Authors: Melyssa Winchester
Raising myself off the groun
d, rubbing at my knees in an effort to get any dirt and grass stains off, I follow along behind him. When we make our way inside, I start to pull him toward the way we came earlier and I’m met with resistance. I feel myself being pulled back too late to stop it, so bracing myself for the bump I’m going to take as I hit the floor, I feel a pair of arms come around and I’m being pulled up and into a very warm body.
The way he catches me, there can be no mistaking the way it looks to anyone that might be around us. My face is in perf
ect proportion to his and if I walked in on the way we look, it would look intimate, the very last thing that’s happening.
It doesn’t take long before I see shadows around us and lips moving. With the way I’m positioned, I’m able to lock on one set of lips and reading them easily, my stomach turns over.
“Looks like the retard got himself a hottie.”
Glancing up at Eric and back at the person spouting off the disgusting words,
who I thought was just someone random, is not so random after all. The person standing behind us, eyes locked on mine is the very guy I’d been stupid enough to believe I saw something different in.
Dillon; and if looks could kill, I’m pretty sure I’d be dead.
Chapter Three
Dillon
I should have known this was how it would go down. That the hot girl I met in the retard class would turn out to be friends with one of them. With the way she’s gripping on to Eric right now, it’s pretty obvious they’re more than just friends.
First Kayden
gets involved with one of them; bailing on his friends and treating us like we’re the ones with the problem and now before I have the chance to put the plan in motion, Cadence is doing the same. What the hell is it about these freaks that people seem to flock to? What the hell does Eric Carmen have that I don’t?
Why the hell I even care is beyond me. There was this
moment in the hall earlier where I felt her eyes on me. It was like we were in class all over again and she was somehow looking straight through me. It was weird as hell. It was that look and the way Tim was acting that made my thoughts go south, which when Amy caught on, didn’t go over too well.
That’s the one thing she hates more than anything. Being ignored.
I need to have my attention on her all the time. God forbid I think about something and take my attention off her; I’ll never hear the end of it. As much as I like the girl, her need for constant recognition and attention is annoying as hell.
When I caught Cadence running off down the hall toward Eric, I should have left well enough alone, but that’s never been my style.
So I wait, hanging out with the others for a little while longer, wasting time until I can go find them.
Of course the minute I stand up and try to get away, Amy and Tim are right on my heels. As much as I hate admitting it, what Isabelle said a couple months ago is true. It’s like they’re dogs following their master. I think if they had a thought of their own separate from me, I might die of shock. For now though, it works. I can’t go wrong having a little backup for what’s about to happen.
“Come on Caddy; let’s get out of here.”
The clear concise way he says it, so sure of himself, proves what he thinks. Now that I’ve been punished, he’s untouchable. Too bad for him I don’t give a shit about what Daniels puts me through. I’m not gonna change the way things are for anything. He’s just as much a target as he was on Friday when I went after him.
“What’s the rush, Eric? We just wanna meet your girlfriend.”
Tim moves in on him and I notice Cadence’s eyes go wide. I’m pretty sure she k
nows what’s about to happen and despite the fact that I’m gonna allow it, even joining in, I can’t help wanting to get her out of here before it does. If I want my plan to work, having her witness this, it will ruin it before I even start.
Eric breaks away from her, leaving her wide open for me to swoop in and get her out of there, or at the very least bring her over with me where she should be, but I don’t do it. The look on her face as her friend turns to face us down stops me from going anywhere near her.
She’s scowling; not only at me, but Amy and Tim the same way she’d done when she caught me rolling my eyes at the teacher. Yeah, she definitely knows what’s about to happen and doesn’t like it one bit.
Even if Cadence isn’t like Eric and Isabelle, it’s obvious she’s sympathetic to them, which makes her just like Kayden.
“Caddy; go outside. Get Kayden.”
Of course he’s gonna call for Kayden. After the threat he leveled on us a couple of months ago, my ex best friend has gone out of his way to make sure he’s been everywhere we are. Preventing us at every turn from doing what had come so easily to him only a few months before. He can think he’s better than the rest of us all he wants, but I know who started all of this and it wasn’t me.
Cadence, hearing what Eric said, turns to go but before she can make it even two steps away, Amy jumps right in her path, blocking her.
“You’re not going anywhere retard.”
I expect this to be the time she finally speaks and I anticipate hearing her voice for the first time considering how she went the whole two hours earlier drenched in complete silence. As wrong as it is, I’m actually looking forward to hearing her response, wondering if her voice will sound as tough as her attitude toward me.
She doesn’t speak though. She just stands there, her eyes frozen on Amy’s, the scowl still evident. Watching her like this, I realize she’s just like Isabelle. She can’t speak. Great. I found another mute girl attractive.
What the hell is going on with me?
Turning my attention away from the girls, I focus on Eric and the minute my eyes lock on his, whatever sense of security he felt drains away and the fear I’m used to seeing is back again. He knows the deal. Kayden isn’t coming to his rescue this time.
“I think it’s time we have a little chat.” I say, moving in until my face is inches away from his. When he backs up in an attempt to get away, he bumps into Tim, who has now taken up residence behind him and I laugh. I would have thought by now he would know that there’s no way he can get away from us.
“I—I—I’ve got nothing to s—s—say to you.” He stutters and I inch even closer, the laughter gone, only a smile remaining. A smile that he’s seen on more than one occasion and one he knows has nothing to do with happiness.
“That’s where you’re wrong.”
“I—didn’t—tell.”
“Oh, I know you didn’t. Your new best friend did that, but since I can’t make Kayden pay; it leaves me with you.”
As I move on him again, this time grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and yanking him as close as possible, I hear a guttural sound from the other side of the hall and turning toward it, I’m face to face with Cadence. Before I can reach out to stop her, her hands are flailing and I feel them pushing into me
repeatedly, until the lock I’ve got on Eric’s shirt breaks and we’ve been completely separated.
Yeah, I’ve definitely pissed her off. Looking her up and down, I see her face is red with rage and her brown eyes, which had been softer in class, are darker and if it’s even possible, hard. I’ve always wondered what hate looks like and I’m getting a front row seat to it now.
She steps toward me, her arms out in front of her, her eyes locked on me, so upset that she’s not even blinking. Before her now balled up fists can connect with my body, I put my arms up in an effort to fend off the attack. Her point has been made. She doesn’t want me anywhere near Eric. I got it loud and clear.
Before I can say something to get her to s
top, Amy appears from behind and grabbing her by the hair, drags her backward. She tosses Cadence easily, everything completely silent until her body hits the floor with a thud so loud it takes even me off guard.
I’ve always known Amy was strong, but damn. I’ve never seen her react like this.
“Don’t you ever lay your hands on my man; you hear me, you stupid bitch?” she screams down at Cadence’s still form. It’s seeing the way she’s lying there on the floor, her hair completely covering her face and her hands now coming up to meet it that I’ve seen enough.
This has gone way too far.
“Ames, that’s enough. I think she got the point.” I call out, turning back to Eric and leveling him with a smirk. “I’m not finished with you. You can think that because you’ve got the fullback on your side that you’re safe, but you’re not. I’m coming for you. Consider this your only warning.”
Flinching from my words, Eric breaks eye contact and moves toward the girl on the floor, still curled up in herself. It’s watching him reach her, bending down until he’s on the floor in front of her, moving her hair out of her face in an effort to talk to her that it hits me.
I’m gonna be in so much shit when Daniels gets wind of this.
Cadence
I’m not a violent person. I hate everything about it, but seeing Dillon grab Eric that way, knowing what was coming, there is no way I can just stand there and let it happen. I knew the girl wouldn’t let me get far, her disgusted frown proving exactly what she thought about me, but I didn’t care.
Eric and the others have been getting bullied for as long as my mom’s worked here. She comes home every single day and tells me about it. Knowing him the way I do, at leas
t the little I do know, he’s such a nice guy. So he’s a little different. It doesn’t mean he deserves to be picked on for it. Eric Carmen wouldn’t hurt a fly. I’m pretty sure he’s as against violence as I am.
The anger I feel inside seeing the look on Dillon’s face and then the look of absolute fear on Eric’s pushes me forward before I’ve given it any real thought. I start pushing at him with everything in me until he finally breaks the hold he’s got on my friend. There is no way I’m letting this continue. Whatever it was I saw in his eyes in the hall earlier or the way he kept me entertained in class is gone. All I see now is the jerk my mom told me about.
When the girl threw me to the ground, I’d been expecting it, but that doesn’t mean I was expecting the pain that came the minute I hit the floor. I’d been expecting it to hurt a little with the way she grabbed and tossed me, but laying here now, I can feel it running all the way through me, from my legs all the way up my arms. I’m definitely gonna bruise from this.
Not even twenty-four hours into my first day here and
I’m locked in a battle with the popular kids. It’s exactly what I didn’t want when my mom dropped the bomb that I’d be coming here. I was supposed to go under the radar and bide my time until my school was up and running again. Not getting involved in situations like this and getting hurt for my trouble.
He doesn’t realize it, but after I fell to the floor, I saw his face. He might want to appear as though he’s a big badass and that what happened is funny to him, but he wasn’t laughing or even smiling when I hit. His eyes went wide and for a split second before he turned back to Eric, he actually looked concerned.
Whether he’s concerned because he knows this is gonna come back to bite him or this went a little farther then he intended, I’ll never know but there’s no erasing the look from my memory. Even as Eric helps me to my feet after the three of them take off, it’s the only thing I can focus on. I don’t even care about the pain I’m feeling anymore. All I can see is the haunted look in the eyes of the school bully that I should have known better than to go toe to toe with.
Feeling Eric’s hand on my chin, lifting my head up in an effort for me to read his lips, I lock eyes with the boy I just inadvertently saved and smile weakly.
“Are you okay?” he asks and I nod, keeping the smile firmly planted on my face. I might feel pain, but that would pass. All I care about now is making sure he’s alright. That what Dillon had done to him before I stepped in hadn’t caused any damage.
You?
I raise my hands and sign to him.
“Caddy, holy crap!
I’m the last person you need to be worried about. Do you need go the office? Ice? Anything?”
His words run together so quickly I’m not sure I’ve read them right, but the ones I am able to pick up on, I answer back with a shake of my head. I don’t need the office. I could probably use some ice, but definitely not if it means going there. The last thing I want to do on my first day here is be the poster child for bullying.
“Are you sure?” he asks, not believing the shake of my head as the truth. I can’t blame him. I’m pretty sure my reaction is his standard response when he goes through this.
Yes.
I sign again with a sigh. I just want this to be over with.
“Okay, well come on. I stopped because taking the other way around is faster.”
I allow him to take my hand in his and walk me slowly back the way we came, all the while doing all I can to ignore the pain that’s still shooting up my leg into my back. Blocking it out, I think about everything that just happened and I realize my mom was right along.
Dillon Murphy is bad news.
Chapter Four
Dillon
Heading back into Ms. Taylor’s class when lunch is over, I’m thankful for two things. One, it looks like Eric and Isabelle aren’t here which means if the little retard did run and squeal to his best friend and her boyfriend, I wasn’t gonna have to hear about it for the next couple hours. The other thing is who I see the minute I enter the class. True to the way she’d been a couple hours ago, she’s in the seat in the back and her head is stuck in a book.
I don’t know why I’
m thankful for her being there; I just am. The way everything got so out of control in the hall, I need to talk to her about it. She probably won’t want to hear anything I’ve got to say, but even knowing I’m a total asshole, what happened to her was never supposed to happen and I gotta make her understand that.
The idea of this smoking hot girl being pissed at me for what happened is not something I can
deal with. Now that she’s here and there’s no one else around, maybe I can turn this around to something more in my favor. I have to turn it around if I wanna keep going with the plan.
Throwing myself down into the seat, I pull out a notebook and I write out across the page everything I want to say. If the way she acted in the hall means anything, she’s like Belle and can’t talk. So, writing this way is my first attempt at softening her up. Maybe she’ll react the same way Isabelle did and I’ll be able to smooth this over quickly.
The last thing I want is her going to Daniels. When Kayden catches what the others did to his car, I’m gonna pay enough. No need to add what happened earlier into it too.
Leaning across the desk when I’m finished, I wait for some sort of reaction to me being in her personal space. When nothing comes, I slide the paper just like I did earlier into the top left corner of her desk and sit back to wait her out. After a few minutes of waiting and her not even flicking her eyes in the direction of the paper, I feel my anger start to rise.
I’m trying to do the right thing here. The least this girl can do is acknowledge that I’m trying. Her ignoring it the way she is, pisses me off. Doesn’t she know who I am? Ignoring me isn’t the smartest thing to do. What Amy did to her in the hallway is tame compared to the things I could line up for her if she doesn’t do what I want her to.
Shit. I can’t believe I’m thinking like this. So she isn’t looking at the paper. That’s not reason enough to go off on her. Shaking the anger off, I put my focus back on the front of the room in a weak attempt to appear as though I’m actually interested in being here. When that gets me nowhere, Ms. Taylor not paying the least bit of attention to it, I lean back in the seat and let my mind wander.
Last fall, I noticed some shit going down and in an attempt to set it right, I put a plan in motion. It wasn’t the most thought out plan, but considering who it involved, I figured it would resolve itself quickly and we could get back to normal. Thing is, it didn’t resolve itself and over the course of a few weeks, it took on a life of its own. By the end it was so out of control I couldn’t even keep up and I was the one running it.
I noticed Kayden acting different. He was pulling away from us, so in an effort to get him to come back around, I decided to switch up the way things are and go after one of the people we swore we’d never go after. It was only supposed to be that one time in the parking lot and after that things would settle back down. Kayden was supposed to see it and help us. Instead he came to the girl’s rescue and that’s when everything went to shit.
Isabelle Reagan is a Special Ed kid and the entire school knows it. She has these accidents where she pisses herself. She can’t handle a lot of lights and movements and for the longest time she didn’t even speak. She was such an easy target, I can’t believe I didn’t try it on her sooner. When he stepped in, laying me out in the process, I decided to kick it up a notch. Watching him take her to class the day after, I decided to make it my life’s mission to harass her. If I couldn’t get him to come back the normal way, I’d use the girl to do it.
It worked. In his need to protect her, I got him to choose a different victim, figuring that if Isabelle caught us going after one of her friends, she’d look at Kayden and see him as exactly wha
t he’s always been. An asshole; just like me. The way she reacted to what we did to Eric put the final nail in the coffin, or at least it was supposed to, until Kayden again went back to her and further away from us.
It got out of control after that and honestly, by the end of it I was just so jealous of the way everything seemed to fall into his lap that I was determined to take him down. My best friend became my mortal enemy.
The day she ran into the bathroom, she didn’t realize it, but her phone slipped out of her pocket. I grabbed it and that’s when the final stage of my plan to turn his life upside down came about. I installed the tracker app on her phone, knowing she wouldn’t realize it was there and I began to hack into her texts, messenger conversations, compiling as much as I could so I could turn it around on Kayden at Homecoming.
What no one knows and I’m never gonna admit to, is that near the end, before the d
ance, I wanted to back out. I’d been spending a lot of time getting close to Isabelle in an effort to make it look like I missed my best friend and as much as I hate admitting it, I liked her. She was as innocent as Kayden made her out to be and after seeing her in action, I had doubts about hurting her.
Yeah, I know. It sounds insane. Having any sort of attachment to a person like Isabelle is laughable, but it’s true. Seeing her when she walked into the dance that n
ight; man, there was another second where I wanted to back out of the stupid plan I put in motion. She looked like a Disney princess for fuck sakes. If I didn’t know she had shit wrong with her, she would’ve appeared like any other girl at the school.
I didn’t back out and now I’m paying the price for all of it. Not only did Kayden beat on me that night so bad that I found it hard to breathe hours after, but he’s been by her side ever since, stronger than ever. I failed at ripping my best friend apart, but I’d also managed to screw up my position on the football team for a while after it. It’s a pretty big miracle that I’m still quarterback at all.
Whatever it was I felt about Isabelle, it fell away after that. I went back to picking on people weaker than me and enjoying every second of it. Bruce is right. There’s no place in the world for people that are screwed up, different or weak. They need people like us to eradicate them.
What happened with Cadence earlier, there’s nothing right about that. She’s not weak. The way she gave me back as good as I gave proves that. A weaker person wouldn’t have done it. People like to pretend that they’re stronger than I know them to be, but they always falter in the end and go right back to being weak. Cadence didn’t. She stood her ground, even knowing that in the end, there was three of us and only one of her because Eric had already backed down.
If she would just look at my note, read it, maybe I could fix it. She didn’t deserve what happened to her and I’m sure that if I can just steal a couple minutes of her time, I can explain the way things are here and get her away from Eric and the others before things end up getting a whole lot worse.
Wait. What the hell am I saying? She’s one of them. Sure, she might be stronger than the others, but it didn’t change the facts. No matter how hot she is, I need to keep my head in the game. I’m apologizing in order to get close to her so I can screw with her head. Nothing more than that.
In the end she’ll learn the way things are here and prove herself to be as weak as the rest of them.
The thing is, if that’s the truth and what I wrote to her is all an attempt to screw her over, why does what happened a few minutes ago, the way she looked crumpled on the floor bother me so bad?
Cadence
God, I wa
nt to look at that paper.
It’s been sitting here for the last twenty minutes calling to me, begging m
e to reach out to grab it and read it, but I’ve forced myself not to. It’s getting harder to do, but after what happened at the end of lunch, the last thing I want is to see anything he’s got to say.
You saw the look on his face in the hall. There’s more going on.
Crap. I’m gonna end up looking at the paper if I keep thinking stuff like this. Yeah I saw the look when I fell and I saw the way his laughter at Eric earlier didn’t quite reach his eyes, but it means nothing. He’s an asshole and for Dillon Murphy, that’s a stain you can’t wash off no matter how hard you scrub at it.
I’m just thankful that so far Eric hasn’t said a word about what happened. When I got back to class, I expected him to say something to my mom and for her to question me about it, but she hasn’t paid any attention to me at all. It seems like she’s going along with what I told her I wanted this morning. She wasn’t going to call attention to the fact that I’m her daughter and I’ve never been as thankful for that then I am right now.
On the way up the stairs we met up with Kayden and Isabelle and while Eric and Kayden stopped to talk once we got to the top, I just stood and watched everyone moving around me. It’s only when I saw hands moving that I realized Isabelle was signing. Missing some but able to pick up on what she wanted to know, I wasn’t having any part of it. I know she only wanted to help, they both do, but where they might see me as weak because of my disability, that’s the last thing I am.
I don’t n
eed them worrying or trying to help me out with the hazing problem because they’ve been through it before. I just need the entire thing forgotten about.
It’s only after I completely turned away from her, tired of watching her attempts at getting me to talk that she tried a different approach. I felt the buzzing against my side and pulling my phone out, saw the screen lit up with a text from my new friend.
~*~*~
I didn’t want to talk about it either and that’s okay, but if you ever do wanna talk, you should do what I did with Kayden.
It’s only when she shakes her phone at me that I get it. She’s telling me I can text her.
If you’re ever in a situation that you can’t get out of
, text me.
I know she means well, but I’m gonna be here for two weeks, not the next two years, so odds are as long as I keep myself off the radar like I planned on doing from the beginning, I won’t find myself in a situation like the one she’s getting at. Even if I do, I’ll figure my own way out of it. No pity help needed.
~*~*~
Okay, I’ve waited long enough. The lined paper has drilled a hole through me to the point where thinking about anything else is pointless. Sliding my hand across the desk, I bring the paper toward me slowly, until it’s directly in front of me and doing what I’ve spent at least the last thirty minutes dying to do, I open it up and read the words printed there.
I know you don’t even want to look at me right now, but I just want to say I’m sorry for what happened at lunch. It wasn’t supposed to go down that way and I had no idea she was gonna do that to you. Forgive me?
Damnit.
I never should have opened the stupid paper. Dillon is a jerk. I need to remember that. He’s just doing this now to get to me; it’s how he operates. All bullies operate the same way. No matter how much I want to believe in the words on the paper, I need to remember exactly who it is that’s saying them. As long as I do that, his stupid words can’t get to me.
Except they are getting to me.
Crap. Crap. Crap.
Pulling my hair down over my face so he won’t catch what I’m about to do, I lift my head slightly and attempt to get a look at him. It’s only when my eyes lock on his face that I realize my stupid little plan was a fail. He caught me because he’s looking right at me.
Double crap.
Before I can look away, he opens his mouth and zeroing in on his lips, I follow along with every word, dreaming in my head as I do that I’m actually able to hear him speak them and the husky way my brain imagines them sounding. After a couple of seconds pass and I notice he’s no longer speaking I realize what I’ve done. Getting so caught up watching his lips move and my now overactive imagination, I’ve missed everything.
“Did you hear me?”
I nod even though it’s not exactly the truth and the faintest smile appears on his face.
“So?”
He wants to know if now that I’ve read the note, I forgive him and am willing to talk to him again. He’s already forgiven for what happened, but I’m not about to tell him that. He might be a total jerk, but if I hold everything against him, it makes me like him and there’s no way I’m going to allow myself to be compared with him. Forgiving him is easy, talking to him isn’t.
Taking the paper he used for his note and flipping it over, I write out my response. Passing it across, careful to keep my fingers far enough away from his so we don’t have any kind of physical contact, I watch as he takes it and reads what I’ve said.
I don’t talk to complete jerks. You’re forgiven for earlier because I’m better than that, but I won’t forget it.
Where I’m expecting his lips to curl into a snarl or for him to call me a bitch or some other equally damning word under his breath, he does none of it. Instead, he focuses his attention on the paper, his eyes glued to it and then starts writing. Holding it up in front of him, not even attempting to pass it over, he waits for my eyes to lock on it and read what he’s written.