“Look, bitch,” I spit, my cut aching how I’m clenching my teeth. “I don’t know who you think you are, but you’d better get one thing straight.”
“Briar!” Marcus calls out, but I ignore him.
She squirms furiously under me, but I catch her hands and pin them to her chest before she can try and scratch out my eyes or, judging from experience, try for an uppercut. Fuck, she’s getting me hard, wriggling around like that between my legs.
“Get off me!” she yells.
I grind her wrist bones together so hard, her face goes white.
“Briar!” Dylan this time.
But she doesn’t scream out in pain, or stop struggling.
“No one, no one , talks shit about me. Got it?”
“We both know what you tried to do,” she whispers through a grimace, finally relaxing under me.
A whistle blows.
I’d been so fixated on her, I hadn’t even seen Mr. Denard, the French teacher, walking up to us. As soon as I spot him, I let out a low growl and push up to a stand.
The girl scrambles up a second later, cheeks flushed and the whites of her eyes too bright in comparison. She points at me with a shaking hand. “Sir, this guy?—”
“Are you the new one?” Denard asks, arching a single eyebrow at her. His lip twitches as if the mere sight of her disgusts him. He’s dressed in black suit pants, a cream dress shirt, and a black suit vest.
“That she is,” I say, stepping up to Denard and holding out my hand for him to shake.
Denard turns his attention to me, and his expression softens a little, but not enough. Thank fuck it was him who came out here to investigate.
I let out a low chuckle, grab his hand, and give it a good pump. “ Elle est tombée dans les pommes. But don’t worry, Sir, I have this under control.”
“Wh-what?” the girl demands. She hasn’t even bothered dusting herself off, or readjusting her clothes. Right now, it does look like I tried to get lucky with her.
Denard glances at her, and this time his lips pull into a full sneer. “Perhaps if you ate more, child, then you wouldn’t be swooning all the time.”
The girl blinks, and then glances over her shoulder at Addison as if for support. Addison drops her eyes, her mouth going into a line, but she says nothing.
Denard clicks his fingers at her. “What was your name again? Virgin? Virgile?”
Immediately, the crowd surrounding us begins murmuring, “Virgin,” through a slowly building wave of giggles.
“Virgo!” The girl throws me a quick scowl, as if loathe to reveal any personal information in front of me. “Indi Virgo .”
“Best get yourself to homeroom, Miss Virgo,” Denard says. He’s been teaching French at Lavish for over two years, but he still has traces of an accent.
I know it’s on purpose.
“What?” Indi takes a step closer, her hands balling up as if she wants to attack the teacher next. “But, he just?—”
“Now.” Denard’s face sets into an expressionless mask.
Around us, students start gathering, anticipating an even bigger showdown. Indi glances around, and as if realizing that her audience just doubled in size, she murmurs. “Sir, you don’t understand. He tried to?—”
Denard tilts his head. “Keep going, Miss Virgo. My detention class could always use more students.”
Indi lets out a strangled sound. Her mouth opens and closes a few times, and then her shoulders slump.
“Is that all?” Denard asks, lowering his arm.
She nods, her mouth so tight it begins to tremble.
“Very well then.” Denard sniffs. “Now get to class.”
Indi manages a tiny nod, and her throat moves as she swallows.
Denard turns to walk away, and then pauses mid step to peer at Indi over his shoulder.
“Welcome to Lavish Prep, Miss Virgo.”