Chapter 15
Hump day.Middle of the week. Middle of all of my classes. Almost to the fucking weekend. Not that I have anything exciting planned, but sitting in my room reading would be ideal right about now.
Not feeling very social this week.
I’ve gotten a couple of vague texts from Damien, and he didn’t show up to studio on Monday. So, definitely not sure what’s going on with him and if there is even a second date in the mix.
My physics partner, the brute, the asshole who humiliated me, didn’t show up to class either on Monday. Though, I’ll be honest, I’m not upset about that. It was nice to sit there without my anxiety being all over the place.
When I get into Hughes Hall, I head toward my class.
I come to a sudden stop when I see the asshole partner of mine sitting in his seat. His face cracks into a smile as I walk past him to get to my seat.
“Hello, Angel. What are you doing here?”
“Um, maybe I should ask you why you decided to ditch class on Monday,” I snap back. “Better yet, maybe I should ask why you are a complete fucking asshole and did what you did to me.”
“You could, but I don’t have to tell you.” He places an arm around the back of my chair. The fucking sleaze.
I roll my eyes. “Could you please move your arm? You’re in my bubble.”
“Your bubble?” He tilts his head and furrows his brows.
“Yes. My personal space bubble. You have breached it enough the past week.” I shove his arm off my chair and the minute my skin touches his, heat takes over me.
I can feel my cheeks get warm. And I hate that my body betrays everything my mind is thinking.
“You didn’t seem to mind me in your bubble on Friday. In fact, I distinctly remember you begging me to stay very much in that bubble, Angel.”
“Stop calling me Angel,” I say through gritted teeth. And all that does is make him laugh. A sexy, throaty laugh. Damnit.
“Good morning, everyone!” Our professor Tim comes waltzing in. He stops short of his desk, staring at me with his face all scrunched up. “Ms. Dawson, can you please come up here?”
I hop off my chair and head to the front of the class. “Is something wrong, sir?” I ask.
“I’m a little confused as to why you are here.” He places his briefcase on top of the desk.
“I don’t understand. I’m here because I’m supposed to be. This is the time for the class.” I shake my head, my mind reeling. Why is he asking me this?
He side-eyes me. “No, you’re not. I got notice on Monday afternoon that you dropped the class.” He pulls out his laptop and opens it up.
I sputter, “That’s impossible. I didn’t drop this! I need this to graduate. Why would I drop it?” My heart starts to race, a panic sets in.
“Here, this email came through from the registrar.” He shows me his laptop screen, and sure enough, it says I dropped the class.
My fists clench at my sides. “No. I didn’t ask to drop. Why would I drop when I am here? This makes no sense!” My voice is now echoing off the class walls. Everyone is silent, listening to the drama that is my fucking life.
“You are going to have to see your advisor and try to get this fixed. My hands are tied.” He frowns and puts his hands into his pants pockets.
My mouth drops open, wanting to say more, to fight it. But he’s right. I need to go see my advisor. I turn toward my desk and see the smile that is a mile wide on Dekker’s smug fucking face.
God, I want to fucking knock it off of him.
I walk over to my desk and start to pack up my stuff.
The class still silent and watching me.
“What’s wrong, Angel?” Dekker whispers.
“Fuck you, that’s what’s wrong.” I grab my stuff and storm past him and his stupid chuckle.
When I get out of the classroom, I take a moment to catch my breath and try to figure out what the hell I’m going to do. Tears start to blur my vision, and the panic is making it hard to breathe.
I run toward the restrooms, needing to get away from the eyes of other students milling around the hall. Once in the bathroom, I turn the sink on and splash my face with water to try to calm myself down.
As I breathe through the gut-wrenching anxiety, I hear the door open and voices coming closer toward me. A chill runs down my spine when I realize I’ve heard those voices before.
“Aw, look, Ivy, the ugly stepsister is crying!” I turn to see two of the Xayden fan club bimbos staring at me.
“Be nice, Quinn,” the blonde I now know is Ivy says. “She probably just realized she’s a no one here.”
“Or maybe she found out that everyone knows she tried to slut herself out to Dekker and he rejected her,” Quinn cackles.
My breath stops, and I try to still my facial features, but my eyes still widen in surprise. Did they tell them? Did Dekker and the guys tell these cunts about Friday night?
I feel their presence come up from behind me. Looking up through the mirror, I see them smiling. Without saying a word, Quinn’s hand quickly holds up a cup and before I can even react, a green slush of something is poured all over me. The coldness hits my head, and the smell of pineapple and banana hit my nose.
“Since you like to have a mess made all over you.” Ivy grins. She nods to Quinn. “Let’s go use the bathroom on the other side of the building. This one is just gross and disgusting. It smells like slut.”
“Slut smoothie!” Quinn busts out at her very unfunny joke as I just stand there, waiting for them both to leave.
Looking up at the mirror as the door closes, I see the green slop dripping down my hair, into my face, and on my shirt.
Thank fucking god for black.
I hang my head over the fucking sink and run my hands through my hair, trying to scoop out as much shit out of my hair. I lean as close to the faucet as I can, trying to rinse it out.
Once I get as much as possible, I grab some paper towels from the dispenser, wet them, and wipe the globs off my shirt.
Which is now soaked with whatever was in that cup.
Once I finally looked like a cleaned up version of a drowned rat, I grab my stuff and march out of the bathroom. The floor is still a mess, but I couldn’t give two shits about that right now.
I just need to get back to my room, shower, and change.
I rush across campus, keeping my head down. The heat is not helping my situation, except for making me feel even more wet as I sweat.
My mind blocks out all the noise around me; I don’t even stop until I get to my door. The entire trip there is a blur.
I immediately strip and jump into the shower. Quickly, I wash off what now feels sticky on my skin. Washing my hair not once, but twice, to ensure I get all of it out. After drying off, I throw on a black T-shirt with a skeleton hand giving the finger and a pair of ripped jeans.
I frantically dry my hair and throw back on some eyeliner and mascara. I grab my phone and see that it’s time for me to meet Addy at the Student Union Center.
I pull my hair back into a ponytail, grab my wallet, and head out of the room. As I walk toward the SUC, my mind is going through everything that has hit me like a freight train today.
Being dropped from a class I never dropped, creepy ass Dekker smiling at me like the cat that got the canary, and the bitches of GC dumping their putrid drink on me.
It’s been a hell of a fucking day.
As I walk into the SUC, I hear a laugh that sends chills down my back. My eyes find the source of my current nightmares.
My stepbrother and his friends.
And sitting on Dekker’s lap is Quinn.
Without a second thought, I rush over to the juice bar and quickly fill a cup of some green “healthy” juice.
It smells like ass.
I take a deep breath as I make my way over to them, as stealthily as I can.
When I reach the table, before anyone can turn to see me, I dump the giant cup of green shit all over Dekker and Quinn.
“What the actual fuck?” Dekker jumps up and pushes Quinn off his lap, causing her to fall to the floor on her ass.
“What the hell, you stupid bitch!” Quinn screeches from the ground in disbelief.
I stand there and smile. “Sucks when you get something dumped on you, isn’t it? Humiliating, even.”
I look back and forth between the two of them and then drop the cup. Turning on my heels, I head over to where I see Addy.
Her mouth is wide open, and I realize the SUC became quiet as they watched me dump the drink on Dekker and Quinn.
But I have no fucks to give.
“Um, do you want to explain what that was all about?” Addy’s eyes widen in complete shock.
Shrugging, I take a look over at the table. Seven is laughing, Dekker is wiping himself up, and Xayden is giving me a death glare.
I’m pretty sure if looks could kill, I’d have been dead in seconds.
But I just smile and wave. Because fuck them.
“I’m still waiting for an explanation.” My head snaps to her as Addy glowers at me. “Are you trying to start more shit with them?”
“They started it first. Ivy and Quinn found me in the bathroom after I was told I dropped Physics, which I never did by the way. They proceeded to then dump their green juice shit all over me. Not to mention what Dekker did to me.” I cross my arms as I sit back in my chair. “So, they had it coming.”
“Wait, what? They attacked you?” Addy gripped the edge of the table, her mouth agape.
“Well, not attacked. They just poured some shit on me.”
Addy scoffs, “That’s an attack, Rory. What the hell? What did Xayden say? Anything?” Her brows scrunch.
I let out a howling laugh. “Like my stepbrother gives two fucks about me. He will probably retaliate for what I just did. And honestly, bring it. I don’t even care at this point. I know he had something to do with the class issue, so game fucking on.”
“Wow. You just got even more badass. I like this warrior Rory.” Addy smiles, nodding in approval.
I grimace. “Not badass. Just tired of the bullshit Xayden and his band of fucking assholes seem to be slinging my way.” I shake my head.
“Did you say you were dropped from a class? Why did you drop?” She frowns.
“No, I didn’t. But somehow, I was. I need that class to graduate. I would bet money those three had something to do with it. I just know it.”
“But how? Gotta be honest, that’s a hard sell that they dropped you from your class, Rory. Yeah, they’re assholes, but they don’t have magical powers. They can’t just get you dropped from a class.”
She uncaps her water and takes a long sip from it.
I scrunch my face for a moment, taking in what she said. And she may be right, but I just have to trust my gut on this. And it’s telling me that they absolutely had something to do with it. I don’t know how, but somehow, they fucked with me.
I look over at the table where they are sitting, and all of them are gone. A pit forms in my stomach, knowing I poked the beast.
And that’s fine. I’ll just keep my eyes open, knowing they will retaliate when they can. And if I need to wrestle with the beast, then so be it.
I will never let them get the best of me.
They may have started this battle, but I’ll win this fucking war.